Ever wondered about how old Man is?
Most scientists would reply that modern Man probably appeared around 100,000 years ago, the culmination of a long-drawn process of Darwinian evolution which begun several million years ago. This is the dominant paradigm, one that's taught in schools and universities and one which itself is the crystallisation of the efforts of researchers in the 140 or so years since Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859.
But just how accurate is this date? What if a piece of irrefutable evidence turns up which pushes back this figure significantly?
On July 8, The Straits Times ran a report that Australian researchers had unearthed stone artefacts on Flores, an Indonesian island west of Timor, which showed that boats which could be steered and propelled fairly sophisticatedly were in use 840,000 years ago.
Science & Technology
© NASA
Electron beam freeform fabrication process.
Electron beam freeform fabrication process.
That's because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, and its operation sounds like something straight out of science fiction.
"You start with a drawing of the part you want to build, you push a button, and out comes the part," said Karen Taminger, the technology lead for the Virginia-based research project that is part of NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program.
She admits that, on the surface, EBF3 reminds many people of a Star Trek replicator in which, for example, Captain Picard announces out loud, "Tea, Earl Grey, hot." Then there is a brief hum, a flash of light and the stimulating drink appears from a nook in the wall.
© Universe Today
Early on Nov. 6 the asteroid was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey and was quickly identified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge MA as an object that would soon pass very close to the Earth. JPL's Near-Earth Object Program Office also computed an orbit solution for this object, and determined that it was not headed for an impact.
© Sam Hodgson
UCSD graduate student Daren Eiri tries to attract bees into a 26-foot-long tunnel used to train the insects to find a reliable food source.
UCSD graduate student Daren Eiri tries to attract bees into a 26-foot-long tunnel used to train the insects to find a reliable food source.
"I used to hate doing this," said Eiri, a University of California, San Diego graduate student, who at the moment is a perch for honeybees occasionally landing to lick sugar from his skin. "When they're feeding I'm pretty sure they're only concerned with food." Eiri puts a squat cup of sweet liquid on top of the plate and sets the feeder inside a wooden tunnel.
But this bee-rich environment is deceptive: Eiri and the James Nieh Bee Lab at UCSD are researching a serious but poorly understood phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Despite the bees flying like popcorn up and down Eiri's carefully constructed passageway, these pollinators are perishing at an unprecedented rate in the United States and the world.
© Carrasco Vargas et al./PNAS
One corner of the painted Maya pyramid structure at Calakmul, Mexico. One layer of the mural must still be excavated.
One corner of the painted Maya pyramid structure at Calakmul, Mexico. One layer of the mural must still be excavated.
The murals were uncovered during the excavation of a pyramid mound structure at the ancient Maya site of Calakmul, Mexico (near the border with Guatemala) and are described in the Nov. 9 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The find "was a total shock," said Simon Martin of the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, who studied the paintings and hieroglyphs depicted in the murals.
The Maya have been studied for more than a century, but "this is the first time that we've seen anything like this," Martin said.
© Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni
Hundreds of bleached bones and skulls found in the desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert may be the remains of the long lost Cambyses' army, according to Italian researchers.
Hundreds of bleached bones and skulls found in the desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert may be the remains of the long lost Cambyses' army, according to Italian researchers.
Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.
Inflammatory response of brain cells -- as indicated by a molecular imaging technique -- could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
By using positron emission tomography (PET) -- a noninvasive molecular imaging technique -- researchers were to able to identify neuroinflammation, which is marked by activated microglia cells (brain cells that are responsive to injury or infection of brain tissue) in patients with schizophrenia and in animal models with migraines.
Although neuroinflammation has been shown to play a major role in many neurodegenerative disorders--such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease--only limited data exists about the role of neuroinflammation in schizophrenia and migraines. The two studies in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine are the first to identify neuroinflammation in specific regions of the brain -- a development which could be used to effectively evaluate the treatment response to anti-inflammatory drugs and become transformative for diagnosis and care.
By using positron emission tomography (PET) -- a noninvasive molecular imaging technique -- researchers were to able to identify neuroinflammation, which is marked by activated microglia cells (brain cells that are responsive to injury or infection of brain tissue) in patients with schizophrenia and in animal models with migraines.
Although neuroinflammation has been shown to play a major role in many neurodegenerative disorders--such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease--only limited data exists about the role of neuroinflammation in schizophrenia and migraines. The two studies in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine are the first to identify neuroinflammation in specific regions of the brain -- a development which could be used to effectively evaluate the treatment response to anti-inflammatory drugs and become transformative for diagnosis and care.
North Carolina officials say they have identified a Civil War shipwreck that burned at sea more than 145 years ago.
The state Underwater Archaeology Branch said Monday that a silver-plated spoon inscribed with the name of a crew member from the CSS Appomattox confirmed the ship's identity.
A four-member diving team discovered the shipwreck in August 2007 in the Pasquotank (PAS'-kwah-tank) River. They had been searching for the Appomattox for more than 10 years.
The Appomattox was part of a set of armed steamers that defended northeastern North Carolina waters.
The state Underwater Archaeology Branch said Monday that a silver-plated spoon inscribed with the name of a crew member from the CSS Appomattox confirmed the ship's identity.
A four-member diving team discovered the shipwreck in August 2007 in the Pasquotank (PAS'-kwah-tank) River. They had been searching for the Appomattox for more than 10 years.
The Appomattox was part of a set of armed steamers that defended northeastern North Carolina waters.
Imaging is the use of machines to enhance humans' ability to perceive things, often by producing visible phenomena that cannot be seen with the naked eye. But, can imaging technology distort reality and even change what humans perceive to be real?
A team of scholars led by two philosophers at Rochester Institute of Technology is exploring how the use of imaging technologies is changing our perception of reality and evaluating the overall impact this may have on what counts as legitimate knowledge and meaningful experience. The research will ultimately lead to a greater understanding of how imaging, and technology in general, is changing how we relate to each other and our surroundings.
"Now more than ever, sight and perception are shaped by the technology we use, from X-rays and MRIs of the body to the Facebook photos of friends we only know online," notes Timothy Engström, professor of philosophy at RIT and one of the leaders of the project. "In an imaging-saturated environment, sight is not about how the eye records the real, but about how imaging machines interpret and make the real available for certain kinds of use."
A team of scholars led by two philosophers at Rochester Institute of Technology is exploring how the use of imaging technologies is changing our perception of reality and evaluating the overall impact this may have on what counts as legitimate knowledge and meaningful experience. The research will ultimately lead to a greater understanding of how imaging, and technology in general, is changing how we relate to each other and our surroundings.
"Now more than ever, sight and perception are shaped by the technology we use, from X-rays and MRIs of the body to the Facebook photos of friends we only know online," notes Timothy Engström, professor of philosophy at RIT and one of the leaders of the project. "In an imaging-saturated environment, sight is not about how the eye records the real, but about how imaging machines interpret and make the real available for certain kinds of use."
Your mobile phone may soon be able to diagnose respiratory illnesses in seconds when you cough into it.
Software being developed by American and Australian scientists will hopefully allow patients simply to cough into their phone, and it will tell them whether they have cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases.
Whether a cough is dry or wet, or "productive" or "non-productive" (referring to the presence of mucus on the lungs), can give a doctor information about what is causing that cough, for example whether it is caused by a bacterial or a viral infection.
Health workers can distinguish the different kinds of cough by sound. Now, it is claimed, the new software will do the same, and will save patients a trip to the surgery - or tell them when they are at risk of serious illness.
© Andrew Crowley
But will it ask you to turn your head to one side as well?
But will it ask you to turn your head to one side as well?
Whether a cough is dry or wet, or "productive" or "non-productive" (referring to the presence of mucus on the lungs), can give a doctor information about what is causing that cough, for example whether it is caused by a bacterial or a viral infection.
Health workers can distinguish the different kinds of cough by sound. Now, it is claimed, the new software will do the same, and will save patients a trip to the surgery - or tell them when they are at risk of serious illness.
