Salt water 'could be the source of the intriguing dark streaks on Mars
Seasonal flow patterns seen by spacecraft orbiting Mars could have been caused by salty water, new research suggests.
Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring. Now two U.S.-based researchers have explained how the intriguing dark streaks could have been caused by the melting and subsequent evaporation of frozen salty water. |  |
Cassini records Saturn mega-storm, and incredible burp, for history
It was an alien storm to dim memories of all others, wrapping all the way around a vast northern portion of Saturn, a planet that could hold about 750 Earths. And it brought with it a spike in temperature never observed before anywhere in the solar system.
Think of a violent storm, NASA said, that covers all of North America and continues on around the planet -- a storm from which you could not escape for nine months. Brigette Hesman, who tracks storms on Saturn, spoke with the Los Angeles Times on Thursday morning about the super storm and its aftermath, which have marked a peak in her scientific career. |  |
Easter Island statues 'walked' into position, say experts
For hundreds of years they have gazed inscrutably upon the most remote island in the world, standing with their backs to the Pacific Ocean as if defying attempts to understand their enigma. But the mystery of how the giant stone statues of Easter Island came to their resting places without wheels or animals may finally have been unravelled – they walked.
The seemingly unlikely proposal comes from a team of local and US anthropologists and archaeologists who have conducted experiments that suggest the statues, called moai by the islanders, could have been "walked" upright down a path by teams pulling them with ropes. |  |
Dinosaurs Looking for Love Grew Alluring Feathers
Dinosaurs may have wooed potential mates with flashy feathers, peacock style. Researchers have discovered lengthy wisps on a sexually mature adult, but absent in the toddler specimen of the same dinosaur species.
These findings shed light on the origin of wings and feathered flight, scientists added. Birds are the last living lineage of dinosaurs. Their predatory dinosaur ancestors and relatives apparently were covered in feathers as well. These downy coats probably helped to keep them warm at first. |  |
'Lucy,' early human ancestor, likely swung from trees
Despite the ability to walk upright, early relatives of humanity represented by the famed "Lucy" fossil likely spent much of their time in trees, remaining very active climbers, researchers say.
Humans are unique among living primates in that walking bipedally — on two feet — is humans' chief mode of locomotion. This upright posture freed their hands up for using tools, one of the key factors behind humans' domination of the planet.. |  |
Fukushima fish still contaminated from nuclear accident
Levels of radioactive contamination in fish caught off the east coast of Japan remain raised, official data shows.
It is a sign that the Dai-ichi power plant continues to be a source of pollution more than a year after the nuclear accident. About 40% of fish caught close to Fukushima itself are regarded as unfit for humans under Japanese regulations. The respected US marine chemist Ken Buesseler has reviewed the data in this week's Science journal. |  |
How will oil affect Madagascar's environmental riches?
Amid the hills of western Madagascar, villagers have long been aware of a thick sticky substance naturally seeping out of the ground.
But it is only recently that these unconventional oil deposits in the region of Melaky have attracted the attention of investors. The rising prices of oil on world markets, coupled with new technologies aim to turn the Indian Ocean island - famous for its unique habitat and wildlife - into a significant oil producer. Tsimiroro is extremely remote - even by the vast island's standards - and most of Madagascar Oil's estimated 100 employees are flown by small plane from the capital, Antanarivo, 300km (about 185 miles) to the east of the oil field. |  |
'Oldest Mayan tomb' found in Guatemala's Retalhuleu
One of the oldest Mayan tombs ever found has been uncovered in western Guatemala, say archaeologists.
Located at a temple site in Retalhuleu province, the grave is thought to be that of an ancient ruler or religious leader who lived some 2,000 years ago. Carbon-dating indicated the tomb had been built between 700 and 400 BC, said government archaeologist Miguel Orrego. A rich array of jade jewels, including a necklace depicting a vulture-headed human figure, were found. |  |
UW-Madison archaeologists to mount new expedition to Troy
MADISON -- Troy, the palatial city of prehistory, sacked by the Greeks through trickery and a fabled wooden horse, will be excavated anew beginning in 2013 by a cross-disciplinary team of archaeologists and other scientists, it was announced today (Monday, Oct. 15).
The new expedition will be led by University of Wisconsin-Madison classics Professor William Aylward, an archaeologist with long experience digging in the ruins of classical antiquity, including Troy itself. The new international project at Troy, to be conducted under the auspices of and in cooperation with Turkey's Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, will begin a series of summer-time expeditions beginning in 2013.
The new expedition will be led by University of Wisconsin-Madison classics Professor William Aylward, an archaeologist with long experience digging in the ruins of classical antiquity, including Troy itself. The new international project at Troy, to be conducted under the auspices of and in cooperation with Turkey's Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, will begin a series of summer-time expeditions beginning in 2013.
Safer, more efficient, fusion-generated electricity is on the horizon
Fusion-fueled power generation has been the energy of the future for several decades.
"There's always been this sense that fusion is fifty years away," Saskia Mordijck says, but she adds that the horizon for safer and more efficient fusion-based electricity in our homes is really, truly getting closer. |  |
Physicists extend special relativity beyond the speed of light
Possibly the most well-known consequence of Einstein's theory of special relativity is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, c. According to the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2, an object traveling at c would have infinite mass and would require an infinite amount of energy to reach c. Over the past 100 years, numerous experimental tests of special relativity have confirmed its validity.
Now two physicists – James Hill and Barry Cox from the University of Adelaide in Australia – have shown that Einstein's theory of special relativity can be logically extended to allow for faster-than-light motion. They're quick to point out that their finding in no way contradicts the original theory, but simply provides a new aspect of it. |  |
Deep-sea vehicle Alvin gets splashy makeover
Humans have explored only a tiny fraction of the deep-sea floor, but the deep-diving submersible vehicle Alvin gets credit for a considerable share of what humanity has seen in the water's dark, alien depths.
Alvin, which can ferry three people into the deep sea, has made 4,664 dives since its first in 1965. Alvin has explored the wreckage of the doomed Titanic, revealed otherworldly life flourishing at hydrothermal vents and their cooler counterparts, cold seeps. Most recently, Alvin was dispatched to investigate the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After all of these missions, Alvin is getting an upgrade. |  |
Cuban missile crisis: The other, secret one
Contrary to popular belief, the Cuban missile crisis did not end with the agreement between the US and Soviet Union in October, 1962. Unknown to the US at the time, there were 100 other nuclear weapons also in the hands of Cuba, sparking a frantic - and ingenious - Russian mission to recover them.
In November 2011, aware that the 50th anniversary of the most dangerous few weeks in history was less than a year away, my Russian colleague Pasha Shilov and I came across several new accounts that changed our perspective on the Cuban missile crisis and how much we thought we knew about it. |  |
Letters sent from Nazi labor camp delivered 70 years later
This story spans generations and continents, and involves a man sent to a Nazi labor camp in World War II, his family back in France, and an antique letter collector in the United States who reunited the lost notes with the family.
Here's what happened. Marcel Heuzé, a French tool worker, was deported to a German work camp in 1942 during the war. He built engines, armored vehicles and tanks at the Daimler-Benz factory, from where he sent letters back home to his wife and three daughters. |  |
TEDx Kabul: Innovation from the most unexpected place in the world
When we think about innovation, we typically think of a one-way flow of ideas — from West to East, from North to South, and from developed world to developing world. However, as the increasing number of far-flung, volunteer-run TEDx events reminds us, “ideas worth spreading” are also worth spreading from places that might be considered to be on the very fringe. At this week’s TEDx Kabul — the first-ever TEDx event in Afghanistan — a mix of human rights activists, entrepreneurs, artists and technology visionaries described the types of innovation that a still-proud nation hopes to share with the world.
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Kennewick Man From Coast Not Columbia Valley
Says Scientist
Scientists call him the Kennewick Man, tribal members call him the Ancient One, showing just how differently the two worlds view the more than 9,200-year-old skeleton found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington in 1996.
The two sides came together Tuesday, October 9, when Columbia Plateau tribal leaders met privately with Doug Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
The two sides came together Tuesday, October 9, when Columbia Plateau tribal leaders met privately with Doug Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
Channel 4 calls time on Time Team
As Channel 4 announces Time Team will not return as a regular series Andy Brockman looks back on twenty years of legendary TV Archaeology and tries to assess it significance and legacy.
This week Channel 4 executives finally called time on Television’s most successful format for putting archaeology on TV when the Channel announced that Series 20 of the programme, due to be broadcast in 2013, would be the last in the regular three day dig format. |  |
Skeleton at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, sheds light on Viking Age
The discovery of a skeleton in a shallow grave has raised new questions about Wales in the age of the Vikings.
The skeleton, found at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, has forced experts to revise the theory that five earlier skeletons were the victims of a Viking raid. Evidence now suggests the men may have spent the first part of their lives in Scandinavia. Experts say artefacts discovered confirm Llanbedrgoch as a 10th Century manufacture and trade centre. |  |
For Tune-Carrying Sand Dunes, the Key Lies in the Grains
In a few places on Earth, sand "sings" as it falls down dunes, making a low droning sound that lies within the bottom half of a cello's musical range.
For centuries the eerie humming in deserts mesmerized visitors such as explorer Marco Polo and scientist Charles Darwin, who couldn't explain the origin of the sound. Scientists suspected they were hearing vibrations in the subsurface layers of the dunes. In 2009, however, University of France researchers found that the sound is created by vibrations of the sand grains that avalanche down the dunes. |  |
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