Everybody can think of certain rare occasions when they were at the right place at the right time. That certainly applies to a group of tourists, their boat skipper and their tour operator. All of them managed to film some killer whales holding a dolphin hunt in Algoa Bay, off the coast of South Africa recently. More on this serendipitous find after the jump.

It's common knowledge that the human race is made up of one species. Scientists have said, however, that our line was nearly split in two at some point in our history. The cause may have had something to do with living conditions in Africa. More splits occur in the full article after the jump.

Stars and clouds of gas often form breathtaking patterns in space. Scientists at NASA have grown fond over the years of giving creative names to these celestial bodies. In a new photo that the agency is showing off, the Running Chicken Nebula is displayed in crimson glory. You can check it out by clicking on the "read more" link below.

It should be remembered that South Africa and its neighbors placed a ban on killing elephants back in 1995. This decision has allowed the pachyderms to repopulate the vast plains of the continent.

However, the country has now decided to lift the ban in order to maintain a balanced ecosystem. More on this after the jump!

The diamond enthusiast community was rocked by the discovery of the world's biggest diamond in the northwest province of South Africa.  Prior to this, the title of being the world's largest diamond is being held by the Cullinan Diamond found by Frederick Wells back in 1905.

The mining company that found the said diamond wasn't named, but one of its representatives, Brett Joli, provided some insight as to what will happen to the prize find. According to the spokesperson, the diamond, which is twice the size of the Cullinan, is being kept in a a bank vault in Johannesburg while a security company was hired to guard it.

According to well-known diamond connoisseur Fred Cuellar, this really is a great discovery but there are still a lot of factors that have to be considered. He explained:

There are all these other factors we still don't know and what matters now is how wide, how clear, and how well cut it will be. Will this diamond rank above the best quality diamonds in the world? I can tell you right now, no. But in as far as the list of the largest diamonds ever found in the world goes, would it make that list? Yes it would.

Reports added that once everything has settled, "a lot of mad bidding" will ensue, with the newly-found diamond's estimated starting value of 15 million GBP or roughly around US$ 30 million.

Although probably lesser known in the world of Fauna, the Namibian Welwitschia (welwitschia mirabilis) is slowly being wiped off the face of the Earth. The plant, indigenous to the great Namib Desert of South Africa, has been pointed out as one of the "most hideous" plants in the known world.

The welwitschia is categorized as a speciclungmen in the plant kingdom, able to sprout only two leaves in its entire lifetime. But surprisingly, it can sprout leaves that reach up to 80 yards long and lives for 2, 000 years. Expect one of these to have seen the world during the Biblical ages.

The leaves tend to sprawl out in coiled fashion to absorb moisture from the air, leaving the impression of "diseased dragon tongues." The plant can also grow to about 20 feet wide and six feet tall, while it's roots can tickle the toes of buried ancestors six feet below. So often, botanists and gardeners would refer to the welwitschia as a half-submerged conifer tree.

But probably unhelpful to its image plight is the fact that the welwitschia is actually poisonous to most animals of the region, except the Black Rhino. And it's also a favorite home of the unusual Pyrrhocorrid Beetle, often vernacularly referred to as the mythical Pushmepullyou of Dr. Doolittle fame.

The plant was discovered by Austrian physician Friedrich Welwitsch back in 1859.

McMaster University became the proud owner of a rare $750,000 genome sequencer, a machine of which less than 40 currently exists, which is probably the next best thing to an actual time machine since the genome sequencer can do in hours what normally takes scientists years to accomplish - to create an exact picture of prehistoric organisms and environments that existed long before cellphones with video cams were invented.

The sequencer reads the DNA from various kinds of samples such as ice, hair, or poop. Unlike other machines which is governed by the Garbage-in/Gabage-out rule (like this PC I'm using), the genome sequence can take in a fossilized poop/hair sample and spit out  astounding bits of info in turn. For example, the poop could reveal the genetic portrait of the creature that left it, the animals and plants it had eaten, the bacteria that broke down food in its gut and even the viruses that made it sick.

Such genomic portraits could help scientists answer some of mankind's questions such as:

• When did we leave Africa?
• Did we have sex with Neanderthals?
• Did Raquel Welch-like amazons duked it out with dinosaurs One Million Years BC?

"For anybody working in archeology or paleontology, it's sort of a dream come true. It changes the ball game, going from maybe a million bases per month to maybe 40 million in five hours. We're talking about orders of magnitude." said McMaster researcher Hendrik Poinar with a smile on his face that makes him look like he just came from a date. Poinar plans to use the machine to decode woolly mammoth DNA.

The mammoth is an extinct genus of elephant, often with long, curved tusks. Those that live in the northern regions were covered by long hair and they lived during the Pleistocene epoch which was between 1.6 million years to around 3,500 years ago. They are believed to have originated from Africa, but mammoth remains have been found in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. Mammuthus africanavus fossils have also been found in Chad, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The Mammuthus subplanifrons found in South Africa and Kenya, is one of the oldest species which lived about four million years ago.

Terri Schiavo made headlines as the woman from St. Petersburg, Florida who laid in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) while an intense legal battle ensued between her parents and husband Michael. Robert and Mary Schindler, her parents, were opposing Michael's petition to remove Terri's gastric feeding tube that was keeping her alive for the past 15 years. The courts held that as she remains to be in PVS, she should not be kept alive, in the belief that Terri herself would want to have her life support ceased. On March 18, 2005, her feeding tube was removed a third and final time. Thirteen days later, Terri Schiavo took her last breath at the age of 41.

Persistent Vegetative State is the  medical condition that pertains to one's existence without consciousness or the ability to initiate voluntary action. Although patients in PVS may appear to be awake and sentient, they cannot be said to be aware and conscious of their environment, or to even respond to communication. The cause of PVS is the irreparable damage to the cerebral cortex, the "thinking, feeling" part of the brain. There is no known treatment for PVS, so what the doctors concentrate on is the prevention of infections and maintaining the patient's physical state as much as possible. While the condition is deemed to be permanent, there are still intermittent cases of recoveries from PVS.

Although there may be no certified cure for this condition, GP Dr. Wally Nel appears to have stumbled upon a probable remedy in the form of--sleeping pills. It sure is ironic that a sleeping pill would have the effect of awakening a person's brain activity. But then again, it kind of makes sense as well, given that a damaged brain may very well react differently from how a healthy brain would.

This remarkable discovery was first brought to light when Dr. Nel prescribed the sedative Stilnox (known as zolpidem in South Africa) to a patient who was observed to have involuntary spasms in his left arm, thereby causing him to tear at his mattress. 25 minutes after giving the crushed pill mixed with softdrinks to Louis Viljoen, the patient, they heard him make a sound. Stunned as nobody has ever heard him make a sound in five years, they went on to ask him if he could hear them. To their elation and disbelief, he replies yes, and turns his head to say, "Hello, mummy."


Read the Full Article after the jump!

This is just wrong. Owls are wonderful birds, and they've been made more famous by the friendly O RLY? owl.

Why someone would sneak into a center for owls and then kill two rare ones is beyond understanding.

Raiders broke into the Furness Owls Center in Barrow, U.K. last Sunday, decapitating two rare African Marsh Owls (Asio capensis) without leaving a clue as to why. Police issued a statement, saying "Two separate aviaries were approached within the grounds, and the offenders killed two adult, but small, African Marsh owls, one from each aviary. The cages had been cut open and the owls bodies were left in the grounds nearby."

The African Marsh owls aren't endangered, but considered a threatened species due to their low numbers. They are mostly limited to places like Morocco and South Africa. Jones' center is perhaps the only successful group to breed the Asio capensis in the United Kingdom. Next time you see an O RLY picture, remember the two owls, and be happy when you see one.

Take a look at this helpless African Marsh owl: