Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Saturday, January 17, 2015
A new species of legless amphibian resembling a giant earthworm or a snake has been discovered in a remote but threatened area of Cambodian rainforest, conservationists said on Friday.
The grey-brown creature -- Ichthyophis cardamomensis -- was found in Cambodia's southwest Cardamom Mountains, an area under threat from habitat loss, according to Fauna and Flora International (FFI).
The new species is often mistaken for a snake, with larger species known to grow up to 1.5 metres (nearly five feet) in length, FFI said.
It was confirmed by scientists earlier this month according to leading Cambodian FFI herpetologist Neang Thy.
PHOTOS: Family of Legless Amphibians Discovered
"These discoveries are important to demonstrate that much of Cambodia's biodiversity remains unknown and unstudied by science, and many more areas need to be searched," Thy, who has been researching amphibians and reptiles since 2003, told AFP.
The creature is caecilian -- an order of amphibians that look like snakes or earthworms and are generally found underground.
Once a stronghold of the toppled Khmer Rouge regime, the bio-diverse Cardamom Mountains are home to an array of rare species, including the Asian elephant, but the area faces widespread deforestation.
Conservationists warn that illegal logging and other habitat destruction could mean new species become extinct shortly after discovery.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/new-species-of-legless-amphibian-found-in-cambodia-150116.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Two US free climbers reached the top of an iconic rock formation in Yosemite National Park on Wednesday, after spending nearly three weeks inching up a sheer 2,950-foot-high cliff face.
Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson began their record-breaking climb up the Dawn Wall of El Capitan, a massive rock face seen by millions of tourists every year, in late December.
Photos: Dawn Wall and Other Climbs on Edge of (Im)Possibility
The daring pair have been documenting the climb -- in which they use only their hands and feet, albeit attached with ropes to catch them if they fall -- on social media, followed by two photographers.
They have slept suspended in bivouac-style tents attached to the rock, which towers above Yosemite Valley and is some three times as big as France's Eiffel Tower and even bigger than world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
"This is not an effort to conquer. It's about realizing a dream," Jorgeson tweeted on Tuesday, ahead of the final push.
Photos: The World's 'Eight-Thousander' Mountains
They pair -- 36-year-old Caldwell and 30-year-old Jorgeson -- finally scaled the last few hundred feet to stand atop the granite monolith by mid-afternoon Wednesday, live TV pictures showed.
Caldwell's wife and Jorgeson's girlfriend hugged them as they were sprayed with champagne, local media reported.
http://news.discovery.com/adventure/extreme-sports/pair-scale-dawn-wall-most-difficult-rock-climb-ever-150115.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Analysis of fecal matter from the natural mummy of Cangrande della Scala, a medieval warlord and the patron of the poet Dante Alighieri, has established the Italian nobleman was poisoned with a deadly heart-stopping plant known as Digitalis or foxglove.
The most powerful man in the history of Verona, to whom Dante dedicated part of the “Divine Comedy,” Cangrande della Scala (1291-1329) died at the age of 38 on 22 July 1329.
“He became sick with vomit and diarrhoea just a few days after winning control over the city of Treviso,” Gino Fornaciari, professor of history of medicine and paleopathology at the University of Pisa, told Discovery News.
Medieval Poison Ring Used for Political Murders
The Treviso victory was the last act in Cangrande’s long struggle to control the entire region of Veneto in northern Italy.
According to contemporary accounts, he had contracted the disease a few days before by “drinking from a polluted spring.”
Rumors of poisoning immediately started to spread. In 2004, 675 years after Cangrande’s death, Fornaciari’s team exhumed the nobleman’s body from a richly decorated marble tomb in the church of Santa Maria Antica in Verona.
“The natural mummy, still wearing its precious clothes, appeared in good state of preservation,” Fornaciari and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Lying on the back with the arms folded across the chest, the 5-foot, 7-inch mummy was initially studied using digital X-ray and CT scans.
These showed regurgitated food in the throat, signs of arthritis in the elbows and hips, evidence of tuberculosis and possible cirrhosis.
The abdominal CT scans also showed the presence of feces in the rectum, allowing Fornaciari and colleagues to extract a sample.
Cleopatra killed by drug cocktail?
Analyses of the feces showed the presence of pollen grains of chamomile, black mulberry and, “totally unexpected, of foxglove (Digitalis sp. perhaps purpurea),” the researchers said.
Toxicological analyses confirmed concentrations of digoxin and digitoxin, two Digitalis glycosides, both in the liver and in the faeces.
“Although it is not possible to rule out totally an accidental intoxication, the most likely hypothesis is that of a deliberate administration of a lethal amount of Digitalis,” Fornaciari and colleagues concluded.
Indeed, the gastrointestinal symptoms showed by Cangrande in the last hours of his life and described by historical sources are compatible with the early phase of Digitalis intoxication.
According to the researchers, the foxglove poison may have been masked in a decoction containing chamomile, largely used as a sedative and antispasmodic drug, and black mulberry, used as astringent, which was prepared for some indisposition of Cangrande.
‘Sardonic Grin’ Has Roots in Poisonous Herb
Following Cangrande’s death, one of his physicians was hanged by his successor and nephew Mastino II.
“This adds more weight to the possibility that foul play was at least suspected, although who was ultimately behind the killing is likely to remain a mystery,” Fornaciari said.
Cangrande certainly had enemies. Among the principal suspects are the neighboring states, the Republic of Venice or Ducate of Milan, worried about the growing power of Cangrande.
But the murderer could have also been someone closer to Cangrande.
“It could have well been Mastino II himself,” Fornaciari said.
Image: Stone lid of the sarcophagus with Cangrande’s portrait (A); the body at the moment of opening (B), still wrapped in his precious clothes (C) and at the beginning of the autopsy (D). Credit: Gino Fornaciari/University of Pisa
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/mummy-poo-solves-700-year-old-murder-mystery-150110.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Thursday, January 8, 2015
The first people who migrated to the Americas did not bring their dogs with them, suggests a new study that concludes dogs likely first came to the Americas only about 10,000 years ago.
If the new research holds true, then the first successful dog migrations to the Americas post-dated the first human migrations by thousands of years. The findings are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
“Dogs are one of the earliest organisms to have migrated with humans to every continent, and I think that says a lot about the relationship dogs have had with humans,” project leader Kelsey Witt of the University of Illinois said in a press release. “They can be a powerful tool when you’re looking at how human populations have moved around over time.”
Dog Burials Found in Egypt: Photos
Witt and her team studied genetic characteristics of 84 sets of ancient dog remains from more than a dozen sites in both North and South America. The study, according to its authors, represents the largest ever analysis of ancient dogs in the Americas.
The data gathered so far on mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from mothers, indicates that dogs have a shorter history in the Americas than was previously suspected.
“Dog genetic diversity in the Americas may date back to only about 10,000 years ago,” Witt explained.
“This also is about the same time as the oldest dog burial found in the Americas,” her colleague Ripan Malhi added. “This may not be a coincidence.”
In some samples, the team found significant genetic similarities with American wolves, suggesting that some of the dogs interbred with, or were domesticated anew, from American wolves.
Video: Why Dogs Spin Before They Poop
The study also presents intriguing clues as to what life was like for these earliest American dogs, including how humans valued them.
A site called Janey B. Goode near what is now St. Louis, MO, used to be where the ancient city of Cahokia was located. Cahokia was the largest and first known metropolitan area in North America. It was bustling about 1,000 years ago.
The researchers note that dozens of dogs were ceremonially buried at Janey B. Goode then, suggesting that people there had a special reverence for dogs. While most of the dogs were buried individually, some were placed back-to-back in pairs. The meaning of this remains a mystery for now.
On the downside, at least from a dog’s perspective, canine remains were also found with food debris from Cahokia, strongly suggesting that people there consumed dogs for dinner from time to time.
The study also found that there was greater ancient dog diversity in the Americas than previously thought. The researchers, however, found unusually low genetic diversity in some dog populations, suggesting that humans in those regions may have engaged in dog breeding.
There is an important caveat to all of these findings, though.
Prehistoric Dog Found with Mammoth Bone in Mouth
“The region of the mitochondrial genome sequenced may mask the true genetic diversity of indigenous dogs in the Americas, resulting in the younger date for dogs when compared with humans,” Malhi admitted.
Prior research suggests that dogs were in Alaska anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Perhaps some people at those much earlier times had dogs with them, but the dogs were not widespread or formally bred.
If a person did not bury a dog’s remains, the chances of finding those remains today — if they even survived weathering — would be extremely challenging.
The story of dogs in the Americas is far from being fully unraveled. Witt and others have more studies in the works.
Photo: A dog-wolf hybrid. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
http://news.discovery.com/animals/pets/dogs-migrated-to-american-after-humans-150108.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
A machine on Earth capable of recreating the conditions inside the sun's heart is helping scientists study how iron behaves at mind-boggling temperatures. The results of the experiment, so far, have defied expectations and just might help settle a long-standing solar puzzle, researchers say.
Recreating conditions inside the sun, with temperatures topping 3.9 billion degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 billion degrees Celsius), is no easy task, but it's something scientists have been doing for a decade at the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratory. This machine creates some of the most powerful X-rays found on Earth.
PHOTOS: Simmering Solar Views from SDO
Each pulse contains 80 trillion watts of electricity — more than five times the combined electrical power of all the power plants on Earth, according to Sandia's website. The pulses last only about 100 nanoseconds each, but that's long enough to heat a very small sample of material to temperatures found at the heart of Earth's nearest star. [Solar Quiz: Do You Know Our Sun?]
"In high-energy-density physics, creating a temperature of 2 million degrees is not that uncommon," John Bailey, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory and a co-author on the new research, told Space.com. The Z Machine pulses are so powerful that Bailey said they completely vaporize the metal in the central part of their apparatus. "What's difficult, though, is creating those conditions in a sample that's big enough and long enough lived that you can accurately measure properties."
In the scientists' most recent work, Bailey and his colleagues used the X-ray pulses to deliver a powerful jolt of energy to a small sample of iron, which then turns into an incredibly hot plasma, just like iron inside the sun. Bailey and his colleagues came up with a way to measure how much radiation the iron sample absorbs, a property called opacity. They found that iron's opacity in these conditions is 7 percent higher than expected.
ANALYSIS: Monster Waves Behind Sun's Coronal Heating Mystery?
This finding may affect the study of the sun and other stars. Around 2001, a group of researchers found observational evidence suggesting that there is 30 percent to 50 percent less oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in the sun than models had previously predicted and observations had previously seemed to show (discussion continues among scientists about which interpretation is correct). When those reduced numbers were incorporated into solar models, the results conflicted with observational data about the internal structure of the sun (deduced by studying sound waves that travel through the star). Scientists wondered if the observations were incorrect, or if an entirely new stellar model was needed.
The findings by Bailey and his colleagues could help resolve this apparent conflict.
The observations from 2001 were interpreted based on predicted values for the opacity of oxygen, carbon and iron at temperatures found inside the sun — but those values had never been measured in a lab (as noted above, such observations are extremely difficult). If the opacity of all three materials differs from the previously predicted values, that could change how the observational evidence would be interpreted. This means the amount of oxygen, carbon and iron inside the sun might not have to be adjusted after all, and the models may still be correct.
NEWS: NASA's Black Hole X-Ray Hunter Could Solve Solar Mystery
For the moment, Bailey said he and his group are focused on understanding why previous models predicted a lower opacity for iron at high temperatures. The researchers will perform similar tests on nickel and chromium, elements that are chemically similar to iron. Many groups of researchers use the Z Machine for experiments, so time is limited for Bailey and his team. For their study on iron, he said he only got "about 10 shots a year."
"It's true that we wish we could go faster, but at least we have the chance to do something that people have realized should be done for a century," Bailey said. "We're recreating a speck of solar matter in our laboratory. Having the opportunity to do that is really unprecedented."
The results of the new study were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
More from SPACE.com:
Hubble Telescope Spies Amazing Star Factory Inside Space Monkey Head (Photo, Video)Incredible Tech: How Interstellar Light-Propelled Sailing Works (Infographic)The Hellfire Projector: How the Sun Works
Original article on Space.com. Copyright 2015 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://news.discovery.com/space/our-suns-iron-heart-is-acting-strange-150108.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
An earthquake nearly 3,000 years ago may be the culprit in the mysterious disappearance of one of China's ancient civilizations, new research suggests.
The massive temblor may have caused catastrophic landslides, damming up the Sanxingdui culture's main water source and diverting it to a new location.
That, in turn, may have spurred the ancient Chinese culture to move closer to the new river flow, study co-author Niannian Fan, a river sciences researcher at Tsinghua University in Chengdu, China, said Dec. 18 at the 47th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. (Ancient Chinese Warriors Protect Secret Tomb)
Coolest Archaeological Discoveries of 2014
In 1929, a peasant in Sichuan province uncovered jade and stone artifacts while repairing a sewage ditch located about 24 miles (40 kilometers) from Chengdu. But their significance wasn't understood until 1986, when archaeologists unearthed two pits of Bronze Age treasures, such as jades, about 100 elephant tusks and stunning 8-feet-high (2.4 meters) bronze sculptures that suggest an impressive technical ability that was present nowhere else in the world at the time, said Peter Keller, a geologist and president of the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, which is currently hosting an exhibit of some of these treasures.
The treasures, which had been broken and buried as if they were sacrificed, came from a lost civilization, now known as the Sanxingdui, a walled city on the banks of the Minjiang River.
"It's a big mystery," said Keller, who was not involved in the current study.
Archaeologists now believe that the culture willfully dismantled itself sometime between 3,000 and 2,800 years ago, Fan said.
"The current explanations for why it disappeared are war and flood, but both are not very convincing," Fan told Live Science.
Skulls in China Reveal Mass Female Sacrifice
But about 14 years ago, archaeologists found the remains of another ancient city called Jinsha near Chengdu. The Jinsha site, though it contained none of the impressive bronzes of Sanxingdui, did have a gold crown with a similar engraved motif of fish, arrows and birds as a golden staff found at Sanxingdui, Keller said. That has led some scholars to believe that the people from Sanxingdui may have relocated to Jinsha.
But why has remained a mystery.
Fan and his colleagues wondered whether an earthquake may have caused landslides that dammed the river high up in the mountains and rerouted it to Jinsha. That catastrophe may have reduced Sanxingdui's water supply, spurring its inhabitants to move. (History's 10 Most Overlooked Mysteries)
The valley where Sanxingdui sits has a large floodplain, with 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) of high terraced walls that were unlikely to have been cut by the small river that now flows through it, Fan said.
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/chinese-civilizations-mysterious-disappearance-solved-141229.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Launched in 1977, the twin NASA Voyager probes have been coasting their way through the outermost reaches of the solar system. Voyager 1 has even breached the sun’s outermost magnetic boundary, the heliopause, where the outward pressure of the solar wind balances with the interstellar medium, and is now humanity’s first interstellar emissary.
VIDEO: Voyager 1 is Not Even CLOSE to Leaving the Solar System
Both Voyagers have a power supply, albeit dwindling, for the next few years. But once those plutonium power planets die, radio communications will cease and that’s the last time we’ll be in touch with our intrepid space explorers.
Or will it?
There’s a fun thought experiment that one day in the future, when humanity has the technological prowess to build spacecraft capable of traveling speeds at an appreciable fraction of (or faster than) the speed of light, although the Voyager probes will have had a decades- or centuries-long head start, we could catch up to the probes and overtake them as we explore the stars. Our future selves may even calculate the probes’ location and mount an expedition to visit the archaeological curiosities and marvel at the primitive, yet inspirational, technology their ancestors once had.
ANALYSIS: Most Destructive Space Battle Rocks Virtual Universe
Now, in a rather genius move by UK-based online game developer Frontier Developments, we don’t have to wait until the invention of the warp drive to see the Voyager probes once more.
Hidden in the recently released ‘Elite: Dangerous’, a crowd-funded reboot of the famous 1980′s game ‘Elite’, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 exist as real entities that can be sought out and explored. The massively multiplayer ‘Elite’ universe is boundless, using open-ended galaxy modeled on our Milky Way. Realized by Redditor Goldenvale earlier this month, he calculated Voyager 2′s trajectory and plotted where the spacecraft would likely be in the game’s timeframe, in the year 3300 AD.
After being fact-checked by fellow Reddit gamers, it turns out that Goldenvale’s math checked out and tallied with the ‘Elite: Dangerous’ universe.
ANALYSIS: Virtual Goods That Cost Big, Real Money
In 3300 AD, the probe should be 664.9 billion kilometers (413.1 billion miles) from Earth. That may sound far, but on interstellar scales, that’s only 0.07 light-years away. Considering the nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, is over 4 light-years away, by the year 3300, Voyager 2 will have barely stepped off the interstellar porch.
Other ‘Elite: Dangerous’ players have found Voyager 2′s twin Voyager 1. See the videos below of two gamers’ Voyager encounters:
In a wonderful additional touch, the developers have included the audio from the Voyagers’ Golden Record — greetings recorded in 55 different languages.
As an avid space game enthusiast, I can’t wait to explore the ‘Elite: Dangerous’ universe. Ever since playing the ‘Elite’ sequel ‘Frontier: Elite II’ in the 1990′s, I’ve been fascinated by the open-world game play that allows you to explore a boundless universe. And, by the looks of the videos showing gamers’ experiences, the ultra-realistic feel of being in space plus the cool addition of realistic locations of the Voyager probes (plus other nice touches that have yet to be revealed) should make for a mind-blowing experience.
Source: VG24/7 via my cousin Gary O'Neill who, like me, was a huge fan of 'Frontier: Elite II' and was one of the beta testers for 'Elite: Dangerous.'
http://news.discovery.com/space/voyager-probes-found-in-online-elite-dangerous-universe-141231.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)