Australian Science Illustrated — Issue 54 2017

LOCAL FOCAL POINT – Planet hunter coming up

USA

Mississippi

12 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

T. REX ANT COLONY

FOUND IN SINGAPORE

After 20 years of searching,

scientists have finally

spotted a colony of the

fabled T. rex ant. Although

scientists have known the

existence of the creature

for a long time, they have

not known where to find it.

Biologist Mark Wong found

the nocturnal ant

in Singapore.

7,000 Dead Bodies

Found Under Hospital

According to radio scans, up to 7,000 dead

bodies are buried under a hospital in Mississippi.

ARCHAEOLOGY According to new radio

scans, 7,000 dead bodies are hidden under a

university in Mississippi, USA. A mental hospital

was located on the site until 82 years ago.

In 1855-1935, the “Mississippi State Insane

Hospital” was situated where the Mississippi

University Hospital is located now, and up to

35,000 people with mental conditions were

hospitalized there over the years. According to

the local Clarion-Ledger media, one in five

patients died of chronic diarrhoea, or

“exhausted nerves”. Apart from the high

number of corpses, the new discovery attracts

attention due to the fact that the dead bodies

are buried in very narrow coffins, which might

have been compressed by the weight of the

soil above them over the years.

1,200 km/s

• is how fast some stars move through space. According
  to scientists, they are located in galaxies which orbit ours.

PART ONE OF A GIANT TELESCOPE IS COMPLETE // Engineers

have just finished the greatest casting of a convex telescope mirror ever, coming

one step closer to creating the world’s largest optical telescope. The Extremely

Large Telescope will be completed in Chile in 2024, according to plan.

RADAR IMAGES REVEAL

THOUSANDS OF COFFINS

In the area around the University

Hospital, radar images have

revealed coffins with dead patients.

Previous scans revealed only 2000-

4000 bodies, but radio gives much

better detail.

NASA

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER

GORDON YONG/NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

SCIENCE UPDATE