Newsdesk Archive

The remarkable adhesive abilities of geckos and mussels have been combined to create a super-sticky material.Unlike other adhesives inspired by the nimble reptiles, "geckel" can attach to both wet and dry surfaces, the team that developed the material says.Its staying power comes from coating fibrous silicone, similar in structure to a gecko's foot, with a polymer that mimics the "glue" used by mussels.

Scientists attempting to find new foods for cattle have already exploded the myth that most bovine emissions come from the rear. They have found the majority come from belching.Read more of this TimesOnline report....

Archaeologists from the Oriental Institute have discovered a gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan, an installation that produced the precious metal sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C. The center, along with a cemetery they discovered, documents extensive control by the first sub-Saharan kingdom, the kingdom of Kush.The team found more than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss along the Nile at the site of Hosh el-Guruf, about 225 miles north of Khartoum. The region also was known as Nubia in ancient times. Groups of similar grinding stones have been found on desert sites, mostly in Egypt, where they were used to grind ore to recover the precious metal. The ground ore was likely washed with water nearby to separate the gold flakes.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3.5 million and 3.8 million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution.Ethiopian archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton and were unearthed in the Afar desert at Woranso-Mille, near where the famous fossil skeleton known as Lucy was found in 1974."This is a major finding that could fill a gap in human evolution," he told a news conference in Addis Ababa."The fossil hominids from the Woranso-Mille area sample a time period that is poorly known in human evolutionary study."

The woman sailor who sold her story of being a hostage in Iran has failed to hand over any money to her Royal Navy colleagues - despite pledging to do so. Faye Turney had promised to donate some of the estimated £80,000 she made to shipmates on HMS Cornwall. The controversial media deals prompted a humiliating U-turn by the Ministry of Defence, which was forced to hurriedly reimpose a ban on service personnel selling stories after initially giving the hostages the go-ahead.

EXPERTS and archaeologists have welcomed the inclusion of Peru's Machu Picchu among the modern-day wonders of the world, but fear it could spell the destruction of the ancient Inca citadel. "Look, we do not want to dampen the euphoria over the honour granted to Machu Picchu, but with it comes immense responsibility," said Alberto Delgado of the NGO Instituto Machu Picchu, dedicated to the monument's preservation. "The site is already being badly damaged by tourists and could reach a point of no return should strict measures not be implemented right now." Machu Picchu - which sits 8,000ft above sea level on a shelf jutting out of the Andes - was one of the few Inca centres that escaped the destruction of the Spanish Conquistadors. More than 500 years later it seems the new wave of invaders, tourists clad in Timberland boots and North Face jackets and armed only with hard currency, may succeed where the conquistadores failed. UNESCO, which recognises Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site has already threatened to put the citadel on its 'at risk' list and is seeking a series of measures introduced to halt damage.

Anthropologists and archaeologists believe that the first humans ever to make the great leap from a nomadic and tribal into a civilized and sedentary existence were the Sumerians, some eight to ten thousand years ago. The place was Mesopotamia (now the southern portion of present-day Iraq). Apparently the Sumarians had migrated there all the way from India. Once settled in the Middle East, they build elaborate communities, grouped in prosperous city-states, and surrounded by fertile fields, which they kept lush by communal irrigation from the waters of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The most magnificent of their urban centers was Babylon on the banks of the lower Euphrates. The Sumerians are considered the world's first builders, farmers, and writers - and, as we know from archaeological finds, probably the first brewers, too. Beer was at the center of their religious rituals. Their highest deity was the goddess of beer and fertility. It is a measure of the importance of beer in Sumerian society that eventually about half their grain ended up in their brews.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- All of Egypt's royal mummies will get identity checks after scientists found one was wrongly identified as a pharaoh, Egypt's chief archaeologist said.This mummy is believed to be the body of Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt in the 15th century B.C. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Thursday he would use computed tomography, or CT, scanning and DNA to test more than 40 royal mummies at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.In June, the mummy long thought to have been King Tuthmosis I was found to be a young man who died from an arrow wound, Hawass said. History showed Tuthmosis I died in his 60s."I am now questioning all the mummies," he told Reuters in an interview. "We have to check them all again."The new technology now will reconfirm or identify anything for us."

A switch to organic farming would not reduce the world's food supply and could also increase food security in developing countries, say the authors of a new study.They claim their findings lay to rest the debate over whether organic farming could sustainably feed the world. Organic farming avoids or heavily restricts the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, as well as livestock feed additives.Numerous studies have compared the yields of organic and conventional methods for individual crops and animal products (see 20-year study backs organic farming).Now, a team of researchers has compiled research from 293 different comparisons into a single study to assess the overall efficiency of the two agricultural systems.

Nestled at the foot of Syria's coastal mountains, an ancient citadel has been put on the tourist map by restoration and excavation that revealed mysteries of the medieval Assassins sect, once based here. Saladin, the great Muslim leader, laid siege to Masyaf castle in the 12th century. But he thought twice before launching an assault on the Assassins, who had a reputation for mounting daring operations to slay their foes. "Anyone who tried to take the Assassins' castle would be dead the next day," said Haytham Ali Hasan, an archaeologist involved in the restoration project.Although Saladin had conquered Crusader castles with much stronger defences, historians believe the Assassins' death threats forced the Kurdish warrior to lift the siege at Masyaf. Perched on a rock and overlooking a boulder-strewn plain, the castle has been restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Tonnes of debris have been cleared from the site since 2000, allowing researchers to learn more about the citadel's secretive occupants. One of the main conclusions, Hasan said, was that the Assassins were not very good at building castles, even if the site has lasted well and looks impressive to visitors today.

The Jules Verne cargo ship has been packed up ready for despatch to the European spaceport in French Guiana.The vehicle - the biggest, most complex spacecraft ever built in Europe - will launch in January with up to 7.5 tonnes of supplies for the space station. The ship has been under test for three years at the European Space Agency's technical centre in the Netherlands. ......The craft heads to the Kourou spaceport as part of a 400-tonne, 50-case shipment that incorporates all the associated parts, apparatus and tools needed to reassemble it and check it prior to launch.

Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.

Ancient coins have been found on a beach in the Western Isles giving new clues to the far reaching influence of the Roman Empire.Archaeologists believe the pieces of copper alloy date from the middle of the 4th Century. They were found in a sand dune, but the location in the Uists has been kept secret to protect the site. Archaeologists said it was a "lucky find" as the coins were at risk of vanishing in a high tide. Just seven other Roman coins have previously been found on the isles. A Roman brooch and pieces of pottery have also been uncovered in the past. Kate Macdonald, an archaeologist who has lived on the isles for three-and-a-half years, said the new find was exciting.

A 41-foot raft made of reeds and wooden planks set out Wednesday on voyage from New York to Spain, a daring and perhaps foolhardy attempt to prove people in the Stone Age could have crossed the Atlantic.The fragile-looking craft was towed down the harbor past the Statue of Liberty, to be cut loose once it passed into the open sea. At the helm was Dominique Gorlitz, 41, a German botanist and ex-teacher who has spent years preparing for the expedition."We are trying to retrace the ancient waterways to prove that prehistoric people crossed the ocean both ways," Gorlitz said as the Abora III, named for a Canary Island sun god, cast off.He estimated the voyage would take five weeks to Pontevedra, Spain, where success would prove that mariners predating Columbus by 12,000 years could have navigated the ocean by sailing against - as well as with - prevailing winds. The Abora III will use leeboards to steer like a modern sailboat. A stop was planned at the Azores.

Scientists have found the spectral imprints of water vapor in starlight filtered through the atmosphere of a giant gas planet outside our solar system.Combined with a study announced earlier this year, the new finding provides strong evidence that extrasolar planets are as rich in water as the worlds in our solar system, scientists say.The finding is detailed in the July 11 issue of the journal Nature.

THE British Museum has hailed a discovery within a modest clay tablet in its collection as a breakthrough for biblical archaeology - dramatic proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament.The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time - revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.This is rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible.The tablet names a Babylonian officer called Nebo-Sarsekim, who according to Jeremiah xxxix was present in 587BC when Nebuchadnezzar "marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it".

Facing Drought and the loss of grazing land for their herds, many Bedouin of southeastern Egypt are giving up their traditional lifestyle. The Egyptian Government and aid organizations have stepped in to help, but critics claim they are doing more harm than good. Reporter Cache Seel has details from Shalatin. The sword dance of the Ababda is performed in celebrations and is used to welcome guests. Two men with swords and shields dance in a circle around each other to a drum beat while the gathered men chant and the women ululate. As the music ends the dancers lay down their swords and back away from each other with their hands held up to show it was all in fun. The Ababda are one of two main tribes that make up the Bedouin population of Egypt's southeastern desert. The other is the Besharin. Although their traditional lands reach from the Red Sea to the Nile, differences in language and their nomadic lifestyle kept their culture intact and distinct from the rest of Egypt. Until recently these nomadic tribesmen were little changed by the millennia. Today their culture and even their language are dying. Read more ....

Albuquerque, N.M. - Past is prologue in ''Canyon Gardens: The Ancient Pueblo Landscapes of the American Southwest'' (University of New Mexico Press: 2006). Editors V.B. Price and Baker H. Morrow have assembled 15 essays on the millennium-old Puebloan landscape. Leading archaeologists, architects, landscape designers, paleoethnobotanists and others offer nuanced commentary on its history and find lessons for today. The most important lesson, writes Price in his introduction, ''is that it is possible to 'design with nature' ... while at the same time altering natural flows and engineering landscapes to better serve human needs.'' Architectural historian Rina Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo, shows what happens when this teaching is disregarded or even quashed. In the chapter ''Conflicting Landscape Values,'' she compares the psychological consequences of two physical settings. One place is Santa Clara Pueblo itself, in a valley and oriented around the people's emergence place. Children felt safe there, writes Swentzell, and able to explore their world with ''tremendous confidence and an unquestioning sense of belonging within the natural ordering of the cosmos. Learning happened easily.'' Swentzell contrasts this with the rigid discomfort of the Santa Clara Day School, built by the BIA in the 1890s with the idea of assimilating the Pueblo's children. Surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and set on a denuded five-acre tract, the school emphasized the value of things from other places and other cultures - things found in books, not in the immediate community and landscape. The result for students, writes Swentzell, was ''lack of confidence and feelings of inadequacy.''

LONDON - Scientists want Internet users to help them sort through an unusual digital photo album: pictures of about 1 million galaxies. In a Web statement Wednesday, astronomers asked for volunteers to help classify the galaxies, identifying them as either elliptical or spiral, and noting, where possible, in which direction they rotate.It would the largest galactic census ever compiled, something scientists say would provide new insight into the structure of the universe."We're in the golden era of astronomy," said Bob Nichol, an astronomer at the University of Portsmouth, in southern England, who helped develop the "Galaxy Zoo" Web site where the photographs are posted. "We have more data than we can assimilate, and we need help."

The strongest evidence to date that the sun is not responsible for recent global warming has been set out by scientists.The new study by Prof Michael Lockwood of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Oxfordshire, and Claus Fröhlich of the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland, overturns claims by climate sceptics who say that the planet's climate has long fluctuated and that current warming is just part of that natural cycle - the result of variation in the sun's output and not greenhouse gas emissions. Their study appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.The study found that global warming since 1985 has been caused neither by an increase in solar radiation nor by a decrease in the flux of galactic cosmic rays.

A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.The frozen carcass is to be sent to Japan for detailed study.The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.The animal's trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.

The launch of NASA's Dawn spacecraft, a mission that will explore the two largest objects in the asteroid belt in an effort to answer questions about the formation of our solar system, has been rescheduled to September. The decision was made Saturday to move the launch to September after careful review by NASA's Science Mission Directorate officials, working with Dawn mission managers, the Dawn principal investigator, and with the concurrence of the NASA Administrator.Primary reasons for the move were a combination of highly limited launch opportunities for Dawn in July and the potential impact to launch preparations for the upcoming Phoenix Mars Lander mission, set for early August. A September launch for Dawn maintains all of the science mission goals a July launch would have provided.NASA will hold a news briefing on Monday, July 9, to preview the launch of the Phoenix Mars Lander.

A BLOOD-SPATTERED Roman brandishes the severed head of the man who killed his wife and children, a woman bathes in the blood of a slaughtered bull and hundreds of soldiers meet a grisly end on the battlefields.Stabbings, severed limbs and slit throats are a common occurrence as bloody battles and brutal violence - ranging from crucifixion to public rape - erupt in and around the city.Yet this is a time of excess and pleasure as much as violence. Behind the blood-soaked walls of ancient Rome, an exhausting amount of enthusiastic bed hopping is taking place - and it's not confined to the beds.Events in the public bathhouse - where dozens of men and women can indulge in a communal bath - are getting decidedly steamy.Viewers are lapping it all up as the second series of BBC2 epic Rome gallops towards its bloodthirsty conclusion.Made by the same people who brought us The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, Rome charts the birth of the Roman Empire through the eyes of ordinary citizens - and it is something of an eye opener! It may be the most expensive BBC drama in history but the scenes of debauchery and brutality threaten to make it one of the most controversial. ....

A common wild flower may be the answer to reducing the amount of methane that cows belch, a significant contributor to global warming, scientists said yesterday.The Birdsfoot trefoil is being studied by scientists at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth as a way of making cows digest more efficiently - which means they make more milk and emit less gas.The £770,000 study was commissioned this year by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after ministers became concerned about the amount of methane emitted by livestock agriculture - thought to amount to about a quarter of all methane emissions caused by man.

The planned weekend launch of a spacecraft to explore two of the solar system's largest asteroids was delayed to the middle of the month because of problems with a tracking ship and aircraft.NASA had set Monday afternoon as a new launch time for the Dawn spacecraft, which will embark on a years-long journey to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, which lie between Mars and Jupiter.Late Friday, NASA officials announced the spacecraft would launch July 15, instead. The spacecraft originally had been set to launch Saturday but that was nixed because thunderstorms and lightning at the launch pad prevented loading its fuel. Also, the plane used to track the spacecraft after liftoff was having mechanical problems, and the tracking ship wasn't in the correct location.

The next time you venture into your garden armed with plants, consider who you place next to whom. It turns out that the docile garden plant isn't as passive as widely assumed, at least not with strangers. Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings.

Angkor Wat temple is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly 2 million tourists coming to the country in 2006 -- more than half of those visiting Angkor -- the country is recognizing the need to keep these precious ruins intact. About 500 years after a failing irrigation system forced Angkor's rulers to abandon the sprawling Khmer capital, a lack of water again threatens Cambodia's most famous temple complex. The temple is located in Siem Reap province, about 196 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, shown at left, March 2, 2007.

The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.The Bishop said pro-gay laws were to blame for the floodsOne diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless.While those who have been affected by the storms are innocent victims, the bishops argue controversially that the flooding is a result of Western civilisation's decision to ignore biblical teaching. The Rt Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle, argued that the floods are not just a result of a lack of respect for the planet, but also a judgment on society's moral decadence.

Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for the heart and general health than eating conventionally grown crops, new research has found.A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found that they had almost double the quantity of antioxidants called flavonoids which help to prevent high blood pressure and thus reduce the likelihood of heart disease and strokes.

JING'AN, Jiangxi, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists have started to excavate a 2,500-year-old tomb containing 47 coffins made of a rare wood called nanmu in east China's Jiangxi Province. The tomb, in Lijia village in Jing'an county, is 16 meters long, about 11.5 meters wide and three meters deep. It is believed to date back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 B.C.). It is the largest group of coffins ever discovered in a single tomb and the excavation has been dubbed "the most important archaeology project of the year" by cultural experts and media. Nine coffins were opened by archaeologists earlier because they were rotten and partly destroyed by tomb robbers. Archaeologists opened another coffin on Sunday morning, finding a relatively complete human skeleton, bodily tissue, as well as many bronze, gold and silk items, porcelain and jade.

IT IS one of the most evocative sites in Scotland's turbulent history - the place where Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots before his victory over the English at Bannockburn.From the reign of Kenneth MacAlpin in the ninth century, every Scots king assumed the mantle of power, seated on the Stone of Destiny, on the ancient mound now known as Moot Hill at Scone in Perthshire. Despite its role at the very heart of Scottish power, little is known about the archaeology of the ancient site or that of nearby Scone Abbey, the "lost" Augustinian monastery founded in 1114 by Alexander I and sacked and burned by an angry mob at the height of the Reformation. Next week, however, a major archaeological investigation is set to get under way in the grounds of Scone Palace, the home of the Earl and Countess of Mansfield, to unlock some of the secrets of Scone and to shed fresh light on the two historic sites.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS working on a remote Scottish island have discovered an ancient stone ceremonial enclosure that is perfectly aligned to the winter and summer solstices.The find was made by members of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society (Bacas) working on the island of Foula.The stones were found on the last day of an extensive geophysical survey at an area called Da Heights. The group found stones rising from the ground in a curve which did not look like they were placed naturally.Extensive research has shown the stones were part of an early Bronze Age ceremonial enclosure. The structure would have been built some time between 3500 and 2000BC.

On June 14, 2007, construction resumed on a four-lane highway near the Hill of Tara in central Ireland. Traditionally the seat of the high kings of Ireland, the landscape is littered with burial mounds, rock art, earthen enclosures, and stone monuments. Tara, which has been described as Ireland's equivalent of Stonehenge, was named one of the 100 most endangered sites by the World Monuments Fund this year.Given Tara's cultural significance and national monument status, it is not surprising that the Irish government met resistance when it announced plans for a 60 km road running straight through the Gabhra Valley between Tara and the nearby Hill of Skreen. Archaeologists and historians claimed that the entire valley, not just the hill, contains historical monuments and artifacts and should therefore be protected. In its defense, the National Roads Association (NRA) argued that a new road was necessary because the existing N3 highway is deteriorating, thereby making travel dangerous and inefficient for drivers between Dublin and Navan. A deal was signed with Eurolink, an independent contractor, and construction began in Spring 2006.

A Russian biologist has been trying to recreate a fully fledged Ice Age eco-system in a remote corner of Siberia, complete, if possible, with woolly mammoths. From the plane, the landscape was green - thousands of kilometres of seemingly empty tundra, forest and scrubland, punctuated by oxbow lakes, meanders and intricate waterways. But from the small boat driven by Sergei Zimov along the Kolyma River, everything was blue. The vast, cloudless sky was almost perfectly reflected in the water, which stretched for several kilometres between either bank and disappeared like a sea ahead. Sakha - also known as Yakutia - is a huge Russian province in eastern Siberia, a place of large distances, long histories, and big ideas. Sergei Zimov's is one of the biggest.

The largest bird that ever flew was an expert glider but was too heavy to fly by flapping its wings, researchers say. Getting off the ground was a challenge for the 155-pound (70-kilogram) Argentavis magnificens, a condor-like bird that lived in the Andes mountains and the pampas of Argentina about six million years ago. Despite its massive flight muscles and 21-foot (6.4-meter) wingspan, the giant bird probably could not generate enough lift to take off from a level surface, according to a new study. Like human hang gliders, Argentavis probably had to run downhill into a headwind to become airborne, said Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University in Lubbock. "Takeoff capability is the limiting factor for the size of flying birds, and Argentavis almost reached the upper limit," Chatterjee said.

Obese, plagued with decayed teeth and perhaps a skin disease, Queen Hatshepsut might have spent her last days in pain, according to a preliminary examination of the 3,000-year-old mummy thought to be that of Egypt's greatest female pharaoh. Bald in front but with long hair in back, the mummy shows an overweight woman just over 5 feet tall, who died at about 50. This was Hatshepsut, undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary women in recorded history.The Discovery Channel and Zahi Hawass, Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, will unveil details of how Hatshepsut's mummy was found in the documentary "Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen" on Sunday, July 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Catilin has come up with a way to let biodiesel manufacturers consume both of their major food groups: animal fat and vegetable oil. The company, which was developed from research at Iowa State University, has devised a catalyst that allows fuel refiners to mix different types of oils together in the same manufacturing process. Currently, it's not easy for biodiesel manufacturers to process animal and vegetable oils together. The catalyst also eliminates a step in the oil-to-biodiesel process. In all, the catalyst could cut processing prices by 30 cents a gallon, CEO Larry Lenhart said in an interview.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic - so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia's continental shelf.One newspaper printed a map of the "new addition", a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

Thousands of terra cotta warriors were discovered more than 20 years ago near the ancient capital of Xi'an.BEIJING, China (AP) -- Chinese researchers say they have found a strange pyramid-shaped chamber while surveying the massive underground tomb of China's first emperor and theorize it was built as a passageway for his soul.Thousands of terra cotta warriors were discovered more than 20 years ago near the ancient capital of Xi'an.Remote sensing equipment has revealed what appears to be a 100-foot-high room above Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb near the ancient capital of Xi'an in Shaanxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.The room has not been excavated. Diagrams of the chamber are based on data gathered over five years, starting in 2002, using radar and other remote sensing technologies, the news agency said.Archaeologist Liu Qingzhu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was quoted as saying the room is unlike any ever found in a Chinese tomb.

Pope OKs opening of St. Paul's tomb.... Investigators to remove plug from stone coffin, insert probeEighteen months after the sarcophagus believed to have once contained the remains of St. Paul the apostle was positively identified by Vatican archaeologists, Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to plans by investigators to examine the interior of the ancient stone coffin with an optical probe, according to a German Catholic paper.As WND reported in 2005, the sarcophagus was discovered during excavations in 2002 and 2003 around the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in south Rome.

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish researchers on Friday said they had unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which they estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in western Europe.Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, co-director of research at the Atapuerca site said the molar, discovered on Wednesday in the Atapuerca Sierra in the northern province of Burgos, could be as much as 1.2 million years old."The tooth represents the oldest human fossil remain of western Europe. Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," the Atapuerca Foundation said in a statement.

At almost 20 tonnes, the ATV will be the biggest spacecraft Europe has ever flown when it launches in January. The Automated Transfer Vehicle is part-goods lorry and part-tugboat. Its primary function will be to keep the International Space Station (ISS) stocked up with food, water, fuel and experimental equipment. It will also re-boost the outpost, which has a tendency to drift down from its 300km-plus altitude as it brushes through the top of the atmosphere.

A day after launching into orbit, the privately-built Genesis 2 expandable module successfully relayed high-resolution images taken on June 29 during on-orbit checkout procedures.The two pictures confirmed the operation of the inflatable module's camera system followed by download to the Mission Operations center for the Las Vegas, Nevada-based spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace. The testing will continue as the ground team perfects the acquisition of the Genesis 2 signal.

Talk about identity theft: Scientists changed one species of bacteria into another by performing a complete gene swap.It is a step in the quest to one day create artificial organisms, part of a bigger project to custom-design microbes that could produce cleaner fuels. But the way it was performed, dubbed a "genome transplant," has genetics specialists buzzing. "This is equivalent to changing a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software," declared genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter, senior author of the new research published Thursday by the journal Science.

Domestic cats around the world can trace their origins back to the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, according to a genetic study in Science journal. They may have been domesticated by early farming communities, experts say. But the study suggests the progenitors of today's cats split from their wild counterparts more than 100,000 years ago - much earlier than once thought. At least five female ancestors from the region gave rise to all the domestic cats alive today, scientists believe.The earliest archaeological evidence of cat domestication dates back 9,500 years, when cats were thought to have lived alongside humans in settlement sites in Cyprus.

Switzerland's climate has since the 1970s warmed twice as fast as the average for the northern hemisphere, a Swiss public research institute said Tuesday. The Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research said in a study that temperatures in Switzerland increased by an average of 0.57 degrees Celsius per decade over the past 30 years, compared to an average 0.25-degree hike for the entire northern hemisphere.Spring and winter were the seasons most affected, with an average increase in Switzerland of 0.8 degrees Celsius per decade during the same period, the institute said in a statement.

A major dust storm has developed on the red planet, blocking sunlight and prompting Mars mission managers to keep a close eye on it, SPACE.com has learned.It is not known how large the storm might grow, but already it is thousands of miles across. If it balloons, as dust storms have done in the past, it could hamper operations of NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.For now, officials don't think the storm will threaten rover operations, however. In fact, the windy conditions on the planet have blown off large amounts of dust from the rovers' solar arrays, giving them more power. The power boost may lend a helping hand to the Opportunity rover, should officials decide to send it into Victoria Crater.

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet's massive Victoria Crater. This carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science.

It has long been known that Viking explorers, traders, and settlers made their way across the North Atlantic, first to the North Sea Islands, then to Iceland and Greenland, and even to the Newfoundland area of North America.But the accepted narrative is that the forays into the American continent proper were brief, and their contact with the native peoples there was nasty, brutish, and short. But a 1000 year old skeleton found in a burial ground in Norway shows traits usually only found in Inca Indians.

Mars mission Job One: Get there. Job Two: Find rocks and zap them with your laser tool. Now learn the nature of the debris by spectrographically analyzing the ensuing dust and fragments. It's every kid's dream, vaporizing pebbles on other planets, and thanks to a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, it's going to happen.When the JPL-NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover launches in 2009, it will carry this combination laser-telescope unit and enable the gadget-packed rover to know a great deal about rocks in its general vicinity. The ChemCam package includes a mast unit, projecting above the rover with a laser and telescope, and a body unit, the brains of the beast, with three spectrographs and the instrument controls.

For nearly a century an ancient Egyptian mystery has lain unsolved, but now the answer can at last be revealed. Recently, staff at Bolton Museum have been attempting to identify a mystery bone that came out of bundles of Egyptian linen from Qau el-Kabir.For 83 years the identity of the bones contained within the bundles has remained a mystery, but Tom Hardwick and David Craven, Egyptologist and Geologist respectively at Bolton Museum, recently decided to re-open the investigation, hoping to find an answer.Images of the bone were sent to experts around the world, and several ideas were suggested. Eventually Dr Laura Bishop, Senior Lecturer in Palaeoanthropolgy at Liverpool John Moores University, and an expert in North African fossil animals, offered to come over and identify the bone in person.David and Laura spent a morning examining the bone, trying to settle on an identification. Eventually, after looking at reference texts and comparing the specimen to bones from the museum collections, they were both happy with their answer.The bone is the scaphoid, one of the bones of the wrist, from the left front leg of a large Antelope species, probably a Wildebeest; a species that would not have been present in Egypt as the time the bone was found and wrapped.

Archaeologists have revived the debate over whether a spectacular Bronze Age disc from Germany is one of the earliest known calendars.The Nebra disc is emblazoned with symbols of the Sun, Moon and stars and said by some to be 3,600 years old.Writing in the journal Antiquity, a team casts doubt on the idea the disc was used by ancient astronomers as a precision tool for observing the sky.They instead argue that the disc was used for shamanistic rituals.

Three people have been killed after devastating floods brought chaos to parts of Yorkshire.A 68-year-old man and a teenager were killed in Sheffield as rising flood waters brought chaos and destruction to the city.And a 28-year-old man died after he became trapped in a drain despite a frantic attempt by emergency services to save him.The man was killed after becoming stuck in neck-high water in a storm drain while in Hessle, near Hull.Meanwhile, a major rescue operation was launched as rising flood waters trapped workers and motorists in Sheffield.The city was virtually cut off as the floods left office workers stranded in the Brightside Lane area of the city.

A two-year-old girl from Hampshire has become the youngest ever female member of British Mensa.Georgia Brown, from Aldershot, Hampshire, astounded experts by scoring 152 in an IQ test - putting her in the top 2% of the population for her age.Psychologist Joan Freeman, who tested Georgia, said she thought the toddler could have scored even higher but needed a nap after 45 minutes of work.Georgia's mother, Lucy, said: "It's fantastic. We're so proud as a family."She had spotted that her daughter was a strikingly quick learner.

In a triumph for pests, scientists have figured out how to make the fruit fly live longer.But humans still may get something out of the deal. As reported online in Nature Chemical Biology, the discovery that a single protein can inhibit aging holds implications for human longevity and for treatment of some of the world's most feared diseases."This work is important for two reasons," said study author Richard Roberts, associate professor of chemistry, chemical engineering and biology at the University of Southern California."First, it demonstrates that a single inhibitor can dramatically alter lifespan, a very complex trait. It is remarkable that you can alter it with a single genetic change.

GYPTOLOGISTS think they have identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings.Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, will hold a news conference in Cairo tomorrow to announce what may be the most important find in the area since the discovery of King Tutankhamun.An archaeologist, who asked not to be named, said the candidate for identification as the mummy of Hatshepsut was one of two females found in 1903 in a small tomb believed to be that of Hatshepsut's wetnurse, Sitre In.

Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a "genetic signature" of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths' migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out."In combination with the results on other species, a picture is emerging of extinction not as a sudden event at the end of the last ice age, but as a piecemeal process over tens of thousands of years involving progressive loss of genetic diversity," said Dr. Ian Barnes, of Royal Holloway, University of London. "For the mammoth, this seems much more likely to have been driven by environmental rather than human causes, even if humans might have been responsible for killing off the small, terminal populations that were left."

Scientists working to build a life form from scratch have applied to patent the broad method they plan to use to create their "synthetic organism".Dr Craig Venter, the man who led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has been working for years to create a man-made organism.But constructing a primitive microbe from a kit of genes is a daunting task.Dr Venter says, eventually, these life forms could be designed to make biofuels and absorb greenhouse gases.The publication of the patent application has angered some environmentalists.

Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time.There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.Their findings are published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Debate has raged for years about whether there is any relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans. Some researchers believe that Neanderthals were simply replaced by early modern humans, while others argue the two groups may have interbred.Sequencing the genome of Neanderthals, who lived in Europe until about 30,000 years ago, could shed some light on that question.In studies of Neanderthals, cave bear and mammoth, a majority of the DNA recovered was that of microorganisms that colonized the tissues after death, the researchers said.

A giant penguin that preferred the tropics to the southern oceans has been discovered by a team of scientists.The fossilised remains of the animal, which lived some 36 million years ago, were found in what is today Peru.At 1.5m (5ft) tall, the penguin looked quite different from its modern-day cousins, a report in PNAS journal says.It had a long protracted skull and what its discoverers are describing as a grossly elongated beak that was spear-like in appearance.

WASHINGTON - Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time. There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.Their findings are published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Debate has raged for years about whether there is any relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans. Some researchers believe that Neanderthals were simply replaced by early modern humans, while others argue the two groups may have interbred.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptologists think they have identified with certainty the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings, an archaeologist said on Monday.Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, will hold a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday. The Discovery Channel said he would announce what it called the most important find in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun.The archaeologist, who asked not to be named, said the candidate for identification as the mummy of Hatshepsut was one of two females found in 1903 in a small tomb believed to be that of Hatshepsut's wet-nurse, Sitre In.Several Egyptologists have speculated over the years that one of the mummies was that of the queen, who ruled from between 1503 and 1482 BC -- at the height of ancient Egypt's power.The archaeologist said Hawass would present new evidence for an identification but that not all Egyptologists are convinced he will be able to prove his case.

Unscrupulous fossil hunters are destroying some of the world's most valuable and important scientific sites by using power tools and even dynamite to plunder collectable specimens worth thousands of pounds.Now conservationists have put together the world's first code of conduct in an attempt to put an end to the destruction.Across the UK, fossil collecting has become fashionable, and the one-time passion of amateur collectors has turned into a multi-million-pound business, prompting unscrupulous hunters to go to almost any lengths to secure a rare specimen.

Two U.S. professors are leading an international effort to find ways of purifying the world's waters using membrane-based technologies. Volodymyr Tarabara and Tom Voice of Michigan State University are leading a team of environmental engineers and scientists from the United States, France, Ukraine and Russia under a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.Membrane-based technologies selectively remove things such as chemicals and particles from water, said Voice, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. They are analogous to filters, except they remove things that are smaller and separate on the basis of chemistry and size. Our project is looking at developing new types of membranes and membrane systems that perform better in water treatment applications.

Having eluded British archaeologists for two decades, American excavators found the seat of the Isthmian Games - one of four ancient Greek athletic contests - practically erased.Massive column drums and blocks are still conspicuous in the walls of the late antique fortress that guarded the Isthmus, and early travellers imagined that the temple and its precinct lay inside the walls. In the 1930s, the British archaeologist RJH Jenkins and his young architect, H. Megaw, set out to test the prevailing theory. Since they found only Roman remains beneath the fortress, they looked for the temple elsewhere in the vicinity but did not locate it.The present excavations have their origins in discussions that took place during the Second World War at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton. It was home to a group of scholars exiled from their work in Greece. They included the Swedish-born, American archaeologist Oscar Broneer and Paul Clement. The exiles entertained themselves by discussing what archaeological tasks particularly needed to be performed in Greece after the war was over. There was agreement that the one major Panhellenic site that still needed exploration was the Sanctuary of Poseidon on the Corinthian Isthmus, the site of the Isthmian Games.

An intact tomb brimming with fine funerary pieces has been accidentally discovered at Deir Al-Barsha in Upper Egypt, reports Nevine El-Aref.Archaeologists from the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven working at the Middle-Kingdom (2066-1650 BC) tomb of Uky, a top government official, have discovered an intact tomb chamber, complete with funerary goods.While removing the debris out of a rock-cut shaft found inside the chamber of Uky's tomb, the archaeologists came across a huge limestone block indicating that a major find was imminent, in line with the ancient Egyptian custom of blocking their burial chambers with such a barrier.Through a hole in the block, they could see what they described as a beautifully-carved wooden statue of a man with large, staring eyes. After only an hour the block had been removed, and the team discovered a small but intact chamber richly stuffed with well-preserved wooden objects and containing a decorated sarcophagus."Even though the burial took place more than 4,000 years ago, the colours on the painted objects are very fresh, and there was even no dust covering them," mission director Harco Williams said.

Traveling through Cambodia, our writer details the history and archaeology of Angkor's ancient templesJust before sunrise on a cloudy April morning in northern Cambodia, I joined hundreds of tourists crossing the wide moat to the outer wall of Angkor Wat, often said to be the largest religious structure in the world. Inside the rectangular courtyard, which covers more ground than 200 football fields, I waited near a small lake in front of the temple. Within minutes the sun appeared behind its five iconic towers, each shaped as a closed lotus bud, representing the five peaks of Mount Meru, home of the gods and the mythical Hindu center of the universe.The temple's precise, symmetrical beauty was unmistakable. The other tourists all faced the sun, watching in stillness and whispering in foreign tongues, as hundreds more arrived behind them. Angkor Wat at sunrise is a wondrous spectacle, one that I would return to several times during my stay in Cambodia. Read more about the ancient temples at Angkor....

Physicists testing Albert Einstein's relativity theory need abundant patience and exquisite measurement skills. The theory-testing Gravity Probe-B satellite, carrying the most nearly perfect rotating spheres ever made, is rewarding both of those virtues. It took 40 years of work to finally get the spheres into orbit three years ago. This month's update of the analysis of the spherical gyroscope data promises significant scientific results.Meanwhile, a plan to seek Einstein's predicted gravitational waves, which are ripples in space itself, passed a major milestone June 18. In a ceremony at the Paris Air Show, the heads of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a formal agreement to proceed with the first stage of this joint project. For the project to succeed, physicists must be able to guarantee that a mass can float freely in space completely undisturbed by anything but gravitational waves. Engineers must also be able to control the spacecraft position to within a few millionths of a millimeter. The first step is to launch a satellite to test those skills in 2010.

LONDON. The Egyptian government has made a formal request to borrow the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum (BM). A letter was sent last month by Dr Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Art Newspaper can reveal that the request is for a three-month loan in 2012, for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is being built near the Pyramids. Until now, the BM has been able to fend off questions about the return of the Rosetta Stone, since there had been no formal request. Whether the loan is eventually granted is expected to depend on three main factors. First, conservation, and whether the 1,680 pound stone could be at risk.

MASADA, Israel - An Israeli anthropologist is using modern forensics and an obscure biblical passage to challenge accepted wisdom about mysterious human remains found at Masada, the desert fortress famous as the scene of a mass suicide nearly 2,000 years ago. A new research paper published Friday takes another look at the remains of three people found at the site and given a state burial by Israel as Jewish heroes. The remains, the study says, could actually be those of the Jews' Roman enemies.The remains of two male skeletons and a full head of woman's hair, including two braids, were found in a bathhouse by archaeologists in the 1960s. They were long thought to belong to a family of Zealots, the fanatic Jewish rebels said to have killed themselves rather than fall into Roman slavery in A.D. 73, a story that plays an important role in Israel's national mythology.

A team of archaeologists has discovered a huge ancient gold processing centre and a graveyard along the River Nile in northern Sudan. They were part of the 4,000-year-old Kush, or Nubian, kingdom. The scholars say the finds show the empire was much bigger than previously thought and rivalled ancient Egypt. The archaeologists are racing to dig up the Hosh el-Geruf area, some 225 miles from the capital, Khartoum, before the Merowe dam floods the area next year.

LONDON (Reuters) - A project in India to turn waste food into cooking gas was among the winners of environmental awards announced on Thursday.Also honored were a stove design from China that uses crop waste, affordable solar power projects in Laos and Tanzania, and a Bangladeshi solar energy boat project.Each won a prize of 30,000 pounds ($60,000) in the five international categories of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy."Our winners show how sustainable energy can improve health, education and livelihoods and at the same time reduce carbon emissions," said Sarah Butler-Sloss, who headed the judging panel."If these technologies were expanded and replicated on a large scale, they would play a significant role in helping us to tackle climate change and poverty. What we need now is the political will to scale up and roll out these solutions."

The skeletons of two dozen children killed in an ancient mass sacrifice have been found in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico. The find reveals new details about the ancient Toltec civilization and adds to an ongoing debate over ritualistic killing in historic Mesoamerica. Construction crews unearthed the burial chamber this spring near the town of Tula, the ancient Toltec capital, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Mexico City (see Mexico map).The chamber contained 24 skeletons of children believed to have been sacrificed between A.D. 950 and 1150, according to Luis Gamboa, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Three-century-old manuscripts by Isaac Newton calculating the exact date of the apocalypse, detailing the precise dimensions of the ancient temple in Jerusalem and interpreting passages of the Bible -- exhibited this week for the first time -- lay bare the little-known religious intensity of a man many consider history's greatest scientist.Newton, who died 280 years ago, is known for laying much of the groundwork for modern physics, astronomy, math and optics. But in a new Jerusalem exhibit, he appears as a scholar of deep faith who also found time to write on Jewish law -- even penning a few phrases in careful Hebrew letters -- and combing the Old Testament's Book of Daniel for clues about the world's end.The documents, purchased by a Jewish scholar at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1936, have been kept in safes at Israel's national library in Jerusalem since 1969. Available for decades only to a small number of scholars, they have never before been shown to the public.

COSPAR - The Committee on Space Research - might be described as the United Nations of space research and collaboration. Astrobiology Magazine talks to its president, Roger Bonnet, about COSPAR's international role; its Panel on Planetary Protection, and the enforcement of their planetary protection rules for extra-terrestrial exploration.

It can take a village to save science -- a village that so far includes a Las Vegas music mogul, Kirkland rocket scientist, Port Townsend artist, Bothell chemist, Louisiana gas-and-oil man with a place in Port Angeles and a Savannah, Ga., computer programmer. The public has stepped forward with cash to boldly go where nobody in the mainstream scientific establishment wants to go -- or, at least, to have to pay for the attempt to go.A University of Washington scientist who could not obtain funding from traditional research agencies to test his idea that light particles act in reverse time has received more than $35,000 from folks nationwide who didn't want to see this admittedly far-fetched idea go unexplored. "This country puts a lot more money into things that seem to me much crazier than this," said Mitch Rudman, a music industry executive in Las Vegas whose family foundation donated $20,000 to the experiment. "It's outrageous to me that talented scientists have to go looking for a few bucks to do anything slightly outside the box."What John Cramer is proposing to do is certainly outside the box. It's about quantum retrocausality.

Big, brutish and stupid - it's a commonly held view that our prehistoric predecessors were as wild and unsophisticated as the animals they hunted.But Neanderthal man was not as slow-witted as he looked and was in reality as smart as we are, an archaeologist claims.They were actually innovators who used different forms of tools to adapt to the ecological challenges posed by harsh habitats as they spread through Europe. Although our ancestors have become the butt of jokes about people who are stupid or unenlightened, they were years ahead of their time.Dr Terry Hopkinson, of Leicester University, said Neanderthals were far from behaviourally static and incorporated different forms of tool construction into a single technique.He said: "There has been a consensus that the modern human mind turned on like a light switch about 50,000 years ago, only in Africa."

What happens in the Hall of Drunkenness, stays in the Hall of Drunkenness ... or does it?Archaeologist Betsy Bryan and her team of students and researchers from Johns Hopkins University are back at the Temple of Mut, within Egypt's Luxor dig, to delve more deeply into the sex and booze of ancient times - and you can follow their exploits over the Web.Over the past six years, Bryan's online expeditions have documented 3,400-year-old rites at the temple that were conducted to appease the gods and give vent to some of the age-old animal impulses in the process. The highlights apparently involved getting drunk on barley beer, then "traveling through the marshes" (a euphemism for having sex), then passing out, then waking up the next morning for religious services.

A weight loss drug used by thousands of Britons has been rejected by US safety officials because of an increased risk of suicide.Rimonabant, launched in the UK last summer, has been shown to aid weight loss by reducing appetite. But a committee advising the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to ban the pill, saying the manufacturers had failed to show it was safe.European regulators will review the drug's safety at an upcoming meeting.

Problems dogging a mission to the International Space Station have been eased following a space walk and a computer reboot.A third spacewalk by astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis has fixed a tear in its thermal blanket that occurred during lift off. And Russian cosmonauts have now successfully rebooted vital ISS computer systems that had crashed.

Five of the world's natural wonders have been nominated for inclusion on the UN World Heritage List.A biodiversity-rich rainforest in Madagascar and Tenerife's volcanic landscape are among the sites favoured by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). A total of 37 natural and cultural sites will be considered by the UN World Heritage Committee. The committee will make its final decision at its annual meeting, which begins on 23 June in New Zealand. The prestigious list, co-ordinated by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), was set up to ensure the long-term protection of globally important cultural and natural sites.

Grahamhancock.com is pleased to announce that we are restarting our popular Author-Of-The-Month feature with immediate effect. Kicking off our new series of authors is Chris Hardaker whose book, The First American: The Suppressed Story of the People who Discovered the New World, is published this month. Chris has contributed an original feature to our Forum page in which he sets out some of the disturbing findings that make his book such an important contribution to the understanding of the true prehistory of the New World. Read his Forum article here: The First American: The Suppressed Story of the People Who Discovered the New World You can buy the book from Amazon: Click hereJoin Chris Hardaker in August on our Author of the Month message board for a full and frank discussion of 'The First American'.

The most massive star known in the universe has been discovered and "weighed," astronomers announced today. The star, part of a binary system, topped the scales at 114 times the mass of the Sun. Though astronomers suspected that stars with masses up to 150 times the mass of the Sun must exist, this discovery marks the first time a star has broken the 100-solar-mass barrier. The previous record holder was only a measly 83 solar masses.The newly weighed star, known simply as A1, is the brightest hot star at the heart of a giant, but dense, young star cluster called NGC 3603, which lies 20,000 light-years from Earth. The star's companion has a mass 84 times that of the Sun.

The usual choices for potatoes include baked, mashed or french fried, but a new study suggests another option: plastic. A report by the University of Maine's Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center says the state's potato industry could benefit by becoming a producer of bioplastics, which are made from plant starch rather than crude oil and petroleum products.Bioplastics can be used to produce carpeting, upholstery fabric and recyclable plastic bottles, the report said. Countries including the United Kingdom and Japan have turned to potato-based plastics technology to turn out such items as "spudware," or plastic silverware made from potatoes. Researchers, environmentalists and industry representatives agreed Tuesday that turning potatoes into plastics makes technological and economic sense for manufacturers and Maine potato growers.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Genetically engineered crops have a legitimate role to play in sustainable agriculture and in some cases are more environmentally friendly than conventional crops, a study released Thursday found.US researchers who reviewed 42 field experiments involving Bt insect-resistant corn and cotton in the United States, India, China and Australia discovered that in some cases the genetically modified crops were better for the local insect life by virtue of the fact that they didn't need to be sprayed with harmful insecticides.Investigators found that organisms such as ladybird beetles, earthworms, and bees within these Bt crops fared better in field trials compared to conventional agriculture which uses large-scale insecticide spraying.

Europe's prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have practiced human sacrifice , a new study claimsInvestigating a collection of graves from the Upper Paleolithic (about 26,000 to 8,000 BC), archaeologists found several that contained pairs or even groups of people with rich burial offerings and decoration. Many of the remains were young or had deformities, such as dwarfism. The diversity of the individuals buried together and the special treatment they received could be a sign of ritual killing, said Vincenzo Formicola of the University of Pisa, Italy. "These findings point to the possibility that human sacrifices were part of the ritual activity of these populations," Formicola wrote in a recent edition of the journal Current Anthropology.

Late Triassic dinosaurs might have looked up to see a tiny, long-necked reptile gliding by, according to a research team that has identified such a creature.The 220 million-year-old glider, Mecistrotrachelos apeoros, was probably a protorosaur, a group of ancient, long-necked reptiles that predated and later co-existed with dinosaurs. One member of this group, Tanystropheus, grew to 12 feet long, and half of that was neck.Its newly discovered relative, which measured just 10 inches long, once soared over what is now the Virginia-North Carolina border. Scientists found two specimens embedded in separate blocks of hard slate and shale-like stone at a site there called the Solite Quarry.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - There are only about 16 flights left before NASA's space shuttle fleet retires in 2010, but an ambitious plan is in place to have a replacement spacecraft ready by 2013.This is two years earlier than NASA's previously stated goal of getting the next generation Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares I and Ares V rockets ready by 2015."There is a two-thirds statistical likelihood of being successful in meeting that [2015] date, but our plan is much more aggressive than that," said Jeff Hanley, program manager for NASA's Constellation program. "We're trying to get the [initial operating capabilities] by as early as 2013."Hanley said the year-old Constellation program is currently in the formulation phase and trying to secure parts for the new spacecraft. A test flight of an Ares I rocket could begin as early as 2009, with a piloted test to follow as soon as 2013, Hanley said.

The Viking graves that contained the famous ships Oseberg and Gokstad will be re-opened in September, in an effort to gain new knowledge from the remains of the two women and one man buried in them.It will be the first time the graves have been opened in nearly 60 and 80 years, respectively.Experts fear the human remains from Viking times may be in the process of disintegrating, if they haven't already. They want to try to extract them to apply new methods of studying bone matter that can yield new information on the Vikings' genetics and background.

BEIJING, June 8 -- Bracelet or door-knocker? Archeologists are proffering their guesses as to the function of a pair of rings excavated from the "Nanhai No.1" undersea archeological site, according to Guangzhou Daily reports. Tong Mingkang, vice director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, made the guess after he visited the archeological site in person, saying the so-called bracelet made of pure gold may actually be a semi-finished pair of dazzling knockers.Tong said that this pair of rings is too big to be bracelets: bracelets often measure six or seven centimeters in diameter, while this pair of gold rings measures about 10 centimeters. Furthermore, they are not complete circles, with the upper part left open. Tong said he thinks this part to have been attached to a door, or a trunk.

Scientists working to build a life form from scratch have applied to patent the broad method they plan to use to create their "synthetic organism". Dr Craig Venter, the man who led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has been working for years to create a man-made organism.But constructing a primitive microbe from a kit of genes is a daunting task. Dr Venter says, eventually, these life forms could be designed to make biofuels and absorb greenhouse gases. The publication of the patent application has angered some environmentalists.

Neanderthals likely did not possess the cognitive complexities of modern humans and, as a result, probably did not suffer from schizophrenia and certain other mental disorders, according to a new theory. The theory proposes that language, creativity and many mental diseases are linked, due to the fact that they may originate in the neocortex, as well as the densely cell-packed cortex, located towards the top of the brain. These brain regions appear to mature and develop more slowly than other areas.Although there are conflicting claims about possible Neanderthal creative abilities, no direct evidence supports that this extinct human species or subspecies possessed full-fledged grammatical language. Neanderthals had large brains, but researchers believe their mental skills matured rapidly, closing the door to disorders associated with the cortex.Modern humans, on the other hand, must take the bad with the good

Europe's seas are in a "serious state of decline" as a result of coastal development, overfishing and pollution from agriculture, warn scientists. The continent's regional seas will deteriorate even further unless action is taken to curb the threats, they add. Economic growth and the expansion of the EU, the researchers suggested, had contributed to the state of the waters. The findings were presented in an EU-funded report, involving more than 100 scientists from 15 nations.

A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat's nest of cables needed to power today's electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality.US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires. The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft).WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops.

LISBON (Reuters) - The Acropolis in Athens and Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza are among the leaders in a competition, ending in one month, to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World, the organizers said on Thursday.The winners will be chosen through a global online and phone vote, organizers of the New 7 Wonders of the World (www.new7wonders.com) competition said, a far cry from the methods used by the Greeks who chose the original Seven Wonders more than 2,000 years ago.

America's famed Route 66 and Iraq's archeological sites are among the world's most threatened cultural treasures, according to a list published Wednesday by a leading US-based heritage group. The World Monuments Fund's 2008 watch list includes 100 sites from around the world deemed at risk from man-made threats such as climate change, conflict, urban development and unchecked tourism."Human activity has become the greatest threat of all to the world's cultural heritage," the non-governmental group said in its report. "But, just as we caused the damage in the first place, we have the power to repair it," the group's president Bonnie Burnham added.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's prehistoric iceman "Otzi" died from a shoulder wound inflicted by an arrow, according to research into his perfectly preserved 5,000-year old body. Otzi, the oldest mummy unearthed, was found in the Italian Alps in 1991 wearing clothing made from leather and grasses and carrying a copper axe, a bow and arrows.Though Otzi's body underwent several scientific tests to study life in the prehistoric age, it had so far been unclear whether he died from an arrow wound, a bad fall or severe freezing while climbing the high mountains.Using modern X-ray technology, however, an Italian-Swiss research team said on Wednesday it had proved the cause of death as a lesion on an artery close to the shoulder, caused by an arrowhead that remains in the iceman's back.

A headless skeleton found in a Peruvian tomb is adding new wrinkles to the debate over human sacrifice in the ancient Andes. The decapitated body was found in the Nasca region, named for the ancient civilization that thrived in southern Peru from A.D. 1 to 750. Known for producing giant "Nasca lines" in the earth that depict figures only visible from the sky, the culture is also noted among archaeologists for practicing human sacrifice and displaying modified human heads called trophy heads.But experts have been divided over whether the heads were taken from enemies in war or from locals offered up for ritual sacrifice

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland's east coast. The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice. But researchers throughout Canada, Greenland and Norway are unable to determine the origin of the skeleton, said Garry Stenson, a marine mammal scientist with the federal Fisheries Department."It's definitely unusual," Stenson said Monday. "It's not something that I've encountered before."

MOSCOW (AFP) - A mini-meteorite has left a bullet-sized hole in a module of the International Space Station (ISS), but the three-person US-Russian team of astronauts inside are not in danger, a Russian official said Wednesday. The puncture, in an outer pumping component on the module, was detected in the Russia "Zaria" module of the station during a spacewalk by the two Russian cosmonauts on board, the spokesman for the Russian space agency, Vladimir Solovyev, said.It was the first time a meteorite hole had been found on a module of the ISS. Several holes have been observed on the big solar panels that spread out from the orbiter.