Earth May Spread Life To Other Planets

Asteroid impacts on the Earth may have scattered more life-bearing debris to Mars, Jupiter or beyond our Solar System than previously thought. Vast computer simulations of debris thrown up from Earth impacts show 100 times more particles end up on Mars than prior studies have shown. The highest-energy impacts drive debris all the way to Jupiter, which hosts two moons that may be amenable to life. Only the hardiest of Earth's organisms could have survived the trip, however. 

Surfing The Net At Work Is GOOD For Productivity!

Next time you are caught surfing the Internet in the office do not apologise - it is actually making you a better worker. Browsing the web can refresh employees and make them the more productive, a study has found. Those who surfed the Internet as a break from their duties came back better prepared than people who made a phone call or texted their loves ones.

2010 Weird Science Award

Here are the winners of  msnbc.com's 2010 Weird Science Awards contest.

1. That's one small step for rabbit penises, and potentially one giant hop for restorative surgery. An experiment that gave rabbits lab-grown penises capable of fathering offspring won the most votes. Cells of penile tissue were grown on scaffolds of cartilage. When the creations took on the right shape, they were grafted onto rabbits that had their penises removed. After the transplants, the rabbits were able to breed ... like rabbits. The procedure could someday be used to heal humans as well. The photos at right show an experimenter working on the penile tissue, and an X-ray image of the restored penis.

Which Comes First: Chicken Or Egg?

It is an age-old riddle that has perplexed generations: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Now British scientists claim to have finally come up with the definitive answer: The chicken. 

The scientific and philosophical mystery was purportedly unraveled by researchers at Sheffield and Warwick universities, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. The scientists found that a protein found only in a chicken's ovaries is necessary for the formation of the egg, according to the paper Wednesday. The egg can therefore only exist if it has been created inside a chicken. The protein speeds up the development of the hard shell, which is essential in protecting the delicate yolk and fluids while the chick grows inside the egg, the report said.

Chickenosaurus

Scientists have undone the progress made by evolution by altering chicken DNA to create embryos with alligator-like snouts instead of beaks. Experts changed the DNA of chicken embryos in the early stage of their development, enabling them to undo evolutionary progress and give the creatures snouts which are thought to have been lost in the cretaceous period millions of years ago. The scientific revelation of 'rewinding' evolution could pave the way for scientists altering DNA in the other direction and use the same process to create species better able to adapt to Earth's climate.

Sun Pillar Illusion

What is that on the horizon? No, it's not an alien starship battling distant Earthlings, but rather a sun pillar. When driving across Ontario, Canada in early June, the photographer was surprised to encounter such an "eerie and beautiful" vista, and immediately took pictures. When the atmosphere is cold, ice sometimes forms flat six-sided crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance then causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. If viewed toward a rising or setting Sun, these flat crystals will reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light -- a sun pillar as seen above. Such columns of light are not uncommon to see, and a retrospective of past APODs that have featured picturesque sun pillars can be found here.

Stammering People Have Different Brain-wiring

A new study into people who stammer has revealed that the human brain has the ability to reorganise itself in a profound way. As seen in the hit British movie The King’s Speech, the effect of hiding the sound of one's own speech while speaking can have dramatic consequences. In the film, listening to classical music while reciting Shakespeare suppresses even the King's stutter. Now a team of research scientists say they have shown that auditory-motor integration is located in a different part of the brain of people who stammer.

Serious stammer: The King's Speech with Colin Firth as Bertie. Scientists say they have proved stammerer's brains are wired differently

Diamonds Inside Flickering Flame!

As if a candlelit dinner wasn’t romantic enough. Scientists have shown that a flickering flame is studded with millions of tiny diamonds. Roughly 1.5million of the twinkling gems are created every second. Sadly, for those whose eyes are lighting up the thought of making a fortune, the jewels are so small that up to 300,000 would fit on the head of a pin. And they disappear in the blink of an eye.

But if scientists come up with a way of harnessing the technology, people could use little more than a candle and a match to ‘grow’ diamonds from scratch. As well as costing a fraction of the price of ‘real’ diamonds, they would be an ethically sound alternative to the blood diamonds mined in African war zones. An alternative source of diamonds would also be a boon to industry, which uses the fantastically hard stones in everything from saw blades to prosthetic hips.

The idea comes from a St Andrews University scientist challenged to find out just what is inside a flame. Wuzong Zhou, a professor of chemistry, said: ‘A colleague from another university said to me: "Of course, no one knows what a candle flame is actually made of." ‘I told him I believed science could explain everything eventually, so I decided to find out.’