Scientists from New York have already successfully experimented sending data below the surface in Lake Erie, pictured bottom left, and are hoping to use these tests to create a 'deep-sea internet'. The technology, which involves sending data to and from 40lb sensors, pictured top left, could be used to send data between submarines, for example, or collect and send data from the sea floor to help detect tsunamis and other disasters sooner.

Three photographers were able to capture these stunning photos on the Isle of Skye, Salen Bay and the Isle of Lewis earlier this week. The image on the left was taken by accidentally by landscape photographer Marcus McAdam, who has been working on a time lapse video showing a year on Skye condensed into minutes. Byron Griffiths took the spectacular pictures on the top right while out waiting for the Aurora Borealis to show above the Isle of Lewis. Meanwhile, the incredible picture (bottom right) by Ewan Miles shows the Northern Lights being illuminated by a fireball in Salen Bay near the east of Ardnamurchan Point in the north of Scotland.

Scientists from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich say Skull 5 indicates that rather than several ecologically specialised Homo species, a single Homo species able to cope with a variety of ecosystems emerged from Africa over two million years ago. They studied the skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia and found that unlike other Homo fossils, Skull 5 combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth.

An extremely rare whale distinguished by its long saber-like teeth and preference for sub-arctic waters has washed ashore in the Venice Beach area of LA. The female Stejneger's beaked whale, also known as the Saber-tooth whale, washed up overnight Tuesday and was taken for examination to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Experts are puzzling over how the species, typically found in the Bering Sea or the freezing waters off Japan, managed to get so far south.

London-based Which? magazine tested the speeds of the latest Apple, Samsung, HTC and LG phones. The iPhone 5S, pictured centre, was found to be the fastest of the lot. It scored more than double the points of Samsung's Galaxy S4 in third place, right, during single core speed tests and was 50% faster overall. LG's G2 handset, pictured left, came in second place.

New York-based Gittler Instruments has pared down the traditional guitar so that the instrument would be more responsive to every nuance of playing. The idea of a body-less guitar was the brainchild of a musician and minimalist artist Alan Gittler (pictured in the inset image) back in the 1970s. Now, Gittler's son Jonathan is carrying on his father's legacy by reinventing the bare bones bass. The latest version of the guitar is manufactured entirely of 6AL-4V aircraft grade titanium. Fret marking is done with built-in LED lights installed in tiny cross holes across the guitar's central channel. Gittler Instruments said it is now ready to bring a fully realised concept, and not just a prototype, to the market.

Two international teams of astronomers captured awe-inducing images of an ancient black hole 'eating' unfathomably vast amounts of matter. The photos were taken by the European Southern Observatory using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world's largest ground-based telescope array.