Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
No featured story tonight, just this Thanksgiving greeting from the OND volunteer editors.
Science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
DarkSyde: This week in science
NNadir: Eighteen Month Follow Up On The OTHER Dangerous Fossil Fuel Spill, the One in Tennessee.
Slideshows/Videos
Discovery News: Animals: Flying Snake Mystery Solved
How do flying snakes manage to get airborne? A new video reviews their techniques as Jorge Ribas explains.
Discovery News: Animals: Cat vs Gator Explained
When a cat meets an alligator in a viral video...the cat wins? How is that possible? James Williams talks to an alligator expert to find out.
Astronomy/Space
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: NASA Postpones Discovery Launch to Mid-December
The STS-133 mission to the space station delayed due to cracks in the shuttle's external fuel tank.
Wed Nov 24, 2010 04:58 PM ET
Content provided by AFP
NASA on Wednesday postponed until mid-December the launch of the space shuttle Discovery on its last trip to the International Space Station after cracks were found in its external fuel tank.
"It's a complex problem," space shuttle program manager John Shannon said. "We really need to understand our risk."
The next potential date for launch is December 17, the US space agency said after earlier putting off any launch until December 3.
Evolution/Paleontology
Australian Broadcasting Corporation via Discovery News: Pterosaurs Flew Long, Slow
The ancient reptiles of the skies were champion loiterers, circling lazily above the tropics more economically than modern raptors do.
Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:20 AM ET
Content provided by Abbie Thomas, ABC Science Online
How were pterosaurs able to cruise the skies of the ancient world between 220-65 million years ago? Prehistoric flight palaeontologists have moved a step closer to understanding just that.
The new research, published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has found that pterosaurs did best in gentle tropical breezes rather than the stormy winds typical of today's southern oceans.
Study author Colin Palmer, an engineering and paleontology expert from the University of Bristol, made models of pterosaur wings using resin, carbon fiber and latex rubber and tested them in a wind tunnel.
Biodiversity
UCLA: Biologists report more bad news for polar bears
Climate change will force them south, where they are unsuited for the diet
By Stuart Wolpert November 23, 2010
Will polar bears survive in a warmer world? UCLA life scientists present new evidence that their numbers are likely to dwindle.
As polar bears lose habitat due to global warming, these biologists say, they will be forced southward in search of alternative sources of food, where they will increasingly come into competition with grizzly bears.
To test how this competition might unfold, the UCLA biologists constructed three-dimensional computer models of the skulls of polar bears and grizzly bears — a subspecies of brown bears — and simulated the process of biting. The models enabled them to compare the two species in terms of how hard they can bite and how strong their skulls are.
"What we found was striking," said Graham Slater, a National Science Foundation–funded UCLA postdoctoral scholar in ecology and evolutionary biology and lead author of the research. "The polar bear and brown bear can bite equally hard, but the polar bear's skull is a much weaker structure."
Biotechnology/Health
UCLA: Cancer researchers discover drug-resistance mechanisms in most common type of melanoma
By Kim Irwin November 24, 2010
Dr. Roger LoResearchers with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that melanoma patients whose cancers are caused by mutation of the BRAF gene become resistant to a promising targeted treatment through another genetic mutation or through the overexpression of a cell-surface protein, both driving survival of the cancer and accounting for relapse.
The findings, published Nov. 24 in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Nature, could result in the development of new targeted therapies to fight resistance once a patient stops responding and the cancer begins to grow again, said Dr. Roger Lo, senior author of the study.
In a clinical trial at the Jonsson Cancer Center and other locations, patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma have been responding very well to an experimental drug, PLX4032. However, the responses are short-lived, averaging seven to nine months in duration, because the cancer gets around the blockade put up by the drug, which targets the BRAF mutation found in 50 to 60 percent of melanoma patients.
Climate/Environment
University of California: New wave of planning for coastal zones
Among the traits they share in common — proximity to the coast, popularity among tourists, renowned, painterly light — Venice, Italy, and San Diego also share one all-too-disturbing similarity: They are both in considerable danger if climate change leads to a predicted rise in sea levels.
At the most recent installment of an ongoing series of Greenovation Forums at the University of California, San Diego, a panel of experts warned of the potential threats to both cities and discussed ongoing methods for mitigating and adapting to risks posed by climate change and rising ocean levels.
Titled "Rising Seas: Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Bays and Lagoons," the forum was held last week at the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and featured speakers Christina Nasci, a research associate with both the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at UCSD and a marine biologist with the Environment and Territory Division at the Venice-based Thetis S.P.A.; Sam Iacobellis, a research specialist and senior lecturer at SIO; and Michelle White, manager of the Green Port Program for the Port of San Diego.
Geology
Science News: Shuttle images reveal Egypt's lost great lake
Desert drainage patterns point to ancient oases in Sahara
By Alexandra Witze
A huge lake once waxed and waned deep in the sandy heart of the Egyptian Sahara, geologists have found.
Radar images taken from the space shuttle confirm that a lake broader than Lake Erie once sprawled a few hundred kilometers west of the Nile, researchers report in the December issue of Geology. Since the lake first appeared around 250,000 years ago, it would have ballooned and shrunk until finally petering out around 80,000 years ago.
Knowing where and when such oases existed could help archaeologists understand the environment Homo sapiens traveled while migrating out of Africa for the first time, says team leader Ted Maxwell, a geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Modern humans arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
Psychology/Behavior
University of Southern California: Sour Research, Sweet Results
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, USC College's Emily Liman reveals the physiology behind all the puckering — how people taste sour.
By Pamela J. Johnson
This Thanksgiving, when you nibble the cranberry sauce and the tartness smacks your tongue as hard as that snide comment from your sister, consider the power of sour.
Of the five taste sensations -- sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami -- sour is arguably the strongest yet the least understood. Sour is the sensation evoked by substances that are acidic, such as lemons and pickles, and the more acidic the substance the more sour the taste. But how acids, and the protons they release, activate the taste system has been beyond comprehension.
Emily Liman, associate professor of neurobiology in USC College, and her team have discovered one way that cells responsive to sour tastes detect protons.
They expected to find sour protons binding on the outside of the cell opening a pore in the membrane that allowed sodium to enter the cell, producing an electrical response. That electrical response would be transmitted to the brain.
Instead, they found that the protons released by sour substances were not binding to the cell’s exterior but were entering the cell.
University of California: Jet lagged and forgetful? It's no coincidence
Chronic jet lag alters the brain in ways that cause memory and learning problems long after one's return to a regular 24-hour schedule, according to research by University of California, Berkeley, psychologists.
Twice a week for four weeks, the researchers subjected female Syrian hamsters to six-hour time shifts — the equivalent of a New York-to-Paris airplane flight. During the last two weeks of jet lag and a month after recovery from it, the hamsters' performance on learning and memory tasks was measured.
As expected, during the jet lag period, the hamsters had trouble learning simple tasks that the hamsters in the control group aced. What surprised the researchers was that these deficits persisted for a month after the hamsters returned to a regular day-night schedule.
University of California: Perceptual training can improve vision of elderly
Elderly adults can improve their vision with perceptual training, according to a study from the University of California, Riverside and Boston University that has implications for the health and mobility of senior citizens.
The study, "Perceptual learning, aging, and improved visual performance in early stages of visual processing," appears in the current online issue of the Journal of Vision. It was funded by a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.
UC Riverside researchers G. John Andersen, a professor of psychology; Rui Ni, formerly a postdoctoral researcher; graduate student Jeffrey D. Bower; and Boston University psychology professor Takeo Watanabe conducted a series of experiments to determine whether repeated performance of certain visual tasks that are at the limits that one can see can improve the vision of adults older than 65.
Archeology/Anthropology
Independent Florida Alligator: Florida natural history museum shows off ancient watercraft
Cristina Rabaza, Alligator Contributing Writer
When a drought in Alachua County drained Newnans Lake down to a moist bed of mud, local high school students stumbled upon canoes that hadn’t seen the light of day in several millennia.
Ten years later, the world’s largest ancient watercraft discovery is now on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
"We dug around with our fingers in the sand for these wet chunks of wood, and we kept finding more and more canoes," said Eastside High School teacher Steve Everett, who led his students to the site that morning in 2000. "It was pure happenstance that we found them. I’d never seen anything like this."
Eight miles east of Gainesville, archaeologists excavated 101 dugout canoes from the lake, ranging from 500 to 5,000 years old. The canoes varied in size, some as long as 31.2 feet and some a bit shorter.
China People's Daily: Well-preserved seeds found in 3,000-year-old storage units
11:12, November 23,
Archaeologists found many well-preserved fruit and vegetable seeds, including almonds and melon seeds, from more than 3,000 years ago — some even look like new seeds — according to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology on Nov. 20.
The archaeologist said that people of the Zhou Dynasty had built unique storage units 3,000 years ago that were capable of keeping things fresh.
Sidney Morning Herald (Australia): Genetic tests may prove theory of China's lost Roman legion
Nick Squires
November 25, 2010
ROME: Genetic testing of villagers in a remote part of China has shown that nearly two-thirds of their DNA is of Caucasian origin, lending support to the theory that they may be descended from a ''lost legion'' of Roman soldiers.
Tests found that the DNA of some villagers in Liqian, on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in north-western China, was 56 per cent Caucasian in origin. Many of the villagers have blue or green eyes, long noses and even fair hair, prompting speculation that they have European blood.
A local man, Cai Junnian, is nicknamed Cai Luoma, or ''Cai the Roman'', and is one of many villagers convinced that he is descended from the lost legion.
That, or they could be the descendants of the Tocharians.
Discovery News: Roman Swimming Pool Found
Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi
Mon Nov 22, 2010 02:31 PM ET
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a swimming pool in which a legion of Roman soldiers bathed after sacking Jerusalem and expelling the Jews from their city.
Featuring a number of plastered bathtubs and a pipe on its side used to fill it with water, the pool was part of a larger complex which included bathhouses and more swimming pools.
Hundreds of terra cotta roof tiles, found on a white industrial mosaic floor, indicate that the pool was a covered structure.
The tiles bore the mark "LEG X FR," for Tenth Legion "Fretensis," and surprisingly, the paw prints of a dog that probably belonged to one of the soldiers.
Cambridge News (UK): Mummy’s injuries assessed: Was it a fall or foul play?
Jack Grove
Staff at Addenbrooke’s Hospital may have uncovered a 1,700-year-old murder during tests on an ancient Egyptian child mummy.
Radiographers at the Cambridge hospital made the macabre discovery after they conducted X-ray scans on the mummy from Saffron Walden Museum.
Archaeologists had been keen to find out whether the preserved corpse – which was living in about 350AD – was a boy or a girl after new evidence cast doubt on assumptions the mummy was male.
But the examination on Saturday has possibly revealed a darker mystery from beyond the grave.
Medical experts found the child had suffered a fractured skull and broken collarbone, which is likely to have caused his or her death.
East Anglian Daily Times (UK): New Sutton Hoo photographs unearthed
Andrew Clarke, Arts Editor
Tuesday, 23 November, 2010 10:31 AM
It’s like stepping back in time. The Sutton Hoo Visitors Centre has unearthed a host of new, historically important treasures.
Like the original ship burial, this remarkable find has laid unseen and forgotten for a long time. Tucked away in a dusty storeroom were a couple of fairly nondescript cardboard boxes.
Inside these unprepossessing packages were a photographic treasure trove which sheds new light on the discovery and the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
La Crosse Tribune (WI): Cave images could indicate overhunted deer led to culture’s downfall
By KJ LANG klang@lacrossetribune.com lacrossetribune.com
Posted: Sunday, November 21, 2010 12:05 am
Robert "Ernie" Boszhardt stumbled 12 years ago upon a sight many Wisconsinites hope to see this weekend — deer.
But Boszhardt wasn’t hunting in the woods. He was 150 feet inside a sandstone cave in the Kickapoo Valley, his flashlight in the damp darkness revealing 20 figures drawn upon the stone.
The abstract designs inside Tainter Cave were of hunters with bows and arrows, taking aim at deer — some with images of fawns in their abdomen.
And they weren’t the spray-painted graffiti he so commonly encountered on cave walls in Wisconsin, but the remnants of a culture that lived in the region roughly 1,000 years ago.
Vancouver Sun (Canada): Extinct Beothuk may survive in DNA of Icelanders
Researchers think they have found evidence that a native American woman was brought to Iceland close to AD 1000
By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News November 19, 2010
A team of European researchers says the discovery of what appears to be a strain of first nations DNA among a small group of Icelanders -- which the scientists have linked to Viking voyages to Canada about 1,000 years ago -- may represent the survival, at least genetically, of the Beothuk, victims of Canadian history's most tragic cultural extinction.
The DNA discovery may also help solve one of the country's most enduring mysteries: the identity of the so-called "skraelings" of the medieval Viking sagas -- natives whose attacks forced Leif Ericsson and his fellow Norse colonists to abandon their landmark New World settlement a millennium ago at present-day L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland.
The preceding follows up last week's story from Agence France Presse via physorg.com: Vikings brought Amerindian to Iceland 1,000 years ago: study and adds a new angle to it.
BTW, I Googled for the phrase "Leif Erickson's Pocahontas"--it hasn't been used until now. FIRST! A good thing, too, as the connection occurred to someone else yesterday. :-)
BBC: Parts of guns found at Towton War of Roses site
Parts of handheld guns have been found at a North Yorkshire battlefield which saw one of the bloodiest conflicts of the War of the Roses.
A metal detectorist unearthed the fragments of the guns, thought to date back to the 15th Century, at the site in Towton, near Tadcaster.
The find contradicts the idea that guns were only used in that period of history to attack castles.
Experts say it sheds light on the use of guns by troops in medieval battles.
Washington Daily News: State recognized a Secotan connection
By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
jonathan@wdnweb.com
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, November 25, 2010 2:18 AM EST
In a 1986 memorandum, a state official acknowledged corporate-owned land at Bath’s Beasley Point could be connected to a lost Indian village made famous in a series of watercolors painted by English gentleman-explorer John White.
In the memo, dated May 14, 1986, Wilson Angley of the research branch of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources penned his — or the state’s — findings to Billy Oliver of the archaeology branch.
Angley wrote about archaeological work that had been performed on the waterside property, then owned by Texasgulf Chemical Co.
The work was undertaken ahead of a bulkheading project permitted to prevent further erosion of the land by Bath Creek.
And now, another follow-up to a BBC story from last week.
N.Y. Times: After 400 Years, Still Hot on the Trail
By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: November 19, 2010
PRAGUE — Some contend it was a crime of passion committed by a jealous king. Others insist it was murder inspired by professional rivalry between two celebrated astronomers, one of whom poisoned the other with mercury. Or was it death by natural causes — a bursting bladder, perhaps?
Seeking to solve a 400-year-old mystery, this week a team of Czech and Danish scientists exhumed the body of the 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, whose celestial observations laid the groundwork for modern astronomy and who died in Prague in 1601, age 54.
After a week of sample-taking and tests, Brahe’s remains were reinterred Friday in the crypt of Our Lady Before Tyn Church in Prague’s medieval Old Town Square, following a rousing Mass attended by an assortment of dignitaries, stargazing fans and archeologists, including Professor Jens Vellev, a self-styled Danish Indiana Jones who has traveled the globe seeking to demystify his hero.
Anniston Star (Alabama): Oxford working to preserve Indian artifacts at construction site
by Patrick McCreless
pmccreless@annistonstar.com Anniston Star Nov 22, 2010
OXFORD – It is hard to notice until you are literally standing on top of it.
But a grass-covered, centuries-old manmade mound does indeed exist at Davis Farm in Oxford – its slope plainly visible by anyone standing at the site looking south.
It and other American Indian artifacts on the property have withstood the test of time, and though Oxford is trying to build a multi-million dollar sports complex nearby, the city is ensuring that history will be preserved.
China People's Daily: Yuan dynasty valuable vase found in sunken ship in Shandong
16:57, November 24, 2010
An ancient sunken ship was discovered at a construction site in Heze in east China's Shandong Province in September 2010, which was later covered by domestic media.
The ship was made in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and is the oldest sunken ship ever found in Shandong, according to information from a press conference jointly held by the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Heze Municipal Government and the Heze Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Nov. 23.
The Florida Times-Union: Historic artifacts found at St. Augustine's new pirate museum
Workers at the site make an archaeological find
By Dan Scanlan
Ahoy mates, there's some buried booty outside St. Augustine's new Pirate and Treasure Museum.
But no one needed a map to find the hidden treasure, and it isn't gold doubloons.
Workers digging Monday to install a handicapped-accessible ramp found historic artifacts from the nation's oldest city. Once it's cataloged and researched, museum spokeswoman Kari Cobham said a new exhibit will be added, aptly called "Buried Beneath Your Feet" for the new discovery.
"We couldn't have planned it better ourselves," Cobham admitted. "I am looking at a box of them and it is stunning. I see a bottle, a rusty compass, a tooth - it's a pretty big tooth - and some glassware as well."
South Shore News & Tribune: Archeologists use radar to examine county's past
By JOHN CEBALLOS
Published: November 23, 2010
RIVERVIEW - Some of Hillsborough County's earliest residents are buried at Samford Cemetery. And those are the ones we know about.
On Nov. 13, members of the Florida Public Archaeology Network used ground-penetrating radar to search for unmarked graves at Samford, 10101 Cone Grove Road. The cemetery officially lists 485 people buried there.
"The GPR can show us disturbances in the soil underneath," said Zaida Darley, outreach specialist for the network. "If those disturbances have grave-like patterns, then it is possible that it could be a grave."
Times of India: Secret chamber in National Library
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN, Nov 20, 2010, 01.32am IST
KOLKATA: National Library has always been reputed to haunted. Now, here is a really eerie secret. A mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors.
The chamber has lain untouched for over two centuries. Wonder what secrets it holds. The archaeologists who discovered it have no clue either, their theories range from a torture chamber, or a sealed tomb for an unfortunate soul or the most favoured of all a treasure room. Some say they wouldn't be surprised if both skeletons and jewels tumble out of the secret room.
Citizen's Voice (Wilkes-Barre, PA): U of Maryland professor researches Lattimer Massacre
By Jim Dino (Staff Writer)
Published: November 22, 2010
A University of Maryland anthropology professor interested in the Lattimer Massacre says he's found bullets fired from guns at the site.
Where those bullets were found will further tell the story of how 19 unarmed immigrant coal miners died on Sept. 10, 1897, at the hands of a Luzerne County sheriff's posse.
Dr. Paul Shackel, along with graduate students and other volunteers, spent last weekend near a monument on the site and believes they found bullets from the massacre.
The Pantgraph (Illinois): ISU's Old Main 'lives on' via professors' project
By Michele Steinbacher
Old Main may be long gone from Illinois State University in Normal, but a new project reignites a passion for the first building at the state’s oldest public university.
"It was a magnificent building," said archaeologist Jim Skibo who leads the project with ethnographer Gina Hunter. Both teach in the ISU sociology and anthropology department. "But Old Main is not gone. It lives on in the material culture left behind, and in the hearts of people who spent time there."
Constructed between 1857 and 1861, Old Main was the epicenter of campus until its 1958 razing. It was the main academic hall for campus and held its administrative offices, as well as other functions.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Discovery News: In the Beginning, the Universe Was a Liquid
Analysis by Ian O'Neill
After colliding lead ions at close to the speed of light, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using the ALICE detector have discovered the Universe acted like a fluid in the moments immediately after the Big Bang. Also, the ATLAS and CMS detectors have observed a phenomenon known as "jet quenching" for the first time.
Until recently, the LHC only accelerated protons and collided them inside the particle accelerator mainly to search for the infamous Higgs boson and other exotic particles. But earlier this month, heavier lead ions were injected into the LHC. This is when the quantum party really got started.
University of California: New silicon chip will enable ultrafast data transfer
Electrical engineers generated short, powerful light pulses on a chip — an important step toward the optical interconnects that will likely replace the copper wires that carry information between chips within today’s computers.
University of California, San Diego, electrical engineers recently developed the first ultra compact, low-power pulse compressor on a silicon chip to be described in the scientific literature. Details appeared online in the journal Nature Communications on Nov. 16.
This miniaturized short pulse generator eliminates a roadblock on the way to optical interconnects for use in PCs, data centers, imaging applications and beyond. These optical interconnects, which will aggregate slower data channels with pulse compression, will have far higher data rates and generate less heat than the copper wires they will replace. Such aggregation devices will be critical for future optical connections within and between high speed digital electronic processors in future digital information systems.
"Our pulse compressor is implemented on a chip, so we can easily integrate it with computer processors," said Dawn Tan, the Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who led development of the pulse compressor.
Chemistry
Science News: Wine-trashing microbe identified
Science scores another victory in the war against taint
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Scientists have unmasked a culprit responsible for contaminating untold bottles of wine with the musty, corky odor generally known as taint.
More than 20 years after the isolation of MDMP, a compound that can turn even the finest wine into plonk, the identity of a microbe that churns out the stuff is now in hand, researchers report online November 8 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The next step is figuring out where the critter thrives and when in the journey from vine to bottle contamination is most likely.
"This is a valuable step," says flavor chemist Mark Sefton of the University of Adelaide in Australia. "Once you have identified and characterized it, you can look for it in the environment, understand its metabolism and understand under what conditions does this bug grow and get into our food. The more you know the easier it is to control."
Energy
University of California, Davis: UC Davis turns on Smart Lighting to save energy, be model for Californians
November 22, 2010
The University of California, Davis, today turns on a new Smart Lighting Initiative to slash the amount of electricity it uses to illuminate its buildings and grounds. UC Davis is the first large institution in California to act on a September state mandate to reduce lighting energy use by 60 percent or more by 2020.
What’s more, the university intends to reach that goal in half the time -- by 2015. It has a good start: Since 2007, it has already reduced lighting energy consumption by about 10 percent.
Overall, the California Public Utilities Commission estimates that lighting accounts for 25 percent of California’s electricity use. At UC Davis, that figure is 29 percent and falling.
Cutting the energy used for lighting is key to California's efforts to reduce the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions it generates when it burns fossil fuels for electricity.
University of California: Hybrid tugboat cuts emissions, study finds
A new study by University of California, Riverside, scientists of what is believed to be the world’s only hybrid electric tugboat found that the vessel is effective in reducing emissions at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Researchers at the UC Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) demonstrated the hybrid electric tugboat reduces emissions of soot by about 73 percent, oxides of nitrogen (which help cause smog) by 51 percent, and carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, by 27 percent.
The findings are significant due to the heavy impact port pollution — caused largely by diesel-powered ship engines and, to a lesser extent, smaller harbor craft such as tugboats — has on regional air quality, according to the California Air Resources Board, which sponsored the study.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
PR Newswire via Yahoo! News: Looting Matters: The Treasure Act and the Crosby Garrett Helmet
In October 2010 a heavily restored Roman cavalry helmet was auctioned on the London market and fetched 2.2 million GBP (3.6 million USD). The helmet is reported to have been found in fields near the Cumbrian village of Crosby Garrett in the north-west of England. The bronze helmet was apparently in 33 fragments, with another 34 smaller fragments found nearby.
The discovery was apparently made in May 2010. Some reports suggest the find was made by a single individual, others that it was a father and son team out with their metal-detectors. The helmet was taken to a London auction-house in early June and was then consigned to a restorer who prepared the piece for photographs and the sale. Field Liaison Officers from the Portable Antiquities Scheme were shown the alleged find-spot at the end of August.
There has been concern that such an unusual find was not covered by The Treasure Act (1996). This piece of legislation for England and Wales defines 'treasure' in terms of the value of the metal; a bronze helmet does not fall under its scope. The major archaeological museum in Carlisle (towards the west end of the Roman frontier system known as Hadrian's Wall) was keen to acquire the helmet but was outbid at auction.
Norwich Evening News: Norfolk museum collections to be cut to save cash
By DAN GRIMMER
Wednesday, 24 November, 2010
Norfolk’s heritage is set to become an unlikely victim of the new age of austerity, with museums preparing for a rapid clear-out of up to a tenth of the county’s collections to save cash.
Museum bosses have warned that their budget will be reduced by a third by 2014 as they make savings of £650,000 over the next three years and absorb a cut of £800,000 a year in direct government grants.
To try to cope with the cuts, museums are planning to accelerate the service’s collections rationalisation programme – where objects are assessed and those not suitable for future display or study needs are found alternative homes or simply thrown away.
China People's Daily: China expands protection for its sunken treasures
15:09, November 23
China plans to beef up the protection of underwater cultural heritage, said Shan Jixiang, the director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
As of now, China has found more than 200 underwater cultural heritages and more than 70 sunken ship heritages. An agreement pledging closer cooperation was signed between two Chinese central government agencies chiefly responsible for safeguarding underwater cultural heritage on Nov. 22.
Under their agreement, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) will work more closely together in various fields including underwater archaeology and management of underwater relics.
The Jamaica Observer: Archaeological relics slipping out of Jamaica
No laws to stop it, says Heritage Trust
BY RHOMA TOMLINSON Sunday Observer writer editorial@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, November 21, 2010
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Valuable artefacts, which could help local archaeologists piece together more of Jamaica's past, are disappearing through the island's airports and for now, nothing is being done to stop it. That's the concern being raised by officials of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) and the Archaeological Society of Jamaica.
Attorney-at-law for the Trust, Lisa Grant, told the Sunday Observer earlier this year, that persons who did not understand the value of some of the artefacts in their possession, were sending them off to relatives and friends abroad, possibly as gifts, and there was no law on local books that could turn these items back at Customs. Grant, who was speaking in Mandeville following a JNHT programme to sensitise Jamaicans about proposed changes to the JNHT Act, said while she did not have information about the numbers, the organisation was concerned that several valuable items had left the island via this route.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science Education
The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, IN): Group aims to protect Native American mound
Sue Loughlin The Tribune-Star The Tribune Star Thu Nov 25, 2010, 05:00 AM EST
TERRE HAUTE — When Reg Petoskey and his brother first visited the site of the Native American mound near Fairbanks several years ago, the experience moved them spiritually, but it also broke their hearts.
The mound, built by Native Americans many years ago, showed evidence of looting. "It became a vision of mine to protect the mound" and to develop it for educational purposes, Petoskey, himself Native American, said during a recent visit to the rural, wooded Sullivan County site.
Now, an Indiana University class and state Sen. John Waterman are working with Petoskey and the Sullivan County American Indian Council to help make his vision a reality. Petoskey is the council’s founding president, and his wife, Susan, is the treasurer.
Bangkok Post (Thailand): Adorning the body beautiful
What do women today have in common with those in prehistoric times?
The answer is none other than a love for body ornaments _ rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelet, anklets.
Unarguably, it's the same love in prehistoric civilisations around the world _ in ancient Egypt and, closer to home, the Dvaravati, Sri Vijaya, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin eras.
"All human groups have created accessories. Body ornaments are not just about beauty, but also about beliefs," said Asst Prof Mayurie Veraprasert, a lecturer at the Archaeology Faculty, Silpakorn University, who prepared the exhibition, "Body Ornaments : Beliefs, Beauty, and Creativity", at Phufa Treasure Trove on the 4th floor of Siam Paragon. The event opening on Monday was graciously presided over by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
Denver Westword: Mammoth Madness misses the mark at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
The October unearthing of a mastodon, a mammoth, three Ice Age bison and a Jefferson's ground sloth near Snowmass captured the imagination of amateur paleontologists (not to mention professional ones) around the world. But the discovery didn't translate well when the Denver Museum of Nature & Science attempted to showcase — and profit from — the finds. On Saturday, the museum held Mastadon Madness, a one-day-only chance to see some of the bones that had been dug up at Ziegler Reservoir, which is being expanded to provide more water to the town for houses, businesses and snowmaking, and it was a mammoth disappointment.
The Northern Star (Australia): Mysteries of the deep revealed
Matt Deans | 23rd November 2010
THE history of shipwrecks of the Solitary Islands Marine Park, underwater Gallipoli battlefields and even a Japanese midget submarine will be revealed at the National Marine Science Centre later this week.
The deputy director of the Heritage Branch, NSW Department of Planning and NSW State Government Maritime Archaeologist, Tim Smith, will share his knowledge of some of the historic wrecks he has been involved in identifying, mapping in Australia and internationally.
Marine Parks Authority officer Chantelle Burns said maritime archaeology is important because it helps us to explore our past and protect it for future generations.
N.Y. Times: Glimpsing the Brain’s Powers (and Limits)
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: November 19, 2010
A once-living example of the most complicated object in the universe is mounted in a case at the beginning of the ambitious exhibition "Brain: The Inside Story," which opens on Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History. And a sorry-looking object it is, if we put aside the symbolism and portentousness that have grown around it, and the research that barely has begun to dissect its innermost workings.
Approach it without preconceptions and its compressed tubular windings make it seem like a small intestine coiled for easy transport. And this particular organ on display — which undoubtedly once contemplated the world with much curiosity as its observers now do — looks particularly inconsequential and stolid; it was preserved using "plastination silicone technique."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science Writing and Reporting
University of California: Scientists: Communicate climate change risks better
As climate change takes center stage in two upcoming international events, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Somerville and colleagues argue that scientists have a duty to communicate their findings in a way that facilitates informed policy decisions.
In an open letter published in the Nov. 19 issue of the journal Science, Somerville and nine colleagues said that further delay on controlling greenhouse gas emissions could have serious consequences for society.
"We call for the science community to develop, implement, and sustain an independent initiative with a singular mandate: to actively and effectively share information about climate change risks and potential solutions with the public," the authors wrote.
University of California, Davis: Brewing scientist Charles Bamforth probes soul of beer and brewing
November 22, 2010
A new book that unwraps the culture and business of brewing and opens a window into the heart of beer and the brewmaster has been served up by brewing scientist Charles Bamforth of the University of California, Davis.
Bamforth, dubbed the "brewmaster general" in Playboy magazine’s recent "Roll Call" of the nation’s most intriguing college professors, is the author of the recently released book "Beer Is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing." The 250-page, hardcover volume is published by FT Press.
Science is Cool
Oakland North: Race to the Airport
In anticipation of the extra traffic that comes with the holiday season, last week Oakland North posed a question: what’s the fastest way to get to Oakland International Airport? To find the answer, on November 18 we pitted four of our most daring reporters against each other in a contest we call the Race to the Airport. By sending each contestant out on a different form of transit—car, BART, bus, and bike—we hoped to help our readers make informed choices as they set out to catch their flights.
Our racers met at Bakesale Betty’s on 51st and Telegraph, and when Betty herself waved the checkered flag at 8 am, they scrambled to their vehicles and headed for the race finish point—the baggage claim carousel at Terminal 1. As an additional challenge, each racer had to make the trip carrying a pumpkin pie.
The car won. BART came in second.