Newsdesk Archive

Sites on the Channel Islands indicate that seafarers may have been among the first settlers of North America.Delicate stone arrowheads and tools and a wide variety of marine and bird skeletons unearthed on the Channel Islands off the coast of California provide strong evidence that North America was settled by two separate groups of immigrants some 13,000 years ago, one that came overland from Asia and a second group of maritime explorers who sailed along the coast.

EUROPEANS may have used magic mushrooms to liven up religious rituals 6000 years ago. So suggests a cave mural in Spain, which may depict fungi with hallucinogenic properties - the oldest evidence of their use in Europe.

It's a treasure hunt even Indiana Jones would be proud of.Buried beneath a lake in Guatamala sits a fortune in lost treasure -- Mayan gold to be precise -- and a group of German archaeologists has just set off to find it. Their only guidance, a freshly decoded ancient book containing a map to the treasure.It sounds like a movie, but it's very much real, reported FoxNewsLatino. Joachim Rittsteig, an expert in Mayan writing who is heading up the mission to Guatemala's Lake Izabal, the site reported. Rittsteig claims to have cracked the famous Dresden Codex, a pre-Columbian Maya book possibly from the 11th century, and discovered in its pages specific information that leads to a treasure in the lake.

Evidence for a diversified sea-based economy among North American inhabitants dating from 12,200 to 11,400 years ago is emerging from three sites on California's Channel Islands.Reporting in the March 4 issue of Science, a 15-member team led by University of Oregon and Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish.Funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation, the team also found thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools.

Caches of tools and animal remains from around 12,000 years ago, found on islands off the California coast, have given remarkable insight into the lives of the first Americans.The finds show fine tool technology and a rich maritime economy existed there.The tools vary markedly from mainland cultures of the era such as the Clovis.The finds, reported in Science, also suggest that rather than a land route to South America, early humans may have used coastal routes.A team studying California's Channel Islands, off its southern coast, has found that the islands show evidence both of differing technologies and a differing diet, even among the few islands.

An international team of marine archaeologists has recovered six iron cannon from a reef in shallow waters not far from the mouth of the Panama Canal. They believe the weapons were lost during one of the less glorious chapters of British adventurism in the 17th-century featuring Captain Henry Morgan.The cannon were prised from the reef a week ago amid fears that they might be plundered by treasure-hunters and could be the only physical evidence tying Capt Morgan to the region upon which he had such an impact more than 300 years ago. He remains a legend thanks to the brand of rum named after him. "Every school kid learns about Morgan's activities, but we have never seen any of his materials," said archaeologist Tomas Mendizibal, of Patronato Panama Viejo, a government agency that is overseeing excavation of the original site of Panama City. "If these are indeed his cannon, it would be a first.

Part of the answer to how and why primates differ from other mammals, and humans differ from other primates, may lie in the repetitive stretches of the genome that were once considered "junk."A new study by researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine finds that when a particular type of repetitive DNA segment, known as an Alu element, is inserted into existing genes, they can alter the rate at which proteins are produced -- a mechanism that could contribute to the evolution of different biological characteristics in different species. The study was published in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Organisational ability, problem solving, and some mental illnesses can be traced to genetically preordained brain networks, according to a new study.Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the study provides the first evidence of a genetic effect on how 'cost-efficient' our brain network wiring is, shedding light on some of the brain's make up.Lead author Dr Alex Fornito, from the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne, says the findings have important implications for understanding why some people are better able to perform certain tasks than others. It may also help identify the genetic basis of mental illnesses and neurological diseases.

Air Force engineers have used their skills in keeping airplanes aloft to harness more than 99 percent of the energy in a simulated deep ocean wave. A scaled up version of the technology should be as efficient, they report.The free-floating, fully-submerged wave energy converter effectively cancels incoming waves, capturing their energy while flattening them out. This differs from other wave energy technologies that are tethered to the seafloor and tend to be battered by storms.

One critical feature of any interstellar voyage is the "mission analysis," which organizes science objectives, plots movement through space and determines abort and correction scenarios. Some refer to this effort as "trajectory analysis" or "astrodynamics" but it encompasses more than simply plotting a path through the heavens.Complex missions, like the one the Icarus team is tackling, involve integration of multiple spacecraft stages, gravity assists around planets and stars, correctional maneuvers, and other tools of the trade.

Rare earths are an expensive and necessary component of strong permanent magnets. However, their use for this purpose can be optimised and thereby reduced. This has been demonstrated in computer simulations by a Special Research Program funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The results, which will be presented in the US tomorrow, show that such magnets may contain local deformations in the crystal lattice of the material. These deformations are above all located at the boundary of material grains. According to the calculations of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, the magnetic force of the material is weakened in these areas. This could be avoided by optimising the material structure, which would save resources by reducing the amount of rare earths required.

EaglePicher Technologies, a manufacturer of specialized batteries for military and space programs, is partnered with the federal government to develop a powerful battery storage technology to help utilities smooth out the ups and downs of renewable power.It's a familiar path for the Joplin, Mo., company.EaglePicher began developing a battery for space applications in the mid-1980s that used sodium and sulfur components. Its model performed successfully on the Columbia space shuttle in 1997.

Thousands of sadhus - or holy men - have been banned from selling cannabis to festival-goers at an ancient temple in Nepal.They are gathering at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu to celebrate the Hindu festival of Shivaratri.Sadhus - Hindus who renounce the world around them - traditionally celebrate Shivaratri by smoking cannabis.But those found selling drugs at the temple this year will face eviction by armed police, temple officials say.

The New Era Times presents three world renowned experts on pyramids and ancient archaeological sites around the world in this one-day conference at the Unity Pyramid in Houston, TX. The speakers, Andrew Collins, Chris Dunn and Dr. Sam Osmanagich will present on their specific area of expertise followed by a Q&A Panel discussion where they will debate their theories and what all of this new information means. Please see their individual bios further down in this page.

Although the eastern cougar has been on the endangered species list since 1973, its existence has long been questioned. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted a formal review of the available information and, in a report issued March 2, 2011, concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the subspecies be removed from the endangered species list."We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar," said the Service's Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species Martin Miller. "However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.

Researchers combing the rainforests of Brazil have uncovered four new species of fungi that turn ants into zombies.Although it is not the first time the fungi has been seen affecting ants, the discovery of four distinct species in close proximity highlights the level of biodiversity in the Amazon.Their study appears online in the journal PLoS One.The research, led by Assistant Professor David Hughes of the University of Pennsylvannia, identified and described the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unliateralis living on four species of carpenter ant (Camponotini sp.) in the Zona da Mata region of Brazil.

Near-record numbers of manatees have died in Florida waters in early 2011, the second straight year of above-average deaths, alarming officials who are also puzzled by a surge in dolphin fatalities along the Gulf Coast.Of the 163 manatee deaths recorded from Jan. to Feb. 25, 91 of them have been blamed on cold water temperatures off the southern state, where normally temperate weather draws the protected sea creatures during winter months, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

It's been a busy time in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an endeavor nicknamed SETI that began 50 years ago with a scan for alien radio waves from Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani.NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Telescope is returning a rich harvest of potential targets. So far, scientists have found 1,253 stars that likely have planets in tow, including 55 with worlds that appear to be in life-friendly zones."It's a new game. We can start pointing our telescopes where we know there are planets, rather than pointing at stars where we thought there might be habitable planets. It's exciting," Jill Tarter, director of SETI research for the California-based SETI Institute, told Discovery News.

Across the American Southwest, the idea of drought never seems very far away. There are good years and bad, of course, but it only takes a 10 percent loss of rainfall to bring on severe water-supply trouble. They don't call it desert for nothing.Now a a team of federal and university researchers have published a remarkably detailed record of the region's distant hydrological past that is a must-read for anyone contemplating the populous region's future. Their analysis of ancient lakebed sediments is published in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii and Colorado are among the growing number of states finding a new use for capped landfills. Instead of letting the tens of acres turn into an unusable wasteland -- suitable perhaps as a backdrop for a movie set in a futuristic dystopia -- these states are installing solar panels.In Canton, Mass., for example, Southern Sky Renewable Energy is installing a 15-acre field of solar panels atop the town's 40-acre landfill. The project, expected to generate up to $70 million in savings and revenue over the next 25 years, will be the largest solar photovoltaic facility in New England to date. Not only that, but Southern Sky estimates that the project will create 25 temporary construction jobs and 90 permanent jobs.

Lacking a landfill that needs re-purposing, by 2012 people could build solar farms over industrial water basins. Floating solar panels in development could help solve the conundrum of where to set up solar power plants without wasting precious space or creating an obstruction.Unlike open seas, natural lakes, or tourist beaches, industrial water basins exist for brute utilitarian purposes like agriculture irigation or nuclear power plant cooling. Hence, floating a few acres of solar panels on the water won't intrude on the surrounding area but rather become a smart way to further utilize a human-modified space.The floating panels are able to use the waters beneath for cooling, enabling more efficient silicon solar cells, which typically face problems from overheating when used elsewhere. They are designed to be modular, allowing a consumer to easily fit a platform into a basin based on the amount of energy generation desired. Each module produces 200 kiloWatts; to increase output, add more modules.

Billed as a global first, a laptop allowing users to open files, play music and view pictures using just the power of their eyes was turning heads Wednesday at the CeBIT, the world's top tech fair.The otherwise unremarkable laptop integrates cutting-edge "eye tracking" technology by Swedish firm Tobii that follows the movement of the user's eyes and allows him or her to operate menus and select icons.The prototype is also good for the environment as it recognizes when you are not looking at it and automatically goes into screen saver mode, saving energy, Tobii says. It restarts as soon as the user glances at the monitor again.

Scientists have seen once again just how dynamic a place the underside of the Antarctic ice sheet can be.Survey data collected from the middle of the White Continent shows liquid water is being frozen on to the bottom of the sheet in huge quantities.In places, this deeply buried add-on layer is hundreds of metres thick and represents about half of the entire ice column, researchers say.The discovery is reported online in the journal Science.Project leaders confess to being astonished by the findings."It's jaw-dropping, I have to say," said Professor Robin Bell from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

A laser can act as a "tractor beam", drawing small objects back toward the laser's source, scientists have said.It is known that light can provide a "push", for example in solar sails that propel spacecraft on a "wind of light".Now, in a paper on the Arxiv server, researchers from Hong Kong and China have calculated the conditions required to create a laser-based "pull".Rather than a science fiction-style weapon, however, the approach would only work over small distances.

Intelligence papers on a reported UFO sighting known as the "Rendlesham incident" have gone missing, files from the National Archives reveal.The missing files relate to a report of mysterious lights from US servicemen at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk in 1980.The disappearance came to light with the release of 8,000 previously classified documents on UFOs.Officials found a "huge" gap where defence intelligence files relating to the case should be, the papers show.

The venom-spitting dinosaur in Jurassic Park may have been fictional, but in a great case of life imitating art, scientists have discovered evidence of a real venomous dinosaur that walked the earth in China over 120 million years ago. Sinornithosaurus is the first confirmed venomous dinosaur, but there is evidence that venom is even older than this most recent discovery--that creatures from up to 500 million years ago could also have been venomous. These ancient venomous creatures are giving us reason to believe that, evolutionarily speaking, not being venomous may actually be more noteworthy than being venomous.

Overgrow The Government, a group of grassroots activists, is calling on a million supporters, hemp farmers and protesters alike to join together for a protest march in Washington D.C. to demand an end to cannabis prohibition.Consumption and sale of cannabis was legal in most American states until 1937. At that point, the plant became a hot topic for William Randolph Hearst, DuPont, Harry Anslinger, and the US Congress. Since then, cannabis prohibition has cost Americans billions of dollars, and over 800,000 people are arrested and/or incarcerated every year.

Air traffic controllers in Siberia claim they were buzzed by a high-speed UFO with a female sounding alien who spoke in an unintelligible cat-like language.The mystery object suddenly burst onto flight monitors over the remote Russian diamond capital of Yakutsk.It was shown flying at a speed of slightly over 6000 mph, and rapidly changing direction in the early morning sky, it is claimed.The UFO was logged at a height of 64, 895 feet above sea level and appeared to interfere with aviation frequencies.

Archaeologists of a French excavation team recently unearthed an ancient brick wall of Maurya dynasty during a Bangladesh-France joint excavation at Mahasthangarh.The team also found a huge number of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) and Barind soil layer along with other objects, said team members.Besides, a Bangladeshi excavation team dug out brick-built structures of Muslim dynasties.

The city of Ur, once the largest in the world and the crown jewel of one of humanity's first civilizations, sits in a wasteland at the edge of a war zone. In late spring, the temperature easily hits 120 degrees as the blazing sun reflects off endless sand flats and yellow Sumerian brick. A 45-minute walk around the site is exhausting even for a very fit person. The ruins, which were inhabited from roughly 3000 to 300 B.C., consist mostly of brick walls, some of which are partially restored, revealing the outlines of monumental complexes such as shrines, storehouses, and elite residences. The ruins are now abandoned, save for a solitary shopkeeper who sits in a ramshackle hut marked "Shop Ziggurat," where he sells trinkets and Mesopotamian-themed souvenirs.

KONDAPUR (MEDAK Dt.): Does Kondapur, one of the well-known, early, historic Satavahana sites in Medak district, also represent the Brahmanic culture in addition to Buddhist culture? This is what recent excavations at the site, approximately spread over 81 acres, suggest.The excavations have been continuing here for the past one year, headed by G. Maheswari, Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, with a team of about 15 members. Some 45 labourers have been hired to excavate the ancient remains with utmost care at the site. The work is being supervised by senior archaeology officials, three students from JNU, Delhi, and Central University, Hyderabad.

RABAT, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Libyans appear determined to safeguard their rich cultural heritage during the popular unrest against leader Muammar Gaddafi, protecting it from the looting seen in neighbouring Egypt's revolution just weeks ago.

Burial remains of a dog that lived over 7,000 years ago in Siberia suggest the male Husky-like animal probably lived and died similar to how humans did at that time and place, eating the same food, sustaining work injuries, and getting a human-like burial."Based on how northern indigenous people understand animals in historic times, I think the people burying this particular dog saw it as a thinking, social being, perhaps on par with humans in many ways," said Robert Losey, lead author of a study about the dog burial, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

SAKURAI, Nara -- A fourth-century clay figure depicting a human with a shield has been found at a burial mound here, the oldest such figure ever found in Japan, local officials have announced.The figure is a "haniwa," a type of clay figurine made in ancient Japan. It was discovered from the Chihara Ohaka burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, say local board of education officials.The figure depicts a human head (17 centimeters by 16 centimeters) wearing a triangle-shaped helmet and a cylindrical body with a shield (47 centimeters by 50 centimeters) attached in front. The height of the complete figure is presumed to have topped one meter.

A meteorite found in Antarctica could lend weight to the argument that life on Earth might have been kick-started from space, scientists are claiming.Chemical analysis of the meteorite shows it to be rich in the gas ammonia.It contains the element nitrogen, found in the proteins and DNA that form the basis of life as we know it.The researchers say meteorites like this could have showered the early Earth, providing the missing ingredients for life.

Mind-boggling science and undertakings that overwhelm the senses are in store at a TED conference to inspire the brilliant and accomplished to change the world for the better.Technology titans, artists, scientists, and celebrities will be among those taking part in the annual event that has transformed from an elite gathering into an Internet platform for "ideas worth spreading.

Pat Tiernan is a keen fan of television's 'Time Team' and amateur archaeology. But he never thought a dig in his back garden would unearth items up to 4,000 years old.After starting work on an extension to his home in Collinstown, Co Westmeath, he was astonished to discover a skeleton and other items.

Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. World War I veteran, has died, a spokesman for his family said Sunday. He was 110.Lawmakers Monday began to move ahead with proposed resolutions that would allow his casket to be displayed at the Capitol Rotunda, and plans were already in the works for his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for the first time, say researchers.The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar techniques - but the new method even shows up chemical bonds.Understanding structure on this scale could help in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly electronics or even drugs.The IBM researchers report their findings in the journal Science.

UK researchers have demonstrated the highest-resolution optical microscope ever - aided by tiny glass beads.The microscope imaged objects down to just 50 billionths of a metre to yield a never-before-seen, direct glimpse into the "nanoscopic" world.The team says the method could even be used to view individual viruses.Their technique, reported in Nature Communications, makes use of "evanescent waves", emitted very near an object and usually lost altogether.

When Pacific hagfish burrow into a carcass and eat their way out, they may be feeding directly through their gills and skin as well as their guts.Lab tests suggest that hagfish actively take up nutrients through their outer tissues, says fish physiologist Chris M. Wood of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Plenty of marine animals without backbones can feed through their skin, but no one had demonstrated the power in a species so close to fish and modern vertebrates, Wood and his colleagues say in a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

One of the most fascinating windows scientists have into the human mind comes from watching babies learn to interact with the world around them.Janet Werker is a psychologist at Vancouver's University of British Columbia who studies how babies learn languages. Some of her recent work was aimed at investigating the claim that growing up bilingual can confuse a baby and make learning to speak more difficult. In fact, Werker and her colleagues found the opposite: Rather than causing any difficulties, learning two languages at once may confer cognitive advantages to babies, including not just special auditory sensitivity, but enhanced visual sensitivity as well.

On an African savanna 10 million years ago, our ancestors awoke to the sun rising over dry, rolling grasslands, vast skies, and patterned wildlife. This complex scenery influenced the evolution of our eyes, according to a new study, guiding the arrangement of light-sensitive cone cells. The findings might allow researchers to develop machines with more humanlike vision: efficient, accurate, and attuned to the natural world.

A rock formation in Western Australia was the site of great excitement a couple of decades ago when it revealed evidence of the oldest fossils of bacteria ever found, but a new study casts doubt on those findings.The Pilbara craton in the northwest of Western Australia is one of only two remaining areas of pristine Archaean (3.6-2.7 billion years old) crust remaining on Earth. (The other is is Kaapvaal in South Africa.) The region is renowned for its deposits of apex chert, a fine-grained cryptocrystalline material rich in silica and featuring microfibrous sedimentary rock. The Pilbara Apex Chert has been dated at 3.5 billion years old and contained what was thought to be filaments of the oldest fossilized cyanobacteria in the world.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered the first direct evidence for a superfluid, a bizarre, friction-free state of matter, at the core of a neutron star. Superfluids created in laboratories on Earth exhibit remarkable properties, such as the ability to climb upward and escape airtight containers. The finding has important implications for understanding nuclear interactions in matter at the highest known densities.Neutron stars contain the densest known matter that is directly observable. One teaspoon of neutron star material weighs six billion tons. The pressure in the star's core is so high that most of the charged particles, electrons and protons, merge resulting in a star composed mostly of uncharged particles called neutrons.

How severe can climate change become in a warming world? Worse than anything we've seen in written history, according to results of a study appearing this week in the journal Science.An international team of scientists led by Curt Stager of Paul Smith's College, New York, has compiled four dozen paleoclimate records from sediment cores in Lake Tanganyika and other locations in Africa.The records show that one of the most widespread and intense droughts of the last 50,000 years or more struck Africa and Southern Asia 17,000 to 16,000 years ago.

The South West has more ancient monuments than anywhere else in the country providing a rich history of how people used to live.As part of our continuing series on Ancient Britons, BBC Spotlight's David George, helped by archaeologists, and enthusiasts, has been looking at bronze age sites in Cornwall.Many of these ancient monuments have survived because the high places have not been developed.Lower down farmers ploughs have removed much of the evidence.

The idea of beaming down power from outer space has surfaced in science-fiction stories and government studies for decades now. Commercial deals have been struck, prototype satellites have been proposed, international initiatives have been announced. But has any real progress been made toward developing space-based solar power systems? That's what we're talking about this Sunday on "Virtually Speaking Science."A few ventures have been working on the technological challenge of beaming power from Point A to Point B, in the form of laser beams or microwaves. In 2009, a company called LaserMotive won $900,000 in a NASA-backed competition for beam-powered robots. The same company proved last year that they could keep a quadrocopter up in the air all night, just by focusing a laser beam on its power-generating arrays. And in 2008, Managed Energy Technology demonstrated a wireless RF transmission system that could send a small-scale power beam over a distance of up to 90 miles.But all these experiments are firmly grounded on planet Earth. Has anyone gotten to the point of building the hardware for beaming experiments in outer space?

Time passes at different rates in different gravitational potentials and at different speeds. In other words, time will pass quicker in space than it does down here on the Earth's surface, but a clock on a speeding rocket will appear to run slower when compared with a stationary clock.This effect is known as "time dilation" and Albert Einstein predicted it in his theory of General Relativity and Special Relativity nearly 100 years ago.Time dilation has since been proven by experiment and systems such as GPS have to compensate for very slight time mismatches between global positioning satellites and ground receivers.

Macaques playing a computer game display self-doubt and uncertainty, behavior that strongly suggests these monkeys are aware of their own thinking, according to a new study presented recently at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.Self-awareness can be difficult to prove, and thus far scientists have only been able to say with certainty that we humans possess the ability. Studies on other animals, however, such as bottlenose dolphins, magpies and elephants, indicate they are cognizant of their own thinking too.

A team of scientists led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State University, has developed the very first optical fiber made with a core of zinc selenide -- a light-yellow compound that can be used as a semiconductor. The new class of optical fiber, which allows for a more effective and liberal manipulation of light, promises to open the door to more versatile laser-radar technology. Such technology could be applied to the development of improved surgical and medical lasers, better countermeasure lasers used by the military, and superior environment-sensing lasers such as those used to measure pollutants and to detect the dissemination of bioterrorist chemical agents. The team's research will be published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Wormholes are one of the stranger objects that arise in general relativity. Although no experimental evidence for wormholes exists, scientists predict that they would appear to serve as shortcuts between one point of spacetime and another. Scientists usually imagine wormholes connecting regions of empty space, but now a new study suggests that wormholes might exist between distant stars. Instead of being empty tunnels, these wormholes would contain a perfect fluid that flows back and forth between the two stars, possibly giving them a detectable signature.The scientists, Vladimir Dzhunushaliev at the Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan and coauthors, have posted their investigation of the possibility of wormholes between stars on arXiv.org.

The world watched in horror as Taliban fanatics ten years ago blew up the two gigantic Buddha statues that had since the 6th century looked out over the Bamiyan Valley in what is now Afghanistan. Located on the Silk Road, until the 10th century the 55 and 38 meter tall works of art formed the centerpiece of one of the world's largest Buddhist monastic complexes. Thousands of monks tended countless shrines in the niches and caves that pierced a kilometer-long cliff face.

A study of an experimental drug from the company Vertex, called VX-770, successfully reduced lung problems in CF patients, and the company hopes to try for approval of the drug later this year. If all goes well, doctors may soon have their first drug to treat the cause of this devastating disease, instead of just combatting the symptoms.Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that impairs lung and digestive function. In particular, the normally thin layer of mucus in the lungs thickens up and impairs breathing; this happens because patients have a faulty version of a protein that helps clear mucus.

An opportunity has arisen to end jail time for the crime of the simple possession of marijuana in Kentucky. Kentucky House Bill 463 , an overhaul of the state's criminal code, has passed the House and is scheduled for a vote in the Senate as Senate Bill 161. The bill changes the simple possession of marijuana from a class A misdemeanor, one year in jail and a $500 dollar fine, to a class B misdemeanor, 90 days in jail and a $250 dollar fine. Jail time is further reduced by this bill to 45 days. Since the goal is to save money by not incarcerating nonviolent offenders it fails as there is still jail time.If we can convince one Senator to propose an amendment to the bill changing the class B misdemeanor to a simple violation and fine same as a traffic ticket it would end jail time for possession completely.If you live in Kentucky please call Senator Kathy Stein at (502)564-8100 ext 608 and Senator Gerald Neal at (502)564-8100 ext 718 and beg them to propose an amendment to Senate bill 161 treating simple marijuana possession as a violation and fine like a traffic ticket with no jail time. Jailing these offenders wastes tax dollars and serves no useful purpose. Call as soon as you can on Monday, Feb 28 as the bill could be voted on as early as Monday morning.

What may be the earliest European representation of Mount Everest has been unearthed in the archives of Kew Gardens, just outside London.The spidery sketch of the storied peak was done in 1848 by Joseph Hooker, a world-traveling botanist, who served as Kew's director from 1865 to 1885, and was one of Charles Darwin's closest friends.Hooker spent several years traveling through India and Nepal in the mid-1800s, studying the local flora and collecting botanical specimens, among them the first rhododendrons and azaleas ever seen in the West.

e! Science NewsA newly excavated archaeological site in Alaska contained the cremated remains of one of the earliest inhabitants of North America. The site may provide rare insights into the burial practices of Ice Age people and shed new light on their daily lives. University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist Ben Potter and four colleagues published their discovery in the Feb. 25 edition of the journal Science.

Archeologists have discovered a group of ancient tombs in the mountainous jungle of southeastern Peru they say is as important as the discovery of the lost city of Machu Picchu.The tombs belonging to the Wari culture were found on the jungle-covered eastern slope of the Andes in Cuzco department at a long-abandoned city thought to be the last redoubt of Inca resistance to Spanish colonial rule.The Waris, a pre-Inca civilization, had an enormous cultural impact in the Andean region between 600 and 1200. The Inca empire (around 1400 to 1532) was the largest pre-Columbian empire in the Americas.

A form of sulphur rarely seen on Earth's surface, similar to that which gives the mineral lapis lazuli its deep-blue colour, may be the predominant form of the element in Earth's lower crust and upper mantle.Known as the trisulphur ion, or S3−, it is quite different from the better-known sulphate (SO42-) and sulphide, S2− sulphur ions. "It's an intermediate form," says Gleb Pokrovski, an experimental geochemist at Géosciences Environnement Toulouse in France, who is first author of a study on the ion, published today in Science.

The discovery of a priceless collection of cultural treasures typically conjures up visions of dark and scary tunnels a la Raiders of the Lost Ark. But when University of Rochester anthropologist Robert Foster stumbled upon one of the oldest and largest collections of Pacific Islands artefacts, he was in the bright and friendly halls of the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Scientists think they have seen a baby planet swirling to life around a very young sun-like star, about 350 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Chameleon. If they can confirm their discovery, it would be the earliest picture yet of a natal planetary system, further illuminating how planets are born.Using the Very Large Telescope, astronomers were looking at a star called T Chamaeleontis, or T Cha, which is surrounded by a disc of dust and gas. They noticed a gap in the disc, and in two new studies, they say it could be a coalescing planet.

THE WASHINGTON POSTSome 11,500 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, a child died near a river in what is now central Alaska. The people living with the child in a tent-pole house - presumably the parents - placed the 3-year-old's body in their home's cooking pit and lit a fire. After two to three hours of burning, the family covered the remains with dirt and left.That's the dramatic story emerging from the study of the oldest human remains ever found in Alaska - and some of the oldest in all of North America.

Ancient megadroughts that lasted thousands of years in what is now the American Southwest could offer a preview of a climate changed by modern greenhouse gas emissions, researchers reported on Wednesday.The scientists found these persistent dry periods were different from even the most severe decades-long modern droughts, including the 1930s "Dust Bowl." And they determined that these millennial droughts occurred at times when Earth's mean annual temperature was similar to or slightly higher than what it is now.

Scientists call it "geoengineering," but in plain speak, it means things like this: blasting tons of sulfate particles into the sky to reflect sunlight away from Earth; filling the ocean with iron filings to grow plankton that will suck up carbon; even dimming sunlight with space shades.Each brings its own set of risks, but in a world fretting about the consequences of global warming, are these ideas whose time has come?.

A controversial theory that challenges the existence of dark matter has been buoyed by studies of gas-rich galaxies.Instead of invoking dark matter, the Modified Newtonian Dynamics theory says that the effects of gravity change in places where its pull is very low.The new paper suggests that Mond better predicts the relationship between gassy galaxies' rotation speeds and masses.However, critics maintain that dark matter theory is a better general description of the Universe we see.

A judicial committee formed to draft changes to Egypt's constitution on Saturday proposed capping to eight years the time a president can stay in office and loosening the rules that curbed competition for the post.Tariq al-Bishri, head of the judicial committee formed by Egypt's ruling military council, said the amendments to be put to a public referendum included reducing the presidential term to four years and imposing a two-term limit. President Hosni Mubarak was serving in his fifth, six-year term when he was toppled by a mass uprising on February 11.

Variations in skin color provide one of the best examples of evolution by natural selection acting on the human body and should be used to teach evolution in schools, according to a Penn State anthropologist."There is an inherent level of interest in skin color and for teachers, that is a great bonus -- kids want to know," said Nina Jablonski, professor and head, Department of Anthropology, Penn State. "The mechanism of evolution can be completely understood from skin color.

Ancient grains may sound like something you'd find in a museum or at an archaeological site.But these days, they're turning up in the bread aisle. At markets from Whole Foods to Vons, shoppers can choose from a growing number of breads made with so-called ancient grains, including quinoa, amaranth, spelt and Kamut (a patented variety of wheat).

Amelia Earhart's dried spit could help solve the longstanding mystery of the aviator's 1937 disappearance, according to scientists who plan to harvest her DNA from envelopes.Using Earhart's genes, a new project aims to create a genetic profile that could be used to test recent claims that her bones have been discovered.Right now, "anyone can go and find a turtle shell and be like 'I found Amelia Earhart's remains,'" said Justin Long of Burnaby, Canada, whose family is partially funding the DNA project. The Internet-marketing executive is the grandson of 1970s aviator Elgen Long, who with his wife wrote the 1999 book Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved.

One thousand tourists gathered in one of the largest archaeological sites in Egypt, Abu Simbel, to attend the unique event of the sun shining directly on the face of the Ramses II's statute in his temple. This is a rare engineering and astronomical phenomenon that occurs only twice a year, specifically on 22 October and 22 February of every year.Tourists enjoyed national songs, music and shows presented by the Aswan and Toshka folk bands in the temple's court. Also in attendance were Mohamed Mostafa, general secretary of the Aswan Governorate; Asaad Abdel-Meguid, head of Abu Simbel the city; a number of youth from the January 25 Revolution as well as residents of the city, who were allowed free entry for the occasion.

Recent research claims that Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically modified crops contain an organism, previously unknown to science, that can cause miscarriages in farm animals. This disturbing find comes on the heels of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's decision to deregulate Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA). Roundup Ready is designed to survive Roundup, Monsanto's weed-killing chemical.Purdue University's Emeritus Professor Don M. Huber presented the findings of the research, which observed the new organism using a 36,000X electron microscope. According to Treehugger, the organism can cause disease in both plants and animals, a rare feat.

A former Serbian chief of police has been jailed for 27 years for his role in the murder of more than 700 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.The UN tribunal at The Hague found Vlastimir Djordjevic guilty of five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder and deportation.His actions had "contributed significantly" to the "campaign of terror" against Kosovans, it ruled.Djordjevic had said he was not guilty as he had no control over Serb forces.

The space shuttle program should have come to an end a long time ago, NASA administrator Charles Bolden told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday.The 30-year program has been kept on life support because the United States has not readied another vehicle to take its place.

Tiny-fingered researchers at the University of Michigan have created this computer, the world's first complete millimeter-scale computing system. It is a prototype designed to be implanted in a human eye, to monitor internal pressure there for signs of glaucoma.The machine includes a teeny battery, a consolidated radio and antenna, a pressure sensor, memory, and a rather diminutive processor designed to consume extremely little power.

Air pollution triggers more heart attacks than using cocaine and poses as high a risk of sparking a heart attack as alcohol, coffee and physical exertion, scientists said on Thursday.Sex, anger, marijuana use and chest or respiratory infections and can also trigger heart attacks to different extents, the researchers said, but air pollution, particularly in heavy traffic, is the major culprit.The findings, published in The Lancet journal, suggest population-wide factors like polluted air should be taken more seriously when looking at heart risks, and should be put into context beside higher but relatively rarer risks like drug use.

The bond between cats and their owners turns out to be far more intense than imagined, especially for cat aficionado women and their affection reciprocating felines, suggests a new study.Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it's not just for the sake of obtaining food, according to the new research, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Behavioural Processes.

MEXICO CITY.- During the Conquest period between 1524 and 1529, Spaniards constructed 68 churches on sacred Prehispanic buildings of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. 20 of these structures raised to develop the evangelization work among Mexica people, are still standing, while 5 are partially on foot.In Tlatelolco, those dedicated to San Francisco Mecamalinco, Santa Ana Atenantitch, Santa Clara Acozac (Nuestra Señora de los Angeles), San Miguel Nonoalco and La Concepcion Atenantitlan remain.

Two American archaeologists have asked the Queen of England for permission to dig up Henry VIII and use the latest techniques to reconstruct his face. Bioarchaeologist Catrina Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer popped the question because they're interested in seeing how accurate the royal portraits of the famous king really are. They also want to perform DNA tests to see if he suffered from a rare illness that might have driven him insane.Facial reconstruction on skulls is nothing new and has been steadily improving over the years. It's used in archaeology to study ancient people and by CSI teams to identify murder victims.Drs. Whitley and Kramer would like to open Henry VIII's grave in St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle and measure his skull. They can then create an accurate image of what he looked like in real life.

Hearsay evidence and bible-inspired testimony inflamed popular fears about the "barbaric" Catholic Irish after the 1641 Rebellion, according to linguistic analysis of the world's first war crimes investigation.A two-day academic conference (18-19 February) will expose unsubstantiated propaganda within the 31 handwritten volumes of witness statements that provided Oliver Cromwell with justification for his subsequent slaughter of defeated garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford.

Egypt's ancient monuments reopened to tourists Sunday as the country's beleaguered antiquities minister forcefully defended his stewardship of its treasures. "Under my direction, the SCA [Supreme Council of Antiquities] has always been an honest department," Zahi Hawass told ScienceInsider in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, at the moment there is a lot of upheaval and some people are saying things for their own benefit and with their own agenda in mind.

Berlin (CNN) -- A collection of ancient statues destroyed during the British bombing of Berlin in World War II have been painstakingly restored and are being displayed.It has taken nine years to piece together the 27,000 fragments of the 3,000-year-old Tell Halaf treasures taken from what is now Syria by the German archaeologist and wealthy collector Max von Oppenheim early in the 20th century.Lutz Martin, co-ordinator of the restoration project, said: "'We started in 2001. The first step was to lay out all the fragments on an area of 600 square meters and then we started to sort the material. Our tools were only our eyes, our brains, our endurance and our patience.

Recently, bones of 80 horses were unearthed from two subordinate tomb pits of Emperor Wudi, who lived more than 2,000 years ago in the Han dynasty. The discovery may rekindle a legend about the "blood-sweating" horse in ancient China, Xinhua reported.The story of Wudi, "Emperor of the Silk Road," and the "blood-sweating" horse has already become a legend of Chinese culture, and many people are interested in the legendary horse, which disappeared long ago.

Ultrasensitive electronic skin developed by Stanford researcher Zhenan Bao is getting even better. Now she's demonstrated that it can detect chemicals and biological molecules, in addition to sensing an incredibly light touch. And it can now be powered by a new, stretchable solar cell she's developed in her lab, opening up more applications in clothing, robots, prosthetic limbs and more.

Eugenics is, for good reason, a neglected part of the history of science. It is often associated with genocidal dictatorships such as the Nazi regime, but it's easy to forget the uncomfortable truth that this was a well-established field in America and Britain too, only a few generations ago.

THE VANCOUVER SUNMagnetic north, the point at the top of the Earth that determines compass headings, is shifting its position about 64 kilometres a year. In geological terms, it's racing from the Arctic Ocean near Canada toward Russia.As a result, everyone who uses a compass, even as a backup to modern GPS navigation systems, needs to be aware of the shift, make adjustments or obtain updated charts to ensure they get where they intend to go, authorities say. That includes pilots, boaters and even hikers.

Explorers have discovered what might be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team's relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss.

Italy has ruled the fashion world for longer than we thought. That, at least, is the claim of archaeologists who say they have evidence that Neanderthals were using feathers as ornaments 44,000 years ago. The tenuous claim adds fuel to the debate over whether our distant cousins were simple brutes or as cultured as Homo sapiens.Marco Peresani at the University of Ferrara in Italy found 660 bird bones mixed in with Neanderthal bones in Fumane cave in northern Italy. Many of the wing bones were cut and scraped where the flight feathers were once attached, suggesting the feathers had been systematically removed.

At one time, it was a common belief that important cultural developments such as the origins of complex civilization arose first in a single location, perhaps because of the particular abundance of natural resources in that area or the achievements of some great man or woman.Subsequently, those ideas flowed outward, like ripples on a pond, to be adopted by increasingly distant cultures.For example, many authors have interpreted similarities between Ohio's Hopewell culture (100 B.C. to A.D. 400) and contemporary cultures in Mesoamerica.

In the Cemetery of the Evergreens on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, there is a haunting stone monument to the garment workers who died in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911 but were never identified. It contains the bas-relief figure of a kneeling woman, her head bowed, seemingly mourning not only the deaths, but also the fact that those buried below were so badly charred that relatives could not recognize them.Almost a century after the fire, the five women and one man, all buried in coffins under the Evergreens monument, remained unknown to the public at large, though relatives and descendants knew that a loved one had never returned from the burning blouse factory.

What would happen if we found out that we are not alone in the universe? Or, on the flip side, what would happen if we decided that we really were alone? Experts provided updated answers to those age-old questions, from a scientific as well as a religious angle, during a Sunday session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. But one of the most intriguing questions had more of a personal spin: What would you ask E.T. if you had the chance?First, here's some background:Questions surrounding the possibility of life beyond Earth might get more serious sometime in the next quarter-century or so. Wesley Traub, chief scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program, predicted that by 2030, five Earth-scale planets would be identified among the 100 closest star systems as worthy of being studied for signs of life. He based that prediction on the most recent lineup of candidates from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler probe.

Excavation work on the site of a Roman fort near a school has revealed what archaeologists believe are structures never previously seen in the UK.The dig in the playing fields of Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive Upper School in Neath has uncovered sections of the defences of the 1st Century building.These include a defence tower partially set outside its ramparts allowing soldiers to shoot at gate attackers.A fort was in occupation on the site until at least the 3rd Century.

The amount of land devoted to genetically engineered crops grew 10% last year, and 7% in the year before, as farmers in major grain and soy exporting countries such as Brazil and Argentina continued to adopt the new seeds.These so-called biotech crops, often bred with genes that allow them to tolerate weed killers or generate their own insecticides, now cover 10% of the world's farmland, up from nothing just 15 years ago.

Archaeology is a vital tool in understanding the long-term consequences of human impact on the environment. Computational modeling can refine that understanding. But according to Arizona State University archaeologist C. Michael Barton, it takes a revolution in thought, along with the newest methods of modeling, to produce a comprehensive picture of the past that can help inform land-use decisions for our future.

More researchers believe that violent tendencies have a biological basis and that tests and brain imaging can pick them up in children.They argue that, by predicting which children have the potential to be trouble, treatments could be introduced to keep them on the straight and narrow. If the tests are accurate enough then a form of screening could be introduced in the same way we test for some diseases.The theories were put forward by two leading criminologists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.

In the U.S., even zoo gorillas need to switch to a heart-healthy diet."A lot are dying of heart disease, we believe like humans," said Elena Hoellein Less, a PhD candidate in biology at Case Western Reserve University.In fact, heart disease is the number one killer of male Western lowland gorillas -- the only species of gorillas in North American zoos.

Leave your body and shake hands with yourself, gain an extra limb or change into a robot for a while. Swedish neuroscientist Henrik Ehrsson has demonstrated that the brain's image of the body is negotiable. Applications stretch from touch-sensitive prostheses to robotics and virtual worlds.Ask a child if their hands belong to them and they will answer, "Of course!" But how does the brain actually identify its own body? And why do we experience our centre of awareness as located inside a physical body?.

A newfound chemical drives male squid berserk, and the molecule appears similar to ones seen in humans, scientists now say.Future research might investigate whether comparable human semen proteins have similar effects, investigators added.Scientists investigated the longfin squid (Loligo pealeii), which live for nine to 12 months, usually mating and laying eggs in the spring, when the animals migrate from deep offshore waters to shallower waters along the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina to Maine. Females mate several times with multiple males, who compete fiercely over females.

News organizations report that more than a hundred demonstrators gathered outside the Cairo office of Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Minister of Antiquities, demanding jobs."Not since Indiana Jones have archaeologists seemed quite so belligerent," Sky News reported on its website.Sky News was interviewing Hawass in his office yesterday when the Minister's assistant interrupted to say a crowd was trying to break down the gates. Hawass used his mobile phone to call in the Army, Sky reported.

Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass has been under pressure since the plundering of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the fall of Hosni Mubarak. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about the extent of the damage, the accusations that he is too close to Mubarak and the happiest day of his life.SPIEGEL ONLINE: Minister Hawass, during the mass protests three weeks ago, there was talk that the Egyptian Museum in Cairo had been broken into. At first, you claimed that nothing had been stolen, but later admitted that several items were missing. How great is the damage?