New satellite images reveal that large Antarctic ice sheets are “just a fewdegrees” away from a potentially catastrophic meltdown. If the ice melts,billions of gallons of water will rush into the oceans, raising sea levelsmuch more rapidly than has been predicted.

Polar ice has been melting for the past 14,000 years, and sea levels havebeen steadily rising. The EPA has been predicting a rise of a foot eachcentury. But if Antarctic ice sheets melt, the world’s oceans could suddenlyrise 3 feet by the year 2100, which would wipe out large, low-lying areas ofcontinents as well as entire island nations. Hundreds of millions of peoplecould have their homes permanently disappear.
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Today we inaugurate the forty-third President of the United States. It is an interesting experience for me, because, living here in Texas, I share many mutual friends with George and Laura Bush. There are many familiar faces flashing past on the podium. I remember when my father began to speak of George Bush Sr. as a newcomer, when he first began to make a name for himself in the oil business. Later on, I wondered how it must have felt to lead America into war, and how difficult the decision must have been not to pursue Saddam Hussein to Baghdad. I wonder, as we move daily closer to war in the Mideast, how our new president must feel, knowing that he, also, may have to command the nation in a war there.
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Scientists have announced that they have discovered magnetic crystals inside a 4 billion year old Martian meteorite that landed in Antarctica about 13,000 years ago. On earth, this type of crystal is only produced by microscopic bacteria.This is strong evidence for the existence of at least bacterial life on Mars.

This magnetic compound is called Magnetite and is used in audio and video tapes. It is created by a type of bacteriathat assembles the crystals atom by atom, producing crystals that are free from defects. This bacteria is commonly foundin water here on Earth.

“Finding this type of magnetic crystal in any material from another planet is an amazing and important finding,” saidDr. Dennis Bazylinski, a geobiologist at Iowa State University.
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While working in her lab, pathologist Lynn Allen-Hoffman discovered a petri dish filled with colonies of skin cellsthat, for some unknown reason, will not die. She was running a routine experiment on the aging of human skin, when shefirst noticed the group of seemingly immortal cells, in the midst of a colony of dead cells.

Most skin cells die within a few weeks, but these cells have been alive for 4 years now, and still show no sign ofdemise.
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