List of All Articles with Tag 'n'

Maud Kells is praised for her "tremendous courage" after spending decades as an aid worker.

Investor Warren Buffett joined the recent oil-buying spree in the market this week by resuming Berkshire Hathaway's purchases of Occidental Petroleum stock for the first time in four months

A scientist who found the oldest water ever discovered on Earth decided the best course of action was, of course, to drink it. Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar was leading a team of geologists studying a Canadian mine in 2016 when she made the remarkable discovery. The flowing water about three kilometres below the surface was between 1.5bn and 2.6bn years old, according to tests, making it the oldest water found on Earth. “When people think about this water they assume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock,” said Prof Sherwood Lollar. “But in fact it’s very much bubbling right up out at you. These things are flowing at rates of litres per minute – the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.” Upon tasting the ancient water, she found that it was “very salty and bitter” and “much saltier than seawater”. That was an encouraging sign, because saltier water tends to be older. In this case, where the water has been ageing for billions of years, it is hardly surprising. “If you’re a geologist who works with rocks, you’ve probably licked a lot of rocks,” said Sherwood Lollar. Her team also found that life had once been present in the water, by looking at the sulphate – the composition of salts – in it. “We were able to indicate that the signal we are seeing in the fluids has to have been produced by microbiology – and most importantly has to have been produced over a very long time scale. “The microbes that produced this signature couldn’t have done it overnight. “This has to be an indication that organisms have been present in these fluids on a geological timescale.” Fortunately, the scientist had no terrifying sci-fi movie-esq reaction to drinking the ancient water, and lived to tell the tale. The paper was published in Nature in 2016. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Today on The Whiteboard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes an MVP statement, James Harden is back, big performances from last night and more.

By Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS From supporting Ukraine to boosting military might and managing migration, European

The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose for the seventh straight week, making a significant hurdle for prospective homebuyers

By Enrico Sciacovelli and Olivier Cherfan (Reuters) -French video game producer Ubisoft on Thursday confirmed its guidance for the current

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has joined an EU summit saying that he was right to meet the EU’s foremost enemy Vladimir Putin

By Joseph Campbell KFAR SABA, Israel After Hamas' shock attack on Israel, Shimrit Ben Arosh, a mother from

WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said the nation is mourning after "another senseless and tragic mass

Cultural phenomenon Taylor Swift helped fuel revenue at Universal Music Group in the third quarter, the world's largest

With a break in the playoff action, all attention turns to MLB rumors, which are focused on one key Braves pitcher, the Pirates plans, and a potential Juan Soto trade.