Tutankhamun
 's mysterious death as a teenager may finally have been explained. And the condition that cut short his life may also have triggered the earliest monotheistic religion, suggests a new review of his family history.Since his lavishly furnished, nearly intact tomb was discovered in 1922, the cause of Tutankhamun's death has been at the centre of intense debate. There have been theories of murder, leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, sickle-cell anaemia, a snake bite - even the suggestion that the young king died after a fall from his chariot. But all of these theories have missed one vital point, says Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon with an interest in medical history at Imperial College London. Tutankhamun died young with a feminised physique, and so did his immediate predecessors. |  |
Ancient Mayan Theater Was Political Tool
A unique Mayan
theater has been unearthed in Mexico, according to researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).Found at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas, the 1,200-year-old theater did not seem to be a place for art and culture, but was rather used by Mayan elite to legitimize their power and subjugate local minority groups. "It was a unique theater, since it was found in an acropolis, 137 feet above the other plazas. The stage lay within a palace complex," Luis Alberto Martos López, director of the research project, said in a statement. |  |
Did Scott's own South Pole team seal his fate?
The death of Robert Falcon Scott as he returned from the South Pole may partly have been the result of the actions of his own colleagues which were later hushed up, a new book claims.
In it, Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales in Sydney says he has uncovered archive material suggesting that Scott and his men found less food than expected at a key point on their return journey from the South Pole in February 1912. Turney points the finger at Teddy Evans, Scott's second-in-command, who turned back before reaching the pole. |  |
Fishing Vessels Level Seafloor
Trawlers are smoothing the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, much as farmers flattened fields across Europe centuries ago. And it's likely that similar smoothing is occurring wherever bottom trawlers operate across the Seven Seas.
New research published online by Nature on September 5 reveals that bottom trawling—dragging massive nets across the seafloor to catch food such as deep-sea shrimp—is pushing sediment to fill in gaps on a daily basis, resulting in smooth undersea plains. |  |
Dinosaur die-out might have been second of two closely timed extinctions
The most-studied mass extinction in Earth history happened 65 million years ago and is widely thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. New University of Washington research indicates that a separate extinction came shortly before that, triggered by volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet and killed life on the ocean floor.
The well-known second event is believed to have been triggered by an asteroid at least 6 miles in diameter slamming into Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. But new evidence shows that by the time of the asteroid impact, life on the seafloor – mostly species of clams and snails – was already perishing because of the effects of huge volcanic eruptions on the Deccan Plateau in what is now India. |  |
Detailed map of genome function
Scientists have published the most detailed analysis to date of the human genome.
They've discovered a far larger chunk of our genetic code is biologically active than previously thought. The researchers hope the findings will lead to a deeper understanding of numerous diseases, which could lead to better treatments. More than 400 scientists in 32 laboratories in the UK, US, Spain, Singapore and Japan were involved. Their findings are published in 30 connected open-access papers appearing in three journals, Nature, Genome Biology and Genome Research. |  |
What lies beyond the Higgs boson?
Now that a "Higgs-like particle" has been detected at Europe's Large Hadron Collider, is the hard part of the $10 billion quest for new physics finished? No. Way. The hard part — and, most physicists would say, the fun part — is just beginning. Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll explains why in a new book
, and on tonight's episode of our "Virtually Speaking Science" talk show.The physics of subatomic particles isn't exactly Carroll's comfort zone. He's more at home with big topics such as cosmic inflation, the accelerating universe, the arrow of time and extra dimensions. But that just means Carroll is able to fit the scientific view of the universe at its smallest scales into the bigger picture, writing in a style that's accessible to folks who wouldn't otherwise know their boson from a fermion in the ground. |   |
Robots and humans could 'talk' via new software
Software that will allow robots to "talk" with people is being developed at the University of Aberdeen.
The code will be used to help robots complete tasks more efficiently and could pave the way for human-to-robot business meetings. Robots now carry out tasks in a range of industries, from decommissioning nuclear plants to maintaining railway lines. But without continuous human guidance mistakes can be made. |  |
Death Valley gains title of hottest place ever recorded on Earth
For nearly a century the Mediterranean city of El Azizia in northern Libya has held the official title for having been the hottest place on Earth ever recorded.
But the world record was taken away on Thursday after an investigation by the World Meteorological Organisation found the measurement was probably bungled by someone who misread a thermometer. A panel of experts convened by the WMO raised five serious concerns over the historic claim that the mercury reached 58C in 1922 at what was then an Italian army base on the Libyan coast. |  |
Ancient flower lives only on two Spanish cliffs, and uses ants to survive
This story begins with a cliff-hanger. On the Spanish side of the Pyrenees mountains, around 850 metres above sea level, two adjacent cliff faces hold the entire population of Borderea chouardii – one of the world’s rarest plants. It’s a small herb that grows into crevices in the rock. Its leaves are heart-shaped and its flowers green and unassuming. There are around 10,000 individuals here, all growing on a square kilometre of vertical rock.
Now, Maria Garcia form the Spanish National Research Council has discovered the plant’s survival strategy, which involves three different species of ants. Through these multiple partnerships, B.chouardii quite literally clings to existence. |  |
Russian mammoth remains give glimmer of hope for cloning
Scientists who found well preserved woolly mammoth remains in a remote part of Russia hope they might contain the necessary material to clone the long extinct beast.
The Russian-led international team found the remains, including fur and bone marrow, with some cell nuclei intact, in the Ust-Yansk area of the Yakutia region on Russia's Arctic coast.
The next step will be to search for living cells among the material which was preserved in the Siberian permafrost, said the Russian scientist who led the expedition with members from the United States, Canada, South Korea, Sweden and Great Britain.
The Russian-led international team found the remains, including fur and bone marrow, with some cell nuclei intact, in the Ust-Yansk area of the Yakutia region on Russia's Arctic coast.
The next step will be to search for living cells among the material which was preserved in the Siberian permafrost, said the Russian scientist who led the expedition with members from the United States, Canada, South Korea, Sweden and Great Britain.
Help Oceanographers Comb the Ocean Floor From the Comfort of Your Home
End-of-summer blues have you thinking of your next beach vacation? Now you can virtually swim along the ocean floor and stare at the interesting starfish, scallops and other bottom-dwellers that lurk there. For science!
A new interactive website called Seafloor Explorer needs the public’s help to identify objects and seascapes in a few million underwater photos. The project is starting with 100,000 images, but there are more than 40 million in all. The photos come from the HabCam group, an underwater habitat-mapping project at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It’s the newest addition to the Zooniverse, where citizen scientists already have the opportunity to hunt for new planets, categorize galaxies, organize whale calls, study climate through old shipping logs, and more. |  |
Discover Interview Deep Underwater, George Bass Has Seen Pieces of the Past
The pioneering underwater archaeologist ignored academics who said he was wasting his time and professional divers who assumed he would not make it out of the water alive.
Much of human history is hidden beneath the waves: Some 3,000,000 shipwrecks may rest on the world’s seabeds. But archaeologists had to rely on professional divers for scraps of information about these sites until the 1960s, when George Bass began to apply rigorous excavation techniques to underwater wrecks. Over the next half century, Bass led groundbreaking studies of Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 B.C.) shipwrecks off the coast of Turkey, along with sites from many other periods. Along the way, he transformed underwater archaeology from an amateur’s pastime to a modern scientific discipline. |  |
Finding Richard III would expose the ever-shifting ground of history
The discovery of remains that could belong to Richard III reminds us how fluid is our understanding of the past
If the remains found under a council car park in Leicester prove to be those of Richard III, the dispute about just how deformed the notorious medieval monarch really was can finally be settled. But more importantly, perhaps, it will have brought to light that beneath our cities and towns are layers of history, trenches of earth littered with the fragments of the past. |  |
Canadian descendant of Richard III is asked to give DNA after 'grave' find
When Canadian-born Michael Ibsen, 55, was invited to the dig to find the Plantagenet king Richard III, he felt "pretty surreal".
In 2005, a historian, Dr John Ashdown Hill, after years of painstaking research, had telephoned his mother, Joy. Joy, a UK-born journalist who emigrated to Canada in her 20s, was, he informed her, the 16th-generation niece of Richard III – a direct female descendant of his eldest sister, Anne of York. "My mother was quite sceptical, but he was persuasive and she agreed to give a DNA sample. We thought it was something so abstract it was difficult to be emotionally involved, just a nice story to tell grandchildren, if we ever have any.". |  |
Deaf gerbils 'hear again' after stem cell cure
UK researchers say they have taken a huge step forward in treating deafness after stem cells were used to restore hearing in animals for the first time.
Hearing partially improved when nerves in the ear, which pass sounds into the brain, were rebuilt in gerbils - a UK study in the journal Nature reports. Getting the same improvement in people would be a shift from being unable to hear traffic to hearing a conversation. |  |
Iron ‘blueberries’ may be sign of microbial life on Mars
It’s unlikely anything lives on Mars today, but it may well have done so millions or billions of years past. And it may have left traces of its existence in the geology of the red planet.
One such tantalising hint was discovered by the NASA Opportunity Rover, which found small spherical hematite balls, dubbed ‘blueberries,’ in the Martian soil. These were originally thought to have provided the first evidence of liquid water on Mars, but their existence may hold an even more profound implication. |  |
Mars rock hound: Rover Curiosity prepares to head for unique formation
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has provided a sweeping panorama of its new home in Gale Crater, provided what one researcher calls a dog's-eye view of the rover's underside, and now aims to raise its eyes to the sky to capture the transit of the Martian moon Phobos as it swings across the sun.
All in 37 sols' work for the Mini Cooper-sized chemistry lab on wheels whose mission is to help scientists determine if this patch of the red planet has ever had an environment hospitable to life. (A sol is one day on Mars – 40 minutes longer than on earth.). |  |
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