ON THE RADAR:News from the world of science
Troublesome escapees will feature in a talk today at the National Botanic Gardens as part of Heritage Week.
Conservation botanist Dr Noeleen Smyth will talk about the control of plants that have escaped from gardens and are now causing serious problems in the wild, including Gunnera tinctoria(giant rhubarb, pictured) on Clare Island and Carpobrotus edulis(Hottentot Fig) on Howth Head.
The free talk starts at 2pm at the education and visitor centre of the gardens, and if you want to take part in a field trip to Howth Head afterwards you need to book a place on the bus (tel: 01-8040300).
Oldest animal fossils found
Princeton University scientists reckon they have found the oldest known fossils of animal bodies – the remains of sponge-like creatures from around 650 million years ago that turned up as anvil, wishbone, ring and perforated slab shapes in limestone. “The shelly fossils, found beneath a 635-million-year-old glacial deposit in South Australia, represent the earliest evidence of animal body forms in the current fossil record by at least 70 million years,” says a statement from Princeton about the findings.
– ( Nature Geoscience)
“There’s no doubt about it: we’re in a difficult situation, but we are not without ideas
– Dr Rune Floberghagen, mission manager of the European Goce observation satellite, on a computer problem which means the spacecraft can’t relay data it records about gravity back to earth – (BBC)
Claire O’Connell