Mars Rover: Zoomable image
This panoramic shot of the surface of Mars shows an impact crater blasted billions of years ago - and the fresh tracks created by Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Use the zoom tool to see the view in more detail.
The scene, which is made up of 817 images taken between December 2011 and May 2012, also includes the rover's own solar arrays and deck in the foreground. Its publication coincided with Opportunity completing its 3,000th day on Mars.
The scene, which is made up of 817 images taken between December 2011 and May 2012, also includes the rover's own solar arrays and deck in the foreground. Its publication coincided with Opportunity completing its 3,000th day on Mars.
Why Doomsday Fears Will Survive 2012 'Apocalypse'
Humanity will survive the supposed December 2012 apocalypse, but, unfortunately, so will irrational doomsday fears, scientists say.
Doomsayers around the world are gearing up for armageddon on Dec. 21, based on predictions supposedly made by the Mayans more than 1,000 years ago. Even after the sun rises Dec. 22, however, many folks will be only momentarily reassured, quickly latching onto another scenario purported to bring about the apocalypse within their lifetime. |  |
'Rightful king of England' dies in Australia
Michael Abney-Hastings, or "King Michael", was a British-born self-proclaimed republican who made international headlines in 2004 when a Channel 4 documentary suggested that King Edward IV was conceived illegitimately. It said the crown should have been passed down the Plantagenet line – ending at Abney-Hastings.
The reluctant, would-be king was born in Sussex and went to school at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire but moved as a teenager with his family to the small Australian town of Jerilderie, population 768, about 400 miles from Sydney. |  |
China's earliest wine unearthed in NW tomb
XI'AN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Liquid inside an ancient wine vessel unearthed in Shaanxi province is considered to be the earliest wine in China's history, archaeologists told Xinhua Thursday.
The wine vessel made of bronze was unearthed in a noble's tomb of the West Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 771 BC) in Shigushan Mountain in Baoji city.
The liquid is likely the oldest wine discovered in China, said Liu Jun, director of Baoji Archaeology Institute, who is in charge of the project.
The wine vessel made of bronze was unearthed in a noble's tomb of the West Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 771 BC) in Shigushan Mountain in Baoji city.
The liquid is likely the oldest wine discovered in China, said Liu Jun, director of Baoji Archaeology Institute, who is in charge of the project.
An army sacrificed in a bog
The unique discovery at the east end of Lake Mossø of a slaughtered army dating to around two thousand years ago, was revealed by Danish archaeologists in 2009.
They had found skeletal material from up to 200 warriors, who may have all come from the same battle. Cuts and slashes on the skeletons showed they had died violently but nothing is as yet known about the identity of the killers, or their victims.
They had found skeletal material from up to 200 warriors, who may have all come from the same battle. Cuts and slashes on the skeletons showed they had died violently but nothing is as yet known about the identity of the killers, or their victims.
Searching for ancient syphilis DNA in newborns
The ancient bones of newborns are very useful to recover DNA of the bacteria that causes syphilis – Treponema pallidum pallidum.
This is the conclusion reached by a study led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which was able to obtain the genetic material from the bacteria in more than one individual, in what is considered to be the oldest case known to date. Several previous intents had only achieved to yield this material in one occasion and from only one individual.
This is the conclusion reached by a study led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which was able to obtain the genetic material from the bacteria in more than one individual, in what is considered to be the oldest case known to date. Several previous intents had only achieved to yield this material in one occasion and from only one individual.
Thought-Controlled 'Avatar' Robot Developed By Scientists For Virtual Embodiment
We've just come one step closer to making "Avatar" a reality.
Scientists with the international Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment project have, for the first time, enabled a person to control a small automaton thousands of miles away using nothing but thoughts. According to New Scientist, by using an fMRI machine to scan the brain in real-time, roboticists were able to give a university student in Israel the ability to control a small robot at the Béziers Technology Institute in France. |  |
Cosmic scaffolding uncovered? Scientists find thread of dark matter
A team of astronomers says it has detected one of the threads of dark matter that scientists have long believed serve as the scaffolding for the cosmos.
Three-dimensional astronomical maps developed since the late 1980s show that the vast majority of the universe's galaxies are distributed as threads and sheets that span the universe, with galaxy clusters as well as superclusters of thousands of galaxies appearing where threads and sheets intersect. These structures were thought to have formed on a framework of dark matter, the unseen form of matter that scientists believe binds galaxies together. |  |
Scientists may have way to communicate with paralyzed
Neuroscientists unveiled a way to potentially communicate with paralyzed or seemingly comatose patients using brain imaging machines in a report out today.
The finding follows on two decades of neuroscientists looking for ways to translate brain signals into messages to help "locked-in" paralyzed patients, such as those with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Researchers have made increasing advances in using devices that detect brain activity to help paralyzed patients, ones who often are forced to rely on eye blinks or facial muscle twitches to slowly send messages. |  |
Out-of-body experience highlights clues to consciousness
You and your family are on holiday, driving round a mountainous part of Greece, when suddenly a tyre bursts. You roll over and over down some 100 metres before a large olive tree blocks your fall. Amazingly, you all emerge from the battered heap. Some days later, at work, you recount the tale, struggling to capture for your colleagues one of the odder aspects of the experience. It was, you say, a bit like a dream - or maybe a slow-motion movie, it was like being outside yourself, unreal...
Bethlehem sites given Unesco World Heritage status
The UN's cultural agency, Unesco, has voted to add the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and its pilgrimage route to the list of World Heritage Sites.
The Palestinian delegation welcomed the approval of its bid to get protected status for the church, built on a site some believe was Jesus's birthplace. Israel and the US opposed the move, saying it was politically motivated. It was the first such approval since Palestine was controversially granted membership of Unesco last year. |  |
New Scientific Technologies Help Us Better Understand Ancient Rome
June 28, 2012 — Historians and archaeologists have studied the ruins of the Roman Forum for centuries, employing the tools on hand to add to the knowledge of this center of Roman public life that hosted elections, triumphal processions, speeches, trials, shops and gladiatorial spectacles.
The latest research suggests these structures, which we know as white marble, may have been brightly painted. |  |
How Did Fang-Flashing Evolve into Smiling?
When a monkey bares its teeth, flattens its ears and tightens its throat muscles, it is cornered, afraid and bracing for a fight. When a human bares his teeth, flattens his ears and tightens his throat muscles, he is smiling. How did this odd evolutionary divergence happen?
Strange as it may seem, the friendly human smile probably evolved from that much more aggressive display of fangs, said Janice Porteous, a professor of philosophy at Vancouver Island University in Canada who studies the evolution of humor and laughter. The main evidence comes from "missing link" facial expressions made by primates that signify neither "you're my enemy," nor "you're my friend.". |  |
Huge Mars Rover One Month from Red Planet Landing
FThe biggest rover ever launched to another planet is just one month away from its target: the Red Planet, Mars.
NASA's huge Curiosity rover is hurtling toward a planned late-night landing on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (early Aug. 6 EDT), and the anticipation on the science team is high. The reasons are clear: At 1 ton, Curiosity is the largest rover ever aimed at Mars. It will land in a completely new way, using a giant parachute and a rocket-powered sky crane. And it is carrying a sophisticated set of tools to find out if its Martian drop zone could once have been home for life. |  |
Scientists Propose Phobos Sample Return Mission
According to a report issued by Purdue University, quoted by SpaceRef, a mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, may provide evidence of microbial life on Mars for far less trouble and expense than a sample return mission to the Martian surface.
According to NASA, Phobos is the larger and innermost moon of Mars. It is an irregularly shaped object 27 by 22 by 18 kilometers in diameter. It orbits Mars three times per day. It may be a captured asteroid, though some scientists dispute this.
According to NASA, Phobos is the larger and innermost moon of Mars. It is an irregularly shaped object 27 by 22 by 18 kilometers in diameter. It orbits Mars three times per day. It may be a captured asteroid, though some scientists dispute this.
The Garden of Our Neglect: How Humans Shape the Evolution of Other Species
For the vast majority of the history of our kind we were in some ways no more sophisticated than crows, which use sticks to poke around in promising holes. Eventually, of course, we discovered fire and invented stone tools, which then led to guns, pesticides and antibiotics. Using these tools, we encouraged the survival of favorable species such as wheat and yeast needed for beer and cows for meat and milk—a garden of delights.
But we also encouraged a garden of neglect—a surprising number of resilient pests that have been able to survive in spite of our weapons. These species are now coming back to haunt us as toxins, pathogens or worse. Here are ten ways we have helped this garden of neglect prosper. |  |
Discovery of an arsenic-friendly microbe refuted
The discovery of an arsenic-loving microbe that NASA said would rewrite biology textbooks and offered hope of life on other planets now looks like a case study in how science corrects its mistakes, researchers report.
In findings released Sunday by the journal Science, two research teams take aim at the "arseniclife" bacteria. The microbe was announced by the journal in 2010 at a NASA news briefing as "the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic." The new findings show that was not the case. |  |
Roswell UFO Was Not Of This Earth And There Were ET Cadavers: Ex-CIA Agent Says
Happy anniversary, Roswell, N.M. It was 65 years ago today that the Roswell Daily Record blasted an infamous headline claiming local military officials had captured a flying saucer on a nearby ranch. And now, a former CIA agent says it really happened.
"It was not a damn weather balloon -- it was what it was billed when people first reported it," said Chase Brandon, a 35-year CIA veteran. "It was a craft that clearly did not come from this planet, it crashed and I don't doubt for a second that the use of the word 'remains' and 'cadavers' was exactly what people were talking about." |  |
Archaeologist has found evidence of De Soto's expedition
Hernando De Soto's route through Florida is as elusive to modern archaeologists as the gold the famed Spanish explorer sought throughout the southeastern United States.
Ever since De Soto's 600 men set foot on the shores of Tampa Bay, arriving from Cuba almost 500 years ago, historians have debated the exact direction of his failed treasure-hunting expeditions as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina.
But in north Marion County, an archaeologist has found what his contemporaries deem rarer than the gold De Soto was seeking — physical evidence of the explorer's precise journey through Marion County and enough information to redraw Florida De Soto maps and fuel many more archaeological digs based on his findings.
Ever since De Soto's 600 men set foot on the shores of Tampa Bay, arriving from Cuba almost 500 years ago, historians have debated the exact direction of his failed treasure-hunting expeditions as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina.
But in north Marion County, an archaeologist has found what his contemporaries deem rarer than the gold De Soto was seeking — physical evidence of the explorer's precise journey through Marion County and enough information to redraw Florida De Soto maps and fuel many more archaeological digs based on his findings.
‘DNSChanger’ Malware Could Strand Thousands When Domains Go Dark on Monday
Tens of thousands of U.S. internet users could be left in the digital dark on Monday when the FBI pulls the plug on domains related to the DNSChanger malware.
Computers belonging to an estimated 64,000 users in the United States, and an additional 200,000 users outside the United States, are still infected with the malware, despite repeated warnings in the news, e-mail messages sent by ISPs and alerts posted by Google and Facebook. The DNSChanger malware, which infected more than half a million machines worldwide at the height of its activity, redirected a victim’s web browser to sites designated by the attackers, allowing them to earn more than $14 million in affiliate and referral fees. |  |