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Does having lots of children cause women to age more quickly? The family trees of Britain’s aristocratic families provide the answer.

Researchers believe that bearing children uses up energy which would otherwise be used to repair cells and slow down the aging process. To test this theory, researchers searched the Hollingsworth computerized genealogy, which has the records of 30,000 peers and their families between 1603 and 1959. They found that early death was a third more likely among women who had eight or more children, compared with those who had only two.

Even women who had four children died sooner, and there was also a disadvantage to having children early. There was no negative effect on the fathers.
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The primitive horseshoe crab lived on the Earth 250 million years ago, and is still with us today. Now scientists think they can use its blood to detect life on other planets. When a horseshoe crab is injured, its blood, which is the color blue, clots in order to keep infection out. “One of the reasons the horseshoe crab has survived for so long is its advanced immune system,” says biologist Norman Wainwright. “This system can be used to find microbial life.” Scientists have put the crab’s blood enzymes into a hand-held instrument that can test for signs of life.
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Which country uses the most cocaine? There’s no need to check police files or track down drug pushers in order to find out?all you need to do is test their money for traces of cocaine. According to this method, Spain uses the most coke, followed by Ireland and Germany.

Almost all the euros in Germany contain traces of cocaine. “Nine out of 10 banknotes show clearly measurable amounts of cocaine,” says drug tester Fritz Soergel. He did a separate study on euros in Barcelona, and says, “We were almost knocked flat by what we discovered there. The concentrations of cocaine on Spanish euro notes were almost a hundred times that of what we recorded in Germany.” Tests in London in 1999 showed more than 99% of the pound notes in circulation had cocaine on them.
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In order to control global warming, we need to get rid of greenhouse gas. But how can we do it? Cars and young trees give it off, cows poot it out, and power plants produce tons of it. Peter N. Spotts writes in the Christian Science Monitor that a synthetic fuel plant in North Dakota may have found the solution? Bury it.

The Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, N.D. turns coal into synthetic natural gas, with carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, as the byproduct. They’ve begun sending the CO2 through a pipeline an oil field in Saskatchewan, Canada, where it’s forced deep underground, into caverns that were once filled with oil. Will the CO2 stay put? Scientists plan to wait and see.
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