Science & TechnologyS


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Venezuela: Hugo Chavez Exhumes Remains of 19th Century Hero Simon Bolivar


The Telegraph
Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:00 UTC
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© Getty ImagesSimon Bolivar, the 19th Century political leader
Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has exhumed the remains of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar to determine the cause of his death nearly 200 years ago.

Mr Chavez suspects that Bolivar was murdered and did not die from tuberculosis, as most historians believe.

Announcing the exhumation of his hero on Twitter, Mr Chavez said he "wept with emotion".

"What impressive moments we have lived tonight. We have seen the bones of the Great Bolivar!" he wrote.

"That glorious skeleton must be Bolivar, because his flame can be felt. Bolivar lives!" he added.
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New Zealand Museum Thaws 100-Year-Old Whisky


The Telegraph
Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:00 UTC
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© Geoff RobinsonThe crates of Mackinlay's whisky found in an Antarctic hut
A crate of Scotch whisky that has been frozen in Antarctic ice for more than a century is being slowly thawed by New Zealand museum officials.

The crate of whisky was recovered earlier this year - along with four other crates containing whisky and brandy - beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1908 Antarctic expedition.

Four of the crates were left in the ice, but one labelled Mackinlay's whisky was brought to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island, where officials said it was being thawed in a controlled environment.

Nigel Watson, executive director of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, said the whisky might still be liquid.

"When the guys were lifting it, they reported the sound of sloshing and there was a smell of whisky in the freezer, so it is all boding pretty well," he said.
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War Whore

Raptor over Blighty: Watch the stealth fighter in infrared

Lewis Page
The Register
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:56 UTC
Farnborough

This week the Reg flying car, killer robot and general military crazytech desk has been attending the Farnborough Airshow. One of the show's highlights this year is the reappearance of the US F-22 Raptor ultrafighter, previously seen publicly in the UK for just one brief Monday display at Farnborough '08.
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Camera

Early stages of crater birth captured on camera

Rachel Courtland
New Scientist
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:29 UTC
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© B. Hermalyn/P. Schultz/Brown UniversityHard landing
They move too fast for human eyes to see, but a camera has tracked individual sand particles spraying from an impact site in the first moments of crater formation.

Such movies could help us piece together the objects that created the craters which pock the surfaces of the moon and other celestial bodies. They could also help to predict the effects of impacts - to determine the risk flying debris poses to astronauts, for example.

Fast ejection

The resulting craters form in 100 milliseconds or less. By using high-speed video cameras that can capture up to 15,000 frames per second, the team could track individual sand particles as they were ejected from the impact.

Most of the material thrown up by the impact took to the air during the impact's "main stage", landing within a few crater radii of where the projectile hit. But the high-speed video also revealed particles kicked up in a relatively unstudied early stage.

During this phase of crater formation material is flung fastest and farthest, for example creating the long rays of the moon's Tycho crater and, potentially, launching a number of meteoroids into space from the surface of the moon and Mars.
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Rocket

Just what we need: Navy laser roasts incoming drones in mid-air

Paul Marks
New Scientist
Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:21 UTC
A video released at the biennial aerospace convention in Farnborough, UK, today, shows a laser mounted on a warship's gun turret obliterating a remotely piloted drone.

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Sherlock

Pre-Inca Remains Found in Peru


Discovery News
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:29 UTC
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© Karel Navarro/AP PhotoA man works on uncovering the remains of a child at the Bosque de Pomac archaeological complex in Lambayeque, Peru.
Peruvian researchers uncovered bones of a tribal leader and a child that date back more than 1,200 years.

Peruvian archaeologists have found remains from a person believed to be a leader of a key pre-Inca civilization that is more than 1,200 years old, one of the researchers said.

Carlos Elera told AFP the remains from the northern region of Lambayeque are from what some call the Sican culture that flourished in the area between around 700 and 1375 AD.

He said among the remains found two weeks ago in the archaeological complex Las Ventanas is a type of sarcophagus for an adult with a headdress and a feathered eye mask, which are "characteristic of the nobles of the Sican culture."

The researcher also said that objects found included a ceremonial knife, ceramics, textiles with copper plates.
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Sherlock

UK: Calne Castle Emerges From Earth

Alana Lewis
The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:29 UTC
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© The Wiltshire Gazette and HeraldThe excavation at Calne
Archaeology enthusiasts baffled by the mystery of Calne's castle have found evidence that a fortified building probably existed between the 13th and 17th centuries.

There are 29 current or disused place names containing the word castle, which suggests there was a building, motte and bailey or hill fort of some importance at the site, and motivated by the chance to solve this riddle, the Calne Castle Project was set up.

A two-week excavation at Castle Hill led by a volunteer group from the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (WANHS), coincided with the British Archaeology Festival.

Society member Wendy Smith said: "The point of this exercise was to find out whether or not there was a castle in Calne and we have found pretty conclusive evidence that there was a castle.
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Archaeologists Uncover 'Bulgarian Machu Picchu'


nivinite.com
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:12 UTC
Image
© BNT The Odrysian kings' residence-fortress is made up of terraced structures leading archaeologists to call it the Bulgarian Machu Picchu.
Bulgarian archaeologists have uncovered a unique residence of the rulers of the Odrysian Kingdom, the state of the most powerful tribe of Ancient Thrace.

The residence is located on the Kozi Gramadi mount in the Sredna Gora mountain, close to the resort town of Hissar in central Bulgaria, at about 1 200 m above sea level.

"The residence of the Odrysian kings is a monument unrivaled in scope in Southeastern Europe. I am convinced there is no other fortress-sanctuary dating back to the 4th-5th century BC which is so well-preserved," said Dr. Ivan Hristov, head of the archaeological team and Deputy Director of the Bulgarian National History Museum.
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Cow

Disturbing nature's balance, sex selection takes step forward


The Pig Site
Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:00 UTC
pig
© Unknown
A company has made a scientific breakthrough that will enable livestock breeders to pre-select the sex of pigs.

The development will have a major effect on the livestock industry across the world, creating significant economic and animal welfare benefits, according to Wales Online.

Ovasort Limited, which is based in Cardiff, has discovered sex-linked proteins on the surface of sperm cells of both pigs and cattle, and has developed a prototype product to identify and separate the male and female cells for each sex in both species.

It is the first time that semen sexing has been commercially possible in pigs, and the technology offers a much easier, faster and cost effective method of semen sexing in cattle.
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Rocket

Russia to kick off construction of a new spaceport

Katia Moskvitch
BBC
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:37 UTC
Russias spaceport
© BBCOnce the shuttle fleet is retired, the Soyuz spacecraft will be the only way to get to the ISS
Russia will invest US $800m (£527m) into a new spaceport in the country's Far East, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced.

The move is meant to ease the dependence on the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, built during the Soviet-era.

The future cosmodrome will be built near the town of Uglegorsk in the Far Eastern Amur region, close to the border with China.

It is planned to be mostly used for civilian launches and should be operational by 2015.

"The government has made a decision to earmark 24.7 billion rubles ($809m) over the next three years for the start of the full-blown construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome," Mr Putin said.

Vostochny means "eastern" in Russian.

The head of Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos Anatoly Perminov, said that up to 30,000 specialists would build the new space launch facility.

He also noted that it will be smaller than Baikonur, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan.
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