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Cosmic rays are eating away at the Earth?s protective ozone layer, according to Canadian radiation scientists Qing-Bin Lu and Leon Sanche of the University of Sherbrooke. They claim to have discovered an important process underlying the growing ozone hole over the southern hemisphere. But atmospheric scientists are not so sure.

Lu and Sanche analyzed ozone and cosmic ray data taken from ground stations, weather balloons and satellites. In a paper in Physical Review Letters, they report a strong correlation between cosmic ray intensity and ozone depletion across different levels of the atmosphere and different latitudes. They also found that changes in ozone concentration matched fluctuating cosmic ray intensity between 1979 to 1992.
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How has foot-and-mouth disease, which closed off access to the English countryside for much of the summer, affected the number of crop circles that have appeared this year?

According to BBC News, the numbers have increased dramatically.

Wiltshire farmer Tim Carson had only one new circle appear on his land this year, until restrictions were lifted a month ago. ?I had a phone call to ask if the footpaths were open round our way,? he says. ?I said ?Yes,? and that night a crop circle appeared. Read into that what you will.? He adds, ?We had one circle during the restrictions and then the footpaths were reopened and we have had six since then.?
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Engineers are completing repairs to a hole that appeared 2 years ago on the top of Silbury Hill in the midst of crop circle country, and hope to unlock some of its mysteries. English Heritage, which oversees the site, says the ancient man-made hill in Wiltshire has some kind of religious significance and is part of a group of ceremonial monuments that cluster around the village of Avebury. It is the largest artificial prehistoric mound in Western Europe, and measures 112 feet high and 550 feet wide, tapering to 92 feet wide at the summit.

Radiocarbon dating indicates it was built in several phases between 2800 and 2000 BC. The giant mound would have taken 700 men 10 years to complete, using antler picks and shovels made from the shoulder bones of animals.
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Earth was struck by an unexpected proton storm from the sun on Thursday, August 16. The proton count around our planet rose to 1000 times normal. Scientists were taken by surprise, both by the storm itself and by the speed with which it reached earth.

Normally, proton storms that reach earth come from the side of the sun facing our planet, and are the result of explosions from sunspots. However, no such explosion took place this time. It is believed that a sunspot on the far side of the sun must have exploded, but holographic imagery showing the far side of the sun was insufficient to record the explosion.
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