Fire Used to Make Better Tools 75,000 Years Ago

From :Live Science

Early humans crossed a threshold around 75,000 years ago, when they started painting symbols, carving patterns and making jewelry. A new study found they also began to use fire to make tools around that time.

Until now, this complex, multi-step process for tool making was only known to occur as recently as 25,000 years ago in Europe. But the new findings show this breakthrough occurred much earlier, and in Africa, not Europe.
By heating up stones in a fire before chipping away at them to make blades, early humans could make tools sharper and produce them more efficiently.
Scientists think this advancement represents a link between the earlier use of fire for cooking and warmth, and the later production of ceramics and metals

More..........

Bookyards Editor: For more Ancient History , Bookyards section is here.

Antarctic Meltdown: Glacier Larger Than Scotland Shrinking FOUR Times Faster Than Last Decade

In decline: The Pine Island Glacier drains an enormous volume of ice from

the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to the sea

From The Daily Mail:

An Antarctic glacier twice the size of Scotland is melting much faster than scientists had bargained for.

The Pine Island Glacier in west Antarctica is losing ice four times quicker than a decade ago, researchers warned today.
If the thinning continues to accelerate at this speed, the main section of the glacier will be gone within the next 100 years - six times faster than was previously estimated.

Read more ....

Spoon-Bending For Beginners: Teaching Anomalistic Psychology To Teenagers

Uri Geller holds a spoon he claims to have bent using supernatural powers. Photograph: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

Why introduce students to a field of psychology investigating claims that fly in the face of mainstream science? Chris French can think of several good reasons.

From next month, potentially thousands of teenagers at schools and colleges throughout the UK will start lessons that deal with telepathy, psychokinesis, psychic healing, near-death experiences and talking to the dead. Surely the minds of the nation's youth will be corrupted by all this mumbo-jumbo?

Read more ....

India's Water Use 'Unsustainable'

Much of the water used in paddy fields is pumped from underground.

From The BBC:

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites.

The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.

That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world's second most populous nation.

Read more ....

Experiments Push Quantum Mechanics To Higher Levels

John Martinis and Matthew Neeley are researchers at University of California - Santa Barbara. (Credit: George Foulsham, Office of Public Affairs, UCSB)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 13, 2009) — Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have devised a new type of superconducting circuit that behaves quantum mechanically – but has up to five levels of energy instead of the usual two. The findings are published in the August 7 issue of Science.

These circuits act like artificial atoms in that they can only gain or lose energy in packets, or quanta, by jumping between discrete energy levels. "In our previous work, we focused on systems with just two energy levels, 'qubits,' because they are the quantum analog of 'bits,' which have two states, on and off," said Matthew Neeley, first author and a graduate student at UCSB.

Read more ....

Fire Used To Make Better Tools 75,000 Years Ago

Experimentally replicated blade tools produced with heat treated silcrete. Some of these tools may have been mounted unto a wood handle to create a tool with disposable blades, as pictured above. Credit: © Science/AAAS

From Live Science:

Early humans crossed a threshold around 75,000 years ago, when they started painting symbols, carving patterns and making jewelry. A new study found they also began to use fire to make tools around that time.

Until now, this complex, multi-step process for tool making was only known to occur as recently as 25,000 years ago in Europe. But the new findings show this breakthrough occurred much earlier, and in Africa, not Europe.

By heating up stones in a fire before chipping away at them to make blades, early humans could make tools sharper and produce them more efficiently.

Read more ....

Another Nutritional Challenge For Space Food

From L.A. Times:

You may have read yesterday’s story about the food scientists at NASA who have their hands full trying to figure out what astronauts will eat when they blast off on a three-year mission to Mars sometime after the year 2030. For a variety of reasons, the food served on the space shuttle and International Space Station won’t cut it – it’s too heavy, too bulky, and its chemistry makes it prone to spoilage after only a couple of years.

And now the NASA scientists have identified another problem: many of the essential vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids in the foods will degrade over the course of such a long mission.

Read more ....

Pictured: Stunning New Image Of Mars Show Half-Mile Wide Crater Complete With Sand Dunes

This image of the Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

From The Daily Mail:

It is one of the most dramatic images to ever emerge from Mars.

In fact, this extraordinary photograph is so clear that even the sand dunes at the base of the half-mile wide canyon are visible.

Experts even believe that they can see the tracks of a Mars lander on the left-hand corner of the Victoria Crater.

Read more ....

Scientists Reveal Why World's Highest Mountains Are At The Equator

Top: Aerial photograph of the Khumbu Glacier and the Everest Himalayan range
Bottom: Glacially eroded mountains in Jotunheimen in Norway. Photograph: David Lundbek Egholm (bottom) and Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

Ice and glacier coverage at lower altitudes in cold climates more important than collision of tectonic plates, researchers find.

Scientists have solved the mystery of why the world's highest mountains sit near the equator - colder climates are better at eroding peaks than had previously been realised.

Mountains are built by the collisions between continental plates that force land upwards. The fastest mountain growth is around 10mm a year in places such as New Zealand and parts of the Himalayas, but more commonly peaks grow at around 2-3mm per year.

Read more ....

Netscape Founder Backs New Browser

Photo: Marc Andreessen, Co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz, in July. Phil McCarten/Reuters

From The New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet.

After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars of the 1990s that dominated the Web’s first chapter.

Mr. Andreessen appears to want a rematch. Now a prominent Silicon Valley financier, Mr. Andreessen is backing a start-up called RockMelt, staffed with some of his close associates, that is building a new Internet browser, according to people with knowledge of his investment.

Read more ....

Options Narrow For Future Of Human Spaceflight

Photo: US human spaceflight panel chairman Norman Augustine listens to public comments at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center on July 29 in in Huntsville, Ala. Bob Gathany/AP

From Christian Science Monitor:

A panel moves closer to recommending where NASA should fly next, and how.

If the US simply maintains spending for human spaceflight at current levels, NASA will have enough money to build one new rocket to carry crews into space by 2020. But it will literally be a rocket to nowhere: The space agency will have no place to send it for at least another decade.

That stark message underlies options for the US human spaceflight program, which a 10-member panel will present to the Obama administration when it wraps up its work at the end of August. The panel's assignment: Present the president with choices that are sustainable, fit within current budget constraints, yet represent bold steps beyond low-Earth orbit.

Read more ....

Top 10 Overlooked Buildings

The Golden Pavilion of Rokuonji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
Photograph by: Koichi Kamoshida, Getty Images

From The Montreal Gazette:

SYDNEY -- Lists of beautiful buildings laud the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and at least one token Frank Gehry building, but there are dozens of other equally beautiful choices that somehow always seem to remain unnoticed.

Members and editors of VirtualTourist.com (www.virtualtourist.com) have compiled a list of what they think are the "World's Top 10 Most Overlooked Beautiful Buildings and Structures." Reuters has not endorsed this list.

Read more ....

BMW ActiveHybrid X6: The Most PowerfulHhybrid In History

BMW ActiveHybrid X6

Officially Official: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 -- Autoblog

The BMW X6 ActiveHybrid has arrived, and as previously covered, the new gas-electric X6 will be the most powerful hybrid in history, with 480 peak horsepower and diesel-like plateau of 575 lb-ft of torque.

That impressive powertrain consists of twin electric motors (delivering 91 hp and 86 hp, respectively) and a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 engine. All those horses will be corralled through a seven-speed dual-mode transmission and BMW's xDrive all-wheel-drive system. The run to sixty will take just 5.4 seconds and the top speed will be limited to 130 miles per hour.

Read more ....

Multiple Sclerosis Successfully Reversed In Mice: New Immune-suppressing Treatment Forces The Disease Into Remission

Dr. Jacques Galipeau of the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University. (Credit: Claudio Calligaris/McGill University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability.

Read more ....

New Batting Helmet Offers Protection From 100 MPH Heat

The S100: More protective, but less stylish Earl Wilson via The New York Times

From Popular Science:

But players think it's too ugly to wear.

Back when pitching meant Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown gingerly tossing baseballs so worn down that they resembled leather hacky sacks, players didn't need to worry about lifelong injury after getting hit by a pitch. But now that 'roided up monsters can hurl the ball fast enough to cause serious damage, players need something substantial to protect their dome.

Read more ....

The Truth Behind the 230 MPG Claim From the Chevy Volt: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

It's all in the numbers: The EPA has finally figured out exactly what the testing procedures might be (the regulation hasn't formally been adopted yet) for plug-in hybrid vehicles like the Chevy Volt. This week Chevy announced that the Volt will deliver 230 mpg. Other plug-in-hybrid manufacturers won't be long in announcing similarly astonishing fuel-economy numbers. But where on earth does that number come from?

Read more ....

Invisible Doorways Or Portals A Step Closer To Reality, Claim Scientists

Scientists close to inventing a Harry Potter Platform 9 and 3/4

From The Telegraph:

Invisible gateways like the one to platform 9 and 3/4 in Harry Potter and to Lewis Carroll's hidden world in Through the Looking Glass are a step closer to reality after scientists developed a new theory.

Using a technique known as transformation optics, the researchers have revealed a way to alter the pathway of light waves that could eventually allow them to create portals that are invisible to the human eye.

Pushing the laws of refraction and reflection to the limit, the team from Hong Kong University and Fudan University in Shanghai, describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves but that allows the passage of other entities”.

Read more ....

Antibodies To Strep Throat Bacteria Linked To Obsessive Compulsive Disorder In Mice

from :ScienceDaily

A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity indicates that pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and/or tic disorder may develop from an inappropriate immune response to the bacteria causing common throat infections.





The mouse model findings, published online by Nature Publishing Group in this week's Molecular Psychiatry, support the view that this condition is a distinct disorder, and represent a key advance in tracing the path leading from an ordinary infection in childhood to the surfacing of a psychiatric syndrome. The research provides new insights into identifying children at risk for autoimmune brain disorders and suggests potential avenues for treatment.
OCD and tic disorders affect a significant portion of the population. More than 25% of adults and over 3% of children manifest some features of these disorders. Until now, scientists have been unable to convincingly document the association between the appearance of antibodies directed against Group A beta-hemolytic streptoccoccus (GABHS) in peripheral blood and the onset of the behavioral and motor aspects of the disorder. As a result, treatment strategies were restricted to targeting symptoms rather than causes.





MORE....


Bookyards Editor: For more books on Medecine go here...

'Many Hurricanes' In Modern Times

From BBC:

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are more frequent than at any time in the last 1,000 years, according to research just published in the journal Nature.

Scientists examined sediments left by hurricanes that crossed the coast in North America and the Caribbean.

The record suggests modern hurricane activity is unusual - though it might have been even higher 1,000 years ago.

The possible influence of climate change on hurricanes has been a controversial topic for several years.

Study leader Michael Mann from Penn State University believes that while not providing a definitive answer, this work does add a useful piece to the puzzle.

Read more ....

Why Humans Can Talk And Chimps Can't

Nothing to say (IMAGE: Manfred Rutz/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

A brain region critical to speech and language ballooned after humans split from chimpanzees, a new study finds.

Named after French physician, Pierre Paul Broca, who identified the region in two brain-damaged patients incapable of uttering more than a few words, Broca's area usually occupies a much larger portion of the left half of the human brain than the right.

Because right-handed humans also tend to process language in their left halves – lefties' brain are flip-flopped – some researchers think that lop-sidedness in Broca's area may help explain why humans alone developed language.

Read more ....