Science & TechnologyS


Robot

Neurons to inspire future computers


BBC
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:30 UTC
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The way nerve cells communicate is being studied by the research teams.
The way neurons communicate could inspire the next generation of computers.

Researchers are developing novel computers by mimicking the way that neurons are built and how they talk to each other.

Basing computers around neurons could lead to improvements in visual and audio processing on computers.

It might mean that computers learn to see or to hear in the future rather than just rely on sensors.

As well as building computers, the researchers are also helping to improve understanding of nerve cells and how they operate.

Smarter seeing

While artificial neural networks have been around for more than 50 years they typically do not copy real neurons very closely.
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Sherlock

UK: Remains of Roman Villa Near Aberystwyth Discovered


BBC News
Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:55 UTC
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© BBC NewsArchaeologists dig showing the excavated walls of the villa
Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century Roman villa near Aberystwyth.

It is the most north-westerly villa found in Wales and has forced experts to reconsider the whole nature of Roman settlement across mid and north Wales.

Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.

"The discovery raises significant new questions," said Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, excavation directors.

The villa is likely to have belonged to a wealthy landowner, with pottery and coin finds on the site indicating occupation in the late 3rd and early 4th Centuries AD.

It was roofed with local slates, which were cut for a pentagonal roof. The walls were built of local stone and there was a cobbled yard.
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Sherlock

Chinese Archaeologists' African Quest for Sunken Ship of Ming Admiral

Xan Rice
The Guardian
Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:14 UTC
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© Schalk Van Zuydam/AP PhotoA beach near Malindi where admiral Zheng He's armada was shipwrecked.
Search for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya 600 years ago

It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.

A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.

The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area.

A likely shipwreck site has been identified near Lamu island, according to Idle Farah, director general of the National Museums of Kenya, which is working on the archaeology project with its Chinese equivalent and Peking University.
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Laptop

India develops 35-dollar tablet computer for schools


Agence France Presse
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:40 UTC
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© AFPIndian Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal unveils the $35 laptop in New Delhi
India has come up with a 35-dollar touch-screen "laptop" -- a computing prototype that it aims to make available to students from elementary schools to universities.

The gadget, developed by the elite Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, is part of a push to give students a better education and technical skills needed to boost India's economic growth.

The first users are expected to be university students with introduction of the Linux-based computing device targeted for next year.

The ministry is going to install broadband Internet at all of its 22,000 colleges so students can use the 1,500-rupee (35-dollar) device, government spokeswoman Mamta Verma told AFP on Friday in New Delhi.
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Sherlock

US: 900-Year-Old Figurine Uncovered in Illinois

George Pawlaczyk
The Associated Press
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:00 UTC
If just one more shovel of earth had been removed, the curious figurine of a kneeling woman carved about 900 years ago might have ended up in a 19th century curio shop.

Or lost forever.

Instead, archaeology graduate student Steve Boles found the rare, 6-inch-high artifact this spring at a massive archaeological dig now under way at the old National Stock Yards to make way for construction of a new $670 million Mississippi River bridge. The figurine and the whole excavation have caused great excitement among archaeology professionals and students.

The sheer size of the dig and the discovery of a buried city dating to around 1050 A.D. - the same time that mound and city building also took off at nearby Cahokia Mounds - has raised hope that an old archaeological puzzle may finally be solved: Where did the Mississippians - a non-nomadic, warrior-based agricultural society - come from and why did they build on such a grand scale?

Site manager and archaeologist Jeff Kruchten said that since last fall, 137 dwelling sites have been dug up or are being excavated. Another 500 to 650 are thought to exist, pushing the estimate of the city's peak population to at least 4,000.
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Info

5000 Years Old Archaeological Pottery Craft Unearthed in Syria

H. Sabbagh
Global Arab Newtwork
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:00 UTC
5000 Old Pot
© Global Arab Network
Archaeological excavations in the Houran region in Daraa, southern Syria, show that the region mastered the craft of pottery and its various uses 5000 years ago.

The excavations uncovered great numbers of pottery known as "black clay" that strongly imply connections between the occupants of Houran and the people of the Nile Valley.

According to these discoveries, the pottery craft emerged in Houran around 3000 BC, producing pottery of various sizes and purposes, most important of which are those discovered in tombs dating back to the Bronze Age (3100-2100 BC) indicating that the people of Houran at the time believed in an afterlife and buried simple items needed by the deceased with them, similar to the ancient Egyptians.

Archaeologist Yasser Abu Nuqta said most of pottery findings in Houran date back to the early, middle and late Bronze, Iron, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic Ages.

The uncovered pottery includes lanterns, containers, plates, jars, glasses and bottles of various sizes used for a range of purposes, with the various specimens giving a glimpse at the development of the pottery craft and the new techniques that were introduced to it due to cultural interaction and the prosperity of the region throughout the ages.

Abu Nuqta pointed out that the Bronze Age pottery is distinguished by the impurities and stone fragments in the thick clay used in making them, saying that the people of Houran gradually began to purify the clay and bake it at higher temperatures.
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Chalkboard

Best of the Web: 9/11 Experiments: Newton vs. NIST

physicsandreason
YouTube
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:50 UTC
Does US federal technology agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), think Newton's laws are only suggestions?

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Sherlock

Ancient Woman Suggests Diverse Migration

Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:25 UTC
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© AP Photo/ Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and HistoryThis undated photo shows a scientific reconstruction of an ancient woman known as "La Mujer de las Palmas," based on the skeletal remains of a female who lived between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago in Tulum, Mexico.
A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.

Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.

But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.

"History isn't that simple," Terrazas said. "This indicates that the Americas were populated by several migratory movements, not just one or two waves from northern Asia across the Bering Strait."

Some outside experts caution that the evidence is not conclusive.
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Magnify

Ancient City of Petra Tombs Reveal 61 Burials and Islamic Gold Medallion

Owen Jarus
Heritage Key
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:17 UTC
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© David JohnsonInside this tomb archaeologists found a gold medallion, with an Islamic inscription, that may have been used to ward off evil. Outside they found the remains of a stone platform that can be seen in this photo.
Archaeologists have made two major tomb discoveries at the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan.

They discovered a rock-cut tomb that contained the skeletal remains of 61 individuals, along with a wealth of wooden artefacts, animal bones and ceramics.

The second discovery was made at a place called tomb 676. While excavating it archaeologists found a gold medallion with an Islamic inscription on it. The find dates to long after the tomb was abandoned.

"This object was placed in the tomb in a later period - perhaps as a way of warding off evil coming from the tomb," said Professor David Johnson, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who led the team that made both tomb finds. He has been working in Petra for nearly three decades.

Each of the tombs date back about 2,000 years, to a time when the city was prosperous. At that time Petra was ruled by a people called the Nabataeans - an Arabic people who made the city the centre of their kingdom. Petra's location made it a natural place to do business with people coming from Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East.
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Sherlock

Evidence of Human Sacrifices Found on Peru's Northern Coast


The Telegraph
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:35 UTC
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© ReutersAnthropologist researcher Maria Del Pilar Fortunic looks at a wall that is being examined for being built in the pre-Columbian time, San Lorenzo's island
An ancient ceremonial ground used by a Pre-Columbian civilisation for human sacrifices has been uncovered on Peru's northern coast, archaeologists said on Thursday.

The discovery appears to reinforce prevailing theories about a ceremony known as "the presentation" that was carried out by the Moche people, an agricultural civilisation that flourished between 100 BC and 800 AD.

Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Bruning Museum in Peru and a leader of the dig, said the ceremonial site likely hosted ritual killings of prisoners of war.

Photographs taken at the site show more than half a dozen skeletons on the floor of the hall.

"There was a great ceremonial hall or passage integrated into the rest of the architecture that establishes the presence of certain figures of the Moche elite and also the practice of complex rituals such as human sacrifice," Mr Wester told Reuters.
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