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Astronomers Discover Rare 'Green Pea' Galaxies


Asian News International
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:58 UTC
Green Peas
© Carolin Cardamone and Sloan Digital Sky Survey
A "Green Pea" galaxy, at left, isn't like the typical galaxy at right.
A team of astronomers has discovered a group of rare galaxies called the "Green Peas", which could lend unique insights into how galaxies form stars in the early universe.

The galaxies were discovered with the help of citizen scientists working through an online project called Galaxy Zoo.

The Galaxy Zoo users, who volunteer their spare time to help classify galaxies in an online image bank, came across a number of objects that stuck out because of their small size and bright green color.

They dubbed them the "Green Peas".
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Pharoah

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Unwrapping Of A Mummy


Archaeology Magazine
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:47 UTC
Edward Bleiberg
© Edward Bleiberg
Edward Bleiberg
On June 23, 2009, a team from the Brooklyn Museum supervised by Edward Bleiberg, curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, and Lisa Burno, Head Objects Conservator, transported four mummies from Brooklyn to North Shore University Hospital for CT scans.

Drs. Jessie Chusid, Amgad Makaryus, and Karen Lisk of North Shore volunteered their time and services to scan four of the oldest patients they had ever encountered. The mummies on board were from various periods dating from the Third Intermediate Period (1064-656 B.C.) to the Roman Period (30 B.C.-A.D. 395).

The trip was smooth and the CT scans went without trouble. The scans produced vast amounts of data to be sorted and analyzed, but even immediate, preliminary readings of the scans revealed some very unusual discoveries.
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Meteor

Comets, Not Asteroids, to Blame for Moon's Scarred Face

Hazel Muir
New Scientist
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:29 UTC
Moon
© NASA
A new study suggests comets gouged out the vast majority of craters on the moon.
Icy comets - not rocky asteroids - launched a dramatic assault on the Earth and moon around 3.85 billion years ago, a new study of ancient rocks in Greenland suggests. The work suggests much of Earth's water could have been brought to the planet by comets.

"We can see craters on the moon's surface with the naked eye, but nobody actually knew what caused them - was it rocks, was it iron, was it ice?" says Uffe Gråe Jørgensen, an astronomer at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. "It's exciting to find signs that it was actually ice."

Evidence suggests that the Earth and moon had both formed around 4.5 billion years ago. But almost all the craters on the moon date to a later period, the "Late Heavy Bombardment" 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago, when around 100 million billion tonnes of rock or ice crashed onto the lunar surface. The Earth would have been pummelled by debris at the same time, although plate tectonics on our restless planet have since erased the scars.
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Sherlock

Archaeological Digs Uncover Qatar's Past


The Peninsula On-Line
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:21 UTC
Dig
© Unknown
Al Zubarah site
Growing interest in the archaeology of Qatar has resulted in a substantial number of new sites being discovered and significantly more archaeological research in the region.

This was apparent when an exceptional session on the archaeology of Qatar was held at the British Museum, London, as part of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 2009, recently.

The session on July 24 included lectures by representatives from universities and academic institutions on recent research and excavations conducted as part of an initiative by the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA).
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Magnify

Discovery of Sasanian Layer in the Persian Gulf's Port of Siraf


The News Section of the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:21 UTC
London -- During the archaeological research at the ancient port of Siraf in the Persian Gulf, archaeologists have identified Sasanian layers and artefacts near the Congressional Mosque, reported the Persian service of CHN.

"After opening a trench 50 meters away and on the northern section of the Siraf's Congressional Mosque, we have discovered historical layers dating to the Sasanian to post-Sasanian periods [224-850 CE]", said Mohammad Esmaili, director of archaeological research at Siraf.

The congregational mosque at Siraf was built in the 9th century on the remains of a Parthian and Sasanian dynastic building.
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Sherlock

When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age?


PhysOrg
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:00 UTC
Cave
© Natural History Museum
Gough's Cave.
The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago.

A number of stone artifacts as well as human and animal bones from excavations, spread over more than 100 years, shed further light on the nature as well as the timing of people to the cave.

Technological advances have allowed researchers at Oxford University and London's Natural History Museum to date the bones more accurately. Previous radiocarbon dates suggested a wide span of occupation of within 1000-1500 years. The new dates show a much narrower range of dates, corresponding precisely to climate warming, providing evidence that the archaeological material in the cave could have accumulated over perhaps as little as two to three human generations, centered on 14,700 years ago.
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Magnify

Nanodiamonds deliver insulin for wound healing

Kyle Delaney
Northwestern University
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:10 UTC
Bacterial infection is a major health threat to patients with severe burns and other kinds of serious wounds such as traumatic bone fractures. Recent studies have identified an important new weapon for fighting infection and healing wounds: insulin.

Now, using tiny nanodiamonds, researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated an innovative method for delivering and releasing the curative hormone at a specific location over a period of time. The nanodiamond-insulin clusters hold promise for wound-healing applications and could be integrated into gels, ointments, bandages or suture materials.
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Info

Study Sheds Light on Earthquake Hazard Along San Andreas Fault


Scripps News
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:57 UTC
Image
© Scripps Institution of Oceanography
A seismic map of the Salton Sea area reveals the grid covered by the CHIRP instrument (green lines), faults (black lines) and bomb target sites (gray boxes). The red dots represent earthquakes that have taken place in the area since 1983.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego - New research by a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers new insight into the San Andreas Fault as it extends beneath Southern California's Salton Sea. The team discovered a series of prominent faults beneath the sea, which transfer motion away from the San Andreas Fault as it disappears beneath the Salton Sea. The study provides new understanding of the intricate earthquake faults system beneath the sea and what role it may play in the earthquake cycle along the southern San Andreas Fault.

A seismic map of the Salton Sea area reveals the grid covered by the CHIRP instrument (green lines), faults (black lines) and bomb target sites (gray boxes). The red dots represent earthquakes that have taken place in the area since 1983.
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Magnify

After Dinosaurs, Mammals Rise But Their Genomes Get Smaller


PhysOrg
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:52 UTC
Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals and plants strongly suggests only one group -- mammals -- have seen their genomes shrink after the dinosaurs' extinction. What's more, that trend continues today, say Indiana University Bloomington scientists in the first issue of a new journal, Genome Biology and Evolution.

The scientists' finding might seem counter-intuitive, given that the last 65 million years have seen mammals expand in diversity and number, not to mention dominance in a wide variety of ecological roles. But it is precisely their success in numbers that could have led to the contraction of their genomes.

"Larger population sizes make natural selection more efficient," said IU Bloomington evolutionary biologist Michael Lynch, who led the study. "If we are correct, we have shown how to bring ancient genomic information together with the paleontological record to learn more about the past."
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Magnify

Tiny Troubles. How Nanoparticles Are Changing Everything From Our Sunscreen to Our Supplements

Carole Bass
Axis of Logic
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:16 UTC
Image
© Jason Verschoor/istock
Nanoparticles are in over 800 everyday products—but their health effects are not yet known.
It's a beautiful summer day. You pull on your stain-resistant cargo shorts and odor-resistant hiking socks, gulp down an energy-boosting supplement, slather yourself with sunscreen and head out for a ramble in the woods. Are you poisoning yourself? When you get home, you jump in the shower and toss your clothes in the wash. Are you poisoning the environment? Maybe.

Your sunscreen, energy drink and high-tech clothing may be among the 800-plus consumer products made with nanomaterials: those manufactured at the scale of atoms and molecules. Sunscreen that turns clear on the skin contains titanium dioxide, an ordinary UV-blocker in extraordinarily small particles. Odor-eating socks are made with atoms of germ-killing silver. Supplement makers boast of amazing health effects from swallowing nanosolutions that are completely untested for effectiveness or safety. And that stain-repellent clothing? The manufacturer won't even tell you what nanomaterials are in it.
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