Was Von Braun at Roswell in 1947 ?

In 1947, a controversial event took place in New Mexico near the town of Roswell. The "Roswell Incident," as it has come to be known, remains the paramount case in UFO crash/retrieval history. In addition to the claims of a downed alien ship, alien bodies were said to have been recovered from the debris. The United States Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Federal Government have kept a steadfast opinion that the object in question was a high altitude balloon project, code named: Mogul. The project was designed to detect nuclear blasts in the USSR. The bodies that were recovered, according to the USAF, were parachute test dummies that had been released high above the desert, and had eventually drifted into the "balloon" crash area. The USAF finally settled on this fabricated version of events and passed it off to the American public as truth. During my long years of service in our national space program, I was very fortunate to come to know and exchange some very exciting data with former German scientists, who had been brought to the USA under Operation Paper Clip following Word War II.

These men were the elite of the German rocket programs controlled by Adolph Hitler. On many occasions I had the distinct privilege of speaking with Dr. Wernher von Braun, the leader of the elite group, and several other scientists who were assigned to the ABMA (Army Ballistics Missile Agency) launch crews at the Cape Canaveral launch sites.

Alien disclosure from an astronaut

Prior to the fateful launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986, I had the honour and pleasure of sharing conversations with several members of that crew. During one of many pre-mission preps for the Challenger mission, I came upon Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at launch complex 39. I had an assignment to assess some problems at the Launch Control Center (LCC) and needed to access the main drawing files. A file operator was there and I went to her for assistance. Ellison walked in on our conversation and we exchanged greetings. Jokingly, I asked him if he had important business with her, and he said "yes, Clark" with a big smile. I told her to help Lt. Colonel Ellison first, and I would wait. She opened a plastic bag that had a packet of goodies for this very important customer. Ellison "loved" those chocolate-peanut butter brownies that she baked for him when he was at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on training assignments.

Many astronauts at the KSC knew of my interest in the study of possible Extraterrestrial (ET) intelligence, and my association with Major Donald Keyhoe, Dick Hall and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP since 1958), and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), at Cape Canaveral and KSC. Another evening while off-site, I once again accidentally came upon Ellison. He asked if I could give him an opinion regarding a topic that was sparking his curiosity. Ellison had a great interest in ET life and asked me my belief concerning aliens, and if I believed they have been here on earth? His question caught me by surprise.

New Zealand UFO baffles experts

A mysterious object seen in skies over the Tasman Sea near Kaitaia is baffling UFO experts. Last month, The Northern News reported that UFO Focus New Zealand (UFOCUS NZ) and world UFO expert Dr Bruce Maccabee were studying a series of unusual photographs taken at Ahipara on April 28. The digital photos, taken of the sky and sea at 5.42pm, showed a bright object which did not look like a cloud and had the appearance of a craft. The story attracted intense interest and remained one of the most viewed stories on the Northland page of the Stuff news website three weeks after publication. Last week, UFOCUS released its report on the sighting and we can now bring you photos. The report says the photographer watched the object for nearly five minutes while it moved silently across the sky in a northerly direction reducing in size and disappearing.

Dr Maccabee, an optical physicist in the United States Navy, says in the report that the object does not display flight characteristics that distinguish it as a 'craft' of unknown origin. However, its shape suggests a circular 'something' with a dome-like top. The object could also be a jet aircraft's vapour trail viewed end on, he says. Air Traffic Control says there were no scheduled flights in the area at the time. It would expect to see consistency of shape from both trails and a 'flow-off' similar to a cirrus cloud blown by winds if the object was a jet contrail. Instead, the shapes in the photos are compact. UFOCUS has consulted the Carter Observatory and ruled out the object being space junk or a meteorite, says the group?s coordinator Suzy Hansen.

Mystery of the medieval skulls

A study into the mysterious changing skull shape of medieval man casts serious doubt on current theories. The peculiar shift from long narrow heads to those of a rounder shape, and back again, which took place between the 11th and 13th centuries, has been noted at sites throughout western Europe. But a study of skulls found at the deserted village of Wharram Percy, near Malton, North Yorkshire, suggests that the anatomical blip was not down to an influx of Norman immigrants, or climate change, English Heritage has said. It examined nearly 700 skeletons recovered from the village. Unlike other research, data from the Wharram site traces the change to a single, indigenous community which has been radiocarbon-dated.

Simon Mays, a skeletal biologist, said: “Our work has yielded few clues on why skulls changed, but we have cast serious doubt on some of the current theories. Despite the best efforts of science, we’re still in the dark to explain why it happened.” The findings are presented in the latest volume of the Wharram Percy project, which aims to publish the results of 40 years of archaeological excavations at the Yorkshire Wolds village between 1950 and 1990.

Lost City of Mu discovered ?

A researcher investigating underwater rock formations off the coast of Japan believes they are the remnants of an Asian equivalent of Atlantis -- an ancient civilization swallowed up by the ocean. Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura says he has identified the ruins of a city off the coast of Yonaguni Island on the southwestern tip of Japan.He has worked for decades to prove the rocks found by scuba diving tourists in 1985 are from an ancient city, which he says may have sparked the fable of Mu -- a Pacific equivalent of the tale of the lost city of Atlantis."Judging by the design and the disposition of the ruins, the city must have looked just like an ancient Roman city," said Kimura, a professor at Ryukyu University and the chairman of the non-profit Marine Science and Culture Heritage Research Association."I can envisage a triumphal arch-like statue stood on the left side of the Colosseum and a shrine over the hill," he told Reuters Television.

Some of the initial divers notices the rocks were unnaturally smooth and formed a sort of staircase near the island's shores. Subsequent dives by Kimura revealed irregular rock outcrops over 1 square km (0.4 square mile) and mounds of rubble.Kimura says he believes the city had a castle, a shrine, an arch, statues and a colosseum."In my estimation, the castle was situated right in the middle of the city. And though not as big as the castle, a lot of ruins of shrine-like structures too have been discovered," he said at his research room.Kimura believes the city was sunk in an earthquake 3,000 years ago.

Egyptian tomb raider dies from 'curse'

Legend has it that the royal tombs of ancient Egypt were sealed with monstrous curses against all those who trespassed into the domain of the afterlife. In the tomb of the boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun, hieroglyphs were said to have spelled out a dreadful end for all those who entered.Howard Carter, the lead archaeologist who opened the tomb in 1923, wrote that "all sane people should dismiss such inventions with contempt". But a German man has decided the curse of the mummies is definitely not a myth - and has therefore returned a plundered ancient Egyptian carving which he says has fatally cursed his family.The relic was stolen three years ago from the Valley of Kings, near Luxor, home to the tombs of dozens of Pharaohs and Egyptian nobles who were buried there some three millennia ago.

The unnamed man decided to take it home to Germany with him as a souvenir of his trip.It was on his return to Europe that the trouble began, according to an anonymous note that accompanied the carving when it was recently returned to the Egyptian embassy in Berlin.Instead of enjoying his stolen treasure, the thief was struck down with an inexplicable fatigue and fever, progressing to paralysis, and ultimately death.Following his demise, the stolen piece was returned to the Egyptians by his stepson, who believed that the thief's torment would not end merely with death.

Carter UFO experience suggests ET association

President Jimmy Carter has often been referred-to as the "UFO President" due to the fact that he publicly claimed to have had a UFO sighting prior to becoming president. Moreover, he was the only president on record to actually file a UFO sighting report related to his sighting. Thirdly, on at least one occasion while campaigning for president, Mr. Carter declared that, if elected, he would "make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and scientists." Mr. Carter apparently sought to reveal such information to the American public, having been inspired by certain American ideals of democracy. However after Mr. Carter became U.S. President, he was reportedly denied access to critical information on UFO and Extraterrestrials by George Bush Sr. and other associates, for not having a "sufficiently high security clearance". What is troubling is, that it is alleged leadership of the apparent very clique that denied Mr. Carter access to the UFO and Extraterrestrial related information (that he sought to reveal to Americans and other peoples internationally), which currently drives the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) agenda.

Secrecy on UFO and Extraterrestrials serves those elites that seek to use denial of access to such information, to advance their ego driven agendas. The "National Security" context of UFO secrecy, is not designed to protect the integrity of a free and democratic society. Rather, such secrecy is designed by elites, to advance their own separate agenda that is aimed at materialistic self-advancement, at the expense of the destruction of a free and democratic society. When Jimmy Carter was actively seeking to release UFO information to the American people, he appreciated that secrecy of UFO phenomena and Extraterrestrials, was not serving the vital interests of democracy. Mr. Carter recognized that people in a democracy, as human beings with rights in a democracy, have a right to be apprised of such vital information.

Huge hole found in the universe

The universe has a huge hole in it that dwarfs anything else of its kind. The discovery caught astronomers by surprise.The hole is nearly a billion light-years across. It is not a black hole, which is a small sphere of densely packed matter. Rather, this one is mostly devoid of stars, gas and other normal matter, and it's also strangely empty of the mysterious "dark matter" that permeates the cosmos. Other space voids have been found before, but nothing on this scale.Astronomers don't know why the hole is there."Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said researcher Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota.Rudnick's colleague Liliya R. Williams also had not anticipated this finding. "What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the universe," said Williams, also of the University of Minnesota.The finding will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.The universe is populated with visible stars, gas and dust, but most of the matter in the universe is invisible. Scientists know something is there, because they can measure the gravitational effects of the so-called dark matter.

Voids exist, but they are typically relatively small.The gargantuan hole was found by examining observations made using the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, funded by the National Science Foundation. There is a "remarkable drop in the number of galaxies" in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus, Rudnick said.The region had been previously been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot," because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation made by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite. The CMB is an imprint of radiation left from the Big Bang, the theoretical beginning of the universe. "Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6 to 10 billion light-years from Earth," Rudnick said.

Cold fusion: Keeping the research coming

At an MIT lecture hall on Saturday, a convocation of 50 researchers and investors gathered to discuss a phenomenon that allegedly does not exist. Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research. Presenters at the MIT event estimated that 3,000 published studies from scientists around the world have contributed to the growing canon of evidence suggesting that small but promising amounts of energy can be generated using the infamous tabletop apparatus. How reproducible the experiments might be, however, and how the mysterious phenomenon works are still very much open to interpretation. Demonstrating recent results of energetic radiation streaming from a running cold-fusion experiment, Lawrence Forsley of JWK Technologies in Annandale, Virginia, passed around samples of his group's experimental apparatus -- all of which could be packed into a shoebox with room to spare.

The compact plastic and rubber tubing illustrate the intrinsic paradox of this field: Compared to the warehouses worth of billion-dollar gadgetry needed to run "hot fusion," cold fusion research is cheap to fund. And yet cash is the primary limiting factor holding the research back. The scarcity of funding -- and of young blood -- may testify to the discredited nature of the field, but the "greybeards" (as one presenter jokingly referred to his colleagues) keep turning up new results.

Mystery of the black triangle UFOs

UFOs are reported in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. From round, ball-like shapes, square boxes, cigars, to the traditional flying saucer. Out of all of these configurations, triangular-shaped UFOs seem to be receiving more attention and publicity recently.Beginning in the early 1980's many countries, including the United States, have experienced mass-sightings of triangle UFOs, all with similar characteristics such as shape, sound, lighting and flight patterns. Seen with increasing frequency, several excellent photos and videos have been taken of these strange craft. Nevertheless, despite these photos, no good explanation has yet surfaced to account the nature of these remarkable UFOs. Many UFO researchers are certain that the flying triangles represent proof that the Earth is being visited by extraterrestrials. While the other side of the controversy says that these UFOs are, in fact, top secret, black budget military aircraft using technology that is years ahead of civilian science. The debate shows no sign of closure anytime soon. Beginning in 1983, residents of the Hudson Valley area of New York and nearby Connecticut started seeing strange UFOs described as larger than a football field with multicolored flashing lights. The object seems to take on a boomerang or triangle shape.

Most witnesses reported the UFO was a solid object made up of some type of very dark, gun-gray colored material.At the peak of its activity, the object was seen by at least five thousand witnesses that included police officers, scientists, and people from all walks of life. All said that the silent, slow-moving UFO was something that they had never seen before and could not be identified.Most of the reports from that area seem to support the idea that the flying triangle was extremely large, silent and very low. Most of the estimates place it around 500-800 feet above the ground. Local police were baffled by the sightings. State police said that the sightings were caused by nothing more than a group of stunt planes flying in formation. The FAA official at Bradley International Airport would not confirm or deny if they had anything on radar but insisted that the sightings were most likely a hoax with a hot air balloon <http://www.theparanormalreport.com/>. However, many people who saw the object said that the explanations didn't fit. As one building inspector in the Hartford area said: "This thing about balloons and aircraft is a lot of crap."

New claims made for life on Mars

Martian soil analyzed 30 years ago by NASA's Viking landers might contain life, according to a controversial new study that one scientist called "bogus." The dry, freezing Martian surface could be home to microbes whose cells are filled with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water, said Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen in Germany.But other scientists are skeptical of his results, which is the latest in a long series of contentious claims about what the Viking landers might or could have found.Houtkooper reanalyzed data from the Gas Exchange (GEx) experiment carried out by the robotic landers in the 1970s, and speculates the Martian soil contained detectable amounts of life."It comes out to a little more than one part per thousand by weight, comparable to what is found in some permafrost in Antarctica," Houtkooper said. Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado, is skeptical of the new claims.

"It sounds bogus to me," Pace told SPACE.com. "I don't consider the chemical results to be particularly credible in light of the hash conditions that Mars offers."Houtkooper presented his findings at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany this week.Yet despite being widely reported Thursday, the work has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is typically a threshold indicating other scientists view the work as credible.

Two crashed UFOs reported in Mexico

According to a news item published on August 21 2007 by the El Mañana de Valles newspaper, two unidentified flying objects allegedly fell in Valles and Xilitla (San Luis Potosi). The first of them was reported on the evening of Sunday, August 19 and the second during early morning hours of Monday the 20th.Reporters Antonio Martínez and Maribor Villalobos state that the initial report was received by Jose Angel Avalos, an officer on duty at the Centro de Control y Comando (C4) through the 066 call line. This report was from Rubén Velázquez, who stated that a silver object measuring 20 cm long had fallen from the sky in a plot of land of the San Miguel collective farm.Another witness, high school student Oscar Gonzalez Mar, a resident of the El Sidral collective farm, told the "El Mañana" newsromm that he had seen a shining object streaming across the skies toward the Gulf of Mexico between 8 and 9 p.m. on August 19 before he lost it from sight, not knowing whether the object crashed or not.

Nearly two and a half hours after the San Miguel incident, Mrs. Saturnina Castillo reported from Xilitla that an object resembling a fireball had impacted a tree in a property located near the "Montoya" metal shop, owned by her husband Juan Montoya, adding that the tree had caught fire.Joaquín Hernández was a direct witness to the sighting. He and his family prepare zacahuil and live next to where the object hit the ground. In fact, Hernández was preparing the zacahuil batter and he saw the "fireball" as it came down over the tree. Afraid that no one would believe him, he screamed for Juan Montoya and his wife to witness the tree bough catching fire.

Thousands of UFOs unreported

 The acronym UFO stands for unidentified flying object — NOT “alien spaceship” — and while the vast majority (about 95 per cent) of UFO reports are explainable, the rest are not, a fact conceded by defence ministries throughout the world. Contrary to the statement that “there is not a scrap, not a shred of evidence for the existence of UFOs”, well over 4,000 military and civilian pilots (as well as numerous naval officers, astronauts etc) have reported encounters with unknown flying craft — frequently confirmed by radar — and thousands go unreported owing to military or other professional security restrictions. In addition, thousands of previously classified intelligence papers (many Top Secret) prove how seriously the subject is taken by officialdom.As former CIA director Admiral Hillenkoetter stated in 1960: “Behind the scenes, high-ranking air force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”Regarding film/video footage, most can be explained in terms of hoaxes or misidentifications, but certainly not all.

As for hardware, plenty exists — including several vehicles recovered prior to the 1947 Roswell incident — though such hardware remains highly classified to this day. “The classification was, from the outset, above Top Secret, so the vast majority of US officials and politicians — let alone a mere allied minister of defence — were never in the loop,” declared former Canadian defence minister Paul Hellyer two years ago.As to “why do they not reveal themselves?”, thousands of witnesses throughout the world — including high-ranking military personnel — have reported encounters with extraterrestrial beings. Again, probably the majority can be explained, but not all.

Egypt footprint 'could be oldest'

Archaeologists in Egypt say they have discovered what might be the oldest human footprint ever found. The outline was found imprinted in mud, which has since turned to stone, at Siwa oasis in the western desert. "This could go back about two million years," antiquities council chief Zahi Hawass was quoted by Reuters as saying. However Khaled Saad, director of pre-history at the council, said it could be older still, and pre-date Ethiopia's 3m-year-old skeleton, Lucy. Lucy, discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia, is an extinct Australopithecus afarensis hominid estimated to be 3.2 million years old. Creatures of her kind are assumed to have left the feet impressions recorded in volcanic ash at Laetoli in Tanzania. These prints have been dated to 3.6 million years ago.

The oldest footprints (and handprints) known to be associated with Homo (human) species are recorded in volcanic rocks at Roccamonfina in Italy. These are about 350,000 years old. Commenting on the new discovery - which has yet to be reviewed by independent scientists - Mr Hawass said: "It could be the most important discovery in Egypt." Until now the earliest evidence of human activity found in Egypt, most famous for the era of the pharaohs, dates from about 200,000 years ago.

Will 'frozen smoke' change the world ?

A miracle material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars. Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C. Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars. It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”

Aerogel is nicknamed “frozen smoke” and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide. The result is a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil. It was invented by an American chemist for a bet in 1931, but early versions were so brittle and costly that it was largely consigned to laboratories. It was not until a decade ago that Nasa started taking an interest in the substance and putting it to a more practical use. In 1999 the space agency fitted its Stardust space probe with a mitt packed full of aerogel to catch the dust from a comet’s tail. It returned with a rich collection of samples last year. In 2002 Aspen Aerogel, a company created by Nasa, produced

Artificial life likely within 5 years

Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer. Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life.'' "It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it,'' said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways—in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.'' That first cell of synthetic life—made from the basic chemicals in DNA—may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it. "Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe,'' Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role.'' And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.
A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.
A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.

One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months, scientists will report evidence that the first step—creating a cell membrane—is "not a big problem.'' Scientists are using fatty acids in that effort.

Were UFOs already flying around in 1897?

In 1897, the country was very much enthused in the then-infant aviation industry. Inventors around the world were attempting to construct flying machines, some of them so outlandish that they were beyond belief. Balloon ascensions drew gigantic crowds wherever they took place, and Sheboygan was no exception. On several occasions in the city, to attract large crowds to picnics, balloon ascensions were held. But, large airships that could fly long distances and maneuver at will were still some 20 years off in the future. In late 1896, strange reports began to appear in newspapers in the western United States of a mysterious airship cruising over cities. The Galveston Daily News carried the first of these stories on Nov. 23, 1896, and it told of a mysterious airship that was seen cruising slowly over the city of Galveston the previous night at about 2 a.m.

The story went on to relate that this cigar shaped object had what appeared to be a large headlight, similar to, but brighter than what would be found on a railroad locomotive. This headlight, according to witnesses, could be swiveled back and forth and directed up and down so that it could illuminate objects on the ground. The newspaper article also related that a similar incident had taken place over numerous cities in California.

The Mongolian Death Worm

The Mongolian Death Worm lives in Mongolia, obviously, and is so named because it spits lethal concoctions of poison and/or electricity on whatever it pleases. The creature's never been officially documented, but locals have seen it - lots of locals. It's even 'real' enough that the 1922 Prime Minister of Mongolia asked a man to bring one in.Did the man succeed?No, the man didn't succeed. But that doesn't keep others from trying to catch/document one of the worms. A Mongolian website has this to say about the super-slug: "The Alghoi Khorkhoi (literally intestinal worm) is a mythical animal known by Mongolians since long time but not indexed by science for the reason that no specimen could yet be captured or studied. It is described like a big worm of approximately 80 cm length living in very remote sand areas of Gobi desert and leaving to the free air only very seldom, in summer.

He is considered as a "terrible" animal able to kill in an unexplained way any man who touch it (poison, static electricity?)"The first report on this animal came from the famous paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews which was asked to capture it by the Prime Minister of Mongolia in 1922. The local belief of the existence of Alghoi Khorkhoi is very widespread and could accredit the assumption that an unknown animal, worm or reptile could still remain unknown by science from its great discretion and its desertic and hostile unhabitat." According to locals, the Death Worm chiefly burrows through the sand, but comes to the surface after it rains, or when a particular flower (the Goyo plant) is in bloom. One of the locals has had enough experience with the worm to make a wooden carving of it. It looks to be a much smaller version of the ones Kevin Bacon and the dad from Family Ties had to fight in the movie Tremors.

Sharks have genes for fingers and toes

The basic process for developing fingers and toes in land animals may have existed for more than 500 million years in shark genes, according to a new study. Researchers identified genetic activity in spotted catsharks embryos that signal the creation of digits. The discovery pushes back the date of the evolutionary "fin to limb" advance by some 135 million years. When a gene—essentially a set of instructions—is translated into a trait, such as red hair or an arm, it is said to be expressed. Scientists have long believed that the gene for digit development was first expressed some 365 million years ago in the earliest tetrapodsthe first vertebrates to walk on land. But the new study suggests the finger-and-toe gene was first expressed much earlier, in fish—though not to such an extent that it yielded actual digits. "We've uncovered a surprising degree of genetic complexity in place at an early point in the evolution of appendages," study leader Martin Cohn of the University of Florida said in a statement.

The findings appear this week in the journal PLos ONE. Limb development, which happens in the fetal stage of all limbed animals, is driven by the so-called Hox gene. The early stage of the Hox gene expression regulates the development of limbs down to the forearm and shin. The later phase is responsible for forming fingers and toes. "It has long been thought that fish fins exhibit only the early wave of Hox expression..." Cohn told National Geographic News.

First genome transplant performed

For the first time, scientists have completely transformed a species of bacteria into another species by transplanting its complete set of DNA. The achievement marks a significant step toward the construction of synthetic life, with applications including the production of clean fuel in as little as a decade. Scientists Carole Lartigue and colleagues from the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, have published their results in a recent issue of Science. In addition to being a proof-of-concept experiment, the researchers hope that genome transplantation will enable the production of synthetic microbes for green energy sources, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and textiles. The scientists’ results show that it is possible to transplant the complete set of DNA—the genome—from one species into the genome of a different species, so that the recipient organism is phenotypically and genotypically identical to the donor organism. In their experiment, the researchers used two species of bacteria that belong to a group of organisms called mycoplasmas due to their small genomes (making them easier to handle) and lack of a cell wall (enabling easier insertion of DNA).

In the experiment, Mycoplasma mycoides Large Colony (LC) served as the donor, and Mycoplasma capricolum the receiver. Both bacteria are mild pathogens of goats, and are genetically similar, sharing about 75% of their genomic material. The researchers explained that the transplantation method is simple in concept, though complicated to execute. First, the proteins were stripped from the M. mycoides LC cells, resulting in “naked” DNA that can be passed between cells. Then this intact DNA was incubated briefly with M. capricolum cells, soaking in a solution that caused the M. capricolum cells to fuse together. As two of these recipient cells fused, they sometimes encapsulated a donor DNA chromosome.

Scientists: 'We have broken speed of light'

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory. The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

The "wow" mystery turns 30

Exactly 30 years ago today, astronomer Jerry Ehman was looking over a printout of radio data from Ohio State University's Big Ear Radio Observatory when he saw a string of code so remarkable that he had to circle it and scribble "Wow!" in the margin. The printout recorded an anomalous signal so strong that it had to come from an extraordinary source.Was it a burst of human-made interference? Or an alien broadcast from the stars? No one knows. The source of the "Wow" signal has never been heard from again - even though astronomers have looked for it dozens of times.Now the SETI Institute is gearing up to look for it one more time, using the latest tool for seeking signals from extraterrestrial civilizations: the Allen Telescope Array in California.The array combines observations from dozens of separate 20-foot-wide (6-meter-wide) radio dishes to produce an instrument that will eventually become more sensitive than the world's largest single-dish telescope, the Arecibo Observatory.

"Once the Allen Telescope Array is up and running, and that should be later this year, there's going to be a small project in which we'll look at the same section where the 'Wow' signal was detected, and of course the same spot on the radio dial," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, told me today. Although that area of the sky has been searched dozens of times before, the Allen Telescope Array will bring more sensitivity and wider spectral coverage to the quest, Shostak said. The renewed search came as welcome news to Ehman, the man behind the "Wow." "Back in 1977, of course, the computers weren't very powerful," he told me. "Nowadays, if you have the money, you can get excellent receivers, filter banks, computers - you can do much more now than you could in 1977." But he cautioned that the search could well come up empty again.

Saucer recovery

Most people have heard of the crashed flying saucer at Roswell, New Mexico. But this was not the only supposed crash of an alien craft.[/b] One of the earliest recorded UFO crashes is said to have happened on 6 June 1884 when a blazing object crashed in Dundy County, Nebraska. Local farmhands rushed to the scene and found sand fused to a glass-like substance, and a large pile of hot debris. One person who got too close suffered blisters similar to radiation exposure today. It took several days for the debris to cool down, whereupon the local paper reported it was extremely light metal but incredibly strong. It could have been aluminium, except it had not yet been invented. Local papers of the time even speculated the object could have come from outer space.

They keep coming down: Researcher Todd Zechel learnt from witnesses about a possible UFO retrieval when a saucer crashed in Laredo, Texas, on 7 July 1948. Prior to the crash, the 90 foot disc was seen by pilots, and said to be travelling at 2,000mph. Witnesses at the crash site spoke of a craft being taken away by US forces, and that a hairless, four foot alien had died there. At the time it was dismissed as a hoax, and government papers since released show that Nazi V2 rockets were being modified in the area at the time.Researcher Ivan Sanderson collected sighting reports of an object that flew over the Great Lakes on 9 December 1965. Towards early evening there was a boom in the sky, followed by a trail of smoke and a tremor shook the ground in a wood near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. A Soviet rocket, Cosmos 96, had re-entered that day, but 13 hours earlier.In 1980, the fire chief who attended the incident finally told that he saw a conical craft 12 feet high embedded in the ground, but they were cleared away by the military. Later that night, a truck left the site, the military claiming nothing was found.

Map reveals ancient urban sprawl

The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area. Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise. "The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its local environment by expanding continuously into the surrounding forests," said Damian Evans of the University of Sydney and one of the authors of the paper and map. Working with researchers from Australia, Cambodia and France, the map was produced from ground surveys, airborne photography, and ground-sensing radar from Nasa's AIRSAR flying laboratory. "The radar can sense differences in plant growth and moisture content that result from topographical variations of less than a metre," Mr Evans said.

The data allowed the researchers to peer through the vegetation that now shrouds the World Heritage site. It suggests that the medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and 14th centuries, was at least three times larger than previously thought. The team believes it could have covered 3,000 sq km (1,150 sq miles), the largest pre-industrial complex of its kind. Its nearest rival is Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala, which covers between 100 and 150 sq km (40-60 sq miles). The detailed survey also allowed the researchers to map at least 74 new temples as well as more than 1,000 manmade ponds.

Lost Congo forest reveals new species

An expedition to a remote forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo has uncovered six new animal species. Conservationists discovered one new bat species, a new rat and two new species each of shrews and frogs. The region, which is in eastern DR Congo, near Lake Tanganyika, has been off limits to researchers since 1960 because of instability in the area. The survey, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), was carried out between January and March 2007. It covered 1,000 square kilometres of forest. WCS researcher Dr Andrew Plumptre said: "If we can find six new species in such a short period it makes you wonder what else is out there. "The block of forest has probably been isolated from the rest of the Congo forest block for about 10,000 years." Of the two new amphibian species discovered, one, a small bright green frog, is in the Hyperolius genus, the other, a 1-2cm-long black frog may belong to a completely new genus.The conservationists believe they might also have found several new plant species in the forested region, which includes the Misotshi-Kabogo Forest.

The expedition's botanists were unable to identify about 10% of the new plant samples they collected. The specimens will now be examined by specialists to confirm if they represent new species. The team added that the area was extremely rich in biodiversity, despite the years of conflict that have plagued the region. The forest had been used as a base for rebel activity since 1960, Dr Plumptre told the BBC News website. The survey found that many species of birds, reptile and amphibians were living in the forest.

Gef the talking mongoose

In September of 1931 in a small farm house on the Isle of Man, the Irving family began hearing odd sounds coming from the attic of the home. Initially, they sounded like a wild animal moving around, but after a time the 'animal' began making sounds reportedly similar to those of a baby learning how to speak. It then began to mimic words spoken by the Irvings, much in the fashion of a parrot.Within months, the creature, which the family apparently hadn't yet seen directly, began speaking increasingly fluent English, relating to the Irvings that it had been born in New Delhi, India on June 7, 1852. No explanation was given as to how the animal got to Britain. Other paranormal activity began happening around the house, such as objects flying across the room inexplicably. The voice of the creature began spying on the neighbors and reporting back to the Irvings, and shortly after the creature revealed itself to be a mongoose, or something similar and even allowed itself to be petted by Margaret Irving.Other locals began hearing odd sounds that they attributed to the Irving's mongoose, and the animal reportedly began ranging around the town, always reporting the local comings and goings of the day back to the Irving's.

The press became infatuated with the story of the talking mongoose, and soon Gef, which it claimed to be its name, became a celebrity in the British media.An investigation done by paranormalist Harry Price in 1935 revealed little. Hairs thought to be from Gef turned out to belong to the family dog, and the few photographs Price was able to take were of poor quality, and one of them appeared to show a cat. The Irvings left the farmhouse, and Gef, in 1937. Sometime after, the new owner shot a large mongoose-like animal which may have been the creature.

Gravity still stumps scientists

In the deepest depths of space, gravity tugs on matter to form galaxies, stars, black holes and the like. In spite of its infinite reach, however, gravity is the wimpiest of all forces in the universe. This weakness also makes it the most mysterious, as scientists can't measure it in the laboratory as easily as they can detect its effects on planets and stars. The repulsion between two positively charged protons, for example, is 1036 times stronger than gravity's pull between them — that's 1 followed by 36 zeros less macho. Physicists want to squeeze little old gravity into the standard model — the crown-jewel theory of modern physics that explains three other fundamental forces in physics — but none has succeeded. Like a runt at a pool party, gravity just doesn't fit in when using Einstein's theory of relativity, which explains gravity only on large scales.

"Gravity is completely different from the other forces described by the standard model," said Mark Jackson, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab in Illinois. "When you do some calculations about small gravitational interactions, you get stupid answers. The math simply doesn't work." The numbers may not jive, but physicists have a hunch about gravity's unseen gremlins: Tiny, massless particles called gravitons that emanate gravitational fields. Each hypothetical bit tugs on every piece of matter in the universe, as fast as the speed of light permits. Yet if they are so common in the universe, why haven't physicists found them?

Strange seas - the Flying Dutchman

In 1880, the future King George V of England and his brother Prince Albert Victor (incidently a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case) saw a ghost ship while serving in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Bacchante. It appeared around 4 AM off the coast of Australia, glowing with red light with all sails set. The Princes, along with eleven others, momentarily saw the ship off their port bow at a distance of about 200 yards before it vanished as quickly as it appeared. The next day, the seaman who first sighted it fell to his death in an accident. King George V is the most noteworthy person out of hundreds said to have seen the Flying Dutchman.The story behind the Flying Dutchman is unfortunately convoluted and colored by the exaggeration of centuries of sailors. The earliest written accounts describe a ship lost with all hands off the Cape of Good Hope. Another story describes a Captain Fokke, who made a deal with the devil to increase the speed of his ship. Then there's the famous Captain van der Decken, who pushed his ship too hard, cursing at the wind to change direction, promising to push his ship forward until judgement day. It is unknown if all of these accounts describe the same ship, or different ghost ships, but the sightings are always said to herald disaster.

The convoluted story of the Flying Dutchman is just one of many stories about ghost ships. Off the coast of England, near a treacherous area called the Goodwin Sands, a ship wrecked in 1748 appears once every fifty years. Coming from the fog, the ship, called the Lady Luvibund, will appear with full sails set until ultimately making a suicidal turn toward toward land. The story goes that the first mate of the ship, a man named Rivers, snapped during the Captain's wedding party, killed the helmsman and turned the ship toward land where it was smashed with all hands lost. It was seen in 1798, when it almost ran down another ship, the sounds of the party below decks could still be heard. It was seen again in 1848 when it was mistaken for a ship in distress, and again in 1898. Sadly, the ship has not been seen in recent times.

The dream of time travel

From HG Wells to the latest Big Brother challenge, time travel has sparked the popular imagination. Now, an American scientist has broken his silence about his dream of time travel, with a book documenting his life-long struggle to build a time machine. Time travel has long held a fascination for many of us. The idea that we could use science to see the past and the future has been with us since HG Wells penned The Time Machine at the end of the 19th Century. Since then, sci-fi comics and Hollywood have built an entire time travel industry. Today, man is successfully probing deep into the mysteries of the universe. Can he penetrate the greatest mystery of all - time itself? One young boy, growing up in the 1950s in the Bronx in New York, was especially interested in these tales. Ronald Mallett was just 10 when his father died of a sudden heart attack. And it was in science fiction that he found solace.

"Just about a year after he died, I came across HG Wells' book The Time Machine. And that is what saved me from going into a total depression - because I had this inspiration," says Mr Mallett. "I thought: if I could build a time machine, the way HG Wells had suggested, then I should be able to go back into the past; and if I could go back into the past, I could see my father again and warn him about what was going to happen to him, and maybe save his life. So that became an obsession for me." More than 50 years later Ronald Mallett has learned a lot more about science. He's now a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut. But time hasn't changed him. He still wants to build a time machine, and is seeking funding for his so-called Space-Time Twisting by Light project. Of course, building such a machine was never going to be simple. And it isn't.

The boy who lived before

If last night's documentary on Prime, The Boy Who Lived Before, had an attitude, it was one of respect. Its subject matter – reincarnation, in this case a small child who had memories of a previous life and of a place which he had never visited – was one guaranteed to get a cynic sneering. But all this documentary set out to do was to allow the audience to observe Cameron's story being checked out. It made for riveting – and touching – viewing. Cameron was only two when he started talking in detail about another place and another family that he had previously belonged to. That other place was the island of Barra, off the west coast of Scotland, a place neither he nor his family had ever visited. He also spoke of a white house on the sand, watching planes land on the beach, a black and white dog, siblings, a mother who'd had her long hair cut short, and a father who had died because he didn't look both ways. Most two-year-olds don't suffer from nostalgia, but Cameron missed his "other mother" so much that sometimes he cried when his real mother picked him up from kindergarten.

His memories, which he continued to have till he was five, when we met him, were completely consistent. He even knew his "other" father's name – Shane Robertson. He was a happy and loving little boy, but he yearned for his other life. Cameron was fortunate to have a marvellously understanding and compassionate mother. She did that very difficult thing – she kept an open mind. She also managed another even more difficult thing – she at least appeared unthreatened by his longing for his other family. She took a risk when she allowed a camera crew to accompany her on the search for Cameron's other family, but it was one that paid off.

The CARET documents, another hoax?

Some time ago, an individual calling himself "Issac" began leaking documents he claims to be from a Palo Alto CARET Labs (PACL) project designed to back-engineer alien technology for patent review and eventual commercial and civilian application. In any UFO-related case where documents are leaked that support the claim of extra-terrestrial contact with the earth, a healthy dose of critical examination must be applied to avoid yet another credibility meltdown that once again will be paid for by the entire UFO field. This critical examination has been very thoroughly done with the MJ-12 documents, but not yet with the CARET documents. My purpose with this article is to point out a number of red flags that came to mind during my reading of the documents posted on Isaac's website.. The first red flag is a total lack of compartmentalization. The alien origin of the technology is clearly and very plainly stated to anyone reading the report.

The problem here is that it isn't particularly necessary to reveal that information, and to do it in this manner is counterintuitive to typical government and industrial compartmentalization when dealing with any sensitive technology whether its from the earth or not. The technology could have been attributed to past black projects, and even if the notion of technology this advanced being from earth appeared ridiculous to the engineers involved, it still would have been better to have them speculating about it rather than risking a whistleblower exposing the most closely guarded and important secret held by our government. 'Issac' himself complains about the military's policies on 'need to know' information, yet, the documents are astonishingly general, and cover several different technologies.

400-year-old Lunar mystery solved ?

Columbia astronomy professor Arlin Crotts thinks he has solved a 400-year-old mystery: the origin of strange optical flashes often reported as appearing on the moon's surface. Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs), in which the lunar surface reportedly changes in brightness, blurriness or color, have been photographed and observed by thousands of astronomers over the centuries. Yet explanations of why they occur and even their reality as true lunar phenomena have been hotly debated. The TLPs typically cover a space of a few kilometers and last for several minutes. Crotts has uncovered a strong statistical relationship between TLPs and so-called outgassing events on the lunar surface. Outgassing occurs when gases trapped beneath a moon or planet are released and, if only briefly, become part of the object's atmosphere. A key component of this gas is radon.

"People over the years have attributed TLPs to all sorts of effects: turbulence in Earth's atmosphere, visual physiological effects, atmospheric smearing of light like a prism, and even psychological effects like hysteria or planted suggestion" says Crotts, "but TLPs correlate strongly with radon gas leaking from the moon. No earth-bound effect can fake that."

Are aliens among us ?

If one was to say that they believe in the UFO phenomenon, what would most people think? Would they wisely examine the evidence objectively in order to come to a plausible conclusion, or make the mistake of immediately accepting or rejecting it? All beliefs demand some sort of a study, and therefore depend solely on the evidence provided which leads to a hypothesis. Accepted hypothesis's generally lead to plausible theories. The only problem, though, for this type of research, is the majority of our scientists and psychologists remain very weary over certain subject matters. This methodology is simply a contradiction within the scientific field. The true scientists of our world are able to rid their biases on all subject matter and objectively research them. As a result, scientists are able to research many different subjects and expand the horizons to the mysterious. Isn't it the scientists' duty and nature to research these phenomenon thoroughly?The UFO phenomenon demands serious consideration, for the evidence is overwhelming.

There are hundreds of thousands of UFO sightings every year, though the majority of them never get reported. The ones that do get reported are either written off as hoaxes or thought to be of more earthly origin. Many sightings are never explained at all because the evidence surrounding the phenomenon is too great to be disregarded as something as ordinary as a weather balloon. Other examples of irrational explanations used to write off UFOs include, conventional aircrafts, flares, satellites, planets, and even swamp gas! If people think these absurd explanations are true, then everyone in the world is living a lie.

Spring-Heeled Jack revisited

Among the oddest criminal cases in history is that of Spring-Heeled Jack. Starting in 1837, with a sighting as recent as 1987, this paranormal creature was said to be capable of very high leaps reminiscent of someone bouncing on springs, wore a tight fitting helmet and skin-tight clothing described as something like an oil skin, and was claimed to exhale blue flame and complete with red glowing eyes. Often dismissed as a folktale, there was a very disturbing aspect to the creature that could only be taken as attempted sexual assault. In october of 1837 Mary Stevens, who worked as a servant girl, was walking near Clapham common, a 200 acre grassy area in south London. The creature lept at her, grabbed her by the arms, and began kissing her and ripping her clothing off. She began screaming, caught the attention of others nearby and the creature fled. This is not typical of victorian period romanticized folktales, which generally contain just about everything except sex. Word spread throughough England, and a hysteria formed. Multiple sightings ensued, and the descriptions of the creature grey to include have metallic claws on his hands. Girls were claimed to be assaulted and struck dumb by the creature, and all manner of supernatural phenomena were associated with the creature, including a claim that he was an incarnation of the devil. Mixed with these widely varying accounts were more sexual assaults.

On February 20th, Jane Alsop answered the door of her father's house to find the voice of a man claiming to be a police officer saying that he had caught spring-heeled jack and that she should bring him a light. When she did, she was assaulted by the creature, who ripped at her dress and hair. A suspect was apprehended, and even confessed, but Alsop claimed that he was not the perpetrator in that he could not breathe blue flame. Sightings continued. In 1870 a group of soldiers spotted him, and even shot at him. The creature dissappeared before suddenly reappearing, slapping one of the soldiers and bouncing off. Later that year, a mob cornered the creature and shot him, but claimed that while he was obviously hit, the bullets bounced off and made a sound as though they were hitting metal. The creature then defiantly lept away. In 1953, across the world in Texas, a creature that may have been spring-heeled Jack was sighted in a pecan tree near an apartment complex. Three witnesses described a creature in tight fitting pants, a black cape and boots.

UFO evidence to go on display

For the first time, UFO researchers will publicly display scientific proof of UFOs as concluded by Colorado scientists. Colorado artist Armand Guerrero will display a large accurate sculpture of the UFO and copies of the original photo negatives will be on display. This free display will be open to the public from August 10 - 12, 2007 at the Denver Tech Center Marriott in conjunction with MUFON's annual Symposium on UFOs. The Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON) is a nonprofit scientific research organization that has been investigating the UFO mystery for 38 years. For the first time, MUFON will publicly display scientific proof of UFOs as concluded by Colorado scientists. Colorado artist Armand Guerrero will display a large accurate sculpture of the UFO and copies of the original photo negatives will be on display. This free display will be open to the public from August 10 - 12, 2007 at the Denver Tech Center Marriott in conjunction with MUFON's annual Symposium on UFOs.

"Chupacabra" caught in South Texas?

A rancher from the South Texas town of Cuero is telling a chupacabra tale and she say she has the evidence in her freezer. Phylis Canion says the animal had been lurking around her ranch for years. She said it first snatched cats, then chickens right through a wire cage. “(It) opened it reached in pulled the chicken head out, sucked all the blood out, left the chicken in the cage.” Canion says two dozen chickens were sucked dry. The meat, she says, was left on the bone. Neighbors speculate the blue-colored animal that was doing all that damage was a chupacabra. The name is translated from Spanish and means goat-sucker because the creature sucks the blood of livestock. Canion says not one, but three chupacabras were spotted outside the town in recent days.

All of them, she says, were blue-skinned, had no hair and had strange teeth. Although Canion and her neighbors feel she captured a chupacabra, others like State Mammalogist John Young says she captured a grey fox. “When mange goes untreated it causes this type of reaction. they start to itch, lose all their hair, blue grey coloration. and the animal usually dies from it.”

Secrets of the Last Supper

After the recent explosion of press and controversy over Slavisa Pesci's discovery of Hidden images in the Last Supper, author Derek Bair is claiming to have made this same discovery months ago. An article about Derek and his discoveries was posted on Unexplained Mysteries back in September 2006: "He has his research on his web site http://www.itsjustlife.com and says he will keep it updated with his current research which includes discovering a new way to view the Last Supper with shows that the feminine looking character is indeed a woman and holding a baby. He insists that this is just a painting and isn't interested in the implications beyond what Da Vinci painted." Derek actually started his research by mirroring paintings on themselves and noticed strange images being formed in them. The Last Supper is just one of the paintings he's discovered hidden images and meaning inside. His main focus has been on the Mona Lisa and another painting with an unaccredited painter of Salai - Da Vinci's lover.

In his book "Discovering Da Vinci's Daughter" Derek documents how and what he's found. He claims to have discovered a new painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, give Da Vinci credit for the creation of the Shroud of Turin (It combines with his drawing of the Vitruvian Man) and the true identity of the Mona Lisa.

In Chapter 3 of his book: A matter of perspective Derek already explains the process of mirroring the Last Supper on itself and how it creates what looks like a baby being passed around the table - almost a year before Slavisa Pesci's released his findings. Derek actually released two press releases for his book but received no response. In light of the attention The Last Supper's getting it's easy to understand Derek's frustration.

"I've been working on my book for over a year, dedicated my entire life to it, and have only sold 4 copies so far! When I first saw an article about "Hidden images in the Last Supper" my heart dropped! Then dropped even more when it was credited to someone else! Then I really freaked out when his site got 15 million hits in a single day! For something I already have in my book! "

Derek has found even more since finishing his book and makes updates on his web site http://www.itsjustlife.com and his blog http://derekbair.blogspot.com he's made his book available to read for free on his site. There is also another web site http://www.n2davinciandbeyond.com/ which has been finding hidden images inside Da Vinci's art as well with even more evidence to support the theory of hidden images.

Derek claims that once he figures the process out that the Mona Lisa will actually produce an animation. He believes that what he's found is something Leonardo Da Vinci left behind for someone to piece together. Despite the controversy and claims of codes and conspiracy Derek developed his theories based off of Da Vinci's own journals and images. He's even found numbers and arrows in the corners of an image he's created from one of Da Vinci's painting that he thinks might be directions or coordinates of some kind.

"I think it's important to remember that Da Vinci is considered to be the greatest genius who has ever lived! What would you do with all that knowledge before there was even such a thing as a light bulb, or photography? You would paint it, layer by layer, everything you knew, everything you had figured out about the world that no one living at your time would believe or understand- THAT is what I believe the Mona Lisa and his art contains. Not a code, but his true legacy to the world - our secrets. I think we're just scratching the surface of what will surly be the greatest re-discovery ever made. Once the right people analyze what I’ve found and read my book, I think the world will be in for quit a surprise.."

Fisherman catches 'living fossil'

An extremely rare "living fossil" caught by a fisherman in Indonesia is being examined by scientists. The 1.3m-long (4.3ft), 50kg (110lb) coelacanth is only the second ever to have been captured in Asia and has been described as a "significant find". An autopsy and genetic tests are now being carried out to determine more about the specimen. Coelacanths provide researchers with a window into the past; their fossil record dates back 350 million years. These fish are odd in appearance, looking almost as if they have legs because of their large-lobed fins - they are sometimes dubbed "old four legs". The blue fish can also perform headstands, hovering with their head just over the sea floor, possibly to detect food. Scientists previously thought the fish group had died out about 70 million years ago, but were shocked when in 1938 they discovered that a specimen had been caught in a fishing net off the east coast of South Africa.

Since then, more than 300 specimens of the modern coelacanth species (Latimeria chalumnae) have been found in the waters around the Comoros Islands, which are situated in the Western Indian Ocean, and the eastern coast of Africa. However, scientists were surprised once again when a coelacanth was discovered thousands of kilometres away in Indonesia in 1998. It looked similar to the coelacanths found near Africa, but genetic analysis revealed that the genomes differed by about 3.5%, and it was described as a new species called Latimeria menadoensis.

Wrexham UFO sighting sparks debate

The sighting of strange lights above Wrexham has sparked a massive debate as to whether the UFO claims are genuine or an elaborate hoax. Possible explanations are being put forward to identify the flying objects.Residents in Borras Park reported sightings of seven red lights in the early hours of Wednesday morning.Lynn Jones, 32, recorded one of the lights, which is now on the Leader website.Residents from Borras, Gwersyllt, Caergwrle and Acton said they also saw the lights and cannot explain them.Readers have posted comments suggesting the shape was a cigarette end or a street light. One person believes the video was staged with a lazer pen on a black carpet. Another Borras resident said they could remember a series of UFO sightings over Borras Airfield 20 years ago, mentioning they had seen green lights similar to the ones in the video over the by-pass a year ago.A worker from Acton, who posted a comment on our website, said: "I am a patrol and response officer for the wrexham area and saw these lights while I was attending an alarm call at Acton school.

"These, to my belief, are unexplained. There is no way this was a hoax, as I would not have seen them from Acton area if they were. "In addition, they were very high up in the air and there's no way anyone can control anything from that distance. "There were several 'floating' in the sky in a pack, at first I thought they were helicopters or similar, however there was no sound what so ever! Very strange and I would identify these as an unidentified flying objects. (Not saying they were aliens but definitely unexplainable)"Another visitor to our site also mentioned a sighting had been made in Strattford Upon Avon earlier on the same day.Russell Callaghan, editor of UFO DATA Magazine, said: "They are probably paper lanterns or homemade air balloons. There is no control over their flight and they are quite dangerous.

Earth's worst extinction a prolonged event

The rise of mollusks across the globe was a harbinger of doom roughly 250 million years ago, ushering in the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history, research now reveals. This clammy conclusion suggests the disaster was long in coming, as opposed to the result of a more catastrophic extraterrestrial cause such as an asteroid impact, scientists added.The largest die-off in Earth's history was not the cataclysm that ended the Age of the Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Instead, it was the so-called end-Permian mass extinction, which eliminated as much as 95 percent of the planet's species before even the earliest dinosaurs strode the planet.One supposed consequence of this mass extinction was the dominance of oysters, snails and other mollusks all over the world. Now scientists studying mollusks fossils find they started rising to prominence some 8 million years before the end-Permian.

"Our results aren't really consistent with a more catastrophic extraterrestrial cause, such as an asteroid impact—although they don't directly contradict the impact theory either," said researcher Matthew Clapham at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. Instead, these findings support theories suggesting the end-Permian was triggered by ocean changes long in the making, "the climax of a prolonged environmental crisis," Clapham said. The whole Permian period, stretching from about 300 million to 250 million years ago, saw gradual warming. This would have slowed down circulation in the ocean, eventually leading to very low levels of oxygen in the water. Massive volcanism near the end of the Permian might have wreaked even further havoc on the environment."Mollusks are better adapted to such stressful and changing environments, and so could have thrived," Clapham told LiveScience. "The abundance of mollusks we see are symptoms of the conditions that ultimately caused the extinction."