Scientists have reported the discovery of the floor of the world's oldest forest. They are now piecing together a view of this ancient site, dating back about 385 million years and - because virtually all studies have to reference global warming these days - they note their research could shed new light on the role of modern-day forests and their impact on climate change.

The recent discovery was made in the same area in Schoharie County, New York where fossils of the Earth's oldest trees, the Gilboa stumps, were discovered in the 1850s, 1920 and again in 2010 and were brought to the New York State Museum. The Museum has the world's largest and best collection of Gilboa fossil tree stumps.

What if bacteria could talk? Or use touch? A new study hypothesizes that bacterial cells may need to communicate in order to perform certain functions. 

Astronomers have detected rapid changes in the brightness of embryonic stars within the well-known Orion Nebula, 1,350 light years from Earth, which appears prominently in the winter skies for European observers. Sometimes referred to as the Sword of Orion, the nebula lies below the three stars that form the belt of Orion the Hunter, one of the most easily recognized constellations. 

It is one of the few nebulas visible to the naked eye and is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Criegee biradicals, invisible chemical intermediates, are powerful oxidizers of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide produced by combustion and can naturally clean up the atmosphere. Sounds like fiction, right? These chemical intermediates were first postulated by Rudolf Criegee in the 1950s but researchers now say that they have been detected and with further research could play a major role in off-setting climate change.

Astronomers have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole - about 20,000,000 miles per hour, 3 percent of the speed of light. This is nearly 10 times faster than had ever been seen from a stellar-mass black hole.

SpareOne may be the world's most useful emergency cell phone. It debuted today at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona and runs on a single AA battery, providing up to 10 hours of talk time and 15 years (yes, years) of talk-ready stored power (based on Energizer(R) Ultimate Lithium AA battery, included with the phone.) Because AA batteries are the most widely used batteries in the world, that makes it quite useful, even in the absence of electricity.  Take that, Apple and your 'we don't want you to replace the battery ever' mentality.