Ming bowl bought for just £65 sells at auction for more than £1.6m. By Damien Gayle Published: 12:39 GMT, 8 June 2012 | Updated: 14:32 GMT, 8 June 2012 A 15th century Ming dynasty bowl that was bought for £65 six decades ago has stunned the art world after it sold at auction for over £1.6million. Frenzied bidding from China sent the 10in-diameter dice bowl smashing through its £20,000 estimate, before it eventually went under the hammer for 84 times what was expected.
And according to the auctioneer who handled the sale, the exceptionally rare piece would have sold for even more had it not been damaged and chipped on the rim. Ming ker-ching! This 10in-diameter bowl sold for a phenomenal £1.6million after frenzied bidders from China sent it smashing through its £20,000 estimate The bowl was sold by Bainbridge's auction house in Ruislip, Essex - the same saleroom that famously sold a Chinese vase in 2010 for £59million. It was bought by renowned collectors Otto and Gertrude Harriman shortly after the Second World War for £65 - £1,600 in today's money. Mysterious Asian ¿corpse flower¿ parasite actually steals huge chunks of its host¿s DNA ¿ but what does it do with it? 'Eureka' finding rewrites relationship between parasite and hostScientists puzzled over WHY flower 'steals' genesParasitic plant cannot live without its host By Rob Waugh Published: 11:26 GMT, 7 June 2012 | Updated: 11:26 GMT, 7 June 2012 A corpse flower in Sarawak, Malaysia: The 'corpse flower' - a parasitic plant which lives in the jungles of Borneo does something far more sinister than simply living off its host The 'corpse flower' - a parasitic plant which lives in the jungles of Borneo does something far more sinister than simply living off its host.
The parasite, which attaches itself to grape vines, actually steals chunks of its host's DNA - and cannot live without being inside it. The flower is known as the 'corpse flower' because it emits an odour of rotting flesh. It's found in the jungles of Borneo. The finding has puzzled scientists, who say the research could rewrite our thinking on how parasite-host relationships work.
Paul Otlet's idea of 'televised book' foretold the internet in 1934. By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 00:57 GMT, 8 June 2012 | Updated: 12:55 GMT, 8 June 2012 Father of the net? Paul Otlet, a Belgian scientist, may have foretold the internet in 1934 A scientist in the 1930s may have been decades ahead of his time when he suggested combining a telephone connection with a TV screen. While many have difficulty remembering the world without the internet, it was nothing more than imagination in 1934, when Paul Otlet described what would become the information superhighway.
TechNewsDaily reported that during a discussion of the world wide web's past, present and future at the World Science Festival in New York City on Saturday, Otlet’s name came up. Otlet, a Belgian scientist and author who is already regarded as the father of information science, was on to something when he published his Treaties on Documentation. Scroll down for video Technology: Otlet's vision involved combining the television and the telephone to send and receive information Watch video here.
Missile or UFO? Thousands of people in Jordan and Israel witness spinning 'Catherine Wheel' in the sky. Sighting at 8.45pm last night left viewers in more than five countries puzzled by aerial displayBelieved to be a failed test rocket launched by Russian military By Eddie Wrenn Published: 11:59 GMT, 8 June 2012 | Updated: 12:05 GMT, 8 June 2012 Thousands of people in Israel, Turkey and Jordan got the shock of their lives yesterday, as they watched a spinning 'UFO' performing cartwheels in the sky.
Police in these countries - as well as in Cyprus and Lebanon - were flooded with phonecalls by panicked residents, as the white, gleaming light danced high up in the atmosphere. Theories abounded over what this could be - a failing missile test, a satellite breaking up in our atmosphere, or a visit from an alien spacecraft. Scroll down for video: Spirals in space: The strange sighting looked like a Catherine Wheel as it span over Jordan, Isreal and other countries last night They called it a successful launch, although a leaked and then supressed video apparrently shows the missile beginning to fail. Nearly 10% of UK internet users still use common dictionary terms. By Eddie Wrenn Published: 09:26 GMT, 8 June 2012 | Updated: 12:59 GMT, 8 June 2012 Hopefully most of us are more sensible than to leave our password as something easy, like '12345' or, well... 'password'.
At a time when even an established site like LinkedIn can fall victim to hackers, who this week released the passwords of millions of users, it still seems most of us are making it too easy for scammers - and it doesn't matter which is your native language. Cambridge University computer scientist Joseph Bonneau analysed the passwords of 70million Yahoo! Indonesians were the worst offenders in relying on common dictionary words. The Yahoo homepage: The passwords used in Joseph Bonneau's study were anonymised for protection Contrast this to the Chinese, for which only four per cent could be figured out, or Korea and Germany at around six per cent. Internet users aged 55 and over are twice more likely to choose a safer password than those under 25.
Japanese DOCK almost 80-feet-long washes ashore in Oregon, 15 MONTHS after tragic earthquake and tsunami. By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 21:44 GMT, 6 June 2012 | Updated: 10:09 GMT, 7 June 2012 A nearly 70-feet-long dock that floated ashore on a beach in Oregon is definitely debris from last year's tsunami in Japan, a state official said Wednesday. Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Haven said the Japanese consulate in Portland, Oregon, traced the seven-feet-tall concrete and steel floating dock to a manufacturer in Japan.
He also confirmed the dock was in use in an area of Japan hit by the giant waves. The dock carried a metal placard naming the manufacturer as Zeniya Ocean Service Engineering Ltd, which builds docks and floating marine structures and is dated June 2008. Scroll Down for Video The dock washed up on Agate Beach in Oregon after floating for nearly 15 months across the Pacific Ocean from Japan A radiation check came up negative, but an examination by a Hatfield Marine Science Center scientist revealed a starfish native to Japan, said Havel.
'Vampire' skeletons unearthed in Bulgaria with iron stakes plunged through their chests. By Daniel Miller Published: 12:50 GMT, 5 June 2012 | Updated: 17:46 GMT, 6 June 2012 If you thought vampires were simply the stuff of myth and legend - and perhaps the odd teen horror film - think again. Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into the undead. They are the latest in a succession of finds across western and central Europe which shed new light on just how seriously people took the threat of vampires and how those beliefs transformed into the modern myth.
Scroll down for video Find: Two skeletons, believed to be those of suspected Medieval vampires, were discovered with iron poles plunged through their chests in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol The two skeletons, believed to be around 800 years old, were discovered during an archaeological dig near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol. He added: 'The curious thing is that there are no women among them. Was a huge prehistoric plague which killed all but 5,000 'pre humans' the key that let man defeat the Neanderthals?
Mysterious plague reduced human numbers to just 5,000-10,000Plague related to modern infectionsMan 'bounced back' - and then spread from Africa all over the world By Rob Waugh Published: 14:21 GMT, 5 June 2012 | Updated: 14:21 GMT, 5 June 2012 The key factor which separated man from our evolutionary rivals 100,000 years ago may not have been language - but instead a mysterious plague.
The plague ravaged populations of early humans in Africa, until just 5-10,000 were left. But from that small population, humans emerged - and triumphed over other evolutionary cousins such as Neanderthals. Neanderthal man: The key factor which separated man from our evolutionary rivals 100,000 years ago may not have been language - but instead a mysterious plague The bug attacked small infants and newborns, causing symptoms similar to sepsis or meningitis.
But suriving it seems to have conveyed a key advantage. Soon afterwards, homo sapiens expanded dramatically in numbers, and spread all over the Earth. Shakespeare: 'Wooden O' stage of Curtain theatre where Shakespeare premiered Henry V unearthed near Thames. Bard used theatre as a base from 1597-99 while the Globe was being built across the riverThe Curtain was shut down in 1622 and its exact location had been lostSite could be opened to public and have plays staged there By Nick Enoch Published: 11:36 GMT, 6 June 2012 | Updated: 17:24 GMT, 6 June 2012 In the late 16th century, the audience who crossed a yard paved with sheep knuckle bones to reach this playhouse could not have known that history was being made. And now, the remains of the 'wooden O' stage, where William Shakespeare's company first performed Henry V, and possibly Romeo And Juliet, have been unearthed in a gravelled yard in Shoreditch, east London.
The Curtain Theatre was the Bard's first venue - and the 'wooden O' description comes from the prologue to Henry V: 'Can this Cock-Pit hold within this Woodden O, the very Caskes that did affright the Ayre at Agincourt? ' For two years, from 1597, it acted as his main stage while he waited for the Globe, across the Thames, to be built.