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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, the first American astronaut to complete a one-year mission in space and also one of the first astronauts to even take up the challenge, has returned to earth along with significant knowledge about the life in space. Kelly had embarked on the year-long mission along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.

Before Kelly, it was Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev who had spent a year in microgravity in 1999. The latest mission has built upon Avdeyev’s knowledge and has cleared decks for future missions.

Rise in ocean levels is not a new phenomenon as several studies have already highlighted that the ocean levels around the globe are rising. But a new study revealed that the speed of rise has broken thousands of years old record.

Rise in sea levels was 14 centimeters, or 5.5 inches, from 1900 to 2000, which means 1.4 millimeters every year, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences stated. As per NASA figures, the present rate of rise is around 3.4 millimeters a year, which shows that sea levels are accelerating at a fast rate.

Last week, a viral video showed tourists in Argentina leaving a rare dolphin on the beach after clicking selfies. Now, another incident has been reported where a shark was harmed for clicking a few photos in Florida.

The new incident took place on Palm Beach, Florida where a person took a shark out of the water to click a picture with it. In a new disturbing video, many beachgoers can be noticed around the man, but all of them were just watching, clicking photos and laughing.

The humongous armored prehistoric beasts Glyptodonts have many similarities with armadillos. Despite differences in size, both animals have almost same body shapes and bony skin that forms a shell over their heads, tails and backs.

In order to find more evidence of the glyptodonts’ relationship to extant armadillos, a team of geneticists dug into the ancient animals’ DNA. They have published their findings in a paper published Monday in the journal Current Biology. The team, after sequencing the mitochondrial DNA of a 12,000-year-old fossil belonging to the genus Doedicurus, which is one of the largest and most recent of the glyptodonts, came to the conclusion that the immense animals are indeed buried deep in the armadillo family.

Chocolate not just makes you feel good and offers additional antioxidants (in dark chocolates), but can also improve your brain. Now, you have more reasons to consume additional bites of chocolate on a daily basis.

The University of South Australia, University of Maine and the Luxembourg Institute of Health researchers conducted the study and discovered that chocolate consumption enhances cognitive performance ‘irrespective of other dietary habits’.

The new study has defended eating chocolates in a limited quantity on regular basis. The study said that getting into a chocolate habit may give you a better-working brain.

To tackle air pollution, China announced to issue ‘red alert’ threshold in capital city Beijing. In December last year, the Chinese capital had its first red alert for air pollution. Smog hovering over the city led to school and business closures that time.

The latest move by the Chinese government has hinted that heavy fines and some other actions didn’t provide the desired results to solve the Beijing's air pollution problem. As per the city’s current air quality index (AQI) rules, a red alert can be issued when the AQI is 200 or more for minimum 72 hours. The AQI rules of Tianjin and Hebei stipulate that red alert should be issued when the AQI exceeds 500 for at least 24 hours.