The world's oldest tree root system - almost twice as old as the current record-holder listed in the Guinness Book of World Records - has been discovered by a group of Swedish researchers in a province in northern Sweden. Hit the full article for all the details.

Who built Stonehenge? Why? When and how did they ever manage to lug around those huge bluestones and lay them in concentric patterns? Science has yet to give us any definite answers on the "who, why, and how" parts, but a pair of archaeologists are about to tackle the "when" question. More in the full article.

Hardware pirates are about to get another force to contend with: The new EPIC chip locking system developed by computer engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University. While not infallible, the new locking technique should make things very difficult and costly for hardware pirates to copy chips that come armed with it. More in the full article.

A new species of prehistoric predator that could prove to be the missing link between prehistoric and present-day crocodiles was unveiled by Brazilian paleontologists, Thursday. Learn more about this agile predator in the full article.

General belief holds the Black Death as an indiscriminate killer that cut down anyone it took hold of regardless of sex, age, or health level. A new study by a pair of anthropologists have revealed, however, that the pandemic was actually more selective than previously thought. More in the full article.

Apparently, a zero-G flight isn't enough for Richard Garriott. The well-known game developer has just shelled out about US$ 30 million to become the sixth paying visitor to the International Space Station. Read more in the full article.

A new study has revealed that over-the-counter painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen could help reduce a person's risk of getting Parkinson's disease by as much as 60 percent. These painkillers, known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), were tested on 579 men and women, half of whom had Parkinson's. Regular users of non-aspirin NSAIDs reduced their risk by as much as 60 percent, while women who used aspirin regularly reduced their risk by 40 percent. Read more at the full article.

Scientists have come up with a new drug composed of chemicals found in weed and sea urchin eggs. The new drug, a hybrid of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive agent found in weed, and anandamide, the euphoria-causing chemical found in sea urchin eggs, has so far proven to be a powerful painkiller. The scientists have so far declined to comment on the possible recreational uses of this new drug.

A black hole with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun has entered the record books as the biggest stellar black hole found so far. Astronomers found the black hole in a galaxy called Messier 33, which is about 3 million light years from Earth.

Investigations led by Jerome Orosz, an Associate Professor at San Diego State University's astronomy department, also revealed that the black hole - known as M33 X-7 - orbits a companion star with a mass 70 times that of our sun. This companion star has also gained the distinction of being the most massive companion star in a binary system containing a black hole.

A paper on M33 X-7 appears in today's issue of the journal Nature. Jeffrey McClintock of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Orosz's co-author on the paper, notes that the black hole's companion star will also eventually go supernova, resulting in a pair of black holes.

Even though video games have always gotten a bad rap for turning kids into couch potatoes, a group of physical therapists are using a video game console to help people get back on their feet.

According to Minnesota's WCCO-TV, physical therapists at the the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis are using Nintendo's Wii home video game console in an experiment aimed at helping stroke victims recover.

"It is not designed to be used in therapy per se, but some of the games are very useful to activate the patient, then it is a matter of, from a research point of view, to try to develop these concepts to something that is dedicated, specialized for research... for rehab," said Sister Kenny Research Center director Lars Oddsson.

There are only a few hospitals around the U.S. trying this kind of therapy, but Oddsson says that the experiment's promising results could lead to a clinical study of the Wii's helpfulness as a physical therapy tool. WCCO-TV also noted that the Army has also started using the Wii for physical therapy.