ADVENTURE OF DISCOVERYS

Discovery: Fish Live beneath Antarctica Scientists find translucent fish in a wedge of water hidden under 740 meters of ice, 850 kilometers from sunlight By Douglas Fox on January 21, 2016 Stunned researchers in Antarctica have discovered fish and other aquatic animals living in perpetual darkness and cold, beneath a roof of ice 740 meters thick. The animals inhabit a wedge of seawater only 10 meters deep, sealed between the ice above and a barren, rocky seafloor below—a location so remote and hostile the many scientists expected to find nothing but scant microbial life. A team of ice drillers and scientists made the discovery after lowering a small, custom-built robot down a narrow hole they bored through the Ross Ice Shelf, a slab of glacial ice the size of France that hangs off the coastline of Antarctica and floats on the ocean. The remote water they tapped sits beneath the back corner of the floating shelf, where the shelf meets what would be the sho...

Human May 28, 2016 05:45 PM ET Elaborate Neanderthal Structure Found Neanderthals built some of the world's earliest constructions, which were just found deep in a French cave. Circular heated structures built by Neanderthals have been discovered deep inside a cave in France and are now among the world's oldest known human-made constructions, a new study has found. The structures, dated to around 176,000 years ago and described in the journal Nature, provide evidence that Neanderthals were clever about using fire, had complex spatial organizational abilities, and explored at least one extensive cave system. They additionally indicate that humans began occupying caves much earlier than previously thought; until now the oldest formally proven cave use dated back only 38,000 years (Chauvet). The site where the constructions were found -- Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France -- was only just...

Photo: The Challenger tragedy in pictures   HOUSTON — Twenty-five years ago, millions of television viewers were horrified to witness the live broadcast of the space shuttle Challenger exploding 73 seconds into flight, ending the lives of the seven astronauts on board. And they were equally horrified to learn in the aftermath of the disaster that the faulty design had been chosen by NASA to satisfy powerful politicians who had demanded the mission be launched, even under unsafe conditions. Meanwhile, a major factor in the disaster was that NASA had been ordered to use a weaker sealant for environmental reasons. Finally, NASA consoled itself and the nation with the realization that all frontiers are dangerous and to a certain extent, such a disaster should be accepted as inevitable. At least, that seems to be how many people remember it, in whole or in part. That’s how the story of the Challenger is often retold, in oral tradition and broad...

Adventure May 28, 2016 03:34 PM ET The Man Who Turned Himself into a Goat Thomas Thwaites wanted to take a break from the worries of being human, so he became a goat for a few days. Photo: Tim Bowditch How would it feel to be free of the stress and worry so inherent to being human? That's what London designer Thomas Thwaites asked himself before starting his most recent project. Frustrated with things like making money, finding his next job and, well, the pressure to achieve success and happiness that most people feel, Thwaites aspired to take a little vacation from living life as a human being. Realizing non-humans likely don't feel this same angst, Thwaites decided for his next design project he would turn himself into an animal, so he could experience a different way of looking at the world. Originally he planned to become an elephant, but when faced with the logistical nightmare of desi...

History May 28, 2016 03:28 PM ET DNA Captured From 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Analysis of the ancient man's DNA reveal he had European ancestry. Researchers have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician, showing the ancient man had European ancestry. This is the first ancient DNA to be obtained from Phoenician remains. Known as “Ariche,” the young man came from Byrsa, a walled citadel above the harbor of ancient Carthage. Byrsa was attacked by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus “Africanus” in the Third Punic War. It was destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C. 2,700-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Discovered Ariche’s remains were discovered in 1994 on the southern flank of Bursa hill when a man planting trees fell into the ancient grave. Analysis of the skeleton revealed the man died between the age of 19 and 24, had a rather robust physique and was 1.7 meters (5’...

'Nightmare' Infection Found in US for First Time A strain of E. coli resists even the antibiotic of last resort. Thinkstock A superbug resistant to all known medications has been found in the United States for the first time, raising new concern about the dwindling effectiveness of antibiotics, the top US public health official said on Thursday. The case involved a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania whose urinary tract infection tested positive for a strain of E. coli that is resistant to the antibiotic of last resort for such infections, known as colistin. "It was an old antibiotic, but it was the only one left for what I call nightmare bacteria," a family of germs known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), said Thomas Frieden, chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RELATED: Superbug Named 'Phantom Menace': Here's Why The recently discovered antibiotic-resista...

First Americans: Underwater Butchering Site Dices Timeline By Gemma Tarlach | May 13, 2016 1:00 pm The challenging Page-Ladson archaeology site, the oldest evidence of humans in the southeastern U.S., is 30 feet underwater with zero visibility. Only a handful of archaeologists across the continent have the skills — and the fortitude — to do the careful, laser-guided excavation work. Credit: S. Joy, courtesy of CSFA. Out of murky water comes a clearer picture of when the Americas were populated. Numerous 14,550-year-old finds from 30 feet underwater in a Florida river represent the oldest archaeological site in the southeastern U.S. — and the latest direct challenge to one archaeo-camp’s long-standing belief about when the first people arrived on the continent. The site yielded stone tools, including a knife-like cutting implement, and a mastodon tusk with cut marks that suggest it was butchered by humans eager to get at the highly nutritious tis...