Science News Summary: China's Mars simulation base greets visitors; cellular activity in pig brains hours after death

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Out of a drawer and into your nightmares comes a vicious ancient beast

When Ohio University integrative biologist Nancy Stevens peered into a drawer in the wooden cabinets on the top floor of a Nairobi museum in 2010, she saw a chunk of rock containing massive teeth and knew she had come across something important. The overlooked fossils stored at the National Museums of Kenya belonged to one of the largest meat-eating mammals ever to walk the Earth, a beast called Simbakubwa kutokaafrika that stalked Africa 22 million years ago, according to research by Stevens and co-author Matthew Borths published on Thursday.

Back on Earth, China's Mars simulation base greets first visitors

About 100 excited Chinese teenagers completed a five-hour tour of a space colony against a desolate backdrop not unlike the desert planet of Tatooine, the homeworld of Luke Skywalker. They were not on the set of Star Wars, but at a Chinese-built Mars simulation base in the barren, windswept hills of Gansu province.

Yale study revives cellular activity in pig brains hours after death

Yale University scientists have succeeded in restoring basic cellular activity in pigs' brains hours after their deaths in a finding that may one day lead to advances in treating human stroke and brain injuries, researchers reported on Wednesday. The scientists emphasized that their work did not even come close to reawakening consciousness in the disembodied pig brains. In fact, the experiment was specifically designed to avoid such an outcome, however improbable.

(With inputs from agencies.)