The news has been rather interesting of late. Seems a geologist was checking out some new stuff found in Sibera, and when he Googled it or whatever, the only listing he found online, that had all the minerals contained in his sample: the Kryptonite in one of the Superman movies. Seems whoever wrote, in the Superman script, the minerals contained in a "museum sample" of Kryptonite in the film, just happened to list the exact same compounds found in this brand new mineral from Siberia. What are the chances of that, ey? But, scientists, apparently, having no sense of humor, aren't going to name it Kryptonite, but some really boring name, it seems. Unlike the film version, the real stuff is a white powdery substance.
And, it seems, that astronomers think they've found a distant planet that may in fact, support life. It seems it's near a red dwarf, and possibly has earth-like temperatures. It's similar in size to earth, and may have a crucial element for supporting life: water. The red dwarf star is much cooler than our sun. The planet has been given the rather dull name of "581C" Tho' it's similar in size to our planet, it's about 5 times heavier, and may be, possibly, one and a half times bigger than earth. But don't book a starship or a Tardis trip there yet: scientists say that if the atmosphere is too thick, the planet will likely be too hot to be habitable for humans.
In a coal mine in the American Midwest, miners have discovered an entire prehistoric rain forest. Mining operation have reveled an entire swath of prehistoric rain forest, over the roof of a mine--in a 40 square-mile swath. Unlike other fossilized remains, this layer fell into the mud over a period of months, not years, and is nearly perfectly preserved--all the plants that grew in that region over a specific period of time. This is virtually unheard of, as most fossils come from layers of sediment. It's basically like a snapshot of a specific period in earth's history, preserved for all time in a North American coal mine.
