An American fighter plane will be arriving in Britain from the United States next week – 65 years after taking off. The P38 Lightning was one of eight aircraft forced to land in Greenland after encountering bad weather while en route to the UK in July 1942. The planes became buried under 300ft of ice but 15 years ago the remains of one, renamed Glacier Girl, were dug up.
100-foot deep Andes lake disappears
(Jun 22, 2007)
A five-acre glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared – and scientists want to know why. Park rangers at Bernardo O'Higgins National Park said they found a 100-feet-deep crater in late May where the lake had been in March. Several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water also were spotted.
They say cats have nine lives – so meet Des, who has 26 toes. While most pet cats have 18 – five on their front paws and four on their rear – the 10-year-old boasts seven on his front and six on his back paws. The extra digits have left owner Alison Thomas, of Felindre, near Swansea, pondering whether it is a UK record.
A team of Canadian surgeons got a shock when the patient they were operating on began shedding dark greenish-black blood, the Lancet reports. The 42-year-old man was not a Vulcan relative of Mr Spock of the starship Enterprise. Instead, the unusual colour of his blood was down to the migraine medication he was taking.
A Cornish man says he has broken the world record for sleep deprivation by staying awake for 11 days and nights. Tony Wright, 42, from Penzance, was trying to beat the Guinness world record of 264 sleepless hours set by Randy Gardner in the US in 1964. He fought off tiredness by drinking tea, playing pool and keeping a diary.
An extraordinarily diverse array of marine life has been discovered in the deep, dark waters around Antarctica. Scientists have found more than 700 new species of marine creatures in seas once thought too hostile to sustain such rich biodiversity. Groups of carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans and molluscs were collected.
Weird gravity in Canada blamed on hefty glaciers
(May 15, 2007)
A mysterious dip in gravity over Canada has been a weighty topic for some scientists. Now satellite data reveal a thick ice sheet that once cloaked the region partially resolves this so-called gravitational anomaly. Scientists have known that the Hudson Bay region features lower gravity than surrounding areas. While two theories have emerged to explain the strange phenomenon, conclusive evidence has been elusive.
US researchers carrying out a sonar survey of Loch Ness have been amazed to find a common toad crawling in the mud 324ft (98m) down. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been attempting to unravel the mysteries of the loch. However, MIT said it did not expect to come across the amphibian so far down.
