Newsdesk Archive

MONTEREY, California (AFP) - A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California."We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page.

Five months after a meteorite made an international splash in Peru, experts are suggesting explanations for some of the space rock's effects - for example, the sickening odor villagers smelled at the crash site, and the bubbles that were seen emanating from the water-filled crater left behind. But a study due to be presented next month also raises fundamental questions about the event. In fact, an international research team declares that the impact "should not have happened" at all.

Venus is made of the same stuff of Earth, but is bone-dry, hot enough to melt lead and has a chokingly thick atmosphere. It even spins backwards.Astronomers have spent decades trying to explain Venus' mysterious properties. Now one scientist thinks the planet's formation may explain all: Two huge, protoplanetary bodies collided head-on and merged to form our planetary neighbor, but obliterated nearly all water in the process.

A Neanderthal-eat-Neanderthal world may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations of the large Eurasian human, thereby contributing to its extinction, according to a new theory based on cannibalism that took place in more recent history.Aside from illustrating that consumption of one's own species isn't exactly a healthy way to eat, the new theoretical model could resolve the longstanding mystery as to what caused Neanderthals, which emerged around 250,000 years ago, to disappear off the face of the Earth about 30,000 years ago.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A photograph of the boy with the "beautiful brown eyes" who Anne Frank recalled as her "one true love" in the diary she wrote whilst in hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands is to go on display in Amsterdam.

CHICAGO (AFP) - French fossil hunters have pinned down the age of Toumai, which they contend is the remains of the earliest human ever found, at between 6.8 and 7.2 million years old.The fossil was discovered in the Chadian desert in 2001 and an intense debate ensued over whether the nearly complete cranium, pieces of jawbone and teeth belonged to one of our earliest ancestors.

A team of scientists from Princeton University has devised a new experimental technique that produces some of the best functional images ever taken of the human brainstem, the most primitive area of the brain.The scientists believe they may be opening the door to inquiries into a region that acts as the staging area for the brain chemicals whose overabundance or absence in other parts of the brain are at the root of many neuropsychiatric disorders, like addiction, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

During the 3rd Space Exploration Conference Feb. 26-28 in Denver, NASA will exhibit a robot rover equipped with a drill designed to find water and oxygen-rich soil on the moon."Resources are the key to sustainable outposts on the moon and Mars," said Bill Larson, deputy manager of the In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) project. "It's too expensive to bring everything from Earth. This is the first step toward understanding the potential for lunar resources and developing the knowledge needed to extract them economically."

Albert Einstein appeared on the scientific stage so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that it is impossible not to wonder whether his successor might already be toiling away in a lab or patent office somewhere. If Einstein 2.0 is out there, though, how would we recognize him or her?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The moon's south pole region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than had been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters, NASA said on Wednesday.Using an Earth-based radar system in California's Mojave Desert, the U.S. space agency collected the most accurate, highest-resolution terrain mapping data to date on the moon's south pole.

The biggest earthquake in the UK for nearly 25 years has shaken homes across large parts of the country.People in Newcastle, Yorkshire, London, Cumbria, the Midlands, Norfolk and also parts of Wales, felt the tremor just before 0100 GMT.A man suffered a broken pelvis when a chimney collapsed in South Yorkshire.The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the epicentre of the 5.2 magnitude quake was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire.

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warmingOver the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.While much of the study confirms earlier findings -- mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing -- it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups.

Germany's highest court has ruled that spying on personal computers violates privacy, but governments across Europe are under pressure to help their security services fight terrorism and organised crime.Here, BBC reporters give a snapshot of the extent of surveillance across Europe.

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia (Reuters) - The chief torturer under the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime wept and prayed on Tuesday as he led the judges who will try him for crimes against humanity around the mass graves for some of its victims.Duch, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, accompanied 80 judges, lawyers and other officials of a U.N.-backed tribunal to the 129 graves, uncovered after a Vietnamese invasion sent the Khmer Rouge back to the jungles in 1979.

Digging has resumed at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are almost 2 tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room, a prize taken from a Russian castle during World War II.Heinz Peter Haustein, one of the two treasure hunters and a member of Germany's parliament, said: "We have already hit a hollow area under the surface, it's filled with water and we are not sure if it is the cave we are looking for."

The director of a Norwegian museum claimed yesterday to have discovered cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed "A. Hitler" that he bought at an auction in Germany.

The Tujia have been known as an ethnic minority with its own spoken language but without a written language. Yet a succession of ancient books in the same written language have been found in the Youyang Tujia habitation straddling the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou Province, and Chongqing City. For the past two years none have been able to read the ancient books.Chongqing Morning Post published a report on February 15 about the story of Zhou Yongle, 38, a resident in Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County. In the winter of 2006, Zhou arrived at Yiju Town to purchase antiques. He bought a pile of old books from a farmer and took them home. When he was tidying up the purchased books, an ancient book bound with thread drew his attention.

An ancient clay bowl from Mexico is providing new clues to the production and role of a hardy blue pigment widely employed by the ancient Maya.The find also helps explain a mysteriously thick layer of blue silt that archaeologists reported at the bottom of a sacrificial sinkhole where the bowl was recovered more than a century ago.

The first 30,000 pages have been unveiled of a vast encyclopedia which aims to catalogue every one of our planet's 1.8 million species.The immense online resource is designed to greatly enhance our understanding of the world's diminishing biodiversity.The creators of the database say it could have an impact on human knowledge comparable to that which followed the microscope's invention in the 1600s.It is designed to be used by everyone from scientists to lay readers.The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) - described as the "ultimate field guide" - is to encompass all six kingdoms of life, and even viruses - which many researchers do not consider to be living organisms.

Road tests of a vehicle with a difference are taking place at Aberystwyth University.Scientists working on a new attempt to search for life on Mars are testing equipment on a scale model of a rover vehicle, which could roam the planet.They have simulated the surface of Mars in a lab, as part of the European Space Agency-led ExoMars 2013 mission.A robotic arm for collecting samples and a panoramic camera built by the scientists are being tested.The team also built a robotic arm for the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission, nearly five years ago.

1935: The feasibility of radar is demonstrated for the British Air Ministry. It would prove to be a just-in-the-nick-of-time apparatus that helped save Great Britain from defeat in World War II.Radar (for RAdio Detection And Ranging) was developed over the years with input from many sources, but it was Robert Watson-Watt, a Scottish physicist looking for a reliable method to help airmen locate and avoid approaching thunderstorms, who designed the first set put into practical use. Watson-Watt realized, as he perfected his device, that radio waves could be used to detect more than storms.

A "barcode" gene that can be used to distinguish between the majority of plant species has been identified, say scientists.This gene can be used to catalogue plant life as it has a slightly different code between species but is nearly identical within a species.Species that look the same to the human eye can be told apart with a small leaf sample.DNA barcoding is already a well-established technique in animals.

A fossilised "sea monster" unearthed on an Arctic island is the largest marine reptile known to science, Norwegian scientists have announced.The 150 million-year-old specimen was found on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard in 2006.The Jurassic-era leviathan is one of 40 sea reptiles from a fossil "treasure trove" uncovered on the island.Nicknamed "The Monster", the immense creature would have measured 15m (50ft) from nose to tail.

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the research rocket Iran recently launched was built in just nine months without using any foreign models.Iran's launch of a rocket in early February provoked unease in an international community already suspicious over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program since the technology involved can also be used to deliver warheads.

LIMA (Reuters) - A ceremonial plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archeologists involved in the dig said on Monday carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever found in the Americas.A team of Peruvian and German archeologists uncovered the circular plaza, which was hidden beneath another piece of architecture at the ruins known as Sechin Bajo, in Casma, 229 miles north of Lima, the capital. Friezes depicting a warrior with a knife and trophies were found near the plaza."It's an impressive find; the scientific and archeology communities are very happy," said Cesar Perez, the scientist at Peru's National Institute of Culture who supervised the project. "This could redesign the history of the country."

Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors - the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but with the advent of Christianity, fashions changed, according to Swedish archeologist Annika Larsson."They combined oriental features with Nordic styles. Their clothing was designed to be shown off indoors around the fire," says textile researcher Annika Larsson, whose research at Uppsala University presents a new picture of the Viking Age.

PLANNED repairs to the central heating of a church have uncovered remains suggesting it may have been used as a place of worship in prehistoric times.Archaeologists now believe the medieval church of St Michaels and All Angels, in Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, is on the site of earlier places of worship, possibly dating from the Neolithic period.Old burial grounds have been unearthed during work by the Archaeology Practice, but it has also revealed foundations of previous churches on the site.

Three false doors that served as portals for communicating with the dead are among ancient burial remains recently unearthed in a vast Egyptian necropolis, an archaeological team announced.The discoveries date back to Egypt's turbulent First Intermediate Period, which ran roughly between 2160 and 2055 B.C.

Stone structures in Peru recently suggested to be the ruins of an ancient "lost city" were actually shaped by natural forces, not Inca stone workers, officials say.The announcement comes from archaeologists with Peru's culture ministry, clouding the prospects of one local politician to turn the site into a tourist attraction.On January 10, Peruvian state media reported that a stone fortress had been discovered on the heavily forested eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains

Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists."I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.

Two MIT students are currently living, working and communicating with the outside world as if they were on a mission to Mars. Whenever they go outside their small, round habitat where eight people are spending a two-week "mission," they don spacesuits and pass through an airlock. When they send e-mail, it takes 20 minutes before the recipient can see it--the time it takes for radio waves to travel to and from the red planet.

A decade ago astronomers made the revolutionary discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. They are still working out is implications.The quickening expansion will eventually pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. This process eliminates reference points for measuring expansion and dilutes the distinctive products of the big bang to nothingness. In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred.

Modelling of the Earth's atmosphere has acquired economic importance due to its use in the prediction of ozone depletion and in measuring the impact of global warming. Now, researchers, writing in the online open access journal PMC Physics B have found that the rate at which electrons lose energy to carbon monoxide is greater than that to carbon dioxide at higher levels in the atmospheres of both Mars and Venus.This finding contributes to the body of knowledge required for modelling of the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, which in turn provides an opportunity to validate the techniques used in modelling of more complicated atmospheres such as that of Earth.

Anti-depressant tablets taken by millions of Britons may be a waste of time and money, research shows.An analysis of dozens of studies involving thousands of patients revealed that some of the most widely-prescribed anti-depressants work little better than dummy pills.The drugs studied - including Prozac, Seroxat and Efexor - were little more effective than placebos in improving the mental health in the majority of cases, the University of Hull research showed.

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway -- A "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard."The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy," Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates at the opening ceremony. "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations."

It is a truism that archaeology begins yesterday, and now with only the archaeology of the future to plan for, the discipline has been expanding into areas of the globe where material culture has hitherto played little part.Antarctica is one of these new areas: more than two centuries of human occupation have left plentiful traces. At least five successive and partly overlapping phases of activity can be defined: sealing, whaling, polar exploration, scientific investigation and tourism.

Biblical sites were highly sought after by some of our earliest and greatest archaeologists. One such site, Carchemish, was the famed city of the Hittite Empire. It attracted the attention of T.E. Lawrence and Woolley, pioneers of British Near Eastern Archaeology, who excavated there just before the First World War. Then came the crashing calamity of the Great War, and after it came new political borders...

"Roll up! Roll up! Roll Up! There will be a magnificent spectacle at the amphitheatre today, and you mustn't miss it! Magerius is giving it. Of course, you all know Magerius who has just finished his term of office as mayor. He's a pompous old ass but he thinks the world of himself and he's going to lay on a big spectacle and he is paying through the nose for it, and he wants everyone to know how generous he has been.""He is bringing in the Telegenii. You've heard of the Telegenii - they are the best theatrical producers in North Africa. They have all the best beasts and all the best hunters too. Today they have for your delight four leopards, all home grown and well trained. They are called Crispinus, Luxurius, Victor - who of course is going to be conquered - and then, Ho! Hum! there's Romanus, 'The Roman' who is going to bite the dust at the hands of a hunter.

A new exhibition gives the public a first glimpse of centuries-old Vatican documents about the Inquisition, including a 400-year-old order detailing how to crack down on heresy.The curiosities allow fascinating insights into how the Vatican once systematically tried to gain control over many aspects of life that had nothing to do with faith.If you are inquisitive about the Inquisition, however, the show at Rome's Central Risorgimento Museum will leave leave you wanting more, since there are no heresy trial transcripts or descriptions of torture methods on display.

A SMALL masterpiece of coroplastic Early Bronze Age Cyprus (3500- 2000 BC), believed to be a water whistle or a toy, was found during the excavations at Pyrgos/Mavrorachi, in Limassol and restored by an Italian archaeological mission led by Maria Rosaria Belgiorno."This is an askos, representing a load of two panniers, with its mane knotted in five bobs and a statuette of a naked child riding in the middle of the shoulder," Belgiorno said.

For ten years, the modern skeptical movement has wielded a cudgel against claims of the paranormal: the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge. In many debates over the possibility of psi abilities, the Challenge provides a final word for one side... [Randi's Million] "has so-and-so applied for the Challenge?" The financial reward offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation is seen by many skeptics as providing an irresistible motivation for anybody with paranormal ability - after all, if someone could genuinely exhibit such powers, surely they would step forward to take the million?

A news item caught my eye a few months ago that made me smile in wonder.The Library of Congress had discovered unseen photos of President Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration. They'd been housed at the library for years, hidden by an error in labeling.As one of the producers of The Civil War series with Ken Burns, I have a personal interest in these photos.

The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has taken place.A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London's Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable.Earlier this month, Airbus tested another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid.

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AFP) - Aimed at providing mankind with a Noah's Ark of food in the event of a global catastrophe, an Arctic "doomsday vault" filled with samples of the world's most important seeds will be inaugurated here Tuesday.European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Matai will be among the personalities present at the inauguration of the vault, which has been carved into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, just some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the North Pole.The vault, made up of three spacious cold chambers each measuring 27 x 10 metres (89 x 33 feet), create a long trident-shaped tunnel bored into the sandstone and limestone.

PARIS (AFP) - Canadian geologists say they can shed light on how a vast lake, trapped under the ice sheet that once smothered much of North America, drained into the sea, an event that cooled Earth's climate for hundreds of years.During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet once covered most of Canada and parts of the northern United States with a frozen crust that in some places was three kilometres (two miles) thick.

WASHINGTON - The Ulysses solar probe, after 17 years of studying the sun and solar system, is about to die by freezing to death, NASA and the European Space Agency said Friday.The satellite had long outlasted the five-year mission it began in 1990, but it continued to transmit useful data on solar winds.More recently, its plutonium power source had slowly weakened and its fuel was freezing as the probe made a wide circle of the sun, traveling as far as Jupiter.

DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

The Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project may be on the verge of discovering the remains of Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid.Project Director Ian Mathieson said, 'We've now found two large tombs where we think Imhotep could be. The largest tomb is around 90 metres long by 50 metres wide. The walls are more than five metres thick.'The second tomb is next to it, and is about 70 metres long by 50 metres wide. It has a complicated internal structure which suggests a courtyard or temple.

The oldest known bird fossils from New Zealand were recently unearthed along a remote stretch of beach on the Chatham Islands, researchers announced.The fossils represent possibly four new species of seabirds dating back to the late Cretaceous period, around 65 million years ago.Other remains from the same blocks of fossil-laden sandstone suggest that the birds co-existed with marine and terrestrial dinosaurs.

MONACO (Reuters) - Energy storage is an unglamorous pillar of an expected revolution to clean up the world's energy supply but will soon vie for investors attention with more alluring sources of energy like solar panels, manufacturers say."It's been in the background until now. It's not sexy. It's the enabler, not a source of energy," said Tim Hennessy, chief executive of Canadian battery makers VRB Power, speaking on the sidelines of a "CleanEquity" technologies conference in Monaco.

BEIJING (AFP) - China hopes to launch its second moon-orbiting satellite in 2009, state media reported Friday, as the country steps up its space programme.The news came after scientists regained contact with the country's first lunar satellite Chang'e-1 following a four-hour blackout, Xinhua news agency said.Ye Peijian, the chief commander of Chang'e-1, did not elaborate on his announcement of the follow-up mission.

There are no plans to extend the DNA database to contain information from all people, the Home Office has said.Calls for its content to be made universal have followed the conviction of two murderers using DNA evidence.Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright and Sally Anne Bowman's murderer, Mark Dixie were both captured because their DNA was taken after unrelated offences.But the Home Office said a mandatory database "would raise significant practical and ethical issues".

SYDNEY: By doing simple calculations on data freely available online, Australian astrophysicists have discovered that our Milky Way galaxy may be twice as thick as previously estimated.Bryan Gaensler of the University of Sydney led the team who now estimate the disc of our galaxy to be 12,000 rather than 6,000 light years thick. Proving not all science requires big, expensive apparatus, the researchers downloaded data from the Internet and analysed it in a spreadsheet.

NEW YORK: Beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa could lie a vast ocean harboring alien life. Now experts suggest sending a giant stethoscope to listen out for it.NASA is currently testing a submersible robot that could swim through Europa's waters, but Tim Leighton, an acoustic scientist at the University of Southampton in England, thinks there is an easier way.

Last year, David Levy published a book, Love and Sex with Robots, which marked a culmination of years of research about the interactions between humans and computers. His basic idea is that, for humans who cannot establish emotional or sexual connections with other people, they might form them with robots. The topic is ripe for ridicule: On The Colbert Report in January, host Stephen Colbert asked Levy, "Are these people who can't establish relationships with other human beings, are they by any chance people who write about love and sex with robots?" The 62-year-old Levy, though, is quite serious, as he explains to frequent contributor Charles Q. Choi in the Insights story "Not Tonight, Dear, I Have to Reboot," appearing in the March issue of Scientific American. Here is an expanded interview.

University of Tennessee ecologists Paul and Hazel Delcourt argue in their new book, Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change, that we have underestimated the varied impacts American Indians have had on the natural environment the past 15,000 years.Eastern North America, for example, was not a "virgin" forest when Europeans arrived 500 years ago. Native Americans altered and even managed the environment in many ways. The evidence comes from the testimony of early European pioneers as well as archaeological and paleoecological studies.

A South Korean company is offering to clone pet dogs in cooperation with the scientists who created the world's first cloned canine, the company said Friday.Seoul-based RNL Bio said it is already working on its first order from an American woman who wants a clone of her dead pit bull. She was especially attached to it because it saved her life when another dog attacked her and bit off her arm.

University of Michigan scientists and their colleagues at the National Institute on Aging have produced the largest and most detailed worldwide study of human genetic variation, a treasure trove offering new insights into early migrations out of Africa and across the globe.Like astronomers who build ever-larger telescopes to peer deeper into space, population geneticists like U-M's Noah Rosenberg are using the latest genetic tools to probe DNA molecules in unprecedented detail, uncovering new clues to humanity's origins.

Human migration from Africa to Europe more than 30,000 years ago appears to have left a mark on the genes of Europeans today.A Cornell-led study, reported in the Feb. 21 issue of the journal Nature, compared more than 10,000 sequenced genes from 15 African-Americans and 20 European-Americans. The results suggest that European populations have proportionately more harmful variations, though it is unclear what effects these variations actually may have on the overall health of Europeans.

Tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active material could be used to remove toxic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and other hazardous materials from water much more effectively and at lower cost than conventional water purification methods, according to researchers writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Nanotechnology.Peter Majewski and Chiu Ping Chan of the Ian Wark Research Institute, at the University of South Australia, explain that the availability of drinking quality water is fast becoming a major socio-economic issue across the globe, especially in the developing world. However, water purification technology is often complicated, requires sophisticated equipment and is expensive to run and maintain. Moreover, it usually requires a final costly disinfection stage. The Australian team suggests that nanotechnology could provide a simple answer to the problem.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An international project to document the sea life of Antarctica is likely to reveal new species among the dinner-plate sized sea spiders and other overgrown animals of the deep, scientists said Wednesday.Researchers from the Australian, French and Japanese venture designed to complete a census of marine life in the icy Southern Ocean before it is degraded by global warming, have brought thousands of specimens back.

PARIS (AFP) - Fan-shaped deltas at the edge of huge basins scattered across Mars were probably formed by a titanic influx of water, gushing from the bowels of the Red Planet, according to study released Wednesday.The origin and morphology of the deltas, studded with curious step-like terraces, have perplexed scientists since they were first observed three years ago.

Black is getting blacker.Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black.The material, made of hollow fibers, is a Roach Motel for photons -- light checks in, but it never checks out. By voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Mayan astronomers aligned their soaring temples with the stars and now modern archeologists have found the ruins of hidden cities in the Guatemalan jungle by peering down from space.Archeologists and NASA scientists began teaming up five years ago to search for clues about the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilization that flourished in Central America and southern Mexico for 1,000 years.The work is paying off, says archeologist William Saturno, who recently discovered five sprawling sites with hundreds of buildings using a spy satellite that can see through clouds and forest to reveal differences in the vegetation below.

A large number of "stone eggs" were recently discovered along with a copper sword at a construction site in Bandeng Hill and Zhanlong Hill, Gongxi Town of Hunan Province. The discoveries were made by highway construction workers while they were digging the foundation for a road.The origin of the stone eggs is currently unknown as it is reported that further analysis by experts will be required to determine what they are and where they came from.

The remnants of at least ten pyramids have been discovered on the coast of Peru, marking what could be a vast ceremonial site of an ancient, little-known culture, archaeologists say.In January construction crews working in the province of Piura discovered several truncated pyramids and a large adobe platform.Officials from Peru's National Institute of Culture (INC) were dispatched to inspect the discovery.

New discoveries unearthed at an ancient frontier wall in Iran provide compelling evidence that the Persians matched the Romans for military might and engineering prowess.The 'Great Wall of Gorgan'in north-eastern Iran, a barrier of awesome scale and sophistication, including over 30 military forts, an aqueduct, and water channels along its route, is being explored by an international team of archaeologists from Iran and the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham. This vast Wall-also known as the 'Red Snake'-is more than 1000 years older than the Great Wall of China, and longer than Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall put together.

PATNA: Archaeologists are baffled by the discovery of a pre-Mauryan period lion head made of stone from the dry bed of the Ganga at Collectorate Ghat here on Monday evening. This was made possible as the river has changed its course in recent years exposing its dry bed.According to an expert, the one-and-half-foot stone artefact is similar to those of Greek sculpture.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Thursday it was very confident that a Navy missile hit the toxic fuel tank of a defunct U.S. spy satellite, which could have caused harm if it had fallen to Earth intact.The spectacular and unprecedented strike took place over the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday after a U.S. Navy cruiser launched a missile as the satellite sped through space at more than 17,000 mph (27,400 kph), officials said.

Washington, Feb 21: Archaeologists have discovered an ancient human skull in China, dating back to 80,000 to 100,000 years, which may shed light on a shadowy chapter of evolutionary history.The finding was made by an excavation team led by Chinese archaeologist Li Zhanyang in the central province of Henan.According to National Geographic News, a report from the Chinese government earlier suggested that the fossil came from a modern human, which would have forced a radical reworking of current theories about when our species first left Africa.

The government of Cameroon is looking to lease 830,000 hectares of biodiverse tropical forest to conservationists for an annual sum of $1.6 million. The problem? No conservation groups are interested. Apparently the asking price is too high, according to The Economist.Ngoyla-Mintom forest, as the concession is known, borders the Republic of Congo and serves as a corridor of habitat between three national parks in Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo. Ngoyla-Mintom is home to forest creatures including elephants and gorillas.Without offers to meet its asking price, Cameroonian minister of forestry Joseph Matta says that he has little choice but to auction to the land to loggers.

One of the worst droughts on record in the Amazon was caused by high temperatures in the Atlantic rather than el Nino, according to analyses of climatic and hydrological records. The research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggests that human-driven warming is already affecting the climate of Earth's largest rainforest.In 2005 the Amazon experienced the worst in memory. As rivers dried up, remote communities were isolated while commerce slowed to a standstill. Thousands of square kilometers of land burned for months on end, releasing more than 100 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

Ricky Ray woke the night of Sept. 22 gasping for breath. At the emergency room in Middlesboro, doctors identified the problem: His heart was failing, overworked from a birth defect Ray didn't know he had.Ray, 42, needed a new aortic valve or, doctors said, he would die from heart failure.But surgeons couldn't perform the operation. The problem was Ray's teeth: He had cavities so deep they had infected the bone. Periodontal disease tore into his gums, rotting his teeth from below.

Pennsylvania's fossil fuels once helped drive the Industrial Revolution.Now, spent oil wells and abandoned anthracite mines could help the green movement.Scientists and state policymakers are wondering if those empty wells and mine workings could one day store greenhouse gases, and in turn, help curb global warming.Environmentalists believe carbon sequestering -- storing carbon dioxide underground -- could be a solution to reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service, which won't be open to the general public.

A new High Court action that aims to protect 2,000 year-old ruins discovered at Lismullin near the Hill of Tara is to be taken today.The semicircular enclosure at Lismullin, about four miles south of Navan on the existing N3, lies across the northbound lane of the controversial new M3 motorway. It is 80 metres in diameter, dates from between 380BC and 520BC, and may be some kind of ceremonial site.

Human migration from Africa to Europe more than 30,000 years ago appears to have left a mark on the genes of Europeans today.A Cornell-led study, reported in the Feb. 21 issue of the journal Nature, compared more than 10,000 sequenced genes from 15 African-Americans and 20 European-Americans. The results suggest that European populations have proportionately more harmful variations, though it is unclear what effects these variations actually may have on the overall health of Europeans.

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

By blasting a person's breath with laser light, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder have shown that they can detect molecules that may be markers for diseases like asthma or cancer.While the new technique has yet to be tested in clinical trials, it may someday allow doctors to screen people for certain diseases simply by sampling their breath, according to the research team from JILA, a joint institute of NIST and CU-Boulder. "This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once," said Jun Ye, a fellow of JILA and NIST who led the research.

Plants trees and algae do it. Even some bacteria and moss do it, but scientists have had a difficult time developing methods to turn sunlight into useful fuel. Now, Penn State researchers have a proof-of-concept device that can split water and produce recoverable hydrogen."This is a proof-of-concept system that is very inefficient. But ultimately, catalytic systems with 10 to 15 percent solar conversion efficiency might be achievable," says Thomas E. Mallouk, the DuPont Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics. "If this could be realized, water photolysis would provide a clean source of hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight."

Even before they are born, all people carry genetic baggage, genes that were useful to distant, non-human ancestors but are hopelessly outdated, even harmful, to humans as they live today.Chicago scientist Neil Shubin calls this inheritance our "inner fish."People hiccup, he explains, because of a design malfunction in a nervous system and breathing apparatus passed down from fish and tadpoles. Human males are vulnerable to hernias because of their awkward setup for toting around sperm-producing gonads, which developed in fish.

A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of US president John F. Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed, including a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby, the Dallas Morning News said today.The newspaper said the Dallas County district attorney's office, which uncovered the documents, would display its discovery at a news conference tomorrow morning.

The Chinese government says some 2 million people are now registered as descendants of Confucius, the great thinker who was born more than 2,500 years ago.China Daily reports that the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee has for the first time decided to include women and foreigners on its list.

Never before had the citizens of the Roman Empire seen invaders so alien and terrifying as this.Erupting in a thunder of hooves and drums, spears held aloft, the marauding army darkened the sky with their arrows.Their heads were part-shaven, their hair tied in top-knots, their faces decorated with tattoos made with needles dipped in soot.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) - Planets resembling Earth can be found orbiting many sun-like stars in our galaxy, increasing the prospects of finding extraterrestial life on some of them, according to a study released Sunday.University of Arizona astronomer Michael Meyer, working with NASA's Spitzer space telescope, said his research shows that between 20 percent and 60 percent of stars similar to our sun have conditions favorable for forming rocky planets like Earth.

MEADVILLE, Pa. -- An aviation history group is turning to a historical society to see if a defunct zipper maker made a zipper pull found on an island where they think Amelia Earhart may have disappeared.The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery asked the Crawford County Historical Society for help in determining the date of a small brass zipper pull made by Talon, a hookless fastener company that operated in Meadville from 1913 through the late 1980s.The aviation group members found the pull in 2007 on Nikumaroro, a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean.

Archaeological finds in Iran show that women and men applied makeup and arrayed themselves with ornaments approximately 10,000 years ago, a trend which began from religious convictions rather than mere beautification motivations.Archaeologists have discovered various instruments of make-up and ornamental items in the Burnt City, which date back to the third millennium BCE.

John Anthony West, author of Serpent in the Sky will be joining us on our Author Of The Month messageboard throughout March to discuss his new book, featured in our latest Forum Article

ROSENDALE, N.Y. - Bats in New York and Vermont are mysteriously dying off by the thousands, often with a white ring of fungus around their noses, and scientists in hazmat suits are crawling into dank caves to find out why."White nose syndrome," as the killer has been dubbed, is spreading at an alarming rate, with researchers calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the U.S.

MONTE DOURADO, Brazil (Reuters) - Buzzing chain saws and heavy machinery hauling logs through the Amazon jungle look at first like reckless destruction. But a forestry project on the Jari River in northern Brazil is being hailed as a model for preserving the world's largest rain forest.Evidence in January that the pace of Amazon deforestation has increased after falling for nearly three years renewed a fierce public debate over saving the forest. It also opened a rift in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government.

Protected forest strips buffering rivers and streams of the Amazon rainforest should be significantly wider than the current legal requirement, according to pioneering new research by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA).Published in the journal Conservation Biology on March 21, this is the first wildlife study in remnant riparian tropical forest corridors.Brazilian forestry legislation currently requires that all forest strips alongside rivers and streams on private land be maintained as permanent reserves and it sets a minimum legal width of 60m.

Charles Darwin worried about bats, wondering whether his scientific successors would ever figure out how they evolved. Until now, all fossil bats looked just like today's bats, says paleontologist Kevin Seymour of the Royal Ontario Museum.Last week, he and colleagues announced a missing bat link - a 52-million-year-old skeleton pulled from an outcrop in southern Wyoming.

You've got the gold I need for my necklace and I've got the silk you need for your robe.What to do?Nowadays, if you need something, you go to the closest mall, shell out a few bucks and head home. Thousands of years ago, the process wasn't nearly as simple. If you or someone in your town didn't grow it, herd it or make it, you needed to abandon that desire or else travel for it, sometimes over great distances. For many towns, the effort of trade was too much. Those ancient towns make only rare appearances in our history books.

Indian archaeologists say they have found remains which point to the existence of a city about 2,500 years old in eastern India.The remains have been discovered at Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa.Researchers say the items found during the excavation point to a highly developed urban settlement.The population of the city could have been in the region of 20,000 to 25,000, the archaeologists claim.

EL KADADA, Sudan (AFP) - French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years.The tomb of a 5,500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Indian archaeologists have started giving a face-lift to the centuries-old Taj Mahal by applying a mud pack to the marble exteriors of the country's most famous monument.The aim of the mud pack is to restore the gleam to the 17th-century architectural wonder in the northern city of Agra, about 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- By destroying vast tracts of forest to enlarge their farm land, inhabitants of the wondrous city of Angkor lit the fuse to an ecological time bomb that spelled doom for what was once the world's largest urban area.So believe archeologists engaged in groundbreaking research into the ancient civilization of Angkor.

Nanotechnology researchers are developing the perfect complement to the power tie: a �power shirt� able to generate electricity to power small electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers and others whose physical motion could be harnessed and converted to electrical energy.The February 14 issue of the journal Nature details how pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires can generate electrical current using the piezoelectric effect.

It has variously been claimed that the pyramids served as power plants, water pumps, astronomical observatories, sources of ill-defined pyramid- power energy vortices, guidance beacons for alien spacecraft sites for mystery initiation ceremonies.Unfortunately there remains no known written record as to how the most famous of the more than 100 pyramids in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was built, nor have any reliefs depicting the building ever been found.