Clipmarks | arifsali's 'discovery' clips

Two Thousand-Year-Old Earring Found in Jerusalem

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:03:36 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Nov. 10, 2008 -- Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

The discovery dates to the time of Christ, during the Roman period, said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site. The piece was found in a Byzantine structure built several centuries after the jeweled earring was made, showing it was likely passed down through generations, he said.

In a statement released Monday, the authority said the piece of jewelry was "astonishingly well-preserved." Finds from the Roman period are rare in Jerusalem, Ben-Ami said, because the city was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the first century A.D.

Tags: archaeology, jewelry, jerusalem

Fermilab 'ghosts' hint at new particles

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:23:41 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: physicsworld.com

Physicists at the Tevatron collider at Fermilab in the US, which is enjoying extended status as the world’s most powerful particle collider while CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) awaits repair, have reported signals in their data that hint at the existence of new fundamental particles. Last week members of the CDF experiment, one of the Tevatron’s two huge particle detectors, posted a preprint detailing a large sample of proton–antiproton collisions that cannot be accounted for either by quirks of the CDF detector or by known processes in the standard model of particle physics

If the result does turn out to be due to some unexpected new process, it would be the most significant discovery in particle physics for decades. However, almost a third of CDF’s 600 or so collaborators (including some entire university groups) decided not to put their names on the paper, many believing that publication was premature because more checks need to be done.

Tags: physics, particle, science

World's largest crystal discovered in Mexican cave

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:40:57 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Hidden deep beneath the surface of the Earth is one of the greatest natural marvels on the planet: a giant crystal cave packed with crystals up to 36 feet long and weighing 55 tons.

Buried a thousand feet below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for a commercial lead and silver mine.

Known as Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) it contains some of the world's largest known natural crystals–translucent beams of gypsum as long as 36 feet and softer than human nails.

The crystals thrived in the cave's extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatures hovered consistently around a steamy 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), and the cave was filled with mineral-rich water that drove the crystals' growth.

Tags: discovery, crystal

McGill physicists discover new state of matter

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:21:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.mcgill.ca

Canadian physicists say they have discovered a previously unknown state of matter that could have a momentous impact on creation of new electronic devices. McGill University researchers say the new state of matter, a quasi-three- dimensional electron crystal, is a material very much like those used in the fabrication of modern transistors. "It's actually not quite 3-D, it's an in-between state, a totally new phenomenon," said Guillaume Gervais, director of McGill's Ultra-Low Temperature Condensed Matter Experiment Lab. "This is the kind of thing the theoreticians love. Now they're scratching their heads and trying to fine-tune their models."

Tags: physics, matter, canada, discovery

Catching the Bug of Synchronicity - by Paul Levy

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:39:15 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Jung’s discovery of synchronicity was in a sense the parallel in the realm of psychology to Einstein’s discovery of the law of relativity in physics.

Clip Source: www.awakeninthedream.com

Synchronicities are those moments of “meaningful coincidence” when the boundary dissolves between the inner and the outer. At the synchronistic moment, just like a dream, our internal, subjective state appears, as if materialized in, as and through the outside world. Touching the heart of our being, synchronicities are moments in time in which there is a fissure in the fabric of what we have taken for reality and there is a bleed through from a higher dimension outside of time. Synchronicities are expressions of the dreamlike nature of reality, as they are moments in time when the timeless, dreamlike nature of the universe shines forth its radiance and openly reveals itself to us, offering us an open doorway to lucidity.

Synchronicity was one of Jung’s most profound yet least understood discoveries, in part because it cannot be appreciated until we personally step into and experience the synchronistic realm for ourselves.

Tags: psychology

Team finds Earth's 'oldest rocks'

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:01:31 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Earth's most ancient rocks, with an age of 4.28 billion years, have been found on the shore of Hudson Bay, Canada.

Writing in Science journal, a team reports finding that a sample of Nuvvuagittuq greenstone is 250 million years older than any rocks known.

It may even hold evidence of activity by ancient life forms.

If so, it would be the earliest evidence of life on Earth - but co-author Don Francis cautioned that this had not been established.

"The rocks contain a very special chemical signature - one that can only be found in rocks which are very, very old," he said.

The professor of geology, who is based at McGill University in Montreal, added: "Nobody has found that signal any place else on the Earth."

"Originally, we thought the rocks were maybe 3.8 billion years old.

"Now we have pushed the Earth's crust back by hundreds of millions of years. That's why everyone is so excited."

Tags: earth, discovery, rock

Exoplanet circles 'normal star'

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:30:35 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A planet has been pictured outside our Solar System which appears to be circling a star like our own Sun - a first in astronomy.

Most of the potential exoplanets imaged to date have been seen orbiting brown dwarfs, which are dim - making it easier to detect companion objects.

The new planet is huge, with a mass about eight times that of Jupiter.

The Canadian team that obtained the picture says the parent star is similar to the Sun but somewhat younger.

The star and its companion lie about 500 light-years from Earth.

"This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun," said lead author David Lafreniere.

"If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward."

Tags: astronomy, discovery

World's 'rarest tree frog' found

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:13:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Discovery of the world's rarest tree frog is caught on camera

An extremely rare female frog has been spotted for the first time in 20 years.

The tiny tree frog, Isthmohyla rivularis, was seen in Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.

This species was thought to have become extinct two decades ago, but last year a University of Manchester researcher caught a glimpse of a male.

However, the discovery of the female and more males suggests this species is breeding and has been able to survive where many other frogs have not.

Andrew Gray, a herpetologist from Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester, said: "This has been the highlight of the whole of my career.

"Now that we know that both sexes exist in the wild, we should intensify efforts to understand their ecology and further their conservation."

Tags: frog, discovery

Scientists catch cells in the act of remembering

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:54:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but how the brain is able to re-create it.

The recordings, taken from the brains of epilepsy patients being prepared for surgery, demonstrate that these spontaneous memories reside in some of the very same neurons that fired most furiously when the recalled event was first experienced. Researchers had long theorized that this was the case but until now had only indirect evidence.

The new study, experts said, has all but closed the case: Remembering, for the brain, is a lot like doing.

Tags: science, brain, discovery

'Rare' mammoth skull discovered

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:06:24 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The "extremely rare" fossilised skull of a steppe mammoth has been unearthed in southern France.

The discovery in the Auvergne region could shed much needed light on the evolution of these mighty beasts.

Many isolated teeth of steppe mammoth have been found, but only a handful of skeletons exist; and in these surviving specimens, the skull is rarely intact.

Palaeontologists Frederic Lacombat and Dick Mol describe this skull specimen as being well preserved.

It belongs to a male steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii) that stood about 3.7m (12ft) tall and lived about 400,000 years ago, during Middle Pleistocene times.

The animal was about 35 years of age when it died, the researchers estimate.

The steppe mammoth is of vital importance for understanding mammoth evolution.

It represents the transitional phase between an ancient species known as the southern mammoth and the more recent woolly mammoth.

But comparatively little is known about this intermediate stage of their evolution.

Tags: archaeology

Remains of children found in 'green Sahara'

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:58:20 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

A tiny woman and two children were laid to rest on a bed of flowers 5,000 years ago in what is now the barren Sahara Desert.

The slender arms of the youngsters were still extended to the woman in perpetual embrace when researchers discovered their skeletons in a remarkable cemetery that is providing clues to two civilizations who lived there, a thousand years apart, when the region was moist and green.

Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and colleagues were searching for the remains of dinosaurs in the African country of Niger when they came across the startling find,

"Part of discovery is finding things that you least expect," he said. "When you come across something like that in the middle of the desert it sends a tingle down your spine."

"Everywhere you turned, there were bones belonging to animals that don't live in the desert," said Sereno. "I realized we were in the green Sahara."

Tags: discovery, desert

A Sculpture of Bird's Head Dating Back to 10th Millennium BC Unearthed in Syria

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:52:37 GMT

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Clip Source: www.sana.sy

Damascus, (SANA)- the Syrian-French archeological mission working at Mount Bala'as site in the central governorate of Hama, (Salamiyeh) had recently unearthed circle-shaped small-size houses built on natural rocks in front of caves used for habitation and dating back to the 10th Millennium BC.

The General Directorate of Ruins and Museums said the first and most important discovery in Bialdul Cham (historically Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine) is the sculpture of bird's head engraved on the natural rocks, adding that the finding could be the imitation of an eagle's head etched on natural rocks.

The mission also discovered in the same site a small-size housing structure near the statue along with a small basin engraved also in the rocks and designed to pour into another stone basin built beside the house.

The sculpture and the structure represent a symbolic concept for the man in that period, and believed to be used in certain rituals.

Tags: syria, discovery, archaeology

World's smallest snake discovered

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:49:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The world's smallest snake, averaging just 10cm (4 inches) and as thin as a spaghetti noodle, has been discovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The snake, found beneath a rock in a tiny fragment of threatened forest, is thought to be at the very limit of how small a snake can evolve to be.

Females produce only a single, massive egg - and the young hatch at half of their adult body weight.

This new discovery is described in the journal of Zootaxa.

Tags: discovery, animals

Unique fossil discovery shows Antarctic was once much warmer

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:17:41 GMT

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Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

A new fossil discovery- the first of its kind from the whole of the Antarctic continent- provides scientists with new evidence to support the theory that the polar region was once much warmer.

The team made a new fossil discovery in the Dry Valleys of the East Antarctic region. The fossils (ostracods) come from an ancient lake - 14 million years old - and are exceptionally well preserved, with all of their soft anatomy in 3-dimensions.

Dr Mark Williams from the Department of Geology at the University of Leicester said: "This is a rare occurrence in the fossil record - but is the first of its kind from the whole of the Antarctic continent.

Tags: environment, fossil, discovery, antarctic

Rare lemur find in Madagascar excites experts

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:25:40 GMT

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Clip Source: www.canada.com

NAIROBI - Researchers in Madagascar have found critically endangered greater bamboo lemurs living far from the only other place they were known to exist, raising hopes for the survival of the species, experts said on Tuesday.

Clip Source: www.canada.com

The discovery was made in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of east central Madagascar, more than 400 kilometres north of the isolated pockets of bamboo forest where the rest of the known populations of the species live.

"Finding the extremely rare Prolemur simus in a place where nobody expected it was probably more exciting than discovering a new lemur species," said Edward Louis, a U.S. conservation geneticist who coordinated the joint research, in a statement.

Tags: animals, madagascar