SCIENCE

"End of the world 2013" became a hot social media topic after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation effective Feb. 28. There were talks about the next pope being the last pope according to St Malachy's prophecies. The last pope will "flee Rome" in December and herald Judgment Day, according to Nostradamus. Now a report from the science community is saying the Higgs boson aka the God particle could be linked to the apocalypse.

After the 2013 Russian meteor blast, two Grants Pass residents revealed they witnessed an unidentified flying object hovering over the Southern Oregon night sky. Heather Scherffius and Gregory Soldner recorded the UFO sighting on camera and claimed what they saw was not an asteroid or a meteor.

Barbecue-related activities and cooking in open stoves in public, densely-populated places in China would soon be prohibited to limit the smog but could be a bane to street food hawkers and vendors.

It seems that more and more earthings are getting tired of the planet and want to venture into outer space, which used to be the domain of NASA scientists, American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. Now, the list is getting longer to include Indians, tourists, miners and even a porn star who goes by the name of Coco Brown.

In California, two scientists are proposing a system project called Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation (DE-STAR) that can possibly reduce asteroids and meteor threats to planet Earth. The timing seems perfect after the Asteroid 2012 DA14 near-Earth flyby and Russia meteor blast that both occurred last February 15, 2013.

If scare minerals found on Earth are called rare earth, what about other minerals in other planets or the moon? Would you call it rare moon or rare jupiter or rare mars? What such resources would be called has not yet been settled since miners, space industrialists and academics are still currently exploring the idea of mining in other planets and the moon. They gathered on Wednesday in Sydney to tackle these possibilities and the logistics involved.

Doomsday prophets will again have a field day forecasting an Apocalypse, following the eruption of Mt. Etna in Italy on Tuesday.

A UFO sighting of three strange lights forming a triangle in the night sky was reported in video format to MUFON from Plano City in Texas. The footage was received a day after an old photo of the sky outside a Wisconsin house was submitted for scrutiny. Take a look at the photos and video to check out what the uploaders may or may have not missed.

The smog pollution that hit China's capital in Beijing, so massive that it even crossed borders over to Japan, has been found to contain cancer causing photochemicals.

A new study by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington found that the bulk of the popular sweetener Splenda, which is used all over the world, is winding up in the Gulf Stream, the "conveyor belt of water transport" that circulates in the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of North American to Europe, Africa and beyond.

Scientists have collected the debris from the meteor blast that hit Russia on February 15 to examine the nature and composition of the space rock. A debate has now begun on the question if it was a meteor or a comet that caused the unexpected blast in Chelyabinsk.

The 2013 Russia Meteor Blast became a historical event for the affected city of Chelyabinsk. While most people found the meteor blast as a terrifying experience, some Netizens decided to use a humorous approach to tackle the rare space phenomenon with the use of funny memes that immediately spread like wildfire on the internet.

The Centre for Eye Research Australia in Melbourne is experimenting with the use of skin cells from patients with macular degeneration by turning them into stem cells to create new retinal cells.

A 300-million-year-old ancient asteroid impact zone measuring about 200 kilometres was discovered by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) and University of Queensland. Located at the East Warburton Basin in north-eastern South Australia, the crater is evidence of an asteroid hit on Earth.

China has fired up its first nuclear power plant after the destructive 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, near Wafangdian in Liaoning province at its northeast portion.

The 2013 Asteroid 2012 DA14 near-Earth flyby and the Russia Meteor Blast both occurred last February 15 but National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientist Don Yeomans confirms the asteroid flyby did not cause the unexpected meteor blast in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The 2013 Russian meteor shower on Friday will go down in history as the day people saw in real life what could look "good" in Armageddon movies: the threatening trail of smoke in the sky followed by glasses splattering due to a shockwave. Jokes were shouted out on Twitter. One image suggests what really happened was that the fireball trail was caused by the anime Dragon Ball popping out in the real world from popular fiction. But the meteor hit posed a very serious reminder.

In Russia, Chelyabinsk residents were stunned last Friday morning when a meteor blast unexpectedly destroyed windows of industrial establishments and injured almost 1,200 people. The traumatizing incident caused the Russians to unite in cleaning up the mess and fixing the damages that the meteor blast caused.

While other nations are planning migration to planet Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States is planning to fly to the moon - that is Jupiter's moon which is covered in large oceans of water under a thick ice later.

A meteorite has reportedly crashed Friday into the Earth's atmosphere above central Russia. International news agencies have received reports of "windows crashing" and "injuries." Meanwhile, UFO fears reportedly sparked panic in the affected region, as witnesses reported their ordeal on Twitter.

The 2013 Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be at its closest distance to planet Earth as it passes by and Australia will have the best views on early Saturday morning. Though the asteroid’s flyby speed is about 18,000 miles per hour, it will still be visible as a tiny speck of light at the major viewing locations in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia.

The United States is being invaded by stinging ants from Asia, NBC reports. The ant invasion is damaging not only properties but also harming Americans because the tiny insect's sting produces small welts that are surrounded by a rash, itches and hurts when scratched.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a remarkable near-Earth flyby today, February 15, and NASA officials confirmed that the asteroid is will not collide with the planet. The 2013 Asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby can be described as a “near-miss” experience but how exactly did the scientists determine and monitor the asteroid’s track?

Dolphin and whale watch cruises are one of the most popular tourist attractions in Auckland, New Zealand. However, this thriving money earner is being jeopardised by the threat of extinction by 2030 for one dolphin sub-species - the Maui dolphin. Scientists from the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) in the U.S. said that the population of the world's smallest dolphin sub-species has gone down to only 55.

An amateur astronomer from Australia has caught a preview image of the near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 on Feb 13. If you are a stargazing enthusiast and you have instruments for space observation, you might want to wake up early on Feb. 16 to watch the sky from 4:30am (AEDT).

The 2013 Asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby is fast approaching and the curious viewers can witness the asteroid’s near-Earth passage through a live online webcast. The Bareket Observatory in Israel offers the live online webcast of the asteroid’s flyby on February 15 with the use of a remote telescope.

Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced on Wednesday the discovery of a material that could absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants and released upon exposure to sunlight.

A penis that detaches and regrows has been discovered by Japanese researchers. However, the male organ was not found among humans but on a sea slug which is found in the Pacific Ocean.

Numerous social media web sites have reported about strange bird-like UFOs captured on camera in Mexico. YouTube username “pisosmadera” posted the video footage titled “'UFO,S Incredible Fleet synchronized OVNIS oleada Enero 203 mexico” captured on January 26, 2013 and it immediately went viral with over 200,000 viewers.