Science News Roundup: India plans to launch own space station; Russia uncovers 40,000 year-old wolf head

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

India plans to launch own space station: space agency

India will look to create its own space station following the completion of the country's first manned mission into space in 2022, its space agency chief said on Thursday. The space station, where astronauts can stay for 15 to 20 days, would be placed in an orbit of about 400 kilometers (km)above the Earth, K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) told a news conference.

Russia uncovers 40,000 year-old wolf head, preserved in ice

About 40,000 years ago, a wolf died in what we know as Siberia. Now its severed head has been found, and because of the freezing conditions, it is so well preserved that its fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue are largely intact. A Yakutia resident, Pavel Yefimov, found the head last summer on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh river, close to the Arctic Circle in the region of Yakutia, local media outlet the Siberian Times reported.

High times in ancient China revealed in funerary cannabis discovery

Marijuana chemical residue has been found in incense burners apparently used during funerary rites at a mountainous site in western China in about 500 BC, providing what may be the oldest evidence of smoking cannabis for its mind-altering properties. The evidence was found on 10 wooden braziers containing stones with burn marks that were discovered in eight tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery site in the Pamir Mountains in China's Xinjiang region, scientists said on Wednesday. The tombs also bore human skeletons and artifacts including a type of angular harp used in ancient funerals and sacrificial ceremonies.

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