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Astronomers have discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected in the universe — a gigantic, 12-billion-year-old cloud harboring 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined. The cloud of water vapor surrounds a supermassive black hole called a quasar located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence, researchers said. "Because the light we are seeing left this quasar more than 12 billion years ago, we are seeing water that was present only some 1.6 billion years after the beginning of...

Jerusalem, July 11, 2010 -- A tiny clay fragment – dating from the 14th century B.C.E. – that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say. The clay fragment was uncovered recently during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10th century B.C.E. tower...

Exciting news from one of Christianity’s earliest seats, and the UK Daily Mail: The world’s earliest illustrated Christian book has been saved by a British charity which located it at a remote Ethiopian monastery.The incredible Garima Gospels are named after a monk who arrived in the African country in the fifth century and is said to have copied them out in just one day.Beautifully illustrated, the colours are still vivid and thanks to the Ethiopian Heritage Fund have been conserved. The survival of the Gospels is incredible considering the country has been under Muslim invasion, Italian invasion and a fire...

<p>The retired Navy officer was the only one still alive among those who were awarded the medal for actions during the Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941.</p> <p>Reporting from San Diego — Retired Navy officer John Finn, who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Japanese attack on military installations in Hawaii that plunged the United States into World War II, died Thursday at the Veterans Home of California in Chula Vista.</p>

A plant that started life during the last Ice Age is still going strong in the arid scrublands of California, scientists revealed today. Researchers believe the Jurupa Oak has been around for 13,000 years, making it the oldest living plant in the world. The oak is made up of a community of cloned bushes and scientists believe it has managed to survive the extreme effects of climate change by regenerating.

<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. – A 114-year-old New Hampshire woman who loves the Boston Red Sox, Hershey's Kisses and ice cream is believed to be the oldest American.</p> <p>Mary Josephine Ray secured the title of the oldest person in the US after the death of Gertrude Baines on Friday in Los Angeles.</p>

TOKYO – Tomoji Tanabe, the world's oldest man, died in his sleep at his home in southern Japan on Friday, a city official said. He was 113. "He died peacefully. His family members were with him," said Junko Nakao, a city official in Miyakonojo on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. Tanabe died of heart failure, she said. Tanabe, who was born on Sept. 18, 1895, had eight children — five sons and three daughters. The former city land surveyor also had 25 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren, according to a statement from Miyakonojo city. He was certified by the...

Ariz. man was Vietnam vet who decided to re-enlist after 9/11 attacks PHOENIX - A 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq has become the oldest Army soldier to die in that conflict, the military said Thursday.

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – The nation's oldest nuclear power plant has been granted a new license allowing it to operate for another 20 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission dismissed objections from anti-nuclear and environmental groups and issued the license Wednesday to the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, N.J., about 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 75 miles south of New York City. ... Oyster Creek's boiling-water reactor is considered obsolete by today's standards.

Israel is the only sovereign state whose destruction international society will excuse "If you take a trip overseas Tuck your Star of David into your shirt It's dangerous if they know you're from here. If they ask you, say you're from Greece Say you're from Sudan So they don't make trouble for you." - translated from the Tea Packs song "Neshika Le'Dod" A few years ago, on a family holiday in London, we spent an afternoon watching the street performers at Covent Garden - fire-eaters, trick-cyclists, jugglers. One of the better acts, a young man with a mop of dirty...

An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he says is the earliest-known Hebrew text, found on a shard of pottery that dates to the time of King David from the Old Testament, about 3,000 years ago. Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says the inscribed pottery shard -- known as an ostracon -- was found during excavations of a fortress from the 10th century BC. Carbon dating of the ostracon, along with pottery analysis, dates the inscription to time of King David, about a millennium earlier than the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the university said. The shard contains...

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the oldest Hebrew text ever found, at a site they believe was King David's front line fortress in the war against the people of Pleshet, also known as the Philistines. The site overlooks the Elah Valley, where the young David slew Goliath, the Philistine giant, with a well-aimed shot from a sling. The text is written in ink on a pottery shard. It is made up of five lines of text in Proto-Canaanite characters separated by lines. The discovery, by archaeologists Prof. Yossi Garfinkel and Sa'ar Ganor of Hebrew University, is being...

An armored fish was about to become a mom some 380 million years ago. Though the primitive fish perished, its fossilized remains remarkably reveal an embryo and umbilical cord inside the soon-to-be mother's body. The discovery marks the oldest evidence of an animal giving live birth, pushing the known record of such reproduction back by some 200 million years. It also supports the idea that internal fertilization in vertebrates (animals with backbones) originated in a group of primitive fish. "When I first saw the embryo inside the mother fish, my jaw dropped," said researcher John Long, a paleontologist at Museum...

Derbyshire may have 'oldest' dog Bella's owner says she is at least 28 years old A Derbyshire couple are trying to prove their pet Labrador cross is the oldest dog in the world. Bella's owner David Richardson, 76, said he bought the mixed breed dog from the RSPCA 26 years ago when she was "at least three years old". That would make Bella's age more than 200 in canine years. But the RSPCA said it does not have any records for Bella and Guinness World Records said without the appropriate paperwork it could not be proved. Mr Richardson said he...

Bandurria is the oldest Peruvian archaeological site, says expert Archaeological site of Bandurria located in Huaura, Lima Lima, Apr. 16 (ANDINA).- The archaelogical site of Bandurria dating back 3200 BC (located in the province of Huaura, Lima) is considered the origin of ancient American civilization, said archaeologist Alejandro Chu Barrera, director of the Archaeological Project of Bandurria. “Several radiocarbon datings done in the United states confirmed that Bandurria dates back from 3200 B.C., while Caral dates from 2900”, said the archaeologist. The expert mentioned that the main reason for the development of highly organized cultures along the Peruvian coast is...

World’s oldest, 8,000 years old tree found in Sweden April 10th, 2008 - 11:23 pm ICT RIA Novosti Stockholm, April 10 (RIA Novosti) Scientists in northern Sweden believe they have discovered the world’s oldest living tree dating back nearly 8,000 years, local media said Thursday. A Norway spruce, which was found growing at a height of 950 metres above sea level, is more than two metres (6.5 feet) tall and about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in width. Shortly after the discovery, scientists sent samples from the tree to a laboratory in Miami, US, and were amazed to learn that the...

World's oldest voice recording goes online It's no-one's idea of great music -- to some, it may sound like a dolphin with tonsilitis -- but the ghostly warbling of a French folk song nearly 148 years ago comprises the oldest recording of the human voice, France's Academy of Sciences says. The 10-second recording was made by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on April 9 1860, when Emperor Napoleon III, the last monarch of France, was on the throne. It was made a whole 17 years before Thomas Edison made his historic message, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on...

Archaeologists have Discovered the World's Oldest Inscription in Jiroft 05 November 2007 LONDON, (CAIS) -- Archaeologists have discovered the world's most ancient inscription in the Iranian city of Jiroft, near the Halil Roud historical site. "The inscription, discovered in a palace, was carved on a baked mud-brick whose lower left corner has only remained,” explained Professor Yousof Majid-Zadeh, head of the Jiroft excavation team. “The only ancient inscriptions known to experts before the Jiroft discovery were cuneiform and hieroglyph,” said Majid Zadeh, adding that,”the new-found inscription is formed by geometric shapes and no linguist around the world has been able...

Ming the clam is 'oldest animal' Shakespeare was writing plays when the clam was a juvenile A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived creature discovered. Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity. Researchers from Bangor University in Wales said they calculated the clam's age by counting rings on its shell. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived animal was an Arctica clam found in 1982 aged 220. They are like tiny tape-recorders......

'Oldest' wall painting looks like modern art By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:56pm BST 11/10/2007 French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old work of art in northern Syria which is the oldest known wall painting, even though it looks like a work by a modernist. The painting resembles the work of Paul Klee The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo. "It looks like a modernist painting," said Eric Coqueugniot, the team leader. "Some of those who saw it have...