Science & Technology
A headless skeleton found in a Peruvian tomb is adding new wrinkles to the debate over human sacrifice in the ancient Andes.
The decapitated body was found in the Nasca region, named for the ancient civilization that thrived in southern Peru from A.D. 1 to 750.
|
| ©Christina Conlee
|
| Archaeologists working in southern Peru discovered this headless skeleton in a seated position next to a "head jar" (inset) likely meant to serve as a substitute for the missing skull.
|
Can ESP help you win the lottery? Most developed countries have had public lotteries for many years -- in the case of nations like France and Spain, for centuries. It was not, however, until 1989 that anyone realised that public numerical lotteries provide an unparalleled opportunity to test for the existence of paranormal abilities. Russian astrophysicist Mark Zilberman realised that the historical results of public lotteries provide a colossal statistical base that is completely independent of the observer and that relates to just one goal -- attempting to predict the outcome of a random process.
International Business Machines Corp. said on Friday it is releasing software that can predict the spread of infectious diseases among countries.
Robert Todd Carroll is one of a growing band of non-scientists (he teaches philosophy) who believe they are qualified to tell us what we should and shouldn't believe, scientifically. That he has no scientific qualifications, or training, or professional experience, does not deter Carroll from his conviction that he is an authority on this subject and, in The Skeptic's Dictionary, he sets out to tell us ordinary people what we may and may not legitimately think.
This bogus-guru stance should be warning enough of what is to follow but, once he warms to his subject, Carroll's inhibitions disappear completely and he veers from the dogmatic to the preposterous in a hilarious display of scientific ignorance and prejudice. From a mountain of mistakes and misunderstandings, here are a few of his more entertaining errors.
Jon Cartwright
PhysicsWebThu, 07 Jun 2007 17:05 UTC
Physicists in the US have shown that the Casimir force -- a mysterious quantum phenomenon that draws nearby mirrors together -- can exist in a fluid. The researchers found that two gold-plated surfaces submerged in ethanol experienced the attraction when brought within 200 nm of each other, albeit two times weaker than the force that would be found in a vacuum. This could, they say, lead to a new "quantum floatation" effect, which could be used to design better sensors.
First predicted by Hendrik Casimir in 1948, the Casmir force arises when two facing mirrors are brought towards each other in a vacuum. According to quantum mechanics, any electromagnetic fields bouncing back and forth between the mirrors should constantly fluctuate in strength. At very small mirror separations these fields exert a radiation pressure on the surfaces that is, on average, stronger on the outer than the inner surfaces. This causes an overall Casimir force that draws the surfaces together.
ALBQUERQUE, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Mind Research Network (MRN) today announced a new approach for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and neurological disorders. The integration of multi-modal neuroimaging, genetic mapping, and psychopharmacology may revolutionize how mental disorders are diagnosed. Currently, the standard diagnostic tool for all mental disorders is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This manual provides guidelines that are subject to interpretation which can vary from doctor to doctor. This new integrated approach would augment the DSM to provide a more reliable and consistent diagnosis.
AFPThu, 07 Jun 2007 09:41 UTC
A mini-meteorite has left a bullet- sized hole in a module of the International Space Station (ISS), but the three-person US-Russian team of astronauts inside are not in danger, a Russian official said.
Three separate teams of scientists on Wednesday claimed to have made a breakthrough involving what has become the Holy Grail of stem-cell research: producing a cell that can grow into any type of tissue without destroying an embryo.
But several experts said it was unlikely that the technique would significantly alter the controversial work of California's $3 billion stem cell institute, which focuses on cells derived from discarded three-to-five day old embryos. The experts include recipients of the institute's grants.
Following on work done by Japanese scientists last year, the teams reported in the journals Nature and Cell Stem Cell that they had reprogrammed mouse skin cells to behave like embryonic cells, dubbed "pluripotent" because they can turn into any tissue in the body.
Jason Dobson
GamasutraThu, 07 Jun 2007 01:12 UTC
It's becoming more and more common to see young children using electronic devices including game consoles, according to a new report issued by consumer and retail information company The NPD Group.
The report indicates that, on average, children begin using electronic devices at 6.7 years old, down swiftly from 8.1 years in 2005.
Portable game consoles were found to be the electronics that kids were most likely to have, with 39 percent of those surveyed owning one. Console hardware pulled a slightly lower adoption rate among children, at 29 percent.
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.
