Maya demand an end to doomsday myth
Guatemala's Mayan people accused the government and tour groups on Wednesday of perpetuating the myth that their calendar foresees the imminent end of the world for monetary gain.
"We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles," charged Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop.
Several films and documentaries have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that doomsday is less than two months away, on December 21, 2012.
"We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles," charged Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop.
Several films and documentaries have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that doomsday is less than two months away, on December 21, 2012.
Antarctic Ozone Hole 2nd Smallest in 20 Years
The ozone hole above the Antarctic has hit its maximum extent for the year. Due to warm temperatures, the opening in the protective atmospheric layer was the second smallest it has been for 20 years, scientists said Wednesday (Oct. 24).
Stretching to 8.2 million square miles (21.2 million square kilometers), an area roughly the size of all of North America, the ozone hole reached its peak on Sept. 22. The largest one recorded to date spanned 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million square km) in 2000. |  |
Move over DNA: Six new molecules can carry genes
All of a sudden, DNA has no reason to feel special. For decades it seemed that only a handful of molecules could store genetic information and pass it on. But now synthetic biologists have discovered that six others can pull off the same trick, and there may be many more to find.
The ability to copy information from one molecule to another is fundamental to all life. Organisms pass their genes to their descendants, often with small changes, and as a result life can evolve over the generations. Barring a few exceptions, all known organisms use DNA as the information carrier. |  |
How Human Beings Almost Vanished From Earth In 70,000 B.C.
Add all of us up, all 7 billion human beings on earth, and clumped together we weigh roughly 750 billion pounds. That, says Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, is more than 100 times the biomass of any large animal that's ever walked the Earth. And we're still multiplying. Most demographers say we will hit 9 billion before we peak, and what happens then?
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Dolphin 'sponging' spans centuries
Bottlenose dolphins using sponges to protect their noses while foraging is a technique that the animals discovered in the 19th century, a study has found.
cientists analysed data on the dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia, to model the appearance and transmission of the skill over generations. The study found that "sponging" could have begun with a single "innovation event" between 120 and 180 years ago. It suggested that mothers passed on the skill by teaching their offspring. |  |
Listen to Your Intuition, Your Body Can Predict Events Without Conscious Clues
Pre-cognition might really exist, at least in some limited fashion, according to a new study of studies. Humans can anticipate near-future events even without any evidence presaging the event--and apparently without realizing it. One researcher even hints that quantum behavior might be involved.
It’s not necessarily extra-sensory perception, but “presentiment” can be real, and it may be based on physiological cues that biology still can't explain. It's something we've all experienced to some degree--like when you just know the driver in the lane next to you is coming over, or when you can feel that your boss is coming down the hall and you’d better look busy. |  |
Vampire-like treatment could stave off the effects of ageing, say researchers
It might sound like something from Dracula, but old brains have been made sprightly again thanks to young blood.
Giving ageing mice blood from much younger animals rejuvenated connections between brain cells and improved memory, experiments have shown. The treatment is so effective that 18-month-old animals did as well in memory tests as those of only four months. Mice usually live to between 18 months and two years. |  |
Yorkshire housewife 'raised by monkeys in jungle'
Marina Chapman learnt to catch birds and rabbits with her bare hands after being abandoned in the jungle by kidnappers, it was reported.
The Tarzan-like episode was brought to an end when she was discovered by hunters but by her ordeal continued when she was sold to a brothel in the city of Cucuta, and groomed for prostitution. She escaped and spent years on the streets, sometimes being arrested and kept in a cell, but was eventually taken in by a Colombian family to work as a maid in her mid-teens, and took the name of Marina Luz, according to the account given to a newspaper. |  |
Pet dogs 'catch yawns from their owners'
Adult dogs learn to copy the yawns of their tired owners, "catching" them in a similar way to humans in a show of empathy, a study has shown.
The research, by a Swedish university, suggests dogs can accurately identify human emotions and find yawning socially contagious. The subsequent yawn is not just a sign of tiredness or boredom, scientists found, but of a measure of empathy. |  |
Mice Sniff Out Landmines: DNews Nugget
Mice Sniff Out Landmines: About 70 countries have landscapes filled with hidden landmines. These unexploded bombs are difficult to detect and wreak havoc and death to residents. Currently, metal detectors, radar, magnetometers and sniffer dogs are used to search for them. Now researchers are proposing an inexpensive solution: genetically modified mice who are 500 times more sensitive than their natural counterparts to the smell of explosives from mines.
TV, devices in kids' bedrooms linked to poor sleep, obesity
Children who bask in the nighttime glow of a TV or computer don't get enough rest and suffer from poor lifestyle habits, new research from the University of Alberta has shown.
A provincewide survey of Grade 5 students in Alberta showed that as little as one hour of additional sleep decreased the odds of being overweight or obese by 28 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively. Children with one or more electronic devices in the bedroom—TVs, computers, video games and cellphones—were also far more likely to be overweight or obese.
A provincewide survey of Grade 5 students in Alberta showed that as little as one hour of additional sleep decreased the odds of being overweight or obese by 28 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively. Children with one or more electronic devices in the bedroom—TVs, computers, video games and cellphones—were also far more likely to be overweight or obese.
Large numbers of hyenas and humans coexist, study finds
Large hyena populations are living alongside human communities in Africa without coming into conflict, a recent study has found.
An international team of scientists surveyed the population size and diet of spotted hyenas in northern Ethiopia. The study found a large hyena population with a diet that consisted almost exclusively of domestic animals. Humans and hyenas are able to coexist because the cost of livestock predation to the local people is relatively low. The results are published in the journal of Mammalian Biology. |  |
Perthshire Loch welcomes first beaver in 200 years
A Perthshire loch has become home to a beaver for the first time in about 200 years.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) has been monitoring the animal at the Loch of the Lowes since it was first spotted in August. It's thought the beaver may be related to one of many beavers in the River Tay catchment that have escaped or were illegally released from captivity. The animals became extinct in the UK towards the end of the 18th century. |  |
Fossil study helps pinpoint extinction risks for ocean animals
What makes some ocean animals more prone to extinction than others? A new study of marine fossils provides a clue.
An analysis of roughly 500 million years of fossil data for marine invertebrates reveals that ocean animals with small geographic ranges have been consistently hard hit—even when populations are large, the authors report. The oceans represent more than 70% of the Earth's surface. But because monitoring data are harder to collect at sea than on land, we know surprisingly little about the conservation status of most marine animals. By using the fossil record to study how ocean extinctions occurred in the past, we may be better able to predict species' vulnerability in the future. |  |
Fossil Record Shows Species Need to Spread Out to Survive
Counter to expectations, groups of related marine species with large population sizes have just the same risk of extinction as those with small population sizes, according to new research.
The new analysis of marine fossil records across 500 million years shows that ocean invertebrates (animals without backbones) limited to small geographic ranges typically bear the brunt of extinction, regardless of their abundance there. The findings offer a potentially important clue for present-day conservationists. |  |
Genetic patterns of deep-sea coral provide insights into evolution of marine life
The ability of deep-sea corals to harbor a broad array of marine life, including commercially important fish species, make these habitat-forming organisms of immediate interest to conservationists, managers, and scientists. Understanding and protecting corals requires knowledge of the historical processes that have shaped their biodiversity and biogeography.
While little is known about these processes, new research described in the journal Molecular Ecology helps elucidate the historical patterns of deep-sea coral migration and gene flow, coincident with oceanic circulation patterns and events. |  |
Can Controversial Ocean Iron Fertilization Save Salmon?
What's been described as a "rogue" geoengineering experiment is really an effort, however flawed, to restore salmon abundance
In a bid to restore lost fish abundance, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC) undertook to mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption by fertilizing the ocean with iron. The idea was to provide the missing nutrient for a plankton bloom that would then trickle up the food web and restore salmon—with the ancillary effects of gathering data on the ocean food web and, potentially, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. |  |
Retrieving the Weather of the Past
Citizen scientists have been invited to help transcribe logbooks from legendary American vessels like the Bear, which plied Arctic waters for four decades for the United States Revenue, the precursor of the Coast Guard.
For many years now, volunteers working from home —people like you— have been able to help scientists with important problems. In the first wave of these “citizen science” projects, people simply lent their computers to help solve problems that could be farmed out in pieces to thousands of machines. Among the first of these was searching incoming radio signals for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, although my favorite involved analyzing the folding of proteins to help study diseases and treatments. |  |
Southampton scientists change the colour of gold
Scientists in Southampton are now able to change the colour of gold.
The technique involves embossing tiny raised or indented patterns on the metal's surface which alters the way it absorbs or reflects light. Prof Nikolay Zheludev, who leads the nanophotonics and metamaterials team at Southampton University, said it means gold can be made red or green or a multitude of other hues. |  |
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