Science

A sea crocodile dubbed the 'Melksham Monster' was terrorising the shallow waters off Britain 163 million years ago, according to scientists. The apex predator, with powerful jaws and huge, razor-sharp teeth roamed the prehistoric ocean around Britain in the Jurassic era. The beast - dug up in Wiltshire - was 10 feet long from snout to tail and inhabited the warm, shallow waters that covered the country at that time. It was one of the most terrifying marine reptiles that...

Life on Earth really did begin around 4 billion years ago - increasing the chances it could be abundant throughout the universe, according to new research. Evidence of living organisms has been found in Canadian rocks dating back 3.95 billion years. They represent some of the earliest known life following a similar discovery in Australia two years ago in even older sediment going back 4.1 billion years. The latest finding published in Nature adds to evidence life began a remarkably...

SpaceX, PayPal and Tesla Motors. Is there anybody’s name that comes to your mind? Well, the name of this intelligent and successful person should have popped up straight away! Yes, Elon Musk! With already great success with Tesla, here are many more ideas from this genius which could work out in the future.   Space tourism Ever wanted to see the moon close up? Space X will be undergoing an unmanned test this year and 2 lucky tourists could be...

Fish have "complex" personalities, according to new research. Scientists studied how tiny guppies behaved in various situations, and found complex differences between individual fish. The researchers tested whether differences could be measured on a "simple spectrum" of how risk-averse or risk-prone guppies were. But they found variations between individuals were too complicated to be described in this way. Dr Tom Houslay, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC) on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: "The...

The site where Europe's first lunar mission crash-landed on the Moon 11 years ago has finally been located using CSI-style techniques. A detailed "Crash Scene Investigation" have revealed the last resting place of the European Space Agency’s first lunar mission, SMART-1. The spacecraft was sent into a controlled impact with the lunar surface in 2006. Although an "impact flash" was imaged at the time by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on the dark side of the boundary between night and day on...

Giant plant eating dinosaurs were snacking on shellfish 75 million years ago - as a side dish, according to new research. Crustaceans, possibly crab, have been found in the sung of horny beaked hadrosaurs that once roamed present day Utah - showing they weren't strictly meat eaters. Eating foods rich in protein and calcium was probably a seasonal behaviour that boosted the huge beasts' reproduction. The remarkable discovery adds to growing evidence dinosaurs really did evolve into modern birds -...

How safe is the air we breathe on airplanes? Britain's largest union is calling for a public inquiry into toxic air in passenger planes as it emerged that one of Britain’s biggest airlines is set to fit new filters to stop particulates entering cabin air next year. Unite the union, which represents over 25,000 cabin crew working for airlines operating out of the UK, is calling on the rest of the airline industry to follow suit now. Unite also want...

Humanoid robots are a 'strong' step closer after engineers developed synthetic muscle that can lift a thousand times its own weight. The 3D-printable synthetic soft muscle, which doesn't need an external compressor or high voltage equipment as previous attempts required, also has a strain density - expansion per gram - FIFTEEN times larger than natural muscle. And the artificial muscle can push, pull, bend and twist - as well as lift weight. Up until now no material has been capable of...

A 52 million year old ankle fossil dug up in France shows the first primates were high flying acrobats... throwing human evolution on its head. The shape and size of the tiny bone suggests our earliest ancestors flexed and sharply extended their ankles - to launch into the air. They spent most of their time in the branches rather than on the ground, but just how nimble they were as they moved around in the treetops has been hotly disputed....