In the News

At https://phys.org/news/2020-05-oldest-native-americans-lake-baikal.html ... which has its origins in a paper in Cell - see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.037 ... using genetic data, ancient pathogen genomics, as well as

At https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/16/downward-virus-flux-in-earths-atm... .. this is an interesting post by guest blogger Robert Kernodle. The atmosphere is choc a bloc with viruses and bacteria, over three

This subject is up on the Thunderblogs this week, presumably pre-emted by the new study. At https://phys.org/news/2020-05-black-holes-neutron-stars-merge.html ... mergers between black holes and neutron stars.

At https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/global-cooling-event-4200-yea... ... a global cooling event 4200 years ago spurred the evolution of rice which then spread across Asia, we are told. The cooling

At www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/uom-trl051320.php ... long legs make for good runners as any schoolboy knows. The chap with the long hairy legs is always going to win

The law of unexpected consequences strikes again - providing a silver lining. At https://phys.org/news/2020-05-dozens-prehistoric-roman-medieval-sites.html ... Exeter University has got local archaeologists, mostly amateur, to look

A bit of mischievous propaganda from Iran. At www.tehrantimes.com/news/447819/ ..  evidence suggests prehistoric people living in Iran migrated to the Americas. This is according to

At https://spaceweather.com (3th May 2020) we learn that Comet Swan has cross the celestial equator and is now visible to observers in the northern hemisphere.

Sent in by Gary. At www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8307869/ ... a couple of days ago we learned the moon could not have been formed by an impact as

Robert sent a link to this story but see www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8296741/ ... carbon emissions detected on the moon. Does this bring into question the mainstream number

Here we have some catastrophic flooding - on Mars and beneath the Greenland ice sheet. Courtesy of Gary again. At www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200430150302.htm ... and https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/uoma-hco043020.php ...

Comet Swan. An unexpected outburst from Comet Swan means it is now eyeball visible - if you can see beyond the full moon. See https://spaceweather.com

This is a cracker as well. At https://phys.org/news/2020-05-fossil-reveals-evidence-million-year-old-s... .... a fossil from the Jurassic coast of Dorset found in the 19th century has had a

An amateur archaeologist and photographer has discovered what looks like two hidden hill forts by the use of laser light technology. Fantastic work - see

Robert sent in this one and it is a cracker - go to https://phys.org/news/2020-05-window-world-life-seafloor-petroleum.html ... window to another world beneath the waves, bubbling up on

At https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/04/new-fossils-rewrite-... ... you could have fooled me but we are told here that scientists have long opposed the idea that dinosaurs lived in aquatic

It's raining plasma on the sun. A massive prominence is jutting out and its leaking plasma - see https://spaceweather.com (5th May 2020). Mysteriously, some of

Actually, the title is wrong. Why people do not seem to have suffered the same dramatic effects of the Black Death in earlier incidents of

At https://spaceweather.com (30th April 2020) we have an image of Comet Swan with a very long tail trailing behind. It will make its closest approach

At arch warmer site https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/a-puzzling-past-sea-level-rise-m... .... tells us sea levels have jumped surprisingly quickly and steeply in the past. It is funny how problems for