London, Sept 26 : Oceans on Earth were ‘home-grown’ and formed because the young planet had a thick blanket of hydrogen, which reacted with oxides in the mantle to form lakes and seas, Japanese planetary scientists have said.

The dominant view has been that Earth got its share of water from moisture-rich asteroids and comets that rained down on the planet during its formative years.

Washington, Sept 24: NASA's next-generation lunar explorers may live in mobile habitats and drive mini-RVs that can tool around for a week or more at a time, agency scientists have said.

The rovers would be about the same size as the electric dune buggies driven during the last three Apollo moon landings in 1971 and 1972, but would be enclosed and pressurized to better protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures and other hazards.

London, Sept 23 : Moon’s gentle surface could be the best place to find earliest evidence of life on Earth, according to a new study by a University of London researcher.

Ian Crawford of Birkbeck has said that conditions on the moon are much more gentle than those on Earth, so meteorites that blasted off our planet billions of years ago could well still be lying around on the moon.

Washington, Sept 23 : Green plants and animals enjoy a relatively close evolutionary relationship than previously thought, a new study by an East California University biologist has revealed.

Plants, fungi and animals are all in a group called the eukaryotes – distinguished by their advanced cellular machinery. But some eukaryotes, most notably the fungi, have long been considered more closely related to animals than plants are.

Washington, Sept 23 : Scientists at the University of Leicester have discovered a natural fruit-based extract that dramatically improves the growth and probiotic qualities of ‘friendly’ bacteria, such as the lactic acid bacteria, which are found in the most widely-advertised health supplement drinks.

There is currently a great deal of interest in the health-associated properties of probiotics, also known as ‘beneficial’ or ‘friendly’ bacteria, and prebiotics, the food needed for the growth of probiotic when inside our bodies.