Hungary will spare no expense to preserve 16 cypress trees, estimated to be 8 million-years-old, recently uncovered in a northern lignite mine.
Hungarian Environment Minister Gabor Fodor told reporters in Budapest Friday the government will contribute millions of dollars to preserve the trees, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported.
Fodor said the cypress trees, believed to be 98 to 131 feet tall, were found in the Bukkabrany lignite mine, near the town of Miskolc, 100 miles northeast of Budapest.
The trees once were part of a wetlands forest in the Bukk mountains region, north of Miskolc.
The find is unique because the trees have not turned into fossils, which means they could yield clues to plant life in pre-historic times.
Authorities will put the rare trees on display for visitors in the Bukk National Park outside Miskolc.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Related stories:
Forest Fire Threatens Whipple Observatory
A forest fire sparked by lightning more than a week ago currently is located less than a mile from the Smithsonian's Whipple Observatory. More than 20,000 acres have burned already, and firefighters predict that the fire may grow to 60,000 acres. Observatory personnel were evacuated on Tuesday, July 12.
Pocket-sized magnetic resonance imaging
The term “MRI scan” brings to mind the gigantic, expensive machines that are installed in hospitals. But research scientists have now developed small portable MRI scanners that perform their services in the field: for instance to examine ice cores.
The Tunguska Event--100 Years Later
The year is 1908, and it's just after seven in the morning. A man is sitting on the front porch of a trading post at Vanavara in Siberia. Little does he know, in a few moments, he will be hurled from his chair and the heat will be so intense he will feel as though his shirt is on fire.
Maverick scientists probe Siberian forest mystery
Was it a gigantic meteorite? A tremendous bolt of lightning? Perhaps the crash of a UFO the size of Tokyo? No one is certain of the answer to one of the 20th century's greatest scientific mysteries -- the "Tunguska Event" 100 years ago this week.
Carbon hoofprint: Cows supplemented with rbST reduce agriculture's environmental impact
Milk goes green: Cows that receive recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST) make more milk, all the while easing natural resource pressure and substantially reducing environmental impact, according to a Cornell University study to be published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (June 30, 2008.)
Tree-killing fungus officially named by scientists
The USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) today announced that an SRS scientist and other researchers have officially named the fungus responsible for killing redbay and other trees in the coastal plains of northeastern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Tufts to develop morphing 'chemical robots'
Tufts University has received federal funding to develop chemical robots that will be able to squeeze into spaces as tiny as 1 centimeter, then morph into something 10 times larger, and ultimately biodegrade. The "chembots" could access urban environments, tunnels, caves and debris fields, and carry out other risky operations in complex environments.
New research could lead to no scent, no sex for the Japanese beetle
No scent. No sex. If a male Japanese beetle is unable to detect the sex pheromone released by a female, he won't be able to locate her and reproduce.