Two cases of virgin birth have been observed in wild snakes, the first time the phenomenon has ever been recorded among vertebrates living in their natural habitat.

Genetic analysis of the litters born to a sample of pregnant North American pit vipers revealed that two had reproduced without the help of a male – a feat which had only previously been observed in captivity.

The findings suggest that virgin births may be more common among animals which usually need to have sex to reproduce than previously thought, scientists said.

Although asexual reproduction is common among many species, such as bees and insects, it is rare among vertebrates – animals which have a backbone – like birds, mammals and lizards.

A small number of virgin births have been seen among domestic chickens and some species of shark, snake, lizard and bird but only among animals which were captive and isolated from the opposite sex.

Researchers from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, captured 22 copperhead and 37 cottonmouth pit vipers, all of which were already pregnant, from areas where males were also present.

After the snakes gave birth, the researchers studied the genes of their litters and found that one female of each species had offspring which bore only the mother's genetic material.

It meant the mothers must have reproduced through a process called parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, when a female's egg develops without having been fertilised.

Prof Warren Booth, who led the study published in the Biological Letters journal, told the BBC: "I think the frequency is what really shocked us.

"Between 2.5 and five per cent of litters produced in these populations may be resulting from parthenogenesis. That's quite remarkable for something that has been considered an evolutionary novelty."

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

El Azizia, Libya, no longer holds the title for "world's hottest temperature." Today, that record passes to Death Valley, Calif.

No, a heat wave didn't pass through the notoriously baking area yesterday. The new record-setting temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) was actually recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913.

The temperature is only now being recognized because the previous record high temperature of 136.4 F (58 C) in El Azizia has been overturned by the World Meteorological Organization after an in-depth investigation by a team of meteorologists. The record temperature had long been thought dubious, but this new study has finally made the persuading case to overturn it, 90 years to the day after it was made.

A measurement in doubt

The Libyan temperature had been recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, at an Italian army base. It had long stood out as an oddity, even though Libya certainly sees hot temperatures: El Azizia is located about 35 miles southwest of Tripoli, which lies on the Mediterranean coast. The waters would have a tempering influence on temperatures in the area, all of which weren't nearly as high as the record temperature.

"When we compared his [the thermometer reader's] observations to surrounding areas and to other measurements made before and after the 1922 reading, they simply didn't match up," said team member Randy Cerveny, of Arizona State University, in a statement.

Cerveny and the other members of the international team dug through historical records to evaluate the plausibility of the temperature.

The team was able to find and locate the original log book in which the temperature was recorded. From it and other sources they were able to identify five major problems with the record temperature: it was made a new and untrained observer; it was measured with an instrument that was antiquated even at that time; the observation site wasn't representative of its surroundings; it didn't match other temperatures measured in the area; and it didn't match later temperatures taken at the site.

"We found systematic errors in the 1922 reading," said Cerveny, who also is the Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for the WMO, the person responsible for keeping worldwide weather records.

Essentially, the case likely boiled down to someone inexperienced incorrectly reading a thermometer that could easily be misread, the team concluded. The resulting reading was too high by 12.6 F (7 C), they found.

Not just for bragging

Officially, the "new" world record temperature extreme is 134 F (56.7 C), recorded on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, Calif. [Hell on Earth: Tour Death Valley]

Of course, the record isn't just good for bragging rights. It also helps communities that experience extreme temperatures to properly plan and build for such extremes.

Accurate measurements of past temperatures also help scientists better understand the Earth's climate and weather.

"The end result is an even better set of data for analysis of important global and regional questions involving climate change," Cerveny said.

• The 9 Hottest Places on Earth
• The Harshest Environments on Earth
• 50 Amazing Facts About Earth

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

A shy, brightly colored monkey species has been found living in the lush rainforests at the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a find that utterly surprised the researchers who came upon it.

"When I first saw it, I immediately knew it was something new and different — I just didn't know how significant it was," said John Hart, a veteran Congo researcher who is scientific director for the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, based in Kinshasa.

In fact, the find was something of a happy accident. Hart first spied the suspect monkey in 2007 while sifting through photographs brought back from a recently concluded field expedition to a remote region of central DRC.

Yet the image that caught his eye hadn't been taken in the field. It was snapped in a village, and showed a young girl named Georgette with a tiny monkey that had taken a shine to the 13-year-old. [See Georgette and the monkey.]

What is that?

It was a gorgeous animal, Hart said, with a blond mane and upper chest, and a bright red patch on the lower back. "I'd never seen that on any animal in the area, so right away I said, 'Hmmm,'" he told OurAmazingPlanet.

Hart decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. Fast forward through five years of field work, genetic research and anatomical study, and today (Sept. 12) Hart and a list of collaborators formally introduced to the world a new primate species, dubbed Cercopithecus lomamiensis, and known locally as the lesula. Their work is announced in the online journal PLOS One.

It turned out that the little monkey that hung around Georgette's house had been brought to the area by the girl's uncle, who had found it on a hunting trip. It wasn't quite a pet, but it became known as Georgette's lesula. The young female primate passed its days running in the yard with the dogs, foraging around the village for food, and growing up into a monkey that belonged to a species nobody recognized.   

Further investigation revealed the full story of the strange monkey. It turned out that C. lomamiensis, a cryptic, skittish primate, roams a swath of dense rainforest some 6,500 square miles (17,000 square kilometers).

"For a big mammal to go unnoticed is pretty unusual," said Kate Detwiler, a primatologist and assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, and an author on the paper. Yet one visit to the area that the lesula calls home reveals why the monkeys escaped scientific notice for so long, Detwiler told OurAmazingPlanet. This region of the DRC is remote and vast.

The trees tower overhead, blocking out the sun, and the forest floor — the chief domain of the lesula — is steeped in a permanent gloom. The forest is full of sounds. At first light, the lesulas raise a lilting chorus of booming calls, distinct from the cries of their monkey neighbors who pass their lives in the trees high above the forest floor; at dusk, the cries of African grey parrots echo through the canopy. The earth is wet and soft, and feet sink into the ground with each step. There is a gentle, steady thud as fruit falls from the trees.

One gets the feeling of being on a ship very far out to sea, Detwiler said — only here, the ocean is the endless expanse of the trees. "I felt so privileged to be there," she said. "I wish everybody could have that experience."

Blue buttocks

The lesulas live in this isolated region in groups up to five strong, and feeds on fruit and leafy plants. The males weigh up to 15 pounds (7 kilograms), about twice the size of the females. They also have some rather arresting anatomical features.

"They have giant blue backsides," Hart said. "Bright aquamarine buttocks and testicles. What a signal! That aquamarine blue is really a bright color in forest understory." [World's Freakiest Looking Animals]

"So in terms of monkey viewing, females can definitely find males," Detwiler said.

"We don't really know what this means because it's very uncommon for monkeys in this lineage," she added.

The only other monkey to share this feature is the lesula's closest cousin — the owl-faced monkey, a species that lives farther east. At first it was thought the monkeys were close kin, but genetic analysis suggests the two species split from a common ancestor about 2 million years ago.

Now that the new species has been formally identified, Hart said, the next task is to save it. Although the lesula is new to science, it is a well-established sight on the dinner table.

What's for dinner

There's a thriving market for bush meat, particularly in urban areas, Hart said, and the monkeys are just one of dozens of species, from snakes to elephants to apes, that are targeted.

"People have disposable income, and this is the cheapest meat," he said. "Bush meat is a go-to item because it's less expensive than chicken or beef. This is not a new problem, but it's a problem that doesn't have a solution yet."

Hart and his wife, Terese, are partnering with local people to try to set up a national park in the lesulas' territory, but it's still a work in progress. In the meantime, researchers have set up camera traps in the dense forest to try to better understand the habits of the shy animals.

Georgette, the girl whose lesula companion started it all, is now 18. "The animal was very attached to her," Hart said. But one day the monkey disappeared.

"It was suspected that somebody in town had taken it in," Hart said. "And it ended up in their cooking pot."

Reach Andrea Mustain at amustain@techmedianetwork.com, or follow her on Twitter @AndreaMustain. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Gallery: Monkey Mug Shots
• Images: The Amazing Chimpanzees of Congo's Goualougo Triangle
• The 10 Most Pristine Places on Earth

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

A new species of monkey has been identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The lesula, or Cercopithecus lomamiensis, described as shy and quiet, has excited conservationists because the identification of mammals new to science is rare.

Here are some more discovered in the past decade.

Goodmans' Mouse Lemur

 A Goodman's Mouse Lemur (Microcebus lehilahytsara) photographed in Masoala national park, Madagascar. The species was discovered in August 2005.

Three-Toed Pygmy Sloth

The three-toed pygmy sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus), is endemic to Isla Escudo de Veraguas, a small island off the coast of Panama, and was identified as a distinct species in 2001.

Callicebus Monkey

This previously unknown primate species was discovered during a WWF expedition into the rainforest in Mato Grosso in Brazil in 2010. The new species of the genus Callicebus monkey was found in an area of pristine Amazon rainforest.

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Researchers have identified five of the genes that shape a person's face, work that could help scientists better understand facial abnormalities like cleft palate and someday might even help forensic investigators determine what a criminal suspect looks like from crime-scene DNA.

Researchers previously knew that genetics played a large role in determining face shape, since identical twins share DNA. However, little was known about exactly which genes are involved. Three genes were thought to have roles in the arrangement of facial features, and the new research confirmed their involvement. It also identified two other genes.

"We are marking the beginning of understanding the genetic basis of the human face," said lead researcher Manfred Kayser, head of the forensic molecular biology department at Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The study is part of the work of the International Visible Trait Genetics (VisiGen) Consortium, a group of six researchers who want to understand the genetics behind visible human characteristics. [Genetics By the Numbers: 10 Tantalizing Tales]

Facial factors

Using magnetic resonance imaging, Kayser and colleagues scanned the heads of 5,388 volunteers of European descent to create three-dimensional maps of each face. The group analyzed the genomes of participants with over 2.5 million DNA markers each to determine which genes could help explain any of the 48 facial characteristics under consideration, such as the distance between the eyes and the nose.

Pictures of 3,867 other subjects were used to verify any identified genetic associations linked to face shape.

The gene hunt confirmed three genes thought to be involved in face shape — called PRDM16, PAX3 and TP63 — plus two genes, dubbed C5orf50, and COL17A1, previously not known to play a role in facial structure.

"The most surprising thing is that we did find genes," Kayser told LiveScience. "To ever actually reach the level to start to understand the human face, I would not have imagined it eight years ago," when he started this line of work.

Experts cautioned that the exciting prospect of painting a portrait using DNA as a guide is still a long way off.

"Like height, we expect that face shape is influenced by many hundreds/thousands of genes with small effects," Lavinia Paternoster, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Bristol, wrote in an email. "So although we are starting to understand what influences how the human face develops, we are nowhere near a position whereby we can predict a human face from someone's genetic code."

Paternoster, who is not involved in the current study, was part of the research team that found PAX3 was involved in nasion, the position of the top of the nose, as part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Kayser's research confirmed the role of PAX3 in nose position.

PAX3, a gene that regulates muscle-cell formation, controls the distance between the top of the nose and the right and left eyes. People with mutations in PAX3 develop Waardenburg syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by wide-set eyes.

"We use different face-scanning technology in ALSPAC, so the fact that this gene was discovered using both techniques is encouraging for future collaborations," Paternoster wrote. The confirmation was also notable because one group examined children, while the other analyzed samples from adults.

Mutations in PRDM16, a key gene in the body’s switch between available and stored fats, cause cleft palate in mice; mutations in TP63 cause "acro-dermato-ungual-lacrimal-tooth," a rare disease that affects multiple parts of the body and is characterized by missing teeth, thin skin, and extensive freckling. [The 9 Weirdest Medical Conditions]

COL17A1 encodes for a collagen gene that, when mutated, causes blistering. Almost nothing is known about the fifth gene, C5orf50.

Forensic implications

The curiosity-fueled research has a potential application for forensic investigations in the distant future, the researchers said. Facial descriptions from DNA could prove more reliable than witness accounts at crime scenes, which are limited by human memory and perception.

Currently, however, using DNA samples to recognize a suspect is currently a "far-fetched, 'CSI'-like scenario," Kayser said.

It's a little less far-fetched in the case of eye and hair color. Kayser and colleagues in August released HIrisPlex, a system that allows researchers to predict eye and hair color from DNA samples, although only from people of European descent. The forensic test is nearly 70 percent accurate in identifying blonds and up to 87.5 percent accurate for dark-haired individuals.

In the future, Kayser expects to look at more facial features, especially since the face scans stopped at the nose and excluded the lower face. He also expects to look at more landmarks on the face. The current study examined nine points on the face, although many more exist.

The VisiGen team also is planning to collaborate with the Bristol researchers, since having a larger sample size will allow the investigators to find genes that have smaller effects.

"We are rather at the beginning, where it is not quite clear if this forensic tool can be used with accuracy; this is still in question whether it's possible," Kayser said.

The study is detailed today (Sept. 13) in the journal PLoS Genetics.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Top 10 Mysterious Diseases
• 7 Diseases You Can Learn From a Genetic Test
• Macho Man: 10 Wild Facts About His Body

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Hallucinogenic berries, not religious experience, likely caused the strange behavior of a scraped-up monk who was discovered stumbling naked through a German forest last Thursday (Sept. 6), according to NBC.

A concerned hiker who spotted the naked man and tried unsuccessfully to assist him notified police in the Bavarian town of Unterwössen, according to news reports. Police found the man cold and disoriented and took him to the hospital.

Apparently the monk, who is from a town nearby Unterwössen, had eaten poisonous berries while camping. The berries reportedly gave him hallucinations and partial paralysis, preventing him from finding his way back to his tent.

According to NBC, "It wasn't clear why he wound up naked."

But, given the type of berry he likely ate, it may not be such a mystery. The hospital determined the ingested berries probably came from the Deadly Nightshade plant, according to a German police report.

The hallucinogenic and muscle-impairing effects of Deadly Nightshade, a common name for the herbaceous Atropa belladonna plant, are due to the chemicals atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine.

These chemicals disrupt the activities of the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates involuntary activities such as digestion, heart rate and salivation. In low doses, they have pharmaceutical uses in treating stomach spasms and motion sickness, and in keeping the heartbeat normal during surgery, according to the Mayo Clinic.

But as can be guessed from the plant's name, in the large doses present in Deadly Nightshade and its berries, the chemicals' effects on the nervous system can be lethal.  Symptoms of an overdose of these chemicals include confusion or unusual behavior, fast or irregular heartbeat, flushing of the face, and hallucinations, according to the Mayo Clinic. Another potential side effect is fever, which may partially explain the monk's decision to disrobe.

In the United States, Atropa belladonna grows in California, the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, New York and New Jersey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But a far more common sight for hikers in North America is a close relative of Deadly Nightshade called Datura stramonium, or Jimsonweed, which is toxic for all the same reasons but does not have berries.  

Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Ten Most Common Poisonous Plants
• Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens
• How Do Hallucinogens Work?

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Catherine Teatum, co-founder of the British fashion label Teatum Jones, reveals her daily diet.

7am I start every day with a handful of Brazil nuts. I've not been ill since Christmas and reckon they're the key.

7.30am It's our busiest time of year, with London Fashion Week and the launch of our new collection, so I'm already in the studio. Have porridge mixed with dried fruit and nuts, and a cup of tea made with two teabags for a caffeine hit.

8.30am Clear my inbox and plan the day with my co-designer, Rob.

9am The rest of the team arrives. I arrange the staging for a fashion show we're doing at the Dorchester hotel. I always have a bottle of water on hand.

1pm More Brazil nuts and almonds. We've got some fittings to do and the new 'look book' to finalise.

3pm I can work all day without eating but luckily my mum lives nearby and sends me off with baked fish, vegetables and potatoes, or home-made soup, to heat up in the studio kitchen.

6pm Do some pattern-cutting when it's quiet.

9pm Head home for scrambled eggs on toast with sun-dried tomatoes.

teatumjones.com

NIGEL DENBY dietitian

Catherine's passion for Brazils could help her immunity, as they are good sources of the protective antioxidant selenium. All nuts are high in protein and when combined with oats work well to keep you energised. Mum definitely saves the day with a hot, healthy meal, though. Grazing on just nuts and oats wouldn't be enough for a whole day.

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Menopause is a rare phenomenon in the animal world. Besides humans, killer whales are among the few species whose females lose their ability to reproduce well before the end of their natural life span. But to what advantage?

Researchers have speculated that for humans, menopause evolved to reduce competition between different generations of reproducing women in one family, or, as the grandmother hypothesis states, older women might forgo costly late-life pregnancy to focus on the survival of their existing children and grandchildren. And now scientists say that for killer whales, menopause might allow aging mothers to care for their adult sons.

"Our analysis shows that male killer whales are pretty much mommy's boys and struggle to survive without their mother's help," Dan Franks, of the University of York, said in a statement. "The need for mothers to care for their sons into adulthood explains why killer whales have evolved the longest post-reproductive lifespan of any non-human animal."

Female killer whales typically stop reproducing by their 40s, but can survive into their 90s. Franks and his fellow researchers reported in the journal Science Thursday (Sept. 13) that having a menopausal mom around boosted an adult male whale's chances of survival, but the scientists didn't find the same effect in females.

For a male whale over 30, a mother's death meant he was 14 times more likely to die within the year. For his female counterparts, a mother's death only boosted the risk of death by just under three-fold. And daughters under 30 saw no change to their survival rate when they lost their moms, the researchers said.

The scientists speculated that a doting killer whale mom might focus on her son's survival to ensure he'll give her lots of grand-whales (and, in turn, spread her genes). But why not do the same for her daughters? In killer whale societies, sons and daughters stay with their moms in a single group throughout their lives. When sons mate, however, their kids are cared for by females in another group, while the daughters' kids join the mom's group, sapping the family's resources.

"Killer whales are extraordinary animals and their social groups are really unusual in that mothers and their sons are lifelong companions," said study researcher Emma Foster of the University of Exeter. "Our research suggests that they have developed the longest menopause of any non-human species so that they can offer this level of commitment to their older offspring."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Image Gallery: Russia's Beautiful Killer Whales
• World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals
• In Photos: Tracking Humpback Whales

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Life may be able to survive on a broader set of alien worlds than astronomers had thought, a new study suggests.

Researchers have created a new online tool called the "Habitable Zone Gallery," which looks at every known exoplanetary system and determines that just-right range of distances from the host star where liquid water could exist. The upshot is that scientists might not need to pin their hopes for alien life on a planet like Earth, whose circular orbit keeps it in the middle of the habitable zone all the time.

Large numbers of alien planets on eccentric, highly elliptical orbits likely dip into the habitable zone now and again, bringing them brief periods of benign conditions, scientists said. And research here on Earth shows that life can survive big swings between hot and cold, wet and dry.

"Some organisms can basically drop their metabolism to zero to survive very long-lasting, cold conditions," lead author Stephen Kane, of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement. [Extremophiles: World's Weirdest Life]

"We know that others can withstand very extreme heat conditions if they have a protective layer of rock or water," Kane added. "There have even been studies performed on Earth-based spores, bacteria and lichens, which show they can survive in both harsh environments on Earth and the extreme conditions of space."

Even planets that might be hostile to large organisms could conceivably host smaller, simpler life-forms, researchers said. After all, humans could not have survived on Earth back in the early days, when life first got a foothold on our planet.

"Life evolved on Earth at a very early stage in the planet's development, under conditions much harsher than they are today," Kane said.

Many life-harboring worlds might potentially not be planets, he added, but rather moons of gas giant planets like Jupiter or Saturn in our own solar system.

"There are lots of giant planets out there, and all of them may have moons, if they are like the giant planets in the solar system," Kane said. "A moon of a planet that is in or spends time in a habitable zone can be habitable itself."

Kane cautioned that it's tough to know anything definitive about the habitability of a planet or moon without detailed knowledge of its atmosphere. Both Earth and Venus experience greenhouse effects, for example, but Venus' has gone into runaway mode, making its surface hot enough to melt lead.

Still, the new research suggests that many worlds across the galaxy could be habitable. Kane and co-author Dawn Gellino, also of the Exoplanet Science Institute, are now trying to determine which already-discovered exoplanetary systems might be good candidates for extremophile life.

"There are lots of eccentric and gas giant planet discoveries," Kane said. "We may find some surprises out there as we start to determine exactly what we consider habitable."

The study was published in the journal Astrobiology. The Habitable Zone Gallery can be found at www.hzgallery.org.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

• 5 Bold Claims of Alien Life
• Ten Alien Encounters Debunked
• The 6 Most Likely Places to Find Alien Life

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Archaeologists digging for the remains of the real-life Mona Lisa have found a female skeleton, but they say it doesn't belong to the mysterious Florentine noblewoman, according to news reports.

The team is excavating underneath a former convent in central Florence, searching for the body of Lisa Gherardini, the woman thought to be the model for Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting finished around 1506. The skeleton that the archaeologists pulled out this week is the fourth they've found at the site. Silvano Vinceti, the researcher leading the search, said he believes the remains belong to a rich woman who died decades after Lisa Gherardini.

"The ledgers kept by the nuns of this convent tell us that, presumably, the remains exhumed today are those of Maria Del Riccio, a wealthy woman who (died) in 1609," Vinceti told a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 12), according to Italian news agency ANSA.

But Vinceti added that graves under the convent were buried on top of each other, meaning Gherardini, who died in 1542, "could be right here" if they keep digging deeper. [25 Secrets of Mona Lisa Revealed]

Vinceti has said that with Gherardini's skeleton, researchers could reconstruct her face to compare it with that of Leonardo's painting. The research team also plans to try to extract DNA from her skeleton to compare it with the remains of her two children, buried in a separate cemetery.

But some outside researchers have voiced skepticism about these goals, saying facial reconstruction is often unreliable and a DNA match with Gherardini's kids might only mean they've found one of her relatives.

Some archaeologists have also noted that the frantic pace of releasing various findings at the dig site may be problematic, as one couldn't put the remains into perspective and even declare spatial or temporal relationships between the remains without having this big-picture context at the end of the excavation process.

"Although the excavation is being carried out in a professional manner, Vinceti’s quest to dig up the 'real' Mona Lisa is not grounded in scientific research methodology," writes University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill anthropologist Kristina Killgrove on her blog, noting that Vinceti is not a scientist. "The news media’s breathless coverage of it threatens to signal to the public that archaeologists are frivolous with their time, energy, and research money."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Anatomy Meets Art: Da Vinci's Drawings
• Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead
• Leonardo Da Vinci's 10 Best Ideas

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

A spectacular U.S. Army missile test in New Mexico Thursday (Sept. 13) lit up the predawn sky over the southwestern United States, triggering a flood of frantic UFO reports and hundreds of calls to military officials from as far away as Denver and Los Angeles.

The amazing night sky sight was created by the launch of an Army Juno missile early Thursday from Fort Wingate in New Mexico, which soared high into the atmosphere on its way to the White Sands Missile Range to be intercepted by a Patriot missile. The unarmed Juno rocket flew so high that its long contrail reflected sunlight from the yet-to-rise sun, sparking a dazzling night sky light show.

"We kind of hope folks enjoy the light show we put on over the western U.S.," White Sands Missile Range spokeswoman Monte Marlin told SPACE.com.

Marlin said her office received more than 100 calls and a flood of emails from observers who saw the Juno rocket's contrail from states across the Southwest. According to the Associated Press, the missile test led to widespread reports from people who regarded the shiny rocket exhaust as a UFO sighting in the sky.

Marlin said she received calls from as far away as Denver, Salt Lake City in Utah, Las Vegas and Los Angeles reporting the sighting.

"Conditions were just right for it to be seen from far away," Marlin said, adding that the view was caused when the Juno missile's exhaust froze in the upper atmosphere. "When it freezes, those little ice crystals act like prisms to reflect sunlight. It creates that amazing light show."

Because the contrail crossed several layers of the Earth's atmosphere, it was sculpted by high altitude winds, perhaps surprising observers used to seeing the straight-line contrails from airplanes, she added.

In Scottsdale, Ariz., observer Ryan Eiger was walking his dogs before sunrise and snapped a photo of the Juno missile contrail shining with the moon and Venus.

"I looked up quickly noticing the contrail in the east. I ran and got my iPhone and it happened to be just north of both the moon and Venus," Eiger said in an email. "The contrail was amazing. It sort of resembled a cloud except for the very colorful tail it had."

The wispy, but still bright, Juno contrail was also photographed by Linda and Dick Buscher of Anthem, Ariz., just outside of Phoenix, who also sent their photos into SPACE.com.

Marlin said Thursday's missile launch was the 14th test of its kind since 1998. Sometimes the Juno contrails have been spotted from far-off locales, and other times not. Prior to Thursday's launch, the furthest reports from observers came from Phoenix and Colorado, she said.

"It was fun, the number of calls that we received yesterday," Marlin said. "They were mostly incredulous, like 'That was so cool!'"

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik and SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+. 

• UFO Quiz: What's Really Out There?
• Photo: Spectacular Military Missile Launches
• 7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- A rocky trail and hundreds of feet of twisted metal cables might not immediately conjure an image of something worthy of historical preservation.

But when the trail leads to the iconic Half Dome in Yosemite National Park and the cables allow armchair wilderness lovers to ascend the once-inaccessible granite monolith, the significance was enough for a spot on the list of National Register of Historic Places.
The designation at the end of August went virtually unnoticed, but the Half Dome was still on the minds of hikers and wilderness advocates, who are awaiting the park's final assessment of a plan to permanently limit access to a place on many outdoor lovers' bucket lists.

The park is weighing the hike's incredible popularity - one of the busiest of any trail in the National Park's federally designated wilderness areas - against the protections from the intrusion of man in wild areas. One option under consideration is removing the cables that assist climbers up and down the steep granite.

"Clearly handrails and other aids aren't appropriate in the wilderness," said George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch, which has threatened to sue to have the cables removed and argued against them during the plan's comment period.

On the other side of the argument are those who point to the 45-degree angle of the slick granite dome, once described in the mid-1800s by geologist Josiah Whitney as "perfectly inaccessible."

"I'm ecstatic about the listing," said Rick Deutsch, who has written a book about the climb and will make his 35th ascent this weekend. "It's recognition for the cables and another chit on the list of reasons to keep them up."

The "Half Dome Cables and Trail" join the Fullerton, Calif., post office, the Island City, Mich., historic district, and the shipwrecks of many Minnesota inland lakes and rivers that were successfully nominated this go-round to the National Register maintained by the National Park Service.

"Historic preservation is like managed change," said Edson Beall, a historian with the park service. "It doesn't stop change, but in this case it definitely offers protections. So the short answer is yes, it offers protections."

Some protections, but not complete protection. In fact, three nationally listed stone-faced bridges spanning the Merced River in Yosemite Valley are being considered for removal because they impede the flow of the waterway designated by Congress as "wild and scenic."

This year, in anticipation of limiting access to Half Dome, the park instituted a daily lottery for the 400 permits that officials have deemed a safe number to make the final summit daily - a measure expected to be made permanent when the plan is released in about a month. In the past, up to 1,200 people crowded the cables, lining up like cars in gridlock. That meant they were unable to make a quick escape when showers or snow blew in and turned the polished granite as slippery as ice.

"The hike and the cables have become such a part of the Yosemite lore that the listing doesn't change the way we manage them, but it validates the significance of the cables and the hike," said park spokesman Scott Gediman. "It's one of the most iconic hikes of any hike in any national park."

In 1919, the Sierra Club installed the first cables along the eastern flank of the 400-foot final ascent so visitors without rock climbing experience could hoist themselves to the summit to drink in stunning views of Little Yosemite Valley, El Capitan, the endless Sierra and the Valley floor. In 1984, the cables were removed and replaced, but the National Register application said "they maintain their original design, location and material composition and are therefore compatible within the historic district."

There is little doubt that installing a handrail on a natural feature in a wilderness area would have not happened in modern times. Wilderness Watch successfully challenged a plan at Olympic National Park in Washington to rebuild and replace trailside shelters that collapsed under snow, and when the Forest Service there sought to replace a fire lookout tower and turn it into a visitor station.

"It does draw more attention when it's listed," Nickas said of the Yosemite cables. "But in the context of wilderness, it doesn't change the requirement that wilderness be maintained without structures necessary for wilderness preservation."

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

How many movies or TV shows have you seen where a young sylph in a filmy nightgown runs through a forest in high heels to escape a bad guy?

She always trips and falls down.

If this makes you groan and mutter “only in the movies…”, then we think you’ll enjoy this scientific-type debunking of 11 common film and television tropes and clichés.

The Chloroform Nap

A common scene in many mystery movies is the old “knock out an unsuspecting victim by holding a rag full of chloroform over their face” trick. Would this tactic work in real life? Probably not. First of all, chloroform begins to lose its effectiveness as soon as it mixes with oxygen (and some of those villains spend a long time lurking in the shadows with their rags poised).

Secondly, chloroform doesn’t instantly knock a person unconscious; depending upon the victim’s size and weight, the chemical could take up to 10 minutes to subdue someone.

Falling Through Glass

No action film is complete without at least one person falling through a plate glass window and then walking away without a scratch. Injury-free defenestration is some definite Hollywood trickery that requires a “don’t try it at home!” warning. Broken glass has razor-sharp edges that can cut right through clothing and human flesh like a hot knife through refrigerated margarine.

Even if a person survived the fall, he’d typically sustain so many cuts that it would look like he’d just taken a ketchup bath.

Exploding Cars

Whether it’s on TV or the big screen, it seems like every high-speed car chase ends with at least one auto crashing and exploding into flames. Sometimes the vehicle drives over a cliff and spontaneously combusts into flames without any provocation.

Gasoline actually has a very narrow flammable range, and the mixture of gas vapor to outside air must be very specific (between 1.4 and 7.6%) before anything close to an explosion will occur. Gas may cause a car to burn after a bad wreck, but it very rarely detonates.

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

There's a biological reason why we can still feel tired during the week even after a good weekend lie-in.

It’s 3.21am on Saturday. The digits on the alarm clock cast an acid-green glow over the room, and the music from the bar I left four hours earlier is still resonating in my ears. The red dot on my BlackBerry is blinking, while an unread message lights up my iPhone screen. As I twist and turn, only one thought sustains me as I yearn for sleep: at least I can have a lie-in in the morning.

Sleeping in is a guilty pleasure of the weekend. A couple of luxurious extra hours in bed to help us catch up on sleep lost during the working week is what we think we all need. But according to a new study, sleeping in doesn’t help us feel more awake. It doesn’t boost our energy levels. In fact, it has the opposite effect. It disrupts the body’s internal clock so much that just a few extra hours makes us feel even more tired than normal on Monday morning.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre found that “sleep debt” built up during the week can only be recovered by going to bed eight hours before our usual wake-up time – and not by going to bed later and getting up later. The circadian cycle, which controls our body clock, can be completely offset by a change in sleep pattern (such as a late night or lying in), making it difficult to get to sleep on Sunday night and even harder to wake up for work the next day. It can take a few days before the balance is reset by returning to our regular sleep schedule.

“No one wants to miss opportunities for social activities on Friday and Saturday, so they use Saturday and Sunday mornings to rest up,” explains Dr Gregory Carter, the sleep medicine specialist who led the study. “Indeed, we feel better after those lie-ins. However, we have delayed our internal clock by up to two hours, making Monday morning a groggy mess. If we sleep longer, our sleep becomes less efficient; we spend more time sleeping lightly, rather than experiencing restorative sleep [also known as REM – rapid eye movement – sleep, when our body is at its most relaxed].”

It’s something of a relief that scientists have come up with a biological reason why many of us feel tired during the week, no matter how much extra sleep we’ve indulged in at weekends. Britain is a nation of insomniacs. One in three of us – more than ever before – struggles with sleeplessness, and one in 10 has a diagnosed sleep disorder. While we should rest for up to nine hours a night, we average less than seven, leading to a reliance on sleeping aids and pills for quick-fix results.

So why are we unable to switch off? A new study by the Lighting Research Centre, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State, published last week, identified how exposure to certain types of light can disrupt our sleep. Researchers confirmed that “blue light” from the screens of smartphones, tablet computers and e-readers is particularly detrimental – especially when we’re exposed to it two hours before bed. It suppresses melatonin, a hormone our brains produce during the hours of darkness, which tricks us into thinking it is daytime and makes us feel more alert.

“By exposing ourselves to high-intensity LED lighting at night, we are activating the brain and making it harder to sleep,” explains Steven Lockley, assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard University and co-author of Sleep: A Very Short Introduction. “You should never take a laptop or mobile phone to bed, as the quality of sleep you have afterwards will leave you tired the next day.” Dr Carter’s study also confirmed that checking emails at night makes us tired. He adds: “Blue light has an alerting effect. It delays the internal clock in the brain so that our sleeping pattern is delayed and the alarm seems to go off too early in the morning.”

But it’s not just the lie-ins and blue light that are causing the nation’s insomnia. Age, environment and diet can affect the quality of our rest. Poor sleep can be caused by medical factors such as anxiety or depression, food and drink such as caffeine or alcohol, and physical triggers such as a hot room. “As a nation we are working longer, so we have more stress and anxiety in our lives,” says Marianne Davey, director of the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association. “Disrupted sleep can be short or long-term: somebody who has a busy lifestyle may not be getting sufficient sleep to function.”

As well as tiredness and mood swings, insomniacs suffer from a range of physical conditions. Sleeping fewer than six hours a night can put us at risk of high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and heart disease. A study carried out last month in Sweden showed a link between poor sleeping patterns and high levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, which in turn leads to excess stomach fat, particularly in women.

The psychological impact can be even more extreme. Dr Stanley Coren, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of Sleep Thieves, claims we lose one IQ point for every hour of sleep lost the night before, while a recent report in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal found that a person suffering sleep deprivation can experience mental impairment similar to drinking a glass of wine. Lack of sleep is thought to suppress the immune system, making us vulnerable to infection and metabolic changes that can speed up ageing.

With so many of us concerned about insomnia, a huge “sleep industry” has developed in Britain, that has created hundreds of products and gadgets designed to improve our nightly routines. The global sleep economy is valued at more than £20 billion, and self-help is on the rise: the phrase “how to sleep” yields more than 570 million results on Google. So can any of the quick fixes help beat Monday morning tiredness?

Sleeping pills, the most common remedy for insomnia, cost the NHS an average of £36 million a year. In 2011, 12 million prescriptions were dispensed across England, Scotland and Wales. Medication includes benzodiazepines – such as diazepam (Valium) and temazepam (Restoril) – and newer pills such as zopiclone (a non-benzodiazepine hypnotic), both of which work by increasing the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) that stops alertness signals being sent to other nerve cells. However, sleeping tablets can cause side‑effects such as memory problems and daytime grogginess, and new generations are continually being produced. The latest variant, suvorexant, works by blocking the neurotransmitter orexin, the chemical in the brain that regulates wakefulness.

But experts remain doubtful of the long-term effects of pills. “Drug companies are looking for alternatives because some of the older pills are a bit hit-and-miss,” says Prof Lockley. “This is why they are always short-term solutions. People trying to find an easy solution in a pill, rather than the more difficult solution of changing their lifestyle, will be disappointed.”

Increasingly, patients have sought to beat insomnia by changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviour using techniques as varied as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and hypnosis. Relaxation training has been shown to minimise thoughts that disturb sleep, while stimulus-control therapy uses props and visual triggers to help sleepers associate their bedrooms with nothing but rest.

Prof Colin Espie, co-founder of Sleepio, a virtual self-help course that promotes good sleeping habits, says it is “scandalous” that the only treatment available on the NHS is medication. “Talking therapies such as CBT are hugely effective in helping even long-term sufferers return to healthy sleep patterns,” he adds. Awareness is increasing; more than 3,500 practitioners across England are trained to deliver this type of CBT. Yet the treatment is rarely available to insomniacs. At the world-renowned Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University, health professionals are offered a five-day course to learn how to administer sleep-related CBT and insomnia management.

Frustrated by the lack of obvious solutions to tiredness, some consumers have resorted to alternatives. From reflexology sleep patches to aromatherapy treatments such as scented pillow sprays and room mist, our sleep-obsessed nation will stop at nothing to get forty winks. Spas are cashing in on “sleep therapy” packages, including sleep pods (sound-proofed capsules playing soothing music) and dry flotation beds (a form of hydrotherapy where customers sleep on a floating mattress) – costing up to £50 for 30 minutes – to help us get much-needed rest.

In the long term, says Prof Lockley, the most effective remedy for sleeplessness is the old-fashioned one: a comfortable bed, firm pillow and a cool, dark room that for most people will induce sleep in no time. “My advice is to remember how people used to sleep in this country several hundred years ago,” he warns. “Conditions were horrible. They had horsehair mattresses, several people in one bed, even animals sharing the same room. Going to sleep wasn’t relaxing; it was an ordeal.”

Something to bear in mind next time you’re enjoying a weekend lie-in.

For more information on how to get a good night’s sleep, visit sleepcouncil.org.uk; britishsnoring.co.uk; londonsleepcentre.com; and sleepio.com

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

One of the world's leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years.

In what he calls a "global disaster" now unfolding in northern latitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for "urgent" consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.

In an email to the Guardian he says: "Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades' time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO₂ emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geoengineering ideas that have been put forward."

These include reflecting the sun's rays back into space, making clouds whiter and seeding the ocean with minerals to absorb more CO₂.

Wadhams has spent many years collecting ice thickness data from submarines passing below the arctic ocean. He predicted the imminent break-up of sea ice in summer months in 2007, when the previous lowest extent of 4.17 million square kilometres was set. This year, it has unexpectedly plunged a further 500,000 sq km to less than 3.5m sq km. "I have been predicting [the collapse of sea ice in summer months] for many years. The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer.

"At first this didn't [get] noticed; the summer ice limits slowly shrank back, at a rate which suggested that the ice would last another 50 years or so. But in the end the summer melt overtook the winter growth such that the entire ice sheet melts or breaks up during the summer months.

"This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates".

Wadhams says the implications are "terrible". "The positives are increased possibility of Arctic transport, increased access to Arctic offshore oil and gas resources. The main negative is an acceleration of global warming."

"As the sea ice retreats in summer the ocean warms up (to 7C in 2011) and this warms the seabed too. The continental shelves of the Arctic are composed of offshore permafrost, frozen sediment left over from the last ice age. As the water warms the permafrost melts and releases huge quantities of trapped methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas so this will give a big boost to global warming."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The answer to the enduring question of the smallest thing in the universe has evolved along with humanity. People once thought grains of sand were the building blocks of what we see around us. Then the atom was discovered, and it was thought indivisible, until it was split to reveal protons, neutrons and electrons inside. These too, seemed like fundamental particles, before scientists discovered that protons and neutrons are made of three quarks each.

"This time we haven't been able to see any evidence at all that there's anything inside quarks," said physicist Andy Parker. "Have we reached the most fundamental layer of matter?"

And even if quarks and electrons are indivisible, Parker said, scientists don't know if they are the smallest bits of matter in existence, or if the universe contains objects that are even more minute. [Graphic: Nature's Tiniest Particles]

Parker, a professor of high-energy physics at England's Cambridge University, recently hosted a television special on the U.K.'s BBC Two channel called "Horizon: How Small is the Universe?"

Strings or points?

In experiments, teensy, tiny particles like quarks and electrons seem to act like single points of matter with no spatial distribution. But point-like objects complicate the laws of physics. Because you can get infinitely close to a point, the forces acting on it can become infinitely large, and scientists hate infinities.

An idea called superstring theory could solve this issue. The theory posits that all particles, instead of being point-like, are actually little loops of string. Nothing can get infinitely close to a loop of string, because it will always be slightly closer to one part than another. That "loophole" appears to solve some of these problems of infinities, making the idea appealing to physicists. Yet scientists still have no experimental evidence that string theory is correct.

Another way of solving the point problem is to say that space itself isn't continuous and smooth, but is actually made of discrete pixels, or grains, sometimes referred to as space-time foam. In that case, two particles wouldn't be able to come infinitely close to each other because they would always have to be separated by the minimum size of a grain of space.

A singularity

Another contender for the title of smallest thing in the universe is the singularity at the center of a black hole. Black holes are formed when matter is condensed in a small enough space that gravity takes over, causing the matter to pull inward and inward, ultimately condensing into a single point of infinite density. At least, according to the current laws of physics.

But most experts don't think black holes are really infinitely dense. They think this infinity is the product of an inherent conflict between two reigning theories — general relativity and quantum mechanics — and that when a theory of quantum gravity can be formulated, the true nature of black holes will be revealed.

"My guess is that [black hole singularities] are quite a lot smaller than a quark, but I don't believe they're of infinite density," Parker told LiveScience. "Most likely they are maybe a million million times or even more than that smaller than the distances we've seen so far."

That would make singularities roughly the size of superstrings, if they exist.

The Planck length

Superstrings, singularities, and even grains of the universe could all turn out to be about the size of the "Planck length." [Tiny Grandeur: Stunning Photos of the Very Small]

A Planck length is 1.6 x 10^-35 meters (the number 16 preceded by 34 zeroes and a decimal point) — an incomprehensibly small scale that is implicated in various aspects of physics.

The Planck length is far and away too small for any instrument to measure, but beyond that, it is thought to represent the theoretical limit of the shortest measureable length. According to the uncertainty principle, no instrument should ever be able to measure anything smaller, because at that range, the universe is probabilistic and indeterminate.

This scale is also thought to be the demarcating line between general relativity and quantum mechanics.

"It corresponds to the distance where the gravitational field is so strong that it can start to do things like make black holes out of the energy of the field," Parker said. "At the Planck length we expect quantum gravity takes over."

Perhaps all of the universe's smallest things are roughly the size of the Planck length.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature
• The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries of Physics
• The Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

By his own admission, Bob Ballard is a heretic. "If I were in Tunisia, I'd be toast," he said. He likes to disprove conventional wisdom, and throw out textbooks (metaphorically speaking).

In graduate school in the 1960s he was part of a wave of young researchers who established the existence of plate tectonics. In 1979 he found black smokers, vents on the ocean floor that spew out water from within the Earth, which wasn't previously thought possible. He has helped find new and unknown life forms around deep sea vents, which "threw out the textbook" on biology and the origin of life, which was previously thought to have originated from energy captured from sunlight.

He also discovered the wreckage of the Titanic deep on the Atlantic Ocean floor, as well as a whole slew of other shipwrecks.

Now he's the host of a new five-part series on the National Geographic Channel called "Alien Deep." The show, which premieres at 7 p.m. Eastern/Pacific today (Sept. 16), examines never-before-seen ocean marvels, from deep sea vents hosting unique life to ancient shipwrecks. Along the way he's joined by scientists, explorers and even astronaut Buzz Aldrin, to debate whether it makes more since to live on Mars or on the ocean.

OurAmazingPlanet sat down with Ballard to learn more about his new project.

OurAmazingPlanet: What was the coolest thing about doing this show?

Bob Ballard: Doing a whole series. I started working with National Geographic in 1979 and I think I've done about 35 specials before, but never a series. The producer calls it, "Carl Sagan with gills." 

I learned a lot — it was like going back to graduate school. In the show I went on a sub that's basically an underwater airplane called Deep Flight. That was kind of spooky. When you get on you put on a harness, because it rolls [like a plane]. You fit in like a glove. You can't move any part of your body, except your hand to scratch your nose.

OAP: What sort of things did you learn in filming the show?

BB: One thing, is that there's been an increase in the number of rogue waves. [The insurance company] Lloyd's of London has increased its insurance policies on ships because of this. What's happening with global warming is that the Earth is getting energized, hurricanes are going faster, etc. And you're seeing that reflected in more rogue waves. Most ships that vanish without a trace are due to rogue waves.

To explain what a rogue wave is: when you have a storm, you have these swells that migrate away. Eventually the waves meet. Normally they cancel each other out. But periodically, in a spot, they add up, and sometimes you can get three of them, all converging. That's a rogue wave.

I experienced one when I was very young on my first cruise.

OAP: What happened?

BB: On my first cruise, there were 40-feet swells. You'd go up and see all [gray] sky, and then back to staring into the ocean. For two days, there's nothing to do, except sleep and try to eat. I was up on the bridge. And all of the sudden, there's this wall (of water), and I thought: 'We aren't going over that. It's too steep.' And it just crashes. It's called taking green water. That means you're underwater and you're flooding and the question is: Do you get out before you flood totally? Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. Fortunately for me I was able to get out. That was 52 years ago. I don't want to go through another one.

In the show they actually document one. It'll ruin your day.

OAP: What was the hardest thing about filming the show?

Convincing people to do it. I have two fears in my business:  1. They won't fund me.  2. Oh my God—they did. You're worried that nobody will back you, but then when they do, you have to deliver.

OAP: What was the most difficult technical challenge in filming the show?

BB: To deliver the best mind in the world to a spot at the bottom of the ocean, with our telepresent technology [in which people can remotely see what Ballard's remotely operated vehicle sees, and offer their advice.]

 Recently we found an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Cyprus. We called up a [Bronze Age historian] and he said: Stop. This is Hellenistic. This is from the time of Alexander the Great. [Image Gallery: Shipwreck Alley's Sunken Treasures]

The ability to get the greatest minds to instantly access this stuff is critical.

OAP: I understand you explored deep sea vents in the show. What did you find?  

BB: We found another world. What I like doing is throwing text books away.

When I was a geology student, I was taught the old school of geology. I had to memorize a whole lot of crap. I was part of the revolution in Earth sciences, where we knew more than the professors, which was dangerous because you didn't want to embarrass them. How'd you like to defend your Ph.D. with a professor that doesn't believe you?

OAP: Is that what happened to you? 

BB: Yes. They didn't believe in plate tectonics, so you had to gingerly get around that. So, we threw the geology book out the window.

Then to biology: We were taught all life on earth was due to photosynthesis. Baloney. We found a life system that completely defied this. Instead of living off the energy from the sun, we found a system that lived in total darkness off the energy of the Earth.

We then found black smokers blasting off on the bottom of the ocean in 1979. We discovered that water actually goes into the planet. The entire volume of the ocean goes into and out of the Earth every 6-8 million years.

OAP: Will people ever live in the ocean?

 BB: Not in the ocean; we're not fish. But on it. We only live on 18 percent of the planet. Why not live on 100 percent? We can greatly increase the ocean's productivity by being ranchers and farmers. In the show we show people who are raising fish in the sea on soybeans.

Right now we are hunter-gathers, catching apex predators. We can make the ocean much more productive through the use of aquaculture.

OAP: When you went to the deep sea vents, did you find new types of life?

BB: Every day.

OAP: What was your favorite?

BB: This crazy crab with a hairy-chest. It grows food on the hair on its chest. And there are mounds of them. My colleagues named it after David Hasselhoff. [World's Freakiest Looking Animals]

OAP: The ship you found — was that the only one?

BB: We found about 50. We found more ancient shipwrecks than anybody in the world.

OAP: What was the most precious cargo you found?

BB: Human remains. Finding the ancient mariners, preserved.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

• Strangest Places Where Life Is Found on Earth
• Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
• The World's Biggest Oceans and Seas

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Are computer hackers more likely to be on the autistic spectrum than other people?

Bernadette Schell, a researcher at the  University of Ontario Institute of Technology, has spent 10 years surveying attendees at hacker conferences like Black Hat and Defcon with the goal of understanding hacker psychology, reports Violet Blue on CNET:

“[Schell wanted] to see if perceptions about hackers—[that they are more likely to have] Asperger’s Syndrome, or that mal-inclined hackers are cognitively and/or behaviorally ‘different’ from adults functioning in mainstream society—are true. Schell and her co-researchers focused on the perception of hackers as ‘strange’ and examined hacker conference attendees’ self-reported Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ) predispositions.

Asperger’s syndrome is characterized by dysfunctional forms of social skill under-development (lack of empathy is a biggie; the inability to imagine what another person might be feeling), communication difficulties, and obsessive interests. It includes positive traits such as high intelligence, exceptional focus, and specific unique talents, including creative pursuits.

[Schell's] findings showed that about two-thirds of the hackers had AQ scores in the intermediate range, with more [male respondents] scoring in the higher range.

The researchers wrote:

‘Considering that the hacker conference attendees’ overall group mean AQ score placed in the intermediate area of the autism spectrum, it seems reasonable to conclude that the bulk of the hacker respondents’ thinking and behaving patterns are seemingly not very different from those choosing careers in computer science, mathematics, and the physical sciences.’

Essentially, the results were middle-ground, with no push toward one extreme of Asperger’s prevalence one way or the other. With these results, saying that most hackers are ‘on the spectrum’ would be a mischaracterization.

The Hacker Attendee study concluded:

‘In short, the dark myth perpetuated in the media that the majority of hackers attending hacker conventions are motivated by revenge, reputation enhancement, and personal financial gain at the expense of others was simply not supported by the data collected.

Instead, apart from tending not to read others’ body language cues very easily, the majority of hackers attending conferences seem to feel that this personal liability can be compensated by their keen ability to focus on details in creative ways not commonly found in the general population.’

I think the practical conclusion here is that hackers have complicated gifts.” Read more here.

Really fascinating study. I’m sure if you examined any group of professionals who share a specialized culture and expertise (surgeons, pilots, army sergeants) you’d find very distinctive predilections within each group. We need people who are willing to be different and even “strange” in the intense pursuit of what they’re good at and what they’re interested in.

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

YOUR correspondent was shocked to learn that 34 percent of his Facebook friends are married. Still in his 20s, he does not want to contemplate settling down quite yet. Knowing that 64 percent of his online friends are male does not help either—more so because only 57 percent of Facebook is comprised of women. When he lamented these facts (on Facebook of course) he was asked the obvious question: “Did you go through your friends list and count?”

Well, no. The number-crunching comes courtesy of Wolfram|Alpha, a sort of search engine for quantifiable facts. Begun in 2009 by Stephen Wolfram, a British scientist and entrepreneur, the online service serves up answers to queries by harnessing information from its own databases. It can compute things like the distance between the Earth and the Moon on your parents' first Valentine dinner, for example. Its latest feature lets people analyse their Facebook account for free. Enumerating and plotting the vagaries of one's online life is at times surprising. Your correspondent wouldn't have thought he was many times more active in 2011 than this year, in terms of status updates, sharing links, photos, etc (chart below).

Since the service began a few weeks ago, more than 400,000 Facebook users have let Wolfram|Alpha examine their digital bits—an outpouring of interest that caught the firm by surprise, says Luc Barthelet, Wolfram|Alpha's executive director. The company plans to expand into other "personal analytics" services. Mr Barthelet declined to be more specific, but it could well entail analysing users' email patterns and other social media behaviour.

In February Wolfram|Alpha rolled out a Pro service. At $4.99 per month it gives people the ability to process their own data, or even download Wolfram|Alpha’s information on a query. Such information is potentially very useful as it comes from the service's own curated databases. Thus, armed with data on homicides in African countries, for example, Wolfram|Alpha can generate various types of graphs (scatter plot, raw data plots, bivariate histograms) to help users understand their information better. It can create a heat map to visualise the data geographically. And it lets users overlay other data, such as GDP of the country, to make, in this case, a GDP-neutralised heat map. 

The Wolfram|Alpha "answer engine" is based on Mathematica, a software program developed by Mr Wolfram that can perform elaborate calculations. After the site's launch in 2009 it was criticised for being limited in what it could do: solve mathematical problems, answer some scientific questions, but nothing out of the ordinary. Since then it has expanded considerably. As it moves beyond computing the world into analysing the individual, it is providing fresh new ways to look at life. 

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Helium is being squandered on childrens’ party balloons when it should be stockpiled for use in life-saving equipment, an academic has claimed.

Using the lighter-than-air gas to pump up foil balloons is “hugely frustrating” and “absolutely the wrong use of helium”, said Tom Welton, a professor of sustainable chemistry at Imperial College.

Helium gas possesses a unique combination of properties which give it a range of applications, but it is particularly useful as a coolant.

MRI scanners, which have a wide-ranging application in hospitals and allow doctors to visualise the inner workings of the human body with life-saving potential, are reliant upon the element to function.

However, there is currently a global shortage of helium, which is in finite supply, cannot be synthesised, and must be mined from the earth’s crust.

Mr Welton told Radio 4’s Today programme: “On the whole we’re using more and more and we’re supplying less and less.”

He said that the gas’s application for MRI scans was important.

He said: "The major use is for cooling things, particularly large magnets. The impact that that has on us is MRI scans. the reason we can do MRI is we have very large, cold magnets and the reason we can have those is there is helium cooling them down."

He added: “You’re not going into an MRI scanner because you’ve got a sore toe. When I had mine they were mapping a tumor. This is important stuff.

“And then when you see that we’re literally just letting them floating them into air and then out into space in those helium balloons, it’s hugely frustrating.

He concluded: “We’re not going to run out of helium tomorrow, but on the 30 to 50 year time scale we will have serious problems of having to shut things down if we don’t manage to do something in the meantime.”

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »