|  Watch for the Mischievous 'Demon Star' This Week  | Perseus — will pass directly overhead. Its prominent variable star, Algol — known as "the Demon" — will be vividly visible as well. In case you're not familiar with the story — which, in some ways, seems almost like a soap opera — Perseus' mission was to behead the Gorgon Medusa, a hideous creature with rather unusual "naturally curly" hair composed of poisonous snakes.
| Read More » Astronauts in Space Honor Paris Attack Victims (Video)  | The crew of the International Space Station and flight controllers worldwide held a moment of silence this week for the victims of the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks, and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly shared some remarks in a new video. The space station personnel joined a stunned and grieving world in the wake of Friday's attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured 352. The space station's six-man crew took part in the tribute on Monday (Nov. 16), NASA officials said.
| Read More » Giant Bling: World's Second-Largest Diamond Unearthed  | A mining company operating in Botswana recently announced that it has "recovered" the second-largest diamond in the world. At 1,111 carats, the rock weighs nearly half a pound (227 grams) and measures 2.6 by 2.2 by 1.6 inches (65 by 56 by 40 millimeters). The gem is the largest of its kind to ever be found in Botswana and the largest diamond to be discovered anywhere in the world in more than 100 years, according to officials from the Lucara Diamond Corp., which discovered the massive gemstone.
| Read More » More than half of Amazon tree species seen at risk of extinction  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South America's vast Amazon region harbors one of the world's most diverse collection of tree species, but more than half may be at risk for extinction due to ongoing deforestation to clear land for farming, ranching and other purposes, scientists say. Researchers said on Friday that if recent trends continued, between 36 and 57 percent of the estimated 15,000 Amazonian tree species likely would qualify as threatened with extinction under criteria used by the group that makes such determinations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The researchers analyzed Amazonian forest surveys and data on current and projected deforestation areas.
| Read More » Fossilized Tropical Forest Found — in Arctic Norway  | A tropical forest densely packed with 12-foot-tall trees with flared trunks and curved branches of needle leaves — Dr. Seuss would have felt right at home — covered an area near the equator some 380 million years ago. During the Devonian period (416 million to 358 million years ago), Earth's first large trees were emerging. Also around this time, atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped significantly.
| Read More » Spooky Action Is Real: Bizarre Quantum Entanglement Confirmed in New Tests Two recent studies have confirmed that the "spooky action at a distance" that so upset Albert Einstein — the notion that two entangled particles separated by long distances can instantly affect each other — has been proven to work in a stunning array of different experimental setups. One experiment closed two of the three loopholes in proofs of spooky action at a distance. Another found that quantum entanglement works over astonishingly large distances. Read More » Scientists: Fungus causes snake ailment, but reason elusive  | MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A fungus has been identified as the cause of a mysterious ailment that has been infecting some snake species in the eastern United States, threatening some isolated snake populations such as the timber rattlesnakes found in western Vermont.
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