Fukushima tapes
Australian archaeologists are embarking on a study of one of the earliest ever records of a key transformation in human history, the end of the nomadic lifestyle.
The team, headed by Dr Andrew Fairbairn from the University of Queensland, will join with a British team next week to continue work on the excavation of a 10,000-year-old early village site in central Turkey. |  |
300 000 year old flint tools found in Northern France
The deposits at Etricourt Manancourt in the Picardie region of France documents the history of early European settlements, revealing at least five prehistoric levels, ranging between 300,000 and 80,000 years old.
This discovery resulted from the archaeological work carried out prior to construction of a large canal. Archaeologists from Inrap looked at 17 hectares in 2010, which revealed a Palaeolithic level and more evidence was found in 2012, when 3,200 square metres were excavated over 4 month period.
This discovery resulted from the archaeological work carried out prior to construction of a large canal. Archaeologists from Inrap looked at 17 hectares in 2010, which revealed a Palaeolithic level and more evidence was found in 2012, when 3,200 square metres were excavated over 4 month period.
Digging up lessons from an ancient quake
SACRAMENTO BEE
BREMERTON, Wash. -- Beth Arcos picked her way through muck and pickleweed just west of the Bremerton waterfront, on the trail of an ancient earthquake and tsunami.
"Here's the first evidence," the former University of Washington doctoral student said, kneeling to pluck clam shells from what used to be a tidal mud flat - but now sits well above the waterline. More than 1,000 years ago, Arcos explained, the Seattle fault let loose, lifting the ground here nearly 10 feet.
"Here's the first evidence," the former University of Washington doctoral student said, kneeling to pluck clam shells from what used to be a tidal mud flat - but now sits well above the waterline. More than 1,000 years ago, Arcos explained, the Seattle fault let loose, lifting the ground here nearly 10 feet.
June 2012 Ranks As Fourth Warmest on Record for Planet
The planetary warm spell continued through June; last month ranked as the fourth warmest June since record keeping began in 1880, according to the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Much of the world saw higher-than-average temperatures for June, particularly the lower 48 states, where last month brought the warmest 12-month period since the late 19th century. In addition to most of North America, Eurasia and northern Africa also saw much higher-than-average monthly temperatures, according to NOAA. |  |
Tibetan glaciers shrinking rapidly
The majority of glaciers on the Tibetan plateau and in the surrounding region are retreating rapidly, according to a study based on 30 years of satellite and field measurements.
The research by Yao Tandong, a glaciologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Tibetan Research in Beijing, and his colleagues is published today in Nature Climate Change1. It “is the most comprehensive survey to date in the region”, says Tobias Bolch, a glaciologist in the University of Zurich, Switzerland. |  |
Dude, Where's My Corn?
A record-setting drought grips more than half of the contiguous United States. For farmers the drought is ruining harvests, but driving up the price of crops that do survive. Higher wholesale prices will soon translate into rising costs at the supermarket.
The United States Department of Agriculture recently lowered the expected yield of 2012's corn harvest by a further 1.8 billion bushels, meaning the projected corn crop has now dropped by 46.2 million tons. The ailing corn crop won't be helped by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources' order that 1,106 farmers stop irrigating farmland on Friday of last week due to the drought affecting the entire state, reported the DesMoines Register. |
Can Computers Predict Crimes?
Columbo would have hated the latest trend in crime-fighting. And it definitely would have made Dirty Harry even more unhinged.
But Sherlock Holmes, now he would have been impressed. The logic, the science, the compilation of data–all the stuff of Holmesian detective work. I’m talking about something known as predictive policing–gathering loads of data and applying algorithms to deduce where and when crimes are most likely to occur. Late last month, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that it will be expanding its use of software created by a California startup named PredPol. |  |
White dental fillings may impair kids' behavior
A resin in the most commonly used white composite dental fillings may be linked to subtle neuropsychological deficits in children.
The association appears in reanalyzed data collected from 434 children as part of a trial begun roughly a decade ago. The original study was designed to probe for IQ or other neurobehavioral impacts of the mercury that can be released by metal-amalgam dental fillings. Half of the kids received amalgam fillings for cavities in back teeth, the rest got composite back fillings.
The association appears in reanalyzed data collected from 434 children as part of a trial begun roughly a decade ago. The original study was designed to probe for IQ or other neurobehavioral impacts of the mercury that can be released by metal-amalgam dental fillings. Half of the kids received amalgam fillings for cavities in back teeth, the rest got composite back fillings.
How Barley Protects Against Invasion
Unlike animals, plants do not have a circulating blood system containing cell capable of fighting off bacterial invasion. Instead, they have to rely on various other techniques, which I covered in detail way back on my old Field of Science blog. One method they use is to kill off cells that are close to a bacterial or fungi infection in order to starve the oncoming infection and prevent it spreading
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The Ecology of Disease
THERE’S a term biologists and economists use these days — ecosystem services — which refers to the many ways nature supports the human endeavor. Forests filter the water we drink, for example, and birds and bees pollinate crops, both of which have substantial economic as well as biological value.
If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can cause a breakdown of these systems and come back to haunt us in ways we know little about. A critical example is a developing model of infectious disease that shows that most epidemics — AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease and hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades — don’t just happen. They are a result of things people do to nature.
If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can cause a breakdown of these systems and come back to haunt us in ways we know little about. A critical example is a developing model of infectious disease that shows that most epidemics — AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease and hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades — don’t just happen. They are a result of things people do to nature.
Bring back beavers to stop flooding, says expert
A wildlife expert says Britain should bring back the beaver to stop the growing menace of flooded homes and businesses.
Ecologist Derek Gow says the water-loving creatures would gnaw through trees and build dams, holding back the floods when rivers get swollen by heavy rain. Britain is lagging behind other European countries who have already re-introduced the beaver and studies in places like Belgium and Germany have proved they can help alleviate flooding, he says. |  |
The Nazis' Furriest Enemy
The tale is bizarre, but true. During World War II, an orphaned brown bear went from being a cuddly pet to an officially enlisted soldier in the Polish army, and reportedly saw fierce combat in Italy. Decades after the war and his death, "Wojtek" continues to be honored.
Archibald Brown had already seen a lot during the war -- but nothing like this. It was mid-February 1944, and the courier for British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was in the port of Naples to help process a unit of Polish soldiers that had just arrived by ship from Alexandria, Egypt, to advance with British soldiers against German and Italian forces. |  |
Can science make food taste better?
A few years ago, a trainee chef from Boston, Massachusetts, called Molly Birnbaum went for an early-morning jog. She ran past an apartment block; she can remember the smell of laundry coming out of the air vents. Then she ran across a road. But she never got to the other side; a car smashed into her. When the car’s windscreen made contact with her head, Birnbaum’s brain smacked against the side of her skull, destroying her sense of smell. That laundry would be one of the last things she would smell for years.
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"Evidence of Alien Life Expected Within 21st Century" --Leading Astrophysicist
The Daily Galaxy
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a British astrophysicist at Oxford University who discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish, for which Hewish shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum conference in Dublin, said: ‘I do suspect we are going to get signs of life elsewhere, maybe even intelligent life, within the next century".
Newfound Monkey Flower Reveals Evolution in Action
A new species of monkey flower has been found in Scotland, the product of a tryst between two foreign flowers. But this is no ordinary love child. While almost all such hybrids are sterile — just as mules are sterile hybrids of donkeys and horses — a rare genetic duplication allowed this species to become fertile.
It's rare to discover a newly evolved species, said researcher Mario Vallejo-Marin, who found the handsome yellow flower while on a walk through southern Scotland with his family last summer. |  |
Mystery deaths of 500 penguins
More than 500 dead penguins have been washed up on beaches in southern Brazil over the past week.
Marine biologists and veterinarians reported yesterday that the birds had no visible injuries or oil stains and appeared to be well fed.The Centre of Coastal and Marine Studies said it expected to receive the results of autopsies on some of the birds within the next month.
Marine biologists and veterinarians reported yesterday that the birds had no visible injuries or oil stains and appeared to be well fed.The Centre of Coastal and Marine Studies said it expected to receive the results of autopsies on some of the birds within the next month.