Science & Technology
|
| ©Baltics Worldwide
|
| Anthropologist Arunas Barkus
|
Anthropologist Arunas Barkus pokes at a leg bone in a pile of brittle skeletal remains tagged No. 151 and spread across an autopsy table at Vilnius University. At the touch of his fingers, dried marrow crumbles to the floor like snow.
What's now clear, he explains, is that the remains of 2,000 men unearthed in a pool-sized grave in Vilnius last year were soldiers in Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Army that attacked Russia 190 years ago.
David Cyranoski
NatureFri, 02 Feb 2007 13:21 UTC
Indonesian geophysicists hope to stem the flow of a destructive mud volcano on East Java by dropping chains of concrete balls into its mouth.
The mud eruption began on 29 May last year in the middle of a rice paddy in the village of Porong, 30 kilometres south of Surabaya, the provincial capital. Since then, the volcano has spewed out up to 126,000 cubic metres of mud a day, flooding an area of more than 4 square kilometres.
Some 10,000 people have been left homeless and 20 factories have closed. Another 200,000 homes could be at risk if the mudflow combines with the rainy season - which has just begun - and weakening dams to flood more land. Attempts to alleviate the problem by drilling relief wells or channelling the mud into a nearby river have so far failed.
For decades, scientists have believed that the brain possesses an internal clock that allows it to keep track of time. Now a UCLA study in the Feb. 1 edition of Neuron proposes a new model in which a series of physical changes to the brain's cells helps the organ to monitor the passage of time.
"The value of this research lies in understanding how the brain works," said Dean Buonomano, associate professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the university's Brain Research Institute. "Many complex human behaviors -- from understanding speech to playing catch to performing music -- rely on the brain's ability to accurately tell time. Yet no one knows how the brain does it."
Comment: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so"
Two leading American papers, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today are planning scented ads.
They hope the innovation will boost their ad income. The two papers are working with a company called Scentisphere, which markets a product called Rub'n'Smell.
Of course scratch and sniff ads have been around for many years - notably for perfume ads. But that system is complicated. The biggest difference is that Rub'n'Smell is applied directly to printed ads as an ink. No separate press run to create the scented inserts is necessary.
Prototypes of microscopic engines that could power molecular machines have been brewed up in a Scottish laboratory.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have created a tiny engine powered by light that can be made to sort molecules.
How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb
In California, the answer is a majority - plus Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Decrying the inefficiency of the common light bulb, a Democratic Assemblyman from Los Angeles wants California to become the first state to ban it - by 2012.
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine says compact fluorescent light bulbs, which often have a spiral shape and are being promoted by Wal-Mart, are so efficient that consumers should be forced to use them. The compact bulbs use a quarter the energy of a conventional light.
BBCWed, 31 Jan 2007 10:26 UTC
US researchers say they have created a "virtual" model of all the biochemical reactions that occur in human cells.
They hope the computer model will allow scientists to tinker with metabolic processes to find new treatments for conditions such as high cholesterol.
It could also be used to individually tailor diet for weight control, the University of California team claimed.
Their development is reported in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Patricia Reaney
ReutersTue, 30 Jan 2007 16:44 UTC
Evidence of a large settlement full of houses dating back to 2,600 BC has been discovered near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge in southwest England, scientists said on Tuesday.
They suspect inhabitants of the houses, forming the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain, built the stone circle at Stonehenge -- generally thought to have been a temple, burial ground or an astronomy site -- between 3,000 and 1,600 BC.
"We found the remains of eight houses," Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of archaeology at Sheffield University, said in a teleconference to announce the discovery.
"We think they are part of a much larger settlement. I suspect we can identify 25 likely house sites. My guess is that there are many more than that," he added.
© Associated Press/Italian Culture Ministry, HO
Lupercale ceiling picture
Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale - the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born.
The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city.
Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace.
A major prehistoric village has been unearthed near Stonehenge in southern England.
The settlement likely housed the builders of the famous monument, archaeologists say, and was an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting great "feasts and parties" (
photo gallery).
Comment: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so"