Science Special News

[Rasputin]

Space station set for massive expansion

With the space shuttle Atlantis scheduled to launch on Sunday, construction of the unfinished International Space Station (ISS) is set to pick up again after a 3.5-year hiatus. The mission marks the beginning of a packed launch schedule for the shuttles – the only vehicles large enough to carry up station components – because they will be retired in 2010."Now we're going to get back to the business of expanding the space station," says Paul Dye, lead flight director for the upcoming shuttle mission.Before the Columbia accident in 2003, the ISS was growing at a steady rate. But construction was put on hold when the shuttles were grounded during the accident investigation and the subsequent push to improve the shuttles' safety. Then, the first two shuttle missions after Columbia were devoted to testing out new safety measures and stocking the station with supplies. There was not enough room on those shuttles to deliver major parts of the station. Now, a massive expansion to the station is about to begin, starting with Atlantis's flight on 27 August.

The agency expects to increase the ISS crew from three to six people by 2009. Before that, they will need more living space and an extra bathroom and kitchen. The ISS will eventually have the volume of a five-bedroom house.Fifteen elements have been sitting on the ground, awaiting launch to the ISS. These include components provided by NASA's international partners – such as laboratories for Japan and Europe and a two-armed robot named Dextre from Canada."We called this the International Space Station for many years, and we've talked about all the partners that are going to participate," says Phil Engelauf, chief of NASA's office of flight directors. "Happily, now that is going to come to fruition."

[Rasputin]

Volunteers repair "Bigfoot trap"

Dave Enge and Jeff LaLande figure they are following in some mighty big footsteps.They point to the hefty 12-inch wide and two-inch thick planks that form the ceiling, floor and four sides. Then there's the heavy expanded metal grate and telephone poles that anchor the 10-foot by 10-foot wooden cage to the ground."I don't know how they carried them up here," LaLande observed. "Back in the days when they built this, it was still fairly remote. You had to hike all the way up from the Applegate River at that point."Perhaps, it went unsaid, the builders of the legendary Bigfoot trap in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest had a little help from a large hairy fellow.Despite the fort-like strength its 1974 builders apparently felt was necessary to nab the elusive Sasquatch, age has taken its toll. The floor planks have nearly rotted through and rot has punched a hole through one side. And a ponderosa pine tree some 2 feet in diameter at the base was uprooted by a storm earlier this year, narrowly missing the trap but taking with it a roughly 10-inch in diameter madrone tree that struck the trap's northwest corner.

"The madrone collapsed part of the roof, which was already heavily deteriorated," explained LaLande. "The roof was no longer doing its job of protecting the planks."

[Rasputin]

Some ancient caves designed for comfort

A new find of a condo-like cave suggests not all cavemen were club-wielding, nomadic hunter-gatherers, but included some farmers and shepherds. Evidence of such homebody cave dwellers comes from a recent excavation of a neolithic cave complex in Greece, dating from 5300-3900 B.C.The abode features a three-room complex with plastered floors and evidence of crop-growing and an attached stable nearby."This household was self-contained," said Panagiotis Karkanas, who conducted the excavation of the Kouveleiki Caves, which are located on the cliffs of a shallow valley in southern Peloponnese.Karkanas, an archaeologist at the Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology in Athens, added, "I believe that the site was an ordinary household. The people were living there, cooking, sleeping, etc. probably during the whole year. They were both farmers and shepherds."Karkanas made this determination after studying objects uncovered within the caves and after performing a detailed microanalysis of the cave sediments.

Findings will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.The complex consists of two caves, the first of which is divided into two chambers by several rock blocks that appear to have fallen from the roof before the caves were inhabited.The cavemen used this natural divide to their advantage, since one of the fallen rocks was curved and straightened to resemble a wall, which created a corridor between the two chambers.Burnt manure found in the front chamber suggests a few animals — likely sheep and goats — were housed there. Karkanas told Discovery News that the animals probably were "milkers or very young." Cereal husks and residue found within the dung indicates the cave dwellers probably farmed the land in front of the caves.

[Rasputin]

UFOs: Explaining the unexplainable

In the summer of 1952, the mayor of Alexandria was trying to clean up the city’s “skid row” on lower King Street, Virginia farmers were suffering through a punishing drought, the United States Senate was investigating a communist plot to infiltrate the Boy Scouts. But over the nighttime skies of the Washington area, something far more dramatic was happening.“Until unidentified objects — we call them targets — began moving onto our radar scopes, I thought people who reported flying saucers were just seeing things,” said Air Force Radar Specialist James Ritchey at the time. “Now, I don’t know what to think.”Ritchey’s bewilderment — splashed across the front page of the July 29, 1952 edition of the Alexandria Gazette — was understandable. Experiencing the unexplainable can be an existential threat for many people. But for an Air Force guy whose job it was to identify objects in the sky, being unable to recognize an airborne craft can be a tough pill to swallow.“I don’t think the objects were balloons or anything moving with the wind because their speed was greater than that of the wind,” Ritchey told a Gazette reporter.

“I don’t see how they could have been ducks, geese or any kind of night birds — these can be picked up on radar, but they wouldn’t explain the lights. As I said, I just don’t have an explanation, and neither does anyone else as far as I know.”Over the next few weeks, several explanations emerged in the pages of the Gazette. Winthrop Coxe and Rollin Gillespie — two writers with the International News Service — theorized that the unexplainable phenomenon had been “swarms of electrical particles” whirling through the air at high speeds. In a column that appeared on the editorial page, they attempted to put a scientific face on debunking the widespread notion that Washington was being visited by extraterrestrials.

[Rasputin]

Holy Cheesus: Saintly sightings

Meredith Cohen: I'll know I've hit the big time when a total stranger reports seeing my face on a waffle. Look at the Virgin Mary. Centuries after her death people continue to spot her everywhere, and I'm not just talking about churches, prayer cards and nativity scenes. There are more sightings of her being out and about than Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson and Kevin Federline combined in the collective glossy histories of US Weekly and People magazines.For example, in April 2005 Mary's image was said to have appeared on a wall in an emergency turnoff area underneath Chicago's Kennedy Expressway (skeptical officials dismissed the sighting as salt staining). In March of the same year, a Nebraska couple claimed to find in a package of Rold Gold Honey Mustard Pretzels a nugget resembling the Holy Mother.Two years ago, a grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary's likening on the toasted bread sold for $28,000 on eBay.

A laundromat owner in Coogee, Australia, claimed a shadow that appeared daily on a nearby fence was actually a Mary depiction. A Wisconsin woman named Faith once found the image of Mary's face with a halo around her head on a chunk of firewood. In 1996, a Mary sighting was recorded on the glass façade of a finance building in Clearwater, Fla. The Blessed Virgin also appeared on a second-floor window of a hospital in Milton, Mass. in 2003. Last week, workers at a gourmet chocolate factory in Fountain Valley, Calif. swore that it was none other than Jesus' mom they saw on a 2-inch-tall lump of melted chocolate.

[Rasputin]

Seeking the round table at Windsor Castle

Evidence of a building linked to the myth of King Arthur and the knights of the round table has been found at Windsor Castle. The circular structure was built by Edward III in the 14th century to house the round table intended to seat the original 300 Knights of the Garter. Archaeological proof of the building was uncovered by members of Channel 4's Time Team in the castle's quadrangle.Although the stones have been removed, rubble in-fill where they were originally located remained in place. The show's presenter, Tony Robinson, said the discovery could help settle years of debate among historians over the existence of the building. "The round table building is one of our most significant ever archaeological finds. It is something that helped to establish Arthurian legends of the knights of the round table.

"We set out to uncover the walls of the building, and they are just where we hoped. Experts have speculated about the structure for centuries, but they have never been able to find the actual building."

[Rasputin]

ISIS investigates haunting in Colonie, NY

The ISIS Team set out to investigate a home in Colonie, New York after receiving complaints of paranormal activity made by a female client living in the location. Dayna, Patricia, Justyn, Lauren, Erin, Reuben, Angela, and Matthew arrived at the location on July 2006, to conduct a complete investigation into the complaints posed by the client. Upon our arrival, team historian Lauren Ouellette began an interview with the woman and her boyfriend about the events that were troubling them.Reports include the feeling of being watched; being touched by an unseen force; seeing apparitions in the location; strange noises and banging that has no explanation for its cause; objects turn up missing and are found in unusual locations, the household pet has been noted to behave in an unusual manner, and the female client has reported seeing an apparition at the location on more than one occasion.The location is estimated to be 50-60 years old, according to the client. There is only one previous owner of the location, a couple who both died at the location within months of each other. The house itself consists of a living room, kitchen, dining room, basement, attic, bathroom, guest room, and master bedroom and the entire home has undergone extensive renovations. The dining room was once a bedroom, the walls have been painted and the flooring has undergone extensive repair.

The client reports that no activity occurred immediately after the renovation, however activity has occurred within the past year.The female client has Roman Catholic religious affiliations, but is not practicing the religion at this time. Meanwhile, the female's boyfriend is a practicing Wiccan and holds a solid interest in all things related to the occult. The female client has displayed prior interest in the occult, but the interest is minimal; the client likes to have to have tarot readings conducted, likes to visit psychics from time to time, and she has a keen interest in astrology. Occasionally, she will read books pertaining to such subjects. No clergy has been contacted about the events at the location and the house has never been blessed. Along the same lines, no other groups have ever been called in to investigate the location and there has been no prior media involved in the case.

[Rasputin]

UFOs: Explaining the unexplainable

In the summer of 1952, the mayor of Alexandria was trying to clean up the city’s “skid row” on lower King Street, Virginia farmers were suffering through a punishing drought, the United States Senate was investigating a communist plot to infiltrate the Boy Scouts. But over the nighttime skies of the Washington area, something far more dramatic was happening.“Until unidentified objects — we call them targets — began moving onto our radar scopes, I thought people who reported flying saucers were just seeing things,” said Air Force Radar Specialist James Ritchey at the time. “Now, I don’t know what to think.”Ritchey’s bewilderment — splashed across the front page of the July 29, 1952 edition of the Alexandria Gazette — was understandable. Experiencing the unexplainable can be an existential threat for many people. But for an Air Force guy whose job it was to identify objects in the sky, being unable to recognize an airborne craft can be a tough pill to swallow.“I don’t think the objects were balloons or anything moving with the wind because their speed was greater than that of the wind,” Ritchey told a Gazette reporter.

“I don’t see how they could have been ducks, geese or any kind of night birds — these can be picked up on radar, but they wouldn’t explain the lights. As I said, I just don’t have an explanation, and neither does anyone else as far as I know.”Over the next few weeks, several explanations emerged in the pages of the Gazette. Winthrop Coxe and Rollin Gillespie — two writers with the International News Service — theorized that the unexplainable phenomenon had been “swarms of electrical particles” whirling through the air at high speeds. In a column that appeared on the editorial page, they attempted to put a scientific face on debunking the widespread notion that Washington was being visited by extraterrestrials.

[Rasputin]

Holy Cheesus: Saintly sightings

Meredith Cohen: I'll know I've hit the big time when a total stranger reports seeing my face on a waffle. Look at the Virgin Mary. Centuries after her death people continue to spot her everywhere, and I'm not just talking about churches, prayer cards and nativity scenes. There are more sightings of her being out and about than Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson and Kevin Federline combined in the collective glossy histories of US Weekly and People magazines.For example, in April 2005 Mary's image was said to have appeared on a wall in an emergency turnoff area underneath Chicago's Kennedy Expressway (skeptical officials dismissed the sighting as salt staining). In March of the same year, a Nebraska couple claimed to find in a package of Rold Gold Honey Mustard Pretzels a nugget resembling the Holy Mother.Two years ago, a grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary's likening on the toasted bread sold for $28,000 on eBay.

A laundromat owner in Coogee, Australia, claimed a shadow that appeared daily on a nearby fence was actually a Mary depiction. A Wisconsin woman named Faith once found the image of Mary's face with a halo around her head on a chunk of firewood. In 1996, a Mary sighting was recorded on the glass façade of a finance building in Clearwater, Fla. The Blessed Virgin also appeared on a second-floor window of a hospital in Milton, Mass. in 2003. Last week, workers at a gourmet chocolate factory in Fountain Valley, Calif. swore that it was none other than Jesus' mom they saw on a 2-inch-tall lump of melted chocolate.

[Rasputin]

Seeking the round table at Windsor Castle

Evidence of a building linked to the myth of King Arthur and the knights of the round table has been found at Windsor Castle. The circular structure was built by Edward III in the 14th century to house the round table intended to seat the original 300 Knights of the Garter. Archaeological proof of the building was uncovered by members of Channel 4's Time Team in the castle's quadrangle.Although the stones have been removed, rubble in-fill where they were originally located remained in place. The show's presenter, Tony Robinson, said the discovery could help settle years of debate among historians over the existence of the building. "The round table building is one of our most significant ever archaeological finds. It is something that helped to establish Arthurian legends of the knights of the round table.

"We set out to uncover the walls of the building, and they are just where we hoped. Experts have speculated about the structure for centuries, but they have never been able to find the actual building."

[Rasputin]

Mystery creature washes up on beach

Submitted by Rick Hamell: A series of pictures showing a mysterious creature some are describing as a "Plesiosaur" has been stirring up interest. From the source article: This creature was found by Russian soldiers on Sakhalin Sakhalin area is situated near to Japan, it’s the most eastern part of Russia, almost 5000 miles to East from Moscow (Russia is huge). People don’t know (what it) is. According to the bones and teeth - it is not a fish. According to its skeleton - it’s not a crocodile or alligator. It has a skin with hair or fur. It has been said that it was taken by Russian special services for in-depth studies, and we are lucky that people who encountered it first made those photos before it was brought away.

[Rasputin]

Meet the world's smallest person

A 14-year-old Nepali boy who is only 50 centimetres (20 inches) tall has been put forward for a Guinness world record as the world's smallest person, his family and supporters said. "We found out that a Jordanian boy holds a record in the Guinness Book of World Records and he is 25.5 inches tall. But Khagendra is 5.5 inches smaller than the Jordanian guy, so we sent an application to the Guinness Book of World Records," said Min Bahadur Rana, president of Khagendra Thapa Magar Foundation, an organization set up to collect funds for the boy.Fourteen-year-old Khagendra Thapa Magar weighs only 4.5 kilograms and will be taken on tour round Nepal to raise money for his upkeep, his father told AFP."We show him in exhibitions to collect fund for his education, health and future," said Rup Bahadur Thapa, his father.

According to the website set up by his supporters, www.khagendratma.org, Thapa weighed only 600 grams at birth and his hobbies include "playing with pebbles" and "worshipping Buddha."

[Rasputin]

Scientists puzzled by straying mammals

Hooded seals, bottlenose whales and a manatee have been spotted in the waters of the northeastern U.S., leaving marine biologists puzzled as to why they have strayed from their natural habitats. The presence along the Jersey Shore of mammals who normally swim in much warmer or colder waters took a troubling turn recently with the discovery of three of the seals on New Jersey beaches. All were suffering from starvation or exposure.Those seals and two others found in North Carolina and Virginia — all of them pups about six months old — are being cared for at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. The center has never had to rescue any in the summer months before, according to founding director Bob Schoelkopf.The sudden influx has Schoelkopf and others searching for clues."We've never had this rate of strandings in the summer months, and we really have no definitive idea why it's happening," Schoelkopf told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "And why these animals are turning up in all these strange places. It's truly a mystery."

The bottlenose whales, which normally are found in the North Atlantic, have also been sighted along the East Coast, Schoelkopf said. And a manatee, whose habitat is chiefly the warmer waters off Florida, made its way up the Hudson River through New York City this month and was last spotted off Cape Cod.Studies conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego suggest the strange migrations could be attributed to underwater noise created by long-range sonar testing conducted by the Navy and to expanded global shipping.Whales, dolphins and other marine mammals use sound signals to mate and communicate with each other and may be misreading the man-made sounds.

[Rasputin]

Doubt cast over brain 'God spot'

There is no single "God spot" in the brain, Canadian scientists say. A University of Montreal team found Christian mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions. Researchers asked 15 nuns to recount mystical experiences while studying them on MRI scanners, the journal, Neuroscience Letters reported. There has been much debate about how the brain reacts during connections with God among religious followers. Some people went as far as suggesting there was a specific brain region designed for communication with God. But the researchers claim this study discredits those theories. Nuns are said to experience Unio Mystica - the Christian notion of a mystical union with God - during their 20s. Researchers asked the nuns aged 23 to 64-years-old to recount such mystical experiences and measured their brain activity through MRI scans.

They found increased activity in at least 12 regions of the brain, including areas normally involved with self-consciousness and emotion. Lead researcher Dr Mario Beauregard said: "The main goal of the study was to identify the neural correlates of a mystical experience. "Rather than there being one spot that relates to mystical experiences, we've found a number of brain regions are involved.

[Rasputin]

Extreme survival in the depths of the sea

Microbes discovered by a lake of liquid carbon dioxide under the sea off Taiwan could help us locate life on Mars, researchers say. Japanese and German researchers have found billions of bacteria and other tiny organisms living in a layer of sediment which traps the CO2 under the seabed. Their survival in such a hostile natural environment suggests that something similar could be happening on other planets.If water and CO2 are present below the surface in polar environments, says Fumio Inagaki at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokosuka, "I expect that life signatures utilising chemical materials and CO2 for growth might be found."Inagaki's team and researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, investigated an area at the southern end of the Okinawa Trough, about 1400 metres under the East China Sea. There, hot black sulphurous fluids are vented into the water from two seabed "chimneys" known as Tiger and Lion, a stunning phenomenon captured on video by the research team.

The microbes were discovered 50 m south of the chimneys in samples taken from the crust of sediment covering a lake of liquid CO2. The video also shows a clear stream of CO2 bubbles escaping from the hole made by the researchers' sample corer.This is a sight that few people have ever seen, says Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, US. It looks "almost surreal", he says in a commentary accompanying the research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.