Zombie Ants Controlled by Fungal Overlord!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Huh? This story is too weird for me to even attempt to summarize, so I'll just go straight to the MSNBC highlight:

In a bizarre parasitic death sentence, a fungus turns carpenter ants into the walking dead and gets them to die in a spot that's perfect for the fungus to grow and reproduce.

...and...

Once infected by the fungus, an ant is compelled to climb down from the canopy to the low leaves, where it clamps down with its mandibles just before it dies.

"The fungus accurately manipulates the infected ants into dying where the parasite prefers to be, by making the ants travel a long way during the last hours of their lives," said study leader David P. Hughes of Harvard University.

Yeah, just plain weird, right? Anyway, to learn more about the evil fungus and it's insectoid automatons, read on...

Now if only we could get the fungus to get rid of these bugs, I'd feel safer!

Cave Complex Discovered Under Giza Pyramids!

Image copyright Andrew Collins, 2009 via Discovery News

This is REALLY cool news--a British expolorer claims to have discovered a series of caves and tunnels under the pyramids at Giza! The place is crawling with venomous spiders and bats! It's like real-life dungeon crawl!

From Discovery News:

"There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said.

Collins, who will detail his findings in the book "Beneath the Pyramids" to be published in September, tracked down the entrance to the mysterious underworld after reading the forgotten memoirs of a 19th century diplomat and explorer.

"In his memoirs, British consul general Henry Salt recounts how he investigated an underground system of 'catacombs' at Giza in 1817 in the company of Italian explorer Giovanni Caviglia," Collins said.

If true, this is seriously one of the more exciting archeological finds I've heard of--like a real life Indiana Jones adventure!

Image courtesy Wikipedia

More from Discovery News...

Giant Black "Blob" Attacks Alaska!

I guess there's more than one blob out there! This one is "definately organic" according to one official. And it likes cold water. Seriously creepy! From the Anchorage Daily News:

Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

Here's some choice quotes about it's physical description:

It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism."

and...

"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.

Yuck!

Read more...

Photos courtesy of the North Slope Borough via Anchorage Daily News.

Mason-Dixon Meteorite Tracked on Video

Looks like I'm a few days behind on this--the Mason-Dixon Meteorite was tracked on a surveillance camera! The Baltimore Sun has more:

The big fireball meteor that startled residents in Central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania early Monday morning was captured on a security camera video in York Pa. It's about 18 seconds into the 70-second video. Meteorite hunters hope this will be a first clue to guide them to the spot where surviving bits of the meteor - if there are any - may have landed.

Video isn't super great quality, but definitely worth checking out.

And it looks like a local astronomy buff has created a simulation (click the pick for the video):
Read more about the hunt for the meteorite and the latest details so far...

Props to www.mikesastrophotos.com and the Baltimore Sun.