Washington, March 25 : A biologist has discovered that the shell lengths of northwest Atlantic Ocean snails have increased by 22.6 per cent over the past century.

"We found a dramatic increase in size, which could affect the entire intertidal food chain," said Jonathan Fisher, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Queen's University in Canada, and the leader of the study.

Until now, this significant change in the marine ecosystem has gone unnoticed.

Washington, March 25 : A new study has indicated that the Black Sea, the world's largest dead zone that has high concentrations of a poisonous gas, may be chock-full of life-sustaining energy.

The Black Sea, an isolated inland sea in Eastern Europe, has been devoid of life for decades due to pollution carried by rivers.

The influx of toxic waste from 17 European countries has contributed to a decline in oxygen in the water. This in turn has created high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas in the sea.

London, March 25 : If you ever wondered how the Sun will look like when it dies, then be sure that it will got out in a blaze of glory.

Planetary nebulae are the final butterfly-like state that heralds the end of a Sun-like star's energy-generating life.

They form when stars up to eight times the mass of the Sun begin to die, bloating into red giants before shedding as much as half their mass as gas and dust nebulae.

According to a report in New Scientist, the Sun itself will begin its death throes in about 5 billion years, when it starts to swell into a red giant star.

Washington, March 25 : In a new study, it has been determined that deep-sea corals from about 400 meters off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands are much older than once believed and some may be the oldest living marine organisms known to man.

The study was conducted by researchers from Lawrence Livermore, Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Using the Lab's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, LLNL researchers Tom Guilderson and Stewart Fallon used radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of Geradia sp., or gold coral, and specimens of the deep-water black coral, Leiopathes sp.

Washington, Mar 25 : A team of scientists at Oregon State University has identified a gene in the human body that seems to be the master regulator for skin development.

According to researchers, their discovery could help address everything from skin diseases such as eczema or psoriasis to the wrinkling of skin as people age.

Scientists believe that inadequate or loss of expression of this gene, called CTIP2, may play a role in some skin disorders and understanding the mechanisms of gene action could provide a solution to them.

Washington, March 25 : Analysis of deep sea rocks in Australia has suggested that they date back to 3.46 billion years ago, suggesting that not only did the oceans contain abundant oxygen then, but that the atmosphere was as oxygen rich as it is today.

The researchers drilled diagonally into the base of a hill in the Pilbara Craton in northwest Western Australia to obtain samples of jasper or hematite-rich chert that could not have been exposed to the atmosphere or water.

These jaspers could be dated to 3.46 billion years ago.