Is the Baltic Sea 'Sunken UFO' an Elaborate Scam?

The ocean explorers who discovered a huge, UFO-shape object on the floor of the Baltic Sea last year are having a heck of a time figuring out what it is.

A suspiciously hard time, some would say.

The Swedish divers, who call themselves the Ocean X Team, claim the object is giving off electrical interference that keeps foiling their attempts to investigate it.

Tiny Tracks of First Complex Animal Life Discovered

A teensy sluglike animal that wriggled around the sediment in search of food at least 585 million years ago didn't die in vain. The tiny mover left behind tracks that researchers now say represent evidence of the earliest known bilateral animal, or multicellular life with bilateral symmetry.

The finding, detailed in the June 29 issue of the journal Science, pushes back the date for the existence of advanced multicellular animal life by at least 30 million years. The oldest evidence before this discovery came from Russia and dated to 555 million years ago.

Geologists Ernesto Pecoits and Natalie Aubet of the University of Alberta in Canada were studying the rocks at a site in Uruguay in 2007 when they discovered the tracks. They saw that the tracks had been made by a bilaterian, or an animal with bilateral symmetry, with a front and back as well as a top and bottom, unlike corals and sponges. (Tiny sea sponges date back at least 635 million years.)

Elephant-Nosed Fish Has Funky Eyes, Too

An unusual eye structure helps the strange-looking elephantnose fish see in their dim and murky habitat, a new study suggests.

These fish live in muddy rivers in central and west Africa, which are full of plant matter, mud and gas bubbles, even when it's light out. Living in such murky waters, the fish uses its trunk-like mouth extension (from which it gets its name) to sense electrical currentscreated by other fish.

Ancient Text Confirms Mayan Calendar End Date

A newly discovered Mayan text reveals the "end date" for theMayan calendar, becoming only the second known document to do so. But unlike some modern people, ancient Maya did not expect the world to end on that date, researchers said.

"This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," Marcello Canuto, the director of Tulane University Middle America Research Institute, said in a statement.

Pottery 20,000 years old found in a Chinese cave

BEIJING (AP) — Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, archaeologists say.

The findings, which will appear in the journal Science on Friday, add to recent efforts that have dated pottery piles in east Asia to more than 15,000 years ago, refuting conventional theories that the invention of pottery correlates to the period about 10,000 years ago when humans moved from being hunter-gathers to farmers.

Asteroid hunters want to launch private telescope

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Who will protect us from a killer asteroid? A team of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists thinks it's up to them.

In a bold plan unveiled Thursday, the group wants to launch its ownspace telescope to spot and track small and mid-sized space rocks capable of wiping out a city or continent. With that information, they could sound early warnings if a rogue asteroid appeared headed toward our planet.

So far, the idea from the B612 Foundation is on paper only.

Such an effort would cost upward of several hundred million dollars, and the group plans to start fundraising. Behind the nonprofit are a space shuttle astronaut, Apollo 9 astronaut, former Mars czar, deep space mission manager along with other non-NASA types.

Can a genetic switch spice up supermarket tomato?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Using genetics, scientists have been able to dig up the dirt on why homegrown tomatoes taste so much sweeter than the ones in the supermarket.

Researchers found a genetic switch responsible for some of thesugar production within a tomato. A new study in Friday's edition of Science found that the common type of tomato bred for firmness and good shipping also inadvertently turns off the sugar-producing switch. That makes it less sweet and blander than garden varieties.

Saturn moon Titan may harbor ocean below surface

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scientists reported Thursday on the strongest sign yet that Saturn's giant moon may have a salty ocean beneath its chilly surface.

If confirmed, it would catapult Titan into an elite class of solar system moons harboring water, an essential ingredient for life.

Titan boasts methane-filled seas at the poles and a possible lake near the equator. And it's long been speculated that Titan contains a hidden liquid layer, based on mathematical modeling and electric field measurements made by the Huygens spacecraft that landed on the surface in 2005.

RIM posts big Q1 loss, to cut 5,000 jobs

TORONTO (AP) — Struggling BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. revealed Thursday that its business is crumbling faster than thought.

The Canadian company posted worse results for its latest quarter than analysts had expected. It's cutting 5,000 jobs and delaying the launch of its new phone operating system, BlackBerry 10, until after the holiday shopping season.

Android 4.1 leaked for Galaxy Nexus

Shortly after Google pushed a Jelly Bean preview update to I/O attendees, RootzWiki made it available to the public. The update was originally intended for GSM Galaxy Nexus smartphones, however hardworking developers were able to iron out the LTE bugs and make it available to all Galaxy Nexus models. The leak is 100% functional and no bugs have been found; the only requirement for users to install the software that root access must be gained. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean includes a new notification system, Google Now, offline voice dictation and a faster user interface enabled by “Project Butter.”

Next iPhone will be ‘biggest product launch in consumer electronics history’

Surprise! An Apple product is already getting absurd amounts of hype months before its release. Per StreetInsider, the latest batch of Apple hype comes from Wells Fargo, which on Wednesday reiterated its Outperform rating on Apple’s stock and said that the next-generation iPhone “will be the biggest product launch in consumer electronics’ history” when it’s released this fall. Given that every new iPhone model has been dubbed the “biggest product launch ever” by one entity or another over the past five years, this isn’t surprising. Among other things, the new version of the iPhone is rumored to have 4G LTE connectivity, a case that’s 7.6 millimeters thin, NFC support and a new 19-pin mini dock connector.

Weather alerts coming soon to smartphone near you

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorney Bob Burns already gets a lot of information from his smartphone, but he welcomes the prospect of getting a little more — free warnings about life-threatening weather from a sophisticated new government system.

Beginning Thursday, the new Wireless Emergency Alerts system gives the National Weather Service a new way to warn Americans about menacing weather, even if they are nowhere near a television, radio or storm sirens. It sends blanket warnings to mobile devices in the path of a dangerous storm.

Nadal stunned at Wimbledon by 100th-ranked Rosol

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Rafael Nadal bumped into his unknown and unheralded opponent as they headed to a break between games. Perhaps it was incidental contact.

At the previous changeover, Nadal stood and barked at the chair umpire, complaining about being distracted by 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol while serving. Later, Nadal shook his head and frowned when a Wimbledon official explained that, with light fading and the second-round match heading to a fifth set, they'd need a 45-minute break to close the retractable roof and turn on the lights at Centre Court.

Iraq bomb attacks kill 21, wound scores

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded over 100 on Thursday, health and security sources said, the latest attacks in a bloody month that have stoked fears Iraq could return to broad sectarian fighting.

Tensions have been high in the country since the last U.S. troops left in December, with ongoing political crises between Iraq's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions further aggravating concerns.