HIQNews Home Page

Science News Comments

Martian Snow Source of Tropical Glaciers  - BBC  Left:  This image from the Mars Express orbiter shows the glacial deposits explained by James Head and colleagues in Science.  "What we found," Head said, "was that the glaciers were formed from snow brought from the polar regions." A few million years ago, Head and the team explain, the axis of Mars was tilted in such a way that the poles were pointing dramatically closer to the sun. Sun rays hit the polar ice caps nearly head on, releasing massive amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere. Monsoon-like winds carried the water vapor south, up and over the soaring slopes of the Tharsis Montes volcanoes and Olympus Mons, the solar system's largest volcano. The vapor cooled, condensed and fell in the form of snow. Over time, the snow turned to ice, the ice formed glaciers, and the glaciers created the deposits seen today.

Oily fish makes 'babies brainier'  - BBC  Looking at the effects of Omega-3 intake on 9,000 mothers and their children, the team found mothers with the lowest intake of the essential fatty acid had children with a verbal IQ six points lower than the average. While those with the highest consumption of mackerel and sardines and other sources of Omega-3 had children, at age three-and-a-half, with the best measures of fine-motor performance, researchers said. Research leader Dr Joseph Hibbeln said "frightening data" showed 14% of 17-year-olds whose mother had eaten small quantities of Omega -3 during pregnancy demonstrated this sort of behaviour.