History,science
Everything you know about the Neanderthal is wrong
04.06.2014 13:31
TheWP: Neanderthal, according to Merriam-Webster: “A man who is stupid and rude.”
In the pantheon of contemporary culture, few archetypes are more familiar than the Dumb Neanderthal. Neanderthals, it is said, were hairy beasts — more creature than man, more brutish than sentient, more...
Water was flowing on Mars 200,000 years ago – scientists
28.04.2014 13:32
RT: New research has suggested that water was flowing across the surface of Mars some 200,000 years ago. The nature of rock formations in a Mars crater suggests the sediment deposits and channels it contained were formed by ‘recent’ flowing water.
Swedish scientists from the Department of...
NASA’s lofty goal of a manned Mars mission doesn’t match budget reality
23.04.2014 13:15
WP: NASA just confirmed what sci-fi enthusiasts have known all along: There are other civilizations out there.
This bombshell was dropped Tuesday by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at theHumans 2 Mars Summit in Foggy Bottom. “Here in the Western world we think very shortsighted,” he...
Termites inspire robots that can build houses
25.02.2014 12:51
smh: The termite, typically reviled as the wood-eating nemesis of buildings and homes, has inspired a new batch of construction robots.
The automated machines, each about the size of a small brick, can work as a team to build any predefined structure given to them, without a leader or...
NASA solves mystery of Mars 'doughnut' rock
25.02.2014 12:49
smh: NASA scientists have finally been able to explain the origin of the mysterious rock shaped like a jelly doughnut that appeared near the rover Opportunity in early January.
The small, round object suddenly popped up in pictures taken 12 days apart by the US space agency's decade-old...
Gem found on Australian sheep ranch is the oldest known piece of Earth, scientists find
25.02.2014 12:44
smh: Washington: To put it mildly, this is one gem of a gem.
Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in Western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago.
Writing in the...
NASA Mars rover finds evidence of life-friendly ancient lake
10.12.2013 10:32
(Reuters) - Scientists have found evidence of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars well suited to support microbial life, the researchers said Monday.
The lake, located inside Gale Crater where the rover landed in August 2012, likely covered an area 31 miles long and 3 miles wide, though its size...
New Results Send Mars Rover on a Quest for Ancient Life
10.12.2013 09:23
Sciencemag: When the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater 16 months ago, its goal was to find a place on Mars that was habitable 4 billion years ago. It has done that, and now a spate of new findings is driving the mission in a new direction: searching for traces of ancient life....
The hardwired difference between male and female brains could explain why men are 'better at map reading'
03.12.2013 09:45
Independent: A pioneering study has shown for the first time that the brains of men and women are wired up differently which could explain some of the stereotypical differences in male and female behaviour, scientists have said.
Researchers found that many of the connections in a typical male...
NASA satellite launched to find clues about Mars' lost water
21.11.2013 09:30
(Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, sending a Mars orbiter on its way to study how the planet most like Earth in the solar system lost its water.
Unlike previous Mars probes, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution...
Czech scientists reveal origin of Chelyabinsk meteor
08.11.2013 10:10
CR: Scientists from the Czech Astronomical Institute believe they have found the origin of the Chelyabinsk meteor that hit Russia in February. In a paper published in Nature magazine, they suggest the meteor split from a larger asteroid some 10,000 years ago in a collision that directed it...
Pharaoh’s Sphinx Found in Israel Stirs 4,500-Year Mystery
12.07.2013 11:47
Bloomberg: The clawed feet of an ancient sphinx engraved with a hieroglyphic inscription and belonging to a pyramid-building pharaoh shows evidence of Egyptian influence in the biblical state of Canaan, archaeologists said.
“Beloved by the divine manifestation ... that gave him eternal life,”...
MAKING GOLD GREEN: NEW NON-TOXIC METHOD FOR MINING GOLD
23.05.2013 08:40
Northwestern: EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University scientists have struck gold in the laboratory. They have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally benign method that uses simple cornstarch -- instead of cyanide -- to isolate gold from raw materials in a selective manner.
This...
Deep sea mining 'gold rush' moves closer
23.05.2013 08:36
BBC: The prospect of a deep sea "gold rush" opening a controversial new frontier for mining on the ocean floor has moved a step closer.
The United Nations has published its first plan for managing the extraction of so-called "nodules" - small mineral-rich rocks - from the seabed.
A technical...
Climate change 'spurred modern human behaviour'
23.05.2013 08:35
BBC: Abrupt climate change in Africa helped trigger technological and cultural advances in early modern humans, according to new research.
Archaeologists had long noted that the complexity displayed by human groups moved in fits and starts.
But there has been a debate about the causes of this...
Neanderthal Moms Weaned Babies Like Reading Modern Guides
23.05.2013 08:32
Bloomberg: Neanderthals breastfed their children in line with modern pediatric recommendations on when to supplement mother’s milk with other food, scientists said.
Research based on the fossilized enamel of a single Neanderthal child found that the mother breastfed exclusively for seven...
Constantine's cross
22.05.2013 12:28
TheEconomist:
TODAY IS the date when many Christians commemorate Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helen, central figures in the late Roman empire's conversion to Christianity. Historians still argue about the significance of this change. Sceptical thinkers like Edward...
Who’s a Jew?
21.05.2013 13:20
TheEconomist: An old religious argument once again rears its angry head.
WHEN is a Jew not a Jew? When he’s a Karaite. Or so says Israel’s chief rabbinate, which, after 65 years of relative harmony with an ancient Jewish sect, is reopening an old and bitter schism. In recent months,...
Submarine ridge off Brazil: piece of sole original continent?
09.05.2013 20:40
(Reuters) - Brazilian and Japanese researchers say a granite formation deep off the coast of Brazil could be a piece of an original continent that existed before the Americas, Africa, Europe and other major land masses drifted apart.
After a month long expedition using a research submarine,...
Wind farms to lure back German lobsters decimated by WW2
06.05.2013 08:58
(Reuters) - New wind farms off Germany's North Sea coast will provide an ideal habitat that could help restore the lobster population near Heligoland after British bombing during and after World War II drove them away.
Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research...
Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king's
06.02.2013 08:34
BBC: A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III.
Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.
Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the...
Kublai Khan: China's favourite barbarian
09.10.2012 11:47
BBC: China has a love-hate relationship with what is foreign. Traditionally all people beyond the Great Wall were barbarians - only part human. But invaders have sometimes been welcomed, in time, into the Chinese family. One was Kublai Khan.
In the 13th Century, no-one knew how big the...
Mammoth carcass found in Siberia
09.10.2012 11:46
BBC: A well-preserved mammoth carcass has been found by an 11-year-old boy in the permafrost of northern Siberia.
The remains were discovered at the end of August in Sopochnaya Karga, 3,500km (2,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
A team of experts from St Petersburg then spent five days in...
Dinosaur the size of a giraffe could fly across continents
09.07.2012 09:41
The Telegraph: A dinosaur the size of a giraffe was capable of launching itself into the air and flying for thousands of miles, scientists have discovered.
Dr Mark Witton, a palaeontologist from the University of Portsmouth and Dr Michael Habib from Chatham University USA, have studied...
Nasa scientists claim about new form of bacterial life disproved
09.07.2012 09:38
The Telegraph: Two scientific papers published on Sunday disproved a controversial claim made by Nasa-funded scientists in 2010 that a new form of bacterial life had been discovered that could thrive on arsenic.
"Contrary to an original report, the new research clearly shows that the...
Particle Discovery May Help Scientists Understand Mass
04.07.2012 14:13
Bloomberg: cientists seeking to explain the origins of matter discovered a particle that may support a decades-old theory of physics, bringing people closer to understanding unseen parts of the universe.
The observed particle is the heaviest boson ever found, said Joe Incandela,...
Trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry found in Israel
03.07.2012 11:10
ArticllesPhilly: TEL AVIV - Israeli archaeologists have discovered a rare trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry, including a ring and earrings, hidden in a ceramic jug near the ancient city of Megiddo, where the New Testament predicts the final battle of Armageddon.
Archaeologists who unearthed...
Vampire skeleton' proves unexpected tourist boon for Bulgaria
11.06.2012 12:24
TheTelegraph: A "vampire skeleton" with an iron bar in his chest discovered in Bulgaria may provide the country with an unexpected tourist boon as visitors flock to take in the macabre sight.
Travel agencies have reported a surge in interest in "vampire vacations" since news of the...
Excavations Shed Light on History of Cölln
02.04.2012 14:02
DerSpiegel: Centuries ago, a settlement named Cölln formed the core of what is now the German capital. However, it was subsequently subsumed by the growing city of Berlin and disappeared without a trace. Spectacular finds are now helping archaeologists reconstruct the history of the...
How Alchemists Invented Modern Finance: Echoes
13.03.2012 11:05
Bloonberg: The amazing capacity of credit to create value -- and to destroy it -- has often been compared to alchemy. After the alchemists failed in their search for the philosopher's stone, the mythical substance that could turn ordinary metals into gold, the power of creating something...