Extinct after all
The best evidence for the continued existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, believed extinct for decades until 鈥渃aptured鈥� on video two years ago, has been discredited. A video analysis of the common pileated woodpecker to be published in BMC Biology shows it has the colour pattern and wingbeat frequency thought to be unique to the ivory-bill.
Even earlier humans
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Modern humans were around at least 100,000 years earlier than we thought, if the teeth in a fossil jawbone are anything to go by. The 160,000-year-old teeth, found in Morocco, show growth patterns more similar to living Homo sapiens than fossil Homo species (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0700747104).
Dwarf no more
Pluto鈥檚 no planet 鈥� unless you live in New Mexico. The star-struck state, home to a host of observatories, was this week considering reinstating Pluto as a full-blown planet, rather than the dwarf status assigned it by the International Astronomical Union last August. Why? Pluto鈥檚 discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, hailed from New Mexico State University.
Hot money
In open defiance of attempts to restrain its nuclear programme, Iran unveiled new banknotes on Monday bearing the nuclear symbol of electrons orbiting a nucleus. Worth about $5, the notes carry a saying from the prophet Mohammed: 鈥淢en from the land of Persia will attain scientific knowledge even if it is as far as the Pleiades.鈥�
Bound to cut carbon
The UK has become the first country to propose legally binding national limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The draft Climate Change Bill, published on Tuesday, requires cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of 60 per cent by 2050, relative to 1990 levels.