Science & TechnologyS


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Indus Valley code is cracked - maybe

Raja Murthy
Asia Times Online
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:28 UTC
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A 4,500-year-old mystery has been revived, with Indian-American scientists claiming on April 23 that the puzzling symbols that were found on Indus Valley seals are indeed the written script of a language from an ancient civilization.

But skeptics, such as historian Steve Farmer and Harvard University Indologist Michael Witzel, say that claims of the Indus Valley civilization having a written language, and therefore a literate culture, are generally created by pseudo-nationalists from India, Hindu chauvinists and right-wing political frauds who wish to glorify the existence of an ancient Hindu civilization.

The civilization on the banks of the 2,900-kilometer long Indus, one of the world's great rivers with a water volume twice that of the Nile, is said to have flourished between 2600 BC to 1900 BC.
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Info

First dino 'blood' extracted from ancient bone

Jeff Hecht
New Scientist
Fri, 01 May 2009 14:50 UTC
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© Mary H. SchweitzerMultiple hadrosaur red blood "cells" surrounded by white, fibrous matrix.
A dinosaur bone buried for 80 million years has yielded a mix of proteins and microstructures resembling cells. The finding is important because it should resolve doubts about a previous report that also claimed to have extracted dino tissue from fossils.

Proteins such as collagen are far more durable than DNA, but they had not been expected to last the 65 million years since the dinosaurs died out. So palaeontologist Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University attracted wide attention when she reported finding first soft tissue and later collagen from a Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone that was intact until it was broken during excavation.

Yet critics said the extraordinary claim required extraordinary evidence, and asked for protein sequences, better handling of samples to prevent contamination, and confirmation analyses from other laboratories.

So Schweitzer took a look at the pristine leg bone of a plant-eating hadrosaur that had been encased in sandstone for 80 million years. She and colleagues exhaustively tested the sample, sequencing the proteins they found with a new and better mass spectrometer and sending samples to two other labs for verification.
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Info

Dancing parrots could help explain evolution of rhythm

Sandrine Ceurstemont
New Scientist
Fri, 01 May 2009 14:33 UTC
Dancing parrots have revealed that humans aren't the only animals that can groove to different beats. Two new studies have found that parrots kept their dancing synchronised to human music, even when the rhythm changed.


It was previously thought that the human brain had evolved a special capacity for music, since other animals aren't commonly seen moving in time to sounds in the wild. But now researchers think that moving to a beat is linked the ability to mimic.
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Laptop

Study: 'I want my Internet on TV'

David Katzmaier
cnet.com
Fri, 01 May 2009 05:24 UTC
A new study by the Consumer Electronics Association, the industry group representing electronics manufacturers, finds that nearly half of prospective TV buyers say they want to buy an Internet-connected TV.

The study, conducted in December 2008, asked respondents to say how they'd use their connected sets, and the most popular answers included accessing information about current TV shows or identifying a song played on a show (48 percent) and finding out more about the actors (44 percent). Asked whether they currently surf the Web while watching TV, 30 percent of "online adults" responded "always or usually" while 32 percent answered "sometimes."
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People

Africans Have World's Highest Genetic Diversity, Study Finds

Joel Achenbach
Washington Post
Fri, 01 May 2009 05:20 UTC
Africans are more genetically diverse than the inhabitants of the rest of the world combined, according to a sweeping study that carried researchers into remote regions to sample the bloodlines of more than 100 distinct populations.

The report, published yesterday in the journal Science Express, suggests that, because of historical migrations and genetic mixing across the continent, it will be hard for African Americans to trace their ancestry in fine detail. African American genealogies are increasingly popular and commercialized, but the authors of the new study cast doubt on how precise such searches can be, given the complexity of the genetic makeup of Africans.
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Rocket

Room for Four

Ned Potter
American Broadcast Company
Fri, 01 May 2009 00:48 UTC
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© Ryan Hanyok and the NSWC photographic team led by Peter Congedo.Orion mockup, used for tests of ocean splashdowns. Orion was originally expected to be capable of coming down on dry land.
After five years of planning, testing, designing and re-designing, NASA has decided its new Orion spacecraft -- the conical capsule reminiscent of Apollo -- will probably not be quite what they'd hoped.

Gina Sunseri, reporting for us from Houston, sends the following note:

"Weight limitations have forced NASA to limit seating on the Orion Capsule from six astronauts to four. Orion will eventually replace the space shuttle -- the shuttle quits flying next year and there will probably be a five year gap before Orion, its replacement, is ready.
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Telescope

Huge Impact Crater Discovered on Planet Mercury


Space
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:17 UTC
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© NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Smithsonian Institution/Carnegie Institution of WashingtonThe Rembrandt impact basin was discovered by MESSENGER during its second flyby of Mercury in October 2008. Images show that the Rembrandt basin is remarkably well preserved.
New observations from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft reveal about 30 percent of the planet Mercury that has never been seen up close before. A giant crater and evidence of ancient volcanoes are among the findings.

The photos show a giant impact crater that spans a length equivalent to the distance between Washington, D.C., and Boston.

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft) made its second close-approach flyby of Mercury in October 2008, after being launched in 2004. The spacecraft is the first to visit the diminutive planet since the Mariner 10 spacecraft's sojourn in the 1970s.

Until recently, scientists say the closest planet to the sun remained the least understood of the four terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. For a long time it was thought to be very similar to Earth's moon in composition, since both worlds have a similar gray, pockmarked appearance.
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Pharoah

Ancient Egypt Brought To Life With Virtual Model Of Historic Temple Complex


Science Daily
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:25 UTC
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© UCLA/ETCDigital recreation shows what Karnak probably looked like in ancient times.
For the past two years, a team of UCLA Egyptologists, digital modelers, web designers, staff and students has been building a three-dimensional virtual-reality model of the ancient Egyptian religious site known as Karnak, one of the largest temple complexes ever constructed.

The result is Digital Karnak, a high-tech model that runs in real time and allows users to navigate 2,000 years of history at the popular ancient Egyptian tourist site near modern-day Luxor, where generations of pharaohs constructed temples, chapels, obelisks, sphinxes, shrines and other sacred structures beginning in the 20th century B.C.

Developed by UCLA's Experiential Technologies Center - which has helped pioneer the digital reconstruction of historical sites, including the innovative Rome Reborn, released in 2006 - the Karnak model and a host of additional digital resources are now available for educators, students, scholars and the public to explore for free HERE.
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Info

Native Americans descended from a single ancestral group, DNA study confirms


Science Daily
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:07 UTC
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© Kari Britt Schroeder/UC DavisA distinct DNA signature was found among all but one of the populations shown as points 32 to 53 on this map. (The Fox tribe, point 48, was the exception. But DNA samples of only 2 people were tested, too few to provide a valid result.) The signature was absent in all Asian groups sampled, points 1-32.
For two decades, researchers have been using a growing volume of genetic data to debate whether ancestors of Native Americans emigrated to the New World in one wave or successive waves, or from one ancestral Asian population or a number of different populations.

Now, after painstakingly comparing DNA samples from people in dozens of modern-day Native American and Eurasian groups, an international team of scientists thinks it can put the matter to rest: virtually without exception, the new evidence supports the single ancestral population theory.

"Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait," said Kari Britt Schroeder, a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, and the first author on the paper describing the study.
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Blackbox

Unknown internet 1: Who controls the internet?

Michael Brooks
New Scientist
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:19 UTC
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© Colin Anderson / Photographer's Choice / GettyDoes any one country or organisation control the internet?
The official answer is no one, but it is a half-truth that few swallow. If all nations are equal online, the US is more equal than others.

Not that it is an easy issue to define. The internet is, essentially, a group of protocols by which computers communicate, and innumerable servers and cables, most of which are in private hands. However, in terms of influence, the overwhelming balance of power lies with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, based in Marina Del Rey, California.

ICANN is a not-for-profit organisation that regulates online addresses, known as domain names, and their suffixes, such as ".com" and ".org". Since ICANN reports to the US government's Department of Commerce, the domain name process is effectively overseen by the US government. China, Russia and Europe have all expressed concern at this situation because it means the US has leverage over the global coordination of the internet. "It has a role that is different from the role of all other governments," says Massimiliano Minisci, a regional manager at ICANN. "That's a concern around the world."
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