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Caption: A fascinating sea creature captured in footage of unknown origin has evoked wild debate on the web. The post popular assumption so far is that the animal is a unique deep-sea jellyfish.

According to the information on the screen, the video was recorded at a depth of 5,045 feet (1,538 meters). There are not that many submersibles in the world that can reach such a depth. Considering the Imperial system is used for the optics of the submersible, it must be American or British-made.

Some scientists believe it to be Deepstaria enigmatica, an extremely rare jellyfish first described after a deep-sea submersible dive in 1967.

Some see in it little more than any old jellyfish. Others recall James Cameron’s aliens from The Abyss, living at the bottom of the ocean.
Source: Alien or Jellyfreak? Deep-sea monster vid whips up storm (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Update: According to the Telegraph: Experts have confirmed that it is in fact a Deepstaria enigmatica, a jellyfish from the Ulmaridae family first discovered in 1967 by F.S. Russel. The invertebrae is usually found in the South Atlantic ocean. — Underwater footage sparks sea monster rumours

It couldn’t have been very old as it still had its eyes closed, but it had obviously been dead a while as it was completely cold. I’m guessing it’s mother had been moving it to a new den, when something must have disturbed her — hopefully she had more cubs and managed to move them safely.

I guess it’s all part of life’s cycle, but it did make me a bit sad when I found it.

The round disc in the photo is a 2 pence coin, used to show the size of the cub.

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Halvorsen is entering the robot in the BOCA Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition.

When asked about the project, Halvorsen said “MorpHex is mostly a work of art and goes in the category of hobby robotics. It’s a remotely operated robot. I believe it could be used in animatronics as a transforming robot as well. The main goal of this project was to make a hexapod robot that could transform into a sphere shape and back. In “sphere mode” the robot should be able to roll freely like a ball.”

You can find out more about MorpHex and vote for Kåre Halvorsen on the BOCA Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition website.

We had a report last night saving a strange light had been seen over Stockport.

just seen what i first thought was a comet across the sky over stockport. i was just having a cig on the porch when i saw this circular object traveling at a amazing rate of knots from north to south. I live beneath the manchester airport flight path but this was nothing like a plane, it was orange/red in colour and had a large tail with it. was very very peculiar and i am sure it was a comet but yet i cannot find anything that suggests it was. mental!!

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Police forces say they have received a number of calls reporting what is believed to have been a meteor.

Reports of a “bright light” and an “orange glow” came in across the north of England and Scotland at about 21:40 GMT amid fears a plane had crashed.

The Met Office tweeted: “Hi All, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite.”

Durham Police said air traffic control had confirmed there had not been any incidents of aircraft in difficulties

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Source: Meteor witnessed across Britain BBC

Thanks to Sam for the report/comment on Orange balls of light seem over South London.

Chikilidae with a clutch of eggs

New species, genus and family
The new family of tailless burrowing caecilians was described based on differences in external and internal appearance compared to the nine families of legless amphibians already known. Scientists performed DNA analysis of the specimens and confirmed that it is an entirely new family. They have named this new family as Chikilidae and the new genus as Chikila. The scientific name Chikilidae is derived from Garo (a Northeast Indian tribal) language for caecilians.

Caecilians
Caecilians lead a secretive, under-soil, lifestyle making it extremely challenging to find them. This remarkable discovery came following an unprecedented fieldwork effort of soil-digging surveys in about 250 localities spread over five years (2006-2010) in various parts of every Northeast Indian state, including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The work is the most extensive systematic program of dedicated caecilian surveys ever attempted.

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Discovery of a new vertebrate (animals with backbone) family is a rare feat in science and most of the world’s 61 amphibian families were described in the mid-1800s. The majority of new discoveries come from remote tropical rainforests. However, the new family described here is mainly from human-inhabited areas. “This makes the conservation of species more challenging”, said Prof SD Biju from University of Delhi who led the research.

Source and more information can be found here: New family of legless burrowing amphibian discovered in India’s vanishing habitats

A huge crustacean has been found lurking 7km down in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.

The creature – called a supergiant – is a type of amphipod, which are normally around 2-3cm long.

But these beasts, discovered in the Kermadec Trench, were more than 10 times bigger: the largest found measured in at 34cm.

Alan Jamieson, from the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, said: “It’s a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach.”

“I stopped and thought: ‘What on Earth was that?’ This amphipod was far bigger than I ever thought possible.”

Source: ‘Supergiant’ crustacean found in deepest ocean

World's smallest frog discovered

A frog species that appears to be the world’s smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world’s smallest vertebrate – the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs’ tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Source: World’s smallest frog discovered

Below are a couple of short videos, one about M-theory and why such a theory would make God Unnecessary, and the second is 10 intriguing questions from Time.

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More great links:
Stephen Hawking at 70: Fellow scientists pay tribute
As cosmologists gather in Cambridge to honour Stephen Hawking on his 70th birthday, they share their recollections of meeting and working with him.

As Stephen Hawking turns 70, six life lessons you should learn from him
Physicist, cosmologist and obsessor of black holes Stephen Hawking turns 70 Sunday, despite a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease that doctors said would kill him almost five decades ago. Many scientists are taking the birthday as a chance to reflect on what the man taught us in his brilliant career

Stephen Hawking – The Official Website!

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The video shows wild mountain gorillas visiting an ecotourism tented camp, the guy ‘John’ is speechless as the baby gorillas touch him and it also looks like one of them kisses him on the cheek!

I guess the more they interact with humans, especially the younger gorillas, the more tame they will become, which might not be such a good idea.