10 Earths could be laid across the diameter of the gigantic sunspot in AR2191 during its previous rotation, captured on October 23, 2014. NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory

By Paul Cally, Monash University

The largest sunspot seen in 24 years is rotating back to face the Earth, and it looks to have grown even bigger.

Rosetta: Firing harpoons in space. ESA/ATG medialab

By Alan Fitzsimmons, Queen's University Belfast

The first attempted landing on the surface of a comet is a huge landmark in the history of space exploration that will not only uncover further details about comets but could unlock further clues about the origins of our solar system and the development of life on Earth.

Forget the Higgs Boson, the Landing on Comets, Missions to Mars, the Genome Project, Nanostructures and all that. This start of this new millennium looks like the dark ages to me if I have to gauge it from discussions I overhear in public places. 

A new active asteroid called 62412 has been located in the Solar System's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is the first comet-like object seen in the Hygiea family of asteroids.  

A team of researchers have developed a gene regulation method that enables thought-specific brainwaves to control the conversion of genes into proteins - gene expression.

If you're a native of rural Mozambique who contracts a disease and becomes symptomatic, you'll likely consult a traditional healer before getting medical advice.

Organic food has quietly become a Big Ag behemoth. Everyone talks about video games and the film industry, for example, but Big Organic dwarfs them both in revenue and by next year it will be a $100 billion juggernaut.

The increase is partly because more farmers are taking advantage of the healthier profit margins and partly because organic marketing groups sell a health food mythology where cost is not a factor, so costs can rise along with more product. It is a miracle of capitalism.

The remains of two Ice Age infants are the youngest human remains ever found in northern North America, according to a new paper.

The remains of the infants date to around 11,000 years ago and were found in 2013 at an excavation of the Upward Sun River site, near the Tanana River in central Alaska.  

Named after the location of first documented outbreak (Norwalk Ohio in 1968) norovirus, aka the "Stomach Flu," "Winter Vomiting Bug," or the "Cruise Ship Virus" is an evil little demon that spares no one. There are few, if any of us, who haven't experienced its misery; it infects 21 million people annually in the US every year—second only to the common cold. It is the leading cause (up to 80 percent) of gastroenteritis in the western world.   

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning Whole Foods customers not to consume a line of organic raw almonds due to elevated levels of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid/formonitrile - chemical formula HCN). Hydrogen cyanide is a natural toxic chemical that interferes with oxygen in our organs so it can quickly be fatal, but even in smaller exposure can be damaging to the central nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the pulmonary system.