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Scientists set out to unlock secrets of Stonehenge

Jeremy Lovell
newsdaily.com
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:56 UTC
Archaeologists set out on Monday to unlock one of the secrets of Stonehenge, the majestic monument in southern England -- when were the first standing stones placed at the ancient religious site?

The concentric stone circles that make up Stonehenge, 80 miles southwest of London on the sweep of Salisbury Plain, consist of giant sandstone blocks or sarsens and smaller bluestones -- volcanic rock of a blueish tint with white flecks.

Stonehenge
©Reuters/Kieran Dohert
File photo shows Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southern England December 22, 2006. Archaeologists set out on Monday to unlock one of the secrets of Stonehenge, the majestic monument in southern England -- when were the first standing stones placed at the ancient religious site?

Stonehenge experts Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright will use modern carbon dating techniques and analysis of soil pollen and sea shells to work out when the stones were set up, in the first archaeological dig at the World Heritage site since 1964.
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Telescope

For The Paper Trail Of Life On Mars Or Other Planets, Find Cellulose


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:49 UTC
Looking for evidence of life on Mars or other planets? Finding cellulose microfibers would be the next best thing to a close encounter, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The cover story for the April issue of the journal Astrobiology, the new research also pushes back the earliest direct evidence of biological material on Earth by about 200 million years.

ancient salt samples
©University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Griffith and the ancient salt samples in the WIPP chambers.
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Telescope

Exploding Star And Rare View Of Early Stages Of A Supernova


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:43 UTC
The latest image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a sharp view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2397. This image also shows a rare Hubble view of the early stages of a supernova - SN 2006bc, discovered in March 2006.

NGC 2397, pictured in this image from Hubble, is a classic spiral galaxy with long prominent dust lanes along the edges of its arms, seen as dark patches and streaks silhouetted against the starlight. Hubble's exquisite resolution allows the study of individual stars in nearby galaxies.

spiral galaxy NGC 2397
©NASA, ESA & Stephen Smartt (Queen's University Belfast, UK
Sharp view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2397 includes view of early stages of a supernova - SN 2006bc.
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Telescope

Newly Discovered Galaxy Cluster In Early Stage Of Formation Is Farthest Away Ever Identified


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:38 UTC
UC Irvine scientists have discovered a cluster of galaxies in a very early stage of formation that is 11.4 billion light years from Earth - the farthest of its kind ever to be detected. These galaxies are so distant that the universe was in its infancy when their light was emitted.

The galaxy proto-cluster, named LBG-2377, is giving scientists an unprecedented look at galaxy formation and how the universe has evolved. Before this discovery, the farthest known event like this was approximately 9 billion light years away.

Two galaxies interacting
©University of California - Irvine
Two galaxies interacting.
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Star

Two Yellow Supergiant Eclipsing Binary Systems Discovered: First Of Their Kind Ever Found


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:32 UTC
Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so unusual, it was one of a kind -- until its discovery helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to home. In a paper published in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues suggest that these star systems are the progenitors of a rare type of supernova.

yellow supergiant
©Kevin Gecsi, Ohio State University
Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues have discovered a new type of star system, one that may be the progenitor of a rare type of supernova. The star system is called a "yellow supergiant eclipsing binary" -- it contains two very bright, massive yellow stars that are very closely orbiting each other. In fact, the stars are so close together that a large amount of stellar material is shared between them, so that the shape of the system resembles a peanut.
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Bizarro Earth

Alpine iceman reveals Stone Age secrets


Reuters
Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:53 UTC
Some 5,300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps is slowly revealing his secrets to a global team of scientists.

But despite more than a decade of high-tech efforts by geneticists, botanists and engineers many questions about his life and death remain unsolved.

Image
©South Tyrol Archaeology Museum
Archeologists believe the mummy may have been a shaman.
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Robot

New Breed Of Cognitive Robot Is A Lot Like A Puppy


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:58 UTC
Designers of artificial cognitive systems have tended to adopt one of two approaches to building robots that can think for themselves: classical rule-based artificial intelligence or artificial neural networks. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and combining the two offers the best of both worlds, say a team of European researchers who have developed a new breed of cognitive, learning robot that goes beyond the state of the art.

robot
©ICT Results
A new robot is able to learn by itself and can solve increasingly complex tasks with no additional programming.
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Info

3-D Imaging: First Insights Into Magnetic Fields


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:44 UTC
3-D images are not only useful in medicine; the observation of internal structures is also invaluable in many other fields of scientific investigation. Recently, researchers from the Hahn-Meitner-Institute (HMI) in Berlin in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences in Berlin have succeeded, for the first time, in a direct, three-dimensional visualisation of magnetic fields inside solid, non-transparent materials.

magnetic field of a dipol magnet
©Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin
The magnetic field of a dipol magnet visualized by spinpolarized neutrons.
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Info

Huge Meteorite Impact Found In UK -- Britain's Largest


Science Daily
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:40 UTC
Evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles has been found by scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Aberdeen. The scientists believe that a large meteorite hit northwest Scotland about 1.2 billion years ago near the Scottish town of Ullapool.

meteorite
©University Of Oxford
If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago they would have seen quite a show.

Previously it was thought that unusual rock formations in the area had been formed by volcanic activity. But the team report in the journal Geology that they found evidence buried in a layer of rock which they now believe is the ejected material thrown out during the formation of a meteorite crater. Ejected material from the huge meteorite strike is scattered over an area about 50 kilometres across, roughly centred on the northern Scottish town of Ullapool.
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Info

Neurons Hard Wired To Tell Left From Right


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:35 UTC
It's well known that the left and right sides of the brain differ in many animal species and this is thought to influence cognitive performance and social behaviour. For instance, in humans, the left half of the brain is concerned with language processing whereas the right side is better at comprehending musical melody.

Now researchers from University College London (UCL) have pinpointed for the first time the left/right differences in how brains are wired at the level of individual cells. To do this, a research team led by Stephen Wilson looked at left and right-sided neurons (nerve cells) in a part of the brain called the habenula.

By causing habenular neurons to produce a bright green fluorescent protein they saw that they form remarkable "spiral-shaped" axons, the long nerve fibres that act as the nervous system's transmission lines.
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