Daily alternative news articles at the News Desk for GrahamHancock.com. Featuring alternative history, science, archaeology, ancient egypt, paranormal & supernatural, environment, and much more. Check in daily for updates!

In a new discovery reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Brown University and Lifespan researchers show that in the brain cells of rats, obesity impedes the production of a hormone that curbs appetite and inspires calorie burning. The root cause appears to be a breakdown in the protein-processing mechanism of the cells. In the lab, the researchers showed they could fix the breakdown with drugs.

A PLANT first used by prehistoric man in 30,000BC can help fight infections, according to scientists following a four-year research project.

Researchers have found that fibres from the common flax plant can kill bacteria efficiently when treated with special light-sensitive dyes and exposed to red light.

Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an ‘‘X’’ might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia’s history.

Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, plans an expedition in July that has stirred up the archaeological community.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Steve Butz had heard the local lore about "Indian Ovens" for years, but it wasn't until this past winter that he hiked to a ridge near the Vermont state line to examine the unusual geologic formation stained black by soot from fires of uncertain origin and purpose.

That trek eventually led to confirmation that Native Americans indeed used the site as its name suggests, but it left unsolved another mystery: For what did they use the six soccer ball-sized holes?.

A one-way trip to Mars sounds like something you'd wish on your worst enemy — so why would more than 78,000 people from around the world pay up to $75 for a chance to die on another planet?

"I can say I have an ulterior motive," said David Brin, who has written more than a dozen science-fiction novels — including "The Postman," which was turned into a Kevin Costner movie in 1997. "I'd get a lot of writing done, and it might be memorable.".

The North Sea oil and gas industry's pursuit of new oil reserves has contributed to a greater understanding of where life exists on Earth and may even help us look for life on other planets.

The sector has been funding academic research at the University of Aberdeen into how sand moves and cuts through mud beneath the Earth's surface for over a decade.

Lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park is a massive underground reservoir of magma, capped by the park's famous caldera. 640,000 years ago, a super eruption rocked the region. What would happen if another such event blasted the park today? We asked USGS geologist Jake Lowenstern, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

What happened the last time a vegetated Earth shifted from an extremely cold climate to desert-like conditions? And what does it tell us about climate change today?

John Isbell is on a quest to coax that information from the geology of the southernmost portions of the Earth. It won't be easy, because the last transition from "icehouse to greenhouse" occurred between 335 and 290 million years ago.