Science & TechnologyS


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Fossil find pushes human-ape split back millions of years


AFP
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:07 UTC
Ten million-year-old fossils discovered in Ethiopia show that humans and apes probably split six or seven million years earlier than widely thought, according to landmark study released Wednesday.

The handful of teeth from the earliest direct ancestors of modern gorillas ever found -- one canine and eight molars -- also leave virtually no doubt, the study's authors and experts said, that both humans and modern apes did indeed originate from Africa.
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Bulb

Sony develops bio battery with sweet tooth


Reuters
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:29 UTC
Sony has developed an environmentally-friendly prototype battery that runs on sugars and that can generate enough electricity to power a music player and a pair of speakers, the Japanese company said.

©Reuters
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Telescope

Astronomers excited about nothing

Seth Borenstein
AP
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:44 UTC
Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there.

The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 10 billion trillion kilometres of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.
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Martian soil may contain life: study

Ben Hirschler
Reuters
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:37 UTC
The soil on Mars may contain microbial life, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago.

The search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity.
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Question

Scientists Study Out-Of-Body Experiences

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:15 UTC
WASHINGTON - The stories seem strange but riveting. A heart attack victim recalls floating in the air, watching paramedics revive him. A surgical patient remembers hovering, watching the doctors operate. Such widely reported out-of-body experiences have long been the territory of theology, philosophy and scary movies. Now scientists have turned their attention to the topic.

Comment: The experiment seems stranger then an "out-of-body experience".

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Info

Seahenge saga comes full circle in UK


EDP24
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:26 UTC
The story of Seahenge has turned full circle, as the ancient timbers are returned to Norfolk. But as experts prepare them to go on display at King's Lynn Museum, CHRIS BISHOP finds an enigma that remains unsolved.

Nearly 10 years after its controversial excavation, the mystery remains. While the upturned oak tree and its ring of timbers have taught us a few things we didn't know about our ancestors, we still don't know why they built it.

©Andy Burnham
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Telescope

Google Earth to launch new service for stargazers

Kate Holton
Reuters
Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:13 UTC
Popular mapping service Google Earth will launch a new feature called Sky, a "virtual telescope" that the search engine hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers.

Google, which created Google Earth to give Internet users an astronaut's view that can zoom to street level, said the service would be a playground for learning about space.

"Never before has a roadmap of the entire sky been made so readily available," said Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, who co-led the institute's Sky team.
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Bizarro Earth

Longest lunar eclipse in 7 years expected


UPI
Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:59 UTC
WASHINGTON -- People across the western United States will have the best opportunity early Aug. 28 to witness the longest lunar eclipse in seven years.
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San Andreas Fault Likely Much More Destructive Than Current Models Predict


Science Daily
Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:54 UTC
High-speed ruptures travelling along straight fault lines could explain why some earthquakes are more destructive than others, according to an Oxford University scientist. In this week's Science, Professor Shamita Das suggests that ruptures in the Earth's surface moving at 6km per second could make future earthquakes along California's San Andreas fault much more destructive than current models predict.

©William Royer
A box canyon on the San Andreas fault: High speed ruptures travelling along the straight section of the fault could see Santa Barbara and Los Angeles worst hit in future earthquakes.
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Magic Wand

Scientists hail 'frozen smoke' as material that will change world


Times Online
Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:59 UTC
A miracle material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world's lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

©Unknown

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.
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