Science Special News

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Hot new mystery surrounds Saturn

For years astronomers have known that the upper atmospheres of Saturn and other giant planets are hotter than can be explained by absorbed sunlight. Today the mystery deepened. The phenomenon has long been blamed on a mechanism similar to what creates the aurora, or Northern Lights on Earth. On Earth, magnetic energy in the magnetosphere drives the aurora and heats the upper atmosphere. The giant planets are known for spectacular auroras at their polar regions. Scientists figured that heat generated by the auroras was blown toward the equator by some unknown process. But a new calculation reported in today's issue of the journal Nature finds that this mechanism, if at work on Saturn, would actually cool the upper atmosphere at the lower latitudes (closer to the equator). Scientists will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out what's really heating things up."This unexplained 'energy crisis' represents a major gap in our understanding of these planets' atmospheres," the scientists write.

"We need to re-examine our basic assumptions about planetary atmospheres and what causes the observed heating," said study team member Alan Aylward of the University College London.Some as-yet-unknown direct heating mechanism is possibly at work, the scientists speculate. One possibility: the breaking of "buoyancy waves" generated in the lower atmosphere.Figuring it all out could help researchers model the future of Earth's atmosphere.

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Mathematics in ancient Egypt

The Greeks developed mathematics as a deductive science that reached its climax with Euclid of Alexandria in his masterpiece The Elements. Before that, during the ancient Egyptian era, mathematics was an inductive discipline of a utilitarian nature used to perform practical tasks such as flood control or land measurement using rope. It has been suggested that mathematics then amounted to no more than the two-times table and the ability to find two-thirds of any number. The whole structure of Egyptian mathematics was said to be based on these two simple rules, and indeed no evidence exists of a textual geometry with constructions and proofs.Yet, looking at the Egyptians' stunning monuments, as well as a civilisation that spanned three millennia, one might expect to find a similar element of grandeur in their sciences -- especially in mathematics and astronomy. How did they configure the manpower and materials needed to build more than 90 pyramids? It is obvious that to calculate the vast amount of computations they needed, the ancient Egyptians reached a fairly advanced mathematical knowledge.Several eminent Greek mathematicians -- Pythagoras, Thales and Archimedes, to name just a few -- worked in Egypt, and it is likely that Egyptian mathematics was absorbed into the body of Greek mathematics. The Giza pyramids offer definitive evidence of the ancient accuracy of measuring.

Built in the middle of the third millennium BC, shortly after the first known evidence of Egyptian writing, they predate by 600 years any early mathematical tools. The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built of 2,300,000 limestone blocks each averaging 2.5 tons. Simple calculations reveal that, since it took 20 years to complete, and assuming that work lasted eight hours per day, it was possible to fit 2,300,000/20 x 365 x 8 x 60 = 0.7 blocks per minute. In other words it took about 10 minutes to fit seven such huge blocks neatly into place at such an elevation. This does not account for the time taken to construct or demolish the ramp using to pull up the stones.

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Zeus devotees worship in Athens

Worshippers who believe in the 12 gods of ancient Greece have held a ceremony at the Temple of Zeus in Athens. This is a landmark event to celebrate official recognition of their religion by a court last year. The Greek Orthodox Church has said they are miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion. But the ceremony went ahead, with crowds watching priests and priestesses, who said the event was a symbol of their civic rights. In 2003, white-clad worshippers performed an illicit ceremony at the Temple of Hephaestus, just below the Acropolis. At that time they were chased off the site by ministry of culture staff. Despite vigorous opposition from the highly conservative Greek Orthodox Church, a court last year officially recognised the revived ancient Greek religion. One of its leaders, Doretta Peppa, a writer who calls herself a high priestess, told the BBC the temples were built to respect the gods and now they were going to be put to their proper use.

Ms Peppa said she had been given official permission to use the temple, but there were fears that the culture ministry, which administers the site, might give way to pressure from the church. The president of the Association of Greek Clergymen, Father Efstathios Kollas, has described the followers of the Olympic gods as a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion who wish to return to the monstrous dark delusions of the past.

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Opus Dei complains over BBC drama

Controversial Catholic group Opus Dei has complained to the BBC about what it says is a "defamatory" portrayal in primetime drama Waking The Dead. Two episodes of the crime series, shown last weekend, featured devotees of the religious organisation embroiled in a gruesome double murder. Opus Dei said the BBC broke religious guidelines by showing its members as "murderers, thieves and adulterers". The BBC said it had not yet received an official complaint. Opus Dei was formed in 1928 in Madrid by the priest Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. Its name means "the work of God". It encourages members to see religion as something that should direct every minute of their lives, rather than being a matter of just turning up for Mass and confession. But it has aroused controversy in the past, with critics calling it secretive and ultra-conservative, claims which its members deny. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code novel famously painted the organisation as a power-hungry movement bent on covering up the truth about Christ's bloodline. Opus Dei claim it was this portrayal of their organisation that was the inspiration for Waking The Dead.

"The three characters portrayed as members are self-serving hypocrites whose main reason for belonging to Opus Dei is depicted as being their wealth," it said. "This portrayal is lifted from the Da Vinci Code, a book and film which claimed - against all evidence - to be based on fact." The group says the BBC has broken its own editorial guidelines on religion, which state: "We will ensure the religious views and beliefs of an individual, a religion or religious denomination are not misrepresented".

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Carvings of ancient gladiators found

Italian police have recovered ancient Roman marble reliefs depicting stunningly lifelike gladiators locked in mortal combat after unearthing the hidden cache of grave robbers, officials said Wednesday. The 12 panels were found buried in the garden of a private home near Fiano Romano, about 25 miles north of Rome, and officials hailed the find as a major archaeological discovery and a blow to the illegal antiquities market. The reliefs date to the late first century B.C. and are believed to have decorated a tomb, yet to be located, in the Roman settlement of Lucus Feroniae, said Anna Maria Moretti, the superintendent for antiquities in the area north of Rome. The pieces, made of high-quality Carrara marble, are notable for their size and age and are among the finest examples from their period depicting one of Rome's favorite blood sports, Moretti said. The panels show bare-chested fighters, armed with swords and shields, engaged in duels while surrounded by trumpet and horn players who accompanied the phases of combat in the bloodied arena.

In one of the most dramatic scenes, a gladiator steps on the wrist of a downed opponent who raises a finger in a traditional plea for mercy. The reliefs will undergo restoration before being shown to the public at Rome's Villa Giulia Museum, officials said. Archaeologists have unearthed many similar representations, but interest in the new discovery goes beyond its craftsmanship, Moretti said.

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Stonehenge builders' houses found

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: A huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge has been found, archaeologists have said. Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses. People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies. In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain. The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC - according to the researchers, the same period that Stonehenge was built. But some archaeologists point out that there are problems dating Stonehenge itself because the stone circle has been rebuilt many times.

Consequently, archaeological material has been dug up and reburied on numerous occasions, making it difficult to assign a date to the original construction. But Mike Parker Pearson and his colleagues are confident of a link. "In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards," he explained. The Sheffield University researcher said this was based on the fact that these abodes had exactly the same layout as Neolithic houses at Skara Brae, Orkney, which have survived intact because - unlike these dwellings - they were made of stone.

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'Hobbit' human 'is a new species'

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: The tiny skeletal remains of human "Hobbits" found on an Indonesian island belong to a completely new branch of our family tree, a study has found. The finds caused a sensation when they were announced to the world in 2004. But some researchers argued the bones belonged to a modern human with a combination of small stature and a brain disorder called microcephaly. That claim is rejected by the latest study, which compares the tiny people with modern microcephalics. Microcephaly is a rare pathological condition in humans characterised by a small brain and cognitive impairment. In the new study, Dean Falk, of Florida State University, and her colleagues say the remains are those of a completely separate human species: Homo floresiensis. They have published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The remains at the centre of the Hobbit controversy were discovered at Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, in 2003. Researchers found one near-complete skeleton, which they named LB1, along with the remains of at least eight other individuals.

The specimens were nicknamed Hobbits after the tiny creatures in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The researchers believe the 1m-tall (3ft) people evolved from an unknown small-bodied, small-brained ancestor, which they think became small in stature to cope with the limited supply of food on the island. The little humans are thought to have survived until about 12,000 years ago, when a volcanic eruption devastated the region.

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Seeking Da Vinci's lost masterpiece

After 32 years on the trail of Leonardo da Vinci's lost masterpiece "The Battle of Anghiari," Maurizio Seracini thinks he is on the verge of solving one of the art world's greatest mysteries. The Italian engineer and art expert reckons he knows where the fresco, which disappeared nearly five centuries ago, might be hidden -- behind a wall right where it was painted, in Florence's Renaissance town hall.Now that the Italian government has given him the go-ahead to complete his investigation, Seracini says he is just a few months away from finding out once and for all.If he is right, there is no overestimating the importance such a discovery would have."At the time of Leonardo the contemporaries considered this not only his best work of art but also 'the' best work of art, the masterpiece of all," Seracini said in his office near the Palazzo Vecchio, where he believes the painting is buried.

"So, we are searching for the most important masterpiece of the Renaissance, the highest point ever achieved, and the most important masterpiece of Leonardo," he told Reuters.Florence's leaders commissioned Leonardo, then at the height of his career, to paint a fresco celebrating the Florentine Republic's victory over the Milanese in a battle on the plains of Anghiari that took place on June 29, 1440.