Newsdesk Archive
Readings of tritium in seawater taken from the bay near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has shown 4700 becquerels per liter, a TEPCO report stated, according to Nikkei newspaper. It marks the highest tritium level in the measurement history.Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has detected the highest radiation level in seawater collected in the harbor of the crippled nuclear plant in the past 15 days, Nikkei reports.
The editor of the Guardian, a major outlet for revelations based on leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, says the British government threatened legal action against the newspaper unless it either destroyed the classified documents or handed them back to British authorities.Related: U.K. government thought destroying Guardian hard drives would stop Snowden stories
Signed dedicated bookplates offer renewed, Tuesday 20 August through Tuesday 27 August, in response to many requests.For one week only, buy the paperback edition of my novel War God about the Spanish conquest of Mexico from Amazon US or the hardback edition from Amazon Canada, write to me at [email protected] with your name and postal address and I will, at my own expense, airmail you a personally signed, dedicated bookplate (a label designed to go on the title page) to place inside your copy.Buy War God in paperback here from Amazon USBuy the hardback edition of War God here from Amazon CanadaWrite to me at [email protected] confirming your order anytime between today, Tuesday 20 August, and midnight your time on Tuesday 27 August, be patient with me for up to a month as I get the bookplates dedicated and signed and off in the post to you, and I will fulfil this promise.Full information here: http://www.grahamhancock.com/wargod/.
How far would you go to get your cinnamon fix? If you lived in the Levant 3,000 years ago (a region that includes modern day Israel), very far indeed new research indicates.Researchers analyzing the contents of 27 flasks from five archaeological sites in Israel that date back around 3,000 years have found that 10 of the flasks contain cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its flavor, indicating that the spice was stored in these flasks.
Could a blood test predict whether a person is at risk of committing suicide? For the first time, a set of proteins in the blood have been linked to suicidal behaviour. People who commit suicide appear to share a number of biological traits, regardless of any underlying conditions. This hints that suicidal behaviour may be a distinct disorder.
Did the US government test a flying saucer at double-super-secret Area 51?We ask that question because the US military did work on building its own flying saucer in the 1950s, and a recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency report for the first time publicly acknowledged Area 51, the cold war-era test site in Nevada near Groom Lake.
A new study of desert plants living on the slopes of Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains has uncovered a startling fact: many trees and shrubs have moved a long way up-slope over the last 50 years. The shift could be caused by a warming trend in recent decades in the Arizona desert, or perhaps the 20-year drought.The study was done by surveying the varied plants and plant communities lined up along the Catalina Highway, which climbs from low desert to mountain top. The data was compared to that of a 1963 survey the famous botanist Robert H. Whittaker and his colleague William Niering did along the same stretch of road.
Managing fish in human-altered rivers is a challenge because their food webs are sensitive to environmental disturbance. So reports a new study in the journal Ecological Monographs, based on an exhaustive three-year analysis of the Colorado River in Glen and Grand Canyons.
Members of one of the most isolated tribes on Earth have briefly emerged from the Peruvian jungle to ask for food, according to local activists.A group from the Mashco-Piro tribe made contact with villagers, apparently sparking a tense stand-off.The tribe, which numbers in the hundreds, has had virtually no contact with the wider world.Campaigners say logging and urban development have diminished the area in which the tribe can live.
Insect sex may seem fairly simple: fluttering dances, clasping abdomens, a quick mount on a forest floor. But a new review of homosexual insect encounters suggests the acts may not be that straightforward for the individuals involved.Researchers have widely examined homosexual behavior in mammals and birds, but have addressed it less frequently in insects and spiders.
Honey bees are being cross bred with their more aggressive African cousins to produce a hybrid which is hardier and more resistant to parasites.Bee populations in Britain, Europe and America are being decimated by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term for the sudden disappearance of entire colonies which has left up to a quarter of hives in some countries empty.
US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second.In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft.
Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.Found in a burial at Başur Höyük, a 820- by 492-foot mound near Siirt in southeast Turkey, the elaborate pieces consist of 49 small stones sculpted in different shapes and painted in green, red, blue, black and white.
Sometimes it seems Neandertals just can
Gazelle-sized dinosaurs in the Psittacosaurus genus roamed Earth between 120 million and 125 million years ago, eating plants and cracking nuts with parrotlike beaks. They represent one of the most species-rich groups of dinosaurs known today, with at least nine different psittacosaurs identified since their discovery in 1923. But their ranks may have just gotten smaller.
A private manned Mars mission may get some help from students on its way to the launch pad in 2018.A newly announced contest asks students to propose design concepts for the Inspiration Mars mission, a private effort that aims to launch two astronauts on a flyby of the Red Planet in January 2018.
It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.Nasa scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation.
A gas planet about four times the size of Jupiter may be giant, but it's one of the smallest alien planets ever captured on camera, according to a new study.The planet's relatively small size and far distance from its star, called GJ 504, marked a milestone for Japan's Subaru Telescope, which took the discovery images in 2011, according to Adam Burrows, a co-author of the study.
New research into the visual system of dragonflies could one day improve target detection and tracking in robotics, according to a pair of Australian researchers.Steven Wiederman and David O'Carroll from the Center for Neuroscience Research at the University of Adelaide in Australia have been studying insect vision in the hopes of improving artificial vision for robotics and to develop neural prosthetics. They've found that dragonflies have an unusual visual circuit that allows them to see dark moving objects.
Soda has already been blamed for making kids obese. New research blames the sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children too.Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.
MATSUE--Copies of
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, Japan has struggled to stem the flow of radioactive material from the site. As Bloomberg reports, a new idea would see pipes installed around the failed plant, through which coolant would be pushed from on-site refrigeration units. The pipes would be installed between 20 and 40 meters (66 and 132 feet) below the ground, turning a mile-long stretch of earth into a frozen wall. The Japanese government wants to keep the ground frozen for six years, starting in July 2015.
James Czywczynski, the current owner of the Wounded Knee site has told the Oglala Sioux Tribe they have until September 2 to purchase the land. If no one steps forward to purchase the land for the tribe, Czywczynski says he will hold a public auction for the land.
The tiny nation of Ecuador is sitting on a lucrative oil reserve
If melting ice caps trigger rapid sea level rise, the strain that the edges of continents could experience might set off underwater landslides, new research suggests.Submarine landslides happen on every continental margin, the underwater parts of continental plates bordering oceanic plates. These underwater avalanches, which can happen when underwater slopes get hit by earthquakes or otherwise have too much weight loaded onto them, can generate dangerous tsunamis.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also said there was a 95 per cent likelihood that global warming is caused by human activities. That was the highest assessment so far from the IPCC, which put the figure at 90 per cent in a previous report in 2007, 66 per cent in 2001, and just over 50 per cent in 1995.
Global warming has subtly altered the taste and texture of Japanese apples over the last 40 years, although consumers may not realize it, according to new research.A study published in Scientific Reports concluded that climate change was likely responsible for earlier apple tree blooms and warmer growing seasons in Japan, as well as softer and less acidic apples.
When a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, pieces of the bus-sized space rock hit the ground while its detonation shattered windows, set off car alarms and injured more than 1,000 people.Masked in the chaos, however, was an enormous plume of dust that the Russian meteor left behind in Earth's atmosphere. This cloud, which had hundreds of tons of material in it, was still lingering three months after the Feb. 15 explosion, a new study has found. Scientists created a video of the Russian meteor explosion's dust cloud to illustrate the phenomenon.
On Sunday, the military and police sent additional security forces to archaeological sites and galleries in the Upper Egypt city of Minya to help guards of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) protect the city
Insect sex may seem fairly simple: fluttering dances, clasping abdomens, a quick mount on a forest floor. But a new review of homosexual insect encounters suggests the acts may not be that straightforward for the individuals involved.Researchers have widely examined homosexual behavior in mammals and birds, but have addressed it less frequently in insects and spiders.
Honey bees are being cross bred with their more aggressive African cousins to produce a hybrid which is hardier and more resistant to parasites.Bee populations in Britain, Europe and America are being decimated by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term for the sudden disappearance of entire colonies which has left up to a quarter of hives in some countries empty.
US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second.In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft.
Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.Found in a burial at Başur Höyük, a 820- by 492-foot mound near Siirt in southeast Turkey, the elaborate pieces consist of 49 small stones sculpted in different shapes and painted in green, red, blue, black and white.
Sometimes it seems Neandertals just can
Gazelle-sized dinosaurs in the Psittacosaurus genus roamed Earth between 120 million and 125 million years ago, eating plants and cracking nuts with parrotlike beaks. They represent one of the most species-rich groups of dinosaurs known today, with at least nine different psittacosaurs identified since their discovery in 1923. But their ranks may have just gotten smaller.
A private manned Mars mission may get some help from students on its way to the launch pad in 2018.A newly announced contest asks students to propose design concepts for the Inspiration Mars mission, a private effort that aims to launch two astronauts on a flyby of the Red Planet in January 2018.
It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.Nasa scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation.
A gas planet about four times the size of Jupiter may be giant, but it's one of the smallest alien planets ever captured on camera, according to a new study.The planet's relatively small size and far distance from its star, called GJ 504, marked a milestone for Japan's Subaru Telescope, which took the discovery images in 2011, according to Adam Burrows, a co-author of the study.
New research into the visual system of dragonflies could one day improve target detection and tracking in robotics, according to a pair of Australian researchers.Steven Wiederman and David O'Carroll from the Center for Neuroscience Research at the University of Adelaide in Australia have been studying insect vision in the hopes of improving artificial vision for robotics and to develop neural prosthetics. They've found that dragonflies have an unusual visual circuit that allows them to see dark moving objects.
Soda has already been blamed for making kids obese. New research blames the sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children too.Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.
MATSUE--Copies of
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, Japan has struggled to stem the flow of radioactive material from the site. As Bloomberg reports, a new idea would see pipes installed around the failed plant, through which coolant would be pushed from on-site refrigeration units. The pipes would be installed between 20 and 40 meters (66 and 132 feet) below the ground, turning a mile-long stretch of earth into a frozen wall. The Japanese government wants to keep the ground frozen for six years, starting in July 2015.
James Czywczynski, the current owner of the Wounded Knee site has told the Oglala Sioux Tribe they have until September 2 to purchase the land. If no one steps forward to purchase the land for the tribe, Czywczynski says he will hold a public auction for the land.
The tiny nation of Ecuador is sitting on a lucrative oil reserve
If melting ice caps trigger rapid sea level rise, the strain that the edges of continents could experience might set off underwater landslides, new research suggests.Submarine landslides happen on every continental margin, the underwater parts of continental plates bordering oceanic plates. These underwater avalanches, which can happen when underwater slopes get hit by earthquakes or otherwise have too much weight loaded onto them, can generate dangerous tsunamis.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also said there was a 95 per cent likelihood that global warming is caused by human activities. That was the highest assessment so far from the IPCC, which put the figure at 90 per cent in a previous report in 2007, 66 per cent in 2001, and just over 50 per cent in 1995.
Global warming has subtly altered the taste and texture of Japanese apples over the last 40 years, although consumers may not realize it, according to new research.A study published in Scientific Reports concluded that climate change was likely responsible for earlier apple tree blooms and warmer growing seasons in Japan, as well as softer and less acidic apples.
When a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, pieces of the bus-sized space rock hit the ground while its detonation shattered windows, set off car alarms and injured more than 1,000 people.Masked in the chaos, however, was an enormous plume of dust that the Russian meteor left behind in Earth's atmosphere. This cloud, which had hundreds of tons of material in it, was still lingering three months after the Feb. 15 explosion, a new study has found. Scientists created a video of the Russian meteor explosion's dust cloud to illustrate the phenomenon.
On Sunday, the military and police sent additional security forces to archaeological sites and galleries in the Upper Egypt city of Minya to help guards of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) protect the city
Insect sex may seem fairly simple: fluttering dances, clasping abdomens, a quick mount on a forest floor. But a new review of homosexual insect encounters suggests the acts may not be that straightforward for the individuals involved.Researchers have widely examined homosexual behavior in mammals and birds, but have addressed it less frequently in insects and spiders.
Honey bees are being cross bred with their more aggressive African cousins to produce a hybrid which is hardier and more resistant to parasites.Bee populations in Britain, Europe and America are being decimated by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term for the sudden disappearance of entire colonies which has left up to a quarter of hives in some countries empty.
US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second.In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft.
Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.Found in a burial at Başur Höyük, a 820- by 492-foot mound near Siirt in southeast Turkey, the elaborate pieces consist of 49 small stones sculpted in different shapes and painted in green, red, blue, black and white.
Sometimes it seems Neandertals just can
Gazelle-sized dinosaurs in the Psittacosaurus genus roamed Earth between 120 million and 125 million years ago, eating plants and cracking nuts with parrotlike beaks. They represent one of the most species-rich groups of dinosaurs known today, with at least nine different psittacosaurs identified since their discovery in 1923. But their ranks may have just gotten smaller.
A private manned Mars mission may get some help from students on its way to the launch pad in 2018.A newly announced contest asks students to propose design concepts for the Inspiration Mars mission, a private effort that aims to launch two astronauts on a flyby of the Red Planet in January 2018.
It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.Nasa scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation.
A gas planet about four times the size of Jupiter may be giant, but it's one of the smallest alien planets ever captured on camera, according to a new study.The planet's relatively small size and far distance from its star, called GJ 504, marked a milestone for Japan's Subaru Telescope, which took the discovery images in 2011, according to Adam Burrows, a co-author of the study.
New research into the visual system of dragonflies could one day improve target detection and tracking in robotics, according to a pair of Australian researchers.Steven Wiederman and David O'Carroll from the Center for Neuroscience Research at the University of Adelaide in Australia have been studying insect vision in the hopes of improving artificial vision for robotics and to develop neural prosthetics. They've found that dragonflies have an unusual visual circuit that allows them to see dark moving objects.
Soda has already been blamed for making kids obese. New research blames the sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children too.Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.
MATSUE--Copies of
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, Japan has struggled to stem the flow of radioactive material from the site. As Bloomberg reports, a new idea would see pipes installed around the failed plant, through which coolant would be pushed from on-site refrigeration units. The pipes would be installed between 20 and 40 meters (66 and 132 feet) below the ground, turning a mile-long stretch of earth into a frozen wall. The Japanese government wants to keep the ground frozen for six years, starting in July 2015.
James Czywczynski, the current owner of the Wounded Knee site has told the Oglala Sioux Tribe they have until September 2 to purchase the land. If no one steps forward to purchase the land for the tribe, Czywczynski says he will hold a public auction for the land.
The tiny nation of Ecuador is sitting on a lucrative oil reserve
If melting ice caps trigger rapid sea level rise, the strain that the edges of continents could experience might set off underwater landslides, new research suggests.Submarine landslides happen on every continental margin, the underwater parts of continental plates bordering oceanic plates. These underwater avalanches, which can happen when underwater slopes get hit by earthquakes or otherwise have too much weight loaded onto them, can generate dangerous tsunamis.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also said there was a 95 per cent likelihood that global warming is caused by human activities. That was the highest assessment so far from the IPCC, which put the figure at 90 per cent in a previous report in 2007, 66 per cent in 2001, and just over 50 per cent in 1995.
Global warming has subtly altered the taste and texture of Japanese apples over the last 40 years, although consumers may not realize it, according to new research.A study published in Scientific Reports concluded that climate change was likely responsible for earlier apple tree blooms and warmer growing seasons in Japan, as well as softer and less acidic apples.
When a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, pieces of the bus-sized space rock hit the ground while its detonation shattered windows, set off car alarms and injured more than 1,000 people.Masked in the chaos, however, was an enormous plume of dust that the Russian meteor left behind in Earth's atmosphere. This cloud, which had hundreds of tons of material in it, was still lingering three months after the Feb. 15 explosion, a new study has found. Scientists created a video of the Russian meteor explosion's dust cloud to illustrate the phenomenon.
On Sunday, the military and police sent additional security forces to archaeological sites and galleries in the Upper Egypt city of Minya to help guards of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) protect the city
Insect sex may seem fairly simple: fluttering dances, clasping abdomens, a quick mount on a forest floor. But a new review of homosexual insect encounters suggests the acts may not be that straightforward for the individuals involved.Researchers have widely examined homosexual behavior in mammals and birds, but have addressed it less frequently in insects and spiders.
Honey bees are being cross bred with their more aggressive African cousins to produce a hybrid which is hardier and more resistant to parasites.Bee populations in Britain, Europe and America are being decimated by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term for the sudden disappearance of entire colonies which has left up to a quarter of hives in some countries empty.
US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second.In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft.
Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.Found in a burial at Başur Höyük, a 820- by 492-foot mound near Siirt in southeast Turkey, the elaborate pieces consist of 49 small stones sculpted in different shapes and painted in green, red, blue, black and white.
Gazelle-sized dinosaurs in the Psittacosaurus genus roamed Earth between 120 million and 125 million years ago, eating plants and cracking nuts with parrotlike beaks. They represent one of the most species-rich groups of dinosaurs known today, with at least nine different psittacosaurs identified since their discovery in 1923. But their ranks may have just gotten smaller.
A private manned Mars mission may get some help from students on its way to the launch pad in 2018.A newly announced contest asks students to propose design concepts for the Inspiration Mars mission, a private effort that aims to launch two astronauts on a flyby of the Red Planet in January 2018.
It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.Nasa scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation.
A gas planet about four times the size of Jupiter may be giant, but it's one of the smallest alien planets ever captured on camera, according to a new study.The planet's relatively small size and far distance from its star, called GJ 504, marked a milestone for Japan's Subaru Telescope, which took the discovery images in 2011, according to Adam Burrows, a co-author of the study.
New research into the visual system of dragonflies could one day improve target detection and tracking in robotics, according to a pair of Australian researchers.Steven Wiederman and David O'Carroll from the Center for Neuroscience Research at the University of Adelaide in Australia have been studying insect vision in the hopes of improving artificial vision for robotics and to develop neural prosthetics. They've found that dragonflies have an unusual visual circuit that allows them to see dark moving objects.
Soda has already been blamed for making kids obese. New research blames the sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children too.Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, Japan has struggled to stem the flow of radioactive material from the site. As Bloomberg reports, a new idea would see pipes installed around the failed plant, through which coolant would be pushed from on-site refrigeration units. The pipes would be installed between 20 and 40 meters (66 and 132 feet) below the ground, turning a mile-long stretch of earth into a frozen wall. The Japanese government wants to keep the ground frozen for six years, starting in July 2015.
If melting ice caps trigger rapid sea level rise, the strain that the edges of continents could experience might set off underwater landslides, new research suggests.Submarine landslides happen on every continental margin, the underwater parts of continental plates bordering oceanic plates. These underwater avalanches, which can happen when underwater slopes get hit by earthquakes or otherwise have too much weight loaded onto them, can generate dangerous tsunamis.
Global warming has subtly altered the taste and texture of Japanese apples over the last 40 years, although consumers may not realize it, according to new research.A study published in Scientific Reports concluded that climate change was likely responsible for earlier apple tree blooms and warmer growing seasons in Japan, as well as softer and less acidic apples.
When a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, pieces of the bus-sized space rock hit the ground while its detonation shattered windows, set off car alarms and injured more than 1,000 people.Masked in the chaos, however, was an enormous plume of dust that the Russian meteor left behind in Earth's atmosphere. This cloud, which had hundreds of tons of material in it, was still lingering three months after the Feb. 15 explosion, a new study has found. Scientists created a video of the Russian meteor explosion's dust cloud to illustrate the phenomenon.
Brightly colored little patches that stick on clothing or backpacks could represent an effective new way to fight mosquitoes and the deadly illnesses they spread. A California-based startup is close to getting the patches produced and distributed in areas where they
Material scientists have published a study describing how they engineered a spray-on nanocrystal coating that that can control how much light or heat passes through it using electricity.The team, from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has already struck up a partnership with Californian smart window startup Heliotrope to bring the material to market. Heliotrope in fact came out of the Molecular Foundry, where coauthor on the nanocrystal study Delia Milliron works as deputy director.
Researchers at Northwestern University have designed an invisibility cloak that can temporally hide objects for an indefinite period of time. Objects covered by this invisibility cloak wouldn
A reform that would protect classified information even as it helped tip off Congress and the public to surveillance abusesWhat if every NSA employee and contractor was required, once a year, to fill out an anonymous civil-liberties survey? The anonymity of respondents would be persuasively guaranteed, and a multiple-choice format would prevent disclosing any classified information.Answering would be as easy as putting a No. 2 pencil to an answer sheet.
We might never see Sophia Grace Brownlee's fantastic Nicki Minaj impression, or this adorable ukulele cover of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," or even a young Justin Beiber performance again if the Department of Commerce gets its way.The department's Internet Policy Task Force last week proposed making it a felony to stream copyrighted works. According to Techdirt, such a provision, if interpreted broadly, could apply to people who upload covers of themselves performing songs to YouTube without permission. That could be bad news for people like Bieber, who first won fame in part through YouTube videos of his performances of popular R&B covers.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that water fluoridation in the country must end by 2014, according to news reports. This landmark decision goes even further than legislation by the health minister Yael German earlier in the year that would have ended mandatory fluoridation nationwide, reports the Irish publication Hot Press.Israel is one of the few countries that widely fluoridates, besides the United States, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
SAY goodbye to the dreaded Monday morning hangover, thanks to researchers from a Queensland university who have discovered it may be possible to improve the hydrating effects of beer.Since the beginning of time, it seems sipping on a frosty cold beer has been a necessity on a scorching hot day. This can be counter-intuitive at times, given alcohol actually increases dehydration and leads to drunkenness, risky behavior and eventually, the hangover.
As coffee's health risks and benefits are continually debated between studies and tests, one thing has become clear, too much is harmful, a new study said.According to USA Today, a new study, published Thursday in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, shows heavy consumption of coffee can elevate the risk of death by any cause in men and women under 55.
Excavation work might be challenging enough in itself. When the excavation site is located in a part of Afghanistan containing rich reserves of copper, the archeologists also have to cope with greedy Chinese mining companies, corrupt officials and the Taliban, with their landmines and rocket propelled grenades.
An international team of researchers have announced the discovery of the oldest hominin (early or archaic human) fossil ever found in Western Europe, pushing back the clock on when early humans first colonized Western Europe after their exodus from Africa.The find, a fossil tooth (molar) uncovered through excavations at the site of Barranco León in the Orce region of southeastern Spain, was dated to about 1.4 million years ago using several combined dating techniques, including Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) in combination with paleomagnetic and biochronological data.
The invention of the bow and arrow allowed users to shoot projectiles more rapidly and more accurately than with the traditional spear.A new theory argues that this innovation resulted in more than just a technological revolution. It also had profound social consequences wherever the bow was adopted.
The archaeological site of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, on the Anatolian plain in Central Turkey, has been attracting attention since its initial excavation in the 1960s, directed by James Mellaart. Excavation was restarted in 1993, with a new Research Project, directed by Ian Hodder. The archaeology at Çatalhöyük provides a rich record of the minutiae of the daily life of this early farming community which also produced exceptional architecture and art for the period, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
Scientists have uncovered new evidence of Neanderthal occupation at the Kalamakia cave site on the western coast of the Mani peninsula in Greece, adding to previously recovered finds at other sites in the area. The finds lend additional support to the theory that Greece and the Southern Balkans served as a dispersal corridor and refugium for Pleistocene era human populations.The Middle Paleolithic (300,000 to 30,000 BP) cave site was excavated in 1993 - 2006 by an interdisciplinary team from the Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology and Speleology (Greek Ministry of Culture) and the Muséum national d