One of the stalwart units of astronomy just got a makeover. The International Astronomical Union, the authority on astronomical constants, has voted unanimously to redefine the astronomical unit, the conventional unit of length based on the distance between the Earth and the sun.
"The new definition is much simpler than the old one," says Sergei Klioner of the Technical University of Dresden in Germany, one of a group of scientists who worked decades toward the change, which took effect last month during an IAU meeting. |  |
Is Homeopathy Really As Implausible As It Sounds?
The new British minister of health has recently become the target of scorn and mockery, after a science writer with The Telegraph noted that he supports homeopathy, a branch of alternative medicine most health experts view as quackery. But just how quackish is it?
Quick as Western doctors are to equate alternative medicine with utter nonsense, there’s a difference between something that hasn’t been proven to work and something that couldn’t possibly work. The tools available for understanding the body are largely blunt, and some alternative theories have gained traction as those tools sharpen. Improvements in brain imaging technology, for example, have shown that meditation—a practice long dismissed by Western doctors as pure mysticism—can improve both the structure and function of the brain. |  |
How to Retrace Early Human Migrations
By 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had emerged somewhere in Africa. By 14,000 years ago, our species had spread to every continent except Antarctica. What happened in between—the pattern of where humans went and when—is still being worked out. To reconstruct the peopling of the world, anthropologists rely on several types of clues.
Fossils: The most obvious way to track our ancestors’ movements is to look for their physical remains. Researchers sketch out travel routes by mapping where the oldest human fossils are found.
Fossils: The most obvious way to track our ancestors’ movements is to look for their physical remains. Researchers sketch out travel routes by mapping where the oldest human fossils are found.
The Origins of Consciousness, Veritas interview with Graham Hancock
I was recently interviewed by Brian Creigh of Veritas magazine. He did an excellent job and Veritas have generously allowed me to host a FREE PDF of the full interview as it appears in the magazine on my own website here: www.grahamhancock.com. For those interested in learning more about Veritas, described as "the world's most complete consciousness magazine for awakening Mind, Body, Spirit -- Truth for our Times" -- see here: www.theveritasmagazine.com and their facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/veritasmag.
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Study Provides Evidence for Land-Based Microbial Life in Late Archean Era
There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later. But a new study challenges these beliefs.
“This shows that life didn’t just exist in a few little places on land. It was important on a global scale because it was enhancing the flow of sulfate from land into the ocean,” said Eva Stüeken, a doctoral student in Earth and space sciences with the University of Washington and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. “In turn, the influx of sulfur probably enhanced the spread of life in the oceans.”. |  |
Will Humanity Face a Carbohydrate Shortage?
Photosynthesis is the single most important transformation on Earth. Using the energy in sunlight, all plants—from single-celled algae to towering redwoods—knit carbon dioxide and water into food and release oxygen as a byproduct. Every year, humanity uses up roughly 40 percent of the planet’s photosynthesis for our own purposes—from feeding a growing population to biofuels. Given that growing human population, is there a limit to how much of the world’s photosynthesis we can appropriate?
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Will Cheap Natural Gas Resurrect the Hydrogen Car?
Only movie stars and select consumers have been able to get their hands on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the United States over the past few years, but now these zero-emissions cars are poised to bust onto the scene in a big way around 2015 to 2017.
A limited number of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are available for lease today, and nearly all of them in California, where refueling stations are slowly cropping up. |  |
Chilling News: Great Barrier Reef Is Heating Up
The waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef are getting warmer, satellite measurements show, which spells bad news for the myriad creatures that dwell in this rain forest of the ocean.
The satellite measurements of ocean temperatures show that the waters in the reef have warmed by 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) on average over the past 25 years. The change was even more pronounced in certain areas. For example, waters off the coast of Rockhampton, Australia, warmed by 0.9 F (0.5 C). The warming increases the risk of coral bleaching, wherein the symbiotic organisms that allow coral to thrive are expelled. |  |
Loss of species makes nature more sensitive to climate change
When we wipe out the most sensitive species, human beings reduce the resilience of ecosystems to climate change, reveals a new study from biologists at the University of Gothenburg, published today in the journal Ecology Letters.
High biodiversity acts as an insurance policy for nature and society alike as it increases the likelihood that at least some species will be sufficiently resilient to sustain important functions such as water purification and crop pollination in a changing environment.
High biodiversity acts as an insurance policy for nature and society alike as it increases the likelihood that at least some species will be sufficiently resilient to sustain important functions such as water purification and crop pollination in a changing environment.
Pictures: Lost Royal Treasure Revealed by Sinking River
As drought depleted Poland's Vistula River (map), tons of looted 17th-century marble artifacts—including this stonework pictured against a power plant—surfaced this month. The revelation helps solve a centuries-old mystery and crowns one archaeologist's three-year quest for Warsaw's lost royal treasures.
The sculpted fountains, columns, and other marbles on the muddy bottom of the Vistula—now at its lowest level since record keeping began in the late 1700s—once decorated Warsaw's Royal Castle, Kazimierz Palace, and other haunts of Polish nobility. Stolen during the a multiyear conflict known as the Swedish Deluge, the treasures were lost when a getaway barge sank while setting out for Sweden.
The sculpted fountains, columns, and other marbles on the muddy bottom of the Vistula—now at its lowest level since record keeping began in the late 1700s—once decorated Warsaw's Royal Castle, Kazimierz Palace, and other haunts of Polish nobility. Stolen during the a multiyear conflict known as the Swedish Deluge, the treasures were lost when a getaway barge sank while setting out for Sweden.
U.of Kentucky professors' surprise discovery: prehistoric settlement in Italy
University of Kentucky professors Paolo Visona and George Crothers have spent their professional lives studying ancient civilizations — Visona, mostly Greek archaeology; and Crothers, mostly early Native American populations in Kentucky's Green River valley.
This summer, their research was in neither of those areas, yet it turned out to be one of the most unexpected and exciting professional moments in either man's career — a culmination of expertise, planning and lots of luck. Visona now calls it a "perfect combination of circumstances." The story started years ago, when Visona, a native of northern Italy, was in graduate school. He met a farmer who told him about artifacts that would surface in his fields in Valbruna, an area near the village of Tezze di Arzignano. The farmer described pieces of mosaic and ceramics that looked as if they came from Roman settlements. |  |
Oldest ivory workshop in the world discovered in Saxony-Anhalt
Excavations at the mammoth hunting site of Breitenbach near Zeitz uncover 35,000 year old ivory workshop
In an international co-operation project, archaeologists from the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for the Evolution of Hominin Behaviour, part of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, (RGZM) and the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege and Archäologie in Saxony-Anhalt are excavating the 35,000 year old site of Breitenbach, close to Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt. |  |
Egypt reopens ancient tombs after renovation
The two tombs - 'Serapeum' and 'Akhethotep & Ptahhotep' - had undergone ten years of renovation, with an estimated cost of £1.2 million.
Discovered by archaeologist Auguste Mariette in 1851, the tomb of Serapuem's significance lies in the sarcophagus of the bull 'Apis', which pharaohs considered sacred.
Mariette however only found one untouched tomb which at the time was blown open by dynamite.
Discovered by archaeologist Auguste Mariette in 1851, the tomb of Serapuem's significance lies in the sarcophagus of the bull 'Apis', which pharaohs considered sacred.
Mariette however only found one untouched tomb which at the time was blown open by dynamite.
Father of Teen Dead in Peru Ritual Thinks Son Was Murdered
The father of a Sebastopol man who died in August while on a hallucinogenic retreat in the Peruvian jungle has raised $8,300 to bring the body back to the United States for an autopsy that the father thinks will prove his son was murdered.
Kyle Josef Nolan, 18, died in late August while participating in a ritual that involves the drinking of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. When Nolan's mother arrived in Peru to find out what happened to her missing son, the retreat's "shaman" told her that Nolan had walked away.
"I believe my son was murdered," he told the newspaper, "because people don't die from ingesting ayahuasca."
Kyle Josef Nolan, 18, died in late August while participating in a ritual that involves the drinking of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. When Nolan's mother arrived in Peru to find out what happened to her missing son, the retreat's "shaman" told her that Nolan had walked away.
"I believe my son was murdered," he told the newspaper, "because people don't die from ingesting ayahuasca."
Storm over genetically modified maize study worsens
THOSE who hoped the study would go away will be disappointed. Claims that eating genetically modified maize gives rats tumours have provoked a storm in Europe.
The French government says it will suspend imports of the maize if its National Health and Safety Agency finds the results valid. The maize, made by Monsanto and modified to resist the herbicide Round-Up, is imported as animal feed to Europe but cannot be grown there due to continuing hostility to GM crops.
The French government says it will suspend imports of the maize if its National Health and Safety Agency finds the results valid. The maize, made by Monsanto and modified to resist the herbicide Round-Up, is imported as animal feed to Europe but cannot be grown there due to continuing hostility to GM crops.
Mighty Mouse Holds Secret for Regrowing Skin
A mouse that escapes predators by shedding patches of its skin may shed light on regeneration and could lead to research that one day helps people heal from wounds and disease, scientists say.
Humans and other mammals are generally very limited when it comes to regeneration, but one mammal, the African spiny mouse, can heal wounds much faster than lab mice can, which drew the attention of Ashley Seifert, a regeneration biologist at the University of Florida at Gainesville. "Mammals have no problem regenerating blood cells or epidermis, or regrowing hair that is plucked out," Seifert said, "but following injury, like the severing of a finger, mammals generally just seal off the wound site and produce scar tissue. |  |
What can the water monster teach us about tissue regeneration in humans?
Based on two new studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, regeneration of a new limb or organ in a human will be much more difficult than the mad scientist and supervillain, Dr. Curt Connors, made it seem in the Amazing Spider-man comics and films.
As those who saw the recent "The Amazing Spiderman" movie will know, Dr. Connors injected himself with a serum made from lizard DNA to successfully regrow his missing lower right arm - that is, before the formula transformed him into a reptilian humanoid. |  |
300-million-year-old baby bugs — see 'em now in 3-D
Researchers have made 3-D reconstructions of two 300-million-year-old insect nymphs by putting the rare fossils under an X-ray.
The scientists have not pinned down the precise identity of either bug, or matched them with their adult counterparts, but they say the scans offer the most complete picture of baby insects from this prehistoric Paleozoic Era. Both insects are just over 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long and their fossils, which date to the late Carboniferous period (part of the Paleozoic Era), were found at Montceau-les-Mines in France. The researchers, led by Russell Garwood, of the U.K.'s University of Manchester, published their reconstructions online Sept. 25 in the journal PLoS ONE. |  |
Solar maximum? Oh, you just missed it
WAITING for solar fireworks to reach a grand finale next year? Um, sorry, looks like you already missed them. Structures in the sun's corona indicate that the peak in our star's latest cycle of activity has been and gone, at least in its northern hemisphere.
The southern hemisphere, meanwhile, is on a sluggish rise to solar maximum and may not hit its peak until 2014. This bizarre asymmetry strengthens a theory that has been bubbling among sun watchers for the past few years: our star is headed for hibernation. Having the sun's outbursts turned off for a while would provide a better baseline for studying how they influence Earth's climate. |  |
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