Two 7th century B.C. graves accidentally discovered in Turkey

Istanbul, Dec 29 : Construction of a cesspool at the house in a village in Turkey has led to the accidental discovery of two ancient graves, dating back to the 7th century B.C.

According to a report in the Hurriyet Daily News, the graves were found at the house of Mehmet Coban in the Damlibogaz village of Mugla's Milas district, which hosts the ancient city of Hydai.

First excavated and thought to pertain to a noble family, the ancient graves have human skeletons, prayer pots, ceramic pots, wineglasses, accessories, hunting equipment and candles.

The local officials said that they were really surprised the graves had been so well preserved.

"We initiated the work in the area after getting the necessary permissions. We have to conduct the works by kneeling down or crawling since the graves are quite narrow. We also try to understand the burying techniques and the traditions," said Erol Ozen, director of the local museum.

"I think the equipment in the graves will give us important clues about the living conditions of the time. Moreover, the workmanship on the pots reveals the expertise in Hydai. The police forces will be on guard at the graves since the work will take time. Similar examples of the artifacts in Damlibogaz only exist at the Sadberk Hanim Museum," Ozen added.

Mehmet Coban was very surprised that the ancient graves were found while digging for a cesspool.

Noting that he inherited the house from his father, who inherited it from his father, Coban said, "We have been living on a cultural treasure for years without knowing it."

There is no visible architectural structure on the ground since the alluviums carried by the Sari�ay in the Damlibogaz village covered it up.

The name of the city comes from 'Hydai' meaning 'water' in ancient Greek.

Two other graves in the village were found in 2000 through excavation work conducted in collaboration with the Mugla University Department of Archeology and Art History. The works are exhibited at the Milas Museum.

ANI

Experts have criticised Charles Darwin for plagiarism

London, Dec 28: Experts have criticised Charles Darwin for plagiarism and unjustly claiming credit as the father of evolutionary theory.

As the scientific world prepares to mark bicentenary of the author of ‘On the Origin of Species’, a group of critics has commissioned computer experts with specialized anti-plagiarism software to scour Darwin’s book, published in 1859, for similarities to a paper released the year before by Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist who worked for eight years in modern Indonesia.

Initial indications are that the analysis will reveal that some of the most ideas in On the Origin of Species were taken from Wallace, particularly, the idea that species with variations helping them to survive would thrive and pass on these features to their offspring.

As far as the dispute over who deserves the credit is concerned, it is as old as evolutionary theory itself, with Darwin’s defenders claiming the two came up with similar ideas independently at the same time.

According to James Moore, a biographer and professor of the history of science at the Open University, the new plagiarism claim is “manufactured.”

He added that those pursuing it were under qualified to do so.

“You wouldn’t go to a plumber to do your tax return,” he said.

The adulation has shocked critics, including lawyer David Hallmark, a trustee of the Wallace Foundation of Indonesia.

“The descent of Wallace from equality to relative invisibility is the direct result of the unlawful conduct of Charles Darwin by suppressing the true worth of Wallace as the author of the theory,” Hallmark said.

The software used by Hallmark’s copyright experts can detect where phrasing is identical and also signs of an author’s style being copied.

Hallmark plans to submit his findings to the International Association of Forensic Linguists in Amsterdam in July.

ANI

Biologists reaffirm that evolution cannot reverse itself

Washington, Dec 27: Biologists have reaffirmed a century-old “law” that said evolution cannot reverse itself.

The law, which was put forward by 19th century Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo, argued that once natural selection for a complex functional trait is relaxed, mutations that degrade the genes needed for the trait accumulate, and the sequence of mutations is unlikely to be exactly reversed.

That means a species trait, once lost to the sands of time through evolution, can never be regained.

But, over the past two decades, many biologists have challenged Dollo’s Law, often by using statistical tools to reconstruct trait evolution and ancestry by looking only at existing species and their present-day traits.

Boris Igic, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Emma Goldberg, a post-doctoral student in Igic’s University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) laboratory, became suspicious of those methods, which they also had used in evolutionary studies of plant fertilization.

They found the methods flawed, prompting them to examine the challenges to Dollo’s Law.

“We used computer simulations to demonstrate that this methodology consistently gives incorrect results when the loss of a trait truly is irreversible,” said Igic.

“Fifteen years of studies have relied on these procedures to show that Dollo’s Law is frequently violated. But, they used what we found was faulty methodology,” he added.

Igic and Goldberg identified two problems with the challenges: a logical error in how the common ancestor of a group of organisms is treated mathematically, and a disregard for the likelihood that complex characters affect the chances either of speciation - the origin of new species - or of extinction.

The biologists suggest a better way of testing Dollo’s Law.

They used mathematical tools to refute two Dollo challenges which claimed certain animals regained traits such as winged flight and sexual reproduction, and say many other claims of regained complex traits should be re-evaluated.

According to the researchers, Dollo was correct in saying that transitions between two character states are unidirectional.

ANI

Chandrayaan finds minerals on Moon

Bangalore, Dec 25: The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), a scientific instrument of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) onboard India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, found iron-bearing minerals on the lunar surface, the US space agency said on Thursday.

"The mapper spectrometer has beamed images of the Orientale Basin region of the Moon, indicating abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene. Using different wavelengths of light, the instrument has also revealed for the first time changes in rock and mineral composition," M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters said in a statement hosted on NASA website.

Data from the 7-kg mapper provides space scientists first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.

The Orientale Basin is located on the moon's western limb. M3 captured the data last week when Chandrayaan was orbiting the Moon at an altitude of 100 km.

"The imaging spectrometer provides us with compositional information across the moon that we have never had access to before. Our ability to identify and map the composition of the surface in geologic context provides a new level of detail needed to explore and understand the earth's nearest celestial neighbour," affirmed Pieters, who teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island.

The mapper was selected as a mission of opportunity through the NASA discovery programme. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built the instrument at Pasadena in California.

"M3 will also help in characterising and mapping lunar minerals for knowing the moon's early geological evolution. Its compositional maps will improve our understanding of the early evolution of a differentiated planetary body and provide a high-resolution assessment of lunar resources," Chandrayaan project director M Annadurai averred.

M3 is one of the 10 instruments onboard the unmanned Chandrayaan, conducting experiments while the spacecraft orbits over the moon next two years.

Five instruments were indigenously built by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), while the remaining six payloads are of foreign origin, including three from the European Space Agency, two from NASA and one from Bulgaria.

Chandrayaan was blasted off Oct 22 onboard the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11) from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota spaceport, about 80 km north of Chennai.

After traversing 384,000 km through the deep space for 18 days, the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit Nov 8 and its moon impact probe was lowered on the moon's surface Nov 14.

Bureau Report

Roman-era stone sarcophagus

Damascus (Syria), Dec 25 : A team of archaeologists in Syria has claimed to have found a Roman-era stone sarcophagus carved with faces of women and images of flowers, a lion and a bull.

The sarcophagus was the second found within the last two months in the ancient city of Daraa, according to the news agency SANA, noting the discovery provides new information on carving techniques during that era.

"The sarcophagus, which was found opened with the lid to one side, contained a deteriorated skeleton," said Kasem al-Mohammad, a director at the Daraa Archeology Department.

A gold ring found near the head apparently had once hung by a chain from the ear of the deceased, SANA reported.

The sides of the sarcophagus are covered in carved images of people, plants and animals, including faces of women, a lion, a bull and a flower with four petals.

ANI

Microbial ropes populate cave lake

Washington, Dec 25: Deep inside a cave system in Italy and more than 1,600 feet below the earth's surface, divers found filamentous ropes of microbes growing in the cold water.

"Sulphur caves are a microbiology paradise. Many different types of organisms live in the caves and use the sulphur," said Jennifer L. Macalady, assistant professor of geosciences at the Penn State University.

"We are trying to map which organisms live where in the caves and how they correspond to the geochemical environment."

In this process, Macalady and her team discovered a previously unknown form of biofilm growing in the oxygen-deficient portion of the lake.

"The cave explorers had seen these strange biofilms," said Macalady. "So we asked them if they could get us a sample."

The Frasassi cave system is located north of Rome and south of Venice in the Marche region. These limestone caves are like New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave, but in those caves, sulphur entered from oil and gas reserves, while in Italy, the sulphur source is a thick gypsum layer below. Having sulphur in the environment allows sulphur-using organisms to grow.

The researchers received about the weight of two paper clips of the strange rope to analyse, said a Penn State release.

The study was presented at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco.

IANS

Khirokitia-Vouni

The world heritage site Khirokitia-Vouni is the most extensively excavated aceramic Neolithic settlement on Cyprus. It was initially excavated by porphyrios dikaios between 1936 and 1946. Limited work was later carried out by Nicholas Stanley Price and Demos Christou, and since 1977 Alain Le Brun has continued excavations at the site. It is the type site for the Cypriot aceramic Neolithic period (early Neolithic or Khirokitia culture).

Photo www.du-ciel.com

(Replica)

(Replica)

Photos mojans

A very extensive area of the site has been cleared, revealing a closely packed array of circular houses of varied size. Most have very substantial stone foundations, with mud brick superstructure and flat roofs. In the larger examples, interior space may have been increased by platforms or mezzanine floors. A substantial stone “wall” running up the slope the full length of the excavated area has been variously interpreted, most recently as a formal boundary of the settlement marking off the safe interior from a hostile exterior. As the settlement grew, new houses were erected outside the wall, and a new wall, with a complex entry, was built. Intramural burials are a feature of the site. The economy of Khirokitia was based on an array of plants, many or which were imported to Cyprus at the beginning of the Neolithic period, and by a range of imported animals, primarily sheep, goat, pig, and deer.

Photo William Weir

Photos Marie

(Replica) Photos ade

Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?

An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb—including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown"—originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself. Alexander's half brother is thought to have claimed these royal trappings after Alexander's death. The tomb was one of three royal Macedonian burials excavated in 1977 by archaeologists working in the northern Greek village of Vergina. Excavators at the time found richly appointed graves with artifacts including a unique silver headband, an iron helmet, and a ceremonial shield, along with a panoply of weapons and an object initially identified as a scepter. Archaeologists announced that the burial in the main chamber of the large rich tomb was that of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, who was assassinated in 336 B.C," said Eugene N. Borza, professor emeritus of ancient history at Pennsylvania State University. But recent analyses of the tombs and the paintings, pottery, and other artifacts found there, suggest that the burials are in fact one generation more recent than had previously been thought, Borza said. "Regarding the paraphernalia we attribute to Alexander, no single item constitutes proof, but the quality of the argument increases with the quantity of information," he said. "We believe that it is likely that this material was Alexander's. As for the dating of the tombs themselves, this is virtually certain"...

Tomb Mystery

The original excavation at Vergina was led by Manolis Andronikos, an archaeologist at Greece's Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who died in 1992. His team found the first tomb to be a simple stone box containing human remains identified as a mature male, a somewhat younger female, and a newborn. Tomb II, a large vaulted tomb with two chambers, contained the remains of a young woman and a mature male. Tomb III, with two vaulted chambers, was the resting place of a young teenager, most likely a male. Both of the larger tombs contained gold, silver, and ivory ornaments, as well as ceramic and metal vessels.

Andronikos presented his theories that the tombs were those of Alexander's father and his family] with great skill, and the Greek nation responded with fervent enthusiasm," Borza said. "Indeed I was one of those who, in two early articles in the late 1970s, accepted Andronikos' view that the remains were those of Philip II." Borza started to doubt Andronikos' conclusions, however, as he studied the evidence. He contacted Olga Palagia, an art historian at the University of Athens, to evaluate the tombs' construction, pottery, and paintings. Soon the duo realized the significance of the fact that Tomb II and Tomb III were built using a curved ceilings called barrel vaults. "The earliest securely dated barrel vault in Greece dates to the late 320s (B.C.), nearly a generation after the death of Philip II," Borza said. Palagia also found that paintings on the exterior frieze of the tomb reflected themes that were likely from the age of Alexander the Great, rather than that of his father. The paintings depict a ritual hunt scene with Asian themes, suggesting influences resulting from Alexander's extensive campaigns to the east.

Treasures

The six-foot (two-meter) scepter found at the burial site is another clue, Borza added. "We have several surviving coins issued in his own lifetime showing Alexander holding what appears to be a scepter of about that height," he said. Additionally, a number of silver vessels discovered in Tomb II and Tomb III are inscribed with their ancient weights, which use a measurement system introduced by Alexander the Great a generation after Philip II's death. "Once we have determined on archaeological grounds that Tomb II is a generation later than Philip II's death, we can then ask, Whose tomb is it?" Borza said. "We have a double royal burial from this era attested in the ancient literature. Thus the tomb is that of Alexander's half brother Philip III Arrhidaeus and his queen, Adea Eurydice." Borza and Palagia discussed their new analysis at the meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in January. Their findings will be published in a forthcoming study from the German Archaeological Institute. Most of the ancient artifacts found at Vergina are on display today at a museum at the site of the tombs.

Death of Alexander

Alexander died of disease in ancient Babylon, near modern-day Baghdad, Iraq, in 323 B.C. His generals appointed Philip III to take his place, and the half brother claimed Alexander's royal objects as public symbols to solidify his power, historians suggest. Alexander's son, Alexander IV, who was appointed joint king along with Philip III, was assassinated around 310 B.C. He is likely buried in Vergina's Tomb III, which contains the remains of a young teenager, Borza said. Historically, the only known Macedonian royal teenage burial is that of Alexander IV, he explained. Alexander's father, Phillip II, is buried in Tomb I, along with his wife and their infant, according to Borza. "Tomb I is from the age of Philip II—unlike the big chamber tombs, which are later—and the human remains of the three burials accord well with the assassinations of these individuals." Winthrop Lindsay Adams, a professor of history at the University of Utah who was not involved with the study, said Borza's work builds on what other specialists have thought about the various aspects of the Vergina tombs. The work of Borza and his colleagues convincingly make the case that Tomb II is the final resting place of Alexander's half brother, Adams explained. "Indeed for most scholars working in fourth-century Macedonia, the original attribution by Andronikos now seems doubtful," he said. "This case is convincing."

.

UFO shaped fossils discovered in China

Odd Stones Found In China Formed About 300 million Years Ago On May 27, 2007, several dozen UFO shaped gangues were found in Shangrao County, Jiangxi Province. Experts indicate that the UFO gangues were formed about 300 million years ago.

The UFO gangues were found in an abandoned heap of gangues. There are several coal mines around the heap. Gangues are the abandoned materials left after the coal has been extracted from the rock. Among these UFO gangues, several of them have diameters over 4.9 feet and thicknesses between 7.9 inches and 23.6 inches. They weighed between 1764 pounds and 1 ton.

Human bone marrow synthesised in lab

Washington, Dec 23: Artificial bone marrow that can continuously make red and white blood cells has been synthesised in a lab for the first time. This could lead to simpler pharmaceutical drug testing, closer study of immune system defects and a continuous supply of blood for transfusions.

To determine whether the substance behaves like real bone marrow, the scientists implanted it in mice with immune deficiencies. They produced human immune cells and blood vessels grew through the substance.

Cancer-fighting chemotherapy drugs can strongly suppress bone marrow function, leaving the body more susceptible to infection.

The new artificial marrow could allow researchers to test how a new drug at certain potencies would affect bone marrow function, said Nicholas Kotov, co-author of the study and professor in University of Michigan departments of chemical and bio-medical engineering.

"This could assist in drug development and catch severe side effects before human drug trials," he said.

The substance grows on a 3-D scaffold that mimics the tissues supporting bone marrow in the body,

Kotov and Joan Nichols, professor at the University of Texas, collaborated on many aspects of the project.

"This is the first successful artificial bone marrow," Kotov said. "It has two of the essential functions of bone marrow. It can replicate blood stem cells and produce B cells. The latter are the key immune cells producing antibodies that are important to fighting many diseases."

Blood stem cells give rise to blood as well as several other types of cells. B cells, a type of white blood cell, battle colds, bacterial infections, and other foreign or abnormal cells including some cancers.

Bone marrow is a complicated organ to replicate, Kotov said. Vital to the success of this new development is the 3-D scaffold on which the artificial marrow grows. This lattice had to have a high number of precisely-sized pores to stimulate cellular interaction.

The scaffolds are made of a transparent polymer that nutrients can easily pass through. To create the scaffolds, scientists moulded the polymer with tiny spheres ordered like billiard balls. Then, they dissolved the spheres to leave the perfect geometry of pores in the scaffold.

he scaffolds were then seeded with bone marrow stromal cells and osteoblasts, another type of bone marrow cell, said a Michigan university release. The findings were published online in Biomaterials.

"The scaffold for this work had to be designed from scratch closely mimicking real bone marrow because there are no suitable commercially available products," Kotov said.

IANS

The Utah Lakes Monsters

Utah folklore says the state’s Great Lakes house not one, not two, but five fearsome water monsters. Early Native Americans believed some lakes were cursed by ‘Water Babies’ who would coax travellers into the water to their deaths. By the time pilgrim settlers started to arrive, local tribes told tales of a giant water lizard, thirty feet long, with large ears and a mouth that would swallow men whole. Local natives said the great serpents had disappeared in the 1820s, but by the 1860s white settlers were reporting incidents involving huge, terrifying, scaly creatures.

The Utah and Bear Lakes in the north have had most sightings of these monsters; indeed, the description witnesses provide suggest these lakes each have one of a pair of twin water-dragons. One of the first appearances of these creatures was in 1864 when a local man, Henry Walker, was in the Utah Lake. He reported seeing something that looked like a giant snake, but with the head of a greyhound, which frightened him so much he fled the water. Over the years, there were frequent accounts of reputable people, including local priests, meeting the beasts. All witnesses provided the same description – that of a giant snake’s body with short, trunk-like legs rising out of the water with an enormous mouth and fearsome black eyes.

In the late 1860s the idea of hunting down the monsters gained favour. Young local men tried shooting at them. Some successfully hit their targets, although no one was ever able to sufficiently wound the beasts in order to capture them. One farmer heard rustling in his garden one night. Using only his old rifle, he confronted and shot the creature, only to discover it was his neighbour’s heifer. In 1870 real physical evidence was recovered, when fishermen from Springsville, a nearby town, found a large unidentified skull with a five-inch tusk on the jaw. The next year the Salt Lake Herald even revealed that the monster had been caught, but what happened to the body of the captured creature is unknown.

In 1871 two local men were out fishing on Bear Lake when they saw the monster rise from the water. They said they managed to hit the beast with shots from their rifles, but the beast just swam away. A wagon train captain called William Bridge said in 1874 that he had also seen the Bear Lake beast. Bridge reported that the creature had been about 20 yards from shore when it surfaced from the water. ‘Its face and part of its head was covered with fur or short hair of a light snuff colour,’ he said. Bridge also described it as having a flat face with large eyes, prominent ears and a four or five-feet-long neck.

Bear Lake residents were so affected by Bridge’s testimony that they decided to make a trap to capture the beast. Two prominent local citizens, Brigham Young and Phineas Cook, hatched a plan which involved little more than a giant fishing line. They linked a 300-feet-long, one-inch-thick rope to a large hook with a huge slab of mutton attached as bait. The position of the rope was marked by a buoy floating on the lake surface. Although the trap was often robbed of meat, no monster was ever caught.

Lake monster sightings had fallen away drastically by the end of the nineteenth century. There was one sighting of the Utah Lake creature in 1921, which marked a limited resurgence in interest, but then the whole area once again quietened down. Since then, one of the few reliable reports was in 1946 by a local Scout master who said he had seen the bizarre creature appear on the surface of the lake. The account was widely regarded to be so detailed and accurate that only the most ardent sceptic could doubt it. Local wags have also pointed out that Scouts don’t lie. But some still do question the truth of the Utah Lakes monsters. In his lecture on the subject to the Utah State Historical Society, local historian D. Robert Carter said he actually believed the monster was a species of giant bug – humbug.

Matt Lamy

Honeybees can serve as bodyguards to plants

A new research has suggested that honeybees can serve as ‘bodyguards’ to plants, by buzzing off invasive caterpillars that would otherwise munch on the plants undisturbed.

The researchers, led by Jurgen Tautz of Biozentrum Universitat Wurzburg, Germany, earlier found that many caterpillars possess fine sensory hairs on the front portions of their bodies that enable them to detect air vibrations, such as the sound of an approaching predatory wasp or honeybee.

“These sensory hairs are not fine-tuned. Therefore, caterpillars cannot distinguish between hunting wasps and harmless bees,” Tautz said.

If an “unidentified flying object” approaches, generating air vibrations in the proper range, caterpillars stop moving or drop from the plant.

“If caterpillars are constantly stressed by buzzing bees, as they likely are in fruiting trees heavily laden with blossoms, they will feed a lot less,” said Tautz.

In the study, the researchers found that bell pepper plants without fruit suffered 60 to almost 70 percent less damage to their leaves when confined in a tent with bees and caterpillars in comparison to those in a tent with caterpillars alone.

The amount of leaf damage was less on fruit-bearing plants as the beet armyworm caterpillars moved into the maturing peppers.

“Our findings indicate for the first time that visiting honeybees provide plants with a totally unexpected advantage,” according to the researchers. “They not only transport pollen from flower to flower, but in addition also reduce plant destruction by herbivores,” they added.

“The findings highlight the importance of indirect effects between apparently unrelated members of food webs in nature,” Tautz said.

They might also have some practical application for sustainable agriculture.

According to Tautz, if crops are combined with attractive flowers in such a way that honeybees from nearby beehives constantly buzz around them, it may lead to significantly higher yields in areas with lots of leaf-eating pests.

“Our finding may be the start of a totally new biological control method,” he said.

ANI

40th anniversary of Apollo 8

The US space agency marked the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 8 mission that brought three astronauts to orbit the moon for the first time.

On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida and three days later, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders became the first humans to enter lunar orbit.

The mission ultimately led to the first footsteps on the moon when Neil Armstrong took his "one small step" in 1969. Apollo 8 also marked a rare moment of unity in the United States in a tumultuous year marred by the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, violence peaking during the Vietnam War and riots across American cities.

Shortly after entering the moon's orbit, astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 witnessed Earth rising above the moon. "Earthrise," a photograph of the event taken by Anders, became one of the most famous images of the 20th century.

In a Christmas Eve broadcast timed to coincide with a full view of Earth, the crew read the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis that forms the basis for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The International Space Station (ISS) crew paid homage to Apollo 8 in a video message broadcast from space this week.

"Forty years ago, a trio of astronauts...set out on what was at that time humanity's boldest journey," said Commander Michael Fyncke, who heads Expedition 18, the current ISS mission. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, reflected on Apollo 8 in a NASA video commemorating the mission.

Bureau Report

How birds communicate

A Cornell researcher has adopted a new way to study exactly how birds communicate -recording their songs and then playing them back to other birds of the same species.

Behavioural ecologist Sandra Vehrencamp records bird songs in Santa Rosa National Park, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. She says that her aim is to decode which elements of bird songs enable them to communicate about mating and reproduction, territorial boundaries, age, and even overall health.

She has joined forces with experts at the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology to study birds in such natural habitats as Costa Rica, Colombia and Bonaire.

Sandra and her colleagues record bird songs, and then play them back to birds of the same species to decipher strategies that various species use to attract mates and resolve territorial disputes.

The researchers say that this approach helps them study birds' reactions to songs when such elements as overlapping vocalization, finer song structural features and the type of song played back are varied.

"You kind of feel like you're talking to the bird," Sandra said.

So far, the researchers have found that song sparrows in southern California can interpret some forms of playback as "fighting words", as they often resolve conflict by singing the same type of song -- known as song-type matching -- back to one another.

"They get really mad. They treat playback like it's another bird and will sometimes come right up to the speaker," Sandra said.

According to her, between male birds, if song-type matching fails to resolve a conflict, physical confrontation might ensue. "They both pay costs if they fight. Birds start to negotiate a boundary dispute with song -- they don't want to fight," she said.

Sandra further said that males that were most successful were those that shared many song types with their territorial neighbours.

According to her, song sparrows could learn songs only within a narrow time period restricted to the first few months after fledging, which means that males must learn neighborhood songs quickly to facilitate successful territorial negotiations.

"Song sparrows are very restricted learners, so the dominant birds that acquire territories within their natal area share more song types with their neighbours and survive better," said the researcher, who observed that birds with a low degree of song-sharing spend more time fighting with neighbours and are rarely seen the next breeding season.

ANI

Earth's original ancestor was 'LUCA'

Washington, Dec 20: Researchers have uncovered fresh proof that characterises the common ancestor of all life on earth - LUCA or Last Universal Common Ancestor, a finding they claim changes ideas of early life on this planet.

An international team, led by Universit de Montral, has carried out a study which shows that the 3.8-billion-year-old organism was not the creature usually imagined, the 'Nature' journal reported.

"It is generally believed that LUCA was a heat-loving or hyperthermophilic organism. A bit like one of those weird organisms living in the hot vents along the continental ridges deep in the oceans today (above 90 degrees Celsius).

"However, our data suggests that LUCA was actually sensitive to warmer temperatures and lived in a climate below 50 degrees," the study's lead author Nicolas Lartillot said.

The researchers compared genetic information from modern organisms to characterise the ancient ancestor of all life on earth.

"Our research is much like studying the etymology of modern languages so as to reveal fundamental things about their evolution."

"We identified common genetic traits between animals, plant, bacteria, and used them to create a tree of life with branches representing separate species. These all stemmed from the same trunk -LUCA, the genetic makeup that we then further characterised," Prof Lartillot said.

Bureau Report

Universe continuing to expand

Toronto, Dec 20: Canadian astronomers have rejected the new ‘void models’ that say the earth is near the centre of a region of the universe which is almost empty.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver said Friday that there is nothing special about earth's location in the universe as proposed by "void theories" that reject the conventional view that the universe is ever-expanding because of an enigmatic dark energy.

Explaining their research, post-doctoral researcher Jim Zibin, who along with fellow researcher Adam Moss and his professor Douglas Scott, did the study, told IANS on phone from Vancouver that the new "void theory" was incapable of explaining the data they have accumulated.

"We were dealing with two theories that try to explain the universe. The first one, which is more conventional, says the universe is expanding because of some inexplicable mysterious or dark energy," Zibin said.

"The alternate theory says that the earth is at the centre of a region in the universe which is very empty, with few stars and galaxies in it. The problem is if this alternate theory is true, you will not be able to explain supernova observations made recently," he said.

He said recent supernova studies show that the universe is expanding at ever faster acceleration due to the repulsive force of the inexplicable mysterious or dark energy.

"We looked at observations and data collected at various research institutions - even by satellites in space - and found that the alternate 'void theory' cannot explain the latest data," he said.

Their analysis of the data, he said, supported the conventional theory that the universe is filled with a mysterious dark energy that is causing the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. The study was published Friday in the journal Physical Review Letters.

IANS

Mystery of Venus’s vanishing water may be solved soon

Paris, Dec 19: With Venus Express making the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on the planet’s day-side, scientists have come closer to understanding where did all the water on Venus vanished, which is suspected to have once been as abundant as on Earth.

The spacecraft’s magnetometer instrument (MAG) detected the unmistakable signature of hydrogen gas being stripped from the day-side.

“This is a process that was believed to be happening at Venus but this is the first time we measured it,” said Magda Delva, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, who leads the investigation.

Thanks to its carefully chosen orbit, Venus Express is strategically positioned to investigate this process. The spacecraft travels in a highly elliptical path sweeping over the poles of the planet.

Water is a key molecule on Earth because it makes life possible.

With Earth and Venus approximately the same size, and having formed at the same time, astronomers believe that both planets likely began with similar amounts of the precious liquid.

Today, however, the proportions on each planet are extremely different. Earth’s atmosphere and oceans contain 100,000 times the total amount of water on Venus.

In spite of the low concentration of water on Venus, Delva and colleagues found that some 2x1024 hydrogen nuclei, a constituent atom of the water molecule, were being lost every second from Venus’s day-side.

Last year, the Analyser of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA) on board Venus Express showed that there was a great loss of hydrogen and oxygen on the night-side.

Roughly twice as many hydrogen atoms as oxygen atoms were escaping.

Because water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, the observed escape indicates that water is being broken up in the atmosphere of Venus.

The Sun not only emits light and heat into space, it constantly spews out solar wind, a stream of charged particles. This solar wind carries electrical and magnetic fields throughout the Solar System and ‘blows’ past the planets.

Unlike Earth, Venus does not generate a magnetic field. This is significant because Earth’s magnetic field protects its atmosphere from the solar wind.

At Venus, however, the solar wind strikes the upper atmosphere and carries off particles into space.

According to planetary scientists, the planet has lost part of its water in this way over the four-and-a-half-thousand million years since the planet’s birth.

ANI

Earth’s location in the Universe is ‘utterly unremarkable’

Washington, Dec 19: A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada have come up with a theory that suggests the Earth’s location in the Universe is utterly unremarkable, with the planet not that special as was earlier believed.

Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s 1543 book, ‘On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’, moved Earth from being the centre of the Universe to just another planet orbiting the Sun.

Since then, astronomers have extended the idea and formed the Copernican Principle, which says that our place in the Universe as a whole is completely ordinary.

In 1998, studies of distant explosions called “type Ia supernovae” indicated that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, an observation attributed to the repulsive force of a mysterious “dark energy.”

However, some scientists put forward an alternate theory.

They proposed that the Earth was near the centre of a giant “bubble,” or “void,” mostly empty of matter, and strongly violating the Copernican Principle.

If this were the case, gravity would create the illusion of acceleration, mimicking the effect of dark energy on the supernova observations.

Now, some advanced analysis and modeling performed by UBC post-doctoral fellows Jim Zibin and Adam Moss and Astronomy Professor Douglas Scott has shown that this alternate “void theory” just doesn’t add up.

The researchers used data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, which includes members from UBC on its international team, as well as data from various ground-based instruments and surveys.

“We tested void models against the latest data, including subtle features in the cosmic microwave background radiation – the afterglow of the Big Bang – and ripples in the large-scale distribution of matter,” said Zibin.

“We found that void models do a very poor job of explaining the combination of these data,” he added.

The team’s calculations instead solidify the conventional view that an enigmatic dark energy fills the cosmos and is responsible for the acceleration of the Universe.

“Recent advances in data collection have brought us to the era of precision cosmology. Void models are terrible at explaining the new data, but the standard dark energy model works very well,” said Zibin.

“Since we can only observe the Universe from Earth, it’s really hard to determine if we’re in a ‘special place’. But, we’ve now learned that our location is much more ordinary than the strange dark energy that fills the Universe,” he added.

ANI

Ancient city ruins found in northern Peru

The ruins of an entire city that could provide the missing link between two ancient cultures have been found in northern Peru.

Archaeologists believe the city, at the Cerro Patapo site, could provide a connection between the Wari and Moche cultures. The site, 14 miles from the city of Chiclayo on the Pacific coast, dates back to the Wari culture, which existed between about 600 AD and 1100 AD. The Moche culture flourished from about 100 AD to 600 AD.

The huge site, which stretches over three miles, shows evidence of human sacrifice, with special sites for the practice and the remains of the victims found at the bottom of a nearby cliff. Researchers have also found ceramics, pieces of clothing and the well-preserved remains of a young woman.

"It provides the missing link, because it explains how the Wari people allowed for the continuation of culture after the Moche," said Cesar Soriano, chief archeologist on the project.

It is the first such evidence of Wari culture, whose people made their capital near modern-day Ayacucho, in the Andes, but travelled widely and are known for their extensive network of roads.

New species of extinct animals found

British and Moroccan scientists have said they had found the remains of two new species of extinct animals in the Saharan desert, describing the find as one of the most important of the past 50 years.

The team of paleontologists said on Tuesday they had unearthed a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Mesozoic era, and a new type of sauropod, a giant four-legged herbivore from the Jurassic period.

The two animals, which were found in southeast Morroco near the Algerian border, date back around 100 million years, Portsmouth University said in a statement.

Paleontologists from the southern English University made the find with others from University College Dublin in Ireland (UCD), and the University Hassan II in Casablanca in Morocco.

Researchers found what they described as a large fragment of a beak from a giant flying reptile, along with bone from a sauropod measuring more than a metre (3.3 feet) in length.

The bone from the sauropod -- which is classed as a dinosaur unlike the pterosaur indicates that it was around 20 metres (65 feet) in length.

"Finding two specimens in one expedition is remarkable, especially as both might well represent completely new species," said Nizar Ibrahim, a UCD expert on North African dinosaurs who led the expedition.

The discoveries will be return to Morocco and put on display after they are studied in Dublin.

Bureau Report

Jupiter's moon Europa to harbor life

A new research has suggested that Jupiter's moon Europa may have a far more dynamic ocean than previously thought, which boosts chances of the Jovian moon harboring life.

The research was conducted by Robert Tyler, an oceanographer with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.

If Europa is tilted on its axis even slightly as it orbits the giant planet Jupiter, then Jupiter's gravitational pull could be creating powerful waves in Europa's ocean, according to Tyler.

As those waves dissipate, they would give off significant heat energy.

Depending on the amount of tilt, the heat generated by the ocean flow could be 100 to thousands of times greater than the heat generated by the flexing of Europa's rocky core in response to gravitational pull from Jupiter and the other moons circling that planet.

The current assumption is that oceans on moons are heated mainly by this flexing of their cores.

In the case of Europa, it also has been thought that the thick ice covering its ocean probably generates some heat as two sides of cracked ice rub together in response to gravitational pull.

"If my work is correct, then the heat source for Europa's ocean is the ocean itself rather than what's above or below it," Tyler said. "And we must form a new vision of the ocean habitat that involves strong ocean flow rather than the previously assumed sluggish flows," he added.

Both are important considerations if exploratory missions are ever sent to Europa in search of life.

With surface temperatures as cold as minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, Europa's surface is covered with a thick layer of ice.

There is evidence of a liquid ocean beneath the ice and, if there is volcanic activity on the sea floor, this could be a recipe for generating microorganisms that live without sunlight, perhaps like the microorganisms found at hydrothermal vents and other places on Earth.

Previous theoretical calculations expected Europa to have an axial tilt of at least 0.1 degrees. But, it hasn't been measured and could be bigger than this.

But, even at this minimum value, the tidal flow on Europa using Tyler's new calculation is quite strong - some 10 centimeters a second - and enough to cause significant heating.

The new calculation differs from previous ones in that it allows a more realistic dynamic response of the ocean to the tidal forces.

According to Tyler's assumptions and calculations, this kind of wave action could be the dominant heat source in the oceans of Europa and other moons.

ANI

New species discovered in the Greater Mekong

Stripped rabbits, bright pink millipedes laced with cyanide and a spider bigger than a dinner plate are among a host of new species discovered in a remote wildlife hotspot.

The Greater Mekong is described as one of the last scientifically unexplored regions of the world and it abounds in life seen nowhere else in the world.

So little is known about the ecology of the region that previously unknown animals and plants have been turning up at a rate of two a week for a decade.

At least 1,068 new species were identified in the Greater Mekong from 1997 to 2007 along with several thousand tiny invertebrates.

Annamite striped rabbits, Nesolagus timminsi, with black and brown fur, were discovered in Vietnam and Laos in 2000 and are only the second species of striped rabbit to be identified.

The other is in Sumatra, the two sharing a common ancestor that lived several million years ago. Among the most bizarre to be discovered was a hot-pink, spiny dragon millipede, Desmoxytes purpurosea.

Several were found simultaneously in Thailand as they crawled over limestone rocks and palm leaves.

To defend themselves from predators the millipedes have glands that produce cyanide. Scientists believe that the shocking-pink colouration is to signal to predators that they would make a fatal snack. "They would do well to heed this warning," concluded a WWF report on the Greater Mekong discoveries.

A huntsman spider, named Heteropoda maxima, measured 30cm across and was found in caves in Laos. It was described as the "most remarkable" of 88 new species of spider located in Laos, Thailand and the Yunnan province of China.

The Greater Mekong comprises 600,000 square kilometres of wetlands and rainforest along 2,800 miles of the Mekong River in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China. Wars, internal problems and the remoteness of the region kept most international scientists away for decades but in the 1990s it began to be surveyed extensively for its wildlife.

Thomas Ziegler, curator at Cologne Zoo, was among the researchers to explore the Greater Mekong.

"It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time, both enigmatic and beautiful," he said. The discoveries documented in the WWF report First Contact in the Greater Mekong, published today, include 519 plants, 15 mammals, 89 frogs, 279 fish, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 4 birds, 4 turtles and 2 salamanders.

Stuart Chapman, the director of WWF's Greater Mekong programme, said: "We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books. This reaffirms the Greater Mekong's place on the world map of conservation priorities."

Among the 15 mammals discovered in the region was the Laotian rock rat, Laonastes aenigmamus.

It was thought to have been extinct for 11 million years but a researcher spotted the corpse of one on sale in a food market in Laos in 2005.

While unknown to scientists, the rock rat was known to locals as kha-nyou and was enjoyed roasted and served whole on a skewer.

Two of the biggest surprises were the discoveries of two types of muntjac deer. One, the dark Annamite muntjac, Muntiacus truongsonensis, was identified in Vietnam from skulls and descriptions by local people who knew it as samsoi cacoong - "the deer that lives in the deep, thick forest".

Live specimens still elude researchers. One new snake - the Siamese Peninsula pit viper, Trimeresurus fucatus - was spotted slithering through the rafters of a restaurant in Thailand.

There are estimated to be 20,000 different types of plant, 1,200 species of bird, 430 mammals, 800 reptiles and amphibians, and 1,300 fish in the Greater Mekong. Among the mammals is one of the two remaining populations of the critically endangered Javan rhino.

ANI

Delphi - Ancient Town

Delphi, town of ancient Greece, site of a celebrated oracle of the god Apollo, situated on the slope of Mount Parnassus, in Phocis (now Fokís Department), about 9.5 km (about 6 mi) inland from the Gulf of Corinth. Considered by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the earth, Delphi was once the site of an oracle of the earth goddess Gaea. According to mythology, Apollo defeated the monstrous serpent Python, which guarded Gaea, and expelled her from the sanctuary, which he then shared with the god Dionysus. The Delphic priests developed an elaborate ritual, centered on a chief priestess called Pythia. Her utterances were regarded as the words of Apollo, and the oracle was consulted by private citizens and public officials alike. The Sacred Way to the temple was lined with structures housing rich offerings given by Greek cities.

Photo brianpatrick

Photo davetonkin

Photo PallasAthena1081

The town of Delphi was at first a dependency of the Phocian city of Crisa. Phocis later joined the Amphictyonic League, which was formed to protect the temple to Apollo and which sponsored the Pythian Games near Delphi. When Phocis levied tribute on pilgrims to the oracle, the league destroyed Crisa in the first of the Sacred Wars (about 595-586 bc). In 480 bc a Persian raid on Delphi failed because of an earthquake, attributed to Apollo.

Photo feather true

Photo black coffee

Photo Kounelli

In the second Sacred War (about 448 bc), Athens helped Phocis regain control of Delphi, which it had lost in the first war. The Phocians were defeated in 346 bc by King Philip II of Macedonia in the third Sacred War. By the end of the century the Aetolian League controlled Delphi. The wealth of the town made it a frequent target for attack, including a raid by Gauls in 279 bc. After the Roman conquest of Greece, and especially after the spread of Christianity, Delphi declined. Much of its art and treasure was confiscated by the Romans, notably by the Emperor Nero. The oracle, however, continued until ad 390.

Photo karahaz

Photo Josh Clark

Photo wallig

The site of the town was eventually occupied by the village of Kastrí. In 1891 Kastrí was relocated and renamed Dhírfis (Delphi), and in 1892 excavation of the site began. Discoveries include temples, the Great Altar, the stadium and theater, the ancient town wall, and the treasury building, the walls of which are inscribed with famous musically notated hymns to Apollo. The site contains more than 4000 inscriptions, valued for modern knowledge of ancient Greece.

Photo winninator