Science Special News

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Who was Scotland's Nostradamus ?

Thomas of Ercildoune - more commonly known as Thomas the Rhymer - was a soothsayer of such repute that for a time his fame rivalled that of the Arthurian magician Merlin.The accuracy of what happened to Thomas and how he gained his supernatural powers has become confused over the centuries, but there are common threads running through every variation of the story. It is, in essence, a fairy story but one which seeks to explain how Thomas was able to predict some of the most important events in Scottish history, including the defeat by the English at the Battle of Flodden and the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England.Very few "fairy stories" are given such credence as that of Thomas and his dalliance with the Queen of Elfland. After all, he was no fairy. He was a real person and his predictions – which were written down - were treated so seriously that they were consulted before both the two Jacobite rebellions.So who was Thomas and why was he singled out for mystical powers?

Born around 1220, he lived in Learmont Tower, near Ercildoune, now Earlston in Berwickshire. Close by there stood a grove of hardwood trees on the banks of Huntly Burn and as a youngster Thomas had a favourite tree under which he used to lie.The story goes that as he lay there one day he saw the beautiful Queen of the Fairies approaching on her graceful white horse. She was wearing green silk and velvet and on her horse's mane there hung 59 silver bells. Thomas was entranced by her beauty and readily complied when the Queen asked him to kiss her underneath his favourite tree. He then agreed to accompany her, and the two rode off into the Eildon Hills where Thomas spent seven years as the Queen's lover in her fairy home in Elfland.

[Rasputin]

Good and evil ?

T. Stokes: The question is often asked, “why does god allow so much evil in the world”. No doubt every religious group would have their own answer, yet no one would disagree that good and evil do exist, the difficulty many have is in believing that they are represented by the humanised figures of god and the Devil. We often see criminals, politicians and perverts get away with crimes year after year, though once in a while we see a streak of divine justice that strikes a deep inner cord.Such a story was carried in the British newspapers of May 27 2006.The Royal Society for the protection of birds, ( R S P B ) and other conservation bodies spent small fortunes protecting birds nests from a lifetime stealer of rare birds eggs, 63 year old Colin Watson, who boasted he had more than 2000 rare eggs from endangered birds, including the white tailed eagle which is believed extinct in Britain.

This man branded public enemy number one by the R.S.P.B and other animal lovers, would look through bird magazines to see where rare birds were nesting, and spent every spare moment robbing these nests throughout the country, and specialised in stealing from these nests during the hours of darkness when watchers were often asleep.During the past 14 years he had many prosecutions, including using a chainsaw to cut down a tree in Scotland to reach an Ospreys nest.But justice came at last when he fell 30 feet from a tree near Doncaster on Wednesday last, and fell to his death. Any mans death is a loss, yet the stealing of rare eggs is an awful crime, and egg collection and worship is the recognised perversion Ovoliolatry, ( Look up the origins of the astrological festival of Easter ). So maybe once in a while someone up there does actually listen to our prayers, watch out Tony Blair !

[Rasputin]

"Trust me, I'm a robot"

In 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.This gruesome industrial accident would not have happened in a world in which robot behaviour was governed by the Three Laws of Robotics drawn up by Isaac Asimov, a science-fiction writer. The laws appeared in “I, Robot”, a book of short stories published in 1950 that inspired a recent Hollywood film. But decades later the laws, designed to prevent robots from harming people either through action or inaction (see table), remain in the realm of fiction. Indeed, despite the introduction of improved safety mechanisms, robots have claimed many more victims since 1981.

Over the years people have been crushed, hit on the head, welded and even had molten aluminium poured over them by robots. Last year there were 77 robot-related accidents in Britain alone, according to the Health and Safety Executive.With robots now poised to emerge from their industrial cages and to move into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns, leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. Inspired by the Pugwash Conferences—an international group of scientists, academics and activists founded in 1957 to campaign for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons—the new group of robo-ethicists met earlier this year in Genoa, Italy, and announced their initial findings in March at the European Robotics Symposium in Palermo, Sicily.

[Rasputin]

Is the Bosnian Pyramid natural ?

A British archaeologist on Friday rejected claims that a hill in central Bosnia is a man-made structure that many local residents insist is a pyramid. Professor Anthony Harding, who is president of the European Association of Archaeologists, visited Visocica hill and said the formation was natural. Not any evidence at all has been found to support the claim the site would be an archaeological site, he said.No pyramids are known in Europe, and there are no records of any ancient civilization on the continent ever attempting to build one.The pyramid theory was launched by an amateur researcher last year but it has been disputed by a number of local and international experts, who claim that at no time in Bosnia's history did the region have a civilization able to build monumental structures. They say the hill is simply a strange natural formation.Nevertheless, Semir Osmanagic, the amateur Bosnian archaeologist who has been investigating Latin American pyramids for 15 years, organized excavations to Visocica, about 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo, in April.His team _ made up mostly of volunteers, found that the 2,120-foot hill has 45-degree slopes pointing toward the cardinal points and a flat top. Under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance plateau, entrances to tunnels and large stone blocks.Egyptian geologist Aly Abd Alla Barakat, who arrived in May to check on Osmanagic's claims said the structure is "man made'' and worth investigating.

"My opinion is that this is a type of pyramid, probably a primitive pyramid,'' said Barakat, a geologist from the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority.However, Harding, who said he visited the site briefly on Thursday and looked at the same stone blocks Barakat said were man made, said on Friday they were a natural formation."I've seen the site, in my opinion it is entirely natural,'' he told reporters in Sarajevo. Harding did not visit other sites in the area which Osmanagic and Barakat say are further evidence of the existence of pyramids in Bosnia, such as a tunnel leading to the top of Visocica or a stone pavement made of geometrically regular shaped pieces.Harding said that although he had not seen the stone pavement, by looking at photographs, "I would not believe it to be archaeological. It looks to me as a natural stone pavement.'' He did not visit the tunnel either.

[Rasputin]

'Mind over matter' becomes a reality

Sitting stone still under a skull cap fitted with a couple dozen electrodes, American scientist Peter Brunner stares at a laptop computer. Without so much as moving a nostril hair, he suddenly begins to compose a message -- letter by letter -- on a giant screen overhead. "B-O-N-J-O-U-R" he writes with the power of his mind, much to the amazement of the largely French audience of scientists and curious onlookers gathered at the four-day European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris, which opened Thursday. Brunner and two colleagues from the state-financed Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York were demonstrating a "brain computer interface (BCI)," an astounding technology which digitalizes brain signals emitted as electrical impulses -- picked up by the electrodes -- to convey intent. While no spoons were bent, this was definitely mind over matter.

Without recourse to nerves or muscles, BCI "can provide communication and control to people who are totally paralyzed" and unable to unable to speak or move, explains researcher Theresa Sellers, also from Wadsworth. Dr. Sellers estimates there are some 100 million potential users of BCI technology worldwide, including 16 million sufferers of cerebral palsy, a degenerative brain disease, and at least five million victims of spinal cord injury. Another 10 million people have been totally paralyzed by brainstem strokes, she said.

[Rasputin]

Tracking Bigfoot in the wilds of Clarence

When professional Bigfoot hunters showed up to Hans Mobius' Clarence farm Friday, they immediately found clues they said gave the recent sighting credibility. "Something very large had bedded itself for the night," said Tom Biscardi, chief executive officer of Searching for Bigfoot Inc., as he pointed to a trampled part of a thicket on the Mobius farm. "It's too big to be a deer, and look at the space above it," he said, gesturing to a gap in the thicket canopy. "You think there's room for something big to stand up there?" Biscardi and his crew drove directly to Clarence from Menlo Park, Calif., when they learned about the Mobius sighting. Biscardi said he makes such travel plans only when a sighting is credible. "What intrigued me about this case is Hans is not just a kid - he's not a jokester," he said. The Bigfoot investigators aren't in it for the joke. They use expensive equipment like motion sensitive infrared scanners, infrared scopes and recorded Bigfoot calls. The four-person professional team also got some local help.

Natalie Nowak, 19, and Meaghan Barone, 20, are both neighbors of Mobius. The two sought out the team when they heard Bigfoot might inhabit the woods near their homes. "We saw on the news that some Bigfoot hunters were coming into town, so we drove around looking for their van," Barone said. "It's like a real-life "Blair Witch Project.' "

[Rasputin]

Who killed the dodo ?

For such an iconic animal, it seems strange that we know next to nothing about the dodo - except, of course, that it is dead. We don't know how it lived, what it ate, how many eggs it sat on or even whether it was fat or thin. But that could all change with a scientific expedition just begun in Mauritius, the remote island in the Indian Ocean where the dodo lived for millions of years before being driven to extinction in the late 17th century, just 80 years after it was sighted by European sailors.British and Dutch scientists have joined forces to excavate a unique dodo burial ground where the bones of hundreds and possibly thousands of birds have been preserved in marshland for more than 10,000 years. It will be the first time scientists have had access to well-preserved dodo remains that have remained untouched. At last, some light maybe shed on a mysterious and emblematic creature that has come to epitomise how easy it is for man to wipe out a species.The Mare aux Songes area of Mauritius was once a dry coastal forest which later became marshland.

Last year scientists said they thought the site contained a mass of bones from a rich variety of animals - giant tortoises, dodos and other extinct birds and reptiles - all of which long pre-date the arrival of the first humans to inhabit Mauritius in 1598. "The discovery is of huge importance and will give us a new understanding of how dodos lived," explained Julian Hume, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Natural History Museum in London who has helped to organise the expedition.

[Rasputin]

Mystery of the Brown Mountain Lights

Tim Clodfelter: The Brown Mountain lights dance in the night sky, shimmering and mysterious … at least that's what I've heard. The lights - seen in the night sky over Brown Mountain - have been reported as far back as the 18th century. The lights will be the focus of the Brown Mountain Lights Heritage Festival this weekend.On a recent trip to the Brown Mountain area, I didn't see any lights.Sorry.But I did meet several people who said that they have seen the lights.David Mull, a scruffy, enthusiastic man in his mid-50s, has been fascinated with the mysteries of Brown Mountain since he was a child. In the early '60s, a folk song called "(Legend of the) Brown Mountain Light," performed by Tommy Faile, led to a boom in interest in the lights.Mull was about 8 at the time. As the song grew in popularity, roadside lookout points - previously used for gazing at the scenery - became hot spots for gawkers hoping for a glimpse of the lights. One hotel owner charged people 50 cents a car to park in his lot. Mull's dad balked at the exorbitant charge, so they found another place to park. Mull has made himself an expert on the lights.

He has produced two documentary videos, The Brown Mountain Lights and The Mysterious Lights of Brown Mountain, and touched on the subject in several other documentaries.Mull said he saw the lights when he was a child and has seen them many times since. But sightings are still a rarity, even for him.Mull said that it's hard to say what he does for a living. Mostly, he said, he sells videotapes of his documentaries, raises and sells carnivorous plants, and does odd jobs. He devotes much of his plentiful energy to the Brown Mountain lights and other local lore.Mull offered to act as a tour guide. He met us in the parking lot of a Kmart in Morganton and led us to several of the best places to see the lights.

[Rasputin]

Japan's legendary Holy Grail

Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" and the film of the same name currently performing box office miracles around the world, center around the premise that the Holy Grail wasn't some sort of cup, but the direct blood descendant of Jesus Christ. But Japan has a Holy Grail connection of its own that it also wrapped in mystery. The military standard used by 17th century Japanese Christian Amagusa Shiro during a Christian rebellion against the Shogun is preserved in Kumamoto's Amagusa Kurisuchian Museum in Hondo, Kumamoto Prefecture."This standard is, along with the standard of the Western European crusaders and the flag of Joan of Arc, regarded as one of the three great flags of Christendom. The Holy Grail is in the center of the flag, while above it is bread to symbolize the body of Christ. Written on the flag is the Latin acronym INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Indaeorum -- Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)," a Kumamoto historian tells Weekly Playboy, which says that Amagusa Shiro's decision to use the Holy Grail as his standard entitles him to claim to be the direct descendant of Christ."That's going a bit far," the historian says. "But the flag is said to have been made by Goemon Yamaguchi, the only survivor of the Shimabara Rebellion. Without him, nobody would ever have known about Amagusa Shiro."The Shimabara Rebellion occurred in 1637. Then 16-year-old Amagusa gathered 37,000 Christians who, in a last-ditch effort to save their religion, took on the 124,000-force mustered by the Shogunate, which was hell-bent on ridding Japan of Christianity. The Christians were, with the exception of Yamaguchi, brutally slaughtered.

Weekly Playboy notes that early in the 17th century, a Portuguese priest called Marcos predicted that the Messiah would be born in Japan. Being in the right time and place, Amagusa, the son of a masterless samurai Christian, was suddenly deified."Christian samurai duped people into believing Shiro was the Second Coming. They told people he could walk on water from one island to another. They also said that all he needed to do was extend his arm and a dove would fly down and lay an egg in his palm. Breaking the egg open would reveal a Christian scripture. The Christian samurai who organized the Shimabara Rebellion used Shiro by claiming he was the Messiah and getting ordinary folk to join their fight," the historian says. Though Amagusa Shiro was also cut down in the rebellion, he left plenty of mystery in his wake.

[Rasputin]

Corkscrew asteroid is Earth's second Moon

Earth has a "second moon." Asteroid 2003 YN107 is looping around our planet once a year. Measuring only 20 meters across, the asteroid is too small to see with the unaided eye—but it is there. This news, believe it or not, is seven years old."2003 YN107 arrived in 1999," says Paul Chodas of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL, "and it's been corkscrewing around Earth ever since." Because the asteroid is so small and poses no threat, it has attracted little public attention. But Chodas and other experts have been monitoring it. "It's a very curious object," he says.Most near-Earth asteroids, when they approach Earth, simply fly by. They come and they go, occasionally making news around the date of closest approach. 2003 YN107 is different: It came and it stayed."We believe 2003 YN107 is one of a whole population of near-Earth asteroids that don't just fly by Earth. They pause and corkscrew in our vicinity for years before moving along."These asteroids are called Earth Coorbital Asteroids or "coorbitals" for short. Essentially, they share Earth's orbit, going around the Sun in almost exactly one year. Occasionally a coorbital catches up to Earth from behind, or vice versa, and the dance begins: The asteroid, while still orbiting the sun, slowly corkscrews around our planet. "These asteroids are not truly captured by Earth's gravity," notes Chodas. "But from our point of view, it looks like we have a new moon."Astronomers know of at least four small asteroids that can do this trick: 2003 YN107, 2002 AA29, 2004 GU9 and 2001 GO2. "There may be more," says Chodas. He believes the list will grow as asteroid surveys improve in sky coverage and sensitivity.At the moment, only two coorbitals are actually nearby: 2003 YN107 and 2004 GU9. The others are scattered around Earth's orbit.

2004 GU9 is perhaps the most interesting. It measures about 200 meters across, relatively large. And according to calculations just published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (S. Mikkola et al., 2006) it has been looping around Earth for 500 years--and may continue looping for another 500. It's in a remarkably stable "orbit."Right now, however, researchers are paying more attention to 2003 YN107 for one simple reason: it's about to depart. The asteroid's corkscrew path is lopsided and on June 10th it will dip within 3.4 million km of Earth, slightly closer than usual. Earth's gravity will then give the asteroid the nudge it needs to leave. "This is a chance to observe one of these asteroids [on the way out]," explains Chodas.

[Rasputin]

Anti-aging molecule discovered

A team of South Korean scientists on Sunday claimed to have created a "cellular fountain of youth," or a small molecule, which enables human cells to avoid aging and dying. The team, headed by Prof. Kim Tae-kook at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, argued the newly-synthesized molecule, named CGK733, can even make cells younger. The findings were featured by the Britain-based Nature Chemical Biology online early today and will be printed as a cover story in the journal's offline edition early next month. "All cells face an inevitable death as they age. On this path, cells became lethargic and in the end stop dividing but we witnessed that CGK733 can block the process," Kim said. "We also found the synthetic compound can reverse aging, by revitalizing already-lethargic cells. Theoretically, this can give youth to the elderly via rejuvenating cells," the 41-year-old said.

Kim expected that the CGK733-empowered drugs that keep cells youthful far beyond their normal life span would be commercialized in less than 10 years. Other researchers here heaped praises on the discovery but they were cautious about the practical therapeutic application of the new substance. ``Obviously, it is an innovative finding. But we need to see whether or not CGK733 could really rejuvenate cells inside human bodies without generating side effects," Prof. Kim Sung-hoon at Seoul National University said. Prof. Kim Tae-kook, however, is confident about the commercial viability of CGK733, believing the efficiency of the material was created using state-of-the-art magnetic nano-probe technology. ``We have the magnet-associated technology to identify molecular targets inside living cells, which allowed us to examine the mechanisms of CGK733 directly," Kim said.

[Rasputin]

Bigfoot: Johor to verify new info

Queries about the Johor Bigfoot continue to pour in from all over the world, with many Malaysians claiming to have seen the creature. State Tourism and Environment Committee chairman Freddie Long said the State Government’s Bigfoot Steering Committee had recently received some new information."However, we have to conduct more studies and get scientists to verify the information collected so far," he said."A lot of people in Johor have reportedly seen the Bigfoot or its physical evidence such as giant footprints."Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Malaysian Nature Society Johor branch on Saturday, Long said he had received lots of email queries on the matter."Once the study is completed, we will provide a report to the scientists overseas." Long said the State also looked forward to working with non-government organisations such as MNS Johor to study and preserve the rich biodiversity of its ancient forests.

"Our immediate co-operation with MNS Johor is in setting up a bird sanctuary at the Bunker Trail in Gunung Panti. The site has become famous worldwide as a premier bird- watching spot."I have instructed the State Forestry Department to demarcate a 120ha area, which is home to about 300 species of birds, for the sanctuary."He added that the bird sanctuary would be part of the Gunung Panti National Park, which would be gazetted soon.

[Rasputin]

Search for India's ancient city

Archaeologists working on India's south-west coast believe they may have solved the mystery of the location of a major port which was key to trade between India and the Roman Empire - Muziris, in the modern-day state of Kerala. For many years, people have been in search of the almost mythical port, known as Vanchi to locals. Much-recorded in Roman times, Muziris was a major centre for trade between Rome and southern India - but appeared to have simply disappeared. Now, however, an investigation by two archaeologists - KP Shajan and V Selvakumar - has placed the ancient port as having existed where the small town of Pattanam now stands, on India's south-west Malabar coast. "It is the first time these remains have been found on this coast," Dr Sharjan told BBC World Service's Discovery programme. "We believe it could be Muziris." Pattanam is the only site in the region to produce architectural features and material contemporary to the period. "No other site in India has yielded this much archaeological evidence," said Dr Roberta Tomba, of the British Museum. "We knew it was very important, and we knew if we could find it, there should be Roman and other Western artefacts there - but we hadn't been able to locate it on the ground."

Until recently, the best guesses for the location of Muziris centred on the mouth of the Periyar river, at a place called Kodungallor - but now the evidence suggests a smaller town nearby, Pattanam, is the real location. Drs Shajan and Selvakumar now meet locals on a regular basis as they continue their work, with some older people in particular remembering picking up glass beads and pottery after heavy rains. Undoubtedly, they told Discovery, the many pieces of amphora are from the Mediterranean - a key to establishing Pattanam as the place where Muziris once stood. "These amphora are so common," Dr Shajan said. "We have hundreds of shards of Mediterranean pottery."

[Rasputin]

"I've found God" says genome scientist

The scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real. Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”. His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56. “I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.” For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”. “When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said.

“But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along. “When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.” Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

[Rasputin]

Museum Bigfoot exhibit to go on display

Does a giant, hairy beast roam the remote areas of the west? Could Bigfoot really exist?An exhibit of alleged evidence goes on display Friday, June 16, at the Natural History Museum in Pocatello. It may help you decide whether Bigfoot is fact or fiction. Display designers prepare graphics for the displays that you'll see. The Bigfoot exhibit is generating as much excitement for the museum staff as it is among the aficionados that are waiting for it to open.“I’m very excited,” said Linda T. Deck, the museum director. Deck is taking the Bigfoot exhibit beyond simple artifacts to show how we learn anything is true. It will cover concepts like tradition, belief and scientific method. That part will be informative, but the display is what will likely bring in the browsers to satisfy their curiosity.For example, did you ever wonder how big Bigfoot really is? Well, they have a casting of a Bigfoot print. The print comes from the most famous Bigfoot sighting and film ever shot.

They also have a print from that film.Additionally, the exhibit details evidence like broken tree branches that are often found near Bigfoot sightings."It allows visitors to perhaps leave the exhibit with more question than they came in with, and I think encouraging that questioning is the best thing of all."As for Bigfoot, Deck remains a skeptic, but you can see some of the evidence and understand some of the ways we learn, so you can decide for yourself.The exhibit opens its doors at 10 a.m. Friday. It will also have a special opening on Sunday.Bigfoot will be one of the main exhibits for the next year at the Idaho Museum of Natural History.