A University of Glasgow team has identified traces of the gem known on Earth as 'fire opal' (bottom right) within a Martian meteorite known as Nakhla (top right). Opal is an intriguing find, not only because it can preserve fossils, but because it often has a high water content. The find could help future exploration missions decide where to look for evidence of Martian life. The image on the left shows a hydrated mineral that scientists suspect may be opal on Mars.
Reddit CEO and co-founder apologize after 'revolt' over firing of popular employee
The winner of the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest contest will see their work showcased at London's Royal Observatory.
Our cosmic junkyard: Stuff in Space tracks thousands of satellites, spent rockets and debris as they orbit the Earth in real time
Computer engineering student James Yoder, from the University of Texas in Austin, has created a web tool that allows users to track all the known pieces of space debris in orbit around our planet. It uses tracking data to show where satellites, the International Space Station and pieces of debris larger than 10cm (4 inches) at any given moment. Most of the debris is clustered in a low orbit around the Earth but the junk stretches out up to 100,000 miles from our planet's surface (as can be seen in the image top right). In the image on the left the red dots represent old rockets, blue are satellites and grey are other pieces of debris. The image on the bottom right shows the orbits Ariane rocket satellite adapters.
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- Riddle of the medieval 'mummy' discovered in Siberia: Child from unknown Arctic civilisation found wrapped in birch bark
- Could Martian GEMS contain fossilised aliens? Scientists say opal may hold the key to proving life existed on the red planet
- The Star Trek phone: $150 replica of Communicator can act as a bluetooth headset and even replay sounds from the show
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- Apple Watch is a FLOP: Sales of the gadget have fallen by 90% since April, report claims
- Catching crimes the moment they happen: Small company capable of filming cities 24/7 could be the Big Brother future of American surveillance
- The 'sin-free' social network: Facegloria monitored by morality police is launched by Brazilian Evangelical Christians
- Would YOU share your home with Buddy? Housekeeper robot that even plays hide and seek with the kids to launch in 2016
- Apple makes ANOTHER U-turn: Firm reveals it is working to have Home Sharing on iOS 9 after feature vanished during recent update
- Take a peek inside the iPhone 6S: Leaked image reveals clues about the inner workings of Apple's next-generation device
- Plankton are eating PLASTIC: Feasting on ocean litter could devastate marine ecosystems, scientists warn
- Teaching young criminals to recognise other people's emotions can cut serious crime, study claims
- Tinder goes hands-free: Watch app uses heart monitor to reveal who sends your pulse racing
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- Are electric cars damaging YOUR region? Maps reveal how EVs can be WORSE for the environment than gas-guzzling vehicles
- Anxiety is HEREDITARY: Brain scans reveal anxious parents are more likely to have nervous and depressed children
- Rise of the SUPER SOLDIER: Liquid armour, indestructible exoskeletons and weapons that never miss revealed as the future of warfare
- Which Facebook friend has DELETED you? App reveals times and dates people removed you from their profile
- Can YOU train your brain to lose weight? Play the online game that claims to help you shed 0.7kg in ONE WEEK
- Has science finally cracked the secret of eternal youth? Study finds some people can halt - and even REVERSE - the ageing process during their thirties
- Apple Watch is a FLOP: Sales of the gadget have fallen by 90% since April, report claims
- Abu Dhabi's new 245mph 'robocop car' costs $3.4m and has cameras that can recognise drivers faces during high speed chases
- Riddle of the medieval 'mummy' discovered in Siberia: Child from unknown Arctic civilisation found wrapped in birch bark
- Our cosmic junkyard: Stuff in Space tracks thousands of satellites, spent rockets and debris as they orbit the Earth in real time
- Nasa reveals new images of Pluto's four 'alien black spots' as it says New Horizons probe is back in action
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- Our galaxy's fingerprint revealed in unprecedented detail: Incredible maps show the Milky Way's stars, rings and loops
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- Take a peek inside the iPhone 6S: Leaked image reveals clues about the inner workings of Apple's next-generation device
- Why women really ARE the stronger sex: Men have shorter lives because they are more prone to heart disease, claims study
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Is this the ultimate selfie? Ohio man snaps stunning picture posing in front of active volcano, the moon and the Milky Way
Photographer Shane Black captured the phenomenal image near the summit of Mauna Kea, on Hawaii, after stitching together 23 individual frames. In the selfie he can be seen staring down into an active volcano while the moon and Milky Way illuminate the night sky. The 26-year-old said the image reminds him 'how small I am.' The professional photographer has travelled America taking pictures of the stars.
Rise of the SUPER SOLDIER: Liquid armour, indestructible exoskeletons and weapons that never miss revealed as the future of warfare
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Super Soldiers: How Tech Is Transforming The Future Of Warfare is in the latest issue of How It Works Magazine on sale now. It details how soldiers of the future will be trained using virtual reality headsets and their bodies will be protected with self-healing armour and smart wetsuits. Elsewhere, the US military has developed a bullet that changes course on way to its target, and microdrones will help soldiers explore battlefields from a distance. A soldier testing a smart grenade launcher is pictured left, a virtual reality training exercise is pictured top right. In the bottom right image, a US soldier is shown using a fully-immersive virtual reality training system called Dismounted soldier Training System, and inset is Darpa's smart 'wetsuit' Warrior Web.
Nasa reveals new images of Pluto's four 'alien black spots' as it says New Horizons probe is back in action
Nasa scientists say they have fixed a glitch that saw them lose contact with the New Horizon's space probe just days before its close encounter with Pluto - and released a new image of four unknown 'black spots' on the dwarf planet. The space agency says the spots have 'captured the imagination of the world.'
Quadriplegic former Indy Racing driver takes to the wheel again: Modified Corvette enables him to steer using his head and brake by 'sipping' on a straw
Sam Schmidt (pictured right), who was paralysed from the neck down after crashing during testing in Orlando in 2000, used the car (top left) to navigate the famous twists and turns of Long Beach Grand Prix road course track at 80 mph (129km/h). He drove almost two laps of the 11-turn circuit in the modified 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray, in April, describing the experience as 'unbelievable' and steered by turning his head (bottom left).
Incredible racing simulator lets you drive a virtual car complete with realistic vibrations, stomach-churning turns and G-FORCE
The panoramic racing simulator (pictured) is part of a range of game simulators built by Czech company Elsaco. It has four moving legs and three 27-inch 2D LED displays to give a panoramic view plus an accelerator, brake and clutch pedal. The simulator uses data about the position of the car, speed and G-force directly from the game and it moves the cockpit to match these data points.
Riddle of the medieval 'mummy' discovered in Siberia: Child from unknown Arctic civilisation found wrapped in birch bark
Archaeologists found the body of a child or teenager from the 12th or 13th Century AD at a medieval necropolis near Salekhard in Russia 18 miles from the Arctic Circle (shown on the map top right). The image on the left shows them preparing to move the body still inside its birch bark cocoon. Five other bodies found previously at the same site, like the one pictured bottom right, were found to have been mummified as a result of copper plates they were covered with and the permafrost of the arctic. They had been wrapped in furs and are thought to have belonged to an Arctic civilisation with links to Persia, 3,700 miles away.
Does Rosetta's comet harbour ALIEN LIFE? Distinctive features on 67P may have been created by microscopic organisms
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and Dr Max Wallis, of Cardiff University, believe 67P (main image) and similar comets could provide homes for living microbes similar to those on earth. The experts go as far as to suggest the comet is more hospitable to life than the Earth's polar regions.Rosetta, the European space craft orbiting the comet, is also said to have detected strange 'clusters' of organic material that look suspiciously like viral particles on its icy surface (inset).
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British photographers Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah captured apes in Indonesia and Borneo - and highlighted how human our evolutionary cousins are.