Planetary science: Tunguska at 100
The most dramatic cosmic impact in recent history has gathered up almost as many weird explanations as it knocked down trees, writes Duncan Steel.
Was the Tungus Event due to a Black Hole?
THERE have been many attempts to explain the Tunguska meteorite, ranging from the prosaic to the bizarre1–3. We suggest that a black hole of substellar mass such as those that have been postulated by Hawking4 could explain many of the mysteries associated with the event.
The first ground cricket (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae: Nemobiinae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber
Abstract A new genus and species, Birmaninemobius hirsutus gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of a well-preserved orthopteran specimen in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber and attributed to the subfamily Nemobiinae (ground crickets) of the family Trigonidiidae (Grylloidea). As the first record of Nemobiinae from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, this new taxon not only provides novel morphological diversity in ground crickets but also indicates that the ground crickets lived in Burma (Tethyan islands) as early as the mid-Cretaceous.