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A Laurentian University geologist says he is intrigued, but skeptical of a report that rock from the meteorite that created the Sudbury basin has been found 700 kilometres away in the United States.
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| ©AP Photo/Petar Petrov |
| A Bulgarian archeologist holds up an ancient Thracian gold artifact at a Thracian tomb near the village of Topolchane |
SOFIA, Bulgaria - A 2,400-year-old golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Monday.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a great show this year, peaking in mid-August with a display of dozens of shooting stars each hour.
The Moon will be out of the way, leaving dark skies for good viewing as Earth plunges through an ancient stream of comet debris. Little bits, most no larger than sand grains, will vaporize in Earth's atmosphere, creating sometimes-dramatic "shooting stars."
The Moon will be out of the way, leaving dark skies for good viewing as Earth plunges through an ancient stream of comet debris. Little bits, most no larger than sand grains, will vaporize in Earth's atmosphere, creating sometimes-dramatic "shooting stars."
A forest fire has led to a chance discovery of debris from the impact of a meteorite 1.85 billion years ago, more than 450 miles away at Sudbury, Ontario.
Geologists had scheduled a field trip in May along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota, but most areas they wanted to explore were closed because of a wildfire that charred more than 118 square miles.
Geologist Mark Jirsa of the Minnesota Geological Survey went up the trail to scout new locations and, in a spot he had never visited before, stumbled across debris now linked to the Sudbury impact.
That impact created a crater more than 150 miles across, scattering rock and dust over nearly a million square miles.
"It's fairly dark rock,'' Jirsa said. "They look like concrete, but in this concrete you would throw pieces of rock of all sizes and shapes and in all possible orientations.''
Geologists had scheduled a field trip in May along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota, but most areas they wanted to explore were closed because of a wildfire that charred more than 118 square miles.
Geologist Mark Jirsa of the Minnesota Geological Survey went up the trail to scout new locations and, in a spot he had never visited before, stumbled across debris now linked to the Sudbury impact.
That impact created a crater more than 150 miles across, scattering rock and dust over nearly a million square miles.
"It's fairly dark rock,'' Jirsa said. "They look like concrete, but in this concrete you would throw pieces of rock of all sizes and shapes and in all possible orientations.''
Geneticists are acquiring a taste for punctuation. Yesterday, for example, a study on "junk" DNA -- that is, stretches of it without known purposes -- in the journal Science was published to the accompaniment of a press release with comments from two of the authors. "Some of the 'junk' DNA might be considered 'punctuation marks,''' said Victoria Lunyak of the University of California at San Diego, "commas and periods that help make sense of the coding portion of the genome." Likewise, her colleague Michael Rosenfeld said, "Without boundary elements, the coding portion of the genome is like a long, run-on sequence of words without punctuation."
The study itself, "Developmentally Regulated Activation of a SINE B2 Repeat as a Domain Boundary in Organogenesis," speaks more cautiously of "establishment of functionally distinct chromatin domains" and "putative boundary elements." The idea is that DNA could not do its work-- building proteins, that is -- if it didn't get organized into functional domains that are like the groupings provided by syntax and expressed by punctuation marks.
The study itself, "Developmentally Regulated Activation of a SINE B2 Repeat as a Domain Boundary in Organogenesis," speaks more cautiously of "establishment of functionally distinct chromatin domains" and "putative boundary elements." The idea is that DNA could not do its work-- building proteins, that is -- if it didn't get organized into functional domains that are like the groupings provided by syntax and expressed by punctuation marks.
TENERIFE, Canary Islands - One of the world's largest and most powerful telescopes opened its shutters, turned its 34-foot wide mirror toward the skies and captured its first light at a mountaintop on one of Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday.
Israel's Ministry of Defense and some of the country's leading industry executives repeatedly squashed Venezuelan bids to buy high-resolution commercial satellite imagery.
According to a lawsuit filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Venezuela's potential procurement deals were sabatoged twice and more recently a personal offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy a significant equity stake in ImageSat International (ISI), a local satellite operating firm, was ignored.
In their lawsuit, the ISI minority shareholders accuse major investors and the firm's current management of "spurning lucrative ... opportunities in Venezuela in order to devalue the company [Imagesat]."
The plaintiffs represent a cross section of minority shareholders in ISI, including members of the founding management and some other former company employees. The plaintiffs note that they invested millions during "Imagesat's highest risk start-up and development stages and at times when the company was in financial crisis, for which they received common or preferred shares or bridge warrants."
According to a lawsuit filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Venezuela's potential procurement deals were sabatoged twice and more recently a personal offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy a significant equity stake in ImageSat International (ISI), a local satellite operating firm, was ignored.
In their lawsuit, the ISI minority shareholders accuse major investors and the firm's current management of "spurning lucrative ... opportunities in Venezuela in order to devalue the company [Imagesat]."
The plaintiffs represent a cross section of minority shareholders in ISI, including members of the founding management and some other former company employees. The plaintiffs note that they invested millions during "Imagesat's highest risk start-up and development stages and at times when the company was in financial crisis, for which they received common or preferred shares or bridge warrants."
The fizzy gases that cause some volcanoes to blow their tops appear to originate deep beneath the surface, a new study by a team of Italian geologists from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has revealed.
People from Western cultures such as the United States are particularly challenged in their ability to understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture that encourages individualism, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
In contrast, Chinese, who live in a society that encourages a collectivist attitude among its members, are much more adept at determining another person's perspective, according to a new study.
One of the consequences of Americans' and other Westerners' problems of seeing things from another person's point of view is faltering communication, said Boaz Keysar, Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
"Many actions and words have multiple meanings. In order to sort out what a person really means, we need to gain some perspective on what he or she might be thinking and, Americans for example, who don't have that skill very well developed, probably tend to make more errors in understanding what another person means," Keysar said.
In contrast, Chinese, who live in a society that encourages a collectivist attitude among its members, are much more adept at determining another person's perspective, according to a new study.
One of the consequences of Americans' and other Westerners' problems of seeing things from another person's point of view is faltering communication, said Boaz Keysar, Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
"Many actions and words have multiple meanings. In order to sort out what a person really means, we need to gain some perspective on what he or she might be thinking and, Americans for example, who don't have that skill very well developed, probably tend to make more errors in understanding what another person means," Keysar said.
Dutch researcher Joris van den Berg has developed a mathematical model to predict the movement of sand waves. Sand waves are formed by an interaction between the tidal current and sand. They are larger than sand ripples on the beach but smaller than sandbanks. Sand waves largely determine the shape of the sea floor in the southern part of the North Sea. A good predictive computer model would be a valuable tool for shipping and designers of offshore infrastructures.
The mathematical equations describing the behaviour of sand waves have been known for some time. Yet suitable equations alone are not enough to predict their behaviour; the equations also need to be solved reliably. To date, no practical methods were available for solving these equations, especially for larger sand waves.
The mathematical equations describing the behaviour of sand waves have been known for some time. Yet suitable equations alone are not enough to predict their behaviour; the equations also need to be solved reliably. To date, no practical methods were available for solving these equations, especially for larger sand waves.
Comment: See also:
Perseids to Storm August 11?
Science and History of the Perseid Meteor Shower