Archaeologists have discovered shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old - making them the oldest dated human decorations.
These finds of handmade beads, in a limestone cave in Morocco, suggest that humans were fashioning purely symbolic objects in Africa 40,000 years before they did it in Europe. A paper on the discovery is published in this month's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The discovery of beads at the Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, in Eastern Morocco was made by an international team of archaeologists from the UK, Morocco, France and Germany, led by Oxford University's Institute of Archaeology.
Twelve Nassarius shells were perforated in their centres, and showed signs of being suspended or hung. They also appeared to have been covered in red ochre, like other less well-dated African beads. These symbolic, decorative objects are considered early signs of modern human behaviour and mark shifts in human development. Similar beads have been found at sites from Algeria, Israel, and South Africa, which probably date back to about the same time or slightly after the finds from Taforalt.
Science & Technology
While not quite as easy a feat as riding a bicycle, mathematicians have for the first time established conclusive equations that describe what gives a pushed bike its stability.
Since the bicycle's invention some time in the 1860s, mathematicians have tried to sum up bike riding with equations based on Newton's laws of motion.
One of the first attempts dates back to pioneering work in 1897 by French mathematician Emmanuel Carvallo. In 1899, the Cambridge undergraduate Francis Whipple had a go, using equations that had more general applicability (though were slightly wrong).
Today, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, a conclusive mathematical account of bike riding is described in a dense 28-page paper by Professor Andy Ruina of Cornell University, Jim Papadopoulos of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Jaap Meijaard of Nottingham University, and Prof Arend Schwab of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.
It was once thought that the stability is because the wheels act like gyroscopes to keep the bike upright.
Since the bicycle's invention some time in the 1860s, mathematicians have tried to sum up bike riding with equations based on Newton's laws of motion.
One of the first attempts dates back to pioneering work in 1897 by French mathematician Emmanuel Carvallo. In 1899, the Cambridge undergraduate Francis Whipple had a go, using equations that had more general applicability (though were slightly wrong).
Today, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, a conclusive mathematical account of bike riding is described in a dense 28-page paper by Professor Andy Ruina of Cornell University, Jim Papadopoulos of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Jaap Meijaard of Nottingham University, and Prof Arend Schwab of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.
It was once thought that the stability is because the wheels act like gyroscopes to keep the bike upright.
Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.
Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.
The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.
"It is the biggest site discovered so far," said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional center that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya."
Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.
The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.
"It is the biggest site discovered so far," said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional center that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya."
A very dark spot on Mars could be an entrance to a deep hole or cavern, according to scientists studying imagery taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet.
The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated.
Must be deep
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument to draw a bead on the apparent deep hole-a feature that may cause more scientists to ponder about potential subsurface biology on Mars.
The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet.
The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated.
Must be deep
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument to draw a bead on the apparent deep hole-a feature that may cause more scientists to ponder about potential subsurface biology on Mars.
An Italian-Swiss research team, including Dr. Frank Rühli of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland proved the cause of death of the Iceman ("Ötzi," 3300 BC) by modern X-ray-based technology. A lesion of a close-to-the-shoulder artery has been found thanks to a CT scan or multislice computed tomography, finally clarifying the world-famous glacier mummy's cause of death. This scientific work appeared online in the Journal of Archaeological Science, published by Elsevier and will be covered in the German and US issues of National Geographic magazine in July.
The Iceman is a uniquely well-preserved late Neolithic glacier mummy, found in 1991 in South Tyrol at 3,210 meters above sea level. He has undergone various scientific examinations, as human bodies are the best source for the study of life conditions in the past as well as the evolution of today's diseases.
The Iceman is a uniquely well-preserved late Neolithic glacier mummy, found in 1991 in South Tyrol at 3,210 meters above sea level. He has undergone various scientific examinations, as human bodies are the best source for the study of life conditions in the past as well as the evolution of today's diseases.
On May 27, 2007, several dozen "UFO" shaped gangues were found in Shangrao County, Jiangxi Province. Experts indicate that the UFO gangues were formed about 300 million years ago.
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| ©N/A |
| On May 27, 2007, several dozen "UFO" shaped gangues were found in Shangrao County, Jiangxi Province. Experts indicate that the UFO gangues were formed about 300 million years ago. (The Epoch Times) |
A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Purdue University and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has discovered evidence that honeybees have adopted a phylogenetically old molecular cascade - TOR (target of rapamycin), linked to nutrient and energy sensing - and put it to use in caste development.
The findings, published in the June 6 edition of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science, show that TOR is directly linked in the nutrient-induced development of female honeybees into either queens, the caste of large dominant egg-layers, or into workers, the caste of small helpers.
"Our study provides three independent lines of evidence - gene expression, pharmacology and RNA interference (RNAi) - that converge on one conclusion: selection can have acted on the TOR pathway to enable two distinct phenotypes to evolve in the bee," says Gro Amdam, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences.
The findings, published in the June 6 edition of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science, show that TOR is directly linked in the nutrient-induced development of female honeybees into either queens, the caste of large dominant egg-layers, or into workers, the caste of small helpers.
"Our study provides three independent lines of evidence - gene expression, pharmacology and RNA interference (RNAi) - that converge on one conclusion: selection can have acted on the TOR pathway to enable two distinct phenotypes to evolve in the bee," says Gro Amdam, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences.
Researchers of the Group of Recent Prehistory Studies (GEPRAN) of the Universidad de Granada, from the department of Prehistory and Archaeology, have taken an important step to determine how life was in the Iberian Peninsula in the Bronze Age.
Since 1974, archaeologists from Granada, directed by professors Trinidad Nájera Colino and Fernando Molina González, have been working on the site of the Motilla del Azuer, in the municipal area of Daimiel (province of Ciudad Real), in search of the necessary information to reconstruct the day by day in this thrilling and unknown historical period.
The sites, known as "motillas", represent one of the most peculiar types of prehistoric settlements in the Iberian Peninsula. They occupied the region of La Mancha in the Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500 BC, and they are artificial mounds, 4 to 10 m high, a result of the destruction of a stone fortification of central plan with several concentric walled lines. Its distribution in the plain of La Mancha, with equidistanes of 4 to 5 kilometres, affects river meadows and low areas where the existence of pools was quite frequent until recent dates.
Since 1974, archaeologists from Granada, directed by professors Trinidad Nájera Colino and Fernando Molina González, have been working on the site of the Motilla del Azuer, in the municipal area of Daimiel (province of Ciudad Real), in search of the necessary information to reconstruct the day by day in this thrilling and unknown historical period.
The sites, known as "motillas", represent one of the most peculiar types of prehistoric settlements in the Iberian Peninsula. They occupied the region of La Mancha in the Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500 BC, and they are artificial mounds, 4 to 10 m high, a result of the destruction of a stone fortification of central plan with several concentric walled lines. Its distribution in the plain of La Mancha, with equidistanes of 4 to 5 kilometres, affects river meadows and low areas where the existence of pools was quite frequent until recent dates.
© Jeremy Traum
We like to think we're smarter than that now. We know space is sprinkled from now to forever with galaxies rushing away from one another under the impetus of the Big Bang.
Bask in your knowledge while you can. Our successors, whoever and wherever they are, may have no way of finding out about the Big Bang and the expanding universe, according to one of the more depressing scientific papers I have ever read.
A drought that has bared parts of the bed of Florida's largest lake has exposed human bone fragments, pottery and even boats - and archaeologists are trying to evaluate the artifacts before water levels rise again.
Archaeologists said there have been no large-scale digs in Lake Okeechobee; most of the finds have been easily spotted along the surface, some by passers-by who called in what they found.
Palm Beach County Archaeologist Chris Davenport said scores of bone fragments ranging from only a few inches to 8 inches long have been spotted in Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the continental U.S., behind Lake Michigan. The lake is at its lowest level since record keeping began in 1932, at about 8.96 feet deep on Monday. That's about 4 to 5 feet below normal, exposing many areas for the first time in years.
Archaeologists said there have been no large-scale digs in Lake Okeechobee; most of the finds have been easily spotted along the surface, some by passers-by who called in what they found.
Palm Beach County Archaeologist Chris Davenport said scores of bone fragments ranging from only a few inches to 8 inches long have been spotted in Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the continental U.S., behind Lake Michigan. The lake is at its lowest level since record keeping began in 1932, at about 8.96 feet deep on Monday. That's about 4 to 5 feet below normal, exposing many areas for the first time in years.
Comment: "Ignorance is us, or is it bliss?"
Ignorance is not us but it is certainly bliss for popular writers, such as the author of this article. The author - in an effort to create a sensation - seems to have forgotten about other theories and ideas of which he is certainly aware (search google using his name). The reader will discover that he is aware of the theories of multidimensional universes, parallel universes, colliding universes, etc. But it so convenient to forget all that when a writer wishes to take a particular, one of thousands, idea published by physicists, and make it into the NEWS.
We are certain that, in a few months time, Dennis Overbye (whom the SOTT editors know from previous email exchanges on a different subject) will forget about this article and will jump with equal enthusiasm on another bandwagon, making "news" out of something totally contradictory to what he wrote above. We really do not know whether it is a personal habit of his, or if it is a method without which it is impossible to get paid by the mainstream media?