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New Classification Of African Middle Stone Age


Science Daily
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:46 UTC
The Cologne archaeologist Dr. Ralf Vogelsang from the Africa Research Centre of the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology and a team of international researchers have succeeded in dating layers in South Africa that provide information about stone tool innovation on the Middle Stone Age.

This archaeological epoch began at the same time as the earliest appearances of humans (homo sapiens sapiens), about 200,000 years ago, in Africa and differs from the European Middle Stone Age chronologically. It is categorized as an era of change and marked by the development of regional stone tool traditions, the appearance of many innovations and the emergence of significant new behaviour such as the production of art and jewellery.

It seems to be apparent that this surge in innovation is linked to the appearance of this new human form of anatomically more modern humans, who spread from Africa to Europe and superseded the Neanderthals. However, the chronological classification of the stone tool industry has always been very difficult.
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Telescope

'Ghost Of Mirach' Materializes In Space Telescope Image


Science Daily
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:33 UTC
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has lifted the veil off a ghost known to haunt the local universe, providing new insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies.

The eerie creature, called NGC 404, is a type of galaxy known as "lenticular." Lenticular galaxies are disk-shaped, with little ongoing star formation and no spiral arms. NGC 404 is the nearest example of a lenticular galaxy, and therefore of great interest. But it lies hidden in the glare from a red giant star called Mirach. For this reason, NGC 404 became known to astronomers as the "Ghost of Mirach."

When the Galaxy Evolution Explorer spied the galaxy in ultraviolet light, a spooky ring materialized.
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSSThe "Ghost of Mirach" galaxy is shown in visible light on the left, and in ultraviolet on the right.
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Telescope

Habitable worlds may hide in gas giants' wake


New Scientist
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:55 UTC
Habitable planets may be lurking in the wake of Jupiter-like planets as they orbit distant stars.

When a gas giant coalesces from the swirling nebula of gas and dust surrounding a young star, the planet's gravity forms a wake ahead and behind it, concentrating enough matter there for it to clump together and form smaller, rocky planets like Earth.

That's according to simulations led by Wladimir Lyra of the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in Sweden. Objects born in Jupiter's wake may have merged to form the planet Saturn, which was then nudged into its current position by the gravity of other planets, the team says.
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Einstein

Dark matter may shine with invisible 'dark light'

Stephen Battersby
New Scientist
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:53 UTC
Mysterious dark matter could be shining with its own private kind of light. This "dark radiation" would be invisible to us, but could still have visible effects.

Astronomers usually assume that dark matter particles barely interact with each other.

Lotty Ackerman and colleagues at Caltech in Pasadena decided to test this assumption by supposing there is a force between dark matter particles that behaves in the same way as the electromagnetic force. That would imply a new form of radiation that is only accessible to dark matter.

Their calculations showed that it could have as much as 1% of the strength of the electromagnetic force and not conflict with any observations.

If the force is close to this strength, its effects might be detectable, as it should affect how dark matter clumps together.
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Info

Ultrasound Shown To Exert Remote Control Of Brain Circuits


Science Daily
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:03 UTC
In a twist on nontraditional uses of ultrasound, a group of neuroscientists at Arizona State University has developed pulsed ultrasound techniques that can remotely stimulate brain circuit activity.

Their findings, published in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One, provide insights into how low-power ultrasound can be harnessed for the noninvasive neurostimulation of brain circuits and offers the potential for new treatments of brain disorders and disease.

While it might be hard to imagine the day where doctors could treat post traumatic stress disorders, traumatic brain injury and even Alzheimer's disease with the flip of a switch, most of us have in fact experienced some of ultrasound's numerous applications in our daily lives. For example, ultrasound has been used in fetal and other diagnostic medical imaging, ultrasonic teeth cleaning, physiotherapies, or surgical ablation. Ultrasound also provides a multitude of other non-medical uses, including pharmaceutical manufacturing, food processing, nondestructive materials testing, sonar, communications, oceanography and acoustic mapping.
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Sun

Magnetic Portals Connect Sun And Earth


Science Daily
Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:52 UTC
During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page.

"It's called a flux transfer event or 'FTE,'" says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible."
Earth's magnetic field
© Science@NASAAn artist's concept of Earth's magnetic field connecting to the sun's -- a.k.a. a "flux transfer event" -- with a spacecraft on hand to measure particles and fields.

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.
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Satellite

Space Junk Reentry


Space Weather
Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:37 UTC
More than a year ago, in July 2007, International Space Station astronauts threw an obsolete, refrigerator-sized ammonia reservoir overboard. Ever since, the 1400-lb piece of space junk has been circling Earth in a decaying orbit--and now it is about to reenter.

If predictions are correct, the "Early Ammonia Servicer" (EAS for short) will turn into a brilliant fireball as it disintegrates in Earth's atmosphere during the early hours of Monday, Nov. 3rd. Uncertainties in the exact reentry time are so great (plus or minus 15 hours at the time of this alert) that it is impossible to pinpoint where the fireball will appear. At the moment, every continent except Antarctica has some favorable ground tracks.
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Info

Extinct Sabertooth Cats Were Social, Found Strength In Numbers


Science Daily
Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:13 UTC
The sabertooth cat (Smilodon fatalis), one of the most iconic extinct mammal species, was likely to be a social animal, living and hunting like lions today, according to new scientific research. The species is famous for its extremely long canine teeth, which reached up to seven inches in length and extended below the lower jaw.

Instead of relying on the bones and teeth of the sabertooths to make their findings, scientists from UCLA and the Zoological Society of London concluded that the sabertooth cat was social by using a novel technique: They compared numbers of present-day carnivores competing for kills in Africa with those of mainly extinct species found in a North American fossil deposit.
sabertooth cats
© Mauricio AntónA reconstructed scene in the Pleistocene of western North America, showing a group of sabertooth cats of the species Smilodon fatalis, with several adults and cubs.

The research is published in the current issue of the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters (Oct. 28). Co-authors also included scientists from South Africa's Tshwane University of Technology and University of Pretoria.
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Meteor

Clues To Planets' Birth Discovered In Meteorites


Science Daily
Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:54 UTC
Meteorites that are among the oldest rocks ever found have provided new clues about the conditions that existed at the beginning of the solar system, solving a longstanding mystery and overturning some accepted ideas about the way planets form.

The ancient meteorites, like disk drives salvaged from an ancient computer, still contain magnetic records about the very early history of planets, according to research by MIT planetary scientist Benjamin P. Weiss.
meteorite
© Maria Zucolotto (Museu Nacional; Brasil)A picture of the first discovered (and therefore eponymous) angrite "Angra dos Reis"; which was observed to fall from the sky in 1869 near the town of Angra dos Reis in Brazil. The black; shiny face was produced from melting of the meteorite's surface during passage through Earth's atmosphere. Scale bar is in centimeters.

Weiss, the Victor P. Starr Career Development Assistant Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and his five co-authors examined pieces of three meteorites called angrites, which are among the most ancient rocks known. The results of their study are being published in Science on Oct. 31.
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Hourglass

Phoenicians Left Deep Genetic Mark, Study Shows

John Noble Wilford
The New York Times
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:38 UTC
The Phoenicians, enigmatic people from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, stamped their mark on maritime history, and now research has revealed that they also left a lasting genetic imprint.

Scientists reported Thursday that as many as 1 in 17 men living today on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male-line ancestor.

These men were found to retain identifiable genetic signatures from the nearly 1,000 years the Phoenicians were a dominant seafaring commercial power in the Mediterranean basin, until their conquest by Rome in the 2nd century B.C.
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