Science

It's been thought St. Patrick’s Day observance began to spring up in the US in the early 1700s, with feasts, religious services, and charitable events in New York and Boston that largely mirrored traditional practices seen in Ireland. While New York has long been credited as having the first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade, when Irish soldiers in the British Army organized in 1766, a recent discovery suggests the first actually occurred more than 150 years earlier, in a city 1,000 miles away. Historical documents from the Florida city of St. Augustine now stand as evidence of the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the US, according to a researcher from the University of South Florida.

A two-headed boa in Florida has two hearts, veterinarians have discovered. The scientists said they have not seen a two-headed snake of this species. Two-headed snakes typically don't live long, but some have made it to adulthood. The snake was born with two different digestive systems, heads and hearts.

A nine-month-old dog that weighs 12 stone (180lb) and stands six-foot-tall is the world's biggest puppy, according to its owner. Enormous Euphrates was bred to replicate a prehistoric canine species and eats an impressive eight cups of dog food a day. She is a member of a new breed called the American Molossus, selectively bred to be the closest genetic descendent of the Mesopotamian Molossus, a massive dog species that died out 7,000 years ago. The only remnants of the ancient canines left are in museums, with some account suggesting they were used in battle by ancient Mesopotamian tribes. After calling hundreds of breeders and Guinness World Records, owner Jared Howser (inset), 41, of Salt Lake City, Utah, believes he own's the largest puppy in the world.

The brains, found by Bristol University, belong to a type of marine predator known as Kerygmachela kierkegaardi  which existed around 521 and 514 million years ago. in Sirius Passet, North Greenland (bottom right). These sea monsters are believed to have had two long appendages on their head, 11 swimming flaps and a skinny tail to help them hunt their prey. Pictured inset is a diagram of the simple creature. The top left image shows one of the fossils. Unlike the human brain, which has three segments, the fossilised brains of these predators only had a single segment. Researchers hope these simple brains could help shed light on how ancient brains evolved.

Grizzly footage shows the moment a 28ft-long dead humpback whale gets reduced to shreds by a group of hungry great white sharks. Video clips and photos captured by biologists from Georgia in the U.S. show the large carcass floating in the ocean and attracting a swarm of ravenous predators. Great whites - and tiger sharks - steadily tuck into the whale, until the deceased beast is diminished to just two flippers and a lump of white blubber.

The giant predator, which weighs more than two tonnes, can be seen circling the cage time and time again. The photos, captured off the Guadalupe Islands in Mexico, were taken for a shark identification project by water safety specialist John Maher. The 35-year-old, from La Jolla in California, traveled more than 24 hours on the research vessel and spent three days documenting the different great whites. John said: 'The ride on the ship took a day to get to the waters near Guadalupe Island. Once we were near, the boat anchored and the shark cages were dropped to a depth of 40 feet.' He added: 'I was about 40 feet away from the other cage. To the best of my knowledge, the shark I saw was one of the largest female great whites anyone had seen all season.'

Rising sea levels are rapidly eroding the coast of the island (left), threatening dozens of moai statues (right and inset) and their platforms, built between 1100 and 1680. These statues could represent the island's ancestors and with sea levels set to rise as much as six feet by 2100 they are under threat like never before. Nobody really knows how the colossal stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position. We also don't know why during the decades following the island's discovery by Dutch explorers in 1722, each statue was systematically toppled, or how the population of Rapa Nui islanders was decimated. However, the landscape is quickly changing and soon these statues could be gone forever, taking with them any clues about what happened to this civilisation.

Angel Giuffria was born missing her left arm below the elbow. An advocate for prosethic technology, she wears a battery-powered bionic hand that uses surface electrodes and can be programmed wirelessly. While attending SXSW, she was using it more than usual for demonstrations and the battery began to die. A person charging a phone turned her away from a socket — but she insisted she found the situation funny. The 28-year-old is also an actress who appeared in The Hunger Games.

A new DNA study by the University of Washington has found that our forefathers interbred with another mysterious group of hominins, the Denisovans, on at least two occasions (left).The finding happened by chance while US researchers were developing a new method of comparing whole genomes between modern human and Denisovan populations using genetic information extracted from fossils (inset). Researchers found two distinct modern human genomes - one from Oceania and another from East Asia - both with Denisovan ancestry. Remains of these mysterious early humans have only been discovered at one site - the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia (right).

A 6ft 3in(1.9m) humanoid robot that shoots hoops better than professional basketball players has been unveiled by Toyota. Named Cue, the android can shoot with nearly 100 per cent accuracy at short distances, according to the Japanese engineers behind the project. It has learned to score hoops using artificial intelligence having thrown some 200,000 practice shots. In a shootout, the robot scored more free-throws than players at Arvalq Tokyo, a team in Japan's top professional league.

A Silicone Valley tech-billionaire is paying $10,000 for an early death in exchange for a promise to live forever.  Entreprenuer Sam Altman is one of 25 people on a waiting list at Nectome, a startup company that alleges to upload a person's brain into a computer so they can live forever, according to the New York Post.  But in exchange for eternally preserving his mind, the 32-year-old will have to die first. Somewhat ironically, the company Altman founded - Y Combinator - funds startups like Nectome.

The findings were made by Dr Deivis DeCampos, a researcher in human anatomy at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in Brazil. In the portrait of Michelangelo’s friend (left), created by the artist in 1525, he found a small figure standing in the area immediately in front of her abdomen and between the lines that form part of her dress (highlighted left, in closeup right). The caricature may have been a way for Michelangelo (inset, right) to get round restrictions on artists signing their work.

Using Apple's augmented reality software, programmer Abhishek Singh was able to create a multiplayer version of the nostalgia-inducing combat game from the 1980's. Street Fighter II: Real World Warrior lets users play the game on a busy street, on top of tables and in parking lots. The game title is a play on words from the real Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

The renowned theoretical physicist feared asteroid stripes, AI, over-population, climate change, aliens and human aggression could all wipe out humanity. Professor Hawking made the warning in May and said future generations must forge a new existence in space. Hawking, who wanted to go into space on Virgin boss Richard Branson's Ride Virgin Atlantic spaceship, said: 'I want to encourage public interest in space, and I have been getting my training in early.'