Scientists make major advance in understanding evolution of the universe

October 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new book written by University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher claims to offer a novel way to teach evolution without offending students who have strong religious convictions against the theory. According to Professor Lee Meadows, Ph.D., author of a new book titled The Missing Link: An Inquiry Approach for Teaching All Students About Evolution, School districts, politicians and church leaders have debated for decades as to whether Charles Darwin's theory of evolution should be taught in schools.

August 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA-funded research has found that humans not might be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes 2.5 billion years ago, which reveals a new pathway for the evolution of life on Earth. By comparing proteins present in more than 3000 different prokaryotes - a type of single-celled organism without a nucleus - molecular biologist James A.

August 18th, 2009 LONDON - A new research by scientists has claimed that dark energy - the mysterious substance thought to make up three-quarters of the universe - may not actually exist. The concept of dark energy was created by cosmologists to fit Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity into reality after modern space telescopes discovered that the Universe was not behaving as it should.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have stumbled on an evolutionary discovery that seems to explain the short, curved legs so characteristic of dachshunds, corgis, basset hounds and other dog breeds. The discovery provides new clues about how physical differences may arise within species and suggests new approaches to understanding a form of human dwarfism.

July 11th, 2009 PARIS - The Herschel Space Observatory has carried out the first test observations with all its instruments, revealing spectacular results, finding water and carbon and revealing dozens of distant galaxies. These observations show that Herschel's instruments are working beyond expectations.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astrophysicists, using extremely detailed computer simulations, have determined that the earliest stars in the universe formed not only as individuals, but sometimes also as twins. The robust simulations of the early universe were created by astrophysicists Matthew Turk and Tom Abel of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, and Brian O'Shea of Michigan State University.

July 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Cosmologists at UC (University of California) Irvine have found two supernovae farther away than any previously detected by using a new technique that could help find other dying stars at the edge of the universe, which could shed light on universe formation 11 billion years ago. This method has the potential to allow astronomers to study some of the very first supernovae and will advance the understanding of how galaxies form, how they change over time and how Earth came to be.

June 21st, 2009 SYDNEY - Scientists in Australia are getting closer to identify the mystery light that lit up the universe. The universe was covered in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas thirteen billion years ago.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US space agency NASA said astronauts Tuesday sent the Hubble Space Telescope back into orbit, where it is to help probe the origins and nature of the universe for at least five more years. Astronauts spent the past seven days repairing the telescope, completing their tasks Monday on a space walk lasting over seven hours, as a stand-by shuttle stood ready on the launch pad in Florida for a rescue mission.

May 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel installed new equipment Saturday on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope to help scientists study the origins of the universe. US space agency NASA said that the third of the current shuttle mission's five scheduled spacewalks was completed in six and a half hours.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida Monday on a mission to repair the ageing Hubble Space Telescope. The fifth and last mission to repair Hubble launched at 2:01 p.m.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - For nearly 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has kept its orbiting eye trained on the universe, and with the launch of space shuttle Atlantis to repair the ageing instrument, scientists hope it will continue to provide important discoveries. The fifth and last mission to repair Hubble is to launch at 1801 GMT Monday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

May 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - College students' views about evolution and creationism are usually shaped by what their high school biology teachers teach them in class, a new University of Minnesota (UM) study claims. In the study, co-authors Randy Moore and Sehoya Cotner, professors in the College of Biological Sciences, surveyed 1,000 students taking introductory biology classes at UM to learn how biology majors view evolution compared to non-majors.

March 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has come a step closer to understanding the Universe with the discovery of a fundamental building block of nature. The recent discovery of a single top quark at the U.S.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered that the elephant shark, a primitive deep-sea fish that belongs to the oldest living family of jawed vertebrates, can see color much like humans can. This discovery may enhance scientists' understanding of how color vision evolved in early vertebrates over the last 450 million years of evolution.