The Fantastic World of Science

Footprints of ancient humans were uncovered in a trench in White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Carbon dating using seeds of ancient plants surrounding the prints date them to about 23,000 years ago. That implies humans occupied the Americas about 8000 years earlier then what most archeologists believed. While these results are controversial, they are the first significant piece of evidence for building a case that could completely change our understanding of human history. In 2009, David Bustos, the resource program manager of the park, discovered the footprints for the first time. Since then, Bustos along with several teams of scientists and archeologists have uncovered thousands of prints across the park. The prints are thought to have been formed by ancient people walking along lakes, their feet imprinting the ground. Sediment would fill these holes and as the ground hardened, the prints would remain in tack, lost under layers of white sand. However, erosion has uncovered the...

Mosquitoes are those annoying pests that cause mild discomfort on a warm summer’s day, but they are also responsible for the transmission of deadly diseases such as dengue fever and the zika virus. Aedes   aegypti , an invasive mosquito species that calls the Florida Keys its home, causes most of these infections each year. With the help of genetic engineering, U.K biotechnology company Oxitech have developed a genetically altered variant of Aedis aegypti that can destroy the species from the inside out. The deadly Aedis Aegypti  or yellow fever mosquito, notorious for spreading deadly viruses such as dengue fever.  Mosquito transmitted diseases account for tens of millions of cases of illness every year. Rises in global temperature and urbanization have increased their population sizes. In addition, mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to the insecticides that have kept them at bay for years. A new approach was necessary. Well, if we can’t reduce their current popul...