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Hair Reveals Ancient Peruvians Were Stressed

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:48 UTC
Image
© Andrew Nelson
Remains of an individual buried in Cajamarquilla, Peru. The hair from this and other remains showed high levels of a stress hormone.
High levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, are found in the hair of ancient human remains.

People in the past were very stressed out, suggests a new study that found high amounts of a stress hormone in the hair of Peruvian individuals who lived between 550 A.D. and 1532.

The study, accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, is the first to detect the stress hormone cortisol in ancient hair. Cortisol is produced in response to real and perceived threats. After its release, the hormone travels to nearly every part of the body, including to blood, saliva, urine and hair.

It now may be possible to determine not only how ancient people behaved, but also how they felt.
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Magnify

China had bronze early on


Science Alert
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:56 UTC
Image
© Stockphoto
From the site, it looks as though the
people may have left when the wood stocks
were exhausted, leaving the place to
become a desert.
ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) research has shown that an area of desert in north-western China was once a thriving Bronze Age manufacturing and agricultural site. The new findings may help shed light on the origins and development of the earliest applications of Bronze Age technology.

Dating, using ANSTO's precision techniques, was used to identify the age of seeds, slag, copper ore and charcoal at two sites. The findings show the material is up to 3700 years old, but that smelting was still being carried out as recently as 1300 years ago.

The research indicates bronze production may have begun as early as 2135 BC and that the modern mine location - Baishantang at Dingxin - was possibly the historical source of copper ore for manufacturing.
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Info

'Smell of old books' offers clues to help preserve them

Michael Bernstein
American Chemical Society
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:45 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia Commons
Old books give off an unmistakable, musty odor that scientists can use to assess the book's condition.
Scientists may not be able to tell a good book by its cover, but they now can tell the condition of an old book by its smell. In a report in ACS' Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal, they describe development of a new test that can measure the degradation of old books and precious historical documents based on their smell. The nondestructive "sniff" test could help libraries and museums preserve a range of prized paper-based objects, some of which are degrading rapidly due to advancing age, the scientists say.
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Laptop

Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to 'see'

Michael Patrick Rutter
Harvard University
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:39 UTC
Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware.

The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound - and profoundly difficult to mimic. Neuroscientists have made broad advances in understanding the visual system, but much of the inner workings of biologically-based systems remain a mystery.
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Sun

Captured on Film: Hottest Star in the Galaxy

Russell Jenkins
Times Online
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:48 UTC
Image

The temperature on the star's surface is 200,000C, 35 times hotter than the Sun
Astronomers have taken the first pictures of one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy. The temperature on its surface is 200,000C, 35 times hotter than the Sun.

The mysterious dying star at the heart of the Bug Nebula - 3,500 light years away in the constellation Scorpius - has never been seen before as it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice.

A team of astronomers at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre of Astrophysics, led by Professor Albert Zijlstra, recorded the images using the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope. They will be published in the Astrophysical Journal next week.
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Robot

New Sharp Flat Panel Factory: No Humans on Assembly Line

Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:12 UTC
Sakai, Japan - Huge sheets of glass are guided by robotic arms, sliding and turning in a towering germ-free plant, the world's first making giant "10th generation" panels for flat screen TVs.

Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp.'s futuristic-looking plant doesn't have a single worker on the floor. Each sheet, measuring about 3 meters (3.3 yards) by 3 meters, is being made and tested by computerized machines.

Reporters were allowed a tour Monday of the liquid crystal display plant, which began running last month, in this city near Osaka, west of Tokyo. No photography was allowed, and visitors had to pass a temperature-check at the gate and could look inside only through selected windows.
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Info

Wreck May Hold Clue to Nation's Discovery

Steve Meacham
Sydney Morning Herald
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:16 UTC
Image
© Steven Siewert
Wreck hunter... Kieran Hosty with a map of the reef.
Did American whalers discover the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook?

That is the intriguing question a crack team of maritime archaeologists, divers and marine scientists hope to answer when they sail tomorrow for a remote reef 450 kilometres off the coast of Queensland.

The expedition leader, Kieran Hosty, describes the 200-year-old mystery of Wreck Reef as one of the great untold sagas of our maritime history.
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Info

Maha group finds cave paintings in Satpura ranges


Sakaal times
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:08 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Cave painting found in Satpura ranges in Madhya Pradesh.
Mumbai - A group of naturalists from Amravati districts has discovered a set of 17 unique cave paintings in the nature-rich Satpura range of Madhya Pradesh - which opens up new avenues of research as this art form are believed to be of Paleolithic period.

The group call themselves, 'Hope', and has been working since the last six years on this project. The group include scientist Dr V T Ingole, wildlife writer PS Hirurkar, Padmakar Lad, Shirishkumar Patil, Dnyaneswar Damahe and Manohar Khode. They are a group of nature and bird lovers, and luckily chanced upon these unique paintings.
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Telescope

Blushing dusty nebula

Colleen Sharkey
Hubble/ESA
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:56 UTC
Image
© NASA & ESA
North is down, East is right. The field of view is 3.3 arcminutes. The image is a composite of four images obtained through blue, green, near-infrared and H-alpha filters.
A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of part of NGC 7023, or the Iris Nebula, highlights a perfect dust laboratory in the sky.

On Earth, we tend to find dust nothing more than a nuisance that blankets our furniture and causes us to sneeze. Cosmic dust can also be a hindrance to astronomers because cameras using visible light cannot see through it. However, studying cosmic dust in detail helps astronomers to pin down the ingredients of the raw mixture that eventually gives birth to stars.
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Info

Shape Shifters: NC State Creates New Breed Of Antennas

Matt Shipman
North Carolina State University
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:49 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The antenna consists of liquid metal injected into elastomeric microchannels. The antennas can be deformed (twisted and bent) since the mechanical properties are dictated by the elastomer and not the metal.
Antennas aren't just for listening to the radio anymore. They're used in everything from cell phones to GPS devices. Research from North Carolina State University is revolutionizing the field of antenna design - creating shape-shifting antennas that open the door to a host of new uses in fields ranging from public safety to military deployment.

Modern antennas are made from copper or other metals, but there are limitations to how far they can be bent - and how often - before they break completely. NC State scientists have created antennas using an alloy that "can be bent, stretched, cut and twisted - and will return to its original shape," says Dr. Michael Dickey, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of the research.
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