Leviathan & Poincaré

A terrific discovery in Paleontology (Nature) : the fossil of the skull of a whale (3 m. long), very alike to the skeleton of a sperm whale in size and in appearance. This whale seemed to be a very aggressive predator : a massive jaw with huge teeth, teeth on the upper and lower jaws, probably 17m. long. The team call this whale : Leviathan melvillei. Watch the nice video and read the article. A summary of both can be found at the BBC.

Note also a very important step in Mathematics : the conjecture de Poincaré is now considered a theorem, thanks to G. Perelman. See  Pour la Science.

MAJ (3/07/2010) : Perelman did not accept the prize associated with the solving of the problem. See : Brilliant & reclusive Russian Mathematician doesn't need your money.

Paleontology is hot

Two important discoveries were made recently in Paleontology. Both are described in the lastest online issue of Nature. The first is all about the presence of the first tetrapod on earth : it seems they appeared 20 millions years before when we thought they had (400 millions and not 380 millions years before today). The second is about the discovery of a new human species, in Siberia, who share a common ancestor (homo erectus) with homo neandertalis and homo sapiens, and migrated before homo heidelbergensis, the ancestor of homo neandertalis, from Africa (between 300 000 and 500 000 years ago).

1) Tetrapod : an article in french (La Recherche) and a video on Nature.
2) New human species : Nature.

Both are really worth seeing and reading !