Science & TechnologyS


Blackbox

The steerable spiral

James Urquhart
New Scientist
Tue, 18 May 2010 14:01 UTC
This spiral animation makes you think dots are moving in the opposite direction to reality. Initially the dots move in an anticlockwise spiral towards the centre of the screen. But as they get closer to each other, they appear to move in the opposite direction.

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Have We Met? Research Finds "Missing Social Knowledge"


ScienceDaily
Tue, 18 May 2010 01:00 UTC
The face looks familiar but... Just as humans don't always know their neighbors, new research at the University of Michigan shows even the most social of animals don't always recognize individuals they regularly encounter, the first known evidence of "missing social knowledge" in non-human primates.

University of Michigan researcher Thore Bergman, an assistant professor of psychology and ecology and evolutionary biology, details his findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a flagship journal in the biological sciences.

The study looked at individual recognition in male geladas (Theropithecus gelada, close relatives of baboons) that live in fluid, multilevel groups that can number more than 1,200 individuals -- 10 times larger than baboon groups.
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Mathematical Model Explains Marital Breakups

Lin Edwards
PhysOrg
Mon, 17 May 2010 08:20 UTC
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© PLoS ONEDurable relationships. Under the assumptions of the model, there is a unique effort policy that takes the initial feeling x0 to the unique equilibrium E. This is achieved by setting the initial effort at point A to get onto the stable manifold Ws+ and then following path AE to approach equilibrium.
Most people know love takes work, and effort is needed to sustain a happy relationship over the long term, but now a mathematician in Spain has for the first time explained it mathematically by developing a dynamical mathematical model based on the second law of thermodynamics to model "sentimental dynamics." The results are consistent with sociological data on marriage breakdowns.

Most couples marry only after careful consideration and most are determined to make their marriage last, and a happy marriage is widely considered in Western societies to be important for overall happiness. Yet soaring divorce rates and break ups of de facto relationships across Europe and the U.S. show these plans and ideals are failing. Many scholars attribute the increasing rates of breakdown to economic forces and changes in sexual divisions of labor, but this does not fully explain the continuing rise in those rates.

The research was carried out by José-Manuel Rey of the Department of Economic Analysis, at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and aimed to provide a mathematical model to explain rising rates of marital breakdown. Using the optimal control theory model, Rey developed an equation based on the "second thermodynamic law for sentimental interaction," which states a relationship will disintegrate unless "energy" (effort) is fed into it.
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Sherlock

Extinct Giant Shark Nursery Discovered in Panama

Beth King
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Mon, 17 May 2010 13:48 UTC
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© Catalina PimientoMost of the giant shark teeth found in Panama's Gatun Formation were from neonates or juveniles, leading researchers to propose that this was a nursery site.
The six-foot-long babies of the world's biggest shark species, Carcharocles megalodon, frolicked in the warm shallow waters of an ancient shark nursery in what is now Panama, report paleontologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Florida.

"Adult giant sharks, at 60-70 feet in length, faced few predators, but young sharks faced predation from larger sharks," said Catalina Pimiento, visiting scientist at STRI and graduate student at the University of Florida. "As in several modern shark species, juvenile giant sharks probably spent this vulnerable stage of their lives in shallow water where food was plentiful and large predators had difficulty maneuvering."

Paleontologists from the Smithsonian and the University of Florida collected more than 400 fossil shark teeth from Panama´s 10-million-year-old Gatun Formation as part of ongoing work to reveal the origins of this narrow land-bridge that rose to connect North and South America about 3 million years ago. "The 28 teeth that we identified as C. megalodon were mostly from neonates and juveniles," said Pimiento.
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Dendera Zodiac: The World's First Horoscope?

Malcolm Jack
Heritage Key
Fri, 07 May 2010 16:24 UTC
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© Ben GolubThe Dendera Zodiac, on display at the Louvre in Paris.
One of the most famous, popular and mysterious ancient Egyptian treasures of the Louvre, the 2060-year-old Le zodiaque de Dendéra - the Dendera Zodiac - has witnessed more than its fair share of controversy over the centuries.

Stripped from the portico of a chapel dedicated to Osiris at the Hathor Temple at Dendera in 1820, then shipped to Paris, the beautifully carved bas-relief played an unlikely role in fierce disputes over science and faith in Napoleonic and Restoration France.

Today, the zodiac continues to spark debate. As the first known depiction in history of the classical zodiac of twelve signs, spiritualists peer at its enigmatic symbols looking for a reflection of modern-day astrological beliefs. Egyptologists insist it has no modern application, and is little more than an early planisphere created to document the heavens exactly as the Egyptians witnessed them at a specific point in mid-50 BC.
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Sherlock

China: Shang Dynasty City Huanbei was Destroyed by its Own Rulers

Owen Jarus
Heritage Key
Mon, 17 May 2010 10:26 UTC
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© Professor Zhichun JingArchaeologists call this building "F1." It is the largest structure ever found in Bronze Age China.
The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China is known for its divinations, oracle bone inscriptions and large urban centres. Now archaeologists have a new mystery to ponder. A team of researchers excavating a 3,300 year old Shang Dynasty palace-temple complex at the ancient city of Huanbei have discovered that it was burned down after only 50 years of use.

Making it more enticing is that it wasn't burnt down by an invasion force, but by the city's own rulers. They stripped the complex of all its goods before committing the act. The only thing they left behind were human sacrifices - at least 40 of them in the largest building.

The palace-temple complex was at the centre of Huanbei. When the city was in use it had a population of at least 10,000 people. After Huanbei was gone, a city called Yinxu was built to the southwest. It remained the Shang capital until the end of the dynasty. Both cities are located in the area of modern day Anyang.

Shang is the first Chinese dynasty that archaeologists can prove actually existed. Scholars haven't pinned down exact dates for its rise and fall, but it dies out around the middle of the 11th century BC.
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Gene Loss Can Cause Leukemia, Researchers Find


ScienceDaily
Mon, 17 May 2010 12:32 UTC
Researchers from VIB and K.U.Leuven, both in Flanders, Belgium, have discovered a new factor in the development of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease that mainly affects children. In the cells of the patients, the specific gene PTPN2 ceases to function, causing the cancer cells to survive longer and grow faster. The study provides genetic and functional evidence for a tumor suppressor role of PTPN2.

The research was carried out in close cooperation with scientists from the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris. Understanding the causes of leukemia is important for the development of new targeted therapies. Results appear in the journal Nature Genetics.

In patients with leukemia, the formation of white blood cells in the bone marrow is disrupted. This makes leukemia patients particularly susceptible to infections, because properly functioning white blood cells ensure protection against intruders such as viruses and bacteria. In the US alone, every year around 50.000 adults and children develop leukemia.
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Laptop

Sixty-Six Percent of All Phishing Attacks Carried Out by Single Group

Dan Goodin
The Register
Thu, 13 May 2010 22:02 UTC
A single criminal operation was responsible for two-thirds of all phishing attacks in the second half of 2009 and is responsible for a two-fold increase in the crime, a report published this week said.

The Avalanche gang is believed to have risen out of the ashes of the Rock Phish outfit, which by some estimates was responsible for half the world's phishing attacks before fizzling out in late 2008. Driving the success of both groups is their use of state-of-the-art technology for mass-producing imposter websites and distributing huge amounts of crimeware for automating identity theft.

"Avalanche uses the Rock's techniques but improved upon them, introducing greater volume and sophistication," the report, released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, stated.
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Info

Seed Safety Vault in Ladakh

G.S. Mudur
The Telegraph, Calcutta, India
Sun, 16 May 2010 01:26 UTC
Ladakh Seed Vault
© The Telegraph, Calcutta, IndiaThe vault where the seeds are stored.
New Delhi: Inside a stone and wood-panelled building on a frozen mountain top in Ladakh, on the road from Leh to Pangong lake, seeds of vegetables and other plants sealed in moisture-proof packets sit on steel racks.

Sometimes, during the hottest days of the year in May and June, the temperatures climb to about 5°C above zero. But for more than 10 months of the year, the cold remains below -18°C - just right for long-term storage of seeds.

The structure at Chang-La, a three-hour drive from Leh, built by Indian defence researchers is the world's second doomsday vault after the Svalbard Global Seed Vault set up by Norway more than two years ago on an Arctic island.

Both vaults are storing seeds for the future, a reserve against natural or manmade catastrophes that might wipe out key crops. The Chang-La vault has acquired over 5,000 seed samples - apricots, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, radish, tomatoes, barley and wheat, among others. Some seeds will yield an anti-malarial compound, others are sources of a natural anti-cancer chemical.

"This is Noah's Ark type of activity," said William Selvamurthy, a senior scientist who heads the life sciences division at India's Defence Research and Development Organisation which has funded the Rs 2 crore Chang-La seed vault.
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Sherlock

Statue of Ancient Egyptian God Thoth Discovered

Ann Wuyts
Heritage-Key
Sun, 16 May 2010 15:36 UTC
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© Heritage-KeyThe statue - of which only the top half was found - depicts the ancient Egyptian deity of wisdom, Thoth.
Archaeologists have discovered a colossal statue of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth at the north-western side of King Amenhotep III's funerary temple at Luxor.

The red granite statue depicting Thoth, the ancient Egyptian deity of wisdom, is 3,5 metres tall and 140 cm wide. In a statement, Dr Zahi Hawass said that evidence found at the excavation suggests more colossi could be found here still. The first traces of these large statues were uncovered during works aiming at controlling the subterranean water level on Luxor's west bank.

The head of 2,5 metres high statue depicting Pharaoh Amenhotep III in standing position - possibly the best preserved depiction of the pharoah's face found to date - was unearthed at the King's funeral temple at Kom El-Hettan only months ago, together with a statue of the god Thoth. In 2009 two black granite statues of the pharaohs were found at the temple.

A year ago, excavations revealed a 5 metres high statue similar to the Thoth statue.
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