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A well-preserved tomb believed to be the final resting place of an ancient Mayan king has been learned in Guatemala, scientists announced last week.

Read more: Mayan King, Guatemala, Mayans, Mayan King Tomb Learned, Archaeology, Mayan King Tomb, World News

Scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane leak near BP’s busted oil well, a federal official said Sunday.

Gulf of Mexico – BP – Business – Recreation – United States

The sugar-sand beach here appeared cleaner Thursday, after workers picked up tar balls overnight with shovels and nets. By noon they had collected 44,955 pounds of tar balls and oil material, according to the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.But a University of South Florida geologist made a grim discovery Thursday morning, 24 hours after the worst oil onslaught in Florida so far.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/usf-scientists-find-long-line-of-oil-6-inches-under-the-sand-at-pensacola/1104804

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Smart homes which can detect when someone falls ill or has forgotten to take their medication will soon be commonplace in Britain, scientists claim.

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The MoD has admitted that it blew up 119 live pigs at its Porton Down research centre in Salisbury to test the effects of the Taliban’s bombs on British soldiers.

Animal rights campaigners were furious at the news, but the Ministry of Defence insisted that their experiments had ’saved many lives’ in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The controversial tests were carried out between 2006 and 2009, and the MoD say that as a result they’ve made huge improvements in body armour and in the treatment of soldiers who’ve been injured by roadside bombs.

The pigs are anaesthetised before each experiment and some are given body armour to test its effectiveness in reducing hurt from IEDs.

Scientists say that the injuries sustained by the animals are consistent with those received by soldiers, so potentially life-saving improvements in trauma care result from the tests.

But, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection said: ‘Not only are such experiments scientifically questionable… subjecting pigs to such massive mutilation and injury also raises profound ethical questions.’

An MoD spokesman said: ‘The advances made due to this research can be utilised both in theatre and civilian scenarios, particularly if there are mass casualties and evacuation to hospital is delayed.’

[via: metro.co.uk]

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April 21, 2010 3:20 PM

Researchers have found that New Caledonian crows are capable of using three tools in succession in order to reach food.

Boffins from the University of Auckland set up a test to demonstrate the tool-using prowess of crows which has been seen in the wild.

In their experiment birds had to work out how to access food they could not initially reach.

This had to be done by first releasing a small string which was attached to a perch, and using this to reach a longer stick from behind bars.

The longer stick was then used to retrieve a scrap of food from within a perspex box… the scientists are now hoping the birds will write up the experiment themselves.

Professor Russell Gray, from the University of Auckland, said: “The crows needed to know they needed the small tool on the piece of string to get the long tool, and then use the long tool to get the food.”

Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers added: “This innovative use of established behaviours in novel contexts was not based on resurgence, chaining and conditional reinforcement.

“Instead, the performance was consistent with the transfer of an abstract, causal rule: ‘out-of-reach objects can be accessed using a tool’.

“This suggests that high innovation rates in the wild may reflect complex cognitive abilities that supplement basic learning mechanisms.”

LINKS
University of Auckland

http://newslite.tv/2010/04/21/clever-crows-can-use-up-to-thr.html

original news creator.

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly learned the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to learn how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They’re now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters.  ”We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion,” says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.

[via: yahoo news]

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extracted from italktoyoudotcom (description) UFO has left scientists puzzled; it is NOT a comet streaking through space. It was first spotted early January 2010 so astronomers turned the Hubble telescope on it to get these close up images. The object

‘The so-called sunshine vitamin, which can be obtained from food or manufactured by human skin exposed to the sun, plays a key role in boosting the immune system, researchers believe.

In particular it triggers and arms the body’s T cells, the cells in the body that seek out and ruin any invading bacteria and viruses.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have learned that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defences and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system – T cells – will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body.’

Read more: Vitamin D ‘Triggers and Arms’ The Immune System

I read an article recently that states that the search for extraterrestrial life may not be such a excellent thought. Dr. Marek Kukula, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, want to make contact with a “wiser, more peaceful civilization.”

But, he is worried that we might make contact with a race of beings not so peaceful and benevolent. He warns that if we do make contact with an evil, aggresive race, we are not prepared to deal with it. Our nations need to address this situation before it happens.

Check out all of the details at Scientists Warn of Contact with Aliens, and tell us what you reckon. Are we really ready for alien contact?

Astronomer Warns: Not a Excellent Thought to Contact Aliens originally appeared on About.com UFOs / Aliens on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 01:56:37.

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