Newsdesk Archive
Greenland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast of Canada. It has stunning fjords on its rocky coast formed by moving glaciers, and a dense icecap up to 2 km thick that covers much of the island--pressing down the land beneath and lowering its elevation. Now, scientists at the University of Miami say Greenland's ice is melting so quickly that the land underneath is rising at an accelerated pace.
Scientists monitoring the US oil spill with ESA's Envisat radar satellite say that it has entered the Loop Current, a powerful conveyor belt that flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida."With these images from space, we have visible proof that at least oil from the surface of the water has reached the current," said Dr Bertrand Chapron of Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.
More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. This week, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.
The World Health Organisation's Interphone report, to be published this week, will say that "heavy users" are more at risk of developing glioma tumours.It concludes that there is no increased risk of developing the disease in other users.However, the minimum amount of time which researchers designated at heavy use was just 30 minutes a day.
Scientists have discovered that living to the ripe old age of 100 may have nothing to do the lifestyle you lead and everything to do with the type of genes you have - provided you have the right DNA.For the lucky carriers of the 'Methuselah' genes, worries over smoking, eating unhealthily and not getting enough exercise may not be as prevalent as those of us without the rare DNA pattern.Research into the genetic make-up of centenarians, nonagenarians and their families unearthed the tiny mutation which scientists believe give extra protection against the diseases of old age as well as protecting against the effects of the unhealthy lifestyles we believe will lead us to an early grave.
The majority of today's hard disks use perpendicular recording, which means their storage densities are limited to a few hundred gigabytes per square inch. Scientists have for some time been trying to find ways of increasing the limit, and a new method has been proposed that could stretch the limit as high as ten terabits (Tb) per square inch.
Archaeologists have disproved the 50-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter IslandArchaeologists have disproved the fifty-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter Island.
Discovery that some humans are part-Neanderthal reveals the promise of comparing genomes old and new.The worlds of ancient and modern DNA exploration have collided in spectacular fashion in the past few months. Last week saw the publication of a long-awaited draft genome of the Neanderthal, an archaic hominin from about 40,000 years ago1. Just three months earlier, researchers in Denmark reported the genome of a 4,000-year-old Saqqaq Palaeo-Eskimo2 that was plucked from the Greenland permafrost and sequenced in China using the latest technology.
Laser beams penetrating thick canopy detect thousands of new structures, show Maya adept at 'building green'A flyover of Belize's thick jungles has revolutionized archaeology worldwide and vividly illustrated the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations -- the Maya.
Prolonged mobile phone use could be linked to a type of cancer, the largest investigation of its kind will show next week.
J.D. Moyer decided recently to conduct a little experiment with artificial light and his sleep cycle.The sleep-deprived Oakland, California, resident had read that strong light -- whether it's beaming down from the sun or up from the screens of personal electronics -- can reset a person's internal sleep clock.So, for one month, whenever the sun set, he turned off all the gadgets and lights in his house -- from the bulb hidden in his refrigerator to his laptop computer.It worked. Instead of falling asleep at midnight, Moyer's head was hitting the pillow as early as 9 p.m. He felt so well-rested during the test, he said, that friends remarked on his unexpected morning perkiness."I had the experience, a number of times, just feeling kind of unreasonably happy for no reason. And it was the sleep,".
LONDON: A new study has found that Neanderthals weren't the only other Homo species early Homo sapiens mixed with.Joao Zilhao at the University of Bristol, UK, suggests Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to meet and interbred with other Homo species that have now become extinct. Swedish biologist Svante Svante Paabo's team at the Max Planck.
LONDON: Researchers from University of North Carolina believe a blast of ultrasound to the testes can safely stop sperm production for six months.The scientists, in fact, are beginning to conduct tests to see if ultrasound can be used as a reversible male contraceptive, reports the BBC News website.
SYDNEY: Climate change could make much of the world too hot for human habitation within just three centuries, research released on Tuesday showed.Scientists from Australia's University of New South Wales and Purdue University in the United States found that rising temperatures in some places could mean humans would be unable to adapt or survive.
One isn't such a lonely number. All life on Earth shares a single common ancestor, a new statistical analysis confirms.The idea that life-forms share a common ancestor is "a central pillar of evolutionary theory," says Douglas Theobald, a biochemist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. "But recently there has been some mumbling, especially from microbiologists, that it may not be so cut-and-dried."Because microorganisms of different species often swap genes, some scientists have proposed that multiple primordial life forms could have tossed their genetic material into life's mix, creating a web, rather than a tree of life.
Historians have trawled the archives searching for a real Robin, sadly without much luck. By 1300, at least eight people had assumed the name Robin Hood (or Robehod etc.), but it seems likely it was just a nickname given to outlaws and fugitives, whose real names were unknown to the authorities. In Ye Olde English, the origin of the name is perhaps clearer -- "Robin" being used as a shortened version of Robber and the Hood referring to the common attire of Medieval England, an era defined with the fashion sensibility of the hoodie.Robin really entered the public space through the ballads of the 14th and 15th centuries -- "Robin Hood and the Monk," "Robin Hood and the Potter," and "A Gest of Robyn Hood." In these early stories, there was no love interest from Maid Marion, no link to Richard I, no mention of the resistance versus the Norman Conquest. Instead he was a yeoman, not a peasant, knight or disposed Nobleman, and he wasn't even a social rebel.
Did Leonardo DaVinci use his own shadow to create the outline of Jesus in The Last Supper? James Williams speaks with a researcher who has found evidence in Leonardo's manuscripts suggesting that's the case.
Growing cotton that has been genetically modified to poison its main pest can lead to a boom in the numbers of other insects, a ten-year study in northern China has found.In 1997, the Chinese government approved the commercial cultivation of cotton plants genetically modified to produce a toxin from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that is deadly to the bollworm Helicoverpa armigera. Outbreaks of larvae of the cotton bollworm moth in the early 1990s had hit crop yields and profits, and the pesticides used to control the bollworm damaged the environment and caused thousands of deaths from poisoning each year.
Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled beginning 4.568 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Science, indicates that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth's original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.
The discussion has begun about legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in Nebraska.Three members of the State Board of Pharmacy will quiz their colleagues on the topic at the annual meeting May 22-25 of the National Boards of Pharmacy in Anaheim, Calif., reports Paul Hammel of World-Herald News Service.
GUNTUR: A megalith menhir with rock engravings, called petroglyphs, carved on it has been discovered on an open field on the left bank of Nagaleuru, a tributary of the Krishna at Karampudi, 100 km from Guntur.The menhir is a significant remnant of the pre-historic megalithic civilisation, when humans used signs to communicate, and dates back to 1000 B.C-300 B.C. Menhirs throw light on socio-ritualistic and ancestral beliefs. Archaeological evidence indicates they were also used as places of worship.
Vikings are associated with weapons and warfare, machismo and mayhem.But many of them had the same concerns about choosing their children's names as we do, says a researcher from the University of Leicester who delivered his paper at a Viking conference on April 24.The sixth Midlands Viking Symposium offered a variety of talks by Viking experts from the Universities of Leicester, Nottingham and Birmingham. The symposium took place at the University of Nottingham, and was open to all Viking enthusiasts.
Ever since a pure copper sculpture was found buried in a palm grove near the Nigerian city of Ife, experts from the West have argued that the artefact was a fake that was too sophisticated to have been created by African hands.Found in 1910, the "Olokun head" left Western curators doubting that such a technically advanced work of art could have been created by indigenous people. Years later, they even began to doubt its authenticity, claiming that the original had been sold illegally and the one which remained in Nigeria was an ingenious copy. But now, new science is set to turn past wisdom on its head. There is a growing belief among contemporary curators that the "counterfeit" sculpture is the real thing, according to The Art Newspaper.
It's in the teeth. An odd mosaic of dental features recently unearthed in northern Egypt reveals a previously undocumented, highly-specialized primate called Nosmips aenigmaticus that lived in Africa nearly 37 million years ago.Because it is only known from its teeth, the paleontologists who discovered it don't know what its body looked like, but the find likely represents an ancient African lineage whose discovery makes early primate evolution on that continent more complicated.
LAST year, archeologist Mike Morwood and rock art specialist June Ross took the ride of their lifetime across the northwest Kimberley. They hired a helicopter and flew across largely trackless territory, their pilot landing periodically in spots where he felt he could get his helicopter down safely and where they believed a good rock art site might lie.
An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.
Year after year, legislation intended to preserve the effectiveness of available antibiotics by limiting their use in livestock is shot down. The latest bills introduced in both houses of Congress have been stalled for close to a year.Banning the use of antibiotics in perfectly healthy animals has always been the right thing to do for the health of the American public. Overuse of antibiotics, whether in animals or humans, renders them less effective because it leads to the development of resistant bacteria. Not so long ago, humans were the ones ingesting too many of these wonder drugs, which were meant to fight infection, not acne or the sniffles. More recently, the overuse of antibiotics has been a staple of livestock operations, which feed low doses to animals to prevent disease from sweeping through overcrowded pens and as a growth enhancer. About 13% of the antibiotics given to farm animals are for growth, not medical treatment.
Most venomous snakes are legendary for their lethal bites, but not all. Some spit defensively. Bruce Young, from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, explains that some cobras defend themselves by spraying debilitating venom into the eyes of an aggressor.
The ability of Tibetans to live on the "roof of the world" may be down to their DNA, US researchers say.University of Utah researchers found 10 genes which help Tibetans thrive at heights where others get sick.Two of the genes are linked to haemoglobin - the substance in blood that transports oxygen round the body.Doctors say the research, published in Science, could lead to treatments for severe forms of altitude sickness and other illnesses.
Researchers have revealed remarkably well preserved fossils of soft-bodied marine creatures that are between 470 and 480 million years old.Prior to this find, scientists were unsure whether such creatures died out in an extinction event during an earlier period known as the Cambrian.The fossils were preserved in rocks formed by layers of ancient marine mud in south-eastern Morocco.They are described in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
Restoration and consolidation work conducted by specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) at the northern part of the Acropolis of Tonina Archaeological Site in Chiapas, have confirmed that it is one of the greatest constructions in Mesoamerica, only comparable to those at Tikal and El Mirador in Guatemala.Dr. Carlos Pallan Gayol, responsible of the INAH Maya Hieroglyphic and Iconographic Heap (AJIMAYA), who collaborates at the archaeological project at Tonina, announced that the most recent field season at the zone, conducted at the northern area of the Acropolis, presents important advances.
The section of wall lies under the surface of Panjiakou reservoir about three hours drive northeast of Beijing.A team of professional divers braved the murky conditions to get some ghostly shots of the wall which ran from 13 metres below the surface to the bottom at 35 metres.Though urban legend has it being the only man-made object visible from space this one part is lying up to 100 feet below a valley flooded when a dam was built.
If you Google, 'the most evil company in the world', your search results will find the company, Monsanto. You've probably never heard of Monsanto, however, you most likely have or have had their products in your cupboards, basement, shed, or food.
There are moments in science when spectacular new evidence stops us in our tracks and makes us think and rethink.But it is best to wait and let the dust settle to allow a good process of digestion that will not give us unwanted ulcers in the future.That process has to sift out the news-grabbing headlines from the reality of the discovery, since the natures of science and journalism are different and need not follow similar agendas.
Why wait for elusive cosmic particles to arrive from space when you can order them on demand? A multinational team of researchers in Japan became the first to detect a man-made neutrino particle, after shooting it underground from a particle accelerator to the massive Super-Kamiokande detector 185 miles away. The detector is housed in a 12 million gallon tank of water surrounded by 11,000 light sensors, at the bottom of an abandoned mine 3300 feet underground. The neutrinos impact water molecules and the sensors record the pattern of light radiated by the collisions. Tests with the controlled beam of neutrinos could prove that the particles change as they travel, and strengthen the growing consensus among particle physicists that neutrinos have mass--a conclusion that would influence the ongoing debate over the balance between matter and antimatter in the universe.
An international team of astronomers from Germany and Japan has discovered the most distant cluster of galaxies known so far -- 9.6 billion light years away. The X-ray and infrared observations showed that the cluster hosts predominantly old, massive galaxies, demonstrating that the galaxies formed when the universe was still very young. These and similar observations therefore provide new information not only about early galaxy evolution but also about history of the universe as a whole.Clusters of galaxies are the largest building blocks in the universe. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the Virgo cluster, comprising some 1000-2000 galaxies. By observing galaxies and clusters that are very distant from Earth, astronomers can look back in time, as their light was sent out a long time ago and took millions or billions of years to reach the astronomers' telescopes.
Deep inside the ear, specialized cells called hair cells detect vibrations in the air and translate them into sound. Ten years ago, Stefan Heller, PhD, professor of otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, came up with the idea that if you could create these cells in the laboratory from stem cells, it would go a long way toward helping scientists understand the molecular basis of hearing in order to develop better treatments for deafness.
Researchers have long wondered why the people of the Tibetan Highlands can live at elevations that cause some humans to become life-threateningly ill - and a new study answers that mystery, in part, by showing that through thousands of years of natural selection, those hardy inhabitants of south-central Asia evolved 10 unique oxygen-processing genes that help them live in higher climes.
Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled beginning 4.568 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Science, indicates that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth's original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.
Among the great mammalian predators from the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million to 10,000 years ago) of North America, an enormous cat stands out. Only the giant bear Arctodus simus (discussed in a previous blog) exceeded it in size. No, I am not talking about the famous saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis.Renowned American naturalist Joseph Leidy first described a large extinct cat (which he named Felis atrox, "cruel cat") in 1853 based on an incomplete lower jaw with teeth from Mississippi. Since then, bones of this predator have been recovered from Pleistocene deposits across the United States and in Canada.
Clouds are fascinating because they take on so many different, beautiful shapes and are constantly changing. Cloud-watching from Earth can be endlessly entertaining, but some of the most amazing cloud patterns can only be properly appreciated from space.
As part of the recent promotion of Entangled, BGO subscribers were offered three copies as well as the opportunity to pose questions to Graham Hancock about his book.I'm very grateful that Graham has taken the time to respond to these questions and his responses are below.Nonsuch's Questions1. How did you conceive the idea of presenting 2 fictional worlds so far apart? What was your aim?
After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked."In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."This week President Obama promised to "reduce drug use and the great damage it causes" with a new national policy that he said treats drug use more as a public health issue and focuses on prevention and treatment.Nevertheless, his administration has increased spending on interdiction and law enforcement to record levels both in dollars and in percentage terms; this year, they account for $10 billion of his $15.5 billion drug-control budget.
See the GrahamHancock.com Entangled page, or entangledthebook.com
On May 10, 2010, LiveScience reported on a paper that will be published in the upcoming issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Written by Erik R. Seiffert et al, the paper describes a previously undocumented species of primate who lived around 37 million years ago. Named Nosmips aenigmaticus, the species is so far known only through an unusual set of twelve teeth utterly unlike those of other primates known to be alive at the same time. The teeth were found in northern Egypt, and hint that the history of primate evolution may be far more complicated than once thought.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 11 (UPI) -- U.S. astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope say they've discovered what might be the earliest, most distant cluster of galaxies ever found.Texas A&M University scientists who led the study said the group of approximately 60 galaxies is nearly 10 billion years old, born just 4 billion years after the Big Bang.
IT left Earth 33 years ago, now it's claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens after sending back data messages NASA scientists can't decode.NASA installed a 12-inch disk containing music and greetings in 55 languages in case intelligent extraterrestrial life ever found it.But now the spacecraft is sending back what sounds like an answer: Signals in an unknown data format!.
Measuring longer than a school bus and sporting tentacles covered in razor-sharp hooks, the colossal squid is the stuff of nightmares. However, new research suggests the enormous sea creature may not be the fierce hunter of legend.This finding not only upends science's understanding of the squid itself, but forces a reevaluation of its role in the entire ecosystem where it lives some 3,000 to 6,000 feet (914 to 1,830 meters) beneath the Antarctic sea.
In less than 18 months there will be no more big blocks of net addresses to give out, estimates suggest.Predictions name 9 September 2011 as the date on which the last of those tranches is released for net firms and others to use.Everything connected to the net needs an "IP address" to ensure data reaches the right person or device.Experts say that the net's entire existing address space will be exhausted about a year after that date.
In the three weeks since the April 20th explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the start of the subsequent massive (and ongoing) oil leak, many attempts have been made to contain and control the scale of the environmental disaster. Oil dispersants are being sprayed, containment booms erected, protective barriers built, controlled burns undertaken, and devices are being lowered to the sea floor to try and cap the leaks, with little success to date. While tracking the volume of the continued flow of oil is difficult, an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil (possibly much more) continues to pour into the gulf every day. While visible damage to shorelines has been minimal to date as the oil has spread slowly, the scene remains, in the words of President Obama, a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.".
The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966.Zhukov, the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Soviet generals were not confident that they could hold the German forces at the Mozhaisk defence line outside Moscow."Did the commanders have confidence we would hold that line of defence and be able to halt the enemy? I have to say frankly that we did not have complete certainty.
A large ancient Shang Dynasty site was discovered for the first time in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, also known as the "Old Haunt of the Shang Dynasty," the Shijiazhuang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics announced.
A team of archaeologists have discovered a fortification system at the Minoan town of Gournia, a discovery which rebukes the popular myth that the Minoans were a peaceful society with no need for defensive structures.The team's efforts were led by Professor Vance Watrous and Matt Buell of the University at Buffalo. Located on the north coast, Gournia was in use during the neo-palatial period (ca. 1700-1450 BC), when Minoan civilization was at its height. The town sits atop a low ridge with four promontories on its coastline. Two of these promontories end in high vertical cliffs that give the town a defensive advantage, and it is here that the fortification system was discovered.
Housed in the temporary exhibition space in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre, Méroé, un empire sur le Nil is a smallish exhibition that might seem almost overawed by its magnificent surroundings. However, appearances are deceptive, and it would be a pity if visitors to Paris were to overlook this exhibition on their itinerary through the Louvre. This is an exhibition that casts real and unexpected light on the ancient history of Sudan. If one had a criticism to make of it, it would only be that it is not larger.
The submarine archaeological probe on an ancient vessel sunk in the South China Sea near Shan'tou has been going on for about a month. Nearly 1,000 pieces of cultural relics have been retrieved.
The world's eco-systems are at risk of "rapid degradation and collapse" according to a new United Nations report.The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) warns that unless "swift, radical and creative action" is taken "massive further loss is increasingly likely."Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the CBD said in a statement: "The news is not good. We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history.".
An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet."We still do not know how he survives," neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. "It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is.".
Initially, the sighting seemed an opportunity rather than an anomaly, and certainly not the highly unexpected discovery it turned out to be.Last Saturday, researchers with the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC) took to the water to study a whale approximately a mile and a half off Herzliya Marina, just north of Tel Aviv. The whale, which was about forty feet long, was generally behaving as a whale does: swimming along the surface, making periodic short dives of between three and five minutes duration, and occasionally showing its tail flukes as it did so.
Many of the world's plants and animals - and the wild places that support them - are at risk of collapse, a UN report said, despite a global goal set in 2002 for major improvement by this year.Frogs and other amphibians are most at risk of extinction, coral reefs are the species deteriorating most rapidly and the survival of nearly a quarter of all plant species is threatened, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity said in a report produced every four years.
Unless "radical and creative action" is taken quickly to conserve the variety of life on Earth, natural systems that support lives and livelihoods are at risk of collapsing, finds a new biodiversity report released today by two United Nations environmental bodies.The Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 warns that massive further loss of biodiversity is becoming increasingly likely, and with it, the loss of many essential services to human societies as several "tipping points" are approached, in which ecosystems shift to less productive states from which it may be difficult or impossible to recover.
Although many international studies show serious cardiac, neurological and developmental impacts from relatively low levels of mercury contamination, Japanese government doctors professed they could find nothing wrong with highly contaminated Taiji, Wakayama citizens who ate mercury-toxic dolphin meat. It is noteworthy that Japan's researchers avoided critical tests on children that led Faroe Island gov doctors to call for a total ban on cetacean consumption even though dolphin mercury levels are many times higher in Japan.
A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) physics lecturer has found a 99-year-old mistake in the Oxford English Dictionary - and is having it corrected.Dr Stephen Hughes said he had discovered last year that the dictionary's definition of the word siphon, and most other dictionaries', was incorrect.A siphon is a tube commonly used to empty containers of liquid that are otherwise difficult or impossible to empty, such as fish tanks or petrol tanks.
Hairdressers, pet groomers and farmers worldwide are collecting hair and fur to help mop up the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The hair, stuffed into nylon tights, helps booms soak up thick oil spewing from the blown-out well off Louisiana.About 370,000 salons are taking part, said the charity organising the massive "hair lift". Matter of Trust is largely co-ordinating its efforts via Facebook.Some 450,000lbs (204,000kg) of hair and fur is said to be arriving each day.
mmortality and uncontrolled cell division are the fundamental differences between cancer cells and normal cells.A widely held explanation for these differences is that the biological clocks in cancer cells are damaged and can't regulate cell division in the fashion that they do in normal cells.This assumption is challenged by the results of the first experiment that has continuously monitored variations in the rate of cell division of cultured mammalian cells for extended periods. The results are reported this week in a paper published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1895, the sister of an eccentric palaeontologist called Franz Baron Nopcsa discovered small dinosaur bones on their family estate in Transylvania. Nopcsa interpreted these as the remains of dwarfed animals that had once lived on an island. Among these finds were a number of bones belonging to a sauropod dinosaur which Nopcsa named Magyarosaurus dacus, after his native country.
An unprecedented study of bald eagle diet, from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the present, will provide wildlife managers with unique information for reintroducing Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands off California. The scientists, including researchers from the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, found that eagles fed mainly on seabirds from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the 1840s and 50s, when humans introduced sheep. The seabirds provided an abundant source of carrion for the local eagle population until the pesticide DDT wiped out the eagles in the 1960s. The results are published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA the week of May 3, 2010.
Is the Roundup Ready revolution coming to a close? In the early 1990s, agribusiness giant Monsanto introduced its line of genetically modified crops that could tolerate the pesticide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray it far and wide without worrying about damaging their product.Now, reports are bubbling up about the increased resistance some weeds are showing to Roundup, which could be the source of great worry, as 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of corn currently grown in the United States are the Roundup Ready varieties.
MEXICO CITY.- More than 130 burials, most likely from the 16th century, were found at the Great Base of Tlatelolco Archaeological Zone, in Mexico City, during the recent exploration season. The remains are being analyzed to determine their age.First traces of this unprecedented funerary complex were registered between 2008 and 2009. The group of skeletons was found placed parting from the center of the Prehispanic structure, from where 126 of 131 registered skeletons were recovered by archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH); the rest were left in site for conservation reasons.
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. - An upstate New York-based filmmaker and a shipwreck expert have released a new documentary on the fleet of vessels purposely sunk in an Adirondack lake during the French and Indian War.The 58-minute film, titled "Wooden Bones: The Sunken Fleet of 1758," tells the story of the more than 250 boats and warships scuttled in the southern end of Lake George by the British. The redcoats wanted to keep them out of French hands and intended to raise the vessels the following spring.
This month has proved very fruitful for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Three of its excavation missions, in Isamilia, Bahariya Oasis and Fayoum have all uncovered distinguished Roman treasures that reveal more about the fabric of this significant era in Egyptian history.
MEXICO CITY.- Six giant figureheads at Chakanbakan Archaeological Zone, Quintana Roo, considered the greatest and among the earliest in the area, will be restored by specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).Created more than 2,300 years ago, these sculptures remind the Olmeca style, which represented deities with jaguar faces, revealing the adoption by Maya of elements from earliest cultures.
GUANGZHOU - Archaeologists working on the wreck of a 400-year-old merchant vessel off south China have found evidence that Chinese merchants probably flouted bans on foreign trade at the time.The salvage team has recovered more than 800 pieces of antique porcelain and copper coins from the ancient ship off the coast of Guangdong province, said the provincial cultural relics bureau Sunday.
Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, a National Historic Landmark located in Avella, Pa., Washington County, reopens Saturday, May 1.Meadowcroft features a 16,000-year-old Rockshelter, the oldest site of human habitation in North America, that provides ancient evidence of how the first Americans lived. Photo at left provided by Senator John Heinz History Center.
In Australia, Martu hunter-gatherers light fires to expose the hiding places of their prey: monitor lizards called goanna that can grow up to 6 feet long. These generations-old hunting practices, part of the Martu day-to-day routine, have reshaped Australia's Western Desert habitats, according to Stanford University anthropologists Douglas and Rebecca Bird."Martu" refers to a group of about 800 indigenous Australians from eight dialect-groups that inhabit the Western Desert. For 10 years, the Birds have been investigating Martu hunting strategies and their lasting environmental impacts. With support from the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford, the researchers have begun to explore what makes aboriginal hunting grounds molded by fire more biologically diverse than lands untouched by humans.
A 13th century skeleton unearthed on the grounds of a friary may be the earliest physical evidence that Africans lived in England in medieval times, a team of researchers said on Sunday.
A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.
Archaeological remains of the Punic-Roman fortress of Melite have been discovered during works on the Mdina bastions by the Resources Ministry.The discovery was the second since interventions on Mdina's fortifications started some months ago under the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.The recently unearthed structures constitute a three-coursed alignment of large rusticated ashlar blocks dating from around the Punic-Roman period.
A headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king has emerged from the ruins of an ancient Egyptian limestone temple believed to be the burial site of Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony.According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the sculpture was unearthed at Taposiris Magna, a site some 30 miles from the port city of Alexandria, by an Egyptian-Dominican team searching for the tomb of the doomed lovers.
A US federal court has ordered a documentary film-maker to hand over footage relating to pollution in the Amazon to the oil giant Chevron, the latest twist in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.Judge Lewis Kaplan, of the district court in Manhattan, yesterday ruled in favour of Chevron's request to view 600 hours of outtakes from the award-winning film Crude: The Real Price Of Oil.