Harvard not yet publishing claim Jesus had wife
Harvard University says it hasn't committed to publishing research that purportedly shows some early Christians believed Jesus had a wife even though its divinity school touted the research during a publicity blitz this week.
The research centers on a fourth-century papyrus fragment containing Coptic text in which Jesus uses the words "my wife." On Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced at an international conference that the fragment was the only existing ancient text in which Jesus explicitly talks of having a wife.
The research centers on a fourth-century papyrus fragment containing Coptic text in which Jesus uses the words "my wife." On Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced at an international conference that the fragment was the only existing ancient text in which Jesus explicitly talks of having a wife.
Clear Soil Could Improve Crops
Artificial soil-like materials have been developed to help scientists image the secret world of plant roots. The view could help biologists, chemists and physicists improve crops and identify ways to prevent the outbreak of plant-based diseases.
The clear soil was developed by theoretical biologist Lionel Dupuy at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, Scotland. It's is made of a synthetic material known as Nafion. The compound can be modified to mimic the chemistry of natural soils. It's not transparent at first, but when watered in a customized liquid solution, the particles bend light, making the solution clear. |  |
Sri Lanka kidney disease blamed on farm chemicals
Thousands of people in the Asian island nation of Sri Lanka have been struck by a mysterious and deadly form of kidney disease. A new study points to a likely cause - pesticides and fertilisers.
Tucked away in Sri Lanka's North Central Province is the village of Halmillawetiya. A pebbled path connects small houses of brick and mud set among coconut palms and other tropical trees.
Sampath Kumarasinghe, aged 21, lives here with his widowed mother and extended family.
Tucked away in Sri Lanka's North Central Province is the village of Halmillawetiya. A pebbled path connects small houses of brick and mud set among coconut palms and other tropical trees.
Sampath Kumarasinghe, aged 21, lives here with his widowed mother and extended family.
Research Reveals Stone Age Humans Recycled Stone Tools
The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, indicates that recycling was an important component in the technological behavior of hunter-gatherers.
“In order to identify the recycling, it is necessary to differentiate the two stages of the manipulation sequence of an object: the moment before it is altered and the moment after,” Dr Manuel Vaquero, a researcher at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and lead author of the study, explained to SINC. “The two are separated by an interval in which the artifact has undergone some form of alteration. This is the first time a systematic study of this type has been performed.”. |  |
Recapturing the heritage of the Khoe-San
The largest genomic study ever conducted among Khoe and San reveals that these groups from southern Africa are descendants of the earliest diversification event in the history of all humans – some 100 000 years ago, well before the ‘out-of-Africa’ migration of modern humans.
Some 220 individuals from different regions in southern Africa participated in the research that led to the analysis of around 2.3 million DNA variants per individual – the biggest ever.
The research was conducted by a group of international scientists, including Professor Himla Soodyall from the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit in the Health Faculty at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Some 220 individuals from different regions in southern Africa participated in the research that led to the analysis of around 2.3 million DNA variants per individual – the biggest ever.
The research was conducted by a group of international scientists, including Professor Himla Soodyall from the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit in the Health Faculty at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
African neighbours divided by their genes
Two studies exploring the genetics of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa, where humans are thought to have originated, reveal that even though the click-language peoples of southern Africa live in close proximity, they belong to two distinct genetic clusters.
To assess the degree of genetic difference, both teams looked at single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — variations at individual nucleotides between different people — in the DNA of the various populations. One study, led by Carina Schlebusch at Uppsala University in Sweden and published today in Science1, analysed SNPs from 220 individuals belonging to 11 different southern African populations. The other, led by Joseph Pickrell at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and posted to the arXiv preprint server ahead of its publication in Nature Communications2, examined SNPs from 187 individuals belonging to 23 southern and eastern African populations. |  |
Study shows ancient language relationships
How do language families evolve over many thousands of years and how stable over time are structural features of languages?
Researchers Dan Dediu and Stephen Levinson of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen introduced a new method using Bayesian phylogenetic approaches to analyse the evolution of structural features in more than 50 language families.
Researchers Dan Dediu and Stephen Levinson of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen introduced a new method using Bayesian phylogenetic approaches to analyse the evolution of structural features in more than 50 language families.
Tweet tweet: Tiny tags monitor social networks of critters
Crows, sea lions, and many other critters use social networks to increase their fitness and survival. To understand how, researchers are turning away from Twitter and Facebook and, instead, looking to the power of tiny radio tags that record wildlife encounters.
Of course, the researchers can access the data logged by the tags via the Internet, which means they can spend more time working in the lab rather than in the field waiting to catch a glimpse of critter meetup.
The system, called Encounternet, hinges on fingernail-sized tags that weigh as little as less than 1 gram (0.035 ounces) and send and receive pulses. Each tag emits a unique pulse, allowing researchers to know what animals met when.
Of course, the researchers can access the data logged by the tags via the Internet, which means they can spend more time working in the lab rather than in the field waiting to catch a glimpse of critter meetup.
The system, called Encounternet, hinges on fingernail-sized tags that weigh as little as less than 1 gram (0.035 ounces) and send and receive pulses. Each tag emits a unique pulse, allowing researchers to know what animals met when.
Newfound Alien Planet a Top Contender to Host Life
A newly discovered alien planet may be one of the top contenders to support life beyond Earth, researchers say.
The newfound world, a "super Earth" called Gliese 163c, lies at the edge of its star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances where liquid water could exist. "There are a wide range of structures and compositions that allow Gliese 163c to be a habitable planet," Xavier Bonfils, of France's Joseph Fourier University-Grenoble, told SPACE.com by email. |  |
New planetary boundary to measure effects of human activity
A US scientist has proposed that a new planetary boundary be used to analyze the effects of human activities on the planet. He warns that there are definite biophysical limits to growth in human population, economies and consumption, and that limits in some variables might already have been reached.
In a Perspective article in the journal Science, Professor Steven W. Running, Director of the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) at the University of Montana, proposes that adopting a new planetary boundary—annual net primary production (NPP) of all terrestrial plants—might help researchers to more effectively monitor the effects of humans on climate, land use and biodiversity and their limits. |  |
Physicist explains significance of Higgs boson discovery
In July, physicists were ecstatic in announcing preliminary results pointing to the discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson is a tiny subatomic particle that apparently weighs about 130 times as much as an atom of hydrogen, the lightest gas. The non-scientist might have no idea what's so important about this elementary particle, but Wichita State University physics professor Nick Solomey is excited about the discovery.
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Slime Molds Take Over the Globe
By traveling from city to city on a map, microscopic protists known as slime molds have figured out how to take over the world.
Starting in Beijing, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum developed a well-organized network for global domination that mimicked historic trade routes like Asia’s Silk Road. The work, carried out by computer scientist Andrew Adamatzky from the University of the West of England, was published on arxiv on Sept. 18. “The main idea of these experiments was to satisfy my curiosity — what would happen if the Chinese decided to “expand” their country and colonize the world,” wrote Adamatzky in an e-mail to Wired. |  |
Liquid crystal lasers could be mass-printed to create 'smart' materials
A team of physicists has published a study detailing how it has devised a cheap way to print lasers on to nearly any surface using an ordinary inkjet printer -- a find that could revolutionise the future production and use of lasers.
The paper, published in the journal Soft Matter, explains how a team of University of Cambridge physicists and engineers printed hundreds of small dots of chiral nematic liquid crystal molecules (LC) -- which are already used to create organic lasers -- on to a material coated with a wet polymer solution. When that solution dries, it reacts with the liquid crystals, causing them to align and be transformed into individual multi-colour lasers, without the addition of mirrors. |  |
Planes of the future could fly on sawdust or strawas
Passenger jets could be chomping on straw or flying on fuel extracted from sawdust in coming years as the search widens for cleaner alternatives to kerosene, French scientists say.
The "ProBio3" project, started in early July and co-financed by a French government economic stimulus program, aims to use traditional horse-bedding materials to develop a new kind of biofuel that can be used in a 50/50 blend alongside kerosene.
The "ProBio3" project, started in early July and co-financed by a French government economic stimulus program, aims to use traditional horse-bedding materials to develop a new kind of biofuel that can be used in a 50/50 blend alongside kerosene.
Flying Math: Bees Solve Traveling Salesman Problem
Bumblebees foraging in flowers for nectar are like salesmen traveling between towns: Both seek the optimal route to minimize their travel costs. Mathematicians call this the “traveling salesman problem,” in which scientists try to calculate the shortest possible route given a theoretical arrangement of cities. Bumblebees, however, take the brute-force approach: For them, it’s simply a matter of experience, plus trial and error, scientists report in the current issue of PLoS Biology.
How to confuse a moral compass
People can be tricked into reversing their opinions on moral issues, even to the point of constructing good arguments to support the opposite of their original positions, researchers report today in PLoS ONE1.
The researchers, led by Lars Hall, a cognitive scientist at Lund University in Sweden, recruited 160 volunteers to fill out a 2-page survey on the extent to which they agreed with 12 statements — either about moral principles relating to society in general or about the morality of current issues in the news, from prostitution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The researchers, led by Lars Hall, a cognitive scientist at Lund University in Sweden, recruited 160 volunteers to fill out a 2-page survey on the extent to which they agreed with 12 statements — either about moral principles relating to society in general or about the morality of current issues in the news, from prostitution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Bedridden man 'cures' crippling bowel pain by self-medicating with cannabis
A computer engineer has finally 'cured' a crippling bowel condition that left him in agony for five years by smoking cannabis.
James Sutherland, 26, has endured more than 30 major operations in an attempt to treat Hirschsprung’s disease and was on 20 morphine pills a day to quell his discomfort. He was eventually left bedridden by the condition and was unable to venture outside to play with his son. But he then experimented with the pain-killing affects of cannabis - and claims the class B drug has finally allowed him to live a normal life. |  |
Drug legalization debate intensifies in Latin Americ
Latin America has been (and still is) the hardest-hit region by the War on Drugs. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it is the part of the world with the most vigorous debate about drug policy reform as governments look for alternatives to the failed policies of the War on Drugs. The debate is hampered by the long-entrenched prohibitionist credo and extreme pressure from the big Northern neighbor. According to Mexican president Felipe Calderon though, there was only one consensus at the April 15th Summit of the Americas: that the drug policy debate needs to be open to all alternatives.
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Is the Can Worse Than the Soda? Study Finds Correlation Between BPA & Obesity
Since the 1960s, manufacturers have widely used the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in plastics and food packaging. Only recently, though, have scientists begun thoroughly looking into how the compound might affect human health—and what they’ve found has been a cause for concern.
Starting in 2006, a series of studies, mostly in mice, indicated that the chemical might act as an endocrine disruptor (by mimicking the hormone estrogen), cause problems during development and potentially affect the reproductive system, reducing fertility. After a 2010 Food and Drug Administration report warned that the compound could pose an especially hazardous risk for fetuses, infants and young children, BPA-free water bottles and food containers started flying off the shelves. In July, the FDA banned the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, but the chemical is still present in aluminum cans, containers of baby formula and other packaging materials. |  |
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