A rare scarab amulet newly unearthed in Tel Aviv reveals the ancient Egyptian presence in this modern Israeli city.
Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, have long uncovered evidence of Egyptian 
influence. Now, researchers have learned that a gateway belonging to an Egyptian fortification in Jaffa was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times. They have also found the scarab, which bears the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III
, who ruled from 1390 to 1353 B.C. Scarabs were common charms in ancient Egypt, representing the journey of the sun across the sky and the cycle of life. |  |
This is the week to see winking 'Demon Star' in night sky
This week, Skywatcherss
will have the chance to catch a winking "demon star" in the night sky.The star, known as Algol, is located in the constellation of Perseus, the Hero, and has been known since ancient times as " The Demon Star." Algol has a long and venerable history. Its name comes from the Arabic word al-ghul, which means "female demon." But, contrary to popular belief, the name seems to have nothing to do with the star's behavior, but rather, is due merely to Algol's position marking the head of the Gorgon Medusa in Ancient Greek Mythology  . According to the myth, gazing at Medusa could turn a person to stone. |  |
Giant Magma Ball Threatens Island Santorini
A huge balloon of magma about 15 times the size of London’s Olympic stadium is growing beneath the holiday island of Santorini
.Geologists led by Oxford University say the chamber of super-heated rock expanded from ten to 20million cubic metres between January 2011 and April this year. The balloon is so big it has forced the Greek island upwards by 14cm (5.5in) in that time. It also triggered a series of small earthquakes, the first Seismic Activity 
in 25 years. The movements were spotted by Michelle Parks, an Oxford University DPhil student, on field trips and using satellite radar images. |  |
"Is There Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years
?"
The controversial climate-change contrarian, S. Frederick Singer, a former space scientist and government scientific administrator, who holds PhD in Physics from Princeton University and is co-author of, "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years
" presents the theory that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle.
Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with natural physical records, they argue that the 1,500 year natural sunspot magnetic waves cycle that has always controlled the earth's climate remains the driving force in the current warming trend. Man created carbon dioxide has very little effect on the earth's climate.
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Climate change expert calls for nuclear power 'binge' to avert global warming
Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, warns CO2 levels are rising at a faster than exponential rate
A leading British academic has called for accelerated research into futuristic geo-engineering and a worldwide nuclear power station "binge" to avoid runaway global warming. Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, said both potential solutions had inherent dangers but were now vital as time was running out. |  |
Clays in Pacific lavas back drier early Mars
A study of rocks at an old A-bomb test site in the Pacific has led a team of scientists to conclude that early Mars was not so warm and wet, as many argue.
The rocks at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia contain clay minerals that look like those seen on the Red Planet. But whereas the Martian clays are taken to be the products of weathering of rocks by liquid water, the atoll's clays have a very different origin. These were precipitated directly from water-rich molten rock as it cooled. |  |
What lies beneath? Antarctic mission to find life isolated deep under the ice
Extraordinary journey may reveal unknown life forms cut off from outside world – and pave a way to Jupiter
Twelve British scientists are about to embark on a gruelling expedition to the Antarctic, sleeping and living packed together in small tents for months on end, testing their endurance of the conditions – and one another – in a quest to uncover a lost world frozen beneath the ice for hundreds of thousands of years.
Their search for microbial lifeforms will take them to the darkest depths of an Antarctic lake that has been buried under three kilometres of ice.
Twelve British scientists are about to embark on a gruelling expedition to the Antarctic, sleeping and living packed together in small tents for months on end, testing their endurance of the conditions – and one another – in a quest to uncover a lost world frozen beneath the ice for hundreds of thousands of years.
Their search for microbial lifeforms will take them to the darkest depths of an Antarctic lake that has been buried under three kilometres of ice.
Physicists Quantum Teleport Photons Over 88 Miles
Last May, European researchers reported successfully teleporting photons over a distance of 143 km – a little over 88 miles- between two Canary Islands. When I discussed this finding at the time, one of the caveats I had mentioned about this experiment is that it hadn’t yet been peer-reviewed. Well, now it has. The researchers’ findings have been reviewed and published in Nature. The previous record of 97 kilometers by a team of researchers in China was published in Nature earlier this month.
Those researchers, who are affiliated with the Austrian Academy of Sciences and other European organizations, used lasers to teleport a photon from one Canary Island to the other. This was a process that required several key innovations, because the most common teleportation solution – using optical fiber – wasn’t an option due to signal degradation. |  |
Ben Hansen Of Syfy Channel's 'Fact Or Faked' Examines Your UFOs
Armed with millions of available cell phone cameras and digital cameras, people are looking to the skies around the world, and posting images of apparent UFOs on YouTube every day.
It's about time the FBI helped out with sifting through it all. Or at least former FBI Special Agent Ben Hansen, who now makes a living uncovering the truth behind strange and bizarre sightings. "The fact is, this phenomenon is real -- it's really happening, and new technology helps us sometimes to get closer to it. But because of the ease of which we're able to now create things ourselves, it's also hindering the field." |  |
Tobacco industry spends millions in pursuit of its Holy Grail – a cancer-free cigarette
There exists, in some lawyer’s vault, somewhere in the United States, a secret memo that was authored by a tobacco company executive back in 1955. Written in the exclamatory patois of the time, it says, “Boy! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our company was first to produce a cancer-free cigarette. What we could do to the competition.”
Just imagine it: a safe cigarette. One that doesn’t kill by causing cancer, or the diseases of the heart and lungs. One that can be consumed with pleasure to the smoker, benefit to the treasury and profit to the tobacco giants. To all the interested parties, this would indeed be the most tremendous invention. Ever since the most serious perils of smoking became suspected by scientists, back in the early Fifties, many hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent pursuing the impossible dream. |  |
Lost Roman Town of Interamna Lirenas Comes to Light
European archaeologists using geophysical methods have mapped an ancient Roman town, which disappeared after its abandonment 1,500 years ago and now lies buried underground, revealing the location of its theater, marketplace and other buildings.
Interamna Lirenas was founded as a Roman colony in the 4th century BCE in the Liri Valley in Southern Lazio, about 50 miles south of Rome. After it was abandoned around the year 500 CE, it was scavenged for building materials and, over time, its remains were completely lost from view. Today, the site is an uninterrupted stretch of farmland, with no recognizable archaeological features. |  |
Breakthrough in the search for Richard III
The search for Richard III’s final resting place leaps forward with confirmation that the dig has uncovered the Church of the Grey Friars where Richard was buried and paving stones for a garden that once featured an inscribed pillar.
Cloister uncovered and church wall confirmed
The first two trenches dug by Leicester’s archaeologists revealed tiled passageway floors at right angles to each other which are probably the remains of a cloister. A cloister is a rectangular open space, surrounded by covered walkways, often built alongside a church with a monastic community.
Cloister uncovered and church wall confirmed
The first two trenches dug by Leicester’s archaeologists revealed tiled passageway floors at right angles to each other which are probably the remains of a cloister. A cloister is a rectangular open space, surrounded by covered walkways, often built alongside a church with a monastic community.
Water Droplet Computing Needs No Electricity
Today's computers can short out if liquid enters their innards, but water droplets could form the basis for tomorrow's electricity-free computing devices.
The idea of turning water droplets into digital bits — the basic unit of data transfer — came from experiments at Aalto University in Finland. When researchers observed water droplets bouncing off one another like billiard balls on a water-repellent surface, they realized they could guide the water droplets along water-repellent tracks. |  |
Silver in Space: Metal Found to Form in Distinct Star Explosions
It's long been known that earthly metals like gold and silver were forged in supernova explosions, but the metals' exact origins have been shrouded in mystery. Now a new study has identified the unique nuclear recipe for silver in space.
While most common light elements like hydrogen and helium were formed in the big bang, heavier elements like carbon and oxygen are formed within stars through nuclear fusion.
While most common light elements like hydrogen and helium were formed in the big bang, heavier elements like carbon and oxygen are formed within stars through nuclear fusion.
\Wow! Spectacular Sun Photos Catch Colossal Solar Storm in Action
NASA spacecraft watching the sun have captured jaw-dropping pictures and video of a giant filament of super-hot plasma reaching up from the star's surface and erupting into space.
The filament was made of solar material that was ejected from the sun during an intense solar storm on Aug. 31. Flares are caused by increased magnetic activity on the surface of our star, and are becoming more common as the sun approaches a phase of peak activity in 2013. |  |
The Relationship Between Fructose and Bone Fragility
In the last few decades, the food industry has greatly increased its use of fructose to improve food taste. A 12-ounce can of soda typically has 39 grams (9.7 teaspoons) of sugar, of which half is typically fructose. Derived from corn, beets and sugar cane, fructose is the sweetest of all natural sugars. Like other processed sugars, some studies have linked fructose to the obesity epidemic, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance.
Ronaldo Ferraris, an NSF-supported researcher at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, is studying whether and how fructose inhibits the intestine’s absorption of calcium, which can result in fragile bones, leading to osteoporosis in adults or rickets in children. |  |
Virtual reality lets amputees train with a prosthesis
Even Oscar Pistorius had to learn to walk before he could run. But learning to live with a prosthetic limb can be a difficult and frustrating experience.
To help amputees get to grips with a new prosthetic arm, the prosthesis manufacturer Otto Bock has teamed up with researchers from the Interactive Media Systems Group at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria to develop a virtual reality training environment called ProsthesisTrainer.
To help amputees get to grips with a new prosthetic arm, the prosthesis manufacturer Otto Bock has teamed up with researchers from the Interactive Media Systems Group at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria to develop a virtual reality training environment called ProsthesisTrainer.
Tigers 'take night shift' to dodge humans
Tigers in Nepal seem to be taking night shifts in order to avoid their human neighbours, a study has shown.
The big cats generally move around at all times of the day and night, to monitor territory, mate and hunt. "It's a very fundamental conflict over resources," said co-author Neil Carter, from Michigan State University in East Lansing, US. "Tigers need resources, people need the same resources. If we operate under the traditional wisdom that tigers only can survive with space dedicated only for them, there would always be conflict. If your priority is people, tigers lose out. If your priority is tigers, people lose out.". |  |
Javan rhino clings to survival in last forest stronghold
There are only 35 rhinos left in one wild population, and none in captivity. But conservationists hope they can increase the numbers of what is possibly the rarest large mammal on Earth
For most people in south-east Asia, the Javan rhino is effectively already a relic from the past. The stocky herbivore, that once roamed across Burma, Vietnam and Indonesia, is now a rarely glimpsed inhabitant of a single patch of thick forest on the island which gives it its name. No zoo in the world – even through captive breeding programmes – boasts a Javan rhino. Even people dedicated to protecting the world's rarest large mammal seldom catch sight of the species. |  |
‘World’s Rarest Toad’ Not Extinct After All
A toad that pulled a disappearing act back in 1876 has miraculously reappeared in Sri Lanka. The Kandyan dwarf toad was discovered in a Sri Lankan stream in 1872, but almost as soon as the warty little guy turned up in the annals of biology, it was written off as a lost cause. Exhaustive surveys turned up nothing, so scientists figured it had kicked the extinction bucket.
ScienceNow has the story: But during a 2009 effort at cataloguing the region’s forests, which claim more extinct amphibians than any other nation, scientists trekking through the rugged 22,380-hectare Peak Wilderness Sanctuary one night noticed four unusual toads on rocks in a fast-flowing stream. They recorded characteristics of the toads such as size, shape, feet webbing, and skin texture and collected one of the animals to study further. |  |
Albatross's Effortless Flight Decoded—May Influence Future Planes
Airplane designers are getting new ideas from the albatross, long considered a master of efficient flight.
Through a method called dynamic soaring, the bird—with a wingspan of up to 12 feet (3.7 meters)—can glide thousands of miles without flapping.
Now, in a study that mixes biology with aeronautical engineering, researchers have come closer to figuring out how the birds ride the currents. And their findings may be used to innovate aircraft of the future.
German aerospace engineer Johannes Traugott and colleagues charted the albatross's nuanced flight pattern.
Through a method called dynamic soaring, the bird—with a wingspan of up to 12 feet (3.7 meters)—can glide thousands of miles without flapping.
Now, in a study that mixes biology with aeronautical engineering, researchers have come closer to figuring out how the birds ride the currents. And their findings may be used to innovate aircraft of the future.
German aerospace engineer Johannes Traugott and colleagues charted the albatross's nuanced flight pattern.
To Measure Sea Level Rise, Weigh the Ocean
Getting an accurate measure of the rise in worldwide sea level is more difficult than you might expect, thanks to a host of complicating factors like regional weather and warming and seasonal changes in ocean mass.
To get around these obstacles, British researchers have proposed a new way of calculating sea level rise: weighing the ocean. But not the whole thing — just a segment of it, in the tropical Pacific. In a study published Sept. 1 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists found that this area of the ocean is "quiet" and its mass stays constant year-round. Computer models suggest its weight could be used as a steadfast representative to estimate the world's ocean mass and sea level. |  |
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