According to Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), "High prices and climate change are definitely creating a renaissance in geothermal interest, particularly on a state and local level." So, to further geothermal research, Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas plans to lease out its Mount Spurr (a 2 mile tall, snowcapped volcano near Anchorage, which erupted in 1992 covering much of the city in ash) to energy companies who would search for ways to harness the mountain’s power. A wise move on both parts, as geothermal projects are eligible for numerous tax benefits, with many already in effect in most Western States and on the coast between Texas and Florida. Gawell: "If we really want to go all out for it, we could easily achieve a substantial amount, 20, 25 per cent of US energy needs within a few decades. We’re limited more by public policy than the resource - the resource is enormous." Though mentioned recently by Sen. Barack Obama, geothermal energy has had little play in the alternative energy debate. Nonetheless, the GEA estmates that by 2010, the number of countries producing geothermal energy will double to 46.

Harness volcanoe power, energy experts say, Telegraph.Co.Uk

The summer solstice, the longest day of the summer when the sun reaches its furthest point north of the equator, is today, 7:59 EST. It’s the earliest solstice since 1896.

Happy Lunar New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Rat. The Chinese Zodiac is seperated into 12 year cycles (each year represented by an animal), which are further designated by the five elements. So, this last Year of the Pig finished the Fire cycle, with the Rat ushering in the Earth. Within the 60-year course of all the elemental years, the Earth element falls in the middle between wood, fire, and metal, water. As it is the most important cultural holiday, there will be Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatowns across the country, with music, firecrackers and lion dances.

Chinese New Year in NYC, About.com 

New research suggest that homo sapiens interbred with Neandertals and continued to evolve after the settled Europe. Professor Joao Zilhao et al. compared an early modern human skull from Petera cu Oase ("cave with bones") in Romania with others from the Late Pleistocene period.The skull, dated 35-40,000 years old, represents the oldest human remains found in Europe, hence being the best clue to how people looked like then. Certain features, like frontal flattening and large upper molars, made Zilhao suspect interspecies mating. "This mixture would have resulted in both archaic traits retained from the Neandertals and unique combinations of traits resulting from the blending of previously divergent gene pools."

40,000-year-old skull shows both modern human and Neandertal traits, EurekAlert.org

The world’s oldest fossilized embryos that made the cover of Nature in 1998 may actually be gigantic bacteria according to Jake Bailey of USC. The bacterium in question, the worlds largest, is one Thiomargaria, which has a unique feature of promoting deposition of phosphorite. Coincidentally, China’s Doushantuo Formation where the fossils were found is teeming with the rare mineral. What prompted the original misidentification was likely the traces of reductive cell division, typical of animal embryos, but also found in some baceteria e.g. Thiomargarita. Putting two and two together, Bailey arrived at his conclusion that the 600-million year old phosphorite-rich Precambrian fossil was likely a Thiomargarita ancestor. His study is published in selfsame Nature that ran the original cover-story almost 9 years ago.

Oldest animal fossils may have been bacteria, EurekAlert.org