A semi-circular construction made of stones, some more than two meters tall, stood at the center of the now submerged city Atlit-Yam and probably hosted ritual ceremonies.
Credit: credit: I. Hershkovitz

EARLY TUBERCULOSIS. DNA evidence of human tuberculosis from these 9,000-year-old bones of a woman and an infant suggests the disease appeared in humans much earlier than thought. Full story.
Credit: credit: I. Hershkovitz

VIDEO | Gary and Audrey Revell demonstrate worm grunting to collect bait in the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida's panhandle. A second segment shows a preliminary test for earthworm responses to a burrowing mole. The container holds soil and 50 earthworms, which start coming out of the soil as the mole burrows into it. (Video is sped-up).
Credit: Catania et al. / PLoS One

LIKE MOLE, LIKE HUMAN. A team of researchers has analyzed worm grunting, a long-used technique for catching worms. Above, Gary Revell demonstrates the steps during the Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin’ Festival in Florida. It's likely the technique works by mimicking the sounds made underground by the eastern American mole, thus scaring the worms to the surface. Full story and video.
Credit: credit: Kenneth Catania

Here's the same view of that tropical Peruvian glacier photographed when Thompson returned in 2000. A lake of meltwater now occupied what 22 years earlier had been a deep field of flowing ice.
Credit: Ohio State Univ.

Here's the Qori Kalis glacier when Lonnie Thompson first visited it in 1978. At this time, it was still healthy.
Credit: Ohio State Univ.

At the 2008 Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin' Festival in Florida, expert Gary Revell demonstrates the traditional art of hunting worms by rubbing metal over a wooden stake in the ground. The technique makes a grunting noise reminiscent of a predatory mole.The worms rush out of the ground.
Credit: Catania

The eastern American mole readily eats Florida's plump native earthworms when given a chance.
Credit: Catania

Diplocardia mississippiensis, the main earthworm in Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest, can grow to roughly the size of a foot-long pencil. People search out the species for bait, mimicking sounds created by moles hunting the worms for food.
Credit: Catania

These infrared images show the cyclone at the north pole (left) and at the south pole (right).
Credit: NASA, JPL, University of Arizona

Newly released images of Saturn’s south pole, taken by the Cassini spacecraft in May 2007, show the entire polar region, including a hurricane-like vortex at the core. The bottom image is in infrared, showing dark areas where clouds absorb the planet’s internal heat. The upper, false-color image combines views from many wavelengths. Aqua areas are clouds and haze, not seen over the pole itself.

For more than two weeks, a malfunction has rendered the Hubble Space Telescope silent. NASA scientists have a plan they hope will get the orbiting observatory back online this week. Full story.
Credit: NASA/STScI

After being catalogued, rocks are shelved in boxes and drawers.
Credit: J.Raloff

Julie holds a beauty retrieved from Windy Peak laden with fossils of Glossopteris leaves.
Credit: J. Raloff

Librarians can get scraped and bruised shelving this library's holding.
Credit: J. Raloff