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Ancient Birds

(1) Giant birds of the past have names that speak for themselves. The Elephant bird, a native of Madagascar and the largest known giant bird, stood at over nine feet tall and weighed in at 1,000 pounds or more, until it went extinct about 1,000 years ago. Australia's Mthirung, nicknamed "Thunderbird," which disappeared nearly 50,000 years ago, is thought to have been nearly seven feet tall and weighed between 500 and 1,000 pounds. But until now, no one had ever found evidence of these towering avians in Europe.

(2) Today, researchers describe the first fossil of a giant bird found in Crimea. Dated at around 1.8 million years old, the specimen makes experts question previous assumptions that giant birds were not part of the region's fauna during that period.

(3) A team of paleontologists dug up the fossil an unusually large femur bone_ in Taurida Cave, located on the Crimean Peninsula in the northern Black Sea. The cave was only discovered last June when the construction of a new highway revealed its entrance.

(4) Based on the femur's dimensions, the team calculated that the bird would have weighed around 992 pounds as much as an adult polar bear-making it the third largest bird ever recorded. Daniel Field, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, says, "It raises exciting questions about the factors that gave rise to these giant birds, and the factors that drove them to extinction".

Biotechnology

1) In the past couple of decades, the field of biotechnology has exploded. Biotechnology companies make products including vaccinations, medicines, and industrial bacteria that can be used to treat waste or clean up toxic spills.

2) Biotechnology is closely related to the fields of genetics and genetic engineering, which have also made dramatic advances in recent years. Genetics is the study of genes and heredity, while genetic engineering is the changing of genetic material to produce specific results. Beginning in the 1950s, genetic researchers led by Rosalind Franklin, J.D. Watson, and F.H.C. Crick examined the chemical code carried by all living things. Their research established the central role of DNA in the chromosomes that determine human heredity. Their work revealed the "double helix" spiral-shaped DNA that carries hereditary traits from parents to children.

3) Ongoing genetic research has produced new drug therapies to fight human diseases. Research has also created new strains of fruits and vegetables that are intended to fight disease or thrive in conditions where they usually don't grow. Genetic cloning, or the process of creating identical organisms from the cell of an organism, has many practical applications in raising animals and in biological research.

4) Biotechnology and genetic engineering have brought benefits, but also debate. Some people, understandably, believe that genetically modified foods are unnatural and potentially dangerous. The possibility of cloning genetically identical mammals has also raised questions about the role of science in creating and changing life.

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