The discovery of the “pacemaker gene” could lead to new drug treatments to avoid heart attacks and disease, say experts.

A person’s heartbeat is controlled by electrical signals, which start in one central place – the heart’s pacemaker – and travel around the heart muscle.

And now, a team at Imperial College London have found the gene that controls those electrical signals and thus the rhythm of the heart.

The researchers claimed that the damage or mutations to the gene – known as SCN10A – increase the risk of heart disease.

The researchers believe that the finding could help them to understand how the body’s heartbeat is controlled and could ultimately help them come up with new treatments for heart rhythm disturbances.

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Amazing similarity

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Scientists investigating a large crater in a field in northern Latvia, believed to have been caused by a meteorite, now suspect it was a hoax.

The Latvian media reported on the fall of the meteorite near the city Mazsalaca Valmiera District. In the area of the fall of the meteorite crater width 20 and depth of 10 meters.

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Robert Oppenheimer – father of the American atomic bomb, the head of the Manhattan Project.

Military generals and Robert Oppenheimer inspect the ruins of the tower after the first test of the atomic bomb on July 16 1945.

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A research team from Indonesia’s Sam Ratulangi University, Indonesian Science Institution and Fukushima Aquamarine Japan  once again found prehistoric fish called coelacanth at Talise waters of North Minahasa in 155 meter-depth.

The fish was found during the first hour of the researchers’ first day by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

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Scientists and filmmakers have discovered a new species of giant rat deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea along with other other animals hitherto unseen.

The woolly rat, an over-sized vegetarian rodent, measures 82 cm long and weighs in at 1.5 Kg. Its size makes it amongst the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.

The creature was discovered by an expedition team filming for BBC program Lost Land of the Volcano.

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The night sky will sparkle with “falling stars” on Tuesday and Wednesday as Earth passes through a trail of dusty debris from the Swift-Tuttle Comet, say scientists.

The light show, called the Perseid meteor shower, kicks off each year in late-July and increases in intensity, peaking a couple of weeks later.

On a clear night in a dark sky “you should see dozens of meteors per hour,” notes Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

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In a new research, scientists have found for the first time that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesised under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle of the Earth.

The research was conducted by scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues from Russia and Sweden.

Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, while ethane (C2H6) is used as a petrochemical feedstock.

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When we talked with element 112’s discoverer, Sigurd Hofmann, on the significance of making a permanent mark on the periodic table, he told us he wanted a moniker that recognized a famous scientist while avoiding the flag-waving nationalism normally associated with the process. Today, Hofmann and his team made their decision public.

Good bye element 112 and ununbium, its placeholder name. Hello “Copernicium.”

By choosing to honor the father of the heliocentric solar system, element 112 discovery team leader Sigurd Hofmann wanted to avoid the divisive names selected for past elements, salute an influential scientist who didn’t receive any accolades in his own lifetime, and highlight the link between astronomy and Hofmann’s own field of nuclear chemistry.

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Archaeologists from Berkshire, UK, have discovered evidence of an Iron Age town underneath the remains of a Roman settlement in north Hampshire, which they say could be Britain’s earliest Iron Age towns with a planned layout.

The discovery was made by the University of Reading’s Archaeology Department, which has been excavating at the Silchester Roman site, Calleva Atrebatum, since 1997.

A street-grid was found to have been in place before the Romans came in AD 43. Archaeologists have also discovered evidence of widespread burning at the site.

They believe this, along with other finds, suggests that the site could have been destroyed at the hands of queen Boudicca, who in AD 60/61 led a major uprising against the occupying Roman forces.

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