NASA's new infrared space telescope was launched into orbit on Monday on a 10-month mission expected to reveal previously unseen objects ranging from near-Earth asteroids to some of the most distant galaxies in the cosmos.
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, was carried into a polar orbit 326 miles above Earth by a Delta II rocket that lifted off before dawn from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California.
"All systems are looking good, and we are on our way to seeing the entire sky better than ever before," said William Irace, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Science & Technology
The claim was both simple and terrifying: that temperatures on planet Earth are now 'likely the highest in at least the past 1,300 years'. As its authors from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) must have expected, it made headlines around the world.
Yet some of the scientists who helped to draft it, The Mail on Sunday can reveal, harboured uncomfortable doubts. In the words of one, David Rind from the US space agency Nasa, it 'looks like there were years around 1000AD that could have been just as warm'.
Yet some of the scientists who helped to draft it, The Mail on Sunday can reveal, harboured uncomfortable doubts. In the words of one, David Rind from the US space agency Nasa, it 'looks like there were years around 1000AD that could have been just as warm'.
Scientists say evidence in the ice of Antarctica and Greenland shows a volcanic eruption, probably near the equator, contributed to global cooling early in the 19th century.
Global warming may be making some people nervous now, but from 1810 to 1819, people worried because the Earth was colder than usual.
For an entire decade, the Earth cooled almost a full degree Fahrenheit. In fact, 1816 was known as the year without a summer. And until recently, scientists weren't quite sure why everyone was shivering.
The chill of 1816 has long been blamed on an Indonesian volcano called Tambora, which erupted the year before. But no one could figure out why the years before Tambora's eruption were also colder than usual.
Global warming may be making some people nervous now, but from 1810 to 1819, people worried because the Earth was colder than usual.
For an entire decade, the Earth cooled almost a full degree Fahrenheit. In fact, 1816 was known as the year without a summer. And until recently, scientists weren't quite sure why everyone was shivering.
The chill of 1816 has long been blamed on an Indonesian volcano called Tambora, which erupted the year before. But no one could figure out why the years before Tambora's eruption were also colder than usual.
© Bill Cooke
Click here to watch an early-arriving Geminid streak past the Moon on Dec. 9th.
Several genome-wide studies of human genetic diversity have been conducted on European populations. Now, for the first time, these studies have been extended to 73 Southeast Asian (SEA) and East Asian (EA) populations.
In a paper titled, "Mapping Human Genetic Diversity in Asia," published in online Science on 10 Dec. 2009, over 90 scientists from the Human Genome Organisation's (HUGO's) Pan-Asian SNP Consortium report that their study conducted within and between the different populations in the Asia continent showed that genetic ancestry was highly correlated with ethnic and linguistic groups.
In a paper titled, "Mapping Human Genetic Diversity in Asia," published in online Science on 10 Dec. 2009, over 90 scientists from the Human Genome Organisation's (HUGO's) Pan-Asian SNP Consortium report that their study conducted within and between the different populations in the Asia continent showed that genetic ancestry was highly correlated with ethnic and linguistic groups.
© Unknown
The Pan-Asian SNP Consortium of The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) conducted the study on almost 2,000 Asians finding genetic similarities between Asians throughout the continent.
Some 90 scientists from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the US were involved in the consortium, BBC reported.
According to the study published in the journal Science, an increasing genetic diversity from northern towards southern latitudes were found.
In a new research, a team of archaeologists has disputed claims made by experts that the ancient Mayans agricultural practices led to their eventual collapse, and that the forest gardens cultivated by the Maya demonstrate their great appreciation for the environment.
Many archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scholars are of the opinion that the Mayan civilization's slash-and-burn approach to farming caused such widespread environmental devastation that the land simply could not sustain them.
But, research conducted by Anabel Ford, an archaeologist at UC Santa Barbara and director of the university's MesoAmerican Research Center, suggests the contrary may be true -- that the forest gardens cultivated by the Maya demonstrate their great appreciation for the environment.
A forest garden is an unplowed, tree-dominated plot that sustains biodiversity and animal habitat while producing plants for food, shelter, and medicine.
Many archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scholars are of the opinion that the Mayan civilization's slash-and-burn approach to farming caused such widespread environmental devastation that the land simply could not sustain them.
But, research conducted by Anabel Ford, an archaeologist at UC Santa Barbara and director of the university's MesoAmerican Research Center, suggests the contrary may be true -- that the forest gardens cultivated by the Maya demonstrate their great appreciation for the environment.
A forest garden is an unplowed, tree-dominated plot that sustains biodiversity and animal habitat while producing plants for food, shelter, and medicine.
© R. Pibernat
The team made a reconstruction of the Mediterranean during the "megaflood."
The team made a reconstruction of the Mediterranean during the "megaflood."
The flood occurred when Atlantic waters found their way into the cut-off and desiccated Mediterranean basin.
The researchers say that a 200km channel across the Gibraltar strait was carved out by the floodwaters.
Their findings, published in Nature, show that the resulting flood could have filled the basin within two years.
The team was led by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos from the Research Council of Spain (CSIC).
He explained that he and his colleagues laid the foundations for this study by working on tectonic lakes.
© iStockphoto/Amy Harris
View of the Lost Incan City of Machu Picchu near Cusco, Peru.
View of the Lost Incan City of Machu Picchu near Cusco, Peru.
While the physiological state wasn't properly named until the 1930s, new research from The University of Western Ontario proves stress has plagued humans for hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years.
The first study of its kind, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, detected the stress hormone cortisol in the hair of ancient Peruvians, who lived between 550 and 1532 A.D.
When an individual is stressed -- due to real or perceived threats -- cortisol is released into nearly every part of the body, including blood, saliva, urine and hair.
© Edison Caetano
Uncovering civilisation
Uncovering civilisation
The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin - in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story.
"It's never-ending," says Denise Schaan of the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil, who made many of the new discoveries from planes or by examining Google Earth images. "Every week we find new structures." Some of them are square or rectangular, while others form concentric circles or complex geometric figures such as hexagons and octagons connected by avenues or roads. The researchers describe them all as geoglyphs.
