Vandalism at Stonehenge

Suspected souvenir hunters broke into Stonehenge and vandalised the ancient monument, English Heritage has said.

A hammer and screwdriver were used to take a small chip the size of a 10p piece from the side of the Heel Stone.

English Heritage said further damage was prevented by security guards who spotted the two men at the 5,000-year-old site in Wiltshire. . .

English Heritage said souvenir hunting was once a legitimate practice and chisels used to be handed out to people visiting the stones.

From the BBC. This should also call into question the continuing practice of allowing large crowds -- tens of thousands, last year -- direct access to the stones on occasions such as the summer solstice. During such all-night parties, what are the chances of preventing the taking of souvenir chips here and there?

Genetic resurrection milestone

Scientists said Tuesday they had "resurrected" a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger by implanting it in a mouse, raising the future possibility of bringing animals such as dinosaurs back to life.

In what they describe as a world first, researchers from Australian and U.S. universities extracted a gene from a preserved specimen of the dog-like marsupial -- formally known as a thylacine -- and revived it in a mouse embryo.

From Discovery News.

Crystal skulls verdict in: not old

They've been under suspicion for a long time, with the London and Washington examples being the most likely if any to be genuinely old. But no:

Two of the best known crystal skulls - artefacts once thought to be the work of ancient American civilisations - are modern fakes, a scientific study shows. . .

Their results show the skulls were made using tools not available to the ancient Aztecs or Mayans.

Archaeologists say the work, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, should end decades of speculation over the origins of these controversial objects. . .

Professor Freestone said the work did not prove all crystal skulls were fakes, but it did cast doubt on the authenticity of other examples: "None of them have a good archaeological provenance and most appeared suspiciously in the last decades of the 20th Century. So we have to be sceptical," he explained.