World's first ever self-watering plant discovered in Israel

Scientists have discovered the world's first 'self-watering' plant in Israel's Negev desert – one of the driest regions on earth.

The Desert Rhubarb can hold 16 times more water than its rivals and has developed a unique ability to effectively water itself in its barren habitat.

Researchers were confounded by the metre-wide plant's giant leaves, compared to its desert counterparts, whose tiny leaves stop dangerous moisture loss.

But they found the plant's large leaves are the key to its success, because they are covered in microscopic streams through which water can be channelled.

Scientists claim ridges in the leaves act like mountain valleys, funnelling the water slowly and directly into the plant while stopping it evaporating.

A team from the Department of Science Education-Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim, in Israel, said the leaves act like a mini irrigation system.

Lead researcher Professor Gidi Ne'eman said "We know of no other plant in the deserts of the world that functions in this manner.

"We have managed to make out the 'self-irrigating' mechanism of the desert rhubarb, which enables it to harvest 16 times the amount of water than otherwise expected for a plant in this region based on the quantities of rain in the desert.

"These deep and wide depressions in the leaves create a "channelling" mountain-like system by which the rain water is channelled toward the ground surrounding the plant's deep root.

"Other desert plants simply suffice with the rain water that penetrates the ground in its immediate surroundings."

Results of experiments and analysis of the plant's growth – in an area with an average annual rainfall of 75mm – showed that the desert rhubarb is able to harvest quantities of water that are closer to that of Mediterranean plants, reaching up to 426mm per year.

That is 16 times the amount of water harvested by the small-leafed plants of the Negev desert region.

The Negev makes up more than 50 per cent of Israel's land area to the south of the country near it's border with Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula.

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Scientists find first conclusive signature for uranium on Moon

A team of scientists has found the first conclusive signature for the presence of uranium on the lunar surface, an element not seen in previous Moon-mapping efforts.

The uranium signatures were detected by Robert C Reedy, a senior scientist at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute, who is mapping the Moon’s surface elements using data gathered by an advanced gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) that rode aboard the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft.

Kaguya was launched in September 2007 and crashed into the Moon at the end of its mission on June 10 of this year.

Earlier gamma-ray spectrometer maps from the Apollo and Lunar Prospector missions show a few of the Moon’s chemical elements.

But, the maps constructed by Reedy and the Kaguya GRS team, using data gathered by state-of-the-art, high-energy-resolution germanium detectors, are extending the earlier results and improving our understanding of the Moon’s surface composition.

In addition to uranium, the Kaguya GRS data also is showing clear signatures for thorium, potassium, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, calcium, titanium and iron.

Reedy and his colleagues are using measurements from the Kaguya lunar orbiter’s GRS to construct high-quality maps of as many chemical elements as possible.

“We’ve already gotten uranium results, which have never been reported before,” Reedy said. “We’re getting more new elements and refining and confirming results found on the old maps,” he added.

Reedy’s continuing mapping work now is being funded for two years through NASA’s SALMON programme (Stand-Alone Missions of Opportunity).

“All of the work being funded is considerably improving our knowledge of the Moon’s composition and its origin and evolution,” Reedy said.

It also will help scientists locate lunar resources and help with planning for future lunar missions, he added.

ANI

Molecule That Triggers Immune System in Rheumatoid Arthritis Discovered

Researchers have found that a signal molecule made by the human body that triggers the immune system into action could be important in rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common autoimmune disease, affecting around 1 in 100 people. It causes painful and persistent swelling in the joints that can result in damage to the bone and cartilage. Around half of all rheumatoid arthritis patients do not respond to one or more of the treatments currently available, and even these can become less successful over time. Stopping rheumatoid arthritis closer to the root of the problem could be the best way to prevent and treat the disease.

When a microbe infects the body, the body responds by turning on a molecular switch to set the immune system into action and protect the body from disease. The findings show that a signal molecule called tenascin-C can trigger the same molecular switch and also activate the immune system. High levels of tenascin-C present in joints therefore may cause the activated immune system to attack the joint leading to the persistent inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis.

The molecular switch is called TLR4, and is found on the surface of immune cells. Previous research has shown that mice without TLR4 do not show chronic joint inflammation. The researchers hope scientists can develop new treatments that target the interaction between tenascin-C and TLR4, which may help to combat rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr Kim Midwood, lead author of the study said: "Rheumatoid arthritis is a debilitating and painful disease and, unfortunately, there is no cure. Furthermore, current rheumatoid arthritis treatments are not effective for many patients."

"We have uncovered one way that the immune system may be triggered to attack the joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We hope our new findings can be used to develop new therapies that interfere with tenascin-C activation of the immune system and that these will reduce the painful inflammation that is a hallmark of this condition," added Dr Midwood.

The researchers reached their conclusions by carrying out five studies. One study suggested that tenascin-C was needed to sustain inflammation. The researchers induced joint inflammation in mice with and without the gene for tenascin-C. They found the mice that could produce tenascin-C had severe joint swelling with bone and cartilage destruction, but the mice that could not produce tenascin-C had no swelling or tissue destruction at all.

In a subsequent study, the researchers injected the active part of the tenascin-C molecule into mice joints. They found it caused the joints of the mice to become inflamed and that this reaction was more intense with higher doses.

Another experiment demonstrated that tenascin-C causes swelling in the joints by increasing levels of molecules that cause inflammation. The researchers took human immune cells called macrophages and cells called fibroblasts from the swollen joint of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and added tenascin-C. After the tenascin-C was added, the cells produced more molecules that cause inflammation.

The authors plan to work out the precise mechanism by which tenascin-C increases these levels of inflammatory molecules in the human joint and try to find ways to inhibit this action.

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Magnetic superatoms discovered

Computers may soon become faster, smaller and more powerful as scientists said they have discovered magnetic superatoms which can provide a way to design novel nano-scale structures.

A team of researchers, including two from Allahabad-based Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), have discovered the 'magnetic superatom' -- a stable cluster of atoms that can mimic different elements of the periodic table.

The cluster, consisting of one Vanadium and eight Cesium atoms, acts like a tiny magnet that can mimic a single Manganese atom in magnetic strength while preferentially allowing electrons of specific spin orientation to flow through the surrounding shell of Cesium atoms.

"A combination such as the one we have created can lead to significant developments in the area of molecular electronics, a field where researchers study electric currents through small molecules," the scientists said reporting their findings in British science journal 'Nature'.

The study was conducted by a team under Shiv Khanna, professor of physics at the Virginia Commonwealth University along with collaborators at HRI and Naval Research Laboratory in the US.

Magnetic superatoms may also have potential biomedical applications such as sensing, imaging and drug delivery.

Scientists Prasenjit Sen and Kalpataru Pradhan of HRI and their teammates performed an elaborate set of theoretical calculations to study properties of various clusters containing a single Vanadium atom and a number of Cesium atoms.

They found that when a cluster had eight Cesium atoms, it acquired extra stability due to a filled electronic state.

An atom is in a stable configuration when its outermost shell is full. Consequently, when an atom combines with other atoms, it tends to lose or gain valence electrons to acquire a stable configuration.

The researchers believe that the superatom can have significant impact in the area of molecular electronics and spintronics, in which attempts are made to use conducting properties of small molecules to design electronic devices.

Such molecular devices are expected to help make non-volatile data storage, denser integrated devices, higher data processing among other benefits.

The researchers have proposed that by combining gold and manganese, one can make other superatoms that have magnetic moment but will not conduct electricity. These superatoms may also have potential application in healthcare.

HRI is a research institute under the Department of Atomic Energy involved in studies in the fields of mathematics and theoretical physics, including theoretical condensed matter physics and materials science.

Bureau Report

'Oldest' image of St Paul discovered

The fresco, which dates back to the 4th Century AD, was discovered during restoration work at the Catacomb of Saint Thekla but was kept secret for ten days.

During that time experts carefully removed centuries of grime from the fresco with a laser, before the news was officially announced through the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

There are more than 40 known Catacombs or underground Christian burial places across Rome and because of their religious significance the Vatican's Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archeology has jurisdiction over them.

A photograph of the icon shows the thin face of a bearded man with large eyes, sunken nose and face on a red background surrounded with a yellow circle – the classic image of St Paul.

The image was found in the Catacomb of St Thekla, close to the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, which is said to be built on the site where he was buried.

St Thekla was a follower of St Paul who lived in Rome and who was put to death under the Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the 4th Century and who was subsequently made a saint but little else is known of her.

Barbara Mazzei, the director of the work at the Catacomb, said: "We had been working in the Catacomb for some time and it is full of frescoes.

"However the pictures are all covered with limestone which was covering up much of the artwork and so to remove it and clean it up we had to use fine lasers.

"The result was exceptional because from underneath all the dirt and grime we saw for the first time in 1600 years the face of Saint Paul in a very good condition.

"It was easy to see that it was Saint Paul because the style matched the iconography that we know existed at around the 4th Century – that is the thin face and the dark beard.

"It is a sensational discovery and is of tremendous significance. This is then first time that a single image of Saint Paul in such good condition has been found and it is the oldest one known of.

"Traditionally in Christian images of St Paul he is always alongside St Peter but in this icon he was on his own and what is also significant is the fact that St Paul's Basilica is just a few minutes walk away.

"It is my opinion that the fresco we have discovered was based on the fact that St Paul's Basilica was close by, there was a shrine to him there at that site since the 3rd Century.

"This fresco is from the early part of the 4th Century while before the earliest were from the later part and examples have been found in the Catacombs of Domitilla."

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister, said:"This is a fascinating discovery and is testimony to the early Christian Church of nearly 2000 years ago.

"It has a great theological and spiritual significance as well as being of historic and artistic importance."

The Catacomb of St Thekla is closed to the public but experts said they hoped to be able to put the newly discovered icon of St Paul on display some time later this year.

St Paul was a Roman Jew, born in Tarsus in modern-day Turkey, who started out persecuting Christians but later became one of the greatest influences in the Church.

He did not know Jesus in life but converted to Christianity after seeing a shining light on the road to Damascus and spent much of his life travelling and preaching.

St Paul wrote 14 letters to Churches which he founded or visited and tell Christians what they should believe and how they should live but do not say much about Jesus' life and teachings.

He was executed for his beliefs around AD 65 and is thought to have been beheaded, rather than crucified, because he was a Roman citizen.

According to Christian tradition, his body was buried in a vineyard by a Roman woman and a shrine grew up there before Emperor Constantine consecrated a basilica in 324 which is now St Paul Outside the Walls.

St Paul's Outside the Walls is located about two miles outside the ancient walls of Rome and is the largest church in the city after St Peter's.

His feast day is on Monday along with St Peter and it is a bank holiday in Rome where they are patron saints of the city.

Officials are considering opening the tomb below St Paul's in the Basilica's crypt which is said to hold his remains.

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Rarest rock discovered from India

German geologists Thursday said they have discovered in India one of the world’s rarest rocks, dating back to the birth of the planet when the Earth was covered with a hot ocean of melted stone.

The fragment from the primeval crust is only the second ever discovered, said scientists at the University of Muenster.

The ancient magma formed more than 4 billion years ago as the planet slowly cooled in the Hadean period. The fragment, found in Orissa state, yields answers about what the Earth was like in those times.

The find was detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The only other piece of early magma, which was located in Canada, has been dated at 4.3 billion years old.

Normally, old rock is sucked back into the ground by the churning of tectonic movement and melted again, but the finds show some pieces of the old crust still exist.

ANI

Stone Age bone flute discovered in southern Germany

Archeologists in Germany have uncovered what they think is a 35,000-year-old bone flute, making it the oldest known instrument in the world.

The find proves that Stone Age humans had a highly developed musical culture, wrote Nicholas Conard, an archeologist from the University of Tuebingen in the British journal "Nature."

Largely intact, the flute had been constructed from the hollow wing bone of a giant vulture using stone tools, according to the study.

Nearly 22 centimeters long (8.7 inches), the instrument roughly resembles its modern equivalent. Five holes were carved into it to alter the pitch.

Fragments of three ivory flutes were uncovered at the same site, in the Ach Valley in southern Germany, along with other instruments that are not quite so old.

Previously, a carved figurine from the same period had been discovered just a few steps from the cave where the instruments were found, suggesting that culture was important to the people who lived in the region during the Upper Palaeolithic period (approximately 40,000-10,000 years ago).

The bone and ivory flutes were dated using radiocarbon dating techniques; they are some 5,000 years older than the previously oldest known instruments.

"Upper Palaeolithic music could have contributed to the maintenance of large social networks, and thereby have helped facilitate the demographic and territorial expansion of modern humans" compared to the more "culturally conservative" and isolated Neanderthals, Conard said, as reported by AFP news agency.

No concrete evidence has been found that Neanderthals were also active musicians. While Upper Palaeolithic people are considered modern humans, Neanderthals are classified as either a subspecies or a separate species.

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Scientists found mysterious forms of water

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, along with researchers in Italy, have found two types of liquid water that have long been suspected to exist below water’s normal freezing point.

Unlike most liquids, water becomes less rather than more dense when it freezes — and it is densest not when it is coldest (at 0 degrees Celsius, just before it freezes) but at 4 degrees C.

These are just two of water’s host of anomalous properties, some of which are crucial to its behaviour in the natural environment.

In 1992, Gene Stanley of Boston University, Massachusetts, and his co-workers carried out computer simulations of water, which suggested that hydrogen bonds in water might produce two different types of liquid if water was made very cold and squeezed to high pressures.

In one form, the hydrogen bonds create a rather open, sparse network of water molecules, called low-density liquid (LDL) water. In the other, water molecules press closer at the cost of breaking some hydrogen bonds, forming a high-density liquid (HDL).

Stanley and his colleagues found that the two types of liquid water changed from one to the other in an abrupt ‘phase transition’, like the freezing/melting transition that separates ice and ordinary liquid water.

In this view, anomalies such as the density maximum at 4 degrees C are a reflection of the same competition between dense and less-dense states that creates the phase transition at much lower temperatures.

Now, Dino Leporini of the University of Pisa in Italy and his co-workers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore say they have seen the two phases that Stanley’s team proposed in 1992.

The team used a technique called electron spin resonance to study the mobility of water molecules within tiny pockets of liquid trapped between crystallites of ice at temperatures down to around –183 degrees C.

They report that between about –140 and 0 degrees C, they can see two types of ‘liquid-like’ motion of the TEMPOL probes, presumably reflecting the presence of two types of water in the ice pockets.

One is slower than the other, and they interpret this as evidence for the presence of two distinct types of water: the more viscous LDL form, and the more fluid HDL.

According to Debenedetti, the results seem to reveal two different types of water, whose relative amounts change as the temperature changes.

ANI

60-mln yr old rabbit-sized elephant ancestor found in Morocco

Scientists have found the fossil of a 60-million-year-old creature in Morocco, which is the rabbit sized ancestor of the modern day elephant.

Paleontologist Emmanuel Gheerbrant discovered the rabbit-size proto-elephant’s skull fragments in a basin 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Casablanca, Morocco.

The creature, called Eritherium azzouzorum, bolsters the case that whole new orders of mammals were already around less than 6 million years after global catastrophe ended the age of reptiles some 65.5 million years ago.

Elephant ancestors now join the likes of rodents and early primates as some of the first known mammals to walk the Earth during the Paleocene era, 65.5 to 55 million years ago (prehistoric time line), according to Gheerbrant.

“Much of the story of the newly discovered creature can be found in its teeth,” said Gheerbrant, of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Two of the creature’s lower front teeth jut a fraction of an inch out from its jaw. No other fossils of the time have teeth like this.

“This is some kind of precursor of the tusk of the more modern (elephant),” Gheerbrant said.

Based on the skull fragments, Gheerbrant guessed that the proto-elephant was probably no more than 20 inches (50 centimeters), tip to tail—“something like a very large rabbit,” size wise.

Because the find consists of skull and jaw fragments only, Gheerbrant said there’s not enough evidence to know what it looked like—or whether it had anything resembling a trunk or elephantine ears.

Sixty million years ago, Africa was lush with vegetation and disconnected from the Eurasian continent to the north.

The continent was an evolutionary hotbed, Gheerbrant said.

“The rise of elephant-like mammals hot on dinosaurs’ heels suggests there are many more mammals from the period to be found,” he said.

“More fossil hunts are needed to uncover how evolution put mammals center stage once the reptilian resource hogs had gone,” he added.

ANI

Mystery Cave dating from 1 A.D. found in Jordan Valley

An artificial underground cave, the largest in Israel, has been exposed in the Jordan Valley in the course of a survey carried out by the University of Haifa’s Department of Archaeology. Prof. Adam Zertal, who headed the excavating team, reckons that this cave was originally a large quarry during the Roman and Byzantine era and was one of its kind. Various engravings were uncovered in the cave, including cross markings, and it is assumed that this could have been an early monastery. “It is probably the site of “Galgala” from the historical Madaba Map,” Prof. Zertal says.

The enormous and striking cave covers an area of approximately 1 acre: it is some 100 meters long and about 40 meters wide. The cave is located 4 km north of Jericho. The cave, which is the largest excavated by man to be discovered in Israel, was exposed in the course of an archaeological survey that the University of Haifa has been carrying out since 1978.

As with other discoveries in the past, this exposure is shrouded in mystery. “When we arrived at the opening of the cave, two Bedouins approached and told us not to go in as the cave is bewitched and inhabited by wolves and hyenas,” Prof. Zertal relates. Upon entering, accompanied by his colleagues, he was surprised to find an impressive architectonic underground structure supported by 22 giant pillars. They discovered 31 cross markings on the pillars, an engraving resembling the zodiac symbol, Roman letters and an etching that looks like the Roman Legion’s pennant. The team also discovered recesses in the pillars, which would have been used for oil lamps, and holes to which animals that were hauling quarried stones out of the cave could have been tied.

The cave’s ceiling is some 3 meters high, but was originally probably about 4 meters high. According to Prof. Zertal, ceramics that were found and the engravings on the pillars date the cave to around 1-600 AD. “The cave’s primary use had been as a quarry, which functioned for about 400-500 years. But other findings definitely indicate that the place was also used for other purposes, such as a monastery and possibly as a hiding place,” Prof. Zertal explains.

The main question that arose upon discovering the cave was why a quarry was dug underground in the first place. “All of the quarries that we know are above ground. Digging down under the surface requires extreme efforts in hauling the heavy rocks up to the surface, and in this case the quarrying was immense. The question is, why?” For a possible answer to this mystery, Prof. Zertal points to the famous Madaba map. This is a Byzantine mosaic map that was found in Jordan and is the most ancient map of the Land of Israel. Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley are depicted with precision on the map, and a site called Galgala is depicted next to a Greek inscription that reads “Dodekaliton”, which translates as “Twelve Stones.”

This place is marked at a distance from Jericho that matches this cave’s distance from the city. According to the map, there is a church next to Dodekaliton; there are two ancient churches located nearby the newly discovered cave. According to Prof. Zertal, until now it has been hypothesized that the meaning of “Twelve Stones” related to the biblical verses that describe the twelve stones that the Children of Israel place in Gilgal. However, it could be that the reference is a description of the quarry that was dug where the Byzantines identified the Gilgal. “During the Roman era, it was customary to construct temples of stones that were brought from holy places, and which were therefore also more valuable stones. If our assumption is correct, then the Byzantine identification of the place as the biblical Gilgal afforded the site its necessary reverence and that is also why they would have dug an underground quarry there,” Prof. Zertal concludes. “But” he adds, “much more research is needed.”

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Oldest carbon discovered in universe

Astronomers have discovered the oldest and most distant carbon in the universe, but they claim that there is not enough of it to support the theories of how the universe lit up.

In the early Universe a dark pervasive fog of neutral hydrogen gas lurked everywhere. Planetary scientists believe this fog cleared when the first stars formed to emit light.

There is a close connection between the amount of light and carbon produced in stars. But adding up all the 13-billion-year-old carbon detected, an international team came to the conclusion the amount of carbon, and therefore the number of massive stars, was insufficient to lift the fog.

"So light must come from somewhere else, perhaps an unknown population of quasars, or stars that lock-up more of their carbon, or carbon hidden in unobserved states," Dr Emma Ryan-Weber of Swinburne University of Technology, who led the team, said.

When the Universe began with the Big Bang only hydrogen and helium existed. The astronomers know the carbon they have discovered is old because it was detected in infra- red wavelength rather than in the ultra-violet as on Earth.

The Universe has expanded so much since the Big Bang, that the wavelength of the light from carbon atoms has stretched from 155 to 1085 nanometres by the time it reaches the Earth.

Bureau Report

Largest Carnivorous Dinosaur Tooth Ever Found In Spain

Researchers from the Teruel-Dinópolis Joint Palaeontology Foundation have compared an Allosauroidea tooth found in deposits in Riodeva, Teruel, with other similar samples. The palaeontologists have concluded that this is the largest tooth of a carnivorous dinosaur to have been found to date in Spain.

The features and size of the 9.83cm tooth provide key information needed to identify its former owner. The researchers are in no doubt – it was a large, predatory, carnivorous dinosaur (theropod) belonging to the Allosauroidea clade (one of the branches of the phylogenetic tree), a group that contains large carnivorous dinosaurs measuring between six and 15 meters.

"Given the great variations between the teeth of different kinds of allosauroids, it would be prudent for us to assign this fossil to an indeterminate Allosauroidea", Luis Alcalá, one of the researchers involved in the study to be published in the upcoming issue of Estudios Geológicos and managing director of the Teruel-Dinópolis Joint Palaeontology Foundation, tells SINC.

The tooth, found by local residents in Riodeva, Teruel, in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, has been compared with other samples from the Allosauroidea group from the Iberian Peninsula – in particular with a large tooth from Portugal (measuring 12.7cm) and another belonging to an Allosauroidea indet in Spain, until now described as the largest in Spain at 8.27cm.

Working towards a complete faunal record of Riodeva

The palaeontologists say that "the presence of a large Allosauroidea is a great addition to the faunal record of the dinosaurs described in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation in Riodeva".

Plant-eating dinosaur groups (phytophages) discovered in the deposit to date have been identified as sauropods, stegosaurids and basal ornithopods (from tooth remains and a complete rear leg). "Now the carnivorous dinosaurs are also represented, at least by two medium-sized theropods and a large predator belonging to the Allosauroidea clade", adds Alcalá.

Carnivorous dinosaurs grew new teeth over their lifetimes, which increase the likelihood of finding them. In this case, the condition of the crown of the tooth found (without any reabsorption surfaces) indicates that it was not a discarded tooth. The palaeontologists hope to discover the remains of this large predator, which could have attacked Turiasaurus riodevensis, the 'European giant'.

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The Most Lifeless Place in the Ocean Found

Scientists have discovered what may be the least inhabited place in the Ocean.

The seafloor sediments in the middle of the South Pacific have fewer living cells than anywhere else measured, a new study found.

Oceanographer Steven D'Hondt of the University of Rhode Island and colleagues took a boat out to the middle of the ocean and collected cores, or cylindrical samples of sediment, from the bottom of the sea about 2.5 to 3.7 miles (4 to 6 km) deep.

They found about 1,000 living cells in each cubic centimeter of sediment - a tally that is roughly 1,000 times less than in other seafloor sediments.

"People were previously just taking cores in parts of the ocean fairly close to shore and assuming their results were typical of the ocean as a whole," D'Hondt told.

D'Hondt suspects that further research will show other areas out in the middle of the ocean may be similarly devoid of life. He and his team detailed their results in the June 22 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The area they explored in the South Pacific is what's called a gyre, where the water is relatively still and nutrients are low.

The sparse microbes the scientists discovered appeared to be partially subsisting on hydrogen atoms released when radioactive elements at the bottom of the ocean decayed and broke apart water molecules.

This somewhat rare process produces only small amounts of food. The other half of the microbes' diet comes from organic matter that drifts from the surface down to the depths of the ocean.

"If you can support the concentrations we see on a food source that's basically half hydrogen from the radioactive splitting of water, then maybe you can support a few hundred cells in wet sediments on Mars or Europa," D'Hondt said. "It suggests that life is resilient enough under very low access to food."

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Water snake discovered that scares fish into its jaws

Forget the old folk tales about snakes hypnotizing their prey. The tentacled snake from South East Asia has developed a more effective technique. The small water snake has found a way to startle its prey so that the fish turn toward the snake's head to flee instead of turning away. In addition, the fish's reaction is so predictable that the snake actually aims its strike at the position where the fish's head will be instead of tracking its actual movement.

"I haven't been able to find reports of any other predators that exhibit a similar ability to influence and predict the future behavior of their prey," says Kenneth Catania, associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, who has used high-speed video to deconstruct the snake's unusual hunting technique.

His observations are published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Catania, who is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" award, studies the brains and behavior of species with extreme specializations. He was attracted to the tentacled snake because it is the only snake that comes equipped with a pair of short tentacles on its nose and he was curious about their function.

"Before I begin a study on a new species, it is my practice to spend some time simply observing its basic behavior," Catania explains. The snake forms an unusual "J" shape with its head at the bottom of the "J" when it is fishing. Then it remains completely motionless until a fish swims into the area near the hook of the "J." That is when the snake strikes.

The snakes' motions take only a few hundredths of a second and are too fast for the human eye to follow. However, its prey reacts even faster, in a few thousandths of a second. In fact, fish are famous for the rapidity of their escape response and it has been extensively studied. These studies have found that many fish have a special circuit in their brains that initiates the escape, which biologists call the "C-start." Fish ears sense the sound pressure on each side of their body. When the ear on one side detects a disturbance, it sends a message to the fishes' muscles causing its body to bend into a C-shape facing in the opposite direction so it can begin swimming away from danger as quickly as possible.

Catania is the first scientist to study this particular predator-prey interaction with the aid of a high-speed video camera. When he began examining the movements of the snake and its prey in slow motion, he saw something peculiar. When the fish that the snake targets turn to flee, most of them turn toward the snake's head and many literally swim into its jaws! In 120 trials with four different snakes, in fact, he discovered that an amazing 78 percent of the fish turned toward the snake's head instead of turning away.

Next, the biologist noticed that the first part of its body that the snake moves is not its head. Instead, it flexes a point midway down its body. Using a sensitive hydrophone that he put in the aquarium, he confirmed that this body fake produces sound waves intense enough to trigger the fish's C-start response. Because these sound waves come from the side opposite the snake's head, this reflex action drives the fish to turn and swim directly toward the snake's mouth.

"Once the C-start begins, the fish can't turn back," Catania says. "The snake has found a way to use the fish's escape reflex to its advantage."

As he studied the snake's actions even closer, he made an even more remarkable discovery. When it strikes, the snake doesn't aim for the fish's initial position and then adjust its direction as the fish moves – the way most predators do. Instead it heads directly for the location where it expects the fish's head to be.

"The best evidence for this is the cases when the snake misses," says Catania. "Not all the targeted fish react with a C-start and the snake almost always misses those that don't react reflexively."

Catania's next step will be to determine whether this predictive capability is hard-wired or learned. To do so, he hopes to obtain some baby snakes that have just hatched and videotape their first efforts to catch prey.

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Scientists discover solar-like oscillations in massive star

Scientists claim to have discovered a massive star 10 times the mass of Sun but with similar oscillations which could open new possibilities of probing the interiors of celestial bodies and understanding the reasons behind the fluctuations inside the Sun.

Researchers at LESIA, a laboratory of the Paris observatory (France), and AGO, a laboratory of the Lihge University (Belgium) studied the massive star -- V1449 Aql (HD180642) -- for more than 150 days and observed that it displays solar-like pulsations which have, so far, never been detected in any heavenly body.

The study, conducted by CoRoT space mission, launched on December 27, 2006, has been developed and operated by CNES, a French government space agency, with contribution from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, ESA (RSSD and Science Programme), Germany and Spain.

"The unprecedented high-precision photometric data gathered for this star by the CoRoT mission allows us to report the first detection of solar-like oscillations in a massive star, V1449 Aql," said Belkacem Kevin, Department of Astrophysics, AGO, in an email interview to PTI.

The Sun oscillates (fluctuations in its diameter) at a period of around five minutes and these motions represent the superposition of literally millions of independent modes, resonating below its surface at extremely precise periods.

"They afford enormous diagnostic potential for the (otherwise invisible) internal structure and dynamics of this conveniently close star," Kevin said.

The study of oscillations can lead to better understanding of stars' interiors as well as help physicists learn the reasons behind the cause for the fluctuations taking place in the Sun.

"The mass, age and internal structure of the star itself can be quite well constrained with a seismic study based on information stemmed from those oscillations," Kevin said.

"It is rather like having discovered the sound of a violin, understanding how the body of the violin resonates and how the bow excites the body of the violin; we can now begin to understand the nature of the arm that forces the bow and how the violin is held!" he explained.

The stellar medium being highly stratified and highly turbulent, the detection of solar-like oscillations in a star well characterised by its seismic properties ought to lead to a better understanding of hydrodynamics in extreme physical conditions, he added.

Bureau Report

Mammoth Fossils Discovered With Scars from Meteorite Showers

"Mammoth hit by meteorite!" might sound like fantastical black-and-white puppet-fest filmed in glorious Moving-Picture-O-Vision, just before a gripping two-hour feature on why mixing ants and radioactive waste is, in fact, a bad idea - but it's real. Arizona geophysicist Allen West discovered burn marks consistent with micrometeorite impacts in a number of mammoth and bison bones. The resulting study, performed in association with Dr Firestone of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, found numerous impact scars over thirty thousand years old.

One of the leading theories to explain repeated large animal extinctions in Earth's history is meteor impact - because megatons of rock slamming into the planet after a few billion meter run-up is a pretty convincing way to kill anything. West hopes that these fossilized records will prove that a meteorite shower is responsible for the decline in some large mammal populations around 34,000 years ago, as well as providing a method to apply to other historical extinctions.

West urges museums and universities to re-examine their own fossil collections for signs of damage from beyond the sky, but that seems rather optimistic. There are only a finite number of ways you can look at a fossil and the odds of people having missed a minor thing like "damage where rocks from space hit it" is pretty low. True, these meteor fragments aren't anything to deploy Bruce Willis over (those discovered so far are 5 millimeters at most) but they punch a hole, they burn the material, and if that isn't noticeable enough for you they turn the site magnetic - all things that skeletons generally aren't and won't be until the fabled time of the Robo-Swiss-Cheese-Burning Dinosaurs comes to end us all.

Besides, the full-time job of anything in a museum is "be looked at". It's unlikely that a curator will get off the phone, look over at the fossils again and suddenly realize "My god! There's a crater punched by the universe itself in that thing!

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Glass frog found in Ecuador

On its recent trip to the mountainous rain forests of Nangaritza, Ecuador, scientists from Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) discovered seven new insects, a new lizard, and four more amphibians. Vice President of CI’s RAP group, Leeanne Alonso, said, “the species that we discovered on this expedition are fascinating and make clear how biologically important this area is – not only because of the wealth of plants and animals that inhabit it but also because of the service that it provides to local people, like clean water and the opportunities for income from ecotourism. It is crucial that it is protected properly.”

Along with the new species the scientists discovered, RAP also found a Nymphagus Chancas, a glass or crystal frog for the first time in Ecuador. The species have been recorded previously in northeastern Peru.

The Nymphagus Chancas is named for its translucent skin, which allows scientists to examine the frog’s internal organs. They are classified by their lack of webbing on their outer fingers, their lack of humeral spines in adult males, and their lobbed livers. Their natural habitats are subtropical or tropical montane rivers and forests.

According to Convservation International, the number of Amphibians is in a serious decline due to the global climate change, infectious diseases, and loss of habitat from deforestation and logging. CI endorses the introduction of amphibian habitats where these specie populations can live without the threat of deforestation. Conservation International also plans to use captive breeding programs to save amphibians from the threat of disease.

ANI

The honey kills every type of bacteria discovered by scientists

Australian researchers have been astonished to discover a cure-all right under their noses -- a honey sold in health food shops as a natural medicine.

Far from being an obscure health food with dubious healing qualities, new research has shown the honey kills every type of bacteria scientists have thrown at it, including the antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" plaguing hospitals and killing patients around the world.

Some bacteria have become resistant to every commonly prescribed antibacterial drug. But scientists found that Manuka honey, as it is known in New Zealand, or jelly bush honey, as it is known in Australia, killed every bacteria or pathogen it was tested on.

It is applied externally and acts on skin infections, bites and cuts.

The honey is distinctive in that it comes only from bees feeding off tea trees native to Australia and New Zealand, said Dee Carter, from the University of Sydney's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences.

The findings are likely to have a major impact on modern medicine and could lead to a range of honey-based products to replace antibiotic and antiseptic creams.

Professor Carter's two sons, Marty, 8 and Nicky, 6, think it's funny the way their mother puts honey on their sores. But she swears by it, telling stories of how quickly it cures any infection.

"Honey sounds very homey and unscientific, which is why we needed the science to validate the claims made for it," she said.

The curative properties of various types of honey have been known to indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and dressing wounds with honey was common before the advent of antibiotics.

"Most bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface infections," Professor Carter said.

"New antibiotics tend to have short shelf lives, as the bacteria they attack quickly become resistant. Many large pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotic production because of the difficulty of recovering costs. Developing effective alternatives could therefore save many lives."

Professor Carter said the fascinating thing was that none of the bacteria researchers used to test the honey, including superbugs such as flesh-eating bacteria, built up any immunity.

She said a compound in the honey called methylglyoxal -- toxic on its own -- combined in unknown ways with other unidentified compounds in the honey to cause "multi-system failure" in the bacteria.

The results of the research project are published in this month's European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

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Lake discovered on Mars

For the first time, conclusive evidence has been found of shorelines on Mars.

A University of Colorado at Boulder research team has identified a lake which covered as much as 80 square miles, and was up to 1,500 feet deep. The shoreline evidence includes a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be remnants of beach deposits.

"This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," said CU-Boulder Research Associate Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study. "The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."

Images used for the study were taken by a high-powered camera known as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE. Riding on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, HiRISE can resolve features on the surface down to one meter in size from its orbit 200 miles above Mars.

Analysis of the images indicates that water carved a 30-mile-long canyon that opened up into a valley, depositing sediment that formed a large delta. This delta and others surrounding the basin imply the existence of a large, long-lived lake, say the researchers. The lake bed lies within a valley known as the Shalbatana Vallis.

The evidence shows the lake existed during a time when Mars is generally believed to have been cold and dry, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Brian Hynek. "Not only does this research prove there was a long-lived lake system on Mars, but we can see that the lake formed after the warm, wet period is thought to have dissipated."

The deltas adjacent to the lake are of high interest to planetary scientists because deltas on Earth rapidly bury organic carbon and other biomarkers of life. Most astrobiologists believe any signs of life on Mars will take the form of subterranean microorganisms.

Di Achille said the newly discovered lake bed and delta deposits would be would be a prime target for a future landing mission in search of evidence of past life.

A paper on the subject has been published online in Geophysical Research Letters.

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Microbiologists find magnetic bacteria in Lonar lake

Microbiologists in Maharashtra have found 'magnetic bacteria' in the ancient Lonar lake formed due to meteorite impact, a finding that might open a vista for searching extra-terrestrial life.

The magnetotactic bacteria, which are object of interest of scientists from various fields world over, were isolated from the lake in Maharashtra's Buldana district which is the only impact crater formed in basaltic rock.

The bacteria are unique as they swim along geomagnetic field lines because they contain tiny magnetic crystals called magnetosomes, said Mahesh Chavadar, a microbiologist at the Yashwantrao Chavan College of Science in Karad.

The fact that the bacteria was found in the lake has thrown open doors for research on life outside universe.

"This seems to hint at a certain correlation between these bacteria and meteorites, and that could have tremendous implications on the search for extra-terrestrial life. We need to explore if life outside the earth existed in this form," Chavadar said reporting his findings in a recent issue of 'Current Science'.

The bacteria was first discovered in 1975 and only a few cultures of the micro-organisms are available in laboratories across the world.

Chavadar said scientists have found that magnetic nano-crystals in Martian meteorite ALH84001 were similar to bacterial magnetosomes. The meteorite dating back to 4.5 billion years was found in Antarctica in 1984.

In light of the ecological importance of magnetic bacteria in bio-geochemical cycles, their study in hitherto unexplored environments can be significant.

The magnetotactic bacteria have the ability to orient and migrate or swim along geomagnetic field lines, a behaviour referred to as magnetoaxis.

This property is based on specific intracellular structures -- the magnetosomes -- which are tiny magnetic crystals composed of iron minerals.

The presence of magnetosomes in the bacteria was confirmed by measuring their iron content which was found to be much greater than the nonmagnetic cultures.

"Intracellular iron accumulation studies on these bacteria showed up to 11.5 times more iron than non-magnetic bacteria," Chavadar said.

Bureau Report

Smart fish discovered in Europe

A small fish found in streams across Europe has a human-like ability to learn, British scientists reported.

The nine-spined stickleback could be the first animal to exhibit a key human social learning strategy that allows it to compare the behaviour of others to its own experience and make choices that lead it to better food supplies.

"Small fish may have small brains but they still have some surprising cognitive abilities," said Jeremy Kendal of Durham University.

Kendal and colleagues from St Andrews University found in tests that 75% of sticklebacks were clever enough to know from watching others that a feeder in a tank was rich in food, even though they had previously got little from it themselves.

This ability represents an unusually sophisticated social learning skill not yet found in other animals, they reported in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

ANI

Aztec royal tomb discovered in Mexico City

Archaeologists working amid the smog and din of Mexico City may be on the verge of unlocking an extraordinary time capsule.

The leaders of a team exploring a site opened up by earthquake damage believe that they have found the first tomb of an Aztec ruler. If they are right the site may yield one of the great treasures of antiquity, the sort of haul that fires the imagination of people far beyond academic circles.

None of the finds has been put on public display but Britain will get an early preview. Fourteen gold objects from the site will feature in the British Museum’s exhibition on Moctezuma II, the last great Aztec ruler. These could prove to be the early pickings of a much richer harvest. Colin McEwan, head of the British Museum’s Americas section, said: “There is no question that this has the potential to be a once-in-a-generation find”.

The dig is in the middle of what was the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Near by stands the Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, which was built from the stones of Moctezuma’s Templo Mayor, which was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521. The temple’s ruins were subsequently lost for nearly five centuries and discovered only by accident in 1978. Colonial buildings built around it made further exploration difficult but an earthquake in 1985 cleared the way for the present dig.

The new finds appear to be offerings left at the entrance to a tomb. Among them is a fearsome stone sculpture of Tlaltecuhtli, goddess of the Earth. Dr Lorenzo López Luján, who discovered it, thinks that it is a capstone to a burial chamber. When archaeologists moved the sculpture in 2007 they found four containers filled with more than 3,000 items, including animal skeletons, a fire god sculpture, blocks of incense and wooden masks.

Next to this they detected what looks like an entrance. Electronic checks indicate that there is an anomaly beyond it, which Dr López Luján believes is a royal tomb, although some suggest it may be the equivalent of an ancient Greek bothro, where offerings to the underworld were placed.

Gold was not especially significant for the Aztecs in religious terms but it was associated with the nobility, another hint that there is a ruler behind the entrance. It won’t be Moctezuma, who was killed in 1520, but it could be his predecessor, Ahuitzotl, who ruled from 1486 to 1502.

The archaeologists found several plaster seals, which means that the site has not been looted. Between the seals there are several offerings blocking the entrance, including the skeleton of a dog, an animal that traditionally led the dead to the afterlife. “This is a good signal that under these offerings we will find a royal tomb,” Dr López Luján said. “In more than 30 years of excavating this site this is totally new.”

Just how rich a seam they have hit will become clear over the next year, probably within months.

ANI

2,500-year-old bird's nest found

A 2,500-year-old bird's nest has been discovered on a cliff in Greenland.

The nesting site is still continually used by gyrfalcons, the world's largest species of falcon, and is the oldest raptor nest ever recorded.

Three other nests, each over 1,000 years old, have also been found, one of which contains feathers from a bird that lived more than 600 years ago.

However, ornithologists fear climate change may soon drive the birds from these ancient nesting sites.

Gyrfalcons live circumpolar to the Arctic. The birds range in colour from being almost exclusively white in Greenland to usually black in Labrador in Canada.

Like many falcons, they do not build nests out of sticks and twigs, but typically lay eggs in bowl-shaped depressions they scrape into existing ledges or old nests made by other birds such as ravens.

But while stick nests are often frequently damaged, preventing their repeated use, gyrfalcons will often revisit some ledges and potholes from year to year.

To find out just how long the birds return to the same site, ornithologist Kurt Burnham of the University of Oxford, UK and colleagues decided to carbon date the guano and other debris that birds leave at various nest sites around Greenland.

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Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"

Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

"I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is funded in part by the National Geographic Society. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Six-Thousand-Year-Old Tombs

At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge.

Discovered during a routine aerial survey by English Heritage, the U.K. government's historic-preservation agency, the "crop circles" are the results of buried archaeological structures interfering with plant growth. True crop circles are vast designs created by flattening crops.

The central features are two great tombs topped by massive mounds—made shorter by centuries of plowing—called long barrows. The larger of the two tombs is 70 meters (230 feet) long.

Estimated at 6,000 years old, based on the dates of similar tombs around the United Kingdom, the long barrows are also the oldest elements of the complex.

Such oblong burial mounds are very rare finds, and are the country's earliest known architectural form, Wickstead said. The last full-scale long barrow excavation was in the 1950s, she added.

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Scientists discover new species of phallus-shaped mushrooms

Scientists have discovered a new species of phallus-shaped mushrooms on the African island of Sao Tome.

The new species of stinkhorn mushroom, dubbed ‘Phallus drewesii’, is two inches long, grows on wood, and is shaped like a phallus.

Phallus drewesii belongs to a group of mushrooms known as stinkhorns which give off a foul, rotting meat odour.

There are 28 other species of Phallus fungi worldwide, but this particular species is notable for its small size, white net-like stem, and brown spore-covered head.

It is also the only Phallus species to curve downward instead of upward.

“The mushroom emerges from an egg and elongates over four hours,” said Desjardin, who is also a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. “Its odour attracts flies who consume the spores and disperse them throughout the forest,” he added.

The mushroom is named after Robert Drewes, Curator of Herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences.

Desjardin and colleague Perry named the new species after Drewes as an acknowledgment of his “inspiration and fortitude to initiate, coordinate and lead multi-organism biotic surveys on Sao Tome and Principe.”

“It’s a wonderful honour and great fun to have this phallus-shaped fungus named after me,” said Drewes.

Phallus drewesii was one of 225 fungus species that Desjardin and Perry collected during the 2006 and 2008 expeditions.

ANI

60,000-year-old Neanderthal skull fragment found

Part of an ancient human skull was recovered from the North Sea in an area described as a drowned Stone Age hunting ground.

The bone fragment is believed to belong to a late Neanderthal man and has been dated at around 60,000 years old.

It is the first time that an ancient human fossil has been found below the sea. Its discovery is likely to intensify scientific interest in the area, known as the Zeeland Ridges, where the skull was buried.

Previously, stone tools typical of late Neanderthals had been discovered in the North Sea. In 2008, 28 flint axes were found eight miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

But until now the fossil record had remained blank. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Professor Chris Stringer, a human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, who is involved in the study.

The find offers new support for the theory that Britain was recolonised by ancient humans from continental Europe after a 100,000-year period when the island was uninhabited. According to archaeologists writing in the Journal of Human Evolution, the skull’s owner may have belonged to one of the first groups to return to Britain, when a drop in sea levels made it possible to cross the North Sea by land.

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Rare Magnetar Discovered

NASA's Swift satellite reported multiple blasts of radiation from a rare object known as a soft gamma repeater, or SGR. Now, astronomers report an in-depth study of these eruptions using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellites.

The object, designated SGR 0501+4516, was the first of its type discovered in a decade and is only the fifth confirmed SGR. "Some sources are extremely active, but others can be quiet for a decade or more," said Nanda Rea, University of Amsterdam, who led the study. "This suggests many members of this class remain unknown."

Astronomers think the eruptions of SGRs arise from the most highly magnetized objects in the universe -- magnetars. Magnetars are neutron stars -- the crushed cores of exploded stars -- that, for reasons not yet known, possess ultra-strong magnetic fields. With fields 100 trillion times stronger than Earth’s, a magnetar placed half the moon’s distance would wipe the magnetic strips of every credit card on the planet. "Magnetars allow us to study extreme matter conditions that cannot be reproduced on Earth," said Kevin Hurley, a team member at the University of California, Berkeley.

Read more on ScienceDaily

26 new species of frogs & insects discovered in India

As many as 12 new species of frogs and 14 insects have been discovered by scientists across the country in 2008, according to the latest report of the Zoological Survey of India.

The new species have been discovered in 13 states across the country with most of the frogs being discovered in the Northeast.

Of the 14 new species of insects, five were discovered in various sanctuaries of Kerala.

The new species of frogs were found in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh while those new to the country have been discovered from the fringes of Neora Valley National Park in West Bengal and Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Haryana, says the Zoological Survey of India's recent publication "Animal Discoveries-2008".

The discoveries include a frog which changes colour and spots (Rhacophorous subansiriensis) found in the forests of Subansiri district in Arunanchal Pradesh and the diminutive frog (Philautus manipurensis) from Tumzane river in Manipur.

Chirixalus senapatiensis is another frog species that has been found from the Mabing river bed in Manipur.

Bureau Report

5,000 yr old jade vessels discovered in Chinese tomb

Archaeologists have found ancient jade vessels in a tomb dating back five thousand years in China, which represents the last Neolithic jade culture of Yangtze River Delta of the country.

The tomb, found in the cities of Haining and Xiaoshan, is the deepest tomb ever found in Zhejiang province.

Located near Haining, tomb number 5 is 3.3 meters long from north to south and nearly half a meter across, east to west.

According to Fang Xiangming, research of Zhejiang Archaeology Research Institute, "It's rare to find such a large and well-preserved tomb. The depth of the NO.5 tomb is 1.1 meters. It's the deepest tomb found in the Jiaxing area. It's a big discovery judging by the tomb's size and the rich variety of the antiques found in it."

A piece of jade "Yue", a kind of ancient weapon in China, reveals the noble identity of tomb number one's owner.

He may have been the head of a tribe whose members were under his control.

Also in Zhejiang province, antiques dating back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties about 5,000 years ago have been discovered in Xiaoshan. The site is near Mianquan Mountain on the Puyang River.

It's also where some precious ancient pieces of porcelain were found in two thousand and seven and eight. The exact age of these findings still needs to be confirmed.

An archeological team is now carrying out excavation work there for the next two months.

ANI

Scientists discover 'snow roots'

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown and entirely unique form of plant root, which unlike normal roots, extend upward through layers of snow.

Lead Scientist Professor Hans Cornelissen and his Russian-Dutch team have described this finding in journal Ecology Letters.

The root belongs to the small alpine plant Corydalis conorhiza and unlike normal roots, which grow into soil, they extend upward through layers of snow.

Given this novel behaviour, the scientists have termed them 'snow roots'.

"This is a completely new discovery," said Cornelissen, an associate professor of ecology at VU University in Amsterdam. "Snow roots are thus far unknown and a spectacular evolutionary phenomenon," he added.

The team made their discovery high up in the Caucasus Mountains, where the ground remains covered in snow for much of the year.

As the snow melted at the height of summer, the scientists noted that C. conorhiza plants were surrounded by a filigree network of above-ground roots, stretching uphill and to each side for around 50cm.

During the spring and perhaps also winter, these roots extend into the surrounding snow and during the summer they die and decompose, which may explain how they had remained undiscovered.

C. conorhiza also possesses normal roots which anchor the plant to the ground and take up nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.

Cornelissen's team hypothesize that the additional snow roots allow C. conorhiza to take nitrogen directly from the snow.

However, an impenetrable ice crust prevents C. conorhiza from doing this, therefore the plant is forced to depend upon the snow roots.

To test the hypothesis, a small amount of fertilizer, heavily enriched with an uncommon isotope of nitrogen (15N), was added to the snow surrounding C. conorhiza plants.

Days later, the team discovered various sections of the plants contained high concentrations of 15N, including the snow roots, tubers and the leaves which had appeared after snow melt.

Further study confirmed the roots are anatomically very different from normal soil roots, making them specifically adapted for the fast uptake and transport of nitrogen.

"These roots help the plant to 'feed' on nutrients in snow before the plant shoots appear above the surface in the growing season," explained Cornelissen.

"This gives the plant an advance on other plant species, which can only take up nutrients through roots in the soil during the very short growing season," he added.

ANI

The world’s oldest barbecue has been uncovered by archaeologists

The world’s oldest barbecue has been uncovered by archaeologists – and on the menu were gigantic mammoth ribs.

Other items our ancestors gorged on were wolverine, Arctic fox, bear and reindeer.

The 4ft-wide roasting pit dating back to 29,000BC was found in the Czech Republic, along with utensils that help establish what the pit was used to cook.

Professor Jiri Svoboda, project leader of the dig and director of Brno University’s Institute of Archaeology, said: “It seems that in contrast to other societies, these people depended heavily on mammoths.”

The meats were cooked underground Hawaiian Luau-style, he said.

“We found the heating stones still within the pit and around.”

Professor Svoboda added: “It’s unclear if seafood was added to create a surf-and-turf meal, but we unearthed lots of decorated shells.

“We found numerous stone tools, such as spatulas, blades and saws, good for carving mammoths.”

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