Newsdesk Archive

Researchers have unearthed the graves of three Stone Age infants that may ultimately bear on the question of whether humans interbred with Neandertals. The rare find, from a 27,000-year-old site in Austria, includes two bodies that might be twins sheltered under a mammoth's shoulder blade. The team discovered the skeletons in two separate burial pits: One uncovered last year contained two infants side by side--twins, apparently. A second pit containing a single body was found this year about a meter from the first pit. The twins had been protected from the elements by the mammoth bone and were very well preserved, says team member Christine Neugebauer-Maresch of the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. An incisor from one of the pair indicates they died at nine or ten months of age, the group reports in the November 16 Nature. Before this, "there were no graves of newborns at all," Neugebauer-Maresch says. "We think if there are two preserved it's possible there are much more."

A limitless supply of spare organs, hard evidence for aliens and a machine that puts you in the mind of an animal. These are some of the predictions about the world of 2056 by a batch of the planet's most prominent scientists, including the psychologist Steven Pinker, the philosopher Dan Dennett, the astronomer royal, Sir Martin Rees, and the architect of the Beagle 2 Mars mission, Colin Pillinger.New Scientist magazine has assembled their thoughts to mark its 50th anniversary, and high on the list was proof that we are not alone.A visit from little green men in flying saucers seems unlikely by 2056, but the experts are convinced the universe will soon feel a less lonely place. Freeman Dyson at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is undeterred by our failure to find any cosmic neighbours so far. He told the magazine: "That proves life is rarer than we hoped, but does not prove that the universe is lifeless." Once we find proof of extraterrestrials, further discoveries will follow quickly, as we will know what we are looking for, he said.

While the Sassanids are perhaps best known for their defeat at the hands of Arab forces in 642 CE, a new exhibition reveals more about their empire than its sudden final collapse, writes David Tresilian in Paris.Occupying the ground-floor rooms of the Musée Cernuschi in Paris until 30 December, Les Perses Sassanides, Fastes d'un empire oublié (The Sassanid Persians: Splendours of a Forgotten Empire) is an exhibition that brings together items from major European and North American museums and from the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, in order to show the range and variety of objects that have survived from this period in Iranian history, stretching from the early 3rd century CE to the Arab conquest of the Sassanid Empire in 642.

Scientists from the US are using modern imaging techniques to digitally restore a rare 700-year-old Indian palm leaf manuscript on Hinduism.Restorers from New York's Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) are working on Sarvamoola Grantha which expounds on the essence of Hindu philosophy, the meaning of life and the role of God.This priceless collection of 36 erudite commentaries was written in Sanskrit by Sri Madvacharya (1238-1317 AD), one of India's greatest theologians.In addition to commentaries based on sacred Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, Puranas, Brahma-sutras, Mahabharata and others, the collection also includes independent philosophical tracts, a commentary on daily rites, and several hymns in praise of God.

Recent Archaeological findings suggest 3rd Century BC human settlements near the ancient Nalanda University, a Gupta period structure built much later in the 4th-5th Century AD.A satellite survey at Nalanda last month has revealed NBP (Northern Black Polish) Ware belonging to the 3rd Century BC at Jaffardih, hardly three kilometers away from the ancient university site.It may yet be pre-dated as further diggings are expected to yield more evidences of NBP Ware belonging to between 8th and 10th Century BC. The ASI is to start digging soon.PK Mishra, Patna Circle Superintending Archaeologist, said that the ASI had instructed its Patna circle to identify ancient sites and archaeological remains in a 16-kms radius of the ancient Nalanda University.

few squares of dark chocolate a day could cut your risk of heart attack, say scientists. A new study has found those who regularly eat chocolate have a lower risk of blood clotting problems which can trigger a deadly heart problems. The researchers are advising people that eating a little bit of chocolate, especially the dark kind, or drinking hot cocoa regularly could be good for your health. It is a message that will be welcomed by many Britons given that we are the biggest chocolate eaters in Europe.

In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India. Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia. But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on. Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms."This staggering claim is that this is possibly extraterrestrial. That is a big claim I know, but all the experiments are supporting this claim," said Dr Louis. His remarkable work has set in motion a chain of events with scientists around the world debating the origin of these mysterious cells.

UN chief Kofi Annan has criticised a "frightening lack of leadership" in tackling global warming, at a major UN climate summit in Nairobi.Mr Annan told delegates the phenomenon was as grave a threat as conflict, poverty and the spread of weapons. He said sceptics were "out of step, out of arguments and out of time". Mr Annan announced a plan by six UN agencies to help Africa receive funds for clean development projects, such as renewable energy and forestry.

The Arabic television news channel al-Jazeera has launched its new English-language station. Al-Jazeera English began broadcasting from the station's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, at 1500 (1200 GMT). A screen graphic with a clock ticking down the minutes gave way to a photo montage of the biggest news stories of recent years, including 9/11. Al-Jazeera in Arabic is known for its forthright style, frank journalism and willingness to discuss taboo issues. This has made it a thorn in the side of governments from Washington to Riyadh, says the BBC's Ian Pannell in Cairo.

Millions of shoppers are being cheated as a result of widespread fraud involving free range eggs.Up to 30 million battery-farmed eggs have been sold in shops and supermarkets across the UK under the free range label. And as free range eggs are more expensive than others, unscrupulous dealers can sell wrongly labelled boxes at marked-up prices. Government officials believe they have unearthed evidence of serious corruption among farmers and egg dealers, and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched an investigation into the industry.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is running out of options for fixing a failed Mars probe that has been snapping detailed pictures of the red planet for a decade, officials said on Monday. Mars Global Surveyor is the oldest of five NASA robotic probes checking the planet for signs that Mars once had water, which many scientists believe to be the key to learning if life ever took root there.Global Surveyor, which has found evidence of ancient channels and gullies that likely were carved by flowing water, stopped working on November 2 after it developed a motor problem while trying to move one of its power-generating solar panels.After two days of silence, ground control teams received a signal that the spacecraft had put itself into an emergency standby mode. There was no information about what had gone wrong.

An important new archaeological study from the December issue of Current Anthropology is the first to document interregional movement of women in the pre-Hispanic Southwest. Using an analysis of grave sites, the researchers found more female remains during periods of political influence, providing an interesting insight into the ways warfare may contribute the local archaeological record."Warfare is common in small- and intermediate-scale societies all over the world, now and in prehistory. Capturing women was often either a goal, or a by-product, of such conflict," says archaeologist Tim Kohler (Washington State University), who authored the study with Kathryn Kramer Turner (U.S. Forest Service).Analyzing data on 1,353 human remains from grave sites, Kohler and Kramer Turner found unexpectedly high ratios of female-to-male remains in the majestic 11th-century ruins in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and a related 13th-century site to the north called Aztec, which are among the most famous pre-Hispanic sites in North America.

London, Nov 11: The oldest and largest known Mexican moon calendar was shown to the public by archaeologists and authorities on Monday (November 6) at the ruins of Tamtoc in San Luis Potosi near the Gulf of Mexico. The massive 27-tonnes stone calendar is a product of the Huasteca culture, dating back to 600 B.C. Mexican archaeologist Guillermo Ahuja came across the artefact in February 2005 and he spent 19 months cleaning and restoring it with a crews before showing it to a general audience. The seven-metre long, 4.2 metre tall find is adorned with pre-Colombian figures representing fertility, water, life, nature and death. Feminine figures with water flowing from their heads represent the beliefs of a culture that considered water the essence of life.

One of the Church of England's most senior figures has joined the Muslim veil row by suggesting it "does not conform to norms of decency".The Archbishop of York has questioned whether Muslim women should expect public acceptance for wearing the veil in Britain.In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr John Sentamu said: "Muslim scholars would say three things."First, does it conform to norms of decency? Secondly, does it render you more secure? And thirdly, what kind of Islam are you projecting by wearing it?

British scientists have built what they say is the world's first artificial stomach: a shiny, high-tech box that physically simulates human digestion.Constructed from sophisticated plastics and metals able to withstand the corrosive acids and enzymes found in the human gut, the device may ultimately help in the development of super-nutrients, such as obesity-fighting foods that could fool the stomach into thinking it is full."There have been lots of jam-jar models of digestion before," said Dr. Martin Wickham of Norwich's Institute of Food Research, the artificial gut's chief designer, referring to the beakers of enzymes typically used to approximate the chemical reactions in the stomach.

TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) - Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand. The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists.

Growing evidence shows that the dinosaurs and their contemporaries were not wiped out by the famed Chicxulub meteor impact alone, according to a paleontologist who says multiple meteor impacts, massive volcanism in India and climate changes culminated in the end of the Cretaceous Period. The Chicxulub impact may have been the lesser and earlier of a series of meteor impacts and volcanic eruptions that pounded life on Earth for more than 500,000 years, say Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller and her collaborators Thierry Adatte from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, and Zsolt Berner and Doris Stueben from Karlsruhe University in Germany.A final, much larger and still unidentified impact 65.5 million years ago appears to have been the last straw, said Keller, exterminating two-thirds of all species in one of the largest mass extinction events in the history of life. It's that impact - not Chicxulub - that left the famous extraterrestrial iridium layer found in rocks worldwide that marks the impact that finally ended the Age of Reptiles, Keller believes."The Chicxulub impact alone could not have caused the mass extinction," said Keller, "because this impact predates the mass extinction."

Ten millennia-worth of history have been unearthed by Thames Water at one of its sewage treatment works in Berkshire. Stone Age flintwork dating back to 8,000 BC has been discovered at the site near Kintbury, along with pieces of a Bronze Age urn, burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the land was subsequently used for burial rituals. Shards of late Iron Age pottery were also discovered, clustered in pits and ditches. The remains of three bread ovens, complete with hearth, flue and furnace, prove that the Romans also settled the area and evidence of two large gateposts indicates that visitors to the Roman community would have had to pass through an imposing entrance. Dr. Roy Entwhistle, an archaeologist working for Thames Water, said: "Given how quiet this corner of the Kennet Valley is today, it's remarkable to think that so many different people have called it home over the last ten thousand years.

Containers for ritual offerings, weapons and jewelry are among the finds uncovered this week after builders in Jerusalem's Bayit Vagan neighborhood stumbled upon a 4,000-year-old Canaanite cemetery.The Israel Antiquities Authority was alerted back in July when builders working on apartment buildings in the Holyland Park Project found evidence of ancient tombs. The remarkable finds were only discovered this week. The dig's director, Yanir Milevsky, said that "the quantity of items and their particularly good state of conservation will allow us to enlarge our knowledge of farming villages during the Canaanite era." The authority said the site covered more than 200 dunams and contains human and animal remains, as well as metal and ceramic artifacts and weapons, dating back to between 2,200 and 1,600 BCE.

As NASA lays plans for travel to the moon and Mars, the agency is exploring propulsion systems, crew modules, and habitat structures. It has looked at the psychology of being cooped up with fellow astronauts for a years-long Mars mission, and studied how to maintain bone structure and muscle strength in microgravity. But a new study should force renewed attention on one of the most intractable dangers of space travel: radiation. The review, published Sept. 29 in Mars, the International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration, identified major radiation hazards that must be solved before the safe completion of a human Mars mission. Donald Rapp, an independent contractor in Pasadena, California, in study that was partly funded by NASA, pored over a number of previous NASA studies of radiation, in an effort to understand exposures to energetic protons from the sun, and the heavy ions in cosmic rays. These two forms of radiation will be the most hazardous to astronauts venturing beyond Earth.

Houston -- NASA makes history next week with the first live broadcasts from space in High Definition television (HDTV). NASA, in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater and Japanese broadcast network NHK will produce the broadcasts on Nov. 15.Two live HDTV broadcasts will feature Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria on the International Space Station, with Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter serving as camera operator aboard the 220-mile-high laboratory. The broadcasts will be carried by Discovery HD Theater and NHK. Discovery HD Theater will carry the special broadcast live at 10:30 a.m. CST and will be shown at Discovery Channel stores.

Paranthropus robustus, a dead-end branch of the early human family tree, has been described as a "chewing machine" that was mostly jaws and not much brains. While the label may still apply, pioneering dental detective work has revealed unexpected news about the species' dietary variety. Using lasers to vaporize tiny particles of tooth enamel, researchers in the United States and Great Britain analyzed the chemical makeup of 1.8-million-year-old fossil teeth from four individuals unearthed in the Swartkrans cave site in South Africa. Different types of edible plants leave unique chemical signatures in living tissue, including teeth. Based on the types of carbon isotopes preserved in the P. robustus fossils, the team concludes that the diminutive primates had a surprisingly varied and flexible menu.

WASHINGTON (Nov. 10) - A colossal, swirling storm with a well-developed eye is churning at Saturn's south pole, the first time a truly hurricane-like storm has been detected on a planet other than Earth, NASA images showed on Thursday.The storm on the giant, ringed planet is about 5,000 miles wide, measuring roughly two thirds the diameter of Earth, with winds howling clockwise at 350 mph.

NAIROBI, Kenya - From ancient ruins in Thailand to a 12th-century settlement off Africa's eastern coast, prized sites around the world have withstood centuries of wars, looting and natural disasters. But experts say they might not survive a more recent menace: a swiftly warming planet. "Our world is changing, there is no going back," Tom Downing of the Stockholm Environment Institute said Tuesday at the U.N. climate conference, where he released a report on threats to archaeological sites, coastal areas and other treasures.Recent floods attributed to climate change have damaged the 600-year-old ruins of Sukhothai in northern Thailand, the report said, while increasing temperatures are "bleaching" the Belize barrier reef and a rising sea level is sending damaging salt into the wetlands of Donana National Park in Spain.

Getting to join a dig in the Holy Land may sound like a dream for anyone who has some Indiana Jones tendencies. But it's a very attainable goal being offered by Stephen Collins, an Albuquerque biblical archaeologist, who said he has uncovered the definitive site of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jordan.Collins, who has done one of seven planned excavations, will have a seminar in El Paso to discuss his excavation on the Sodom site, known as Tall el-Hammam, and how others can join him in December on his next trip. He will speak Sunday at St. Clement's and bring his mobile museum of biblical artifacts.The dean of archaeology and biblical history at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, Collins said he became interested in researching the Sodom site after repeatedly giving archaeological tours in the late 1990s and taking people to the traditional site on the south end of the Dead Sea.

The Bionic Dolphin is a remarkable submersible hydrofoil that can cruise across open water at speeds of up to 80 mph. Underwater? No problem for the Bionic Dolphin, which can travel underwater at speeds of 40 mph; that's as fast as a real dolphin can swim. It's starting to look like science fiction writer David Brin's whale waldoes might be possible

Facing rising temperatures and flagging efforts to control greenhouse gases, thousands of delegates from around the world opened a U.N. conference Monday on next steps to ward off the worst effects of climate change. Many at the two-week session will look for signs the United States might ease its stand against mandatory reductions in emissions that scientists blame for global warming. Few expect to see such a change, however, while the Bush administration is in power."We are all gathered this morning on behalf of mankind, because we acknowledge that climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats humanity will ever face," Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori told delegates in an opening speech.

The Unesco World Heritage site Stonehenge is "a destination in trouble", a new survey has found. The National Geographic Traveler magazine marked the site 56 out of 100 against criteria including historic preservation and tourism management.Survey panellists said Stonehenge was a "mess", "over-loved" and "crowded". English Heritage, which looks after the site, said it was "actively seeking to revamp its visitor facilities" and improve the nearby A303 road.

In September, models draped in Mayan calendar prints dazzled the runways at Olympus Fashion Week in New York City as part of Nicole Miller's spring 2007 collection, inspired by a trip to the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico.At Mon Aimee Chocolate in the Strip District, customers each Saturday line up for the shop's special hot chocolate -- spiced with cayenne, chiles or cinnamon -- just as it was served by the ancient Mayas, who invented the decadent brew.Last fall, more than 18 million viewers a week watched CBS's "Survivor: Guatemala -- The Maya Empire," as contestants lived amid the age-old ruins. And tourism at Mayan ruins is surging.More than a thousand years after the Classic Mayas vanished from the magnificent cities they built in the tropical forests of Mexico and Central America, interest in their art, beliefs and traditions has never been higher.That attention is likely to peak next month when Mel Gibson's $50 million epic "Apocalypto" opens in theaters nationwide.

UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs. Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence. The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days. But critics say it is unethical and potentially dangerous.

A Netanya beach lifeguard who stumbled on an iron anchor while out for a swim has led marine archeologists to uncover the first evidence of an ancient anchorage for sailing vessels in Netanya, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.The lifeguard, Ofer Harmoni, 37, summoned the archeologists to the scene after noticing the iron anchor near the Netanya shore during a swimming workout two weeks ago. The authority's marine unit subsequently uncovered five large stone anchors dating back 4,000 years during an underwater survey at the site.

Jeffrey Meldrum holds a Ph.D. in anatomical sciences and is a tenured professor of anatomy at Idaho State University.He is also one of the world's foremost authorities on Bigfoot, the mythical ape-man of the Northwest woods. And Meldrum firmly believes the lumbering, shaggy brute exists.That makes him an outcast -- a solitary, Sasquatch-like figure himself -- on the 12,700-student campus, where many scientists are embarrassed by what they call Meldrum's "pseudo-academic" pursuits and have called on the university to review his work with an eye toward revoking his tenure. One physics professor, D.P. Wells, wonders whether Meldrum plans to research Santa Claus, too.Meldrum, 48, spends most of his days in his laboratory in the Life Sciences Building, analyzing more than 200 jumbo plaster casts of what he contends are Bigfoot footprints.

Of more than 150 papers that researchers presented at the 11th International Conference of Nubian Studies, the largest group concerned recent studies with special emphasis on current rescue operations in the area of the Fourth Nile Cataract.Organisers made an effort to bring together papers that would present an overview of the most important archaeological sites under excavation in recent years, those where significant discoveries have recently been made. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to review the achievements made in Nubian studies over the 34 years since the 2nd conference took place in Warsaw in 1972, and conference committee director W Godlewski made particular mention of Nabta Playa, Kerma-Doukki Gel, Naga, Banganarti and Dongola. Read more .....

Nov. 6, 2006: Near the end of the mission of Apollo 16, on April 24, 1972, just before returning back home to Earth, the three astronauts released one last scientific experiment: a small "subsatellite" called PFS-2 to orbit the Moon about every 2 hours.The intention? Joining an earlier subsatellite PFS-1, released by Apollo 15 astronauts eight months earlier, PFS-2 was to measure charged particles and magnetic fields all around the Moon as the Moon orbited Earth. The low orbits of both subsatellites were to be similar ellipses, ranging from 55 to 76 miles (89 to 122 km) above the lunar surface.Read more ....

It had all the hallmarks of a precision military operation. When American soldiers pulled opened a trapdoor and found a dishevilled looking Saddam Hussein, it was assumed the US had employed the latest surveillence techniques to track down the deposed dictator.But the hunt may have been simpler - and shadier - than previously supposed. Celebrity pyschic Uri Geller says the US military used a clairvoyant to find the Iraqi leader."You remember when they found Saddam Hussein in Iraq? A soldier walked over to a rock, lifted it and then found a trap-door and found him in there," Geller said. Saddam was found hiding "Well, I know that that soldier walked over to that rock because he got information from a 'remote viewer' from the United States." Geller, who says he worked for the CIA during the Cold War, said his information came from a high-level source involved in US paranormal programmes. The US military spokesman in Iraq refused to comment.

Archeological excavations in Kopandeh Tepe in Isfahan are resumed to identify the civilization that inhabited this area around 4000 BC.Tehran, 1 November 2006 (CHN) -- During the previous excavations in Kopandeh Tepe in Isfahan, archeologists succeeded in identifying a 6000-year-old civilization near Gav-e Khooni swamp. So far, archeological excavations near Zayandeh Rud River in the city of Isfahan resulted in the discovery of some earthen architectural remains and residential settlements as well as three skeletons which were buried in residential dwellings. Now archeologists are determined to resume their excavations in this historical site to find more about this ancient civilization.The basin of Zayandeh Rud river is known as one of the most important human settlements. Archeological evidence indicates that settlement in this area is most likely dated back to 6000 years ago.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview published on Wednesday he would be worried if creationism entered mainstream teaching in British schools. Creationism -- the view that God created the world in six days as described in the Bible -- has long been at the center of controversy in the United States, where conservative Christians reject Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.A row broke out in Britain earlier this year after a private foundation that funds several schools in northern England was accused of teaching creationism in science classes.The foundation said it taught evolution but said creation beliefs could be mentioned in some scientific discussions.

Oct. 26, 2006: The Indonesian volcano Talang on the island of Sumatra had been dormant for centuries when, in April 2005, it suddenly rumbled to life. A plume of smoke rose 1000 meters high and nearby villages were covered in ash. Fearing a major eruption, local authorities began evacuating 40,000 people. UN officials, meanwhile, issued a call for help: Volcanologists should begin monitoring Talang at once.Little did they know, high above Earth, a small satellite was already watching the volcano. No one told it to. EO-1 (short for "Earth Observing 1") noticed the warning signs and started monitoring Talang on its own.Indeed, by the time many volcanologists were reading their emails from the UN, "EO-1 already had data," says Steve Chien, leader of JPL's Artificial Intelligence Group.

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.Writing in the journal Science, the international team of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity.

The British developer of the world wide web says he is worried about the way it could be used to spread misinformation and "undemocratic forces". The web has transformed the way many people work, play and do business. But Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he feared that, if the way the internet is used is left to develop unchecked, "bad things" could happen.He wants to set up a web science research project to study the social implications of the web's development.

Experts believe that studies on the southern regions of Iran, especially in the Khamir Port, could reveal more secrets about the 5000-year old civilization of Halil Rud.Tehran, 30 October 2006 (CHN) -- Archeologists of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan are to start excavations in Khamir Port while keeping an eye on cultural and historical evidence from Halil Rud civilization. Halil Rud is an ancient site located on the basin of a river by the same name in present-day Kerman province with evidence going as far back as the third millennium BC. Numerous cultural evidence including stone and clay objects and architectural remains belonging to the third millennium BC unearthed during the archeological excavations as well as the illegal diggings of the smugglers point to the rich civilization which populated the area some 5000 year ago.

Archaeologists have identified fossils belonging to some of the earliest modern humans to settle in Europe. The research team has dated six bones found in the Pestera Muierii cave, Romania, to 30,000 years ago. The finds also raise questions about the possible place of Neanderthals in modern human ancestry. Details of the discoveries appear in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).The human bones were first identified at the Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman) cave in 1952, but have now been reassessed.

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The high-profile launch of the biggest-ever study of the costs of climate change failed to dispel doubts over whether the world will heed its stark call for action to tackle global warming.British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the U.K.-backed report as "the most important report on the future published by this government", and his finance minister Gordon Brown said it meant environmental policy was now economic policy.The report's author, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, argued that urgent action on climate change now would save some $2.5 trillion compared with doing nothing, and would help avert possible economic and planetary catastrophe.The weighty report provides ammunition for Blair's drive to persuade the United States, as well as fast-growing developing nations China and India, to sign up to a new global framework to curb greenhouse gas emissions.The report is also meant to galvanise industry to invest in "green" energy and make people see the sense of taxes to limit the use of emissions-producing fossil fuels.

Claw marks made at least 50,000 years ago by an extinct species of bear are visible in the still-soft mud walls of Riverbluff Cave in Missouri.SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (AP) -- The bear that left a 3-foot-long claw mark in an Ice Age clay bank was the largest bear species ever to walk the earth, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and capable of moving its 1,800 pounds up to 45 miles per hour in a snarling dash for prey.The claw mark by the extinct giant short-faced bear still looks fresh today in a southwest Missouri cave that some scientists are calling a national treasure -- an Ice Age time capsule sealed for thousands of years.Discovered accidentally five years ago on the outskirts of Springfield, Riverbluff Cave is slowly yielding its fossil treasures as a small team of scientists and volunteers gingerly explores it while trying to preserve a rich bed of remains, from bones to tracks and dung."We found 5,000 microfossils in just one 1-foot by 2-foot block of clay," said lead paleontologist Matt Forir, the naturalist for Springfield-Greene County Parks.

Dreamland may be heard from Saturday afternoon at 1PM Pacific online. This latest Oct 28th show can be listened to on the 'Click here to LISTEN NOW' button at the Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country website and is archived for one month. Awesome New Graham Hancock DiscoveryGraham Hancock has been on one of the great journeys of all time and has discovered the most important moment in history: the moment when the human mind began. The human body and brain were exactly as they are now as long as 130,000 years ago. For most of that time, nothing happened. Then, about 30,000 years ago, there was an explosion of cave art of unforgettable mastery. Then Linda Howe interviews the scientist who has been researching some VERY strange signals from the center of the galaxy!In a journey that took him from the depths of the Amazon to the depths of his own mind, Graham actually re-created the conditions that inspired that great art--the first real record of human thought in action.Listen to his astonishing, inspiring and courageous story on this week's Dreamland.

Hundreds of tourists have been queuing in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy, to gain entry to one of the city's most extravagant brothels. The 2,000-year-old building, featuring erotic fresco paintings, has been re-opened after a costly restoration. The Lupanare - from the Latin word "lupa" for prostitute - is regarded as one of Pompeii's main attractions.The town, by the slopes of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, was destroyed by a catastrophic eruption in AD79. The eruption helped preserve the city, allowing insights into life under the Romans.

WASHINGTON: Global warming caused by rapid deforestation could be curbed if developing countries were paid the proper rewards for maintaining their forests, according to a World Bank report.The report released this week noted that the world's forests are disappearing at a rate of five percent a decade as woodland is cleared for timber and production of in-demand commodities like beef, coffee and soybeans.But the land would have far more value if developing countries were paid to preserve their forests on global carbon markets, the report said. Such markets are an offshoot of the Kyoto agreement, and allow countries that struggle to meet targets for industrial emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to pay other countries that keep their emissions down.About a fifth of global CO2 emissions come from tropical deforestation, but these have not been harnessed into carbon markets such as the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, the report said. It noted that in Latin America, dense jungle is often cleared to create pastures worth as little as US$300 a hectare while releasing 500 tonnes of CO2 per hectare.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The BLM says vandals have defaced a rock art panel near Vernal. The vandalism occurred sometime in the last ten days.Blaine Phillips, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, says names and dates were engraved across the panel, basically destroying it. The pictographs are one of four examples of the Barrier Canyon-style of rock art found in the Vernal area. The style dates back several thousand years and is made up of ghostly looking human-sized figures with no legs.

These remarkable eyes (right), fashioned from stone and shell, are among a number of new finds that provide remarkable insights into the life and death of Bronze Age royalty in ancient Syria, where the passing of a princess was marked by the decapitation of donkeys and sacrifice of babies.Measuring around the size of a thumbnail and dating back to around 2400 BC, the eyes are thought to have come from a statue made of perishable material such as wood. They are among new finds to come from the ruins of an ancient city in northern Syria containing the only known elite, possibly royal, cemetery in the region that dates back to the early Bronze Age.

A massive underwater landslide in Lake Tahoe thousands of years ago caused a tsunami and left ripplelike stony ridges on the lake bottom, according to a new study.Three scuba divers, a robot submarine and researchers from the University of Nevada in Reno and the U.S. Geological Survey spent two years surveying the bottom of the famously beautiful lake to piece together the landslide's story. Their findings are being published in the November issue of Geology magazine.The waves traveled 12 miles and must have splashed to tremendous heights when they reached the lake's eastern shore, said survey leader James G. Moore of the Geological Survey.

OSAKA (Kyodo) A Japanese research team has successfully removed a mural in an ancient Egyptian tomb at the World Heritage site of Saqqara, using a technique used on Japanese murals, so that preservation work can be done on it, team members said Friday.The Kansai University team removed the plaster mural from the underground tomb of Princess Idut, which dates back to around 2360 B.C. The mural depicts birds, food and beer in color and has hieroglyphs engraved in it.In the rare removal of a fragile plaster mural, the team glued rayon paper with resin over parts of the mural to be removed, using a type of seaweed paste to protect them, and carefully separated the plaster from the rock wall with knives.

Kian and Remee Horder are healthy, rambunctious twin sisters, born in Britain last year. But to meet them is to get a surprise. Kian is what almost all of us would label as black, with chocolate-colored skin and curly black hair. Remee is blond and fair-skinned. Twins of different races? Can that be? They have the same parents and the same family tree. They developed together in their mother's womb and were born within minutes of each other.Their parents tell us they had no fertility treatments. No child was switched at birth in the hospital. It was just a case of nature offering a surprise.

The Viking Mars mission may have missed signs of life when it visited the red planet 30 years ago, a new study suggests. If future missions are to set the record straight, the study's authors add, scientists may need to change the ways in which they search.NASA's Viking Mission to Mars put two landers on the red planet in 1976. Their experiments uncovered mysterious chemical activity in the Martian soil but no clear evidence of life. Now scientists suggest that telltale signs of life could have been there all along, but Viking's testing methods were not robust enough to recognize them.

MEXICO CITY - A trail of 13 fossilized footprints running through a valley in a desert in northern Mexico could be among the oldest in the Americas, Mexican archeologists said. The footprints were made by hunter gatherers who are believed to have lived thousands of years ago in the Coahuila valley of Cuatro Cienegas, 190 miles (306 kms) south of Eagle Pass, Texas, said archaeologist Yuri de la Rosa Gutierrez of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History."We believe (the footprints) are between 10,000 and 15,000 years old," De la Rosa said in a news release Wednesday. "We have evidence of the presence of hunter gatherers in the Coahuila desert more than 10,000 years ago."

Apollo drew his bow and fired arrow after arrow into the deadly pythondragon guarding the sacred ground of Ge, the goddess of the earth. With his victory, Apollo gained the right to call the slopes of Delphi his earthly sanctuary.It is a beautiful myth. Out of it grew the story of the Oracle of Delphi, a soothsayer who inhaled the breath of Apollo. The Pythia, the priestess who sat on a tripod inhaling fumes from the bowels of the earth, went into trances and muttered incomprehensible phrases, helpfully interpreted by her priestly assistants.The Oracle at Delphi is one of several myths now being investigated by geologists to see whether such stories have any basis in fact. The relatively new science of ge-omythology could provide rational explanations for mythical events. But studying elements of a myth may also lead to new insights or discoveries in geology - a science that took its name from that same goddess, Ge.

Russia is prepared to repel asteroids to save Earth "if necessary," deputy head of the Russian space agency Viktor Remishevsky said Tuesday, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.If necessary, Russia's rocket-manufacturing complex can create the means in space to repulse asteroids threatening Earth," Remishevsky said, without giving further details.The official stressed that saving Earth from the threat of asteroids demanded international cooperation.

But Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is on a mission to protect the relics of his country's storied past."I believe that the return of stolen artifacts is important not only to Egypt but also to everyone all over the world," Hawass said."These artifacts belong to everyone, and their return is of the utmost importance, because the past is important to our future."Hawass wields strong influence over archaeological work in Egypt and over traveling exhibits of Egyptian objects that are ultimately in his charge.

Vertebrate creatures first began moving from the world's oceans to land about 415 million years ago, then all but disappeared by 360 million years ago. The fossil record contains few examples of animals with backbones for the next 15 million years, and then suddenly vertebrates show up again, this time for good. The mysterious lull in vertebrate colonization of land is known as Romer's Gap, named for the Yale University paleontologist, Alfred Romer, who first recognized it. But the term has typically been applied only to pre-dinosaur amphibians, and there has been little understanding of why the gap occurred.Now a team of scientists led by University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward has found a similar gap during the same period among non-marine arthropods, largely insects and spiders, and they believe a precipitous drop in the oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere is responsible."These two groups acted exactly the same way. They proliferated, then they went away, and then they reappeared and multiplied like crazy," said Ward, a UW professor of biology and of Earth and space sciences.

The world's largest river, the Amazon, once flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific - the opposite of its present direction, a study shows.Sedimentary rocks in the central part of South America contain ancient mineral grains that must have come from the eastern part of the continent.Geologist Russell Mapes says this must mean that about 145-65 million years ago, the Amazon flowed east to west.Mr Mapes will present his findings at a geology meeting in Philadelphia.

NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth.The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica. It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere.Image left: From September 21-30, 2006 the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles. This image, from Sept. 24, the Antarctic ozone hole was equal to the record single-day largest area of 11.4 million square miles, reached on Sept. 9, 2000. Satellite instruments monitor the ozone layer, and we use their data to create the images that depict the amount of ozone. The blue and purple colors are where there is the least ozone, and the greens, yellows, and reds are where there is more ozone. Credit: NASA

A critical reef-building coral that has been thought especially vulnerable to global warming of seas may not be so frail after all.A new study of past climate effects on the same kinds of corals, now fossilized on land in the Dominican Republic, shows that Acropora cervicornis has done just fine through other warm times and even managed to survive through times when the water was particularly mucky."We had temperatures that were probably just as warm back in the fossil record," said fossil coral researcher Lisa Greer of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

Carbon trading can be used to protect endangered rainforests by compensating nations that avoid deforestation, the World Bank has said.It has suggested that industrial states offset their carbon emissions by funding projects designed to reduce deforestation in developing countries.The World Bank report said 5% of the world's rainforest is lost each decade.The forest was more valuable if left to store carbon dioxide emissions than if cleared for pasture, it argued.

For centuries, the alpaca has sustained the indigenous people of the Andean highlands in Peru, Bolivia and northern Chile.The animal has become a symbol of this snow-capped region, but farmers in Peru are concerned that wool quality is declining and fear that the genetic pool of the world's largest alpaca industry may deteriorate dramatically.They are also concerned about increasing competition from countries like Australia and New Zealand, which, thanks to more advanced technology and greater resources, have enjoyed great success in their alpaca breeding programmes.But now, with funding from the French Embassy in Peru and the British charity Oxfam, a programme has begun to help the genetic improvement of alpacas in the southern region of Puno - one of the poorest parts of the country and home to 1.6 million alpacas.

A Queen's University researcher has discovered a mineral that could explain the mountainous landscape of Mars, and have implications for NASA's next mission to the planet.Satellites orbiting Mars show us images of canyons and gullies that appear to have been created by a flood or rapid out-washing," says Ron Peterson, Queen's geologist. "These rovers, currently moving about on the planet's surface also show us that there is currently no visible water on the surface of Mars, but that there was in the past."Dr. Peterson suggests that Mars was likely wetter in the past. All of the images that are coming back from the rovers show layering in the rock which is indicative of sediment manipulated by water. This kind of out-wash would require a fair amount of water on the planet at some point.The study, published this week in the Geology, a publication of the Geological Society of America, suggests that these findings may provide insight into how to retrieve a sample of Mars surface and return it to earth.

Mimicking the series of steps by which an embryo develops has led to a significantly more efficient way of creating insulin-secreting cells. A team of researchers reports that by applying a sequence of chemicals to human embryonic stem cells in a culture dish, it has grown layers of cells similar to pancreatic tissue in a young embryo. Such cells may eventually be suitable for treating diabetes.

What really caused the largest mass extinction in Earth's history? USC earth scientists will reveal new clues at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Philadelphia Oct. 22-25. The Permian-Triassic extinction, as it is called, is not the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Nor does the cause appear to have been a meteorite strike, as in that famous event. The most likely explanation for the disappearance of up to 90 percent of species 250 million years ago, said David Bottjer, is that "the earth got sick." Bottjer, professor of earth sciences in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, leads a research group presenting several new pieces of the P-T extinction puzzle.Matthew Clapham, a recent Ph.D. graduate of Bottjer's laboratory, has found that species diversity and environmental changes were "decoupled" long before the extinction. Conditions on the planet were deteriorating long before species began to die off, Bottjer said, casting doubt on the meteorite strike theory. "People in the past used to think this big mass extinction was like a car hitting a wall," he said. Instead, Clapham's interpretation of the geological record shows "millions of years of environmental stress."

Conservation experts from the United Nations are visiting the Tower of London to judge whether it should be placed on its Heritage in Danger list, Unesco has said.They have warned the UK to make greater efforts to protect the Tower, which is one of just 830 locations around the globe to feature on Unesco's prestigious list of World Heritage Sites.

Heritage Malta is currently undertaking the preservation of two unique megaliths at Tarxien Temples as part of the BOV Tarxien Temples Project. These megaliths are significant because they bear witness to the vessels that transported the very first people to the Maltese Islands, and may well be the oldest representations of ships or boats ever discovered.The Tarxien Temples, dating back to around 3600BC, hold an impressive number of prehistoric works of art, consisting mostly of megaliths carved in relief to depict various animals, spirals and other intricate designs.

Scholars turned out in force on Thursday night for the launch of the first full edition of the Derveni Papyrus at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.The oldest book in Europe, the Derveni Papyrus is an Orphic, eschatological text that discusses the fate of the soul and the role of the Furies. A mystic, often allegorical text, it was written in the last quarter of the fourth century BC. Scholars who have studied it describe it as «the most significant new evidence about ancient Greek philosophy and religion since the Renaissance.»The book was found in 1962 in a grave at Derveni, in Thessaloniki. Some scholars object to the fact that the book has not been made accessible to other researchers. The Institute of Philosophical Research, directed by Apostolos Pierris, decried what it called «a major scandal in scientific chronicles.» It also accuses the team of scholars, professors Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou, Theokritos Kouremenos and Georgios Prasaoglou of Thessaloniki University, of hiding the papyrus for decades, delaying its scholarly and critical publication and thereby depriving «the international community of scholars of any access to such a significant text.»

Neolithic graves in central China may hide the world's earliest writing, if the "signs" carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells can be deciphered by academics.The claim, made by a team of Chinese and American researchers in the March issue of Antiquity, a journal based at Cambridge University, Britain, has triggered heated debate among the world's archaeologists.The debate centers on the origin of writing. The earliest writing on earth is commonly believed to have evolved in what is today's southern Iraq about 5,200 years ago. There, settlers invented the cuneiform, a way of arranging impressions stamped on clay by a wedge.

Eating lots of white bread raises the risk of a cancer that kills thousands of Britons every year, according to new research.Those who eat five slices a day are almost twice as likely to develop the most common form of kidney cancer compared to those who have one and a half slices. Scientists put the cause down to refined cereals triggering a surge in blood sugar and insulin levels, which is thought to fuel cancer cell growth.People should particularly cut down on white bread, which causes the biggest rise in blood glucose levels, and opt for wholemeal varieties instead.

A mind is a tough thing to think about. Consciousness is the defining feature of the human species. But is it possible that it is also no more than an extravagant biological add-on, something not really essential to our survival? That intriguing possibility plays on my mind as I cross the plaza of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a breathtaking temple of science perched on a high bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, Calif. I have just visited the office of Terry Sejnowski, the director of Salk's Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, whose recent research suggests that our conscious minds play less of a role in making decisions than many people have long assumed."The dopamine neurons are responsible for telling the rest of the brain what stimuli to pay attention to," Sejnowski says, referring to the cluster of brain cells that produce one of the many chemical elixirs that activate, deactivate, or otherwise alter our mental state.Read more ....

Scientists located a rare meteorite in a wheat field thanks to new ground penetrating radar technology that someday might be used on Mars.The dig in Kansas Monday was likely the most documented excavation yet of a meteorite find, with researchers painstakingly using brushes and hand tools in order to preserve evidence of the impact trail and to date the event of the meteorite strike. Soil samples were also bagged and tagged, and organic material preserved for dating purposes.Even before they had the meteorite out of the ground, the scientific experts at the site were able to debunk prevailing wisdom that the spectacular meteorite fall of Brenham, Kansas, occurred 20,000 years ago. Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts that date closer to 10,000 years ago."We know it is recent," said Carolyn Sumners, director of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as she surveyed progress on the dig. "Native Americans could have seen it."

Explorer Robert Ballard has spent most of his adult life exploring the ocean floor and combing the deep-sea for lost shipwrecks.He's best known for finding the doomed ocean liner Titanic in 1985 and discovering the hydrothermal vents along the mid-Atlantic ridge in 1977.He's currently president of the Institute for Exploration at Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium where he is working to turn the ocean floor into a archaeological museum of human history.CNN.com Technology Producer Peggy Mihelich talked with Ballard about how technology is revolutionizing the way he explorers the deep and what new discoveries it may help uncover.Read the interview .....

Caral made headlines in 2001 when researchers carbon-dated material from the city back to 2627 B.C. It is a must-see for archaelogy enthusiasts.Even though the ruins in the dusty, wind-swept Supe River Valley don't approximate in majesty the mountains that surround the famed Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, they are an unforgettable sight under the glow of a fiery sunset.Read more .....

A fish that swam on an ancient barrier reef in Australia 380 million years ago had fins and nostrils remarkably similar to the limbs and ears of the first four-limbed creatures to walk on land, according to a new study. Four-limbed land animals, also known as tetrapods, such as modern amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, evolved from lobed-finned fish.That transition from water to land has long fascinated scientists, but the fossil record of how it occurred is still incomplete. The new finding suggests that certain aspects of tetrapod ears and limbs can be traced much further back in "fishy looking" fish than had been previously known, says John Long, head of sciences at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

The complete works of one of history's greatest scientists, Charles Darwin, are being published online. The project run by Cambridge University has digitised some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications - all of it searchable. Surfers with MP3 players can even access downloadable audio files.The resource is aimed at serious scholars, but can be used by anyone with an interest in Darwin and his theory on the evolution of life."The idea is to make these important works as accessible as possible; some people can only get at Darwin that way," said Dr John van Wyhe, the project's director.

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution and Penn State University have discovered evidence showing that microbes adapted to living with oxygen 2.72 billion years ago, at least 300 million years before the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere. The finding is the first concrete validation of a long-held hypothesis that oxygen was being produced and consumed by that time and that the transition to an oxygenated atmosphere was long term.The results are published in the on-line early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, to appear the week of October 16th.It is generally believed that before 2.4 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere was essentially devoid of oxygen. Exactly when and how oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved and began fueling the atmosphere with the gas that much of life depends on has been hotly debated for some time. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) emit oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis--the process by which sugar, essential for nutrition, is made from light, water, and carbon dioxide.

Fieldwork in what is believed to be one of the most significant rock art sites in Australia has stalled after the Federal Government declined to fund further research, archaeologists say.Over the weekend scientists exploring the Wollemi National Park north-west of Sydney announced the discovery of numerous shelters, many with rock drawings and stencils up to 5,000 years old.They also discovered what is believed to be the first hafted stone axe found in south-eastern Australia, estimated to be about 150 years old.But now the archaeologists are being forced to look for international funding to continue their work and cannot even afford a day trip to the remote area to protect vulnerable sites from damage by bushfires, says team co-leader Professor Paul Tacon of Griffith University.

A new book reveals how recent research has uncovered a goldmine of information about the history of human habitation in Britain.The Piltdown skull fooled scientists for more than 40 years.Here, Homo britannicus author Chris Stringer describes how early efforts to search for evidence of early Britons were hampered by wrong turns and false leads, including the granddaddy of all scientific forgeries.

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge. The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology. People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

Police today warned internet users to guard their identities after a man was convicted of Britain's first "web-rage" attack.Paul Gibbons, 47, turned up at the home of John Jones, 43, after they exchanged insults on the internet, the Old Bailey heard.He traced his address after Mr Jones, a father of three children, put personal details about himself online.Gibbons, a man with a violent past, traced them to their home in Clacton, Essex, and arrived at the door with a pickaxe handle and with another man carrying a machete.

Archeological excavations in Abou Fondova historical site in Susan Plain, southwestern Iran, are about to start by a joint team of archeologists from Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) and the Oriental Institute of University of Chicago.Abou Fondova historical hill is located on the western part of Susan Plain, 11 kilometers south of city of Susan and on the east side of Karkheh and Shavar rivers. It was one of the most prominent residential settlements in Susan Plain in the fifth millennium BC. This area is consisted of two parts and covers an 11 hectare area. "Considering the large amount of surface clays scattered in the area, Abou Fondova is considered one of the most populated areas in Khuzestan province in the ancient times after Susa and Choghamish historical sites. Enjoying continuous cultural evidence dating back to the fifth millennium BC to the late fourth millennium BC, Abou Fondova is one of the best places to undertake studies to find the origins of ruling powers in Susan Plain," said Leili Niakan, Iranian head of the joint excavation team in Abou Fondova historical site.Excavations in this archeological site started in 1961 for the first time when an archeologist named Ezatollah Negahban created a small trench to study the Susan Plain. Later in 1973, a surface study was undertaken in the area by Gregory Johnson, current professor of anthropology at CYNY Graduate Center.

Nine Neolithic-era buildings have been excavated in the Stonehenge world heritage site, according to a report in the journal British Archaeology.The structures, which appear to have been homes, date to 2,600-2,500 B.C. and were contemporary with the earliest stone settings at the site's famous megalith. They are the first house-like structures discovered there. Julian Thomas, who worked on the project and is chair of the archaeology department at Manchester University in England, said Stonehenge could have been a key gathering place at the Neolithic era's version of a housing development.

Thanjavur: Three bronze idols of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvati were unearthed at Airavateeswara Temple, Darasuram, in Thanjavur district.The Siva idol, measuring two feet four inches x one ft five inches and Parvati measuring one ft three inches x two feet, were found in the north west corner of the cloister `Mandapa' at a depth of 2.5 ft during conservation work carried out by Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai circle.According to Sathyabhama Badreenath, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Chennai circle, the idols are a part of the Somaskanda group though they are two separate pieces. Siva is seated in `Sukhasana' position with four arms, the upper arm carrying `mriga' and `mazhu' (battle axe) while the lower arms are in `abhaya' and `simhakarna' positions.

ANSA) - Rome, October 13 - Top scholars have gathered in Rome this week to discuss the exciting and controversial idea that Sardinia is the lost island of Atlantis .The theory, developed in a book by the Italian journalist Sergio Frau, has drawn international acclaim but also fuelled heated criticism.Despite selling 30,000 copies in Italy, a detailed 20-point appeal by 250 academics has dismissed the book, claiming it sensationalizes Sardinian history.But the theory received a major boost last year, when the United Nations cultural heritage body UNESCO organized a symposium on the issue in Paris, suggesting the idea was worth serious consideration. Academics, archaeologists, geologists and historians from across Italy are now meeting in Rome's Accademia dei Lincei to look at the theory in closer depth and discuss possible paths of future research.

group of 15 scientists from five countries has discovered evidence of cell differentiation in fossil embryos that are more than 550 million years old. They also report what appear to be cells about to divide. They used x-ray imaging technologies that produce higher resolutions than hospital-CT scans and digitally extracted cells from the embryos of ancient animals that have been preserved in the Doushantuo Formation, a fossil site in South China. The discovery will be reported in the Oct. 13 issue of Science, in the article, "Cellular and Subcellular Structure of Neoproterozoic Animal Embryos,"

Three bodies have been found buried on disused ground in Welwyn.The skeletons - which could be 2,000 years old - were found by archaeologists at the bottom of a hole, nearly three metres below the surface.One looked as if it had been tumbled into too small a grave.Another was face down, its neck bent sharply, a large stone laid on its top, and lower legs crossed, possibly having been tied together.

Fossilized embryos predating the Cambrian Explosion by 10 million years provide evidence that early animals had already begun to adopt some of the structures and processes seen in today's embryos, say researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and nine other institutions in this week's Science. James Hagadorn of Amherst College led the multi-disciplinary international collaborative project.The researchers from the U.S., U.K., China, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia report the first direct evidence that primitive animals 550 million years ago were capable of asynchronous cell division during embryonic development. Asynchronous cell division allows the formation of unique shapes."We're learning something about how the very earliest multicellular animals formed embryos and how the embryos developed," said IU Bloomington biologist Rudolf Raff, a coauthor of the report. "This gives us an enormous and entirely surprising look at half-a-billion-year-old embryos in the act of cleaving. What a window on the past. We've had no prior idea what they might have done."

A report in the journal Science this past June noted the discovery of Middle Paleolithic shell beads in collections made during excavation of sites in Israel and Algeria many decades ago.The evidence, combined with recent finds from South Africa of 75,000-year-old shell beads, is the earliest indication of "cultural modernity" among anatomically modern humans--with an origin in Africa of about 200,000 years ago. Before now, the earliest evidence for cultural modernity was from Europe and dated to around 40,000 years ago. ARCHAEOLOGY spoke with Marian Vanhaeren of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a co-author of the Science report about this discovery.

Christopher Columbus and his men traded cheap brass shoelace tags for gold when they first arrived in Cuba, according to new research.While Columbus and his crew knew they were getting the better end of the deal, the indigenous Caribbean people, called the Taino, valued the small brass tags more than gold, which was then relatively abundant in Cuba.Brass was new, exotic and required liaising with the Europeans, and on top of that it had a special smell and iridescence," lead researcher Marcos Martinón-Torres told Discovery News. "All of these factors probably contributed to its appeal."The research will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Scientists have found new evidence that the Bering Strait near Alaska flooded into the Arctic Ocean about 11,000 years ago, about 1,000 years earlier than widely believed, closing off the land bridge thought to be the major route for human migration from Asia to the Americas.Knowledge of climate change and sea level rise in the Arctic Ocean has been limited because sediment cores collected from the floor of the Arctic Ocean have been taken from locations where sediment has accumulated only about one centimeter (less than one-half inch) every 1,000 years. Such slow rates make it impossible for scientists to distinguish between one millennium and the next.In a paper in the October issue of Geology magazine, lead author Lloyd Keigwin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues from WHOI, Neal Driscoll from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Julie Brigham-Grette of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst report results from three new core sites north and west of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea. At these locations, accumulation of sediment is more than 100 times greater than at previous sites, allowing identification of climate changes that were previously unseen. During the expeditions, the researchers extracted the longest piston core ever obtained from the Arctic region.

Reuters Photo: A family of capyvaras, the world's largest rodent, prepare to bathe near a watering hole... Wobbles or variations in the Earth's orbit and tilt are associated with extinctions of rodent and mammalian species, Dutch scientists said on Wednesday.They studied rodent fossil records in central Spain dating back 22 million years and found that the rise and fall of mammal species was linked to changes in the Earth's behavior which caused cooling periods."Extinctions in rodent species occur in pulses which are spaced by intervals controlled by astronomical variations and their effects on climate change," Dr Jan van Dam, of the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said.The researchers found two cycles corresponding to the disappearance of rodent species. One lasts 2.4 million years and is linked to variations in the Earth's orbit. The other is a 1.2 million year cycle relating to shifts in the tilt on the Earth on its axis.

A UK-led team is challenging cherished ideas on Greek mythology by proposing an alternative site for Ithaca. The island was said to be the home of Odysseus, whose 10-year journey back from the Trojan War is chronicled in Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Most people think the modern-day Ionian island of Ithaki is the location. But geologists are this week sinking a borehole on nearby Kefalonia in an attempt to test whether its western peninsula of Paliki is the real site.The scientists hope to find evidence that the peninsula once stood proud, separated from Kefalonia by a narrow, navigable marine channel. It is only in the last 2,500-3,000 years - and after Homer's time - that the channel has been filled in, the team contends.

A team of archaeologists working at the Göbeklitepe tumulus in the southeastern city of Þanlýurfa came across human figures without heads as well as reliefs of scorpions, snakes and wild birds on obelisks belonging to the Neolithic period, the head of the team announced on Monday. Speaking at a press conference at the ancient city, excavation team leader Klaus Schmidt of the German Archeological Institute in Berlin stated that Göbeklitepe was an 11,000-year-old site of worship established by the hunter-gatherer people of the time.

There's a buzz of excitement among archeologists. In recent days, archeological digs in Jerusalem revealed a tunnel that, according to a number of estimates, leads to a pool used by King David. The digs, which have been underway for years, are located in David's City, west of the Wailing Wall. A year ago, archeologists discovered a pool from the days of the Second Temple that had been used by pilgrims to Jerusalem, to refresh them after their long journey. Recently, the edge of a tunnel was discovered in the digs. Archeologists posit that it leads to a pool, originally located next to a garden full of fruit trees, where King David and other kings of the dynasty used to bathe.

Centuries of silence cannot keep ancient Egyptian mummies from sharing their secrets with scientists. From archaeologists determining cultural practices to chemists studying embalming, mummies have revealed libraries of information. Now such mummies are also yielding evidence about the diseases of the past by giving up the facts encoded in their preserved DNA, and new research may have pinned down the ancient homeland of a modern scourge.Albert Zink of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and his colleagues tested the DNA of bone samples from 91 ancient Egyptian mummies and 70 from old Nubia--modern Sudan--to determine if they had suffered from leishmaniasis. In nine of the 70 Nubian mummies--taken from graves stretching as far back as A.D. 550--mitochondrial DNA of the parasite was discovered, proving the disease was endemic at least that far back.

Damascus - Swiss researchers have discovered the 100 000-year-old remains of a previously unknown giant camel species in central Syria."This is a big discovery, a revolution in science,". Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer of the University of Basel told Reuters. "It was not known that the dromedary was present in the Middle East more than 10 000 years ago.""Can you imagine? The camel's shoulders stood three metres high and it was around four metres tall, as big as a giraffe or an elephant. Nobody knew that such a species had existed."Tensorer, who has been excavating at the desert site in Kowm since 1999, said the first large bones were found some years ago but were only confirmed as belonging to a camel after more bones from several parts of the same animal were recently discovered.

Archaeologists in Peru have discovered an underground burial vault that could unlock the mystery of a pre-Colombian tribe known as the "warriors of the clouds". The Chachapoyas commanded a vast kingdom stretching across the Andes to the fringe of Peru's northern Amazon jungle until they were conquered by the Incas in the 15th century.The Incan empire was itself overrun soon after by the Spanish, and details of the Chachapoyas and their way of life were lost or destroyed in the widespread pillaging that followed.Now a team of archaeologists, working on a tip-off from a local farmer, have uncovered a burial site in a 820ft-deep cave. The researchers have so far found five mummies, two of which are intact with skin and hair, as well as ceramics, textiles and wall paintings, the expedition's leader, Herman Corbera, told Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Oct. 5) - Good news for aging hippies: smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease. New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer's patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.