Scientists from Northwestern University have discovered an environmentally kinder way to mine gold, which involves using simple cornstarch instead of cyanide to isolate gold from raw materials in a selective manner.

The scientists say that this "green" technique extracts gold from crude sources and leaves behind other metals that are frequently discovered mixed together with the crude gold. The technique can also assist with the removal of gold from consumer electronic waste.

Most gold mining companies today use gold extraction techniques involving the use of cyanide, which is very bad for the environment.

Sir Fraser Stoddart, the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, says that researchers have switched "nasty reagents with a cheap, biologically friendly material derived from starch."

Interestingly, the starch method was discovered by accident, using simple test tube chemistry. The scientists mixed together a test tube of the starch-derived alpha-cyclodextrin and one of a dissolved gold salt. They had been attempting to produce a three-dimensional cubic structure that could be used to keep gases and tiny molecules. Instead, they got needles, which formed quickly upon mixing the two solutions at room temperatures.

According to new research published in the journal Nature Communications, the Minoans were actually Europe's first advanced civilization.

Study co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, a human geneticist at the University of Washington, said:

"We now know that the founders of the first advanced European civilization were European. They were very similar to Neolithic Europeans and very similar to present day-Cretans," ( residents of the Mediterranean island of Crete.)

Researchers had previously believed that the Minoan culture emerged in Egypt.

British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered the Minoan palace of Knossos more than 100 years after Crete gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire. He was blown away by the building's beauty, and believed that the similarities to Egyptian art proved that the culture was originally from Egypt.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Noelle Scaggs. Noelle is the co-lead singer of the band Fitz And The Tantrums.

Fits And The Tantrums is headlining their own tour this summer while aslo opening some shows for Bruno Mars.

What's the difference between headlining your own show and opening for another artist?

The time slots, its 35 - 40 min when opening when headlining its hours. Also all of our fans buying tickets to see us when headlining and when opening we are trying to gain fan base so its a mixture of fans. There's a difference in fans depending on the city. In New York we have a huge fan base already.

Have you always had a passion for music?

Yeah I kind of stumbled into it. My father had a huge vinyl collection front to back. I listened to Parliament and Temptations while digging through his vinyl collection. I was aloud 1 hour of television a day so I would watch the video channel writing down the lyrics of songs and trying to learn the process of song writing. Trying to learn by singing in my room before performing in front of crowd.

The village of Newtok, Alaska, may become the United States' very first refugees due to climate change. The coastal village of 350 residents is located about 480 miles west of Anchorage, and is currently in the process of being washed out into the Bering Sea.

The Ninglick River flows past three of Newtok's sides on its path to the sea, and has slowly been eating away at the village. The rate has only grown more aggressive due to climate change that's also been linked to melting permafrost and dwindling protective sea ice.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have already surveyed the village, coming to grim conclusions. They predict that seawalls or other protective measures would not work and that the town's highest point could be underwater in just four years, by 2017.

Kidnapped in April 2003 at the age of 16, Amanda Berry was freed earlier this month after escaping the abductor who held her captive for a decade. Berry, now 27, had been sexually abused by her captor and gave birth to her six-year-old daughter during the time she was held against her will. Now, her relatives in Tennessee are hoping that she will join them there to start a new life.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, passed away while she was being held captive in the Seymour Ave. home, just miles from where she lived in Cleveland. Her mother never gave up hope that she would be found alive.

Berry's relatives are hoping that she will move to Tennessee so that she can be closer to her father and extended family.

The commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic announced this week that it is hiring two veteran pilots to bring space tourists to new heights above Earth.

The new hires include retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Massuci and former NASA space shuttle commander Frederick Sturckow, who will work out of the company's Mojave, Calif., location to conduct flight training and testing with the suborbital SpaceShipTwo and its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo.

According to a new study, pregnant mothers' exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood.

Dr. Alan Brown, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, said:

"Prospective mothers should take common sense preventive measures, such as getting flu shots prior to and in the early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic. In spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women get immunized. The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or newborn."

There have been hints of a connection between maternal influenza and bipolar disorder in offspring before, this is the first study to prospectively follow families in the same HMO, using physician-based diagnoses and structured standardized psychiatric measures.

Ariel Castro is accused of holding three women - Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight - captive in his Cleveland home for a decade. Castro's brothers, Onil and Pedro Castro, said during an interview with CNN that they want the women to know how sorry they are for what they've been through, and hope that Ariel "rots in Jail."

Pedro Castro said:

"I'm just grateful they are home and out of that horrible house, and I'd just tell them I'm sorry for what Ariel done."

Pedro and Onil say that they have no sympathy for Ariel Castro, "brother or no brother", and one even referred to him as a "monster." Onil Castro also commented that he wanted Ariel to "suffer in that jail to the last extent."

Pedro Castro added:

"I don't care if they even feed him," Pedro Castro said. "The monster's a goner."

Pedro Castro also said that he was shocked to learn that Gina DeJesus was one of his victims, because they had known her father for a long time and Ariel had even gone to a vigil for her when she went missing. He also said that he'd been in the house, but never noticed anything strange. He did, however, say that part of the house was blocked off by curtains and a radio or TV was always on.

On Sunday, the Roman Catholic Church's new pontiff, Pope Francis, held his first canonization ceremony, and it was most certainly one for the record books. Francis named over 800 new saints during the ceremony, which is already nearly double the number of saints that were declared by Pope John Paul II, whose 480-some canonizations in total were more than those of all of his predecessors since 1588 combined.

Many of the 800 new saints are 15th century martyrs who were approved as a group for sainthood by Pope Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The 813 "Martyrs of Otranto" were beheaded by Ottoman soldiers for refusing to convert to Islam.

Francis, who is trying to improve the Catholic church's relationship with the Muslim world, attempted to handle the possibly awkward moment by declining to mention the word "Islam" in his entire speech marking the canonizations. Rather, Francis emphasized the Christian faith of the martyrs and a nod to ending inter-religious violence, stating:

"Let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good."

19 people were injured when gunfire during an informal Mother's Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, said police. Among the injured were two young children.

The shots were fired at 1:45pm local time as the second line of the parade passed the 1400 block of Frenchmen Street in the city.

Ten men and seven women were shot in addition to a 10-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. A spokesman for the police department said that the children were grazed and are in good condition, adding that "many of the victims were grazed by some bullets that ricocheted." Two victims are undergoing surgery.