Fom : BBC News By : Anna Bressanin Edited by : Amal Udawatta Alamy (Credit: Alamy) A survivor of the shipwreck that inspired the novel Moby Dick had a theory about how a sperm whale could destroy a vessel many times its size – 200 years later, he's been proved right. On the morning of 20 November 1820, 15-year-old Thomas Nickerson had just escaped from one whale punching a hole in the side of his boat. Rowing quickly back to the main whaling ship as the boat took on water, Nickerson and his companions thought they were safe. But, taking the helm of the whaleship Essex, Nickerson saw another, much larger whale speeding straight towards them. Alerting Owen Chase, the ship's first mate, there was shouting and alarm among the crew followed by "a tremendous crash", Nickerson wrote 50 years later . The whale struck the Essex with such force that all the men were knocked off their feet. The whale swam 900ft (270m) away from the boat, turned around sharply and came back...
From :- BBC News By :- Pallab Ghosh Science Correspondent Edited by :- Amal Udawatta University of Cambridge A wooden spear caused the hole in this Neanderthal shoulder blade, scientists say A Neanderthal who died 75,000 years ago may have been struck through the chest by a sharpened wooden spear, archaeologists say. They say a 15mm hole found in a shoulder blade in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan could be the earliest evidence of lethal violence involving such a weapon. From the angle of the wound and other evidence, the researchers believe the spear entered the individual's chest and passed through the body - probably damaging a lung and major blood vessels - and exited through the left shoulder blade to leave a near-perfect hole. The research is the latest in emerging evidence that suggests Neanderthal societies experienced more violence than previously thought. Neanderthals were a separate species of humans that went extinct around 40,000 years a...