There, they say, the mutation that existed in under a tenth of the population spread to nearly nine-tenths-because those with it survived far better than those without.

With some 80% of Libya's territory and nine-tenths of its people under rebel control, the fall of any remaining pockets of loyalists is but a matter of time.

The only explanation Dr Clark can think of is that the star must have somehow shed nine-tenths of its mass before it exploded as a supernova.