Jupiter is a planet believed to be composed mostly of gas. It is characterised by bands of different layered and coloured gasses. Last year, after Jupiter hid behind the sun, away from our vision for three months, it emerged with one of its major bands missing. As surprising as this is, the planet actually losses or gains a band every fifteen years on average. We (our scientists) still do not know why.

It was somewhat held that Neanderthals were completely different to us, Homo Sapiens. There's a new twist to this story arising from the studies made by the team/s led by Dr Svante Paabo, of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany and Dr David Reich, of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

• The prevailing scientific theory at the moment is that human beings first evolved in Africa.
• A part of this group of individuals migrated out of Africa and they populated the rest of the world.
• With the recent study, Neanderthal DNA was found in the blood of Europeans, Asians and Australasians. Neanderthal DNA, however, is not found in the blood of Africans whose ancestors remained in the continent.
• This implies that the group of Africans who migrated out of Africa interbred with Neanderthals at some stage during their migration out of Africa around 80,000 years ago.

Notes: Previously, getting DNA from the remains of Neanderthals themselves is difficult because their DNA did not preserve too well. Scientists have Neanderthal bones that are 30,000 to 40,000 years old. So in this study, 97% of the Neanderthal DNA was gathered using a new method that allowed them to collect Neanderthal DNA from bacteria and fungi, something which would be interesting to read about in the future.

Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue. At the Istec laboratory of bioceramics in Faenza near Bologna, a herd of sheep have already been implanted with the bones. (Source)

COMMENT: Science can be magical, can't it? Imagine a world where one day you can go to a shop and get a TWO-FOR-ONE deal: If you buy a hip bone, you get a shin bone included free!!! Free installation included!

The world is said to be warming because we, human beings, have been emitting tonnes of carbon material into the atmosphere. However, there seems to be an alternative explanation to global warming: the sun's activities might be the catalyst. An Australian senator is pushing for the examination of this hypothesis. (Source)

It seems that the contribution of Solar Flares to the earth's warming is not new and had already been considered, studied and thereafter, rejected, as the main catalyst for global warming.

See:

1. Tempers flare as scientists defend solar debate
2. Fielding offered talks to sway climate stance