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The Earth has been granted a reprieve and will probably escape being swallowed up when the Sun dies in about 7.5 billion years. New calculations actually extend the length of time the Earth will be habitable by 200 million years.

In the end, the surface of the planet will become too hot for life to survive. Earth-dwellers will have to find alternative homes in space, says Dr. Robert Smith, of the University of Sussex in the U.K. ?We had better get used to the idea that we shall need to build our own survival capsules — the planets are simply too far apart for planet-hopping to be a viable solution,? he says. ?Perhaps this is the ultimate justification for developing an International Space Station.?
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The cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown, but a large new study suggests that a previous infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be one cause. Epstein-Barr, which may be the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, infects more than 90% of the human population and can cause mononucleosis (also known as ?mono?) in adolescents and adults. The infection can last up to a month and cause fever, sore throat and swollen lymph glands.

In a study of more than 62,000 women, Dr. Alberto Ascherio of Harvard University and his colleagues found 18 women who had blood collected prior to their diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. They found that these women had higher antibody levels to EBV in their blood compared to people who did not have multiple sclerosis.
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In spite of the rising temperatures everywhere else, the Antarctic has cooled during the past 35. However, some Antarctic ?hotspot? have gotten warmer over the past few decades.

The research was done by Dr. Peter Doran, of the University of illinois, at the American National Science Foundation?s long-term ecological research site in Antarctica?s Dry Valleys, a snow-free mountainous area on McMurdo Sound.
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The world?s oldest example of abstract art, dating back more than 70,000 years, has been found in a cave in South Africa. It was found on two pieces of ochre in a cave on the shore of the Indian Ocean.

Previously, the earliest evidence of abstract art came mainly in France and dated back less than 35,000 years.

Dr. Christopher Henshilwood, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, says, ?[The art] may have been constructed with symbolic intent, the meaning of which is now unknown. The engraving itself is quite a complex geometric pattern. There is a system to the patterns. We don’t know what they mean, but they are symbols that I think could have been interpreted by those people as having meaning that would have been understood by others.? read more