January 2011 Archives

A critically-endangered silverback gorilla who walks like a man has become a big attraction at a wild animal park.

Footage on YouTube of Western lowland gorilla Ambam aping humans with his walk has been viewed more than 250,000 times.

Normally gorillas are used to getting around on all fours but 21-year-old male Ambam has managed to perfect his balance on his two hind legs.

A new island is created in front of your eyes...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has released this photo of Venus taken from a distance of 80,000km by the solar-sail powered spacecraft Ikaros in December.

The photo shows a crescent-shaped Venus and the solar power sail and cords of Ikaros.

"It is proof that the solar-sail powered craft, once thought to be in the realm of science fiction, has reached Venus," said JAXA.

The Ikaros craft was launched in May last year. After deploying its 14-square-meter resin film sail, the craft began moving using the minute pressure exerted on the sail by the sun's rays.

Here's a fantastic photo of a bird feeding a youngster while in transit.

But here's a question: what kind of bird is it?

Scientists have identified the mechanism that controls the internal 24-hour clock of all forms of life - a finding they say should shed light on some shift work-related problems like diabetes, depression and cancer.

Researchers from Britain's Cambridge and Edinburgh universities said their findings provide important insight into health-related problems linked to people such as nurses, pilots and other shift workers, whose body clocks are disrupted.

The studies also suggest the 24-hour circadian clock found in human cells is the same as that found in algae, and dates back millions of years to early life on earth, they said.

Bored at work? Counting down the hours to the weekend?

Then Weird Science can help (as long as the boss doesn't spot ya!).

Weird Science Friday Links give you a nudge towards stuff you'll hopefully find more diverting than the stack of papers in front of you!

Was there ever a dinosaur civilization?

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - what went wrong.

Dark Passage - play Hospital Hopscotch.

Captain Wacky's Unfortunate Page.

F-Stop Magazine - online mag featuring contemporary photography from established and emerging photographers.

Eating poor food can put you in a low mood, new research has suggested.

Scientists have found a link between consuming harmful trans-fats and an increased risk of depression.

But olive oil and healthier polyunsaturated fats appear to have the opposite effect, helping to keep people cheerful.

The research may provide a clue to why southern Europeans tend to be less depressed than northerners, say the researchers.

Even before they can talk, babies understand how fortune favours the brawny.

Research shows that infants aged 10-13 months expect the bigger of two contestants in a conflict to win.

Psychologists believe the findings indicate that like animals, humans are programmed at an early age to respect size.

"Traditional kings and chieftains sit on large, elevated thrones and wear elaborate crowns or robes that make them look bigger than they really are, and subordinates often bow or kneel to show respect to superior humans and gods," said lead researcher Dr Lotte Thomsen, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Harvard University in the US.

Early ancestors of modern humans may have left Africa far earlier than was previously thought, new research suggests.

Stone tools unearthed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) imply that pioneering groups of Homo sapiens arrived on the Arabian Peninsula as long as 125,000 years ago.

Until now, most evidence has pointed to an exodus 60,000 years ago along the Mediterranean Sea or Arabian coast.

Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is likely to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe.

The object's light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder.

The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.