Radioactive isotope in ice core record reflects solar activity over 600 years

August 14th, 2009 Medical isotope shortage threatens treatmentsALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Canada has caused a shortage of a radioactive isotope used to detect cancers and heart disease.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a laser technique that, in combination with standard techniques, would help to find supernovas. To find a supernova, the new technique would have to search for one single atom of a certain isotope of hafnium on Earth, which would prove that a supernova once exploded near our solar system.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that at least some of the European early modern humans consistently consumed fish 40,000 years ago, supplementing their diet of terrestrial animals. The study was carried out by Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St.

August 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research, involving scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), has highlighted the potential utility of iron isotopes for addressing important questions in ocean science. Pore-fluid iron isotope measurements have so far been restricted to the continental shelves where the supply of carbon is typically high and dissimilatory iron reduction is extensive, precluding comparisons with low-carbon, deep-water environments.

July 31st, 2009 LONDON - Did far-off comets housing vast oceans of water during the first million years of formation harbour some kind of primitive life? The existence of water in comets bolsters support for a possible connection between life on Earth and comets. The theory, known as Cometary Panspermia and pioneered by Chandra Wickramasinghe and the late Sir Fred Hoyle, argues that life was introduced to Earth by comets.

July 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found that the surface of Mars was molten for more than 100 million years after it formed, preventing any early life evolving on the planet. According to a report in Discovery News, the findings are based on an analysis of rare Martian meteorites at NASA's Johnson Space Center in the US.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The excitement of the century's longest total solar eclipse was quite evident from the sales of Gnomon Astrotech, a Delhi based firm that sold a record 50,000 solar goggles across India in just two days. The company imported a large number of solar goggles, solar filter films and telescopes from a US-based firm to meet the huge demand during the celestial spectacle.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - A new research says that asteroid-sized balls of magma hurtled through our infant solar system, and spray from their many collisions provided much of the raw material that formed Earth and its rocky siblings. According to a report in New Scientist, this is according to a new take on an old theory that challenges the notion that the solar system started out as a placid sea of dust motes which simply clumped together to form planets.

July 21st, 2009 SYDNEY - A team of international astrophysicists has found a new explanation for the early composition of our solar system. The team has found that radioactive nuclei found in the earliest meteorites, dating back billions of years, could have been delivered by a nearby dying giant star, six times the mass of the sun.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, an international team of astrophysicists has found evidence that suggests life in our solar system may have been fuelled by a nearby dying giant star of six times the mass of the sun. The evidence that the team has found is in the form of radioactive nuclei found in the earliest meteorites, dating back billions of years, which could have been delivered by a nearby dying giant star.

July 16th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A new study has revealed that the tiger stripes and a subsurface ocean on Enceladus - one of Saturn's many moons, are a result of the natural satellite's unusual chemical composition. "NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently revealed Enceladus as a dynamic place, recording geological features such as geysers emerging from the 'tiger stripes' which are thought to be cracks caused by tectonic activity on the south pole of the moon's surface," said Dr Dave Stegman, a Centenary Research Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis by scientists has suggested that the Arctic was an enclosed freshwater lake until about 38 million years ago, when tectonic activity caused it to undergo a transition to an ocean. Recent studies have suggested that beginning about 44 million years ago the Arctic underwent a transition from lake to ocean conditions.

June 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astronomers has suggested that a sluggish, jet stream-like flow deep inside the sun could be to blame for the delay in increased solar activity. The team was team led by Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, US.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Estimates indicate that solar activity will peak in 2013, but it would be the lowest peak recorded since the 1920s. The sun was expected to hit a low in 2008 as part of its normal 11-year cycle of activity.

June 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere. The chief culprit for disruption in the nitrogen cycle is fossil fuel combustion, which releases nitric oxides into the air that combine with other elements to form smog and acid rain.