A prehistoric complex, including two 6,000-year-old tombs, has been discovered by archaeologists in Hampshire.
The Neolithic tombs, which until now had gone unnoticed under farmland despite being just 15 miles from Stonehenge, are some of the oldest monuments to have been found in Britain.
Archaeologists say they will hold valuable clues about how people lived at the time and what their environment was like.
The discovery is also close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most well researched prehistoric areas in Europe.
Science & Technology
The secret of a successful sandcastle could aid the revival of an ancient eco-friendly building technique, according to research led by Durham University.
Researchers, led by experts at Durham's School of Engineering, have carried out a study into the strength of rammed earth, which is growing in popularity as a sustainable building method. Just as a sandcastle needs a little water to stand up, the Durham engineers found that the strength of rammed earth was heavily dependent on its water content.
Rammed earth is a manufactured material made up of sand, gravel and clay which is moistened and then compacted between forms to build walls. Sometimes stabilisers such as cement are added but the Durham research focussed on unstabilised materials.
Researchers, led by experts at Durham's School of Engineering, have carried out a study into the strength of rammed earth, which is growing in popularity as a sustainable building method. Just as a sandcastle needs a little water to stand up, the Durham engineers found that the strength of rammed earth was heavily dependent on its water content.
Rammed earth is a manufactured material made up of sand, gravel and clay which is moistened and then compacted between forms to build walls. Sometimes stabilisers such as cement are added but the Durham research focussed on unstabilised materials.
© NASA/JPL
Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Engineers brought the spacecraft out of the standby mode on June 6. Cameras and other scientific instruments resumed operation June 9.
Rochester, N.Y- U.S. physicists are using an ultra-fast laser to create metal that can attract, repel and guide liquids.
University of Rochester scientists said they are able to create a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle as do trees to lift water from the ground -- capillary action -- but at a much faster rate, the researchers said.
Associate Professor Chunlei Guo, who led the study, and researcher Anatoliy Vorobyev, use an ultra-fast burst of femtosecond laser light to change the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale pits, globules and strands across the metal's surface.
University of Rochester scientists said they are able to create a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle as do trees to lift water from the ground -- capillary action -- but at a much faster rate, the researchers said.
Associate Professor Chunlei Guo, who led the study, and researcher Anatoliy Vorobyev, use an ultra-fast burst of femtosecond laser light to change the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale pits, globules and strands across the metal's surface.
A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is the latest addition to the IDF's technological achievements.
According to a Channel 2 report, the spying robot, about two meters long and covered in army camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of a real snake, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, sending images and sound back to a soldier controlling the device through a laptop. The snake has a single camera on front end.
Able to bend its joints so well that it can slither through very tight spaces, the new robotic device will be utilized to find people buried under rubble of collapsed buildings. Furthermore, the snake is able to arch its body straight, allowing it to see over obstacles.
More than 100 feet deep in Lake Huron, on a wide stoney ridge that 9,000 years ago was a land bridge, University of Michigan researchers have found the first archeological evidence of human activity preserved beneath the Great Lakes.
The researchers located what they believe to be caribou-hunting structures and camps used by the early hunters of the period.
"This is the first time we've identified structures like these on the lake bottom," said John O'Shea, curator of Great Lakes Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology and professor in the Department of Anthropology. "Scientifically, it's important because the entire ancient landscape has been preserved and has not been modified by farming, or modern development. That has implications for ecology, archaeology and environmental modeling."
A paper about the findings is published in the June 8 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors are O'Shea and Guy Meadows, director of the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories and a professor in the departments of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
The researchers located what they believe to be caribou-hunting structures and camps used by the early hunters of the period.
"This is the first time we've identified structures like these on the lake bottom," said John O'Shea, curator of Great Lakes Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology and professor in the Department of Anthropology. "Scientifically, it's important because the entire ancient landscape has been preserved and has not been modified by farming, or modern development. That has implications for ecology, archaeology and environmental modeling."
A paper about the findings is published in the June 8 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors are O'Shea and Guy Meadows, director of the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories and a professor in the departments of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
A synthetic DNA binding compound has proved surprisingly effective at binding to the DNA of bacteria and killing all the bacteria it touched within two minutes. The DNA binding properties of the compound were first discovered in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick by Professor Mike Hannon and Professor Alison Rodger (Professor Mike Hannon is now at the University of Birmingham). However the strength of its antibiotic powers have now made it a compound of high interest for University of Warwick researchers working on the development of novel antibiotics.
Dr Adair Richards from the University of Warwick said:
"This research will assist the design of new compounds that can attack bacteria in a highly effective way which gets around the methods bacteria have developed to resist our current antibacterial drugs. As this antibiotic compound operates by targeting DNA, it should avoid all current resistance mechanisms of multi-resistant bacteria such as MRSA."
The compound [Fe2L3]4+ is an iron triple helicate with three organic strands wrapped around two iron centres to give a helix which looks cylindrical in shape and neatly fits within the major groove of a DNA helix. It is about the same size as the parts of a protein that recognise and bind with particular sequences of DNA. The high positive charge of the compound enhances its ability to bind to DNA which is negatively charged.
Dr Adair Richards from the University of Warwick said:
"This research will assist the design of new compounds that can attack bacteria in a highly effective way which gets around the methods bacteria have developed to resist our current antibacterial drugs. As this antibiotic compound operates by targeting DNA, it should avoid all current resistance mechanisms of multi-resistant bacteria such as MRSA."
The compound [Fe2L3]4+ is an iron triple helicate with three organic strands wrapped around two iron centres to give a helix which looks cylindrical in shape and neatly fits within the major groove of a DNA helix. It is about the same size as the parts of a protein that recognise and bind with particular sequences of DNA. The high positive charge of the compound enhances its ability to bind to DNA which is negatively charged.
© Cetin Bal
Scientists have found that, when twins are orbiting a massive object, time dilation can cause the accelerated twin to be older if that twin is moving slower than the other twin; in this case, velocity is the deciding factor of age, and the twin with the greater velocity is younger.
Scientists have found that, when twins are orbiting a massive object, time dilation can cause the accelerated twin to be older if that twin is moving slower than the other twin; in this case, velocity is the deciding factor of age, and the twin with the greater velocity is younger.
Physicist Marek Abramowicz of Goteborg University in Sweden and astronomer Stanislaw Bajtlik of the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warszawa, Poland, have proposed the surprising new version of the twin paradox, which at first seems to run contrary to the traditional version. However, the scientists show that the traditional version is actually a specific case of a more general concept.
"In the best known version of the twin paradox, the twin who is accelerated is younger," Abramowicz and Bajtlik told PhysOrg.com. "In the version discussed by us the accelerated twin is older. It is quite surprising. It is almost as to say that 'the older twin is younger.'"
Mercury should have trouble hanging on to its atmosphere. It is the closest planet to the sun , its searing daytime temperatures top 800 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius and its gravity is weak, only about 38 percent of Earth's. These conditions don't hold air.
New clues to why Mercury does have a thin atmosphere have been discovered by the MESSENGER spacecraft.
"Mercury's atmosphere is so thin, it would have vanished long ago unless something was replenishing it," James Slavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.
That something is the solar wind, charged particles that stream out from the sun and which have a tricky way of skirting the planet's protective magnetic field. The planet has tornado-like magnetic vortices that let charged particles from the sun pour in, Slavin and his colleagues found. The particles kick up atoms at the surface that replenish the planet's thin atmosphere.
New clues to why Mercury does have a thin atmosphere have been discovered by the MESSENGER spacecraft.
"Mercury's atmosphere is so thin, it would have vanished long ago unless something was replenishing it," James Slavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.
That something is the solar wind, charged particles that stream out from the sun and which have a tricky way of skirting the planet's protective magnetic field. The planet has tornado-like magnetic vortices that let charged particles from the sun pour in, Slavin and his colleagues found. The particles kick up atoms at the surface that replenish the planet's thin atmosphere.
© NASA/Dana Berry
Isolated pulsars gradually slow their spins, but the opposite happens if the pulsar is joined by a companion star as part of a binary system. Gas accreted from the star can force the pulsar to spin faster, resulting in rotation periods of just a few milliseconds.
Isolated pulsars gradually slow their spins, but the opposite happens if the pulsar is joined by a companion star as part of a binary system. Gas accreted from the star can force the pulsar to spin faster, resulting in rotation periods of just a few milliseconds.
"An accurate determination of pulsar ages is of fundamental importance, because it has ramifications for understanding the formation and evolution of pulsars, the physics of neutron stars, and other areas," he said.
Kiziltan has been working with Stephen Thorsett, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC, to study the evolution of millisecond pulsars. He will present their new findings at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena on Monday, June 8.
