Scientists Discover Rare Moon Mineral in Abundance on Earth

A mineral brought back to Earth by the first men on the Moon and long thought to be unique to the lunar surface has been found in Australian rocks more than 1 billion years old. In this month’s issue of Geology, Birger Rasmussen, a geologist at Curtin University in Australia, and his colleagues report that they’ve finally found tranquillityite on our planet.   Named after Apollo 11′s 1969 landing site at the Sea of Tranquility, tranquillityite was one of three minerals first discovered in rocks from the Moon and the only one not to be found, in subsequent years, on Earth.

The West Australian mineral was dated at 1.07 billion years old, more ancient than rocks in the area had previously been thought to be, Rasmussen said tranquillityite would be useful in dating similar rocks in the future.”They were always part of Earth. They haven’t come from the Moon,” Rasmussen said

The discovery has important practical applications, with the mineral proving to be an excellent dating tool which had allowed scientists to pin down the rocks’ ages. ”We used this mineral… to date the dolerite which has previously been undated, so that helped us understand the geological history,” Rasmussen said. “It tells you that broadly overall you have similar chemistries and similar processes operating on the Moon as on Earth.”

Antarctic New Undiscovered Species of Marine Life, The Yeti Crab!?

A seven-pronged starfish, a mysterious pale octopus and a new kind of ‘yeti’ crab are among a teeming community of previously undiscovered life on the sea floor near Antarctica, British researchers said. The species, described this week on the online journal PloS Biology, were first glimpsed in 2010 when researchers lowered a robotic vehicle to explore the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean, between Antarctica and the tip of South America. The dark and remote area is home to hydrothermal vents, which are deep-sea springs that spew liquid at temperatures of up to 382 degrees Celsius, and have previously been found to host unusual life forms in other parts of the world. Vent ecosystems have been documented from many sites across the globe, associated with the thermally and chemically variable habitats found around these, typically high temperature, streams that are rich in reduced compounds and polymetallic sulphides. This most recent work by Steven Chown and his team of researchers has brought to the surface some pretty incredible findings, animal communities of the Southern Ocean vent ecosystems are very different to those found at other vent locations around the globe. Much of the biological significance of deep-sea hydrothermal vents lies in their biodiversity, the diverse biochemistry of their bacteria, the remarkable symbioses among many of the marine animals and these bacteria, and the prospects that investigations of these systems hold for understanding the conditions that may have led to the first appearance of life.

Antarctic New Undiscovered Species of Marine Life, The Yeti Crab!?

A seven-pronged starfish, a mysterious pale octopus and a new kind of ‘yeti’ crab are among a teeming community of previously undiscovered life on the sea floor near Antarctica, British researchers said. The species, described this week on the online journal PloS Biology, were first glimpsed in 2010 when researchers lowered a robotic vehicle to explore the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean, between Antarctica and the tip of South America. The dark and remote area is home to hydrothermal vents, which are deep-sea springs that spew liquid at temperatures of up to 382 degrees Celsius, and have previously been found to host unusual life forms in other parts of the world. Vent ecosystems have been documented from many sites across the globe, associated with the thermally and chemically variable habitats found around these, typically high temperature, streams that are rich in reduced compounds and polymetallic sulphides. This most recent work by Steven Chown and his team of researchers has brought to the surface some pretty incredible findings, animal communities of the Southern Ocean vent ecosystems are very different to those found at other vent locations around the globe. Much of the biological significance of deep-sea hydrothermal vents lies in their biodiversity, the diverse biochemistry of their bacteria, the remarkable symbioses among many of the marine animals and these bacteria, and the prospects that investigations of these systems hold for understanding the conditions that may have led to the first appearance of life.

US Government Seeks Censorship on Dutch Man-Made Killer Flu

The journals Science and Nature are as we type and you read, mulling over whether to publish details of a man-made mutant flu virus with the potential to kill millions. A US government science advisory committee has urged key details be withheld so people seeking to do widespread harm would not be able to replicate the virus. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) reviewed two scientific papers relating to the findings and recommended the journals considering them “make changes in the manuscripts”, a statement said. The virus in question is an H5N1 avian influenza strain that was genetically altered in a Dutch lab so it can pass easily between ferrets. The Dutch research team was led by Ron Fouchier at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre. The team said in September it had created a mutant version of the H5N1 bird flu virus that could for the first time be spread among mammals. M★C

‘The God Particle’ Nearly, But Not Quite

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research - CERN -  say they have found signs of – although not yet conclusively discovered – the Higgs boson, an elementary particle which is the missing link in the Standard Model of physics. Anticipation amongst physicists has to be at an all time high. The famed particle is the missing link in current theories of physics, used to explain how everything gains its mass. Rumors have been crashing about the scientific community for weeks on these findings. Finding the Higgs is the central goal for the $10bn Large Hadron Collider - a 27km, 17mile circumference accelerator ring of superconducting magnets - designed to re-create the conditions just after the Big Bang in an attempt to answer fundamental questions of science and indeed the Universe itself. M★S  READ MORE

NASA's Five Finger Discount? Missing Astromaterials End Up in Bill Clinton's Treasure Trove

It seems researchers have sticky fingers when it comes to NASA’s moon rocks and meteorites, as hundreds of samples have gone missing after being loaned out by the US space agency, an audit has revealed. NASA inspector General Paul Martin issued a report detailing weak points in the US space agency such as the agency making loans to researchers who never use the samples, or simply lose track of rare pieces dating back to the first trip to the Moon in 1969. According to NASA records, between 1970 and 2007, 517 loaned astromaterials have been lost or stolen” the report said.  In 2002, 218 samples from the Moon and meteorites were stolen from Johnson Space Centre in Houston but later returned. Earlier this year, one moon rock that had been given up for lost was discovered in a box of former president Bill Clinton’s files and memorabilia, stored at an Arkansas library. Astromaterials include Moon rocks and soil; meteorites from asteroids, Mars, and the Moon; ions from the outer layers of the Sun; dust from comets and interstellar space; and cosmic dust from Earth’s stratosphere. B★C  READ MORE