The skeleton of a 12,000 year-old Natufian Shaman has been discovered in northern Israel by archaeologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The burial is described as being accompanied by "exceptional" grave offerings - including 50 complete tortoise shells, the pelvis of a leopard and a human foot. The shaman burial is thought to be one of the earliest known from the archaeological record and the only shaman grave in the whole region.
Culture
Research by the University of Warwick shows how death gave birth to the modern cult of celebrity as the sudden rise in the popularity of obituaries of unusual people in the 1700s provided people with the 18th Century equivalent of a celebrity gossip magazine.
The VHF radio interferometer system was designed by ZHANG GuangShu, et al of Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. By using this system, a cloud-to-ground lightning flash containing 19 strokes was observed and several new characteristics of lightning have been revealed. The study is reported in volume51, number 5 (May, 2008) of the Science in China (Series D, Earth Sciences).
Alcohol and attitudes are two of the key factors that health professionals need to be aware of when they are dealing with sexually active teenagers.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield, UK, found considerable differences between the way that boys and girls aged 14 to 16 viewed a series of sexual scenarios.
"The girls who took part in our focus groups were more likely to see their partner's point of view and were more aware of the complex nature of relationships than the boys" says nurse researcher Dr Mark Hayter.
Ongoing research to be published in the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry suggests that there is a huge amount of sensitive data still on redundant computer hard disks.
These devices are often disposed of or sold into the second-hand market by corporations, organizations, and individuals with the data intact.
The authors of the report say that this data represents a significant level of risk for commercial sabotage, identity theft, and even political compromise, and suggest that better education is essential to reduce the risk of harm.
CORAL GABLES, FL. (November 4, 2008)-Once again, Florida takes center stage during this presidential election, as both political campaigns spend significant time and resources courting the Hispanic vote in this battleground state. Dr.
Against a backdrop of stories about Britain's "broken society" there are examples of community action bringing positive changes. One recent example of such community spirit is in London where 'London Citizens' recently fought for – and won – higher wages for some of the city's lowest paid.
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- A team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise.
Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.
The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Strobel, MSU professor of plant sciences and plant pathology. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug taxol.
Knee clicking can establish mating rights among antelopes. A study of eland antelopes, published in the open access journal BMC Biology, has uncovered the dominance displays used by males to settle disputes over access to fertile females, without resorting to genuine violence.
A unique fungus that makes diesel compounds has been discovered living in trees in the rainforest, according to a paper published in the November issue of Microbiology. The fungus is potentially a totally new source of green energy and scientists are now working to develop its fuel producing potential.
CORAL GABLES, FL (November 3, 2008)-While there is no agreement on the number of Jews in the United States, nor whether that number is increasing or decreasing, it probably matters little in the ability of American Jews to have their say in the political system, according to Ira M. Sheskin, University of Miami associate professor of Geography and Regional Studies and director of the Jewish Demography Project at the UM Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies.
Two new studies conclude that a review which claimed that homeopathy is just a placebo, published in The Lancet, was seriously flawed.
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Thursday, November 6, 2008, Dr. Kirt Rusenko, Marine Conservationist, and staff from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton will release two juvenile loggerhead sea turtles raised in captivity into the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian Inlet.
Irvine, Calif. — The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds.
A child runs across the street without paying attention to the traffic, just as a car approaches at speed. It's too late to slam on the brakes, and the driver can't swerve either, as there is another car on the neighboring lane. An accident seems inevitable. A new software program, that for the first time can help several cars to coordinate their movements together, could take the edge off such a situation in future. The vehicles form a network via car-to-car communication and communicate automatically.