SKILLED HUNTERS 300,000 YEARS AGO
Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen in Germany have found eight extremely well-preserved spears – an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons anywhere.
The spears and other artefacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, well adapted to their environment – with a capacity for abstract thought and complex planning comparable to our own. It is likely that they were members of the species Homo heidelbergensis, although no human remains have yet been found at the site.
The spears and other artefacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, well adapted to their environment – with a capacity for abstract thought and complex planning comparable to our own. It is likely that they were members of the species Homo heidelbergensis, although no human remains have yet been found at the site.
Experimental 'net-zero' home makes as much energy as it uses
GAITHERSBURG, Maryland (Reuters) - Perched on a hilltop outside Washington, the U.S. government's net-zero energy laboratory looks a lot like the luxury houses nearby, with two significant differences: it will make as much energy as it uses, and only sensors, not people, live in it.
Designed to fit in a typical residential neighborhood, the 4,000 square foot (372 square meter) net-zero lab on the suburban campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is so energy-efficient that over the course of a year it is expected to produce as much energy as it needs.
Its total energy consumption should be "net zero."
Designed to fit in a typical residential neighborhood, the 4,000 square foot (372 square meter) net-zero lab on the suburban campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is so energy-efficient that over the course of a year it is expected to produce as much energy as it needs.
Its total energy consumption should be "net zero."
Huge Greenland Iceberg Starting to Break Apart
Off the coast of northwest Greenland, an enormous iceberg is beginning to go to pieces.
The huge ice chunk, named PII-2012, was originally part of the Petermann Glacier, but broke away from the glacier in mid-July in a process called calving. By the end of July the Manhattan-size chunk of ice had nearly reached the mouth of a fjord that opens on the Nares Strait, a narrow stretch of ocean that separates Greenland from Canada. |  |
El Salvador in battle against tide of climate change
The forest of towering, dead mangrove trees stretches along the beach as far as the eye can see. As the crashing waves rise and fall, short stumps emerge and vanish beneath the Pacific Ocean. Climate change has come early to the Bajo Lempa region of western El Salvador.
A tiny rise in the sea level has, according to local people, seen about 1,000ft of the mangroves on which they depend vanish beneath the ocean since 2005. Another 1,500ft remains between the Pacific and their village, La Tirana. No one, it seems, knows how long it will take before the waves reach their homes.
A tiny rise in the sea level has, according to local people, seen about 1,000ft of the mangroves on which they depend vanish beneath the ocean since 2005. Another 1,500ft remains between the Pacific and their village, La Tirana. No one, it seems, knows how long it will take before the waves reach their homes.
Climate change determined humanity's global conquest
Humans may have conquered the world, but not without a big helping hand from climate change. A major study of the last 120,000 years of history reminds us that, while we are adaptable, our species is ultimately at the mercy of the climate.
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, but only left the continent about 70,000 years ago. After that our species rapidly went global, colonising first Europe and Asia, and then Australasia and the Americas. |  |
Neanderthals used feathers as 'personal ornaments'
Our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals were harvesting feathers from birds in order to use them as personal ornaments, a study suggests.
The authors say the result provides yet more evidence that Neanderthal thinking ability was similar to our own. The analysis even suggests they had a preference for dark feathers, which they selected from birds of prey and corvids - such as ravens and rooks. Details of the research appear in Plos One journal. |  |
Professor Helps Find Million-Year-Old Artifacts
The discovery of an ancient bone in South Africa has brought scientists one step closer to a more complete understanding of human evolution.
Britt Bousman, professor of anthropology at Texas State, participated in the excavation of a human tooth and stone tools dating back approximately one million years ago. Bousman worked alongside James Brink, head of the Florisbad Quaternary Research Department at the National Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa, who led the excavation. Bousman dated the excavation site in collaboration with Andy Herries of Australia’s La Trobe University using a technique called paleomagnetism. Bousman and his team recently published a journal on human evolution where they debuted these discoveries to the public. |  |
Dictionary Translates Ancient Egypt Life
Ancient Egyptians did not speak to posterity only through hieroglyphs. Those elaborate pictographs were the elite script for recording the lives and triumphs of pharaohs in their tombs and on the monumental stones along the Nile. But almost from the beginning, people in everyday life spoke a different language and wrote a different script, a simpler one that evolved from the earliest hieroglyphs.
These were the words of love and family, the law and commerce, private letters and texts on science, religion and literature. For at least 1,000 years, roughly from 500 B.C. to A.D. 500, both the language and the distinctive cursive script were known as Demotic Egyptian, a name given it by the Greeks to mean the tongue of the demos, or the common people. |  |
Ancient prophecy comes true
TWO hundred years later, the legends and tales of Navinoti have finally come true in the highlands.
According to the paramount chief of Savatu, the Tui Cawanisa, Ratu Semisi Ketewai, the tales of their forefathers have come to pass with the successful completion of the $300million Nadarivatu Hydro-electric scheme. He said the site where the dam was located had been prophesied by their forefathers to one day bring light, money and prosperity to the highlanders. |  |
Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say
HOUSTON — A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television's Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say.
A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre; however, subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy. Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science. |  |
Man tells of 'unearthly' UFO over his Melbourne home
A WESTERN suburbs man claims he has footage of a UFO over Melbourne.
Albanvale resident Ivan, who did not want his surname published, said he filmed the fast-moving disc-shaped object descending and ascending high above his house about 7pm last Tuesday. He said a neighbour called him outside to witness the spectacle, both looking on in astonishment. "I have dismissed a lot of things thinking of what it could be," Ivan said. "But I am left with very little other than to think it is something unearthly.". |  |
ARE UFOS STALKING MARS ROVER CURIOSITY?
Ever since we launched planetary spacecraft beginning in the late 1950s, UFO-spotters have eagerly anticipated our running across alien spaceships flitting around. Rather than just accidentally crossing at a cosmic intersection, the legend is that extraterrestrials are watching us explore the solar system.
Based on the long history of supposed close encounters, I anticipated that not long after NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landed, folks would begin reporting "strange things" in Martian skies. And sure enough, several reports of UFOs buzzing the Gale crater landing site have surfaced in the past few weeks following the celebrated touchdown of Mars rover Curiosity. |  |
Meet the world's first transhumanist politician
What is transhumanism?
Transhumanism is a philosophical doctrine that aims to continuously improve humanity. It promotes science and technology but with people at its centre. Ultimately, it aims to free humanity from its biological limitations, overcoming natural evolution to make us more than human.
How does transhumanism improve humanity?
It does this through the development of technologies that boost health and fight ageing and disease, by replacing lost or defective body parts and by improving the internet, communication technologies and artificial intelligence.
Transhumanism is a philosophical doctrine that aims to continuously improve humanity. It promotes science and technology but with people at its centre. Ultimately, it aims to free humanity from its biological limitations, overcoming natural evolution to make us more than human.
How does transhumanism improve humanity?
It does this through the development of technologies that boost health and fight ageing and disease, by replacing lost or defective body parts and by improving the internet, communication technologies and artificial intelligence.
Helmet calls for help when you wipe out
Sometimes, wearing a helmet isn’t enough to prevent bad things from happening when you wipe out. Thankfully, you’ll soon be able to put a sensor on your noggin protector that will call for help should you crash hard and can’t get up.
The after-market sensor is paired with your smart phone, allowing the “in case of emergency” system to detect and record data on motion, changes in force, impacts and, crucially, your coordinates.
The after-market sensor is paired with your smart phone, allowing the “in case of emergency” system to detect and record data on motion, changes in force, impacts and, crucially, your coordinates.
The $50 million question: Can humans and robots get along?
What are robots good for? Most of us hope they’ll work with us in various ways to make our world a better place. On Friday, the U.S. government announced $50 million in grants intended to nudge robotics down that helpful path.
The projects receiving grants under the National Robotics Initiative are all for what are considered next-generation collaborative robots, or co-robots. They include robots that will be useful to everyone from soldiers on the battlefield to factory workers, deep-sea explorers and restaurant chefs.
The projects receiving grants under the National Robotics Initiative are all for what are considered next-generation collaborative robots, or co-robots. They include robots that will be useful to everyone from soldiers on the battlefield to factory workers, deep-sea explorers and restaurant chefs.
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A CHIMP?: GOTTA-SEE VIDEO
This video asks, "Do you think you're smarter than a chimp?" It's a good question. Puzzles like this would likely flummox a human, but chimps have creative problem-solving skills.
This chimpanzee is shown a fixed plastic tube with a peanut in the bottom. He wants the peanut -- badly, as it turns out. So badly, that he's willing to do... well, you'll see...
This chimpanzee is shown a fixed plastic tube with a peanut in the bottom. He wants the peanut -- badly, as it turns out. So badly, that he's willing to do... well, you'll see...
Junk DNA, Junky PR
A week ago, a huge, painstakingly orchestrated PR campaign was timed to coincide with multiple publications of a long-term study by the ENCODE consortium in top-ranking journals. The ENCODE project (EP) is essentially the next stage after the Human Genome Project (HGP). The HGP sequenced all our DNA (actually a mixture of individual genomes); the EP is an attempt to define what all our DNA does by several circumstantial-evidence gathering and analysis techniques.
The EP results purportedly revolutionize our understanding of the genome by “proving” that DNA hitherto labeled junk is in fact functional and this knowledge will enable us to “maintain individual wellbeing” but also miraculously cure intractable diseases like cancer and diabetes.
The EP results purportedly revolutionize our understanding of the genome by “proving” that DNA hitherto labeled junk is in fact functional and this knowledge will enable us to “maintain individual wellbeing” but also miraculously cure intractable diseases like cancer and diabetes.
Did this grandfather, 78, really beat 'incurable' cancer by changing his diet?
A grandfather, who was told by doctors that his cancer was 'incurable', has been given the all-clear less than four months later - after trying a different diet.
Allan Taylor could have been forgiven for fearing the worst when doctors told him they could do nothing to treat his condition. But the 78-year-old would not give up, and instead searched the internet for an alternative method to fight his cancer. After studying websites, he decided to radically change his diet - and found his condition improved dramatically. Mr Taylor, a retired oil rig engineer from Middlesbrough, replaced red meat and dairy products with 10 portions of raw fruit and veg each day. |  |
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