Once upon a time: a wetter, warmer Mars

The force and volume of the water was enough to carve a valley 2,070 meters deep and 885 kilometers long within a matter of months, he said. The study presents more evidence that Mars, now a cold, dusty place with water existing only as buried ice, was once wetter and warmer. Up to 40% of the Martian surface could have been covered with water, although that estimate will take more research to confirm. If Mars was once so wet, where did the all the water go? Irwin said no body knows for sure, but theories suggest that some of the water was chemically split into its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen could have escaped to space. The oxygen stayed on Mars, rusting iron minerals and giving the planet its reddish colour. Based on recent studies, at least some of the water was frozen and remains on mars as sort of a permafrost underlying the planet’s polar regions.

(AP/PTI)

Babywalkers may actually be harming your baby

Irish doctors advised parents not to use babywalkers because they delay the normal development of infants. Children who used babywalkers learned to crawl, stand and walk later than other children, they said. ‘‘We found strong associations between the amount of babywalker use and the extent of developmental delay,’’ Mary Garrett, of the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said in a report in The British Medical Journal.

The researchers questioned the parents of 190 normal babies about when their children reached the normal childhood milestones and how much time they spent in babywalkers. Babies who didn’t use the walkers started to crawl and walk alone about four weeks earlier than the children accustomed to the walkers and walked three weeks earlier. Babywalkers have also been shown to increase the risk of injuries in babies.

(Reuters)