Google maps ancient Mexican ruins
Google is expanding its Street View offerings to include dozens of 360-degree photo tours of ancient Mexican monuments such as Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza and Palenque.
The additions are aimed at helping Mexico "open a window to the world, to encourage physical visits to the pre-Hispanic sites and thus in turn benefit cultural tourism," Miguel Angel Alva, director of marketing for Google Mexico, said this week in an announcement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH. |  |
Sun Dominates Space Weather Concerns for Next Decade: Report
A new report based on input from the science community outlines the most pressing objectives over the next decade for studying the sun and the far-reaching effects of solar activity. The report, which was released yesterday (Aug. 15) by the National Research Council, identifies specific science goals and provides recommendations for how to maintain robust and effective programs despite budgetary constraints....
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Peking Man World Heritage Site Among 160 Sites Damaged in Beijing Floods
Beijing’s heaviest rainfall in six decades has affected 160 heritage sites, including the Peking Man World Heritage Site at Zhoukoudian, according to the city’s Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage. In addition, at least 77 people died as a result of the storms, which have again raised questions about Beijing’s infrastructure, especially its antiquated drainage network....
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Archaeologists leave artefacts underground to protect them from the Taliban
"IT'S there," says an archaeologist pointing to the ground, where fragments of a Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara civilisation have been covered up to stop them being stolen or vandalised.
Just months before the US-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban regime shocked the world by destroying two giant, 1500-year-old Buddhas in the rocky Bamiyan valley, branding them un-Islamic. |  |
Ruins in Iraq could be Hira
Najaf, Iraq -- A hundred yards or so from taxiing airliners, Iraqi archaeologist Ali al-Fatli is showing a visitor around the delicately carved remains of a church that may date back some 1,700 years to early Christianity.
The church, a monastery and other surrounding ruins have emerged from the sand over the past five years with the expansion of the airport serving the city of Najaf, and have excited scholars who think this may be Hira, a famous Arab Christian center. |  |
Generation Gaps Suggest Ancient Human-Ape Split
We aren’t the only primates with a big generation gap. Human parents are, on average, a whopping 29 years older than their kids. That had been considered unusually long for a primate, but a new study reveals that chimpanzees and gorillas have their own large generation gaps, about 25 years and 19 years, respectively. The findings also indicate that our ancestors split from those of chimpanzees at least 7 million to 8 million years ago, more than 1 million years earlier than previously thought.
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Major advance made in generating electricity from wastewater
Engineers at Oregon State University have made a breakthrough in the performance of microbial fuel cells that can produce electricity directly from wastewater, opening the door to a future in which waste treatment plants not only will power themselves, but will sell excess electricity.
The new technology developed at OSU can now produce 10 to 50 more times the electricity, per volume, than most other approaches using microbial fuel cells, and 100 times more electricity than some. |  |
Arctic sea ice 'melting faster'
Arctic sea ice is vanishing much faster than generally expected, according to preliminary data from European Space Agency satellite Cryosat.
UK scientists combined results from Cryosat, which uses radar to measure ice thickness, with data from Nasa's IceSat, which uses lasers. |  |
Search for life will shape future Mars missions
PASADENA, Calif. -- As NASA's Curiosity rover prepares to get its wheels in motion on Mars, the space agency is set to issue a new look at where exploration of the Red Planet could go in the years and decades to come - based on the theme "Seeking the Signs of Life."
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So You Landed On Mars. Now What?
The Mars rover Curiosity is beginning its fifth day on the red planet, and it's been performing flawlessly from the moment it landed. That's been especially gratifying for NASA landing engineer Adam Steltzner. Last Friday, while Steltzner was still on pins and needles waiting for the landing to take place, I told the story of Steltzner's decision as a young man to give up his life as a rocker and go for a career in space engineering.
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Wearable Electronics Pave Way for Smart Surgeon Gloves
New wearable electronics could become smart surgical gloves that allow surgeons to feel and do everything using their fingertips. Such electronics could even include electronic "socks" wrapped snugly around a patient's heart to monitor cardiac health.
The idea of stretchy smart materials fitting the hands of surgeons or human hearts comes from researchers who have discovered how to transform hard semiconductors into soft, flexible electronics. A U.S.-China team has published its blueprint for designing and making smart devices that can wrap around 3D objects like the human fingertip. |  |
Scientists decode TREX which could see new treatments for cancer realized
University of Sheffield scientists have decoded the processes which create proteins in all forms of life which - for the first time - opens the door to fixing these problems which can cause fatal health problems like Motor Neuron Disease, myotonic dystrophy and cancer.
Decoded process could hold the key to future treatments for a wide range of chronic health problems including Motor Neuron Disease, myotonic dystrophy and a wide range of cancers, University of Sheffield scientists have revealed.
Decoded process could hold the key to future treatments for a wide range of chronic health problems including Motor Neuron Disease, myotonic dystrophy and a wide range of cancers, University of Sheffield scientists have revealed.
Folded DNA becomes Trojan horse to attack cancer
IT WORKED for the ancient Greeks, so why shouldn't it work for us? Some cancers are resistant to chemotherapy, but we can attack them successfully by hiding drugs inside folded-up DNA.
DNA origami involves folding a single strand of DNA into a complex pattern, creating a 3D structure. Baoquan Ding at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing, China, and colleagues loaded a tubular piece of folded DNA with doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug. The DNA Trojan horse delivered a dose of the drug that proved lethal to human breast-cancer cells, even though they had developed resistance to doxorubicin.
DNA origami involves folding a single strand of DNA into a complex pattern, creating a 3D structure. Baoquan Ding at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing, China, and colleagues loaded a tubular piece of folded DNA with doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug. The DNA Trojan horse delivered a dose of the drug that proved lethal to human breast-cancer cells, even though they had developed resistance to doxorubicin.
Meet the inflatable, 'invisible' bike helmet
Hey, cyclists! Want to look more stylish while riding and still avoid the inconvenience of a cracked skull?
Then a pair of Swedish designers have got just the helmet for you - provided you're willing to fork over about $600 and aren't afraid of looking a little like a deployed airbag when you fall. |  |
Western Wildfire Smoke Spotted from Space
NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of three major wildfires in Idaho and the thick smoke from the blazes, which is billowing over neighboring Wyoming, on Aug. 14.
In some places it is so thick you cannot see the ground, meaning people on the ground likely cannot see the sky. The largest of the wildfires is the Halstead Fire, which as of today |  |
Feminism Was Alive in Renaissance England, Researcher Says
When one thinks of England in the 1600s, feminism probably isn't the first word to come to mind. But a researcher says a newly transcribed text shows that some Renaissance women launched battles for equality, which they sometimes won.
Jessica Malay recently put together a complete edition of a 600,000-word text by one of Britain's earliest feminist figures, Lady Anne Clifford, finding the so-called Great Books of Record "challenge the notion that women in the 16th and 17th centuries lacked any power or control over their own lives.". |  |
Sun stays nearly spherical, even when it freaks out
The 11-year solar cycle swoops between peaks of intense magnetic activity—apparent as sunspots, coronal loops and flares—and relative quiescence, when the Sun's face is free of blemishes. New research shows that despite this tumult, the Sun remains remarkably constant in its globular shape—findings that have left researchers scratching their heads.
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Brazil: Drug Dealers Say No to Crack in Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Business was brisk in the Mandela shantytown on a recent night. In the glow of a weak light bulb, customers pawed through packets of powdered cocaine and marijuana priced at $5, $10, $25. Teenage boys with semiautomatic weapons took in money and made change while flirting with girls in belly-baring tops lounging nearby.
Next to them, a gaggle of kids jumped on a trampoline, oblivious to the guns and drug-running that are part of everyday life in this and hundreds of other slums, known as favelas, across this metropolitan area of 12 million people. Conspicuously absent from the scene was crack, the most addictive and destructive drug in the triad that fuels Rio's lucrative narcotics trade.
Next to them, a gaggle of kids jumped on a trampoline, oblivious to the guns and drug-running that are part of everyday life in this and hundreds of other slums, known as favelas, across this metropolitan area of 12 million people. Conspicuously absent from the scene was crack, the most addictive and destructive drug in the triad that fuels Rio's lucrative narcotics trade.
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