Just when we thought us humans were the “crème-de-la-crème” of evolution, new research indicates that chimps have undergone more selective mutations than Homosapiens since they parted from their common ancestor some 6 million years ago. Judging from the behavior of certain people, these results aren’t at all surprising!

It is time to stop thinking we are the pinnacle of evolutionary success – chimpanzees are the more highly evolved species, according to new research.

Source: New Scientist

One of NASA’s most complex measurement satellites has confirmed that Einstein was right all along: massive objects do distort the fabric of time and space. This ‘geodetic’ effect may only be part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, but these results confirm a significant chunk of what the genius had hypothesized some 90 years ago. The rest of the theory – namely the ‘frame-dragging effect’ – will take another few months to be tested by the probe.

Could this be the first step towards designing a ‘gravity drive’ such as the one that allowed a ship to travel through space and time in the 1997 movie Event Horizon? Let’s hope that such a spacecraft will have a better fate than the Hollywood one!

Ninety years after he expounded his famous theory, a $700m Nasa probe has proved that the universe behaves as he said. Now the race is on to show that the other half of relativity also works.

Source: The Observer

Would you like to know how long it takes an African elephant to produce your weight in poop? Did you know that termites use their own feces to glue their houses together? Can you recognize an animal from its dung?

If you’re interested in looking deeper into the world of animal dejections – including ours! – the traveling exhibition Scoop On Poop! has just left Miami to settle at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia until next month. Based on Canadian science writer Wayne Lynch’s book of the same name, the exhibition uses 15 interactive stations to show visitors how scientists use fecal matter to study animal biology, how animals use their poop to built their homes or evade predators, and what can be done about the growing problem of human waste.

You’ll be amazed to discover what different animals and insects do with what us humans consider an “unmentionable topic.” If you think that this world is full of s**t, this is the ideal opportunity to learn more about this “fascinating” subject!

Source: The Scientist

The collagen extracted from a 68-million-year-old T. rex femur (thigh bone) has been sequenced for the first time. The fragment sequences were compared to collagen of modern species, and found to match that of chickens, newts and frogs.

The real breakthrough, however, does not reside in the establishment of a relation between this ancient terrifying monster and our modern harmless egg-producers, but in the recovery of extremely old proteins. Most fossils do not normally contain such molecules, as they are degraded if the remnants are not buried deep enough. The search for more of this type of protein-containing fossils will expand in the hope to find more clues as to the relationship between dinosaurs and modern species.

Researchers recovered protein from inside a massive T. rex leg bone buried for 68 million years, and sequenced seven fragments that identify it as collagen, the most abundant protein in bone.

Source: New Scientist

Germany’s Black Forest is in fact pretty green, but scientists at NASA predict that there may be real black forests on Earth-like planets orbiting stars emitting different wavelengths than our Sun. Photosynthesis on our planet absorbs essentially red and blue wavelengths of the visible spectrum, causing the plants to appear green to our eyes. On other worlds where life may have appeared, this process is expected to absorb different radiations, depending on the type of star the planet is orbiting. Thus, the local vegetation could appear orange, red, or completely black to human eyes.

As photosynthesis is a dominant process for life, it could be detected in distant planets as evidence that life has appeared and evolved there as well. However, the planet-finding process needs to be refined, as we are only currently able to locate Jupiter-like gaseous giants that are unlikely to harbor identifiable life forms.

The scientists studied light absorbed and reflected by organisms on Earth, and determined that if astronomers were to look at the light given off by planets circling distant stars, they might predict that some planets have mostly non-green plants.

Source: NASA