'Lost Nuke': 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

A storied lost bomb and talented whales feature in the week's most intriguing discoveries:

• Canada May Have Found Cold War 'Lost Nuke': A Canadian diver off British Columbia spotted a metal object underwater so bizarre he thought it might be a UFO—until an old-timer said, "Oh, you might have found that bomb." He was referring to a Mark IV bomb dumped by a US jet in 1950 when it crashed while on a simulated nuclear bombing run. The Canadian Navy is checking it out, but this "nuke" is likely harmless.
• Narwhals 'See' Unlike Any Other Species: Whales need to surface in order to breathe, and the narwhal is no different.The Arctic whale must regularly find tiny openings in the ice, and how it does so turns out to be remarkable. Narwhals use the most directional sonar of any species, sending up to 1,000 "clicks of sound" per second through their heads, then directing the clicks into a beam, focusing on prey in the Arctic depths, or sections of open water amid an icy surface. There's a downside to this talent as well.

• Scientists Have Made Paralyzed Monkeys Walk: In what could prove to be a major step forward for people with spinal cord injuries, scientists out of Switzerland have gotten paralyzed monkeys to walk again. The feat involves an electrode implanted in the part of the brain that controls leg movement, and an interesting "playback" component plays a role.
• Thousands of Perfect Snowballs Turn Up on Arctic Beach: It looks for all the world like an epic winter battle in the making: Thousands of perfectly shaped snowballs of various sized turned up on a beach in Siberia. Locals have never seen anything like it, but scientists say it's actually a natural phenomenon.
• In Remote Chile, Skeleton of Gauguin's Dad Found: Artist Paul Gauguin was a little more than a year old when his parents left Paris bound for Peru. But during a stop at a Chilean fort near Antarctica on Oct. 30, 1849, Gauguin's father, Clovis, died of a heart aneurysm. The fort was destroyed long ago, but archaeologists say they've now found the remains of the elder Gauguin.

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