Science Special News

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Underwater cemetary planned

Gary Levine is spending $10 million to build a cemetery under the sea. Does he need to decompress?In life, radio disc jockey Roby Yonge was pretty weird. Best known for propagating on-air the "Paul is dead" rumor about Beatles member Paul McCartney in 1969, he believed in life on other planets and was obsessed with discovering the mythical lost city of Atlantis. Now, nine years after his death, Yonge's family has found the storied city for him--in name, at least--and plans to make it his final resting place. Under construction 3 miles off the coast of Key Biscayne, Fla., Atlantis Memorial Reef is an underwater graveyard and scuba attraction that will open in July, and eventually hold the remains of up to 80,000 people whose families are willing to pay between $900 (sharing space with others in a base) and $250,000 (for a custom 18-foot sculpture in bronze, limestone or concrete). You can get a 20-square-foot family mausoleum, with four columns and two lintels, for only $50,000.

This Disneyland for the dead is the curious fixation of Gary Levine, 58, who used to build docks and seawalls but is a bit new to the burial business. Once it's complete, the site will span 15 acres of ocean floor and consist of five concentric circles, based loosely on an account of Atlantis in Plato's dialogue Timaeus. Levine has planned 40 themed areas, including love, education, the military and the zodiac, all overseen by a bronze display of winged lions and three dolphins pulling a chariot of the Greek sea god, Poseidon. Tacky? Even Levine has limits. "We're not making a bust of someone's wife or their German shepherd," he insists. "If someone wanted diamond eyeballs we wouldn't do that, either."

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Egypt tomb reveals ancient woven flowers

Archaeologists hoped the first tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 80 years would hold the mummy of King Tut's mother. They opened the last of eight sarcophagi Wednesday, revealing no mummies but finding something almost as valuable: embalming materials and ancient woven flowers.Hushed researchers craned their necks and media scuffled inside the stiflingly hot underground stone chamber as Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass slowly cracked open the coffin's lid _ for what scientists believe is the first time in more than 3,000 years.But instead of a mummy, as archaeologists had expected, the coffin revealed a tangle of fabric and rusty-colored dehydrated flowers woven together in laurels that looked likely to crumble to dust if touched."I prayed to find a mummy, but when I saw this, I said it's better _ it's really beautiful," said Nadia Lokma, chief curator of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.The flowers were likely the remains of garlands, often entwined with gold strips, that ancient Egyptian royals wore around their shoulders in both life and death, she said.

"It's very rare _ there's nothing like it in any museum. We've seen things like it in drawings, but we've never seen this before in real life _ it's magnificent," Lokma said.Dug deep into white rock, the tomb is known only by the acronym KV63 _ the 63rd tomb found in the Valley, a desert region near the southern city of Luxor used as a burial ground for pharaohs, queens and nobles between 1500 and 1000 B.C.

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Was there life on Mars ?

A mysterious shiny coating found on rocks in many of Earth's arid environments could reveal whether there was once life on Mars, according to new research. The research, published in the July edition of the journal Geology, reveals that the dark coating known as desert varnish creates a record of life around it, by binding traces of DNA, amino acids and other organic compounds to desert rocks. Samples of Martian desert varnish could therefore show whether there has been life on Mars at any stage over the last 4.5 billion years.The researchers hope that these results will encourage any future Mars Sample Return mission to add desert varnish to its Martian shopping list.The source of the varnish, which looks like it has been painted onto the rocks, has intrigued scientists since the mid nineteenth century, including Darwin, who was so fascinated that he asked the geochemist Berzelius to investigate it. It was previously suggested that its dark colour was the result of the presence of the mineral manganese oxide, and that any traces of life found within the varnish came from biological processes caused by microbes in this mineral.

However, the new research used a battery of techniques, including high resolution electron microscopy, to show that any traces of life in the varnish do not come from microbes in manganese oxide. The research reveals that the most important mineral in the varnish is silica, which means that biological processes are not significant in the varnish's formation. On desert rock surfaces, silica is dissolved from other minerals and then gels together to form a glaze, trapping organic traces from its surroundings.

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Team claims discovery of Noah's Ark

team of Texas archaeologists believe they may have located the remains of Noah's Ark in Iran's Elburz mountain range. "I can't imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark," said Arch Bonnema of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (B.A.S.E) Institute, a Christian archeology organization dedicated to looking for biblical artifacts. Bonnema and the other B.A.S.E. Institute members hiked for seven hours in the mountains northwest of Tehran, climbing 13,000 feet before making the apparent discovery. "We got up to this object, nestled in the side of a hill," said Robert Cornuke, a member of the B.A.S.E. Institute. "We found something that has my heart skipping a beat." At first, they didn't dare to hope it was the biblical boat. "It wasn't impressive at first," Cornuke said. "Certainly didn't think it to be Noah's Ark. But when we got close, we were amazed. It looked similar to wood." In addition, some B.A.SE. members say, their discovery didn't look very distinctive. "It looked like the deck of any boat today," Bonnema said. The Bible places the Ark in the mountains of Ararat, a mountain range theologians believe spans hundreds of miles, which the team says is consistent with their find in Iran.

The Bible also describes the Ark's dimensions as being 300 cubits by 50 cubits -- about the size of a small aircraft carrier. The B.A.S.E. Institute's discovery is similar in size and scale. "It is provocative to think that this could be the lost ark of Noah," Cornuke said Throughout history, people have been searching for the Ark to help prove God's existence. "There's this idea, if we can prove that the ark existed then we can prove that the story existed, and more importantly, we can prove that God existed," said Bruce Feiler, author of "Where God Was Born." Previous scholars have searched for the Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey. "Czar Nicholas, actually, in 1916 sent two expeditions to photograph it on top of Mount Ararat," said Feiler. One former U.S. president, Feiler said, looked for it in the mountains of Iran.

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Monster waves on the increase

Call anything rogue or monster and it immediately assumes a thrilling unreality found in science-fiction and horror tales. And yet, as we roll into summer and another hurricane season, the talk of rogue and monster ocean waves has been gaining, with scientific researchers in England and Germany recently publishing evidence that these waves might be much larger and more frequent than previously thought.Technically, a rogue wave occurs when strong wind charges the ocean with its energy. And some rogues seem to derive energy from the depths of the ocean. Inshore boaters would seem immune from such nightmarish conditions.But on June 7 off Harwichport, a 34-foot fishing boat, Chamy, called the Coast Guard because a rogue slammed into it so hard that its pump system was disabled, and Chamy was taking on water. Since the fishing boat was only about 10 miles from land, the rescue was not difficult, where 100 miles offshore the story might have had a different ending.Then there was the case last August of a fishing boat near Nomans Island (off the southwest corner of Martha's Vineyard) on a day described as moderately inclement with winds between 10-15 knots out of the south. There was a small-craft advisory, but those conditions rarely keep boats from going out.Scott Terry, a 52-year-old commercial fisherman from Martha's Vineyard and his teenage mate, Mitchell Pachico, left the dock before dawn on a 24-foot twin-outboard fishing boat.

As they made their way from Gay Head toward Nomans -- a former Naval bombing target about 3 miles off Martha's Vineyard -- Terry said a ``good swell" began to run, but nothing severe. A lobsterman pulling his traps in the area, says Terry, who added that while he goes to the best fishing grounds possible, he would never test himself, his crew or his boat with conditions he considers dangerous.Terry and Pachico were bouncing live eels off the bottom to entice striped bass, when, out of nowhere, a wall of water 15-20 feet high rolled into them, lifting the boat to the top just as the wave crested, flipping the boat. Though not a rogue because of its location, the wave did conform to one rogue characteristic: It was more than twice the height of any of the other waves.

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Giant beetle frightens workers in UK

giant beetle unseen in the UK for 300 years and rare anywhere in the world has been discovered living in Llanelli. Startled workers at a furniture restorer almost smashed the bug to bits with a hammer in their fear before cooler heads prevailed. Others believed the 2.6 inches long bug, with two antennae up to 4 inches long, was a child's plastic toy brought in as a joke. In fact it turned out to be an extremely rare Capricorn beetle looking like a frightening throwback to the age of dinosaurs. Staff at Foothold Group, in Llanelli, south Wales, use recycled wood to make new furniture, and saw the big bug crawl out of a pile of English oak. When it proved to be home to a beetle grub and a second, dead, beetle, they were more fearful than pleased with their rare find. "I was gobsmacked because it was bloody huge for a beetle," said Tony Giles, the workshop manager. "There were a few suggestions to start with between getting a 2lb hammer or just throwing it out of the window. Cooler heads prevailed."

Local entomologist Ian Morgan was called and he immediately recognised the importance of the find. He told the Western Mail in Cardiff: "This type of long-horn beetle was supposed to be have been extinct in the UK since 1700. "This is the first time in centuries that it has been seen here in Wales. "It is a male and he was found in timber labelled English oakwood, so it makes you question whether this massive beast is alive in England too.

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Mysterious lake creature shrouded in myth

Once described as a being the spawn of an earwig and a whale, the mystery of Okanagan Lake's Ogopogo is still being debated to this day. Originally called M-ha-a-i-tk by local First Nations, Ogopogo's home is said to be near Squally Point (also known as Rattlesnake Island). According to city councillor and local historian Randy Manuel, the natives, out of fear of death by drowning, would sacrifice an animal like a dog when passing Squally Point. "It's a spot where wind and weather can bring waves up to six or seven feet there. It's a spot where you don't want to get caught in a boat," said Manuel. "It (sacrificing animals) was common practice when they were travelling the length of the lake in canoes." The local natives weren't the only ones that believed in Ogopogo either. In 1914 one man found what may have been an Ogopogo carcass. Author F.M. Buckland of Kelowna described the story of what happened to a group of campers near Greata Ranch in one of his books. "One of the party who had gone to the lake edge for water was attracted by a strong smell of rotted fish. On investigation he found the badly decomposed body of a strange animal lying at the water's edge.

The body was between five and six feet in length and would weigh about 400 pounds. It had a short, broad, flat tail and a head that stuck out from between shoulders without any sign of a neck. The nose was stubby, sticking out of rounded head with no ears visible. The thick hide was sparsely covered with a silky hair four or five inches in length and of a bluish-grey colour while the teeth resembled those of a dog. It had two ivory-like tusks and claws resembling those of a great bird, on flipper-like arms; claws that showed no signs of wear or use, such as those of a cougar or other land animal."

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Asteroid in near miss with Earth

An asteroid up to half a mile wide is expected to brush past the Earth on Monday, approaching almost as close as the Moon. In astronomical terms, that counts as a near miss. But scientists who had been tracking the path of asteroid 2004 XP14 are not worried. They know that the space rock, travelling at 17km per second, would not hit the Earth. Nevertheless, 2004 XP14 has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) along with 782 known others. The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of "Apollo" asteroids whose orbits cross that of the Earth. Initially there were concerns that the asteroid might collide with the Earth later this century. However, further analysis of its orbit has ruled this out - at least for the foreseeable future. If XP14 did hit the Earth the effects would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.

Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the 230ft diameter Goldstone dish in California's Mojave desert. Although the object's size is not precisely known, it is thought to range between 1,345ft and 3,018ft - between a quarter and just over a half-mile wide. Another asteroid due to make an even closer fly-by on April 13, 2029, will be easy to see with the naked eye. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, which measures about 1,000ft across, will be visible from Asia and North Africa as it passes within 20,000 miles of the Earth.

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New self-driving car developed

It has proved one of the most endearing of cinematic legends - a loveable car with a mind of its own that can drive itself. And for 40 years Herbie - or the 'Love Bug' - as the Volkswagen Beetle was dubbed in its first movie outing - has enthralled millions of families in a series of Hollywood sequels. But now German car giant Volkswagen has turned fiction into reality by unveiling a fully automatic car which really can drive itself - and at speeds of up to 150mph. It can weave with tyres screeching around tricky bends and chicanes, and through tightly coned off tracks - without any help or intervention from a human. The remarkable car is the VW Golf GTi '53 plus 1' codenamed after the number '53' which Herbie carried when racing in his big screen adventures. The GTi has electronic 'eyes' that use radar and laser sensors in the grille to 'read' the road and send the details back to its computer brain. A sat-nav system tracks its exact position with pin-point precision to within an inch. The car can then work out the twists and turns it has to negotiate - before setting off at break-neck speed through a laid out course on a test track.

On a race circuit, it drove itself faster and more precisely than the VW engineers could manage - and can accelerate independently up to its top speed of 150mph. To prove it is no trick, guests were invited to design for themselves a variety of different courses - using road cones - and then watch the car fly around them on its own at a test track near their world headquarters in Wolfsburg in northern Germany.

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Occult motivation in Devon sheep mutilation

Sheep have been found on Dartmoor with their necks broken and their eyes gouged out in the third attack of its kind in 18 months. The three sheep were found on moorland at Pork Hill, near Tavistock. Their tongues had also been cut out. They had been arranged in a line when they were found on Monday.In January last year seven sheep belonging to three local farmers were found arranged in the shape of a heptagon near Sampford Spiney, West Dartmoor. They had all been strangled.In October last year one of the same farmers found six of his sheep with their necks broken and their eyeballs removed.Four of the dead animals had been laid out in a square, while the other two were discovered near stones apparently arranged to make a pagan symbol. The farmer believed occultists could have been to blame as the discovery came after a full moon on a Saturday night in October.In the latest attack, the sheep, which belonged to two local farmers, had not been at Pork Hill the previous evening and it is believed the attack happened after 6pm on June 25 or early the following morning, fuelling suspicions that it took place at the time of a new moon, which was around 4am.

Police in Tavistock and the RSPCA have launched an investigation and are appealing for information. RSPCA inspector Becky Wadey believes the brutal act must have been carried out by at least two people and is urging anyone with information to come forward."These sheep must have been rounded up on the open moor by whoever carried out this barbaric attack," she said. "That would have required a number of people and potentially been quite a spectacle.

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The vampire among us...

LeAnne Miller: He's back! And his bite is still as strong as ever! Even farther back in time, before the late 1980's, the legendary stories of Dracula (both fictionalized vampire--and the biographical accounts of the famous and infamous Noble, Romanian Prince, Vladimir Dracul) were as abundant and terrifying to give people warning-- to guard themselves from attacks of any type back then. Yet, vampire legends, superstitions, and stories today continue to caution against letting any form of vampire exist, or have the opportunities to become ressurected and reani-mated. However, for all of the fans and devotees to the original t.v. show, Dracula: the series, (create by the team of Phil Bedard and Larry Lalonde--who would later also create the show concept for Forever Knight); the legendary vampire, Dracul has been resurrected and reanimated into the shape and form of one unique, multi-billionaire industrialist, Mr. Alexander Lucard (Dracul- spelled backwards). Lucard is the primary star of Dracula: the series.

In addition, the entire series (which consists of 21 episodes) has also been given "new life" by Platinum Disc Corporation and Crown Media; this "new life" has taken shape in the physical form as a two-disc collector's edition set of digital video discs (Dvds). This legendary treasure should definitely satiate the appetite of any and all die-hard fan who wishes to find and own a dvd set of the "family-rated/family friendly" tv show. One caveat to those who normally purchase dvds for 'the bonus extras.' Dracula: the series does not contain any 'bonus' materials. The two disc collection includes simply the entire 21 episodes from the series; albeit in sharp, clear focus; uncut, unedited, commercial-free, and in of it's gloriously rich, deep colors. As an extra incentive for the eternal fans of the tv series, Forever Knight, Dracula: the series should be a def-inite "must have" collectible, as the series is a multi-episodic showcase for Welsh actor, Geraint Wyn Davies (a.k.a. Det. Nicholas Knight). Check out some of the episodes listed:

** The Decline of the Romanian Vampire
** The Vampire Solution
** Black Sheep
** Klaus Encounters of the Interred Kind

.... just to name a small few episode titles. What could almost be considered a humorous full circle of casting anomolies, actually becomes evident when viewing the D:ts episode titled "Get a Job." In this episode, guest star, Louise Vallance appears as Art Expert, Julia Heisenberg. This is the same actress who was cast (alongside Dracula star, Geordie Johnson) in the episode of the Forever Knight episode titled "My Boyfriend is a Vampire." (Vallance was cast as the 'sanity challenged' tv show production manager, Charly Hawkes; in this episode, she is also joined by Dracula star, Geordie Johnson, who plays a controversial talk show host named Jerry Tate.) And Davies, (who portrayed Klaus the vampire in Dracula), is cast as the Central star of Forever Knight, Detective Nicholas Knight; who has the job of solving a number of homicide mysteries surround-ing the Jerry Tate show. So, whether one is either a Dracula: the series fan, a Geord-ie Johnson fan, a Geraint Wyn Davies (G.W.) fan, or simply a fan and collector of vampire and vampirological history collect-ible, "Dracula: the series" (the 2-disc collection set), is most definitely a must have item for anyone to have and enjoy It is certainly a unique, visual morsel that one can 'sink-their-teeth' into and enjoy......eternally; and longer.....even.

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