Newsdesk Archive

More than 100 new examples of prehistoric art have been discovered carved into boulders and open bedrock throughout Northumberland and Durham.The 5,000-year-old Neolithic carvings of circles, rings and hollowed cups, were uncovered by volunteers.One of the most interesting discoveries was an elaborately carved panel on Barningham Moor, near Barnard Castle in County Durham.English Heritage now wants to extend the project to Cumbria.

LOS ANGELES - The Phoenix spacecraft has tasted Martian water for the first time, scientists reported Thursday.By melting icy soil in one of its lab instruments, the robot confirmed the presence of frozen water lurking below the Martian permafrost. Until now, evidence of ice in Mars' north pole region has been largely circumstantial.In 2002, the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft spied what looked like a reservoir of buried ice. After Phoenix arrived, it found what looked like ice in a hard patch underneath its landing site and changes in a trench indicated some ice had turned to gas when exposed to the sun.

Scientists exploring caves in the bone-dry and mostly barren Atacama Desert in Chile stumbled upon a totally unexpected discovery this week: water.They also found hundreds of thousands of animal bones in a cave, possibly evidence of some prehistoric human activity.The findings are preliminary and have not been analyzed.

Pond scum. The thought typically evokes images that leave most people cringing, but it may one day occupy an important role in the nation's energy supply.The current fuel crunch, driven fundamentally by a rising global demand for oil, has spurred debate among consumers, political leaders, academics and entrepreneurs about plausible alternatives.A good bit of the discussion has focused on biofuels, commonly defined as energy derived largely from plants and crops like corn, soybeans, switch grass among other sources.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests that toilet humor was as popular with the ancients as it is today.It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

An ancient Greek "computer" used to calculate the movements of the sun, moon and planets has been linked to Archimedes after scientists deciphered previously hidden inscriptions on the device.X-ray images of the bronze mechanism, which was recovered from a shipwreck more than a century ago, also revealed a sporting calendar that displays the cycle of the prestigious "crown" games, including the Olympics, which were held every four years.

Laird Scranton, a leading interpreter of the mystery of the Dogon tribe of West Africa and their ancient Egyptian heritage, will be with us in our Author Of The Month messageboard throughout August to discuss his latest book featured in our most recent Forum Article

Monash University scientists have revolutionised the design of fuel cells used in the latest generation of hybrid cars which could make the vehicles more reliable and cheaper to build.The breakthrough, published today in the journal Science, revolves around the design of a fuel cell in which a specially-coated form of popular hi tech outdoor and sporting clothing material Goretex® is the key component

Scientists have long searched for traces of ancient life on Earth in order to understand the history of life on our planet.Fossilized bones have helped us understand the age of the dinosaurs. Insects trapped in drops of amber have inspired Hollywood films and researchers alike. These remnants of ancient life on Earth provide important clues about our planet's past.

LONDON - A rare astronomy tool that helped medieval scientists tell time will remain in Britain after the British Museum scrambled to come up with the money to buy it.The brass device, called an astrolabe quadrant, had been sold at auction last year, and the museum was outbid. But money from the National Heritage Memorial fund, The Art Fund and the British Museum Friends helped the museum purchase it recently for $700,000.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner repeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers."I don't like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted," she told a meeting of the National Investigation into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs."Those who should be persecuted are those who sell the substances, those who give it away, those who traffic in it."

The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans, said Frank, flanked by legislators and representatives from advocacy groups."The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

"ROUND up the usual suspects," barks the police captain in the movie Casablanca. Jim Green, NASA's chief of planetary sciences, was reminded of those words after nine nations signed a ground-breaking agreement on 29 July to cooperate over moon exploration. Unlike Casablanca, however, he couldn't do that. "Russia and the European Space Agency have heavy commitments. So we have teamed up with some emerging space nations," Green says.

A material that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen at room temperature using relatively little electricity could be an important step toward affordable chemical storage of solar power.Daniel Nocera, a chemist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says his work paves the way for a form of artificial photosynthesis, in which solar energy can be stored efficiently for later use.

New generations of small spiral galaxies are three times as likely to sport a central bar of stars as their counterparts seven billion years ago, a census of more than 2,000 galaxies shows.The finding indicates that the galaxies, which are believed to build up over time by merging with other galaxies, are still evolving in form as the universe ages, said Kartik Sheth at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Podcast: EEE Spectrum editor-in-chief Glenn Zorpette talks about high-tech attempts to battle improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq as well as the state of reconstruction of Iraq's electricity grid. And journalist John Horgan talks about the possibility of eliminating war.

Leaders of the "Old Space" effort and the "New Space" effort laid out separate visions for the next 15 years on the final frontier at the world's biggest experimental air show this week. It turns out that their visions are not all that separate - and that the current space frontiers are not anywhere near that final.The bottom line? If you think space is cool now, just wait.

A small army of robots is being increasingly deployed in the clean-up of a Scottish nuclear complex.Like Wall-E, the star of the new Pixar animated film, the machines are tackling man-made waste.The real-life robots have been working in highly radioactive areas of Dounreay in Caithness in the Highlands.

A live deep-sea fish has been caught at a record depth of 2,300m on the hot vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.Three shrimp species were also pulled to the surface, researchers report in the journal Deep-Sea Research.Scientists have engineered a new device that allows recovery of live animals under their natural pressure at greater depths than previously achieved.

A Swiss-Greek research team co-lead by Dr. Frank Rühli from the Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, found indication for embalming in Roman Greek times. By means of physico-chemical and histological methods, it was possible to show that various resins, oils and spices were used during embalming of a ca. 55 year old female in Northern Greece. This is the first ever multidisciplinary-based indication for artificial mummification in Greece at 300 AD.

CREMATED bones thought to date from around 3,500BC to 2,000BC have been unearthed by archaeologists during a dig near Lough Fea.A team of four archaeologists came across a mound of stones, known as a cairn which often points to a burial site, at the Creagh Concrete plant near Blackwater Bridge.

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws."Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soft tissue taken from preserved dinosaur bones may not be dinosaur protein at all, but bacteria, paleontologists said on Tuesday.Dinosaur experts made headlines around the world when they found what appeared to be soft tissue in a broken Tyrannosaurus rex thighbone.

As part of its centennial celebration, the FBI just released a list of the "Top Ten Myths in FBI History." Among other things, the list debunks the silly urban legend that the FBI spies on innocent Americans -- you know, like war protestors and people with phones. "We won't have a 'file' on you unless you're a spy or terrorist or criminal or are suspected of being one."

Summer is fieldwork season in archaeology. In Northern Lapland, a dig of some Sámi settlements is into its fourth week. The dig is part of the three-year BOREAS project, examining settlements and local livelihoods north of the Arctic Circle.We caught up with Petri Halinen, a researcher from the University of Helsinki, somewhere near Utsjoki, as he was setting off to the dig up in the fells on his all-terrain vehicle.

(ANSA) - Gela, July 28 - An ancient Greek trading ship that had lain on the seabed off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily for 2,500 years was brought to the surface for the first time on Monday. The ancient Greek vessel is 21 metres long and 6.5 metres wide, making it by far the biggest of its kind ever discovered. Four Greek vessels found off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and France are at most 15 metres long.

The demented Roman Emperor Caligula once mused that if all the people of Rome had one neck he would cut it just to be rid of his troublesome people.The trouble was there were simply too many Romans to kill them all.Many centuries later, the brutal Soviet dictator Josef Stalin reflected that he would have liked to deport the entire Ukrainian nation, but 20 million were too many to move even for him.

George Church is dyslexic, narcoleptic, and a vegan. He is married with one daughter, weighs about 210 pounds, and has worn a pioneer-style bushy beard for decades. He has elevated levels of creatine kinase in his blood, the consequence of a heart attack. He enjoys waterskiing, photography, rock climbing, and singing in his church choir. His mother's maiden name is Strong. He was born on August 28, 1954.

One of the indelible memories for anyone living through the 1960s was watching CBS newsman Walter Cronkite anchor another televised liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.Throughout the decade, from Alan Shepard through Neil Armstrong, Cronkite made it clear to his audience that they were taking part in something momentous, something that not only represented the flowering of a great technological achievement but stirred the human soul as well.

Nuclear weapons could be used to stop earth-bound asteroids, but in most instances, they are not the best option, said Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart during a public lecture this Wednesday in San Francisco.The venerable scientist explained that all but the largest heavenly bodies can be redirected by rear-ending or towing them with an unmanned spacecraft. But last year, NASA issued a report stating that using nukes is the best strategy to prevent a catastrophic collision with earth.

Kids may wrinkle their noses at peas, but scientists grant a lot more respect for the enormous role the little green legume seeds played in the history of genetics.Working in the solitude of an Austrian monastery, one 19th-century holy man managed to unravel the basic principles of heredity with just a handful of pea species that he bred and crossbred, counted and catalogued with monastic discipline.

Life on Venus could be blown to Earth by powerful winds, scientists claim.Previous research has considered the possibility of micro organisms existing in Venus's atmosphere despite extreme temperatures on its surface.But two scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology say microbes from Venus could actually be blown into the Earth's atmosphere by solar winds.Their findings follow analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe, launched in 2005.

For most people, the idea of being judged insane and held in a 1950s asylum is the stuff of nightmares. But to be locked up when you are sane would be regarded as an appalling injustice.And yet a BBC investigation has revealed that nearly 50 women were locked in an isolation ward in a mental asylum in Surrey - not because they had a mental illness - but because they carried typhoid and were deemed a public health risk.

Senior researchers have called for the location of small open-air trials of GM crops to be kept secret.The researchers say that vandalism of GM crop trials is holding back research in the area.Current legislation requires the exact location of GM crop trials to be publicly available.But according to those engaged in active research, that information is invariably used by anti-GM protesters to disrupt experiments.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which licenses open air trials commented: "EU legislation says that we must disclose GM trial locations to the public.

LOS ANGELES - Aerospace engineers have been holed up in a Mojave Desert hangar for four years, fashioning a commercial spaceship to loft rich tourists some 62 miles above Earth. Now the wraps come partially off the top-secret project.British billionaire Sir Richard Branson and American aerospace designer Burt Rutan are due Monday to show off their mothership, which is designed to air launch a passenger-toting spaceship out of the atmosphere.

BETHESDA, Maryland (Reuters) - Researchers working on an artificial pancreas believe they are just a few years away from a nearly carefree way for people with diabetes to monitor blood and inject insulin as needed.They believe they can link two current technologies -- continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps -- into a seamless package.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Just four years after President Bush announced his vision to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars, legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin is leading an effort to re-examine the whole idea _ in particular, NASA's choice of rockets for the mission.It is the latest sign that NASA's Constellation program _ intended to replace the space shuttle after 2010 _ is in trouble.Concerned by reports that the Ares rockets and Orion crew capsule are beset by cost overruns, schedule delays and complex technical woes, Aldrin says he wants to create a panel of experts to make sure that Constellation is the right way to go.

On an arid outcropping of basalt in northwestern Australia, some of the oldest rocks on Earth lie exposed to the fierce sun. Formed at the bottom of an ancient ocean, this volcanic material shelters what one scientist calls the "oldest robust evidence" of life. At a scientific meeting at Rockefeller University in May, Roger Buick of the University of Washington said that the 3.5 billion-year-old rocks hold traces of carbon that once made up living organisms.

African fish that have trolled for prey in murky freshwater pools for nearly 100 million years sport the best of the best in body armor. Now a team of engineers has dissected the aquatic armor, figuring out how it works in an effort to suit up future soldiers.The armor of the fish, Polypterus senegalus, is so effective because it is a composite of several materials lined up in a certain way, the engineers state in a their analysis detailed in the July 27 issue of the journal Nature Materials.

Life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by an average of 13 years since the late 1990s thanks to better HIV treatment, a study says.Researchers said it meant HIV was now effectively a chronic condition like diabetes, rather than a fatal disease, the Lancet reported.The team, involving Bristol University staff, looked at over 43,000 patients.The study found a person now diagnosed at 20 years old could expect to live for another 49 years.

Back in 55 B.C., Julius Caesar invaded Britain for the first time. He kept a detailed record of his journey, straightforward enough for Latin students to read today. But in that record, Caesar failed to mention the actual date of his landing.

"Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky," in the immortal words of the band, Kansas. But like so many promises made by long-haired, frilled-shirt-wearing 1970s warblers, the immortality of earth and sky seems a bit off, scientifically-speaking.In fact, a study of ancient "super-continents" in the current Nature Geosciences suggests that the Earth and Sky have actually been changing each other for eons. A good thing, too, report the researchers, because the rise and fall of ancient supercontinents may have liberated the life-giving oxygen in the air we breathe.

"To the king my lord and my sun: These are the words of your servant, Belit-nesheti [literally, "mistress of lions/lionesses"]. I fall at the king's feet seven times over. I must tell the king that this country is witnessing [acts of] hostility and that the land of the king, my lord, will be lost forever."A Canaanite queen from one of the cities in Palestine's lowland sent this desperate request in the 14th century B.C.E. to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The name of the city ruled by Belit-nesheti is not mentioned in this letter or in others that depict violent acts that aroused in her a justified feeling that she was facing a dire threat.

The Judean desert in the vicinity of the Qumran caves, on the west coast of the Dead Sea, is bleak, dusty, hot and barren. Little life stirs here. The bright blue of the vast salt lake belies its own lifelessness. It is easy to see why the original view of those who lived here 2,000 years ago and apparently wrote over 900 parchment manuscripts is that of ascetic monks who spent all their time laboriously copying sacred texts in an isolated community.

The slender stone columns which mark the tombs of ancient kings and nobles still stand in a green field at the edge of the modern town of Axum.But these days the site is dominated by a huge tower of scaffolding, topped by a yellow mobile crane, which dwarfs King Ezana's obelisk, the one royal monument still standing.

The possibility of a Palaeolithic human presence in Ireland has once again presented itself. A flaked flint dating to about 200,000 years ago found in Co Down is certainly of human workmanship, but its ultimate origin remains uncertain.Discovered at Ballycullen, ten miles east of Belfast, the flake is 68mm long and wide and 31mm thick. Its originally dark surface is heavily patinated to a yellowish shade, and the lack of sharpness in its edges suggests that it has been rolled around by water or ice, Jon Stirland reports in Archaeology Ireland.

The way bumblebees search for food could help detectives hunt down serial killers, scientists believe.Just as bees forage some distance away from their hives, so murderers avoid killing near their homes, says the University of London team.This "geographic profiling" works so well in bees, the scientists say future experiments on the animals could now be fed back to improve crime-solving.The team's work is reported in the Royal Society journal Interface.

DNA profiles of innocent people should be removed from the national database, a government-funded inquiry has said.Control of the database should be taken from government and police and an independent body should be established to run it, the Citizens' Inquiry urged.Javed Aslam, one of the 30 members of the public on the panel, said keeping the records would be "the first step towards a totalitarian state".But the Home Office said the database helps to secure convictions.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A group of Aboriginal elders on Saturday left Australia for the United States to bring home the remains of 33 ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute, the first Aboriginal remains to be returned from the United States.Aborigines have fought for decades for the return of ancestral remains from overseas universities and museums where they have been taken for scientific and anthropological studies.

It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. Anthropologist Nathaniel J. Dominy of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has advanced the investigation of the diet of early human ancestors by painstakingly measuring the mechanical properties of the underground parts of nearly 100 plant species across sub-Saharan Africa.

Research presented at a recent astronomical conference is being hailed as ushering in a new era in the search for Earth-like planets by showing that they are more numerous than previously thought and that scientists can now analyze their atmospheres for elements that might be conducive to life.

The remains of several unknown insect species which became extinct long before dinosaurs stopped roaming the earth have been discovered in pieces of 110-million-year-old amber found in Spain, researchers said Thursday.Palaeontologist Enrique Penalver said the amber discovered in the El Soplao cave in the northern province of Cantabria was in "exceptional" condition.

Converting livestock manure into a domestic renewable fuel source could generate enough electricity to meet up to three per cent of North America's entire consumption needs and lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), according to US research published today, Thursday, 24 July, in the Institute of Physics' Environmental Research Letters.

A treasure trove of history preserved by nature for millions of years in eastern India is threatened with extinction.Plant fossils, scattered all over the Rajmahal Hills in Sahebganj district of Jharkhand state, are fast finding their way into the hundreds of crusher machines that are reducing them into stone chips to be used in road construction.

BURRUP PENINSULA, Australia (AFP) - Australia's greatest ancient Aboriginal rock art is at risk of being damaged or destroyed because it sits at the epicentre of the country's resources boom, experts say.The etchings of men and animals on the rocks of the Burrup Peninsula, some of which are believed to be up to 30,000 years old, lie in Western Australia's remote and mineral-laden Pilbara region.

Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive.Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting".After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.

CHICAGO - A new, highly efficient material that converts heat into electricity may one day help cars get the most out of a gallon of gas, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.Only about 25 percent of the energy produced by a typical gasoline engine is used to move the vehicle or run accessories like the radio or windshield wipers, they said. Much of the rest escapes through the exhaust pipe.

A small but significant find made during a geological survey provides evidence of the oldest human presence yet discovered along the northernmost margin of Egypt's Nile delta.A rock fragment carried by humans to the site was discovered in a sediment core section north of Burullus lagoon near the Mediterranean coast.

The titles of functions performed in the state, facts of everyday life, descriptions of ceremonies - this is the type of information that can be found on the stones used by ancient Egyptians to decorate their tombs and estates. Such inscriptions are one of the basic sources of knowledge in research. Dr Kamil Omar Kuraszkiewicz from Warsaw University Institute of Archaeology discussed the finds of the Polish archaeological mission in recent years during a conference "Poles on the Nile".

Ancona, July 24 - The tomb of a woman who died around 2,600 years ago on the eastern Italian coast is helping archaeologists piece together the vast trade network that once linked this area with the Middle East, North Africa and Greece.Experts working on a tomb near the port of Ancona say the site contains over 650 artefacts from the 7th century BC, including numerous items made in other parts of the world.

YAKIMA, Wash. - The National Park Service's advisory board on Tuesday recommended designating the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor, which produced plutonium for one of two bombs dropped on Japan during World War II, as a national historic landmark.The unanimous vote Tuesday brings former weapons workers and local residents one step closer to preserving the historic B Reactor at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation. A final decision on the reactor rests with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

PUNTA MAROMA, Mexico, July 22, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- With the opening of Auriga in the first quarter of 2009, residents of Capella Bahia Maroma will be afforded an experience once reserved for Maya royalty. From shaman-led ceremonies to jungle-setting treatment pavilions corresponding to the Maya moons, Auriga will lead its guests on a journey through ancient Mayan culture and healing traditions for a spa experience that charms as it pampers, and informs as it renews. Set within the lush jungle landscape of Mexico's Riviera Maya, along a mile-long, white-sand beach, the spa will be an integral part of the lifestyle Capella residents enjoy, one that will allow the spa guest to define his or her experience with every visit -- reserving a full morning for a water ritual, for instance, connecting with friends in the tea lounge, or simply relaxing in the sauna by the pool.

After 58 years, historians and journalists will have a chance to examine the secret grand jury testimony of witnesses in the espionage case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.The couple was investigated in 1950, tried in 1951 for conspiracy to commit espionage and convicted and sentenced to death in 1953.Cold War scholars are hoping the grand jury transcripts will shed light on some nagging questions about the case -- primarily, just how strong the case was against Ethel Rosenberg.The National Security Archive, the American Historical Association, the Georgetown University Law Center and others have petitioned to have the transcripts of 46 witnesses released to the public.

Tiny fossils have helped refine the timing of the climate shift that gave rise to Antarctica's remarkable Dry Valleys, a landscape akin to Mars.The famously ice-free terrain enjoyed more benign, tundra-like conditions 14 million years ago - but then flipped to the intensely cold setting seen today.Scientists tell a Royal Society journal that ancient lake-living shrimp-like creatures can pinpoint the big switch.The ostracods would not have coped with a harsh, dry environment, they say.

Female bottlenose dolphins whistle 10 times more often than usual after giving birth in order to help newborns recognise who is "mum".The findings by a US team appear in the journal Marine Mammal Science.These "signature whistles" are unique to each animal, allowing them to be used for identification.

Before NASA astronauts rocket to Mars, they're supposed to return to the moon in a sweet new ride to test-drive everything from high-tech maps and buggies to new spacesuits and next-generation power sources."We're going to use the moon as a proving ground to go on to Mars and other destinations," said Stephen N. Simons, associate director of Lunar Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center, which is working on a host of projects with scientists from universities in Ohio and across the country."It's a lot easier to learn how to go to Mars when you're only three or four days away as opposed to being a year or more away."

After being caught twice with a "baggie" of marijuana, 23-year old Rachel Hoffman was reportedly told by police in Tallahassee, Florida that she would go to prison for four years unless she became an undercover informant.The young woman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, was murdered during a botched sting operation two months ago.Her case will be profiled Friday on 20/20."The idea of waging a war on drugs is to protect people and here it seems like we're putting people in harm's way," said Lance Block, a lawyer hired by Rachel's parents.

Aliens have contacted humans several times but governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, the sixth man to walk on the moon has claimed.Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA but each one was covered up.Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.Chillingly, he claimed our technology is 'not nearly as sophisticated' as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned 'we would be been gone by now'.Video here

Four countries that joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 are knocking on the door of the European Space Agency (ESA), French Research Minister Valerie Pecresse said here on Tuesday."A certain number of states have started to seriously contemplate joining the European Space Agency," Pecresse told reporters after an informal meeting here of EU ministers responsible for space.She mentioned Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.

PARIS (AFP) - The belief that dinosaurs underwent explosive species diversification just before they were wiped out is an illusion, for the beasts' main evolutionary shifts took place millions of years before, a study says.The strange demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era some 65 million years ago has given rise to a popular view that almost has the tinge of Greek tragedy.

As I've watched the Olympic trials on television, I've thought about the role athletic competitions might have played in ancient Ohio.Certainly, a ball game, something like a cross between soccer and basketball, was important in Mesoamerica.In her book Ancient Mexico & Central America, Susan Toby Evans writes that this "ball game played a key role in community life, and probably in mediating relations among communities."

The first official image of a Russian-European manned spacecraft has been unveiled.It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.The reusable ship was conceived to carry four people towards the Moon, rivalling the US Ares/Orion system.Unlike previous crewed vehicles, it will use thrusters to make a soft landing when it returns to Earth.

Archaeological experts are divided on a plan to exhume the hominid footprints at Laetoli for public display, some arguing that this could lead to erosion of the rare imprints.The 3.6 million- year old footprints, discovered in 1978, have since the 1990s been reburied for protection while a replica of the original cast is on display at the site.

DALI, Yunnan -- More than 2,000 wooden poles recently unearthed at a site in Jianchuan county, have been found to be more than 3,000 years old.The poles, still standing, were dug 4.5 m into the ground.Archaeologists said carbon tests showed the poles were from the Neolithic age, and were probably the foundations for a structure built by a community that existed at the time in southwest China.

It is the best known shipwreck lying on the Irish seabed, but it is only today that the owner of the Lusitania will finally begin the first extensive visual documentation of the luxury liner that sank 93 years ago.Gregg Bemis, who bought the remains of the vessel for £1,000 from former partners in a diving business in 1968, has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment. This allows him to photograph and film the entire structure, and should allow him to produce the first high-resolution pictures of the historic vessel.

Are we witnessing the beginning of a real-life satire, at once amusing and terrifying? Its theme is the smothering of the nuclear power risk by catastrophic climate change and the oil crisis. At the G8 meeting in Hokkaido last week the US president, George Bush, reiterated his plea for the construction of new nuclear energy plants. At the start of this week, Gordon Brown, announced the fast-tracking of eight new reactors and called for "a renaissance of nuclear power" in a "post-oil economy". It is as if a world that wishes to save the climate must learn to appreciate the beauty of nuclear energy - or "green energy", as Germany's Christian Democratic Union general secretary Ronald Pofalla has rechristened it. Given this new turn in the politics of language, we should remind ourselves of the following.

A British company is poised to construct the world's first floating wind turbine, in a move that could herald a new generation of cheaper, less problematic wind energy.Blue H, a firm registered in the UK but based in Holland, aims to anchor its prototype device 12 miles off the coast of southern Italy later this month.

An underwater turbine that generates electricity from tidal streams was plugged into the UK's national grid today. It marks the first time a commercial-scale underwater turbine has fed power into the network and the start of a new source of renewable energy for the UK.Tidal streams are seen by many as a plentiful and predictable supply of clean energy. The most conservative estimates suggest there is at least five gigawatts of power in tidal flows around the country, but there could be as much as 15GW.

LONDON, July 19 (IranMania) - In a two day conference the UK's Durham University has studied the Persian Gulf and the ancient trading habits of the seafaring Persians, PressTV reported.The conference started July 2 at Durham University in northern England and taking a multi-disciplinary approach, it looked at the key role the vital waterway has played in the development of human settlements in the region from the pre-historic to the present.

Britons heading to the United Arab Emirates have been warned that carrying some foodstuffs and common over-the-counter medications could warrant a four-year prison sentence.Among the banned substances are foods containing poppy seeds; melatonin, which is taken to ease the effects of jetlag; codeine, a common ingredient in pain relief medication, and any trace of drugs such as cannabis, however small.The warning was issued by the charity Fair Trials International, which assists people facing trials abroad, following a spate of arrests of visitors to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Jonathan Black, who was our Author of the Month in November 2007, has written a major update to his Forum Article. The revised and greatly extended article coincides with the UK publication in paperback of Jonathan's international bestseller The Secret History of the World, available here

MIT physicists believe they have identified a mysterious state of matter that has been linked to the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity.Led by Eric Hudson, associate professor of physics, the researchers are exploring materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures around 30 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero. Such materials could have limitless applications if they could be made to superconduct at room temperature.

Indiana Jones's next adventure may well be in front of a computer if Hollywood scriptwriters decide to embrace a new approach to archaeological research in war-torn zones.David Thomas, a PhD student in La Trobe University's archaeological program in Melbourne, has used Google Earth to safely uncover historic sites in a remote part of war-torn Afghanistan.Using the free internet resource, Thomas found up to 450 possible archaeological sites in Registan, which borders Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan.

As a boy, John Brown remembers traveling with his family to the wooded hills in northwest Rhode Island where his fellow Narragansett Indians gathered near stone piles they believe were left by ancient ancestors.That belief is now at the center of a struggle between the rural town of North Smithfield and a developer who wants to build a 122-lot subdivision on the land.

BERLIN - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide.High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on www.codex-sinaiticus.net as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.

As humans look farther into the universe and discover more and more planets beyond the sun, many wonder how typical our own solar system is. Often astronomers in the planet-hunting business say discoveries of Earth-like worlds are just around the corner.But a new study indicates our setup may be rare indeed.A group of astronomers surveyed sun-like stars in the Orion nebula open cluster and found that fewer than 10 percent have enough surrounding dust to make Jupiter-sized planets.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the greatest figures of western civilization, was an ugly and rather unclean man, according to a series of rare, contemporary portraits and writings on show in Florence.Running at the museum of the Casa Buonarroti until the end of the month, the exhibition, "The Face of Michelangelo," mercilessly reveals that the artist did not use himself as a model for his celebration of male beauty when he sculpted David.

The Northern Star, whose vibrations were thought to be dying away, appears to have come to life again.An international team of astronomers has observed that vibrations in the Pole star, which had been fading away to almost nothing over the last hundred years, have recovered and are now increasing. And the astronomers don't know why.The discovery will be announced during the "Cool Stars 15" conference at the University of St Andrews. Dr Alan Penny from the School of Physics and Astronomy will present results of the recovery to around 350 international delegates at the meeting that runs from July 21-25.

The same Ohio State University researcher who is helping rovers navigate on Mars is leading a new effort to help humans navigate on the moon.When NASA returns to the moon -- the space agency has set a target date of 2020 to do so -- astronauts won't be able to use a global positioning system (GPS) to find their way around, explained Ron Li, the Lowber B. Strange Designated Professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science.The moon doesn't have satellites to send GPS signals.

A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to propel toy rockets.Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio based near Chicago, makes toy rockets that are powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolysing water. Now the company is being funded by the US army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead.

This year marks NASA's 50th anniversary, and the space agency is developing and testing vehicles, spacesuits and dwellings that will be able to stand up to the moon's harsh conditions, hoping to meet President Bush's goal of sending humans back to the moon by 2020 and eventually on to Mars. We asked experts in science and space policy to discuss their views on manned space missions.

The Emperor Hadrian, viewed as a feeble capitulator by the Victorians and then maligned as a brutal pragmatist, has become the most fêted historical figure of the year. In the run-up to the opening of the British Museum's major exhibition this week, legions of notables and academics have rushed to give their view of his rule, which ran from AD117 to AD138.On Thursday, amid great pomp, Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London and zealous classicist, will open the exhibition, while historian Dan Snow began the Roman military surge last night with his BBC2 documentary, Hadrian.

Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells could be commercially viable in 15 years, according to a new report, but only if engineers overcome technological hurdles and the government pumps $55 billion into their development. The primary barriers to adoption are high costs and the absence of an infrastructure to distribute hydrogen [CNET], according to the federally funded study.

If space elevators work out the way the idea's advocates hope, sending payloads into orbit would become as routine as, say, sending a shipment on a freight train - except that the train would travel straight up for hundreds or thousands of miles, powered by laser beams.But will such a "railroad to the sky" ever be built? That's the big question hanging over the 2008 Space Elevator Conference, taking place this weekend on Microsoft's Seattle-area campus. And considering that this is an event primarily attended by elevator enthusiasts, you may find some of the answers surprising.

POMPEII, Italy - Nearly 2,000 years after it was buried and preserved under a volcanic eruption, the ancient Roman town of Pompeii is being steadily worn away by modern woes.Decades of neglect, millions of trampling visitors and the ravages of sunlight and rain are threatening to wipe out for good one of the world's most famous archaeological sites and Italy's top tourist attraction.

In the ongoing quest to find life elsewhere in the universe, it helps to have a role model. Presently, however, there's just one to choose from: Earth."It is terra-centric of us," said planetary scientist Sara Seager. "It's like that story of a person who loses their keys on a dark sidewalk and looks for them under the street light because that is the only place he can see."Seager, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is among dozens of researchers in the hunt for Earth-like worlds. She spends her time modeling what the atmospheres and interiors of planets outside our solar system might look like. Many of her ideas come from the home planet.

The Heads of the International Space Station (ISS) Agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met today at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France, to review ISS cooperation.As part of their discussions, they noted the significantly expanded capability the ISS now provides for on-orbit research and technology development activities and as an engineering test-bed for flight systems and operations critical to future space exploration initiatives. These activities improve the quality of life on Earth by expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

CAN you flip a planet's magnetic field on and off like a light switch? An asteroid could have done just that to Mars 4 billion years ago.Mars once had a magnetic field, which may have been driven by a dynamo formed from the convection of material in the core, much like the Earth's is today. Yet crater records suggest the Martian dynamo died quickly, over a few tens of thousands of years, something researchers struggle to explain.

SEATTLE - A new online atlas that links mouse genes to spinal cord function should point researchers toward new treatments for maladies that affect millions of people, the project's leaders said Thursday.The first "pages" of the Allen Spinal Cord Atlas, backed by software billionaire Paul Allen and an unusual consortium of contributors, were made available on the Internet for an official unveiling. Eventually, the free online resource will offer 30 trillion bytes of data documenting how a mouse's full set of 20,000 genes affect spinal cord development.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It may look like an air mattress you might see lying around next to a swimming pool but in reality its function couldn't be less trivial.The Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin (SWDT) -- a new portable water purifier -- could be a major step forward in the fight against disease and mortality in the Third World.Eric Olsen, a San Francisco-based architect and the inventor of the SWDT believes the product could help eradicate the scourge of polluted water which the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate claims over 1.5 million lives every year.