New Earth(ly) discoveries!

[alkemical]

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070228_beijing_anomoly.html

Huge 'Ocean' Discovered Inside Earth

Scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean.

The discovery marks the first time such a large body of water has found in the planet’s deep mantle.

The finding, made by Michael Wysession, a seismologist at Washington State University in St. Louis, and his former graduate student Jesse Lawrence, now at the University of California, San Diego, will be detailed in a forthcoming monograph to be published by the American Geophysical Union.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6405667.stm

Scientists probe 'hole in Earth'

Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive "open wound" on the Earth's surface.
Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth's crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across.

The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The team will survey the area, up to 5km (3 miles) under the surface, from ocean research vessel RRS James Cook.

[alkemical]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=77824

Mystery of Ancient Bulgarian City Uncovered
Bulgarian archaeologists uncovered another of the mysteries in the Perperikon area, an ancient living region of Thracians.

The have found a bronze spear from the time of the Trojan War. The finding shows Thracians' sacred city has been a metallurgical centre before more than 3000 years ago. Perperikon was the place where armoury was produced for the belligerent Thracian tribes.

The finding was made accidentally on Sunday in the foothills of Perperikon. The bronze peak, which was some 30 centuries ago was part of Thracians's weapons, of the ancient spire was found intact.

Homer in his Iliad wrote that every warrior had two pikes, nearly two metres long each. According to Professor Nikolay Ovcharov, it is highly probable that the discovered bronze pike peak belonged to a Perperikon warrior, who had participated in the 12-year-long battle for conquering Troy.

[alkemical]

http://www.thothweb.com/article4799.html

Rewriting History: America and the Vikings

The Vinland Mappa Mundi and the Kensington Runestone are just two pieces of a puzzle that point to Viking explorers having prospered in North America long before Christopher Columbus supposedly discovered the New World.

Add to that the possibility that the enigmatic Knights Templar had dealings with the Vikings, and history begins to take on a radical new light. Of course even when it is quite literally written in stone and supported by a myriad of archaeological evidence, the voice of true history struggles to be heard.

Alternative theories continue to gather support and the past is slowly but surely revealing new mysteries, which as they unfold change our perception of the ancient world even further.

The possibility that the Vikings really did discover America opens up a huge can of worms for historians because it calls into question much of what we’ve been brought up to think as being true, If historians don’t know who discovered America, what else have they gotten wrong? In the past, hostile rebuttal and cries of ‘hoax’ have suppressed these inconvenient artefacts as soon as they came to light, but often these seemingly unrelated artefacts often tell the same story.

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

They could use some of that water over in the marshall Islands. some of the islands are completely out of water and it has to be shipped in.

[alkemical]

Mysterious Rock Growing 'Hair' Put on Display in Beijing (http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-3-26/53281.html)

CHINA—On March 16, 2007, an unusual rock went on display in Beijing. This rock has "hair," almost identical to human hair, growing out of its "head."

The rock is iron gray in color, naturally smooth and rounded, and is similar to a cobblestone. There is also a very thin layer of scalp tissue connecting the "hair" to the rock. The hair is grey in color and similar to the color of the rock itself. The hair grows quite naturally from the top with the longest strands being about 15 centimeters (6 inches) long. The hair is slightly coarser than human hair.

The rock was found on a beach, and according to Fashion Rock Café's executive Miss Yong, this kind of rock is named a "hair-growing rock". As long as conditions are right, the hair on this rare rock will continue to grow. Only two other hair-growing rocks have been reported in the world; and both are in a Taiwan Museum.

This "hair-growing rock" is in a glass display case at the Fashion Rock Café, located in the Digital Building in Beijing's Zhongguan Village. The rock measures approximately 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) long, 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) wide, and about 15 centimeters (6 inches) high.

[alkemical]

4000-year-old perfumes found on Aphrodite's fabled island (http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/4000yearold-perfumes-found-on-aphrodites-fabled-island/2007/03/21/1174153159639.html)


The remains of ancient scents and bottles found on Cyprus have gone in display, writes Malcolm Moore.

ITALIAN archaeologists have found the world's oldest perfumes on Cyprus.

The perfumes were scented with extracts of lavender, bay, rosemary, pine or coriander and kept in tiny translucent alabaster bottles.

The remaining traces found at Pyrgos, in the south of the island, are more than 4000 years old.

They were discovered inside what archaeologists believe was an 3995-square-metre perfume-making factory.

"We were astonished at how big the place was," the leader of the archaeological team, Maria Rosa Belgiorno, said. "Perfumes must have been produced on an industrial scale."

At least 60 stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were perfectly preserved at the site, which had been blanketed in earth after a violent earthquake about 1850BC.

The abundance of perfumes fits well with Cyprus' mythological status as the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

"The goddess' myth was strongly linked to the perfume she used to get what she wanted," the head of Cyprus' antiquities department, Pavlos Flourentzos, said.

The finds are now on display at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

Four of the perfumes have been re-created from residues found at the site.

An Italian foundation, which aims to re-create antique traditions, distilled them according to techniques described by Pliny the Elder, by grinding the herbs, adding them to oil and water, and burying them in a long-necked jug over hot embers for 12 hours.

"It smells good, but strong," museum visitor Alessia Affinata, 30, said. "I can smell the pine especially," said Giulia Occhi Villavecchia, 23.

Neither was sure they would actually wear them.

[alkemical]

Jellyfish have human-like eyes (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17913669/)

By Andrea Thompson
Staff Writer

Updated: 12:28 p.m. ET April 2, 2007
A set of special eyes, similar to our own, keeps venomous box jellyfish from bumping into obstacles as they swim across the ocean floor, a new study finds.

Unlike normal jellyfish, which drift in the ocean current, box jellyfish are active swimmers that can rapidly make 180-degree turns and deftly dart between objects. Scientists suspect that box jellyfish are such agile because one set of their 24 eyes detects objects that get in their way.

“Behavior-wise, they’re very different from normal jellyfish,” said study leader Anders Garm of Lund University in Sweden.

[theAPAOps5]

Good stuff, I wonder what the implications of the missing earths crust are. I wonder if it causes temp changes and help dictate our Hurricane patterns and more importantly the intensity.

[alkemical]

Those are good questions.....

[alkemical]

Amazon River Flowed Backwards in Ancient Times (http://www.livescience.com/environment/061025_amazon_reverse.html)

South America's winding Amazon River flows in an easterly direction across the continent, dumping water into the Atlantic Ocean. But in eons past, it flowed from east-to-west and, for a time, in both directions at once, a new study finds.

About 100 million years ago, during the middle of the Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs still walked the Earth, the continents of South America and Africa broke apart. The fissure created a raised highland along the east coast of South America, which tilted the Amazon's flow, sending water and sediment rushing toward the center of the continent [image].

Over time, South America developed a vertical crease along its middle, a small mountain range called the Purus Arch. The ridge divided the Amazon's flow [image], sending one side of the river eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean and the other side westward toward the still-growing Andes Mountains.

Toward the end of the Cretaceous, the growing Andes became large enough to send the Amazon's water tumbling back toward the Purus Arch. Eventually, sediments eroded from the Andes filled in the Amazon basin between the mountains and the Arch. Water breached the Arch and flowed unobstructed eastward. By this time, the eastern highland had eroded away, and the river's water could empty freely into the Atlantic [image].

The discovery of the Amazon's reverse flow in ancient times was accidental.

Scientists were studying rocks in the river to determine the speed at which sediment is ferried toward the Atlantic when they stumbled upon ancient minerals grains in the central part of South America. A chemical analysis revealed the grains could only have originated in the now-eroded highlands on the eastern part of the continent.

The new finding helps illustrate the transient nature of Earth's surface, the researchers said.

"Although the Amazon seems permanent and unchanging, it has actually gone through three different stages of drainage since the mid-Cretaceous, a short period of time geologically speaking," said study team member Russell Mapes, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Previous studies showed certain segments of the Amazon flowed backward in times past, but the current research, presented today at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Philadelphia, is the first to reveal a continent-wide shift in the river's movements.

Also involved in the research were UNC geologist Drew Coleman and Brazilian scientists Afonso Nogueira and Angela Maria Leguizamon Vega of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas.

The Amazon is the second longest river in the world, after the Nile River in Egypt. About 4,000 miles long, the Amazon is the equivalent of the distance from New York City to Rome.

[alkemical]

Text reveals more ancient secrets (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6591221.stm)

Text reveals more ancient secrets
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News



Experts are "lost for words" to have found that a medieval prayer book has yielded yet another key ancient text buried within its parchment.
Works by mathematician Archimedes and the politician Hyperides had already been found buried within the book, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest.

But now advanced imaging technology has revealed a third text - a commentary on the philosopher Aristotle.

Project director William Noel called it a "sensational find".

The prayer book was written in the 13th Century by a scribe called John Myronas.


Just the fact that I could see the words gave me shivers
Professor Roger Easton

But instead of using fresh parchment for his work, he employed pages from five existing books.

Dr Noel, curator of manuscripts at the US-based Walters Art Museum and a co-author of a forthcoming book on the Archimedes Palimpsest, said: "It's a rather brutal process, but it means you can reuse parchment if you are short of it.

"You take books off shelves, you scrub off the text, you cut them up and you make a new book."

In 1906 it came to light that one of the books recycled to form the medieval manuscript contained a unique work by Archimedes.


And in 2002, modern imaging technology not only provided a clearer view of this famous mathematician's words, but it also revealed another text - the only known manuscript of Hyperides, an Athenian politician from the 4th Century BC.

"At this point you start thinking striking one palimpsest is gold, and striking two is utterly astonishing. But then something even more extraordinary happened," Dr Noel told the BBC News website.

One of the recycled books was proving extremely difficult to read, explained Roger Easton, a professor of imaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology, US.

"We were using a technique called multispectral imaging," he said.

This digital imaging technique uses photographs taken at different wavelengths to enhance particular characteristics of the imaged area.

Subtle adjustments of this method, explained Professor Easton, suddenly enabled these hidden words to be revealed.

"Even though I couldn't read Ancient Greek, just the fact that I could see the words gave me shivers," he said.

Foundations of logic

An international team of experts began to scrutinize the ancient words, explained Reviel Netz, professor of ancient science at Stanford University, US, and another co-author of the palimpsest book.


A series of clues, such as spotting a key name in the margin, led the team to its conclusion.

"The philosophical passage in the Archimedes Palimpsest is now definitely identified as a relatively early commentary to Aristotle's Categories," said Professor Netz.

He said that Aristotle's Categories had served as the foundation for the study of logic throughout western history.

Further study has revealed the most likely author of this unique commentary is Alexander of Aphrodisias, Professor Robert Sharples from University College London, UK, told BBC News.

If this is the case, he said, "it gives us part of a commentary previously supposed lost by the most important of those ancient commentators on Aristotle".


I am at a loss for words at what this book has turned out to be
Dr Will Noel

A provisional translation of the commentary is currently being undertaken.

It reveals a debate on some aspects of Aristotle's theory of classification, such as: if the term "footed" is used for animals, can it be used to classify anything else, such as a bed?

The passage reads:

For as "foot" is ambiguous when applied to an animal and to a bed, so are "with feet" and "without feet". So by "in species" here [Aristotle] is saying "in formula".

For if it ever happens that the same name indicates the differentiae of genera that are different and not subordinate one to the other, they are at any rate not the same in formula.

Dr Noel said: "There is no more important philosopher in the world than Aristotle. To have early views in the 2nd and 3rd Century AD of Aristotle's Categories is just fantastic.

"We have one book that contains three texts from the ancient world that are absolutely central to our understanding of mathematics, politics and now philosophy," he said.

He added: "I am at a loss for words at what this book has turned out to be. To make these discoveries in the 21st Century is frankly nutty - it is just so exciting."

[alkemical]

The 'Highest' Spot on Earth? (http://www.thothweb.com/article4999.html)

Well, we all know that Mount Everest, at 29,035 feet above sea level, is the highest spot on our planet and is likely to remain so for a long, long time… unless we think about the word "highest" in a different way.

Suppose I asked you to find the spot on Earth where you would be closest to the moon, the stars and outer space. In other words, the point on Earth that is closest to "out there." Most of us, again, would point to Mount Everest. But here's something you may not know: the Earth is not a perfect sphere.

The Earth, it turns out, is more like a beach ball that someone sat on: It has a slightly distended middle.

Mathematicians call this an "oblate spheroid," which means there is a bulge that circles the Earth just below the equator, so anyone standing in that part of the world is already standing "higher," or closer to outer space, than people who aren't on the bulge.

Therefore people in Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia are all a bit closer to the moon (not much, only about 13 miles closer) than people standing at the North and South poles.

Let's Climb Some Equatorial Mountains

Now to make it even more interesting, suppose we climb to the top of a mountain just south of the equator. There are several famous ones: Mount Kenya in Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and a bunch of not-so-famous ones in the Andes. If you climbed to the top of one of them, would you be closer to space than if you climbed to the top of Mount Everest?

Joseph Senne, an engineer/surveyor, did the calculations and had his numbers checked by the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of a new book on science and the cosmos, Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries.

"When all the calculating is over," Senne says, "we think we have discovered the spot on Earth that is closet to the moon and outer space."

Mount…What?

It is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Yes, Ecuador.

Mount Chimborazo, in the Andes, is a 20,000-plus-foot peak sitting on top of a bulge on the Earth. Mount Everest is a 29,000-plus-foot peak sitting lower down on that same bulge. Because Chimborazo is a bump on a bigger part of the bulge, it is higher.

According to Senne, Chimborazo is 1.5 miles higher than Everest! Or, if you will, 1.5 miles closer to outer space.

If you define "highest" as highest from sea level, Mount Everest is still champion.

But if you want to stand on the place on Earth that is closest to the moon, that would be Mount Chimborazo!

Copyright: National Public Radio

[alkemical]

(Slide show of animals: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19031330/displaymode/1107/s/1/)

Scientists find 24 new species in Suriname (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19028712/)

Including a fluorescent purple toad and 12 kinds of dung beetles

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:27 p.m. ET June 4, 2007
PARAMARIBO, Suriname - A toad with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of eastern Suriname, scientists said Monday.

The expedition was sponsored by two mining companies hoping to excavate the area for bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, and it was unknown how the findings would affect their plans.

Scientists discovered the species during a 2005 expedition led by the U.S.-based nonprofit Conservation International in rainforests and swamps about 80 miles (128 kilometers) southeast of Paramaribo, the capital of the South American country, organization spokesman Tom Cohen said.

Among the species found were the atelopus toad, which has distinctive purple markings; six types of fish; 12 dung beetles, and one ant species, he said.

The scientists called for better conservation management in the unprotected, state-owned areas, where hunting and small-scale illegal mining are common.

The study was financed by Suriname Aluminum Company LLC and BHP Billiton Maatschappij Suriname.


Suriname Aluminum, which has a government concession to explore gold in the area, will include the data in its environmental assessment study, said Haydi Berrenstein, a Conservation International official in Suriname, which borders Brazil, Guyana and French Guiana.

About 80 percent of Suriname is covered with dense rainforest.

Thousands of Brazilians and Surinamese are believed to work in illegal gold mining, creating mercury pollution that has threatened the health of Amerindians and Maroons in Suriname's interior.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19028712/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSN Privacy . Legal
© 2007 MSNBC.com

[clarkster]

thats all pretty interesting reading there. thanks

[smalltowngrll]

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070604/070604_purple_toad_hmed_9a.h2.jpg

That is one cool looking frog!!!

Thanks!

[alkemical]

Massive dinosaur bird discovered in China (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19208580/)

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070613/070613_dino_hmed_9a.h2.jpg


Creature's tall stature, up to 16 feet, surprises scientists
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Updated: 12:45 p.m. ET June 13, 2007
A gigantic bird-like dinosaur weighing as much as a car towered over its relatives about 70 million years ago, a new finding suggests.

The unearthed beaked dinosaur was not full-grown, yet it tipped the scales at more than 3,000 pounds. Paleontologists who discovered its remains estimate the behemoth was just 11 years old when it perished.

Chinese scientists unearthed the skeletal remains of the dinosaur, now named Gigantoraptor erlianensis, in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia, China.

Oddly large
At up to 16 feet tall and 26 feet long, Gigantoraptor dwarfed its relatives, a group of small, feathered theropods called Oviraptorosaurs. The hefty dinosaur weighed 35 times more than other Oviraptorosaurs.

“It’s one thing to find a big dinosaur,” said Matthew Lamanna, assistant curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, “but it’s another thing to find a big dinosaur from a lineage that was thought to be small.” Lamanna was not involved in the discovery.

In addition to its size, Gigantoraptor sported several bird-like features, such as a longer arm and more avian-like leg, not present in its relatives. The scientists say this finding sheds light on theropod (two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs) evolution leading to the emergence of birds.

Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lin Tan of the Long Hao Institute in China, as well as their colleagues, discuss the finding in the June 14 issue of the journal Nature.

Oddly shaped
Gigantoraptor was also much ganglier than other dinosaurs. Typically, larger dinosaurs had proportionally stouter limbs and shorter lower legs than their smaller relatives. Relative to its size, Gigantoraptor had unusually slender limbs and lengthy legs.

“It increases our conception of the diversity of dinosaurs,” Lamanna told LiveScience.


Based on its close relationship to other feathered species, Gigantoraptor likely had feathers on its tail and arms, which were used as a display. While body-covering feathers act as insulation, and would have been necessary for the smaller dinosaurs, Gigantoraptor probably didn’t need such a cold protector, the scientists suggest.

“It’s unexpected discoveries like this that show, ‘Hey we know a lot about dinosaurs but there’s still so much left that we don’t know,’” Lamanna said.

© 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19208580/


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MSN Privacy . Legal
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[TailgateNut]

so should I consider by ocean surface acreage above the missing mantle in anticipation of "Hawaii #2";D ?

[sutoazul]

keep it up..., great articles!! Thanks

[alkemical]

Arctic ice no barrier for plants (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6752767.stm)


Arctic plants are able to migrate the distances needed to survive changes to the climate, scientists have suggested.
Habitats are expected to shift further north as the planet warms, and plants' inability to move quickly enough has been a cause for concern.

But researchers, writing in the journal Science, suggest seeds can be carried vast distances by the wind and sea ice.

The biggest challenge, they added, was likely to be their ability to establish themselves in the new habitat.

Researchers from Norway and France analysed more than 4,000 samples of nine flowering plant species found on the remote Svalbard islands inside the Arctic Circle.

By analysing the genetic fingerprints of the plants, the team reconstructed past plant colonisation and decline in the area.

They found evidence that seeds from plants from various sources, including Russia and Greenland, had repeatedly colonised the islands over the past 20,000 years when climatic conditions allowed.

Likewise, when the islands cooled, the plants died out because they were unable to survive under blankets of ice.

Seeds of hope

Climatologists project the polar regions are going to experience the largest degree of climate change over the coming century, risking the long-term stability of ecosystems.


"Climate change is expected to cause the distribution area of many plant species to shift northwards in the Northern Hemisphere," the researchers wrote in their paper.
"The composition of future ecosystems will critically depend on the long-distance dispersal capabilities of individual species."

It had been assumed that long-distance dispersal of seeds happened rarely and randomly, making the chance of colonisation unlikely.

Yet, the team said, the study suggested it was more common than previously thought.

"Probable dispersal vectors are wind, drift wood and drifting sea ice, birds and mammals.

"North-western Russia and Greenland are frequently connected to Svalbard by way of sea ice during the winter.

"Bank erosion along the Russian rivers routinely results in logs and other debris finding their way on to drifting sea ice, which reaches Svalbard by means of surface currents."

They suggested the main limiting factor was the plants' ability to establish themselves through "germination, survival and local reproduction".

"This interpretation is supported by our observation that 80-90% of the most cold-adapted species that occur in the potential source zones are currently present in Svalbard," the team wrote.

Whereas, they added, only 40-60% of the species limited to zones where summer temperatures of 6-7C (43-45F) were found on the islands.

The findings suggest future studies should have greater confidence that seeds can travel long distances, and place more emphasis on whether there is suitable habitat to sustain the plant species.

[alkemical]

Rare blue lobster found in Conn. river avoids the cooker (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/4885390.html)

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Call it crustacean discrimination.

A lobster caught last weekend by Steve Hatch and his uncle Robert Green was spared from being cooked and ripped apart on a plate because of its color.

The 1 1/2 -pound clawed creature is bright blue, the result of an extremely rare genetic mutation.

It turned up Sunday morning in one of Hatch and Green's lobster traps at the mouth of the Thames River.

"I've heard about them but this is the first one I've ever seen," Hatch told The Day of New London newspaper.

Later that afternoon, he put the lobster in a cooler and brought it to the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, where it will live out its days in an elementary school classroom for children to learn about.

Catherine Ellis, curator of fish and invertebrates at the aquarium, said only one in 3 million lobsters are "true blue," meaning their color is the result of genetics and not the environment.

The one caught Sunday will join two other blue lobsters at the aquarium.

Researchers at the University of Connecticut found that the blue coloring occurs when lobsters produce an excessive amount of protein because of a genetic mutation.

But if blue lobsters are cooked like their red brethren, they too turn red, Ellis said.

[alkemical]

Mysterious "Sprites" Light Shows Captured on Film (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070619-sprites.html)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com//news/bigphotos/images/070619-sprites_big.jpg


Anne Casselman
for National Geographic News

June 18, 2007

Blink during a thunderstorm and you may miss the unusual phenomenon of "sprites"—resplendent bursts of light that, for less than a second, burn brighter than Venus.

These brief explosions, which can outshine everything except for the sun and moon, are so fleeting, that scientists still don't know much about how they work.

(See related: "Huge Mystery Flashes Seen in Outer Atmosphere" [June 25, 2003].)

So in a recent study, a group of physicists used an ultra high-speed digital camera to record sprites in unprecedented detail—10,000 frames per second.

"We realized that all these branches and long luminous features that we saw in the sprites, that they didn't really exist," said lead author Hans Nielsen, a physicist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

"It's sort of like you take a time exposure on a highway, and then all the tail lights of the cars make long streaks in the image."

Instead, sprites are made up of tiny bright balls that speed through the middle atmosphere at one-tenth the speed of light, said study co-author David Sentman, a physicist at the University of Alaska. These sprite balls shine five times brighter than Venus.

(See a video of the sprites.)

Now You See It ...

Many researchers believe the sprites' short duration allowed them to escape notice for so long.

"You see this flash in the sky and then you think 'No, that can't be!" Nielsen said.

Scientists did know, however, that sprites occur during active thunderstorms. They are electronic discharges that make the air above glow a luminous red, similar to how fluorescent bulbs burn.

The sprites can also reach about 10 miles (16 kilometers) across and are between 32 feet (10 meters) and about 328 feet (100 meters) in length. They travel upward through the middle atmosphere to reach about 62 miles (100 kilometers) into the uppermost layer of the atmosphere, called the ionosphere.

When a lightning bolt strikes down to the ground, it can create an electrical field above the storm that accelerates the electrons in the middle atmosphere to collide with gas molecules and glow.

Sprite History

Sprites were predicted in theory by Nobel laureate physicist C.T.R. Wilson in 1925. Their existence was confirmed in 1989 when University of Minnesota physicist John R. Winkler caught them on video by accident.

Study co-author Sentman at the University of Alaska started calling them "sprites" shortly after and the moniker stuck.

Many pilots saw sprites but never reported them for fear of flunking their flight physicals. No ancient mythologies have been matched up with them, although the "Andes lights" seen dancing over the peaks of the mountain range bear a superficial resemblance.

Sprites are visible with the naked eye, but they're gone so quickly it's usually just a blur.

The most recent sprite images, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, look like "a ticker tape parade on Broadway," Nielsen said. "You see all these balls of light falling down from the sky."

Matt Heavner is a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau who was not involved in the study.

"People are identifying a lot of different kinds of discharge occurring in the middle atmosphere," Heavner said.

(See related: "Ball Lightning Mystery Solved? Electrical Phenomenon Created in Lab" [January 22, 2007].)

For instance, "elves" are areas about 250 miles (402 kilomters) wide that glow a dim red. They can be found about 60 miles (96 kilometers) above thunderstorms.

"Blue jets" appear as bright blue cones extending from the top of a thundercloud to 25 to 30 miles (40 to 48 kilometers) above Earth. They are more rare than sprites and last up to a third of a second.

"They actually look like whale spouts shooting up out of the storms," Heavner said.

More Than a Light Show

The energy released by a sprite amounts to a fraction of what comes from a lightning bolt. A single bolt can power a light bulb for anywhere from one to three years, lasts just 10-milliseconds.

"It's not like were not talking about atomic bombs going off or anything, but there could there could be as many as ten sprites a minute globally worldwide," said Walt Lyons, a meteorological consultant at Forensic Meteorology Associates in Fort Collins, Colorado.

"So they probably do play some role in the energetics of the atmosphere," he added.

Lead study author Nielsen wonders whether sprite activity can change the composition of the atmosphere in any way, which could potentially impact on the ozone layer and global climate change.

"The jury is still out as to whether sprites are important in the atmospheric system," he said, "or if they are just like the rainbow, pretty to look at but with no further significance."

[alkemical]

Shark bite leads to reproduction mystery (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19412956/)


The Associated Press
Updated: 8:46 a.m. ET June 25, 2007
NORFOLK, Va. - Veterinarian Bob George sliced open the dead shark and saw the outline of a fish. No surprise there, since sharks digest their food slowly.

Then George realized he wasn't looking at the stomach of the blacktip reef shark, but at her uterus. In it was a perfectly formed, 10-inch-long shark pup that was almost ready to be born.

George was dumbfounded.

He had been examining the shark, Tidbit, to figure out why she reacted badly to routine sedatives during a physical and died, hours after biting an aquarium curator on the shin. Now there was a bigger mystery: How did Tidbit get pregnant?

"We must have had hanky panky" in the shark tank, he thought.

But sharks only breed with sharks of the same species, and there were no male blacktip reef sharks at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach.

Could Tidbit have defied nature, resulting in the first known shark hybrid?

The other possibility was that Tidbit had conceived without needing a male at all.

A recent study had documented the first confirmed case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks: a pup born at a Nebraska zoo came from an egg that developed in a female shark without sperm from a male.

One of the scientists who worked on that study contacted the aquarium, which sent him tissue samples from Tidbit and her pup for testing. If the pup's DNA turns out to contain no contribution from a male shark, this would be the second known case of shark parthenogenesis.

George hopes to receive a preliminary report soon, but conclusive results could take months.

Tidbit had lived at the aquarium for most of her 10 years, swimming with other sharks in a 300,000-gallon tank.

The sharks get yearly checkups. On May 24, workers guided the 5-foot, 94-pound Tidbit from the main aquarium into a smaller corral to be examined out of public view.

Strange reaction
Blacktip reef sharks are sensitive to change, so it was standard procedure to give Tidbit a sedative. This time, Tidbit went under the sedation too deeply — maybe because of a combination of the unknown pregnancy and the stress of being handled and of having recently been bitten by another shark, George said.

George and Beth Firchau, the curator of fishes, massaged Tidbit's tail to get her blood flowing and gave her a stimulant to help her breathe.

The shark swam away, bumped into a wall, headed back toward Firchau and clamped onto her left shin. Whether Tidbit meant to attack Firchau or just collided into her and snapped reflexively is hard to know.

The pain didn't hit Firchau right away. "Oh, you're not supposed to do that. That was weird," she thought as she felt the shark tug on her leg.

Members of the shark physicals team pulled Firchau out of the tank and began administering first aid. She credits their swift reaction with saving her life.

Firchau was taken to a hospital to get stitches while George and other team members tried to revive Tidbit. The shark rallied a couple times but died about 12 hours later.



George initially was depressed by the events. But something positive emerged out of the negative.

Since Tidbit hadn't looked pregnant — and there was no reason to think she was pregnant — the pup likely would have been born and immediately eaten by another shark, without aquarium employees ever knowing it had existed.

But Tidbit's death led to George stumbling upon a mystery of nature.

In normal reproduction, an egg is fertilized by sperm, producing an embryo that contains a set of chromosomes with half coming from the mother and half from the father.

In asexual reproduction, an egg splits in two and DNA contributed from the mother doubles, so each resulting egg has a full complement of chromosomes from the female. The eggs then fuse, producing a single embryo with no DNA from a father.

Asexual reproduction is common in some insect species, rarer in reptiles and fish, and has never been documented in mammals. Until now, sharks were not considered likely candidates.

But with sharks, "this is probably something that does happen in aquariums, more often than we realize," said Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla.

Asexual reproduction in captivity
He said the phenomenon is coming to light with the joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research that analyzed the DNA of a hammerhead shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb. The study was published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters on the day before Firchau was bitten.

Asexual reproduction among sharks is more likely to happen in captivity, when there is no other option for reproduction, than in the wild, Hueter said.

Crossbreeding, on the other hand, is not known to happen at all among sharks, said Heather Thomas, aquarist at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

"It's not natural," Thomas said. "If you've got a shark that needs to swim to breathe and cross it with a shark that can lay on the bottom to breathe, what are you going to get? Are you going to get these weird mutations?"

If the pup indeed turns out to be a hybrid, DNA testing should be able to identify the species of the father. The most likely candidate would be a sandbar shark, the most similar shark to a blacktip reef in the aquarium, George said.

While parthenogenesis "is certainly kind of a spiffy, interesting thing," George hopes the tests confirm crossbreeding, since that would be a first among sharks.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19412956/

[alkemical]

Scientists set to prove 'Bigfoot' is no myth (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19443010/)

Bigfoot Field Researchers says almost every expedition yields a sighting

Bigfoot Field Researchers says almost every expedition yields a sighting
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:45 p.m. ET June 26, 2007
MANISTIQUE, Mich. - Researchers will visit the Upper Peninsula next month to search for evidence of the hairy manlike creature known as "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch."

The expedition will center in eastern Marquette County, following the most recent Bigfoot eyewitness account, said Matthew Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

"We'll be looking for evidence supporting a presence. ... We hope to meet local people who might have seen a Sasquatch or heard of someone else who had an encounter," Moneymaker told the Daily Press of Escanaba.

Most experts consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes, but there are a number of authors and researchers who think the stories could be true.

Among all U.P. counties, Marquette County has logged the most reported Bigfoot sightings with four, Moneymaker said. Bigfoot encounters also have been reported in Ontonagon, Baraga, Dickinson, Luce and Schoolcraft counties.

In all but three of 30 expeditions in the United States and Canada, BFRO investigators have either glimpsed Bigfoot or gotten close enough to hear the creature, Moneymaker said.


Dr. Grover Krantz, a scientist specializing in cryptozoology, believes Bigfoot is a "gigantopithecus," a branch of primitive man believed to have existed 3 million years ago.

But mainstream scientists tend to dismiss the study as pseudoscience because of unreliable eyewitness accounts and a lack of solid physical evidence.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19443010/

[alkemical]

http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=101832475

Archaeologists have discovered the 3,000-year-old mummy of a high priest to the god Amun in the southern city of Luxor, antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass told the official MENA news agency on Saturday.

The 18th Dynasty mummy of Sennefer was unearthed in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings -- one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world -- by a team from Britain's Cambridge University.

"The mummy was found in tomb 99 in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of Luxor," Hawass said.

A high priest was considered to be the most important man after the king, performing duties, religious rituals and offerings on his behalf.

Other mummies were found during the excavation, including one with a brain tumour, a foetus, a female mummy wrapped in plaster and others which appeared to have suffered from arthritis, Hawass said.

The Valley of the Kings was used as a burial site for royalty and nobles to the west of present day Luxor, some 700 kilometres (450 miles) south of Cairo.

Millions of foreign tourists come to see Egypt's pharaonic treasures each year, including hundreds of thousands making the long journey south from the capital to the Valley of the Kings.

Hawass said a report on the findings would be presented to Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, in order to allocate resources for continued excavations in the area.

© 2007 AFP



http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1962294.htm

Elusive Egyptian queen found at last?

Egyptologists are confident that remains found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings are those of Hatshepsut, one of the most famous queens to rule ancient Egypt.

Egypt's chief archaeologist Professor Zahi Hawass is expected to announce the discovery later this week, which has been touted as the most important find in the area since the discovery of King Tutankhamen.

The candidate for identification as the mummy of Hatshepsut is believed to be one of two females found in 1903 in a small tomb.

The humble tomb is thought to be that of Hatshepsut's wet nurse, Sitre In.

Several Egyptologists have speculated over the years that one of the mummies was that of the queen, who ruled from between 1503 and 1482 BC at the height of ancient Egypt's power.

It is understood that Hawass will present new evidence this week to identify the queen.

"It's based on teeth and body parts ... It's an interesting piece of scientific deduction which might point to the truth," says an archaeologist familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be named.

But that not all Egyptologists are convinced that Hawass will be able to prove his case.

Egyptologist Elizabeth Thomas speculated many years ago that one of the mummies was Hatshepsut's because the positioning of the right arm over the woman's chest suggested royalty.

Her mummy may have been hidden in the tomb for safekeeping after her death because her stepson and successor Tuthmosis III tried to obliterate her memory.

Dr Donald Ryan, an Egyptologist who rediscovered the tomb in 1989, says on an internet discussion board this month that there are many possibilities for the identities of the two female mummies found in the tomb, known as KV 60.

"Zahi Hawass recently has taken some major steps to address these questions. Both of the KV 60 mummies are in Cairo now and are being examined in various clever ways that very well might shed light on these questions," he adds.

In an undated article on his website, Hawass casts doubt on the theory that the KV-60 mummy with the folded right arm is that of Hatshepsut.

"I do not believe this mummy is Hatshepsut. She has a very large, fat body with huge pendulous breasts, and the position of her arm is not convincing evidence of royalty," he writes.

He is more optimistic about the mummy found in the wet-nurse's coffin and traditionally identified as the nurse's. That mummy is stored at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

"The body of the mummy now in KV 60 with its huge breasts may be the wet nurse, the original occupant of the coffin ... The mummy on the third floor at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo could be the mummy of Hatshepsut," Hawass writes.

[alkemical]

Underwater traces of city at Alexandria emerge
It existed at least seven centuries before Alexander the Great arrived (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19938755/)


It existed at least seven centuries before Alexander the Great arrived
By Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience
Updated: 6:33 p.m. ET July 24, 2007
The legendary city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great as he swept through Egypt in his quest to conquer the known world.

Now scientists have discovered hidden underwater traces of a city that existed at Alexandria at least seven centuries before Alexander the Great arrived, findings hinted at in Homer's Odyssey and that could shed light on the ancient world.

Alexandria was founded in Egypt on the shores of the Mediterranean in 332 B.C. to immortalize Alexander the Great. The city was renowned for its library, once the largest in the world, as well as its lighthouse at the island of Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Alexandria was known to have developed from a settlement known as Rhakotis, or Râ-Kedet, vaguely alluded to as a modest fishing village of little significance by some historians. Seven rod-shaped samples of dirt gathered from the seafloor of Alexandria's harbor now suggest there may have been a flourishing urban center there as far back as 1000 B.C.

Coastal geoarchaeologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and his colleagues used vibrating hollow tubes to gently extract three-inch-wide rods of sediment 6 to 18 feet long (2 to 5.5 meters) from up to 20 feet (6.5 meters) underwater.

Collecting these samples underwater proved challenging. "Alexandria now is home to as many as 4 million people, and we were in the unfortunate position of having to deal with their discharge — human waste, municipal waste, industrial waste — which got released into the harbor," Stanley said. "It's not funny, but you have to sort of laugh."

Ceramic shards, high levels of lead that was likely used in construction, building stones imported from elsewhere in Egypt and organic material likely coming from sewage were detected in the sediment. These all suggest the presence of a significant settlement well before Alexander the Great came. The results are detailed in the August issue of the journal GSA Today.

"Alexandria was built on top of an existing, and perhaps quite important, settlement, maybe one that was minimized in importance because we can't see it now," Stanley told LiveScience. "Nothing really concrete about Rhakotis has been discovered until now."

Alexander the Great likely chose this area for Alexandria since it had a bay to protect a harbor against fierce winter storms in the Mediterranean. "There are very few places in the Egyptian Mediterranean coast where the coastline is not smooth," Stanley said. "This would have been the best place to establish a harbor."


Stanley added this bay was even noted in Homer's epic Odyssey: "Now in the surging sea an island lies, Pharos they call it. By it there lies a bay with a good anchorage, from which they send the trim ships off to sea."

This area might have been a haven throughout ancient times for the Greeks, Minoans, Phoenicians and others. Future research could shed light on the life of mariners at this settlement before Alexander came. "Virtually nothing is known of the people who would have lived there," Stanley said.

© 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19938755/

[alkemical]

NASA Images Find 1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made Bridge between India and Sri Lanka (http://www.lankalibrary.com/geo/ancient/nasa.htm)

http://www.lankalibrary.com/images/adamsb3.jpg


Adam´s Bridge is 30 km long

"In the eighteenth incarnation (of Lord Krishna), the Lord appeared as King Rama. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Ravana, who was on the other side of the sea" - Srimad Bhagavatam


(@PTI) Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam´s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

The bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge´s age is also almost equivalent.

This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).

In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme.

This information may not be of much importance to the archeologists who are interested in exploring the origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual gates of the people of the world to have come to know an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology.

Comment From Hugh Joseph (10-12-02)


(long read continued on site)

[alkemical]

Udumbara Flowers Blossom in Fremont, California - First time legendary flowers are seen in North America (http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-8-16/58810.html)


Sharks Have Genes for Fingers and Toes (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070815-shark-gene.html)

[Bronco Bob]

Udumbara (http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-8-16/58810.html)


Sharks Have Genes for Fingers and Toes (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070815-shark-gene.html)


I read an article in the New York Times talking about genes and evolution.
There is a line of research which is studying that new species might not
depend on genetic mutations to arise, but rather depending on which gene
is dominant is what determines the differentiation between species.
For example in Galapagos finches there are sets of genes that determine
the length and thickness of a beak. So in a species that drinks necter,
the genes that cause long slender beaks become dominant. While in a species
that eats nuts the genes that cause short, sturdy beaks become dominant.
But all the different species have the same gene sets. The differences
in species just depends on which genes are dominant in those species.
So basically sharks had the ability to grow fingers and toes all along,
but there was no useful reason to do so and it wasn't until they
evolved into boney fish and these fish evolved into amphibians did
these genes come to become dominant.

[alkemical]

I read an article in the New York Times talking about genes and evolution.
There is a line of research which is studying that new species might not
depend on genetic mutations to arise, but rather depending on which gene
is dominant is what determines the differentiation between species.
For example in Galapagos finches there are sets of genes that determine
the length and thickness of a beak. So in a species that drinks necter,
the genes that cause long slender beaks become dominant. While in a species
that eats nuts the genes that cause short, sturdy beaks become dominant.
But all the different species have the same gene sets. The differences
in species just depends on which genes are dominant in those species.
So basically sharks had the ability to grow fingers and toes all along,
but there was no useful reason to do so and it wasn't until they
evolved into boney fish and these fish evolved into amphibians did
these genes come to become dominant.


What would make a shark become boney?

[alkemical]

Diamond record of ancient Earth (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6959224.stm)


Diamond record of ancient Earth
Tiny diamonds found in Australia suggest the early Earth was not a hellish world for as long as previously supposed, the journal Nature reports.
The miniature gems, from Jack Hills in the west of the country, are encased in zircon crystals that have been dated up to 4.25 billion years ago.

Scientists say their analysis of the diamonds suggests the planet had cooled sufficiently by then to form a crust.

This shell may even have been moving and exchanging material with the deep.

In other words, the diamonds could be the earliest evidence for plate tectonics, the theory used today to explain how the continents drift across the surface of the globe and rocks are recycled into the interior.

"We have compared these diamonds with known diamonds and so far it seems like the most similar diamonds are ultra-high pressure diamonds which form in a subduction process," explained Martina Menneken from Westfalische-Wilhelms University in Muenster, Germany.

"Today these form in plate tectonics surroundings. The implication is: did we have plate tectonics at this early stage of the Earth? I still think this is controversial; we cannot prove it and we need to do further research," she told the BBC's Science In Action Programme.

Rock survivors

Scientists describe the first phase in Earth history as the Hadean, when the planet would have begun its existence nearly 4.6 billion years ago as a sphere of molten rock circling the proto-Sun.

The traditional view was that it took several hundred million years for the Earth to cool enough for a crust to form and for oceans to condense out of a thick atmosphere.

That view has been challenged in the past 20 years with the discovery of zircons in Western Australia. These minute crystals - made of zirconium, silicon and oxygen, among other elements - are the tough remnants of ancient rocks that have long since disappeared. Today, these crystals are incorporated into more recent rocks, such as those at Jack Hills.


Scientists have used radioactive dating to put some of the zircons' formation as far back as 4.4 billion years ago; and it has become clear from these crystals' geochemistry that the Earth would also have had to have been cooler and wetter much earlier because they show evidence of growing out of low-temperature magma that had been in contact with water.
The new analysis by Menneken and colleagues looks at the diamond inclusions in the zircons.

It is not clear how the diamonds got into the zircons. Normally, diamonds will form under intense pressure, from deep burial or perhaps from meteoroid impacts.

The team says that from its examination, deep burial looks the more obvious contender - and that supports the notion of a crust that was re-cycled deep within the Earth.

Geoscience 'presents'

This suggestion is problematic, however, for some commentators, who point out that the zircon crystals themselves show no signs of being exposed to very high pressures.

Dr Ian Williams, of the Australian National University, says this conundrum could in fact lead some to take diamond analysis as support for a hotter early Earth.


"If the evidence of the diamonds is correct and the Hadean zircons did crystallise from magmas at high pressure, then those magmas could not have been crustal melts," he tells Nature.
This would undermine other inferences about the zircons, he said, in particular that they formed at lower temperatures and at shallower depths within the Earth.

What is certain, say researchers, is that the tiny zircons - they are about 0.3mm across - continue to give fascinating insights into the Earth's beginnings.

"Any information about the very early Earth is fantastic; it's like a Christmas present for geoscientists," said Dr Martin Van Kranendonk, a senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

"[The Nature study] provides a new constraint for geoscientists to consider how the Earth formed into the planet it is today. It's another piece in the early Earth puzzle."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/6959224.stm

Published: 2007/08/23 17:33:45 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[alkemical]

‘Underwater eyes’ spot new critters in Atlantic (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20426778/)

‘Underwater eyes’ spot new critters in Atlantic
Digital cameras snap new species like shrimp with bulging orange eyes
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Updated: 2:21 p.m. ET Aug 24, 2007
A submerged mountain ridge beneath the North Atlantic Ocean has revealed a new crustacean species and oodles of other life forms, ranging from polka-dotted glass squid resembling beach balls to grim viperfish with teeth like ice-picks.

The finds were made by a team of 31 scientists during a five-week expedition to explore life along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge using remotely operated vehicles equipped with digital cameras and other technologies.

The "underwater eyes" surveyed regions from a half-mile to 2 miles (800 to 3,500 meters) deep and revealed distinct habitats, with colorful carpets of sponges and corals covering the rocky cliffs, and starfish, brittle-stars, sea cucumbers and burrowing worms taking residence in the softer sediments. Above the ridge, fishes, crabs, squid and shrimps foraged for food.

On the western side of the underwater ridge, the scientists, led by Monty Priede of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, discovered swarms of what could be a new species of Ostracod, or seed shrimp. The shrimp-like animal camouflages itself in the murky waters between depths of 164 and 656 feet (50 and 200 meters) with its see-through body.

As with the seed shrimp, the appearance and lifestyle of all the ridge's wonky creatures are a perfect fit for deep-sea life. The jewel squid, for instance, sports lopsided eyes to keep an eye out for predators (like the viperfish) both above and below.

“It is like surveying a new continent half way between America and Europe," Priede said. "We can recognize the creatures, but familiar ones are absent and unusual ones are common. We are finding species that are rare or unknown elsewhere in the world.”

The scientists still have extensive work to do studying the collected creatures along with physical data from the region.

"The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is still relatively unexplored so this voyage will have played a vital role in expanding our knowledge of the biodiversity of the region," said Steve Wilson, director of science and innovation for the Natural Environment Research Council in Wiltshire, England, which funded the expedition.


© 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20426778/

[alkemical]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/fsu-fcp031108.php

FSU classics professor exploring a 'lost' city of the Mycenaeans