The Moai Statues

Moai are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) between 1250 and 1500 CE. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called Ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the 'living faces' (aringa ora) of deified ancestors. The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.

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The statues' production and transportation is considered a remarkable intellectual, creative, and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 75 tonnes; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.

The moai are monolithic statues, their minimalist style related to forms found throughout Polynesia. Moai are carved in relatively flat planes, the faces bearing proud but enigmatic expressions. The over-large heads (a three to five ratio between the head and the body, a sculptural trait which demonstrates the Polynesian belief in the sanctity of the chiefly head) have heavy brows, elongated noses with a distinctive fish-hook shaped curl of the nostrils. The lips protrude in a thin pout. Like the nose, the ears are elongated, and oblong in form. The jaw lines stand out against the truncated neck. The torsos are heavy, and sometimes the clavicles are subtly outlined in stone. The arms are carved in bas relief and rest against the body in various positions, hands and long slender fingers resting along the crests of the hips, meeting at the hami (loincloth), with the thumbs sometimes pointing towards the navel. Generally, the anatomical details of the backs are not detailed, but sometimes bear a ring and girdle motif on the buttocks and lower back. Except for one kneeling moai, the statues do not have legs.

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Though moai are whole body statues, they are often described simply as "heads". This is partly because of the disproportionate size of most moai heads, and partly because from the invention of photography until the 1950s the only moai standing on the island were the statues on the slopes of Rano Raraku, many of which are buried to their shoulders. Some of the "heads" at Rano Raraku have been excavated and their bodies seen, and observed to have markings that had been protected from erosion by their burial.

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The statues were carved by the Polynesian colonizers of the island, mostly between circa 1250 CE and 1500 CE. In addition to representing deceased ancestors, the moai, once they were erected on ahu, may also have been regarded as the embodiment of powerful living or former chiefs and important lineage status symbols.

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Quickfoot

Wildman or Hairy Biped of Great Britain.
Variant names: Ghost Ape of Marwood, Martyn’s ape.
Physical description: Apelike or bearlike entity.
Covered with hair.
Behavior: Runs quickly.
Distribution: Devon and Dorset, England; West Lothian, Scotland.

Significant sightings: In 1978, three boys exploring the woods near Kings Nympton, Devon, saw an apelike or bearlike creature with green eyes and a large muzzle.
David Colman was driving down a country lane in the Bathgate Hills, West Lothian, Scotland, when he saw a humanoid running down path at great speed. It was 6 feet tall, with a humanlike face. Dubbed “Quickfoot” by the press.

Possible explanations:
(1) Paranormal entity similar to the Hairy Bipeds of North America.
(2) Exaggerated tales of feral people.
(3) Ghostly apparations, possibly of bears.

Sources: Jonathan Downes, “Born to Be Wild,” Fortean Times, no. 84 (December 1995-January 1996): 55; “Quickfoot Sighted in Scotland Forest,” Fortean Times, no. 86 (May 1996): 17.

Egyptian Journey to the Next World

The Egyptians did not believe that mummifying a body would enable it to come back to life in the next world. They knew the physical body would remain in this world, but they preserved it, believing that the spirit of the person needed its body as a kind of base or reference point. If a body could not be recovered, had it, for example, been destroyed by fire or lost at sea, it was a serious matter. In cases such as these, a statue or a kind of reconstruction or artistic portrait would be used for the departing spirit.

An important ritual was performed at the funeral service of the departed, called The Opening of the Mouth. This ceremony was a “magical treatment” of the mouth and other apertures of the body to ensure the spirit’s ability to continue to hear, see, eat, and so forth, should it need to in the spirit world. The Egyptians also performed this ceremony over statues and paintings, to endow them with a form in the afterworld.

Source: Encyclopedia Of The Unusual And Unexplained

Mercury was once alive with volcanoes

Washington, Oct 30: While it seems like a geologically dead planet on Wednesday, early in its history tiny Mercury may have been a caldron of volcanic activity, NASA scientists said on Wednesday.

Data from the US space agency's car-sized MESSENGER probe's latest close encounter with the planet nearest the sun on October 6 is helping to settle a debate dating back to the 1970s over the role volcanoes played in Mercury's history.

MESSENGER sent back images showing extensive and deep lava flows on the surface, including hardened lava more than a mile deep filling a crater 60 miles in diameter.

The unmanned spacecraft also detected a so-called "wrinkle ridge," a long geological feature on Mercury's surface about 2,000 feet high apparently caused by long-ago contraction of the planet as it cooled, the scientists said.

That's about twice as high as similar features seen on the surface of Mars, according to Maria Zuber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist working on the mission.

This was the second of three scheduled encounters before MESSENGER enters into orbit around Mercury in 2011. It flew past Mercury on January 14 and will return in September 2009.

Combined with data from January's fly-by, the new observations suggest Mercury was gripped by volcanic activity on a planetary scale, the scientists said.

"The bottom line is volcanism was very important in the history of Mercury," Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, another scientist working on the mission, told reporters.

Zuber said the widespread volcanism may have occurred 3.8 billion to 4 billion years ago. Mercury and the rest of the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

"This shows that's there's a lot more volcanism than we see on the surface of the moon, which has always been the planetary body we've compared Mercury to," added NASA scientist Marilyn Lindstrom.

Mercury's surface is a mixture of volcanic plains, craters caused by bygone impacts with space rocks and winding cliffs.

MESSENGER mapped about 30 percent of Mercury's surface that had never before been seen from a spacecraft, meaning about 95 percent of the planet has now been mapped. The only previous occasions Mercury was visited by a spacecraft were in 1974 and 1975, when NASA's Mariner 10 flew past it three times and mapped about 45 percent of its surface. MESSENGER's January encounter covered another 20 percent.

With many scientists now classifying Pluto a dwarf planet, Mercury is considered the solar system's smallest planet, a third the size of Earth and only a bit larger than the moon.

MESSENGER, which stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging, was launched in 2004.

Bureau Report

Mystery Religion

Mystery Religion, any of various cults of the ancient world that were open only to the initiated. The earliest known mysteries, from at least as early as 1875 bc, are those connected with the legend of the god Osiris in Egypt. The ancient Greeks had many local mystery rites such as the Eleusinian Mysteries, which included the cult of Demeter, the goddess of harvest. Dionysus (god of wine), Cybele (goddess of nature), and Orpheus (poet and musician) were also the focus of cult rituals in ancient Greece. In the 2nd century bc, at the beginning of the Greco-Roman period, there was a revival of mystery religions, which influenced one another. Mithraism—a cult of Mithra, ancient Persian god of light and wisdom—belongs to this period.

Underlying some mystery religions was a fertility ritual, in which a deity undergoes death and resurrection, and the initiates feed on the flesh and blood to attain communion with the divine and ensure their own life beyond the grave. The influence of mystery religions on early Christianity was considerable.

The ancestor of two main species of bear lived around 1,6 million years ago

Paris, Oct 29: - The ancestor of two main species of bear lived around 1,6 million years ago, according to analysis of bones found in the Chauvet Cave in southern France, better known for its dazzling examples of Stone Age artwork.

Well-preserved bear bones found in the cave were carbon-dated to 32 000 years before the present day, French researchers said in a study published on Monday.

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) lived in Europe and the Middle East from around 300 000 years ago to around 15 000 years ago, when they became extinct, they said.

The scientists also teased out pieces of so-called mitochondrial DNA - material passed down on the maternal side - from the bones and reassembled the sequence.

They then used this sample to calculate the species' history, using a method called the molecular clock, based on a regular rhythm of genetic change.

The cave bear was a sister to the brown bear and polar bear, and all descended from a common ancestor that lived around 1,6-million years ago, the investigators found.

The paper, by a team from the Institute of Biology and Technologies at France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), appears in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

It is the first time that mitochondrial DNA has been recovered from subterranean remains of prehistoric animals.

The trick has been carried out on woolly mammoths and mastodons, whose remains were found in Siberian permafrost, and on the flightless New Zealand bird, the moa, which was wiped out several hundred years ago.

Caves, while less favourable than deep cold as a form of preservation, ensure stable temperatures, of 12-15 degrees Celsius and are sheltered from ultraviolet light.

"Our study ... demonstrates the feasibility of retrieving complete mitochondrial genomes from the subterranean milieu, an environment that contains remains for a variety of extinct species," the study says.

The Chauvet Cave, located in the Ardeche region of southern France, has the oldest-known cave paintings, with handprints and depictions of horses and other animals dated to around 30 000-32 000 years ago.

AFP

T-Rex noses out dinosaur competition

Washington, Oct 29: - When it came to the sense of smell among meat-eating dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex nosed out the competition.

Scientists at the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada, compared the size of their olfactory bulbs - the part of the brain regulating the sense of smell - in a wide range of carnivorous dinosaurs.

The researchers performed CT scans and measured fossilised skulls of meat-eating dinosaurs, known as theropods, including huge predators, smaller raptors and ostrich-like dinosaurs. They also looked at the primitive bird Archaeopteryx.

Tyrannosaurus, the scourge of North America at the end of the age of dinosaurs, was the undisputed king. Its olfactory capabilities surpassed that of the other huge predators the researchers examined, including South American giant Giganotosaurus and African killer Carcharodontosaurus.

"T rex had a very good sense of smell," Francois Therrien of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview. "Probably that's how they located prey and patrolled a large territory."

The researchers were not the first to describe T. rex's strong sense of smell, but were the first to rate the beast in comparison to other meat-eating dinosaurs.

Other experts have pointed to T. rex's stellar smeller as evidence that it must have been more of a scavenger than an active hunter. Therrien disagreed.

"It has been suggested that the very good sense of smell of T. rex indicated that it was a scavenger because it would have used its sense of smell to locate putrefying carcasses on the landscape," said Therrien, whose findings were published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"But when we look at modern animals, we see that's not the case. Scavengers don't necessarily have a better sense of smell. You have some like the turkey vultures that have a good sense of smell. But you have other scavengers like the Old World vultures that actually have a typical sense of smell because they use sight instead of smell to locate prey."

Vicious little Velociraptor and its raptor relatives also had an excellent sense of smell, the researchers said. But the ostrich-like dinosaurs like speedy Ornithomimus and the toothless Oviraptor apparently had very poor senses of smell.

Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird with fossils dating to 150 million years ago, turned out to have a good sense of smell in line with that of the small meat-eating dinosaurs from which paleontologists believe birds evolved, they said.

Reuters

Brain`s code for 3-D structure

New York, Oct 28: Scientists have discovered patterns of brain activity which they claim might underlie our remarkable ability to see and understand the three-dimensional structure of objects.

A team at Johns Hopkins University has found that higher-level visual regions of the brain represent objects as spatial configurations of surface fragments, something like a structural drawing. Individual neurons are tuned to respond to surface fragment substructures.

For instance, one neuron from the study responded to the combination of a forward-facing ridge near the front and an upward-facing concavity near the top. Multiple neurons with different tuning sensitivities could combine like a three -dimensional mosaic to encode the entire object surface.

"Human beings are keenly aware of object structure, and that may be due to this clear structural representation in the brain," lead researcher Charles E. Connor said.

In the study, the team trained two rhesus monkeys to look at a computer monitor while 3-D pictures of objects were flashed on the screen. At the same time, the researchers recorded electrical responses of individual neurons in higher-level visual regions of the brain.

A computer algorithm was used to guide the experiment gradually toward object shapes that evoked stronger responses.

This evolutionary stimulus strategy let the experimenters pinpoint the exact 3-D shape information that drove a given cell to respond, the researchers found.

Bureau Report

Identified a new gene responsible for puberty disorders

Washington, Oct 28: Researchers at Medical College of Georgia have identified a new gene responsible for puberty disorders.

The researchers found that the gene mutated in CHARGE syndrome also accounts for about 6 percent of two puberty disorders, like idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, or IHH, and Kallmann syndrome.

These disorders get damaged and lead to infertility. Kallmann syndrome is also marked by patients'' inability to smell.

CHARGE syndrome is a multi-system disorder characterized by diverse problems from heart defects to hearing loss to cleft lip and palate and mental retardation.

Dr. Lawrence Layman, chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics in the School of Medicine, and colleagues

CHARGE syndrome can also impair the sense of smell and inhibit production of sex steroids and hormones, so researchers suspected a common gene.

"Thinking that IHH and Kallmann syndrome could represent a milder version of CHARGE Syndrome, we set out to study the gene in a large sample of patients diagnosed with delayed puberty but not CHARGE," said Layman.

The identified gene is called chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7, or CHD7.

While studying 101 people with IHH and Kallmann syndrome, researchers found seven mutations of CHD7 that weren''t present in nearly 200 healthy individuals.

"This suggests that they were mutations causing the disorder, and we also showed that most of these mutations impaired the gene''s function," said Layman.

Usually, puberty begins around age 10 in boys and age 8 or 9 in girls. It starts when the hypothalamus in the brain releases more gonadotropin releasing hormone, or GnRH, which stimulates the pituitary gland to make puberty-related hormones. This prompts ovaries to produce estrogen and eggs and testes to produce testosterone and sperm.

Layman said that pubertal disorders usually begin long before the above events begin. Thus, he traced the defects to gestation, when neurons linked to reproduction and sense of smell fail to reach their destination together.

"While the discovery of additional genes involved in pubertal disorders is significant, we only know the cause for about one-third of all affected patients. We know now that CHD7, only the second gene identified as a cause for IHH and Kallmann Syndrome, is a common culprit," said Hyung-Goo Kim, molecular geneticist in the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and the study''s first author.

"There is still work to be done. But this work is important because it gives us cause for genetic counseling on patients with these mutations. And because these findings suggest that IHH and Kallmann Syndrome are mild variants of CHARGE, it also prompts us to look more carefully for heart problems, hearing loss and cleft lip/palate in patients with pubertal abnormalities," said Layman.

The study is published in an article in the latest issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics.

ANI

Microbots to build home at Mars

Washington, Oct 27: Human beings might colonise Mars one day, but ant-sized microbots will have to build homes for the first group of pioneer scientists there.

"We now know there is water and dust so all they would need is some sort of glue to start building structures, such as homes for human scientists," said Marc Szymanski, robotics researcher at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

He is part of a team of scientists developing tiny robots that can perform different tasks collectively like termites, ants or bees, for the greater good of the colony.

Working in the European Union (EU) funded I-SWARM project, the team created a 100-strong posse of centimetre-sized robots and made considerable progress toward building swarms of ant-sized micro-bots.

Researchers have since worked to create swarms of robots able to reconfigure themselves and assemble autonomously into larger robots in order to perform different tasks, according to I-SWARM project release.

Their work is being continued in the Symbrion and Replicator projects funded by EU's Seventh Framework Programme. Planet exploration and colonisation are just some of a seemingly endless range of potential applications for robots that can work together.

That is not only useful in space or in deep-water environments, but also while carrying out repairs inside machinery, cleaning up pollution or even carrying out tests and applying treatments inside the human body - just some of the potential applications envisioned for miniature robotics technology.

These robots use infrared to communicate, with each signaling another close by until the entire swarm is informed. When one encounters an obstacle, for example, it would signal others to encircle it and help move it out of the way.

A group of robots that the project team called Jasmine, which are a little bigger than a two-euro coin, use wheels to move around, while the smallest I-SWARM robots, measuring just three mm across, move by vibration. The I-SWARM robots draw power from a tiny solar cell, and the Jasmine machines have a battery.

The I-SWARM project can be watched on YouTube.

Source: IANS

Humans make fire nearly 790 000 years ago

Jerusalem, Oct 27 - A new study shows that humans had the ability to make fire nearly 790 000 years ago, a skill that helped them migrate from Africa to Europe.

By analysing flints at an archaeological site on the bank of the River Jordan, researchers at Israel's Hebrew University discovered that early cultures had learnt to light fires, a turning point that allowed them to venture into unknown lands.

A previous study of the site in 2004 showed man had been able to control fire - for example transferring it by means of burning branches - in that early period. But researchers now say ancient man could start fire, rather than relying on natural phenomena such as lightning.

That independence helped promote migration northward, they say.

Archaeologist Nira Alperson-Afil said the patterns of burnt flint found in the same place throughout 12 cultures was evidence of fire-making ability, though the methods used were unclear.

And because the site lies on a key route from Africa to Europe, it provides evidence of the human migration, she says.

"Once they mastered fire to protect themselves from predators and provide warmth and light, they were secure enough to move into and populate unfamiliar territory."

Reuters

Sankore Mosque - Timbuktu

One of the two historic mosques of Timbuktu (the other being the Jingereber), the Sankore Mosque was built during the declining years of the Empire of Mali, in the early 15th century A.D. Architecturally, it is remarkable for its large pyramidal mihrab. But this is not its real claim to fame -- indeed, it is smaller and less intricate than earlier Malian mosques including the 13th century mosque of Djenne. Instead, it is famous for being the center of the great Islamic scholarly community at Timbuktu during the 16th century A.D.

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The medieval "University of Timbuktu," often referred to as the "University of Sankore" was very different in organization to the universities of medieval Europe. It had no central administration, student registers, or prescribed courses of study; rather, it was composed of several entirely independent schools or colleges, each run by a single master or imam. Students associated themselves with a single teacher, and courses took place in the open courtyards of mosque complexes or private residences. The primary focus of these schools was the teaching of the Koran, although broader instruction in fields such as logic, astronomy, and history also took place.

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As anyone who wished could establish one of these colleges, standards amongst them are said to have been very uneven. However the imams of the Sankore mosque are known to have been the most respected. The university was adversely affected by the Moroccan invasion of the 1590s and the deportation of its best scholars. It never again regained its 16th century eminence.

Photos by: Aluka

Source: PBS

Polar bears 'disappearing very quickly'

Moscow, Oct 24. - Polar bears are dying out in the remote Arctic region of Chukotka because of melting ice and increased killing by humans, an expert with the International Fund for Animal Welfare warned on Friday.

"If this tendency continues, the population will disappear very quickly, said Nikita Ovsyanikov, a researcher from Wrangel Island natural park in Chukotka who has spent the past 18 years studying polar bears in the region.

"We need to create new protected areas in the Arctic," said Ovsyanikov, who has conducted research on behalf of IFAW.

The shrinking of the Arctic ice sheet is forcing more bears to live on land in the summer where they often have trouble finding food, which means they have to go into villages to scavenge and are more likely to be shot, he said.

Polar bear furs are also becoming increasingly popular in Russia, where the killing of polar bears is strictly forbidden except for self-defence. IFAW estimates around 100 polar bears are killed illegally in Russia every year.

There are a total of around 22 000 polar bears in the Arctic. Five thousand of them live between Chukotka and the US state of Alaska and are being forced further and further north because of the melting ice, IFAW said.

AFP

Ancient and Forbidden Secrets

Bible of the Devil: This was without doubt a grimoire or some such work. But Delancre says that the Devil informed sorcerers that he possessed a bible consisting of sacred books, having a theology of its own, which was dilated upon by various professors. One great magician, continues Delancre, who was brought before the Parliament of Paris, avowed that there dwelt at Toledo sixty three masters in the faculty of Magic who took for their text-book the Devil's Bible.

Conan Mae Morna: - A figure in the Ossianic cycle of Irish legend, described as scoffing and deriding - all that was high and noble. One day while hunting, lie and others of the Fians, entered a magnificent palace which they found empty and began to feast. It soon became apparent, however, that the palace was enchanted, and the walls *shrank to the size of a fox's hole. Conan seemed to be unaware of the danger and continued to cat; but two of the Fians pulled him off his chair, to which some of his skin stuck. To soothe the pain a black sheep - skin was 'placed on his back, on to which it grow, and he wore it till he died.

Ectenic Force: A supposed physical force emanating from the person of the medium, and directed by his will, by means of which objects may be moved without contact in apparent defiance of natural laws. The existence of such a force was first postulated by Count Agenor de Gasparin, to explain the phenomena of table - turning and rapping, and the name Ectenic Force was bestowed upon the supposed agency by de Gasparin's colleague, M. Thury. The experiments of Thury and de Gasparin are declared to offer some of the most convincing evidence that spiritualism can produce, and have influenced more than one eminent student of psychic research. If it be true that tables were moved without contact, then such a theory is indeed necessary, but the evidence for this type of phenomena is not abundant.

The Lost Book of the Graal: The origin of the Gyaal legend, which is of course speculative. Seven ancient books are cited as being the possible cradle of the story, but none of them quite meet the case. In the Huth Merlin, a " Book of the Sanctuary" is referred to, but this is a - book of records, not containing any special spiritual allusion. If, and it is very doubtful if, such a book ever existed, it was most probably a. Mass book, extant about i too. Its contents would relate to a Mass following the Last Supper, in which Christ gave Himself, the Priest serving. The mystery is threefold. (1) of Origin, which is part of the mystery of the Incarnation. (2) of Manifestation, which would have taken place had the world been worthy. (3) of Removal: this world being unworthy, the Graal was said to be removed, yet not hidden, for it is always discernible by anyone worthy, or qualified to see it. As has been said, it is not probable that such a Mass - book ever existed.

Merlin: An enchanter of Britain who dwelt at the court of King Arthur. His origin is obscure, but early legends concerning him agree that he was the offspring of Satan, and he is invariably associated with the air. His association with Arthur is indisputable, but it is suggested that he was also He was probably an early Celtic god, who in process of time came to be regarded as a great sorcerer. There appears to have been more than one Merlin, and we must discriminate between the Merlin of Arthurian romance and Merlin Caledonius; but it is probable that originally the two conceptions sprang from the one idea. The "Seal of Merlin" the letter V with a crown over it, is thought to stand for an association with the Roman Legions or the Dux Bellorum.

Triad Society: An ancient esoteric society of China. The candidate scantily clothed, is brought into a dark room by two members, who lead him to the President, before whom he kneels. He is given a living cock and a knife, and in this posture he takes a complicated oath to assist his brethren in any emergency, even at the risk of his life. He then cuts off the head of the cock, and mingles it with his own, the three assisting individuals adding some of their own blood. After being warned that death will be his portion should he divulge the secrets of the society, he is initiated into them, and is entrusted with the signs of recognition which are in triads. For example a member must lift any object with three fingers only. This society, originally altruistic, is now of a political character.

Source: Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Secrets

Rarest species of bird found in Indonesia

Jakarta, Oct 23. - A species of cockatoo feared to have become extinct has been "rediscovered" with the sighting of a handful of breeding pairs on a remote Indonesian island, researchers said on Thursday.

Ten Yellow-crested Abbott's cockatoos were found on the Masalembu archipelago off Java island, the Indonesian Cockatoo Conservation group said.

"We were excited when we found them in residential areas on Masakambing island," researcher Dudi Nandika said.

The group included four breeding pairs and two juveniles.

Despite the discovery the Yellow-crested Abbott's cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea abbotti) remains the rarest species of the bird on earth, he said.

It hasn't been seen since scientists observed a group of five in 1999, researcher Dwi Agustina said.

It was assumed that number was too low for the cockatoos to reproduce and the species had died out, Agustina said.

The local population of the cockatoo has been threatened by hunting and capture for the pet trade.

AFP

Dinosaur vegetarian

Chicago, Oct 24. - A rare juvenile skull of a 190-million-year-old dinosaur may help explain when an important group of plant-eaters branched off from carnivorous cousins, US and British researchers said on Thursday.

The tiny skull belonged to a young Heterodontosaurus. Its tooth structure - sharp canine teeth for biting and tearing and flat grinding teeth - suggest the tiny creature was evolving from a meat eater to a plant eater, the scientists said.

"This juvenile skull indicates that these dinosaurs were still in the midst of that transition," said Laura Porro, a post-doctoral student at the University of Chicago, who described the skull in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Porro came across the skull in a drawer in the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, while researching the eating habits of adults of this type of dinosaur, which belonged to the herbivore order ornithischians that lived during the Early Jurassic period of South Africa.

It was dug up in the 1960s but never identified.

Heterodontosaurus had an unusual combination of teeth, with large fang-like canines at the front of their jaws and worn, molar-like grinding teeth at the back.

Porro said paleontologists had thought the canines were sexually dimorphic - a characteristic present only in adults of one gender in a species like antlers in male deer.

But the presence of long, serrated canines in the juvenile suggest they were common to both genders, Porro said.

"They have these really long canine teeth, which don't look like the teeth of a plant eater," Porro, who worked with scientists from the Natural History Museum in London, said in a telephone interview.

"They almost look like little saber-toothed tiger teeth."

The first dinosaurs appeared about 230-million years ago, and the earliest known ones were meat-eaters.

There were other plant-eating dinosaurs at the time of Heterodontosaurus including the long-necked sauropods. But this little creature was one of the earliest of the ornithischians that soon become very important in the Age of Dinosaurs.

Later ornithischians included the duck-billed dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops and tank-like dinosaurs such as Ankylosaurus.

While adult Heterodontosaurus were turkey-sized creatures that reached just over a metre in length and weighed about 2,5kg, the juvenile likely weighed less than 200 grams and would have been just about 40cm to 45cm long.

The find also offers a rare chance to compare a young dinosaur to adults in the species. Porro said the eyes in the juvenile skull are much bigger, and the nose is much shorter.

"It's the same things that makes puppies and kittens appealing," she said. "I think it's adorable."

Reuters

Finally, a microscope that can see an atom

Toronto, Oct 21: The planet's most advanced and powerful electron microscope, capable of looking at atoms, the tiniest object in the universe, has been installed at the new Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy at McMaster University.

"We are the first university in the world with a microscope of such a high calibre," said Gianluigi Botton, director of the Centre, professor of materials science and engineering and project leader.

"The resolution of the Titan 80-300 Cubed microscope is remarkable, the equivalent of the Hubble Telescope looking at the atomic level instead of at stars and galaxies. With this microscope we can now easily identify atoms, measure their chemical state and even probe the electrons that bind them together."

Because we are at the very limits of what physics allows us to see, "even breathing close to a regular microscope could affect the quality of the results", said Botton. The new microscope is housed in a stable, specially designed facility able to withstand ultralow vibrations, low noise, and minute temperature fluctuations.

Built in the Netherlands by the FEI Company at a cost of $15 million, the Titan cluster will examine at the nano level hundreds of everyday products in order to understand, manipulate and improve their efficiency, said John Preston, director of McMaster's Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, according to a McMaster press release.

The microscope will be used to help produce more efficient lighting and better solar cells, study proteins and drug-delivery materials to target cancers.

It will assess atmospheric particulates, and help create lighter and stronger automotive materials, more effective cosmetics, and higher density memory storage for faster electronic and telecommunication devices.

IANS

Ripening bananas appear bright blue under black light

Washington, October 21: A team of Austrian and American researches has discovered that ripening bananas appear bright blue under black light.

Scientists at the University of Innsbruck and Columbia University say that the blue glow is connected to the degradation of chlorophyll that occurs during ripening.

Lead researcher Bernhard Krautler says that, in this process, colourless but fluorescing breakdown products of chlorophyll are concentrated in the banana peel.

The usual appearance of bananas is mainly the result of the natural pigments carotenoids, which appear yellow under normal light.

However, when exposed to UV light, known to partygoers as black light, ripening bananas appear blue instead.

According to the researchers there is no difference in between naturally ripened bananas and those ripened with the use of ethylene gas.

Green, unripe bananas do not fluoresce, they say.

In their study report, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the researchers say that the intensity of the luminescence correlates with the breakdown of the green pigment chlorophyll.

As the ripening continues to progress, according to them, the blue glow decreases.

“Surprisingly, this blue luminescence apparently has been entirely overlooked,” says Krautler.

During the study, the researchers used various spectroscopic techniques to analyse the structure of the main breakdown products, and identified a propionate ester group, a modification never seen before in a chlorophyll breakdown product.

They say that this group has a stabilizing effect, and can help understand the unusually long duration of the fluorescing intermediates in bananas.

Fluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes have otherwise only been found as short-lived intermediate products in higher plants.

Krautler has two explanations for why the breakdown of chlorophyll occur differently in bananas than in other higher plants.

“In contrast to humans, many of the animals that eat bananas can see light in the UV range. The blue luminescence of the banana fruit could give them a distinct signal that the fruit is ripe,” says the researcher.

Or perhaps the chlorophyll degradation products also serve a biological function for the banana. The amazingly stable catabolytes could help to prolong the viability of the ripening fruit.

ANI

Now, a telescope to see distant galaxies!

Melbourne, Oct 21: Astronomers can soon have a much clearer picture of distant galaxies, thanks to a cutting edge technology developed by scientists in Australia.

A team at University of Sydney, led by Brendon Brewer, has developed a computer programme to solve the gravitational lensing or "natural telescope" -- one of the major problems of modern astronomy.

"Now, I've developed a 'de-lensing' programme that still allows the gravitational lens to be used as a natural telescope but without the distortion," Brewer said.

And, so far the programme has enabled astronomers to sharply focus on the most distant galaxies.

"We've recently used the technique to map star-forming regions in an early universe galaxy which also shows clouds of carbon monoxide gas. We've also produced some of the sharpest images ever of a lensed galaxy -- something that's a first," he said.

Astronomers know that for star formation molecular hydrogen is needed, but it is very difficult to see.

First observed by radio telescopes carbon monoxide gas exists under the same conditions as molecular hydrogen and, as it's easier to detect, can be used as a tracer or proxy to determine the star formation regions.

Using Brewer's programme, astronomers claim to have located where the molecular hydrogen is and how the different parts are moving in a distant galaxy that also hosts a quasar in its core.

"What Brendon has achieved is significant. This is quite an advance on what is already out there. We were very conscious of designing this programme in the best possible way so as to extract as much information about distant, early universe galaxies as possible," said co-researcher Geraint Lewis.

Bureau Report

A galaxy is like a giant soap bubble

London, Oct 21: Although little is known about how the universe is structured, latest observations support the theory that large galaxies are clustered together in structures similar to giant soap bubbles, with tinier galaxies sprinkled on the surface of this "soapy" layer.

A team led by Noah Brosch, director Tel Aviv University (TAU) owned Wise Observatory, is the first in the world to uncover what they believe are visible traces of a "filament" of dark matter - an entity on which galaxies meet, cluster and form. A filament can originate at the junction of two "soap bubbles", where the thin membrane is thicker.

Brosch, with his student Adi Zitrin and researchers from Cornell University, studied an area of the sky opposite the constellation Virgo, where 14 galaxies were forming in a line, according to a TAU release.

Pundits have called the line a "Bridge to Nowhere" because it seems to start and end in unknown locations. Strangely, 13 of these galaxies were simultaneously giving birth to new stars.

The odds of this occurrence are very rare, leading the researchers to believe that the galaxies might somehow be forming on this elusive filament, made entirely from dark matter, which attracts regular matter that then turns into new stars.

"There has long been a theoretical belief that this was the case," said Brosch, "but this new finding represents experimental results that such a filament really exists, and that possibly it is an entity made from dark matter which is aligning these galaxies."

Brosch compared the work of an astronomer to "looking for hairs of the beard of the Creator". This line of galaxies may be one such hair. Generally speaking, matter as we know it on earth makes up only a small percentage of our universe.

The composition of most of the universe is unknown - it's either dark matter (about a quarter of the universe) or dark energy (the other three-quarters). "Our studies show that you don't need to go to the edge of the universe to find dark matter. It may be only 15 million light years away, more or less in our backyard," said Brosch.

The research has massive implications for astronomy and the understanding of galaxy-formation. Due to the surprising closeness of this new grouping of galaxies to ours, it would only be a matter of technological advances - maybe a couple of hundred years - and a longer human lifespan before explorers could visit this unusual dark matter in person.

"Our technology is abysmally limited right now, but it could definitely happen," said Brosch.

IANS

Wat Arun - Temple of the Dawn

Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn, perhaps so named because the first light of morning is reflected off the surface of the temple with a pearly iridescence) is a buddhist temple (wat) in Bangkok, Thailand. The temple is located in the Bangkok Yai district, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. The full name of the temple is Wat Arunratchawararam Ratchaworamahavihara.

Photo by: Alon A

Photo by: IMP1

The outstanding feature of Wat Arun is its central prang (Khmer-style tower). Steep steps lead to the two terraces. The height is reported by different sources as between 66,80 m and 86 m. The corners are surrounded by 4 smaller satellite prangs. The prangs are decorated by seashells and bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China.

Photo by: Sunshine

Photo by: davidesky2

Photo by: Dina Middin

The central prang is topped with a seven-pronged trident, referred to by many sources as the "trident of Shiva". Around the base of the prangs are various figures of ancient Chinese soldiers and animals. Over the second terrace are four statues of the Hindu god Indra riding on Erawan.
At the riverside are 6 pavilions (sala) in Chinese style. The pavilions are made of green granite and contain landing bridges. Next to the prangs is the Ordination Hall with the Niramitr Buddha image supposedly designed by King Rama II. The front entrance of the Ordination Hall has a roof with a central spire, decorated in coloured ceramic and stuccowork sheated in coloured china. There are 2 demons, or temple guardian figures in front.

Photo by: Not Quite

Photo by: Frank Juettner

Photo by: Muthu

The temple was built in the days of Thailand's ancient capital of Ayutthaya and originally known as Wat Makok (The Olive Temple). In the ensuing era when Thonburi was capital, King Taksin changed the name to Wat Chaeng.
The Wat had a brief period as host of the Emerald Buddha, which was moved to Wat Phra Kaew in 1784.

Photo by: Rene Ehrhardt

Photo by: saschas world

The later King Rama II. changed the name to Wat Arunratchatharam. He restored the temple and enlarged the central prang. The work was finished by King Rama III. King Rama IV gave the temple the present name Wat Arunratchawararam.

Photos by: sftrajan

Photo by: Mr. Mark

As a sign of changing times, Wat Arun officially ordained its first westerner in 2005.

Photo by: curreyuk