Beijing, June 29 -- DNA tests have identified the remains of what may prove to be China's first foreign worker - an early European who worked on the mausoleum of China's first emperor.
The DNA tests were done on remains from one of the laborers' tombs surrounding the mausoleum of Qinshihuang, in northwestern Shaanxi Province.
The mausoleum was built more than 2,200 years ago.
Science & Technology
The first tomb to be unveiled in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since King Tutankhamun's contains jewelry and embalming materials, but no mummy.
When the tomb and its seven coffins were uncovered in February, researchers expected to find a royal mummy, given the site was metres from Tut's tomb. Dozens of Egyptian pharoahs and their relatives were laid to rest at the site.
When the tomb and its seven coffins were uncovered in February, researchers expected to find a royal mummy, given the site was metres from Tut's tomb. Dozens of Egyptian pharoahs and their relatives were laid to rest at the site.
Ottawa- Snaggle-toothed hockey players and sugar lovers may soon rejoice as Canadian scientists said they have created the first device able to re-grow teeth and bones.
The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada.
The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada.
Columbus, OH - Ohio State engineers have invented a radar system that is virtually undetectable because its signal resembles random noise. The radar could have applications in law enforcement, the military and disaster rescue.
Eric Walton, senior research scientist in Ohio State's ElectroScience Laboratory, said that with further development the technology could even be used for medical imaging. He explained why using random noise makes the radar system invisible.
"Almost all radio receivers in the world are designed to eliminate random noise so that they can clearly receive the signal they're looking for," Walton said. "Radio receivers could search for this radar signal and they wouldn't find it. It also won't interfere with TV, radio or other communication signals."
Eric Walton, senior research scientist in Ohio State's ElectroScience Laboratory, said that with further development the technology could even be used for medical imaging. He explained why using random noise makes the radar system invisible.
"Almost all radio receivers in the world are designed to eliminate random noise so that they can clearly receive the signal they're looking for," Walton said. "Radio receivers could search for this radar signal and they wouldn't find it. It also won't interfere with TV, radio or other communication signals."
Atlanta, GA - Georgia Tech researchers have created a new combustor (combustion chamber where fuel is burned to power an engine or gas turbine) designed to burn fuel in a wide range of devices - with next to no emission of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO), two of the primary causes of air pollution.
The device has a simpler design than existing state-of-the-art combustors and could be manufactured and maintained at a much lower cost, making it more affordable in everything from jet engines and power plants to home water heaters.
The device has a simpler design than existing state-of-the-art combustors and could be manufactured and maintained at a much lower cost, making it more affordable in everything from jet engines and power plants to home water heaters.
Changchun, -- Chinese archaeologists have discovered a group of ancient tombs shaped like pyramids, dating back at least 3,000 years, in Jiaohe City of northeast China's Jilin Province.
The tombs, covering an area of 500,000 square meters (1,000 meters long and 500 meters wide), were found after water erosion exposed part of a mountain, revealing two of the tombs.
The tombs, covering an area of 500,000 square meters (1,000 meters long and 500 meters wide), were found after water erosion exposed part of a mountain, revealing two of the tombs.
New observations from ESA's Cluster and Double Star spacecraft have found that that space around the Earth fizzes as bubbles of superheated gas are created and popped. These bubbles are known as density holes, and they occur when gas in a region drops in density, but rises in temperature. The European spacecraft encountered these bubbles on the day-lit side of Earth at an altitude of 13-19 Earth radii. Scientists aren't exactly sure what's causing these bubbles, but it has something to do with the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind.
On Nov. 7, using a 10-inch-diameter telescope, astronomers recorded a tiny blip northwest of Mare Imbrium, the moon's "Sea of Showers." Such impacts are not uncommon, but it was only in 1999 that scientists first recorded a lunar strike as it happened.
"People just do not look at the moon anymore," said Dr. Robert Suggs, Space Environment team lead in the Natural Environments Branch of the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate. "We tend to think of it as a known quantity. But there is knowledge still to be gained here."
"People just do not look at the moon anymore," said Dr. Robert Suggs, Space Environment team lead in the Natural Environments Branch of the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate. "We tend to think of it as a known quantity. But there is knowledge still to be gained here."
Congress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway.
Hiding objects inside a cloak that channels light around them to make it look as if they aren't there may soon be possible thanks to a breakthrough idea by materials scientists. It raises the prospect of invisibility shields that could hide objects sitting right under your nose.
Objects are visible simply because light scatters off their surfaces and into your eyes. So in theory, a cloaking device could work by steering light around an object so that you see only the light from behind it, and not the object itself. Now John Pendry, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London, and his colleagues have worked out how this could be done with a spherical cloak that channels light around an object hidden at its centre (see Diagram).
The stuff that makes this plausible is a new generation of "metamaterials", which can be tailored to have exotic electrical and magnetic properties not found in nature. The metamaterials developed so far consist of complex arrays of metal washer-like shapes and wires. The metal shapes are smaller than the wavelength of light and so interact with it, explains Pendry. "On these scales, it is not the chemical properties of the metal that determine how it interacts with light, it's the metal's structure."
The new idea is to build a sphere of metamaterial whose components are arranged in such a way that they bend radiation around the central cavity before sending it on its way, like a ring road diverting traffic around a town.
© New Scientist
The stuff that makes this plausible is a new generation of "metamaterials", which can be tailored to have exotic electrical and magnetic properties not found in nature. The metamaterials developed so far consist of complex arrays of metal washer-like shapes and wires. The metal shapes are smaller than the wavelength of light and so interact with it, explains Pendry. "On these scales, it is not the chemical properties of the metal that determine how it interacts with light, it's the metal's structure."
The new idea is to build a sphere of metamaterial whose components are arranged in such a way that they bend radiation around the central cavity before sending it on its way, like a ring road diverting traffic around a town.
