Did humans transmit Mad Cow Disease, or BSE, to cows? According to a new theory, diseased human body parts from India may have been fed to British cows. In traditional Hindu culture, after a person dies, the body gets ritually bathed, the corpse gets burned on a pyre and the head of the dead person […]
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Brown Bears in the Alps: The Great Bear Comeback
The brown bear is returning to the mountains of Central Europe, thanks to resettlement projects in Italy, Austria and France. Biologists celebrate the animals’ return as a success in endangered species protection. But the general population has mixed feelings about welcoming back the predator. By Philip Bethge It was Christina Kröll’s dog which showed the […]
Extreme Caving: The Search for the Basement of the World
Everyone knows that Mt. Everest is the roof of the world. But where is the deepest cave? A team of Ukrainian cave explorers has broken the record for the deepest trip ever into the bowels of our planet. They descended two kilometers below the surface. The spot at which Yuri Kasjan and his team entered […]
The Plague: Locusts Swarm Europe
For months, vast swarms of locusts have been buzzing through Africa, eating everything in sight. Now, they have reached European shores. Can the plague be stopped? By Philip Bethge It was like deja vu, a flashback to that all-too-familiar invasion of feathered-friends from Hitchcock’s thriller “The Birds.” The difference: this time, the attackers had four […]