The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech

Hummm...

"Boskop Man": Was There an Extinct Breed of Humans With an Intellectual Capacity Far Surpassing Our Own?

Macmillan publishing have brought us a book on the hyper-intelligent Boskop species, an extinct breed of humans with an intellectual capacity far surpassing our own.  It's a stirring tale of amazing abilities and wonderful creatures; tales featuring fictional creatures usually are.

Most sources reporting on this offshoot species mention the fact that 'The term "Boskop Man" is no longer used by anthropologists', brushing it off like it's a minor technical dispute over naming conventions.  It is not. 

100% Organic Software -Your New "Green" Firefox Browser

Move over Whole Foods! The Mozilla corporation, creator of the superb Firefox web browser, has declared their software to be 100% organic. In a revealing interview with with Treehugger, Paul Kim, Mozilla VP, who helped launch Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, explains why the term is relevant.

According Kim, Mozilla is  not trying to create a new model. Instead, what they're trying to do is "to help new sets of people who know nothing about open source software quickly start to understand that Firefox is something different from the software they're currently using to access the Web. 'Organic software' is a concept we came up with that we thought would resonate with end users in ways that 'free software' doesn't. I think 'free software', at least in the US, doesn't carry the same valence that 'FLOSS' does in, say, Europe."

You Create the Caption

Are Drones Spying in the Sky Over Miami?

Like a scene out of a sci-fi version of Miami Vice, Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, drone technology to beef up their fight against crime.

Skulls of African Lions Unearthed at Tower of London -Gifts to 13th & 14th Century English Kings

The skulls of two lions, which were kept by royals during medieval times, have the same genetic make-up as the north African Barbary lion, a DNA study shows. Experts believe the animals were gifts to English monarchs in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The two well-preserved lion skulls were recovered during excavations of the moat at the Tower of London in 1937. They have been radiocarbon dated to AD 1280-1385 and AD 1420-1480. Researchers at the University of Oxford extracted DNA from the skulls, and found that it matched that of the north African Barbary lion.

New Theories on the Ancient Supercontinent of Gondwana

The history of Earth’s supercontinents is one constant change and new theories to match. A theorized cyclical phenomenon, supercontinents are thought to form roughly every 250 million years. In fact, we currently have a supercontinent of our own today: Eurasia.

New Interactive TV: One That Watches You!

Who watches the watchers?  Apparently, the watchee - JVC is developing a television which will interpret hand gestures.  On the upside this makes it impossible to lose the remote.  On the downside, it may be more exercise than the average daytime television enthusiast is ready for.

You Create the Caption

The Tangaroa Expedition in Antarctica: New Extreme Species Discovered

Giant jellyfish with 12-foot-long tentacles, starfish "the size of food platters" and vast meadows of giant sea lilies are among the unusual, and likely new, species and habitats cataloged on the most comprehensive survey yet of the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica.

Part of the International Polar Year, a worldwide cooperative effort to focus study on the Arctic and Antarctic, the Tangaroa expedition has sampled the water from the deep sea bottom, 11,500 feet down, to the surface.

Studying species at the extremes our of our poles may offer clues to the diversity of life forms that actually exist in the universe. We don't know the "rules" of organic chemistry, says John Baross, a University of Washington biologist and the lead author of the National Research Council report The Limits of Organic Life on Planetary Systems.