Science & TechnologyS


Info

Proto-humans mastered fire 790,000 years ago

The charred remains of flint from prehistoric firesides suggest our ancient ancestors had learned how to create fire 790,000 years ago.

Previous research had shown that early humans - probably Homo erectus or Homo ergaster - from this period could manipulate and use fire, but it wasn't clear whether they had the ability to create the fire themselves, or whether they stole fire from natural occurrences like lightning strikes.

To investigate, Nira Alperson-Afil from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, analysed archaeological remains from the shore of an ancient lake near the river Jordan.

The site includes 12 layers of remains from different groups of early humans covering a 100,000 year span, and has been dated back to 790,000 years ago, long before modern Homo sapiens evolved. As each society left the region, water from the lake washed over the site and buried the remains, preserving their tools for archaeologists to analyse.

Telescope

No ice rinks on the Moon after all

Hopes for large lakes of frozen water at the Moon's poles have taken another bashing, with new images of a prominent crater revealing dull lunar dust instead of shiny pools of ice.

A decade ago, NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft suggested the Moon's poles boast large concentrations of hydrogen near the surface, which could be in the form of frozen water deposited by comets. This would be vital for future colonies on the Moon, providing drinking water for astronauts and hydrogen fuel for their vehicles.
Shackleton Crater
© J Haruyama et al./JAXA/ScienceThe 10.5-km wide Shackleton Crater near the Moon's south pole is in permanent shadow, but a portion of the crater's inner wall is lit by sunlight (left); that sunlight then scatters, revealing the inside of the crater in an enhanced image taken by Japan's Kaguya probe.

The Shackleton Crater on the south pole had been a prominent candidate for a future base station, since it contains a ledge on its rim that would have been an ideal landing spot.

Telescope

Mars craters might be scars from fallen moon

An unusual pair of craters on Mars formed when a moon broke apart before crashing into the planet's surface about a billion years ago, a new study suggests.

The craters could hint at what lies in store for Phobos, a potato-shaped moon that is expected to smash into Mars millions of years from now.

The two craters, which lie about 12.5 kilometres apart, share the same oval shape and nearly the same west-east alignment.
a fallen moon that broke apart in Mars's atmosphere
© NASAThe alignment of two oval-shaped craters – one spanning 10 km (right) and the other, 3 km – hints they might have been gouged out by a fallen moon that broke apart in Mars's atmosphere.

Similar crater pairs are seen elsewhere, including a duo called "Messier" on the Moon (scroll down for image). The Messier craters may have formed from a pair of orbiting asteroids that crashed to the surface together at a low impact angle.

But John Chappelow and Rob Herrick of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, say there is only a 2% chance that the two craters on Mars formed that way.

They say the original asteroids in such a pair could have orbited each other in any configuration, making the craters' observed alignment unlikely. "In such a case, the craters should be oriented randomly," Chappelow told New Scientist.

Instead, their calculations suggests that a moonlet about 1.5 km wide was pulled into a 'death spiral' by the planet's gravity. It then broke apart in the atmosphere, where atmospheric drag separated the pieces so that they struck the ground at different points. They say the pieces probably hit the surface at an oblique angle of 10° or less.

Info

Why did Neanderthals have such big noses?

The Neanderthal's huge nose is a fluke of evolution, not some grand adaptation, research suggests.

The Neanderthal nose has been a matter of befuddlement for anthropologists, who point out that modern cold-adapted humans have narrow noses to moisten and warm air as it enters the lung, and reduce water and heat loss during exhalation.
Neanderthal
© Wikimedia CommonsMuseum recreation of a Neanderthal

Big noses tend to be found in people whose ancestor's evolved in tropical climates, where a large nasal opening helps cool the body.

But Neanderthals go against this trend, says Tim Weaver, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study.

Target

Mechanism In Cells That Generate Malignant Brain Tumors May Offer Target For Gene Therapy

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute who first isolated cancer stem cells in adult brain tumors in 2004 have now identified a molecular mechanism that is involved in the development of these cells from which malignant brain tumors may originate. This could offer a target for scientists seeking treatments that would kill malignant brain tumors at their source and prevent them from recurring.

Frog

Modern Genetics Versus Ancient Frog-killing Fungus

frog
© Jeanne Robertson/University of IdahoA photo is of the frog species Hylalinobatrachium valerioi, one of the many species in decline in Central America
Scientists at the University of Idaho currently are involved in a CSI-like investigation of a killer known to have been running rampant for the past decade. But the killer's name can't be found on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Instead, it's on the minds of ecologists on every continent in the world.

Its name is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It is a "chytrid" fungus that lives on keratin, a type of protein found in the skin of amphibians, and is particularly deadly for certain species of frogs. A summary of key findings from the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment states that 43 percent of all frog species are declining in population, with less than 1 percent showing increases. Although there are many reasons for frog decline, including climate change and habitat loss, Bd seriously is affecting a growing number of species.

Comment:
"This fungus is really bizarre," [...] "It's a member of an group of ancient fungi that are at least a half billion years old. But it only recently began killing amphibians and unequivocally is responsible for a lot of the catastrophic frog die-offs during the past decade."
That sounds very interesting: an ancient fungus, half billion years old, is re-appearing and contributes to the decline in frogs' populations. Is it possible that this fungus has any relationship to impacts from outer space, as we speculated few months ago?


Sherlock

21st Century Detective Work Reveals How Ancient Rock Got Off To A Hot Start

A new technique using X-rays has enabled scientists to play 'detective' and solve the debate about the origins of a three billion year old rock fragment.

In the study, published in the journal Nature, a scientist describes the new technique and shows how it can be used to analyse tiny samples of molten rock called magma, yielding important clues about the Earth's early history.
Komatiites
© Imperial College LondonKomatiites are formed from super hot molten rock.

Working in conjunction with Australian and US scientists, an Imperial College London researcher analysed a magma using the Chicago synchrotron, a kilometre sized circular particle accelerator that is commonly used to probe the structure of materials.

Sherlock

Greece unearths Neolithic home, household equipment

Athens - Archaeologists in northern Greece have unearthed the ruins of a Neolithic house, a rare find that offers valuable information about everyday life 6,000 years ago, the Greek culture ministry said Friday.

A kitchen area with two ovens, clay pots and stone tools, and two more rooms show stone age farmers processed grains in the house, which appears to have burned down.

"This is a rare case. All findings have remained untouched by farming or any other activity for about 6,000 years," the ministry said in a statement.

"This excavation has given us valuable information about architecture at the time."

Satellite

After Chandrayaan, India is going to be in deep space

space craft
© mynews.in
India is the sixth country in the world to go for a lunar mission. Our maiden lunar space craft, Chandrayaan-1, has been successfully launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the journey has already begin on the morning of October 22 from Sriharikota.

Rocket

GOCE launch delayed until 2009

GOCE mounted onto the Breeze-KM Upper Stage
© ESAGOCE mounted onto the Breeze-KM Upper Stage
The Russian authorities responsible for the Rockot launcher that shall carry ESA's GOCE Earth Explorer satellite into orbit have completed the investigation of a failure in the guidance and navigation system of the launcher's Upper Stage (Breeze KM).