Science Special News

[Rasputin]

Did China beat Columbus ?

Did Chinese sailors really discover America before Columbus? A new exhibition sets the scene, presenting new evidence that lends support to the assumptions made in "1421: The Year China Discovered America" by Gavin Menzies. "1421: The Year China Sailed the World," in Singapore in a special tent near the Esplanade (until Sept. 11), is primarily a celebration of Admiral Zheng He's seven maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1423. With a fleet of 317 ships and 28,000 men, Zheng He is generally acknowledged as one of the great naval explorers, but how far he actually went remains a matter of dispute. With original artifacts, videos and interactive exhibits, "1421" aims to take visitors through Zheng He's life story, setting the historical and economic context of his voyages. Against this factual background, Menzies's theories are presented, along with new evidence, mainly maps, backing his claims. The exhibition starts in Hunnan (China) in 1382, with a narrative space giving some background on Zheng He's youth. Zheng, a Chinese Muslim, was captured as a child in wartime by the Ming army and made a eunuch to serve at court.

He became a scholar and a trusted adviser to the third Ming emperor, Zhu Di, who sent him on a mission to "proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas." When the giant fleet returned in 1423, however, the emperor had fallen. With that change of leadership, China began a policy of isolationism that would last hundreds of years. The large ships were left to rot at their moorings, and most of the records of the great journeys were destroyed (though some argue the records still exist).

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Antarctic ice anomaly could be man-made structure

A spy satellite image of Antarctica reveals an "anomaly" two miles beneath the ice that could be a man-made structure, according to Congressional investigators who are demanding release of the image from the Pentagon. The explosive revelation about the anomaly, located at the epicenter of recent seismic activity in East Antarctica, prompted an immediate denial from the Defense Department and feverish speculation among members of the international intelligence and archeological communities."If it's something the U.S. military has constructed down there, then they're violating the international Antarctic Treaty," said an aide to Nicole Fontaine, the European Parliament's French president who in the past has accused the U.S. of spying on European citizens.

"If not, then it's something that's at least 12,000 years old, which is how long ice has covered Antarctica. That would make it the oldest man-made structure on the planet. The Pentagon should heed the calls of Congress and release whatever it's hiding."The existence of the classified satellite image was reported this week by an unidentified federal agent who infiltrated the Pentagon last year during a General Accounting Office audit of lax security at 19 government installations. The sting operation, in which federal investigators carrying fake law enforcement credentials penetrated the FBI, CIA and State Department, was similar to one several years ago that embarrassed the Clinton Administration and prompted the hearings on Capitol Hill.

[Rasputin]

Human ancestor 'lucy' walked upright

Australopithecus afarensis, the early human who lived about 3.2 million years ago, walked upright, according to an "evolutionary robotics" model. The model, which uses footprints to predict gait, suggests "Lucy", as the first fossil afarensis was called, walked rather like us. This contradicts earlier suggestions that Lucy shuffled like a bipedally walking chimpanzee. The research is published in the Royal Society Interface journal. "I think it is very interesting work," Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, told the BBC News website. "There was controversy as to whether [footprints purported to be from afarensis] were showing a human pattern. And it looks like they do." Lucy was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, by a team of paleoanthropologists who were fans of the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

The ancient hominid had many features reminiscent of her early ape ancestry, but she also carried hints of her future descendents. Her jaw was protruding and her forehead sloped back. But she seemed human, too; her posture being more upright than that of a chimpanzee. However, there has been a debate about how "human" Lucy's posture actually was. Some scientists maintain she was probably rather stooped and may have shuffled awkwardly, much like a modern chimp does when it is walking bipedally for short distances; while others think she was upright, routinely walking tall on two legs.

[Rasputin]

Shuttle launch set for Tuesday

The US space agency has set Tuesday at 1039 EDT (1539 BST) as its new launch opportunity for the shuttle Discovery. Nasa engineers have still not fixed the troublesome fuel sensor that stopped an earlier launch attempt but feel they are now getting on top of the issue. Agency officials said they would start the countdown clock on Saturday for what will be the first shuttle mission since the loss of Columbia in 2003. Discovery's 12-day venture into orbit will take it to the space station." We have a great amount of work to do to get us through this but we all agree that this work is doable to take us to a launch on the 26th (of July)," shuttle programme manager Bill Parsons told reporters. At issue is the performance a low-level fuel cut-off sensor, which failed to give a correct reading during a routine pre-launch check last week.

The sensor is one of four that warn the shuttle computers if the external tank is about to run dry. This allows the computers to shut down Discovery's three main engines and its fuel pumps in an orderly fashion - neither too soon nor too late; both scenarios have potentially disastrous consequences. Exhaustive work by hundreds of engineers suggests that an electrical grounding problem lurking somewhere inside the spacecraft is the most probable cause of the sensor's faulty behaviour. Shuttle officials said some further tests still needed to be done but that they felt confident now to proceed to a countdown.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Could life be the source of the Martian methane ?

The detections of methane in the martian atmosphere have challenged scientists to find a source for the gas, which is usually associated with life on Earth. One source that can be ruled out is ancient history: Methane can survive only 600 years in the martian atmosphere before sunlight will destroy it. If the global concentration of methane on Mars is 10 ppb, then an average of 4 grams of methane is being destroyed every second by sunlight. That means about 126 metric tons of methane must be produced each year to ensure a steady concentration of 10 ppb.There is an outside chance that the methane is being delivered to Mars by comets, asteroids, or other debris from space. Calculations show that micrometeorites are likely to deliver only 1 kilogram of methane a year -- far short of the 126-ton replacement level.

Comets could deliver a huge slug of methane, but the interval between major comet impacts averages 62 million years, so it's unlikely that any comet delivered methane within the past 600 years. If we can rule out methane delivery, then the methane must be manufactured on Mars. But is the source biology, or processes unassociated with life? A small percentage of Earth's methane is made through non-biological ("abiogenic") interactions between carbon dioxide, hot water and certain rocks. Could this be occurring on Mars? Perhaps, says James Lyons of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCLA.

[Rasputin]

Astronomers have discovered an object in our solar system that is larger than Pluto. They are calling it the 10th planet, but already that claim is contested.

The new world's size is not at issue. But the very definition of planethood is.

Announcement made in haste after discoverer's web site hacked

If it's a planet, it is not No. 10, other astronomers say

Next up: Mars-sized objects?

Amateur astronomers can observe 2003 UB313

DETAILS BELOW

It is the first time an object so big has been found in our solar system since the discovery of Pluto 75 years ago.

The announcement, made today by Mike Brown of Caltech, came just hours after another newfound object, one slightly smaller than Pluto, was revealed in a very confusing day for astronomers and the media.

The new object, temporarily named 2003 UB313, is about three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy. The object is round and could be up to twice as large as Pluto, Brown told reporters in a hastily called NASA-run teleconference Friday evening.

[Rasputin]

Astronomers detect '10th planet'

Astronomers in the United States have announced the discovery of the 10th planet to orbit our Sun.


The largest object found in our Solar System since Neptune was discovered in 1846, it was first seen in 2003 but has only now been confirmed as a planet.

Designated 2003 UB313, it is about 3,000km across, a world of rock and ice and somewhat larger than Pluto.

Scientists say it is three times as far away as Pluto, in an orbit at an angle to the orbits of the other planets.

Astronomers think that at some point in its history, Neptune likely flung it into its highly-inclined 44-degree orbit.

It is currently 97 Earth-Sun distances away - more than twice Pluto's average distance from the Sun.

Bigger than Pluto

Its discoverers are Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz of Yale University.

It's not every day that you find something Pluto-sized or larger!

"Brought to the same distance from the Sun as Pluto, it would be brighter. So today, the world knows that Pluto is not unique. There are other Plutos, just farther out in the Solar System where they are a little harder to find."

It was picked up using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory and the 8m Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea.

Slow mover

Chad Trujillo told the BBC News website: "I feel extremely lucky to be part of a discovery as exciting as this. It's not every day that you find something Pluto-sized or larger!"

"The spectra that we took at the Gemini Observatory are particularly interesting because it shows that the surface of 2003 UB313 is very similar to that of Pluto."

The object was first observed on 21 October 2003, but the team did not see it move in the sky until looking at the same area 15 months later on 8 January 2005.

The researchers say they tried looking for it with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is sensitive to heat radiation, but failed to detect it.

This gives them an upper limit of its size of 3,000 km, they say. The lower limit still makes it larger than Pluto.

The discovery of 2003 UB313 comes just after the announcement of the finding of 2003 EL61, which appears to be a little smaller than Pluto.

[Rasputin]

Ancient Roman stone tablet puzzle yields clues

For more than 500 years scholars have been wrestling with an ancient Roman puzzle that would test even the most cunning of quiz-masters. How do you put together a giant stone jigsaw when 80% of the pieces are missing and you have even lost the lid? Now with a joint Italian-US team on the case using a hi-tech approach the answer might finally be within reach. The Forma Urbis, or Severan Marble Plan, is a giant map of the city of Rome constructed around AD200 by the Emperor Septimus Severus. It was fixed onto the wall of the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace) in the heart of the city - a massive display symbolising both the greatness of the city, and the emperor's power to know its every nook and cranny. But with the decline of the empire from the 4th Century, the vast marble map - measuring 18m by 13m (59 feet by 43 feet) and intricately carved onto 250 separate slabs - was prised off the wall.

The building stones were stolen, crushed into cement or merely slid down off the wall to lie buried in the gardens below for the next 1,000 years. The rediscovery of some of the pieces during the Renaissance ignited an interest in reconstructing the map that has bewitched scholars ever since. Now scientists at America's Stanford University have joined Italian archaeologists in the capital's Museum of Roman Civilisation with a multi-disciplinary and hi-tech approach to solving the ancient riddle. The Stanford team has digitally scanned all 1,186 surviving pieces of the Plan and constructed a range of computer programmes which use algorithms to try to fit the pieces together.

[Rasputin]