Researchers Discover 200-year-old Message in a Bottle: A ‘Magic Moment’

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

A team of student archaeologists in France received an amazing surprise while working on a site dating to Gaulic times.

Carried out under the direction of Guillaume Blondel, director of the municipal archaeological service of the city of Eu, the excavations delivered, among other things, a moving and very special testimony from the past.

Located in a previously investigated section of the site, a message was discovered in a small glass bottle from the 19th century accompanied by two coins: a “time capsule” buried almost 200 years ago, a statement from the service read.

“P. J. Féret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations here in January 1825. He continues his investigations in this vast area known as the Cité de Limes or Caesar’s Camp.”

The message in a bottle had been carefully placed in a ceramic pot dating to a much earlier century so that future archaeologists would be sure to find it.

“It was an absolutely magic moment,” Mr. Blondel told the BBC. “We knew there had been excavations here in the past, but to find this message from 200 years ago… it was a total surprise.”

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

“Sometimes you see these time capsules left behind by carpenters when they build houses. But it’s very rare in archaeology. Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work!”

Local archives indeed place P. J. Féret in the area as a historical excavator at the time the letter was dated.

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

The work was funded and carried out in partnership with the Regional Archaeology Service to preserve archaeological sites that are endangered with the decline of the coastline. Already a part of the ‘oppidum’ or fortified Gaulic camp, has fallen away with the crumbling of the coastal hillside on which it was perched.

The Gauls were a series of interconnected feudal (at best) and tribal (at worst) societies that shared societal, cultural, and warrior practices, and who inhabited most of central and western Europe during the time of the Roman Republic.

Gaius Julius Caesar waged a campaign to pacify Gaul, hence the name “Caesar’s Camp,” which brough Spain, France, and Belgium, under Roman control. Researchers Discover 200-year-old Message in a Bottle: A ‘Magic Moment’

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Scientists hunt for universe's very first rays of light

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WASHINGTON (VOR)— It's a strange thought that some of the rays we bask in have taken millions of years to arrive.

More, that this light has taken a circuitous route, being bent by forces such as gravity. Now, scientists have begun to unravel the path of light, and in doing so may be able to develop a clearer map of the universe. To do so, scientists are attempting to track down a specific type of light which they describes as a primordial B mode. This light wave is believed to have been released less than a second after the very universe was formed. One catch to the search is that scientists don't quite know how powerful the signal may be, or in fact what it might look like. Nonetheless, vast microwave telescopes are being set up at the South Pole because of its arid climate to seek deep into space in an attempt to identify the level of polarization as well as the direction of the light wave. For insight, VOR’s Andrew Hiller spoke with Olivier Doré, a member of the Planck science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Dore' speculates that some of that light may have already reached Earth. Though invisible to the naked eye, he says it may exist in the background of the spectrum. To explain, he conjures the analogy of television static picked up using an old fashioned antenna. He says that if you could look through the prism and see every wavelength of light... the distortion you receive or TV-like snow may be where these primordial b modes hide. But scientists aren't just interested in finding ancient light that's made its way to us. They want to trace it back to its origins and pick up other threads deep in space as a way of piecing together the tapestry of the universe. Dore' believes this discovery "…is really opening a new window into the physics of the universe. It's something really, really unique!" Source: Voice of Russia - US Edition

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Big Bang: does 'extraordinary' discovery prove theory right?

A signal from the dawn of time could be the 'smoking gun' that confirms the Big Bang theory

SCIENTISTS have announced "extraordinary" new evidence that supports a 'Big Bang' theory for the origin of the universe. If it is verified, the discovery will prove the theory that the universe expanded incredibly rapidly in less than a trillionth of a second after it was formed. Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at MIT, told the New York Times: "If this stays true, it will go down as one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science." What has been discovered? Researchers at Harvard University believe they have found a "signal in the sky" that emerged during the first moments of ultra-rapid expansion just after the universe came into existence, the BBC reports. The scientists think they have observed gravitational waves, first postulated in 1916 by Albert Einstein as part of his General Theory of Relativity. Gravitation waves are essentially ripples in space-time that have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang", Science Daily explains. How was it discovered? Researchers have been peering into space with a telescope set up at the South Pole where the dry, thin air creates "ideal observing conditions". The telescope, known as Bicep2 – Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 – allowed scientists to analyse the polarisation of light left over from our universe's early moments. What is Big Bang Theory? Big Bang theory holds that the universe exploded from an infinitesimally small, dense space and expanded rapidly into what we see today 13.8 billion years later. Thirty years ago, an extra element was added to the theory called "inflation", which proposed that less than a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe went through a sudden period of explosive growth. Scientists now believe that they have seen a particular signal that relates to that moment. The Bicep2 results are the "smoking gun for inflation", Marc Kamionkowski, professor of physics and astronomy, said at a news conference. Why is inflation important? The results are particularly exciting for scientists because they may help to unite the four recognised fundamental forces of the nature (gravity, electromagnetism, and strong and weak nuclear forces) into a unified 'Theory of Everything'. The results will need to be examined closely, but already there is talk of the scientists involved being awarded with the Nobel prize. British scientist Dr Jo Dunkley, told the BBC: "I can't tell you how exciting this is. Inflation sounds like a crazy idea, but everything that is important, everything we see today – the galaxies, the stars, the planets – was imprinted at that moment, in less than a trillionth of a second. If this is confirmed, it's huge."  Source: Article

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Bright Star Reveals New Exoplanet

Credit: Vincent Van Eylen

By studying the star around which the planet revolves, they found that the star's rotation appears to be well-aligned with the planetary movement. The object can be well-studied because the star is relatively bright, it can be seen if strong binoculars are used. The planet orbits one star of what appears to be a binary star, and the orbit is not circular but slightly eccentric. This is an artist impression of the star Kepler-410A. The black dot represents the planet Kepler-410A b, as it moves in front of the star, blocking a small part of the star light and thereby allowing it to be indirectly detected. The stellar companion Kepler-410B is about 10,000 times further away from the planet and is not shown on the image. The planet is a bit larger than our Earth, with a radius of about 2.8 times that of our planet. With a period of around 18 days, it is much closer to its star than Earth is to our sun, and therefore unlikely to be suitable for life due to its high temperature. Perturbations on the discovered planet indicate that there is likely another, as of yet unknown planet in the system. After the first discovery of the first exoplanet (a planet around which doesn't orbit our Sun, but another star), the number of planets has increased up to around 1000 currently known exoplanets. Kepler-410A b is interesting because it can be studied in detail. It has been observed for four years with the Kepler space telescope, a NASA satellite which has monitored the brightness of more than 150.000 stars simultaneously, to look for small regularly-recurring dips in the light, which are indicative of the presence of an exoplanet. The exquisite quality of the Kepler data has allowed a very detailed study of the host star. On top of that, the star is rather bright; it is in fact the third brightest exoplanet host star discovered by Kepler. This has allowed the team to study tiny variations in the stellar brightness caused by stellar pulsations, a technique which is called asteroseismology. Thereby they have been able to measure stellar properties such as its mass and radius to an accuracy of a few percent. "Ultimately, to understand anything about exoplanets, we need to understand the stars they revolve around. In this case, asteroseismology has even allowed us to measure the inclination angle of the star. We now know we are looking at the equator of the star, not at the pole. This can be compared with the orbit of the planet to learn about planetary formation. The star is around 2.7 giga-years old and is a little larger than the Sun. We will never be able to go there, as it is located at around 425 lightyears from Earth," says lead author Vincent Van Eylen. Because of the brightness of the star, it is a suitable target for further observations. The team has accurately measured the times of transit and found it doesn't cross the star exactly every 17.8 days, but is slightly perturbed: the planet is sometimes up to 15 minutes late or early. These perturbations indicate that there could be another planet present, slightly pulling or pushing Kepler-410A b around. "We are confident that there is another planet, but because it doesn't move in front of the star, we don't yet know what it is like," says Vincent Van Eylen. Contacts and sources: Vincent Van Eylen, Aarhus University, The findings are published in Astrophysical Journal. The international team consists of 15 people from 7 different universities. Lead author Vincent Van Eylen is a PhD student at Aarhus University in Denmark, and he is also associated to the KU Leuven. The work originates from his master project, which he undertook in Aarhus as part of an Erasmus exchange year.Vincent Van Eyen regularly blogs at Scilogs.be, a blog portal by the magazine EOS. Source: Article

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Unknown class of bacteria found under ice crust of Antarctic lake

Tests of water samples from Antarctica's Lake Vostok have yielded a completely new class of bacteria, a Russian scientist has told reporters.

The frozen samples were brought up from under the Antarctic ice in May 2012. Sergei Bulat of St. Petersburg’s Nuclear Physics Institute said they collected a core sample of water frozen into the borehole. He said the probe contained bacteria that didn’t belong to any known phyla, which is the next ranking above a class in size. In May, the samples will be brought to the lab by the Akademik Feodorov icebreaker to confirm the discovery. Voice of Russia, RIA, Source: Voice of Russia

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First Look: Antarctic Subglacial Lake Explored By Minisub

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A video camera on a NASA-designed-and-funded mini-submarine captured this view as it descended a 2,600-foot-deep (800-meter-deep) borehole to explore Antarctica's subglacial Lake Whillans. The international Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project was designed to gain insights into subglacial biology, climate history and modern ice sheet behavior. When researcher Alberto Behar from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., joined an international Antarctic expedition last month on a trek to investigate a subglacial lake, he brought with him a unique instrument designed and funded by NASA to help the researchers study one of the last unexplored aquatic environments on Earth. First view of the bottom of Antarctic subglacial Lake Whillans, captured by the high-resolution imaging system aboard the Micro-Submersible Lake Exploration Device. The imagery and other data from the mini-sub were used to survey the lake floor and help the WISSARD team verify that the rest of their instruments could be safely deployed into the lake.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Called the Micro-Submersible Lake Exploration Device, the instrument was a small robotic sub about the size and shape of a baseball bat. Designed to expand the range of extreme environments accessible by humans while minimally disturbing the environment, the sub was equipped with hydrological chemical sensors and a high-resolution imaging system. The instruments and cameras characterize the geology, hydrology and chemical characteristics of the sub's surroundings. Behar supervised a team of students from Arizona State University, Tempe, in designing, developing, testing and operating the first-of-its-kind sub. NASA/JPL researcher Alberto Behar joins an international Antarctic expedition to investigate a subglacial lake. This is the first instrument ever to explore a subglacial lake outside of a borehole," Behar said. "It's able to take us places that are inaccessible by any other instruments in existence." The sub was deployed by the U.S. team of the international Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project. The project's objective was to access subglacial Lake Whillans, located more than 2,000 feet (610 meters) below sea level, deep within West Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, nearly 700 miles (about 1,125 kilometers) from the U.S. McMurdo Station. The 20-square-mile (50-square-kilometer) lake is totally devoid of sunlight and has a temperature of 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 0.5 degrees Celsius). It is part of a vast Antarctic subglacial aquatic system that covers an area about the size of the continental United States. The WISSARD team included researchers from eight U.S. universities and two collaborating international institutions. They used specialized tools to get clean samples of subglacial lake water and sediments, survey the lake floor with video and characterize the biological, chemical and physical properties of the lake and its surroundings. Their research is designed to gain insights into subglacial biology, climate history and modern ice sheet behavior. The instrument consists of a "mothership" connected to a deployment device that houses the submarine. The sub is designed to operate at depths of up to three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) and within a range of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) from the bottom of the borehole that was drilled through the ice to reach the lake. It transmits real-time high-resolution imagery, salinity, temperature and depth measurements to the surface via fiber-optic cables. In a race against time and the elements to access the lake before the end of the current
Antarctic field season, the WISSARD team spent three days in January drilling a 2,600-foot-deep (800-meters), 20-inch-wide (50-centimeters) borehole into the lake, which they reached on Jan. 28. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, the sub was then sent down the borehole, where it was initially used to guide drilling operations. When the instrument finally reached the lake, the team used its imagery to survey the lake floor. The data enabled the team to verify that the rest of the project's instruments could be safely deployed into the lake. The WISSARD team was then able to proceed with its next phase: collecting lake water samples to search for microbial life. And that search has apparently paid off. Earlier this month, the team reported that the lake water did indeed contain living bacteria, a discovery that might hold important implications for the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Core funding for WISSARD and the Micro-Submersible Lake Exploration Device was provided by the National Science Foundation-Office of Polar Programs. The sub was funded by NASA's Cryospheric Sciences and Astrobiology programs. Additional funds for WISSARD instrument development were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Contacts and sources: Alan Buis, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, For more on WISSARD, visit: http://www.wissard.org . For more on Behar's previous robotic Antarctic research, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/antarctic-shrimp.html .Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

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Rare migratory bird spotted after 113 years in Himachal

Known for being silent or alternatively not-so-musical for most of their lifetime, their musical utterances at the moment of death have been suggested as the origin of the swan song legend. Much for the delight of ornithologists, this melodious rare winter migrant birdie- “whooper swan” is the new winged guest at Pong Dam Lake wetland this winter. A pair of whooper swans was spotted in the Nagrota Suriyan on January 29. The bird has been a rare migrant to India and has been recorded at Pong Dam for first time, while in India it was last recorded a century ago in 1900. “We recorded a pair of the whooper swan (pronounced as hooper). It was a chance discovery and we have taken some photographs of the bird as a proof,” said assistant conservator of forest (wildlife), Dharamsala, DS Dhadwal, adding that “the bird is a rare migrant to India and it normally migrates from Central Asia and Europe”. “The last record of this bird, shot on the river Beas is by EH Aitken in 1900 before that AO Hume has mentioned the bird in his notes on Swans of India in 1878,” said Dhadwal. Meanwhile, Dhadwal told that this was the 418th bird species to be recorded at the Pong Dam wetland, 417th being the “Ruddy Breasted Crake” recorded only last month. The reappearance of the whooper swan, with distinctive long thin neck and yellow bill, at the Pong wetlands has attracted the attention of ornithologists. "As soon as the news about the sighting of the swans flashed, the official present at the Pong Dam preparing the ongoing two day avian count race, got a number of enquiries from bird lovers across the country," Dhadwal said. The Red Data Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature – a compendium of species facing extinction – has put the whooper swan in the least concern category. Amongst the heaviest flying birds, whooper swan has an average body weight of 9.8-11.4 kg for males and 8.2-9.2 kg for females, and has extremely large range. It prefers shallow freshwater pools, lakes, marshes and swamps. Whooper swans require large areas of water to live in, especially when they are still growing, because their body weight cannot be supported by their legs for extended periods of time. The whooper swan spends much of its time swimming, straining the water for food, or eating plants that grow on the bottom. Despite their size, whooper swans are powerful fliers and can migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles to their wintering sites in southern Europe and eastern Asia. The whooper swan is the national bird of Finland and is featured on the Finnish 1 euro coin.Source: Hindustan Times

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300-million-year-old UFO tooth-wheel found in Russian city of Vladivostok

Lighting the fire during a cold winter evening a resident of Vladivostok found a rail-shaped metal detail which was pressed in one of the pieces of coal that the man used to heat his home. Mesmerized by his discovery, the responsible citizen decided to seek help from the scientists of Primorye region. After the metal object was studied by the leading experts the man was shocked to learn about the assumed age of his discovery. The metal detail was supposedly 300 million years old and yet the scientists suggest that it was not created by nature but was rather manufactured by someone. The question of who might have made an aluminum gear in the dawn of time remains unanswered.

Nowadays, finding a strange artifact in coal is a relatively frequent occurrence. The first discovery of this sort was made in 1851 when the workers in one of the Massachusetts mines extracted a zinc silver-incrusted vase from a block of unmined coal which dated all the way back to the Cambrian era which was approximately 500 million years ago. Sixty one years later, American scientists from Oklahoma discovered an iron pot which was pressed into a piece of coal aged 312 million years old. Then, in 1974, an aluminum assembly part of unknown origin was found in a sandstone quarry in Romania. Reminiscent of a hammer or  a support leg of a spacecraft “Apollo”, the piece dated back to the Jurassic era and could not have been manufactured by a human. All of these discoveries not only puzzled the experts but also undermined the most fundamental doctrines of modern science. The metal detail which was recently found by Vladivostok resident is yet another discovery which perplexed the scientists. The coal in which the metal object was pressed was delivered to Primorye from Chernogorodskiy mines of Khakasia region. Knowing that the coal deposits of this region date 300 million years back, Russian experts inferred that the metal detail found in these deposits must be an age-mate of the coal. When geologists broke the piece of coal in which the metal object was pressed  into and spot-treated in with special chemical agents, it turned out that the metal detail was unusually light and soft. No more than seven centimeters long, the object was found to be composed of 98 percent aluminum and 2 percent magnesium. On the one hand, such an alloy stalled the scientists because nearly pure aluminum is very rarely found in nature. Thus, the detail was most definitely created artificially. On the other hand, however, when it became clear that the object was made from aluminum-magnesium alloy the experts quickly found an answer to the question of how a metal detail could withstand the ravages of time so well. The scientists explained that pure aluminum is increasingly prone to oxidization which contributes to the creation of a special layer protecting it from further corrosion. As a result, the metal detail made 98 percent from aluminum can endure not only high pressure but also heat and other severe natural conditions. Another question that interests Russian scientists is whether the aluminum alloy is of Earthly origin. It is known from the study of meteorites that there exists extra-terrestrial aluminum-26 which subsequently breaks down to magnesium-26. The presence of 2 percent of magnesium in the alloy might well point to the alien origin of the aluminum detail. Nonetheless, further testing is needed to confirm this hypothesis. The last property of the object that puzzled the scientists was its distinctive shape which was reminiscent of a modern tooth-wheel. It is hard to imagine that an object could take regular shape of a tooth-wheel with six identical ‘teeth’ naturally. Moreover, the intervals between the ‘teeth’ of the gear are curiously large in relation to the size of the ‘teeth’ themselves which might mean that the detail was a part of a complicated mechanism. Nowadays, such ‘spare parts’ are used in construction of microscopes and other mechanical appliances. This poses yet another unanswerable question to the modern scientists: how can the metal tooth-wheel be 300 million years old if the regular-shaped ‘wheel’ itself was created by man millions of years later. After the discovery came public, conspirators were quick to dub it ‘a UFO tooth-wheel’. Russian scientists, however, do not jump to conclusions and will run further tests to learn more about the strange artifact. Source: Voice of Russia, ***

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Sharks, the Beauty of the Ocean Predator: March lecture/exhibition event in Long Beach, CA

In early March, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA will host a lecture/exhibition, Sharks: the Beauty of the Ocean Predator featuring yours truly and sculptor Victor Douieb. 

The event is being described as "Art and science come together like never before to heighten awareness for ocean conservation. Sculptor Victor Douieb and filmmaker Richard Theiss present an exhibition and lecture series combining stunning and impressive bronze pieces of marine animals with insightful and thought-provoking commentary on marine research and the changing landscape of ocean conservation. Douieb's work has been on display nationwide in major galleries and museums and his magnificent shark sculptures are popular favorites. As a filmmaker, Theiss has worked closely with marine scientists and spent many years filming the iconic great white shark. His work has been seen on major networks like

Discovery and National Geographic. Many of Douieb's most popular sculptures will be on display and there will be a series of lectures where people can learn more about these two dedicated conservationists, the challenging issues facing many ocean species like sharks, and what we can do to shape the future of the oceans." The origin of this event came about when I first met Victor at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. I had been contemplating a new lecture series, a kind of update from my presentation at the time and Victor was looking for more avenues to present his work. It

occurred to me that by combining forces we could offer something special that aquariums and other ocean education institutions might be interested in having. I approached my friend, Dr, Jerry Schubel, CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific, and he was quite enthusiastic with the concept. And so, the Aquarium will host the inaugural event, putting Victor's work on display for several months and the lectures will take place in early March.Victor has sculpted some amazing works in bronze and stainless steel of sharks and other sea creatures (his recent work of a lionfish is a favorite of mine). His work is striking in its artistic beauty while also being anatomically accurate,

and that allows people to view and appreciate sharks from an entirely different perspective. His website lists sculptures currently available and at the event he will be presenting a new sculpture of one of the Aquarium's sand tiger sharks which Victor studied firsthand in the Aquarium's Shark Lagoon exhibit.For my part, I will be sharing some of my personal experiences with sharks - in particular the great white shark, given that it's a California audience. Also, I will be touching on what science has found that makes these predators so unique and critically important. Then we will turn to the important issue of shark conservation and how it has evolved from a grass roots movement to a struggle on the battleground of international politics. And finally, despite the progress that has been made to date, we'll look at why and how people still need to be concerned and involved. Victor will also be on hand to discuss his journey as a committed conservationist. The Aquarium of the Pacific will be posting details soon for Sharks: the Beauty of the Ocean Predator on their website. Lectures are tentatively scheduled for the evenings of March 5th (opening night), 7th and 13th. The sculptures will be on display for several months. If you're in the neighborhood, hope to you see there. It will be an opportunity for Southern Californians to see some awesome sealife sculptures and learn about the amazing sharks of California and what is in store for their future. Source: RTSea

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Kepler Space Telescope Finds Our Twin Solar System

Astronomers using the Kepler Space Telescope have found an alien solar system that bears a striking resemblance to our own. OK, it's not exactly the Winklevoss twins, but the two systems do have important similarities. Kepler 30—as it’s been named—has a sun-like star at its center, complete with star spots just like the giant solar storms we observe here at home. And orbiting this doppelgänger gas ball 10,000 light-years from Earth, scientists have so far found three extrasolar planets. Though more massive than our planets, these worlds circle their home star on the same plane aligned to its rotation, just like our planetary gang of eight. This discovery suggests that all solar systems may start out looking pretty much alike, growing together out of a huge disk of gas and dust spinning around a star. That’s going to make it a chore telling each other apart at the galactic family picnic. Source: Sam Daily Times

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Genes for face shape identified

Understanding the genes that determine human facial shape could one day provide valuable information about person's appearance using just their DNA. The discovery of five genes involved in facial form could have applications in forensics, say the authors of a study. Virtually nothing was known about the genes responsible for facial shape in humans. The study of almost 10,000 individuals is published in Plos Genetics. Lead author Manfred Kayser from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said: "These are exciting first results that mark the beginning of the genetic understanding of human facial morphology. "Perhaps some time it will be possible to draw a phantom portrait of a person solely from his or her DNA left behind, which provides interesting applications such as in forensics." The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of people's heads together with portrait photographs to map facial landmarks, from which facial distances were estimated. They then conducted what is known as a genome-wide association study, which is designed to search for small genetic variations that occur more frequently in people with particular facial types. Prof Kayser and his colleagues identified five candidate genes associated with different facial shapes - known as PRDM16, PAX3, TP63, C5orf50, and COL17A1. These associations mean the likelihood of a certain face shape can be estimated, and a full DNA-to-portrait mapping still remains a distant prospect. But together with recent findings that suggest DNA can also be used to predict hair and eye colour and a 2010 study in which age can be inferred from blood, forensics is set to add a suite of powerful new DNA-based tools to its arsenal.Source: Sam Daily Times

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Ancient Buddha idol, monastery unearthed in Jajpur

An ancient statue of Gautama Buddha and remains of a Budhha Vihar (monastery) have been unearthed from Kesharaipur-Hatikhol village in the vicinity of world famous Lalitgiri Buddhist site in Odisha's Jajpur district. Workers came across the articles while digging the land for a drain there three days ago, said noted Buddhist researcher Harischandra Prusty. A meditating Buddha idol, made probably during post Gupta period, and earthen items like bowls, spout jars and broken potteries were found from the spot. "The unearthed stone image is called Bhurisapta Padmapani, an incarnation of Lord Buddha. The idol is made of Khondolite stone and its height and width is 3 feet 2 inches and 2 feet 1 inch respectively. While one of its hands is seen in blessings giving posture, another hand holds a lotus. Both the wrists bear bungles and armlets in the arms," said Prusty. In addition to the Buddha image, a monastery has been discovered on the foot of Kesharaipur-Hatikhol hill. "The monastery is 30 x 30 metres size. There are four rooms each measuring 10 feet x 9 feet each. It is made of good size stones. The Buddhist monastery has been probably built in the eighth century under the patronage and propagation of a king of the Bhaumakara dynasty that flourished between eighth and the 11th century in the state," said Prusty. "If proper excavation work is carried out, many historical findings may come out, he said. District Collector Anil Kumar Samal said the district administration would follow up necessary excavation and conservation works. The digging work was stopped after the discovery, he said. Source: Indian Express

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Centennial anniversary of cosmic rays discovery

By Olga Zakutnyaya, They are called the “Wanderers of the Universe” and traces of the most energetic processes taking place in our world. The beginning of August marks 100 years of the discovery of cosmic rays by Austrian scientist Victor Francis Hess. He conducted his first measurements in August 1912 while flying up a few kilometers in a balloon. Today, numerous space experiments are devoted to studying cosmic rays. The term “cosmic rays” may be misleading. In fact, rays proper – high energy photons – make up only a tiny part of space ionizing radiation. The most part of cosmic rays are charged particles accelerated to very high energies. Their main part consists of the nuclei of hydrogen, also known as protons, and of the nuclei of helium (two protons). The term “cosmic rays” was coined by American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan when it became clear that this radiation was coming from space. Tags: Russia, scientific researches, Sci-Tech, space, Opinion & Analysis, World, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia. 

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Indian-origin scientist makes breakthrough in cancer research

London: An Indian-origin scientist-led team has discovered a radical way of knocking out cancer cells and leaving healthy ones unharmed, a key finding they claim could pave the way for new treatments for the most aggressive forms of the disease such as pancreatic or breast cancer. Dr Srinivasan Madhusudan and colleagues at the University of Nottingham has found that blocking an enzyme, which repairs genetic material in cells, enabled them to kill cancer cells containing faulty genes -- in fact, they focused on inherited cancer-causing genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. These two genes cause up to 10 per cent of breast cancers which are more often fatal than non-genetic tumours. In their research, the scientists found that blocking a cell repair enzyme called APE1 with special molecules they had developed stopped two repair routes at once. The discovery enabled them to kill BRCA cells, which normally multiply out of control because they have a faulty "repair kit", allowing damaged cells to accumulate faults. The molecules were tested on breast, pancreatic and cervical cancer cells, the 'Daily Express' reported. "This study provides the first evidence that APE1 is an important new target. Not only could these molecules provide a basis for new drugs but they could help 'soften up' cells from many cancer types to boost the effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy," Dr Madhusudan said. Read Full; Indian-origin scientist makes breakthrough in cancer research

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“Discovery” ends career

The US space shuttle Discovery has made its last “landing” in an airport near Washington. The shuttle didn’t fly there by itself, but was carried there by a “Boeing-747” from the cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral. Before landing, the plane made a circle over the US capital. Tags: World, space shuttle Discovery , News, Sci-Tech, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia. 

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Scientists discover ancient forest in N. China

China: Scientists have announced the discovery of  a  forest  in  north  China
preserved under a layer of volcanic ash deposited nearly 300 million years ago. A fossil of ancient leaves. The fossil forest, located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is compared to the Italian city of Pompeii in a paper published Tuesday on the website of US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Pompeii was buried under ash after a volcanic eruption in AD 79. The subtropical forest covers an area of 20 sq km and researchers have been able to reconstruct 1,000 sq meters of its

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trees and plants, said Wang Jun, head of the research team and a member of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is in good condition as the volcano erupted for only a few days, sparing the plants from too much force and preserving many of them the way they were, Wang said. After the forest was discovered a decade ago, researchers found trees still standing upright with leaves, branches and trunks intact in an ash layer dating back to 298 million years ago. The group of scientists, including Hermann Pfefferkorn from the University of Pennsylvania, worked with a painter to reconstruct what the forest areas would have looked like.Source:   China.org.cn

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The real Google TV: Google preps fiber pay-TV service in Kansas City

VentureBeat, By Devindra Hardawar: Google is one step closer to launching a pay-TV service in Kansas City, Missouri — one of its fiber Internet testbeds — which would directly take on cable and satellite companies. The company filed for a video franchise license in the city last week, the New York Post reports, a move that would give Google permission to broadcast content to televisions. A Google pay-TV solution would give the

company yet another source for advertising revenue. And unlike the current iteration of Google TV, which works in conjunction with your existing TV service, Google would have complete control of TV content (assuming it can bring aboard content partners). We first caught wind of Google’s pay-TV ambitions in November, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was in talks with media executives from companies like Time Warner, Disney, and Discovery. The service would run on Google’s high-speed fiber Internet service that’s now being tested in Kansas City, MO, and Kansas City, KS. The pay-TV service could launch within the next few months, a media executive involved in negotiations tells the Wall Street Journal. When asked for comment, a Google spokesperson told the WSJ, “We’re still exploring what product offerings will be available when we launch Google Fiber.”Read Fill: VentureBeat

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How The Universe Works

   Screen Shot On Uploaded Video

Uploaded by ShowtimeSPL, Share Link: DP World, Beautiful video here that everyone should see. This should be spread to all. From the Discovery

Channel's series "How the Universe  Works"  episode  "Extreme  Stars"  with

   Screen Shot On Uploaded Video

Mike Rowe A beautiful sentiment of our true cosmic Mother and our Golden age of life in the Universe.

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ONGC to spend Rs15,300 cr on K-G gas discovery

Domain-B: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is reportedly planning to invest $2.894 billion (about Rs15,340 crore) in developing its ultra-deep sea UD-1 gas discovery in the Krishna-Godavari basin by 2016-17. The UD-1 gas discovery can produce for 14-15 years with peak of about 20 million cubic metres per day (mmcmd) lasting for five years. It may hold 4.257 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. The company detailed the production profile and

Image Link Flickr

the likely investment in the revised proposal for declaring the UD-1 find as commercially viable (called declaration of commerciality). Block KG-DWN-98/2 sits next to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 block where drop in reservoir pressure and water/sand ingress has seen output dip by over 35 per cent to just over 39 mmcmd.domain-b.com : ONGC to spend Rs15,300 cr on K-G gas discovery

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Palau's Prehistoric Eel: Smithsonian makes new discovery deep in underwater cave

The oceans continue to surprise us. Even as we struggle to preserve species being lost to pollution or over-fishing scientists continue to find new species - and sometimes new "old" species. Case in point, a truly prehistoric eel found in a deep underwater cave, 115 feet below the surface, in the island nation of Palau. Palau is a popular dive tourism location, a site for many scientific studies, and a Pacific island trailblazer having established a shark sanctuary that covers the entire island. But with all this aquatic visibility, no one had ever seen this

species of eel before. A kind of half-eel, half-fish, the newly discovered creature has anatomical features that distinguish it from the current 800 species of eel today. With a second upper jaw bone and only 90 vertebrae, features only found in fossilized specimens from the Cretaceous period, it is also unique because it has a full set of gill rakers - a cartilaginous feature found in most bony fishes - and not eels - that aid in filter feeding. The new species' lineage as a true eel was determined by examining its mitochondrial DNA. Read Full : Palau

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