New research has revealed that some events in Earth's history happened more recently than previously thought. Scientists from the British Geological Survey and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, publishing this week in the journal Science, have refined the data used to determine how much time has passed since a mineral or rock was formed.

They report uranium isotopic composition of minerals, used to date major geological events, which are more accurate than previously published. The major effect of this is to reduce previous age determinations by up to 700,000 years.

Minerals naturally capture uranium when they form, which in turn undergoes a chain of radioactive decays to other elements, ending with lead. This new research has shown that, by more accurately measuring the relative amount of the uranium isotopes 238U and 235U, we now have a better understanding of how much time has passed since a mineral or rock has formed.

A major effect of this work will be to decrease all previous uranium-lead (U-Pb) age determinations, by up to 700,000 years for samples that are about 4.5 billion years old - the age of the Earth.

World-leading ship science expert, Professor Ajit Shenoi, says that a seafaring tragedy on the scale of the Titanic disaster is unlikely to happen again.

Professor Shenoi, who is the Director of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute at the University of Southampton, believes this is due to the many lessons that have been learned as a result of the tragedy 100 years ago.

"A detailed Board of Trade inquiry set up after the tragedy identified that the reasons behind the Titanic's sinking and the huge loss of life could be categorised under two headings," Professor Shenoi explains.

One of the highlights of interviewing Larry Page this week was geeking out with Google's (GOOG) chief executive officer over our matching Android-powered Galaxy Nexus smartphones--and getting to whine directly to the über-Android boss about one of its shortcomings, feeble battery life. Page started our chat by marveling at all the technology packed into the oversize handset. "Eight years ago you would have killed for having a computer that good," he said. "We have forgotten that we're walking around with that in our pocket and it's battery-powered. It's just amazing." He also acknowledged, after I complained, that the thing practically gulps down electric juice.

The NRA and other gun lobby groups consistently block efforts to restrict the massive sale of high-power assault weapons across the border, which end up in the cartels' hands, they say. In particular, Calderón cited the gun lobby-supported U.S. decision to lift a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Calderón said he spent much of the time during his meeting with Obama on Monday urging him to seek a restoration of the ban.

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"During my government, we have seized over 140,000 weapons in four years. And I think that the vast majority have been assault weapons, AK-57s, etc. And many, the vast majority of these weapons, were sold in gun shops in the United States," Calderón said, adding that there are an estimated 8,000 gun shops along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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"There have been about 100,000 desertions from the Mexican military into the drug cartels over the past seven years, and one would have to be extremely naive to think that when those deserters leave their base, they are doing it empty-handed, without raiding the armory," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told me.