This topic is essentially about new discoveries, inventions and explorations. If you have a new one to report, post it on this thread with the appropriate date, about when it was discovered.
Well-documented evidence with pictures to support it would be much better, but sometimes that is not possible, with latest discoveries. Like the one I begin this topic with.
**********
Cave networks found under Car Park in Bristol have RELICS from the LAST ICE AGE.
***
Cavers Find Prehistoric Remains Beneath Pub Car Park
By Lucy Rodgers, PA News Fri 19th march, 2004. 12:06pm (UK)
*
A group of cavers who became bored during the foot-and-mouth crisis today told how they discovered a hidden network of caverns under a pub car park.
With the countryside off limits, members of the Bristol Exploration Club agreed to help to clear out a drain in the car park of the Hunters Lodge Inn at Priddy in the Mendip Hills in Somerset.
But rather than blocked pipes, the group was stunned to find a vast network of previously unexplored caverns.
Although the Mendips contain some of Britain’s best-known caves, including Wookey Hole, members of the 69-year-old club had no idea that the pub was positioned on top of some of the best Ice Age relics found for 150 years.
After digging and blasting under the car park for two years, the 15-strong team’s 6-metre deep entrance hole gave way to a 30-metre cavern containing prehistoric bones and an underground world of stalagmites and stalactites.
The hundreds of bones of extinct animals, including ancestors of bison and deer, are believed to have been washed into the caves nearly 10,000 years ago.
The last significant discovery of bones in a Mendip cave was at least 150 years ago.
Tony Jarrett, 54, the cavers’ team leader, said: “We have been digging for years in the area trying to discover new caves and expand previously discovered ones.
“But during the foot-and-mouth crisis, like other cavers, we had nothing to do. So we agreed with the landlord of the pub that we would have a look at his drain.
“There was just a two-inch fissure in the rock a natural one into which the rainwater from the pub roof and the car park used to drain.
“We suspected there was something down there the water had to escape somewhere. So we went down.”
Their exploits paid off and they went on to discover what Mr Jarrett describes one of the most exciting finds he had come across in 40 years of caving.
“We popped out into a cave of stalactites and stalagmites,” he said. “We expected something a little less dramatic and were amazed. Every time we found something it was not at all what we expected. It is very rare to discover something like this and it is of huge importance.”
The cavers have named the caverns the Pewter Pot, the Barmaids’ Bedrooms and Brown Ale Boulevard, in honour of the Hunters Lodge.
But they also believe that they may be close to breaking through into a much larger underground network.
Mr Jarrett said: “There are four passages and we know of two or three other systems which run towards the same complex.” Experts at the British Museum have identified the discovered bones as belonging to animals which roamed Britain during the last Ice Age. Many of them are now on display at the nearby Wells Museum in Somerset.
*~Come play with my children feel the peace and Scatter some joy.~* ~*Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your's burn any brighter.*~ *** Heck was created for those who refuse to believe in Gosh. ***
Posts: 5819 | Location: India | Registered: 07-03-01
March 25, 2004 — The tomb of King Tutankhamun has given up the key to uncovering the origins of enology, Spanish researchers report in the current issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.
While analyzing the dark brown deposit found inside a wine jar retrieved from the tomb of King Tut, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós and colleagues from Barcelona University developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine in archaeological samples.
Scientists have detected wine in a jar from as far back as 5400 B.C., found at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran.
Scientists have detected wine in a jar from as far back as 5400 B.C., found at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran.
But the earliest knowledge about wine cultivation comes from ancient Egypt, where the winemaking process was represented on tomb walls dating to 2600 B.C.
"The New Kingdom wine jars were labeled with product, year, source, and even the name of the vine grower, but they did not mention the type (color) of wines contained," wrote the researchers.
The jar of Tutankhamun, who became Pharaoh in about 1333 B.C. and reigned for less than a decade, was no exception. Its inscription reads: "Year 5. Wine of the House-of-Tutankhamun Ruler-of-the-Southern-On, l.p.h.[in] the Western River. By the chief vintner Khaa."
Using a highly-sensitive detection technique, which combines liquid chromatography — the use of various methods to analyze complex mixtures — and mass spectrometry — a technique to analyze chemicals — the researchers first identified tartaric acid in the jar.
Rarely found in nature from sources other than grapes, tartaric acid has been used before as a marker for the presence of wine in ancient residues. However, the compound doesn't discriminate between red and white grapes.
The researchers then used the same highly sensitive technique — called LC-MS-MS — to detect syringic acid. This is a breakdown product of malvidin-3-glucoside, the major component that imparts color to red wine.
No other juice used in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean region contains this chemical.
The test came up positive, revealing that King Tut eased his journey to the afterlife with a stash of red wine.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
[This message was edited by Genevieve on 03-30-04 at 11:27 AM.]
[This message was edited by Genevieve on 03-30-04 at 11:27 AM.]
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
March 26, 2004 — Earth has acquired a "quasi-moon" — an asteroid that will encircle our planet for the next couple of years while it orbits the sun on a horseshoe-shaped path, according to a report to be published on Saturday in New Scientist.
The asteroid, 2003 YN17, "is probably a chunk of debris" from an impact between a larger space rock and the surface of the moon, the British weekly said.
2003 YN17's orbital plane is roughly the same as the earth's, but its unusual path, compounded by a corkscrew-like track, means that sometimes it is ahead of us and sometimes it is behind.
"Since 1996, its path has taken it round the earth, making it a quasi-satellite. This phase will last until 2006," the report said.
The finders are a team led by Paul Chodas, an asteroid specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Two other "quasi-moons" — temporary fellow-travellers that loop around the earth for while as they girdle the sun — have been spotted in recent years: Cluithne and asteroid 2002 AA29.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
May 24, 2004 — The first birds glided through the air on four wings and only later developed into the light-skeletoned two-winged creatures that we see now, new research into the bird fossil Archaeopteryx has revealed.
Discovered in 1861 in the German quarry of Solnhofen and now kept in Berlin's Humboldt Museum, Archaeopteryx is a 150-million-year-old pigeon- sized creature that looked like a dinosaur with feathers.
Since its discovery, the fossil has been the subject of various theories of evolution, and often hailed as a missing link between reptiles and birds.
Zoologist Per Christiansen of Copenhagen University and palaeontologist Niels Bonde of Copenhagen's Geological Institute looked into various anecdotal reports that faint feathers could be seen on archaeopteryx's hind legs.
Using traditional light microscopy and a tracing technique for illustrations, the researchers analyzed the Archaeopteryx specimen.
"Three- to four-centimeter-long feathers are present around the legs, and although not well preserved, shafts and in some places parallel, closely set barbs can be observed," the researchers wrote in the French journal Comptes Rendus Palevol.
Too small to be used in flight, the leg feathers could have been the remnants of a hind wing, the research suggested.
Contour feathers were also clustered along the creature's back and possibly on the base of the neck. Appearing fairly modern-looking, the feathers on the back and on the legs allowed a comparison with feathered dinosaurs and primitive birds.
Indeed, fossils of some small and primitive dromaeosaurs — two-legged, small carnivorous dinosaurs closely related to birds — show long feathers behind the legs. Moreover, Microraptor, a bird-like dinosaur discovered in China last year, appears to possess not only Archaeopteryx-like wings, but apparently flight feathers on all four limbs.
According to the latest research, Microraptor lived between 124 and 145 million years ago in trees and used the two pairs of wings, limbs outstretched, to glide between branches.
When flight evolved in later dromaeosaurs and birds, the hind wing might have disappeared and the hind limbs reverted to walking.
The analysis of Microraptor and the Archaeopteryx fossils not only supported the idea that the earliest birds were four-winged gliders, but also suggested that feathers launched the evolution of flight.
"We concluded that feathers originated long before flight," said the researchers.
However, more investigation will be needed to understand avian evolution. The problem is that bird fossils are extremely rare. There are only seven known fossils of Archaeopteryx, all discovered in the Solnhofen quarry. But the Berlin specimen is the only surviving one to preserve remnants of body plumage.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
(CBS) It sounds like science fiction, but The Early Show has learned that a handful of blind adults now have some sense of sight, thanks to new medical technology called the Dobelle Artificial Vision System.
Dr. William Dobelle spent 30 years researching and developing his Artificial Vision System, which works by using a miniature television camera mounted on the lens of a patient's sunglasses. The camera sends images to a microcomputer worn on a belt around the waist.
The 10-pound, dictionary-sized microcomputer processes the data, sends signals to a stimulator and then to electrodes that have been surgically implanted on visual cortex areas on both sides of the brain. In other words, the brain cells that control sight are being artificially stimulated by small electric pulses. The electrodes are attached to a wire that protrudes through a small hole in the patient's skull and hooks up to the computer.
Dr. Dobelle first implanted a similar electrode in a volunteer in 1978. In April 2002, the procedure and accompanying technology were ready for the first commercial patients. Eight patients paid around $100,000 each and traveled to Portugal for the procedure, which has not yet been submitted to the FDA for approval. Eventually, Dr. Dobelle believes his vision system will become widely available all over the world.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Ok - this one is a bit far fetched and I have some serious doubts. Show me pictures, show me 'ditty' DNA...something or some kind of proof...
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Oct. 13, 2006 —Nine Neolithic-era buildings have been excavated in the Stonehenge world heritage site, according to a report in the journal British Archaeology.
The structures, which appear to have been homes, date to 2,600-2,500 B.C. and were contemporary with the earliest stone settings at the site's famous megalith. They are the first house-like structures discovered there.
Julian Thomas, who worked on the project and is chair of the archaeology department at Manchester University in England, said Stonehenge could have been a key gathering place at the Neolithic era's version of a housing development.
The buildings all had plaster floors and timber frames, and most had a central hearth. Two, including a house possibly inhabited by a community chief or priest, were enclosed by ringed ditches, the largest measuring 131 feet across. Postholes indicate a wooden fence would have surrounded the smaller of the two structures.
"If the structure inside the large ditch was indeed a chief's house, this individual would have been living rather humbly like the rest of the population, since the building itself wouldn't have been elaborate," Thomas said. "It's like a humble house that was meant to be separated and secluded from the outside world."
Near the buildings were remnants of grooved pottery characteristic of the period, along with stone tools. The findings suggest many people lived at the site around 4,600 years ago.
Thomas thinks many more residences could have once stood there.
"People at that time were probably mobile and living in flimsy buildings, which would have since eroded," he explained.
Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology and a leading expert on Stonehenge, told Discovery News the two isolated buildings at the site may have been shrines and not residences, but he thinks it's also possible the buildings were home to Stone Age VIP's.
"Perhaps these did house chiefs, or powerful priests," said Pitts. "Work is continuing, but it is clear that at last we are starting to see the exceptional archaeology we would expect to find in a landscape that until recently was (thought to be) almost empty except, at its center, for Stonehenge."
Excavation work is expected to continue over the next three summers.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
Vision Restored in Blind Mice Staff, Discovery News
Nov. 9, 2006 — Blind mice can now see, thanks to a breakthrough procedure that involves transplanting light-sensitive cells into damaged eyes.
The mice had photoreceptor loss, a condition that leads to macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness among elderly people. Photoreceptor cells line the back of the retina, are sensitive to light and are critical for sight.
Rather than transplanting raw stem cells into the mice’s eyes, researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center developed the new method, which taps stem cells that have already begun to form photoreceptor cells.
These so-called rod precursor cells are fostered to a key level of maturity so they are able to survive and function in the retinas of their new hosts. Scientists at the London Institute of Ophthalmology used the Michigan team's approach to successfully restore vision to laboratory mice.
The procedure, described in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, is considered a breakthrough in transplantation-based therapies for neuro-degenerated diseases.
"We believed that if we could understand how cells develop and become photoreceptors — or any other specific neuron — our transplantation efforts would meet with greater success," Anand Swaroop, of the University of Michigan Medical School, said in a release.
"This technique gives us new insights in repairing damage to the retina and possibly other parts of the central nervous system."
Photoreceptors consist of rods and cones, which are highly specialized cells that capture light and convert it into chemical signals. These signals travel to the brain where they are converted to the images we see.
In the majority of macular and retinal degenerative diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, it is the loss of photoreceptors that leads to blindness.
Previous research had attempted transplanting stem cells, which have the capability to form any type of cell. These procedures had failed since the stem cells did not form photoreceptor cells.
Swaroop and the other participating researchers, including Robert MacLaren of Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and Robin R. Ali, of Molecular Therapy at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London, pointed out that the precursor cells transplanted in the diseased mouse retinas met several key requirements.
First, the cells survived, they correctly developed into mature rod photoreceptors, they worked with neurons that carry visual signals to the brain and they ultimately proved to be functional.
While the work offers promise in finding a cure for one of the most common causes of blindess, Swaroop and the others cautioned that a successful procedure in animals is not comparable to a success in humans.
Further years of research using animal models and cell culture systems will be required, Swaroop said, before the transplantation is ready for testing in people.
"Perhaps within the next five years we will begin to see the first steps toward retinal cell transplants for people with blinding eye disease," Swaroop said in a statement.
"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." ~William Arthur Ward
Posts: 1914 | Location: New England | Registered: 11-30-00
