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Ancient black hole had an inexplicable growth spurt

Reaching 12 billion times the mass of the sun just a billion years after the big bang, a black hole has astronomers mystified about its rapid growth


First human head transplant could happen in two years

A radical plan for transplanting a head onto someone else's body is set to be announced. But is such ethically sensitive surgery even feasible?


Watch desert dust cross the ocean as seen from space Movie Camera

For the first time, a satellite has calculated the whopping amount of Saharan dust that is blown over the ocean to reach the Amazon rainforest every year


Climate change sceptic's work called into question

Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon failed to disclose funding from the fossil fuel industry, says Greenpeace, as journals get ready to re-examine his work



Indians lose billions of life years to air pollution

Over half of India's population lives in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution. Now that has been translated into years of life lost overall


Men have hands amputated and replaced with bionic ones Movie Camera

Three people with paralysed arms had their hands amputated and replaced by prosthetic ones that they control with their mind


I'll fly around the world using only solar power

Adventurer and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard is poised to take to the skies in a sun-powered plane that's wider than a 747 but only as heavy as a family car


The plan to find alien life in Europa's icy seas

We're getting ready to send a probe to Jupiter's icy moon – but how will we know if anything lives there?


Stunning fossils: Fish catches fish-catching pterosaur

The swooping pterosaur snatched a fish from the water, only to be caught by a much bigger fish leaping into the air


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