Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and jlms qkw, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured stories come from MSNBC.
Skipper chosen for starship effort
By Alan Boyle
The Pentagon's think tank has selected the group that will manage its "100 Year Starship" project to explore what it would take for a multigenerational mission beyond the solar system, and sources say the leader will be Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space in 1992.
In the 20 years since then, Jemison has founded several ventures — including The Jemison Group, a technology design and consulting company; and the Houston-based Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which takes on educational projects. Jemison, a 55-year-old Alabama native who has experience as a physician and a Peace Corps worker as well as an astronaut, played a prominent role in facilitating the 100 Year Starship symposium organized by NASA and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Florida last fall.
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One of the follow-ups from that seminar was to be the award of a $500,000 contract from DARPA to continue study of the technological, political and social requirements for ultra-long-term projects such as interstellar space missions. Several ventures put in proposals, and one of the groups that didn't win the contract, the Tau Zero Foundation, said in this week's email update that the contract was going to a team "led by an ex-astronaut."
The BBC identified the ex-astronaut as Jemison, based on the text of an unreleased letter from DARPA. It also reported that Jemison's foundation was teaming up with two other groups, Icarus Interstellar and the Foundation for Enterprise Development.
Political markets get first 2012 test
By Alan Boyle
The pundits portrayed the Iowa GOP presidential caucuses as a tight three-way race, but market traders settled on an order of finish even before Tuesday's voting began. They had former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney first, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul second, and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum third.
The contest turned out to be tighter than even the pundits expected: Romney led Santorum by just eight votes, with Paul not too far behind in third. But when it comes to the Republican nomination, Romney holds a far more commanding lead, at least for now.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
Santorum: The pick and choose from Catholic values candidate?
by A Siegel
Bird News - SoCal Grebe Grief
by enhydra lutris
The Daily Bucket - a perennial in the forest
by bwren
This week in science: denialism for everyone!
by DarkSyde
What Would it Be Like to Hike on Mars?
by Troubadour
Slideshows/Videos
Post-Crescent: Walter B. Allen shipwreck near Sheboygan deemed historic site
Shipwreck near Sheboygan named to historic register
Dan Benson
6:38 AM, Dec. 30, 2011
Gannett Wisconsin Media
SHEBOYGAN — A vessel lying on the floor of Lake Michigan and considered one of the best-preserved Great Lakes shipwreck has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
The canaller Walter B. Allen, which sank in a storm in April 1880, lies upright and intact in about 170 feet of water seven miles northeast of Sheboygan.
"It's like a ship in a bottle, captured in time. It's a very pristine shipwreck," said Mike Hansen, owner of Maritime Divers in Manitowoc.
The vessel was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in early November. The register is the official national list of historic properties in America deemed worthy of preservation. It is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison administers the program.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
MSNBC: Meteor quest turns up treasures
By Alan Boyle
January is the perfect time for a road trip to Florida, and if there's a promising meteor shower to see, so much the better. That's what brought photographer Jeff Berkes down from Pennsylvania to the Florida Keys. The payoff came in the form of a stunning set of pictures showing the Quadrantid meteors at their peak.
MSNBC: Getting out the truth about 2012
By Alan Boyle
Even an hour isn't long enough to cover the universe, as evidenced by this Google+ Hangout organized by Universe Today's Fraser Cain. The gang included Cain as well as his UT colleagues Nancy Atkinson and Jon Voisey, Bad Astronomy's Philip Plait, Discovery News' Ian O'Neill and Nicole Gugliucci, Astronomy Cast's Pamela Gay, BAUT Forum's Jay Cross and yours truly. We talked about NASA's Grail mission to the moon, the impending fall of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe and the Quadrantid meteor shower — but the biggest theme was the weirdness over 2012, the Mayan calendar and tales of psychic travel to Mars. This year may be a peak time for pseudoscientific craziness, but it's also a "teachable moment" for astronomy. Does it do more harm than good to talk about doomsday pronouncements and UFO claims? When is the right time to do a reality check?
MSNBC: Suit lets young folks feel like 75
By John Roach
Want to know what it's like to shuffle around the grocery store like achy old folks do? Just in case that sounds like fun, researchers at MIT's Agelab have created a jumpsuit that brings the experience to life for the young, able-bodied masses.
Space.com via MSNBC: Giant moon crater revealed in spectacular up-close photos
By Space.com Staff
updated 1/6/2012 12:32:35 PM ET
Spectacular new images of a gigantic crater on the moon were captured recently by a low-skimming NASA satellite.
In November 2011, the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft passed over the moon's Aristarchus crater, which spans 25 miles (40 kilometers) and sinks more than 2 miles (3.5 kilometers) deep. Photos and video of the crater from LRO's sweep were released Dec. 25.
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The huge and highly reflective Aristarchus is easily visible with the naked eye. But the details shown in the new photos are a special treat from an extremely low flyover by LRO.
Space.com via MSNBC: Amazing photos show space station crossing moon
Spectacular portraits catch orbiting lab as it streaks across night sky
By Tariq Malik
updated 1/7/2012 2:33:48 PM ET
Two photographers have snapped spectacular portraits of the International Space Station streaking across the night sky, catching the orbiting lab crossing the moon and slipping by Jupiter.
In one series of photos, NASA photographer Lauren Harnett captured images of the moon at the exact moment that the space station passed across its face in what scientists call a "transit."
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Harnett was not the only one to photograph the space station this week.
On Thursday, photographer Mike Killian spotted the space station from central Florida as it passed near the bright planet Jupiter.
Astronomy/Space
Universe Today via MSNBC: Planet-hunters kick off 2012 with four new worlds
'Hot Jupiters' discovered by network of small telescopes; more to come
By Paul Scott Anderson
Universe Today
updated 1/5/2012 10:26:14 PM ET
We're only a few days into 2012 and already some new exoplanet discoveries have been announced.
As 2011 ended, there were a total of 716 confirmed exoplanets and 2,326 planetary candidates, found by both orbiting space telescopes like Kepler and ground-based observatories. The pace of new discoveries has accelerated enormously in the past few years. Now there are four more confirmed exoplanets to add to the list.
The four planets, HAT-P-34b, HAT-P-35b, HAT-P-36b and HAT-P-37b, all have very tight orbits around their four different stars, taking only 5.5, 3.6, 1.3 and 2.8 days to complete an orbit. Compare that with Mercury, which takes 87.969 days to make one orbit — and then 365 days, of course, for Earth.
Space.com via MSNBC: NASA picks a winter rest stop for Mars rover Opportunity
It'll stay at spot called Greeley Haven on Endeavour Crater's rim, and keep working
updated 1/6/2012 1:45:16 PM ET
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has found a good place to wait out the harsh Martian winter — and to get some more science done as well.
Opportunity is hunkering down at a spot called Greeley Haven, a rocky outcrop along the rim of the Red Planet's huge Endeavour crater. The site allows the rover to angle its solar panels toward the sun, and it also presents a variety of interesting features for Opportunity to investigate, researchers said.
"Greeley Haven provides the proper tilt, as well as a rich variety of potential targets for imaging and compositional and mineralogic studies," Jim Bell of Arizona State University, lead scientist for Opportunity's panoramic camera, said in a statement.
Space.com via MSNBC: Expert: Secret X-37B plane isn't spying on China
By Mike Wall
updated 1/6/2012 7:30:14 PM ET
Contrary to rampant speculation, the United States military's secretive X-37B space plane is most likely not spying on a prototype Chinese space module, experts say.
According to a recent report by the BBC, a new article in Spaceflight Magazine suggests that the robotic X-37B space plane might be surveilling China's recently launched space laboratory Tiangong 1. As evidence, the article notes apparently striking similarities in the orbits of the two spacecraft. But in reality, these orbits are quite different, other analysts contend, making it extremely unlikely that the X-37B is keeping an eye on Tiangong 1.
"I would go as far as to say, 'no chance,' " said Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst with the U.S. Air Force. "It's not practical."
Space.com via MSNBC: Space station crew eager for private spaceship visit
Unmanned Dragon capsule will be launched by SpaceX on Feb. 7
By Clara Moskowitz
updated 1/5/2012 8:49:47 PM ET
The astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) are gearing up for a milestone event in February — the first visit of a commercial spaceship to the orbiting outpost.
The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch its unmanned Dragon capsule to orbit Feb. 7 atop the firm's Falcon 9 booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. The capsule will carry a load of food, clothing and other supplies for the six-man crew of the space station.
"We're excited about that," NASA astronaut Don Pettit told SPACE.com in an interview Wednesday from the station. "Anytime you have a visiting vehicle coming by, that's an exciting day."
Space.com via MSNBC: How 2012's full moons got their strange names
Origins credited to Native Americans and early European settlers
By Joe Rao
updated 1/7/2012 3:07:59 PM ET
The start of 2012 brings with it a new year of skywatching, and lunar enthusiasts are gearing up for a stunning lineup of full moons. But, where does the tradition of full moon names come from?
Full moon names date back to Native Americans of a few hundred years ago, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. To keep track of the changing seasons, these tribes gave distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.
There were some variations in the moon names, but in general, the same ones were used throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England, continuing west to Lake Superior.
Evolution/Paleontology
University de Liege (Belgium) via physorg.com: The Ichthyosaurs survived longer than was thought
January 5, 2012
The discovery of a new species of ichthyosaurs considerably changes our understanding of the evolution and the extinction of these dinosaur age sea reptiles, according to a study published this week in PLoS ONE by an international team of Belgian, British and German scientists.
This work shows that the ichthyosaurs were not subject to a major extinction at the end of the Jurassic era (145 million years ago). It furthermore also shows that the ichthyosaurs remained very diversified until their definitive extinction, around 94 million years ago. These two results, springing from joint work produced by university and museum researchers in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Germany, and published in the Tuesday, January 3, 2012 edition of the open access journal PLoS One, contradicts earlier theories which considered the cretaceous ichthyosaurs as the final survivors of a group in its death throes.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Traffic was heavy on 'Dinosaur Freeway' in Colorado
A bustling thoroughfare 98 million years ago was a coastal plain full of waterways
By Jennifer Viegas
updated 1/5/2012 2:45:42 PM ET
Colorado’s bustling thoroughfare 98 million years ago was the Dinosaur Freeway.
More than 350 newly discovered tracks, made by various dinosaurs, crocodiles and a few pterosaurs, were identified at the site, which is now the John Martin Reservoir in Bent County, Colorado. When added to previously found tracks there, the total number of fossilized prints is well over 1,000. The dinosaur freeway is described in the February issue of Cretaceous Research.
"The Dinosaur Freeway runs from Northeast Colorado, near Boulder, to east central New Mexico, near Tucumcari," co-author Martin Lockley told Discovery News. "It is a trampled zone in Cretaceous rocks representing an ancient coastal plain like the present day Gulf of Mexico."
LiveScience via MSNBC: Scientists create supersoldier ants, just to see what they do
It seems they were throwbacks to ancestral state that no longer exists, except by accident
By Wynne Parry
updated 1/5/2012 7:21:37 PM ET
When eight bizarrely big-headed soldier ants turned up in a wild colony collected from Long Island, N.Y., scientists knew they had found something interesting.
This discovery of these oversized versions of soldier ants, whose job is to defend the nest, led researchers to create their own supersoldier ants in the lab with the help of a hormone and, by doing so, offer an explanation for how ants, and possibly other social insects, take on specific forms with dedicated jobs within their colonies.
It turns out these abnormal soldier ants were throwbacks to an ancestral state, one that no longer shows up within their species except, apparently, by accident. This phenomenon occasionally pops up elsewhere, in the form of whales bearing limbs their ancestors lost, chickens with teeth or humans with tails.
MSNBC: Australia's hybrid shark reveals evolution in action
By John Roach
Hybrid sharks have been discovered swimming in the waters off Australia's east coast. The finding may be driven by climate change, a research team says, suggesting such discoveries could be more common in the future.
The hybridization is between the Australian black tip shark which favors tropical waters and the larger, common black tip shark, which favors sub-tropical and temperate waters.
While the distribution for the genetically distinct species overlaps along the northern and eastern Australian coastline, the finding that they mated and produced offspring is unprecedented, according to the discovery team from the University of Queensland.
Biodiversity
LiveScience: Female Explorer Gets Her Due, 2 Centuries Later
by Andrea Mustain
More than two centuries after she disguised herself as a man and set out on a journey that would make her the first woman to circle the globe, pioneering botanist Jeanne Baret is getting some long-deserved recognition.
A newly described plant species has been christened Solanum baretiae in her honor. Biologist Eric Tepe, with the University of Utah and the University of Cincinnati, named the newfound species after hearing about Baret's unsung work during a National Public Radio interview with Glynis Ridley, author of the biography, "The Discovery of Jeanne Baret" (Crown, 2010), on the program "All Things Considered."
Baret collected thousands of plant specimens from exotic locales around the globe, and, according to Ridley, likely collected the first specimen of one of the world's most beloved flowering plants — bougainvillea.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Science News: Botanists et al freed from Latin, paper
Classifying plants, algae and fungi can now be done in English and online
By Susan Milius
Web edition : Sunday, January 1st, 2012
Whether Paul Kirk was wearing a pointy party hat at the time, he’s not saying. But as 2012 loomed just a few minutes away, the mycologist cum biosystematist slipped upstairs to his office, logged in to a computer database of fungal names and, as fast as he could after midnight in England, celebrated the new year by publishing the name of a newly discovered fungus.
The coming of 2012 is quite a time to celebrate, or revile, for scientists naming algae, fungi or plants. Starting January 1, the latest revision of the international code governing these names allows two new options: skipping paper publishing and describing key features in English instead of Latin.
“Run for your lives! End of the world!” was the (tongue-in-cheek) title of a 2010 discussion of electronic publishing for nomenclature printed in the journal Taxon by botanist Sandra Knapp at the Natural History Museum in London and colleagues. The main fear has been that species descriptions will be lost as electronic technology whizzes forward. Try reading a floppy disk these days, skeptics moan.
LiveScience: Tiny Fish Filmed Mimicking Octopus That Mimics Fish
Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 04 January 2012 Time: 04:20 PM ET
A new film captures a circular game of copycat: a fish that mimics an octopus that mimics fish.
First described by scientists in 1998, the remarkable mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) can shift its shape, movements and color to impersonate toxic lionfish, flatfish and even sea snakes. Such mimicry allows it to swim in the open with relatively little fear of predators.
The black-marble jawfish (Stalix histrio), on the other hand, is a small, timid fish. It spends most of its adult life close to a sand burrow that serves as its hideout if a predator comes along.
LiveScience via MSNBC: Pneumonia outbreak wiped out 20% of rare wild goat
Markhors in Tajikistan may have suffered from interaction with domestic animals
By Remy Melina
updated 1/6/2012 6:30:43 PM ET
A pneumonia outbreak has wiped out as many as 20 percent of the rare wild goats in Tajikistan, Central Asia, researchers say.
Working together, researchers from Central Asia, France and the Wildlife Conservation Society determined that a pneumonia outbreak that occurred in Tajikistan during September and October 2010 may have killed at least 65 markhors (Capra falconeri).
That may not seem like all that many goats, but fewer than 2,500 of the endangered goats exist worldwide, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Reuters via MSNBC: Sea Shepherd: Activists board Japanese whaling vessel
January 7, 2012
SYDNEY — Three Australian environmental activists boarded a Japanese whaling vessel Sunday to protest against Japan's annual whale cull in the Antarctic, anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
The three activists from the Australian group Forest Rescue boarded the ship early Sunday with assistance from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose ships are trying to tail the Japanese whaling fleet as it heads toward the Southern Ocean.
The activists had not been returned and were "prisoners now detained on a Japanese whaler," Sea Shepherd said.
Biotechnology/Health
MSNBC: Silkworms hacked to spin spider-like silk
By John Roach
Researchers have hacked the silkworm genome to spin fibers containing spider-silk proteins, a breakthrough that could lead to a long-sought biomaterial for a range of applications such as sutures, artificial ligaments and even bulletproof vests.
To prove the engineered silkworms were actually producing the synthetic silk, the researchers tagged some with green fluorescent protein, creating green-glowing silk.
As spooky as this may seem, it is a big step on a path to manufacturing silk with spider-silk-like qualities without having to venture into the even scarier proposition of spider farming.
LiveScience via MSNBC: Baby monkeys with 6 genomes are a first
Until now, most experiments on stem cell therapies have been based on mice
By Jeanna Bryner and Stephanie Pappas
updated 1/5/2012 8:36:54 PM ET
They look like ordinary baby rhesus macaques, but Hex, Roku and Chimero are the world's first chimeric monkeys, each with cells from the genomes of as many as six rhesus monkeys.
Until now research on so-called chimeric animals, or those that have cells with different genomes, has been limited to mice; a recent procedure produced mice using cells from two dads.
The researchers turned to monkeys for more insight into the capabilities of embryonic stem cells. Most experiments on stem cell therapies are based on mice, and the researchers wanted to understand whether primate embryonic stem cells respond the same way as those of mice do.
Climate/Environment
MSNBC: Record air pollution hammers California's ag heartland
Nearly every day in December and January, dirty air has exceeded federal health standards
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 1/7/2012 6:29:54 PM ET
FRESNO, Calif. — This is the time of year when residents who often live with the nation's worst pollution often can draw a breath of fresh air. But this winter has not been kind to people who want to play outside in California's Central Valley.
A dry December and January has stagnated air across California, but nowhere is the situation more serious than between Modesto and Bakersfield, where nearly every day dirty air has exceeded federal health standards.
It's the worst air quality recorded in a dozen years, and it's the unhealthiest kind— microscopic, chemical-laden particles that can get into lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream to create health risks in everyone, not just the young and infirm.
I lived in Bakersfield 30 years ago, and the tule fog was so thick in January that the locals used to joke that they had to open their windows and look down to see the median stripe when they were driving. I can believe that the inversion layer would be enough to produce the worst air quality of the year.
Geology
Our Amazing Planet via MSNBC: Why North America won't erode away
Continent hasn't lost much ground in last 1.5 billion years, nor will it in next billion
By Crystal Gammon, OurAmazingPlanet Contributor
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 1/5/2012 9:05:27 PM ET
North Americans should breathe easy: New research confirms that the continent has eroded very little over the past 1.5 billion years and, in all likelihood, won’t shed much ground in the next billion years, either.
Although the conclusion sounds like a no-brainer — earth scientists have long suspected that the oldest parts of the North American landscape have been quite stable — it has been difficult to confirm. Now, using a specific set of geochemical markers, a team of researchers has found a way stitch together the continent’s erosional history over the past 2 billion years.
"Understanding and reproducing erosional history over billion-year timescales is something that's very, very difficult to do," said Terrence Blackburn, a geochemist at MIT who led the study. "That's really why this is so novel."
Our Amazing Planet via MSNBC: Kilauea eruption enters its 30th year in Hawaii
Many younger residents have never known a time when volcano wasn't oozing lava
By Brett Israel
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 1/5/2012 5:24:30 PM ET
Hawaii's ever-erupting Kilauea volcano celebrated the 29th anniversary of its current eruption on Tuesday.
Kilauea means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The volume of erupted material from Kilauea covering the land there is enough to pave a road across the world three times, making it one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. Hawaiians born after Jan. 3, 1983, have never known a time when Kilauea's Pu'u'O'o cone wasn't oozing lava.
"It may seem out of the ordinary to us, because for children on the island the volcano has been erupting their entire lives, but it's not that out of the ordinary for Kilauea," said Janet Babb, a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
Our Amazing Planet via MSNBC: Scientists set for first expedition to Earth's deepest sea vent
Mid-Cayman Rise is one of the most extreme and least explored places on planet
By Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 1/6/2012 3:59:06 PM ET
Eat your heart out, Jules Verne: This week, a ship packed with scientists is setting out for a three-week Caribbean cruise to one of the most extreme and least explored places on Earth. It's a real-life trip that might have been ripped from the pages of the imaginative novelist's fantastical fiction.
The 23 scientists aboard the research vessel Atlantis are embarking on a first-of-its-kind mission; their quarry lies in the perpetual night of the deep ocean, in a mysterious world powered only by the furious heat of the planet's inner workings.
Their destination appears in Google Earth as a shadowy gash in the Earth just south of the Cayman Islands.
It is the Mid-Cayman spreading ridge, a rift in the seafloor some 70 miles (110 kilometers) long and more than 9 miles (15 km) across, where geologic forces are shoving two tectonic plates apart and birthing new oceanic crust — and fueling what may be two of the most remarkable hydrothermal vent sites on Earth.
Psychology/Behavior
MSNBC: Robots show randomness in evolution of language
By John Roach
Even if everything about different groups of animals is identical down to the level of their genes and physical surroundings, they can develop unique ways to communicate, according to an experiment done with robots that use flashing lights to "talk."
The Swiss researchers used the robots to get handle on why there is such diversity in communication systems within and between species, something that is difficult to do in living animals.
The answer, they found, "is contingencies in evolutionary history, i.e. stochasticity (randomness) in the occurrence order of new ... traits," Steffen Wischmann, a researcher in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Lausanne, told me in an email.
Archeology/Anthropology
Harvard University via physorg.com: Baking in the details: Semitic Museum project conserves thousands of ancient clay tablets
By Alvin Powell
January 6, 2012
In the basement of Harvard’s Semitic Museum, Alex Douglas looked at the pieces of baked clay in front of him, teasing out how they fit together into a small tablet, thousands of years old and marked with ancient cuneiform writing.
Finding a void in the reassembled tablet without a piece to fit into it, Douglas referred to a computer screen, where a photograph of the intact tablet was displayed.
“I want to make sure that wasn’t me getting the mend wrong,” Douglas said. “When I first took it out, there were a lot of pieces. I wasn’t sure where they all went.”
The Kathmandu Post (Nepal) via Yahoo! News Singapore: Mustang cave diggers look at bigger picture
By Ankit Adhikari in Kathmandu/The Kathmandu Post | ANN
Thu, Jan 5, 2012
Kathmandu (The Kathmandu Post/ANN) - With the discovery of a series of similar ancient man-made caves in the highlands of Nepal, India, Pakistan and other countries, the researchers digging into the Mustang's "cave civilisation" now wonder whether there existed an independent civilisation in the Himalayan range of the Indian subcontinent.
The experts say man-made caves similar to that of Mustang have been found in several other parts of the Himalayan range that stretches around 3,000 km joining India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet Autonomous Region of China. According to Mohan Singh Lama, research officer at the Department of Archaeology, masks recovered from several cave complexes in Mustang cave excavation of 2011 were similar to those found in the caves of Ladakh of North East India and Taulin village of Nari province in Tibet. Like Mustang, both Ladakh and Nari province are parts of the Himalayan range.
Inter Press Service via The Daily Star (Lebanon): The struggle to preserve Gaza's treasures
Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY: Few outside of Gaza would consider its history much beyond the decades of Israeli occupation. But Gaza is a historical treasure house. Many of its treasures are now in Israeli museums, and those that remain are becoming difficult to preserve due to the Israeli siege.
Gaza, set along the historical Silk Road and on the bridge between Africa and Asia, was host to civilizations including the Pharaohs, Canaanites, Philistines, Crusaders, Mamluks, Romans and many following. Alexander the Great invaded Gaza; Napoleon Bonaparte passed through.
“Throughout Gaza, you find pottery and carved columns and capitals, and the remnants of civilizations past, including artifacts from early human presence like the iron and bronze ages,” says Asad Ashoor from the Tourism Ministry and Antiquities in Gaza.
LiveScience via Yahoo! News Canada: Mystery of Pompeii's Trashy Tombs Explained
By Wynne Parry
The tombs of Pompeii, the Roman city buried by a volcanic eruption in A.D. 79, had a litter problem. Animal bones, charcoal, broken pottery and architectural material, such as bricks, were found piled inside and outside the tombs where the city's dead were laid to rest.
To explain the presence of so much garbage alongside the dead, archaeologists have theorized that 15 years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, an earthquake left Pompeii in disrepair.
However, this theory is unlikely, according to an archaeologist who says the citizens of Pompeii may have just been messy, at least by modern, Western standards.
Buffalo News: Faith and mystery, interwoven
A rare religious tapestry, recently discovered tucked in a corner in a local convent, purports to contain relics from 365 saints and some from Jesus Christ himself
By Charity Vogel
It traveled here from Rome, and then disappeared from view for nearly 100 years.
Now, a rare tapestry that has been found in Buffalo has become both a mystery and a symbol of enduring faith.
The artifact, which today hangs in the sacristy of St. Joseph's Cathedral, contains the relics of saints of the old Roman Catholic calendar: 365 of them.
But the reliquary's wonders do not stop there.
University of Colorado via physorg.com: Researchers unearth ancient bronze artifact in Alaska
January 5, 2012
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder recently discovered the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska, a small, buckle-like object found in an ancient Eskimo dwelling and which likely originated in East Asia.
The artifact consists of two parts -- a rectangular bar, connected to an apparently broken circular ring, said CU-Boulder Research Associate John Hoffecker, who is leading the excavation project. The object, about 2 inches by 1 inch and less than 1 inch thick, was found in August by a team excavating a roughly 1,000-year-old house that had been dug into the side of a beach ridge by early Inupiat Eskimos at Cape Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula, which lies within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
Both sections of the artifact are beveled on one side and concave on the other side, indicating it was manufactured in a mold, said Hoffecker, a fellow at CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. A small piece of leather found wrapped around the rectangular bar by the research team yielded a radiocarbon date of roughly A.D. 600, which does not necessarily indicate the age of the object, he said.
The Palm Beach Post via the Sun-Sentinel: Plane found at bottom of ocean likely Navy bomber
By Kevin D. Thompson, The Palm Beach Post
8:01 a.m. EST, January 1, 2012
JUPITER — The mystery surrounding a downed World War II-era plane found at the bottom of the ocean has been partially solved.
The aircraft, upside down and mostly intact, is indeed a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver as originally suspected, said Randy Jordan, the diver who discovered the plane recently while diving at a depth of about 185 feet four miles off Jupiter.
Jordan, owner of Emerald Charters, a Jupiter scuba diving company, said a cloth-like covering was found, the same kind of material that was used to cover the wings on a Curtiss Helldiver, a Navy dive bomber.
He said the shape of the propellers and tail hook were also enough clues to positively identify the plane.
"It's just more confirmation that this plane is a Curtiss Helldiver," Jordan said.
Fayetteville Observer: History buff, artist team up to preserve Hope Mills of the past
By Chick Jacobs
Staff writer
HOPE MILLS - Lawrence Smith had the memories.
Sean McDaniel had the talent.
Together, they're breathing life into a nearly forgotten slice of life in the Cape Fear region.
Smith and the Hope Mills Historical Advisory Committee have teamed up with McDaniel, chairman of the fine arts department at Fayetteville Technical Community College, to create an artistic glimpse at a once-thriving thoroughfare - Trade Street.
"People who weren't around back in its heyday can't imagine how busy that street was," said Smith. He knows - he lived on the narrow avenue one block to the west of what is now Main Street in Hope Mills.
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"Looking at it now, it's hard to see," he added. "But there was an amazing amount of activity then."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Science News: Neutrino parents call into question faster-than-light results
Particles’ precursor doesn’t have enough energy to produce such speeds
By Devin Powell
Web edition : Friday, December 30th, 2011
Physicists have found yet another reason to doubt recent reports of neutrinos traveling faster than light. The existence of such speedy particles would screw up not only Einstein’s theory of special relativity, but also the laws of conservation of energy and momentum.
In September, the OPERA experiment reported clocking neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light, arriving 60 nanoseconds early on their 730-kilometer journey between the European laboratory CERN, near Geneva, and the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. To try to explain the result, two new studies examined the particles that give birth to neutrinos. Both found that these particles, called pions, could not possibly have had enough energy to give rise to the faster-than-light, or superluminal, speeds indicated by OPERA.
“We give a clear constraint on the superluminality of neutrinos,” says Xiaojun Bi, a particle astrophysicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing. His team reported its findings in the Dec. 6 Physical Review Letters.
Chemistry
Science News: In a Squeeze
Elements under pressure reveal secrets of extreme chemistry
By Alexandra Witze
January 14th, 2012; Vol.181 #1 (p. 26)
Bruce Banner isn’t the only scientist who could crush you with one mighty squeeze. These days, the Hulk’s superhuman strength is matched by researchers who squish all kinds of stuff in superscience experiments.
The goal isn’t to save the world from baddies, but to explore new frontiers in the nature of matter. After all, most material in the universe exists at bone-crushing pressures. Think massive stars and planetary cores — realms no comic book fan or other Earth dweller has ever seen.
Deep within the planet, rock experiences pressures more than 1 million times as great as the “1 atmosphere” that ordinary humans live under at sea level. Pressures at the centers of ultradense neutron stars are some trillion quadrillion times greater. Under such extreme conditions, atoms themselves begin to buckle.
To mimic these hellish realms, scientists are ramping up pressure in the lab, like the Hulk getting ever stronger as he gets madder. In the process, they’re squeezing out some surprising insights.
Energy
Discovery News via MSNBC: Geologists say Ohio quakes directly tied to fracking
By Eric Niiler
updated 1/6/2012 4:53:16 PM ET
Recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas, according to geological experts.
And they expect more earthquakes to come as the industry continues to expand across the eastern United States.
A boom in gas production using hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas has played a role in decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and coal and helped cut energy prices, but evidence is mounting that the process may come at a price.
"To the extent that our nation wants to become independent of meeting its energy needs in the coming years, the increased earthquakes are going to go along with that," said Art McGarr, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. "The problems are only going to grow in the future."
MSNBC: Biofuel cells may turn cockroaches into cyborgs
By John Roach
The sugars in a cockroach's belly have been harnessed by a fuel cell and converted into electricity, a big step toward turning insects into cyborgs, scientists are reporting.
Once miniaturized to the point that the fuel cells are non-invasive to the cockroaches, they can be implanted to power sensors or recording devices, for example.
A rechargeable battery inserted along with the so-called biofuel cell would store the trickle of energy it generates, explained Daniel Scherson, a chemist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
"If you want to be futuristic, one may use the energy stored to try to control the neurological system of the cockroach and then you might be able to (control) the cockroach (with) a joystick," he told me.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Tampa Bay Times: USS Narcissus, Civil War shipwreck off Egmont Key, could become Florida's 12th underwater preserve
By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, January 5, 2012
TAMPA — The Civil War tugboat was named for a mythological Greek youth mesmerized by his own reflection in a pool. But for 146 years, the USS Narcissus has lingered out of view, an underwater graveyard for the nearly two dozen Navy men who died when the ship sank during a storm.
This year, though, the 82-foot Narcissus could begin attracting more admirers.
State officials have proposed making the shipwreck site, 2 miles off the northern end of Egmont Key, Florida's 12th underwater archaeological preserve.
EurasiaNet: Turkey: Istanbul a Hub for Islamic Art Theft
by Dorian Jones
January 6, 2012 - 1:31pm
Under the elegant, soaring arches of Istanbul’s newly restored, 16th century Süleymaniye Mosque, dozens of security cameras keep an eye on visitors’ every move. Vigilant security guards patrol indoors and out. Turkey, police say, is becoming the epicenter of an international market for stolen Islamic art, and Turkish mosques and museums alike are on high alert.
That means the responsibilities of the imam at Süleymaniye Mosque, widely considered the city’s most magnificent, now include not only looking after the people's faith, but, increasingly, the valuable contents of the mosque itself.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science Education
Science News: FOR KIDS: Science fair as a family affair
Parents share their tips on helping kids prepare for a science fair
By Jennifer Cutraro
Web edition : Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
As temperatures drop and days grow shorter, middle and high school students across the country begin gearing up for science fair season. While these competitions typically take place in the spring, the qualifying projects can take several weeks or even months to plan, carry out and summarize. That means late fall and early winter are an ideal time for students to start brainstorming project ideas.
Science Writing and Reporting
Cornell University via physorg.com: Slaves or not, Babylonians were like us, says book
By Linda B. Glaser
January 6, 2012
They got married, had children, made beer. Although they lived 3,500 years ago in Nippur, Babylonia, in many ways they seem like us. Whether they were also slaves is a hotly contested question which Jonathan Tenney, assistant professor of ancient Near Eastern studies, addresses in the newly released "Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society: Servile Laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th Centuries, B.C." (Brill).
The book is based on Tenney's dissertation at the University of Chicago, for which he received the 2010 Dissertation of the Year Award by the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq.
International Business Times: Story of 1,100-Year-Old Mayan Ruins in Georgia Goes Viral, Stirs Debate
By Jason Van Hoven
January 5, 2012 3:26 PM EST
A story about 1,100-year-old Mayan ruins having been built in North Georgia has stirred much debate and gone viral, according to ABCNews.com.
Examiner.com Maya writer Richard Thornton wrote in an article that a 1,100-year-old archaeological site near Georgia's highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, "is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540." However, an archaeologist that he cited, Mark Williams of the University of Georgia, denied the claim.
"I am the archaeologist Mark Williams mentioned in this article," Williams wrote in the comments section of Thornton's piece. "This is total and complete bunk. There is no evidence of Maya in Georgia. Move along now."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
MSNBC: The secret formula for silly science
By Alan Boyle
If there's a formula for silly science, Ig Nobel founder Marc Abrahams surely has it figured out. For 21 years, he and his friends at the Annals of Improbable Research have made international headlines by honoring breakthroughs like the first study of homosexual necrophiliac ducks, and the invention of the bra that turns into a gas mask.
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But here's a clue or two for future laureates: Make sure there's a dash of seriousness to go with the silliness. One sure way not to win an Ig Nobel is to try too hard to be funny.
"If you were to set out and try to win an Ig Nobel Prize, you would almost certainly fail," Abrahams told me. "To win a prize, you've got to do something that makes pretty much everyone laugh when they first hear about it, and then it gets into their mind enough that they just want to keep thinking about it and finding out more. It's not that hard to make something funny, and it's not that hard to come up with something that will make people scratch their head and wonder about it. But it's very hard to come up with things that will do both of those."
Science is Cool
St. Augustine Record: Crews to dig up backyards for TV show, raising objections from city archaeologist
By JENNIFER EDWARDS
Posted: January 6, 2012 - 12:39am
A reality TV show set to film in St. Augustine soon is already raising some concern within the city limits.
A casting producer for a 13-episode series tentatively titled “The Recovery Project” is to fly here Sunday to find property on which to dig for clues to the past.
Desiree Mandelbaum says the digs are essentially treasure hunting, a search for objects like bullets or buttons that will tell a story of the past.
But City of St. Augustine Archaeologist Carl Halbirt said the premise is unethical because it “robs the city of its heritage” and could disrupt important archaeological sites.
Mandelbaum said it’s a fun way to learn something about history and that producers would make sure “not to disrupt anything that’s been put into place in St. Augustine.”
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.