|
| CAN THE SPHINX KEEP ITS FEET DRY? |
| The monuments of ancient Egypt may have stood for thousands of years in the desert sands, but now they face a new threat -- from rising groundwater.
Ayman Ahmed of the University of Sohag, Egypt, is working with Graham Fogg, professor of hydrology at the University of California, Davis, to study the problem and find ways to solve it. |
|
| UC SAN DIEGO ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER LARGEST BRONZE AGE METAL FACTORY IN MIDDLE EAST |
| Working in a remote desert area in southern Jordan, archaeologists from the University of California, San Diego have discovered the largest Early Bronze Age metal factory in the Middle East, dating to ca. 2700 BC. The discovery was reported in the June 2002 issue of the British journal, Antiquity. |
|
| THE ROMANS PREFERRED SMALL-SCALE SOLUTIONS TO AQUEDUCTS AND SEWERS |
| Contrary to common opinion, the Romans had several systems for the supply and drainage of water. The Romans preferred small-scale provisions such as cesspits, wells and rainwater tanks. The residents only constructed a water supply network or a sewerage system if these were not effective. |
|
| A PERSONALLY TRAINABLE HEARING AID |
| An Australian engineer has developed a hearing aid that can be "trained" by its users to adjust automatically to their individual preferences for different sound environments. |
|
| NEW TECHNOLOGY CREATES 'SUPER SOAP' |
| Scientists have developed innovative soap technology that significantly reduces the attachment of bacteria to the skin. They report their findings today at the 102nd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. |
|
| IT'S THE CAT'S MEOW: NOT LANGUAGE, STRICTLY SPEAKING, BUT CLOSE ENOUGH TO SKILLFULLY MANAGE HUMANS, COMMUNICATION STUDY SHOWS |
| After more than 5,000 years of human-feline cohabitation and enough elaborations on "meow!" to fill a dictionary, cats still haven't mastered language. But a Cornell University evolutionary psychology study ---- analyzing people's reactions to feline vocalizations ---- shows that cats know how to get what they want. |
|
| COULD THE WESTERN DIET CAUSE SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS? |
| The modern western diet may be causing more myopia in children, according to an Australian researcher.
Dr Jennie Brand-Miller, a nutrition scientist at the University of Sydney working in a team led by Dr Loren Cordain, an evolutionary biologist at Colorado State University suggests that more processed food in the diet is increasing insulin production and distorting the normal growth of the eyeball. |
|
| DRIP FREE TEA NOW A REALITY |
| The age-old problem of dripping teapots has finally been solved by a young English inventor.
Product design engineer Ms Damini Kumar, a guest of the Australian Innovation Festival, invented the D-Pot, the "world's first non-drip teapot", as part of her Masters degree at South Bank University in London. |
|
| HORMONE-RICH SHAMPOOS. ARE HORMONE-RICH SHAMPOOS MAKING SOME GIRLS ENTER PUBERTY EARLY? |
| If your daughter starts puberty early, you might want to check her shampoo. Unbeknown to many parents, a few hair products-especially some marketed to black people-contain small amounts of hormones that could cause premature sexual development in girls. |
|
| INTERMITTENT SUN A PROBLEM FOR SKIN CANCER |
| Sitting behind your desk all week and then spending your weekends out in the sun is more likely to give you skin cancer than getting the same amount of sun spread out over the week.
This is the message behind a series of public lectures that summarise the last 100 years of research into the causes of cancer, being held over the next month at the University of Sydney. |
|
| HUMANS LIVE A DOG'S LIFE |
| A new theory claims that many human behaviours are a result of our long-standing relationship with dogs, and vice versa. |
|
| MEN HAPPY TO TAKE CONTRACEPTION |
| The first survey of Australian men's attitudes to hormonal contraception has found that an overwhelming majority would be prepared to shoulder the responsibility.
The researchers, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Monash Medical Centre, asked the male partners of women who had recently given birth what contraceptives they used and how they felt about a male contraceptive hormone. |
|
| COFFEE MAY HELP PREVENT CAVITIES |
| A new research study indicates that coffee might help prevent cavities. The finding is reported in the Feb. 27 print issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. |
|
| SCIENTISTS LOOK TO EUROPE AS EVOLUTIONARY SEAT |
| U of T anthropologist David Begun and his European colleagues are re-writing the book on the history of great apes and humans, arguing that most of their evolutionary development took place in Eurasia, not Africa. |
|
| 'AAAS' SPEAKERS REPORT WORLDWIDE 'EPIDEMIC' OF OBESITY |
| Obesity, considered until recently to be an exclusively "Western" disease, now poses a serious threat to the health of developing nations, particularly children, say scientists studying this emerging "global epidemic of fat." |
|
| POORER FARMERS BENEFIT MOST FROM ORGANIC PRACTICES |
| Farmers in developing countries are reaping the benefits of adopting ‘green’ agricultural practices far more than their western counterparts, suggests a report published today, Thursday 14 February. |
|
| REMAINS OF SEVEN TYPES OF EDIBLE NUTS AND NUTCRACKERS FOUND AT 780,000-YEAR-OLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE |
| The remains of seven types of 780,000-year-old nuts have been found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site in Israel’s Hula Valley. The nuts and the stone tools found with them are the first evidence that various types of nuts formed a major parts of man’s diet 780,000 years ago and that hominins (prehistoric men) had developed an assortment of tools to crack open nuts during the Early-Middle Pleistocene Period, according to researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University, who explained that the nuts were anaerobically preserved because the site has been waterlogged since its destruction. |
|
| BUILT IN BRAKES FOR SKIS AND SNOWBOARDS |
| Sheer terror. Blind panic. Whatever you call it, it's that gut-wrenching feeling known to all newcomers to skiing and snowboarding as they hurtle helplessly downhill. But help is at hand for beginners to the pistes. A new generation of skis or snowboards will be fitted with built-in electronic brakes that slow them down before things get too scary. |
|
| TANNING LAMPS MAY INCREASE RISKS OF SKIN CANCERS |
| Users of tanning lamps may have an increased incidence of skin cancers and younger users may be at greatest risk, report Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) researchers. |
|
| BUBBLY GOES TO YOUR HEAD |
| New UK research confirms that bubbly champagne really does get you tipsy faster than flat. In a study involving volunteers mingling at two different drinks parties, Fran Ridout from the University of Surrey's Human Psychopharmacology Unit found that people who drank fizzy champagne produced significantly higher levels of alcohol in the first 20 minutes than those who drank flat champagne. |
|
| OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD |
| In its new publication, the Senate commission deals with issues concerning the objectives, application and legal framework of green genetic engineering. It comments on conceivable risks resulting from the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified plants or food and refers to safety precautions to protect the consumer. The statement focuses on food from transgenic plants. Animal food is to be dealt with at a later point in a separate publication. |
|
| WEALTH OF NATIONS DEPENDS ON JACK FROST, RESEARCH FINDS |
| Why do the rich get richer and the poor stay poor? When it comes to nations, the answers may include frost, according to a study that for the first time links economic and new global climate data. |
|
| NO INCREASED RISK OF BRAIN CANCER FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS |
| Exposure to electromagnetic fields does not increase the risk of developing a brain tumour, finds a study of electricity industry workers, reported in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. |
|
| STICKY FINGERPRINTS. EVEN A PRINT SMUDGED BEYOND RECOGNITION CAN NAIL A CRIMINAL. |
| THE sweaty, greasy residue that forms a fingerprint might one day reveal the identity of a criminal as surely as the pattern of whorls and ridges.
Whenever we touch something, we leave behind a minute residue of proteins, salts and fatty acids. Because the exact proportions of these components vary between individuals, some forensic scientists suspect that a chemical fingerprint could be as unique as a physical one. |
|
| FROM SILKWORM SILK, CORNELL RESEARCHERS PRODUCED HYBRID MATERIALS THAT ONE DAY COULD HEAL WOUNDS AND MAKE BULLETPROOF VESTS |
| Imagine a material that could expand by three to six times in size while remaining strong and stiff, and also could be biodegradable and biocompatible. Such a material would be invaluable as a wound-healing bandage or possibly a drug-delivery mechanism. |
|
| DO-IT-YOURSELF TOOTH BLEACHING KITS MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS WITHOUT SUPERVISION |
| People who want to brighten their smiles are opting for over-the-counter bleaching kits instead of visiting their dentist's office. While generally safe, these products have the potential to cause an infection or nerve damage, say UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas oral surgeons. |
|
| NEW RESEARCH SHEDS LIGHT ON THE CRUEL FATE THAT AWAITED OFFICIAL SCRIBES FOR MAYA KINGS WHO HAD BEEN CONQUERED BY RIVALS. |
| "The fact that these king's scribes were specifically targeted for torture and execution showed the importance they played in Maya society."
These scribes - the rough equivalent of today's public relations writers - would have their fingers broken and then be executed after their kings were defeated in battle. |
|
| ORDINARY EGYPTIANS MADE MUMMIES FIRST |
| An Australian researcher has discovered that the Egyptian practice of mummifying Pharaohs started one thousand years earlier than previously thought, and that the working class were using the technique even earlier. |
|
| THE ANCIENTS WERE RIGHT - DELPHI WAS A GAS! |
| The Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in ancient Greece and was considered the center of the world. It was a crucial pilgrimage for those seeking guidance from Apollo's mouthpiece, the Pythia, who gave cryptic answers to such matters as timing for planting crops, preparing for war, or resolving a moral dilemma. |
|
| CIGS AND BOOZE A BAD COMBINATION |
| The interactive effects of smoking and drinking are not good news for smokers.
People who drink and smoke have to drink more booze to feel drunk than non-smoking drinkers – placing them at greater risk of damage to their brains, livers and hearts, a new study suggests. |
|
| HUMANS HUNTED MAMMALS TO EXTINCTION IN NORTH AMERICA |
| Woolly mammoths, giant armadillos and three species of camels were among more than 30 mammals that were hunted to extinction by North American humans 13,000 to 12,000 years ago, according to the most realistic, sophisticated computer model to date. The news is reported in the June 8 issue of the journal Science. |
|
| CLAY DISHWARE SHOWS THE FACE OF THE LOST TRIBE LIVED 1,000 YEARS B.C. |
| A face of a person lived 3,000 years ago has been found on clay figures remained from that era, which were discovered on the seabed near the coastal line of Papua New Guinea. |
|
| A MYSTERY OF THE LEGENDARY NASKA'S LINES IN PERU SEEMS TO BE RESOLVED |
| One of the byway South American civilizations created these mysterious pictures about 2,000 years ago. On the amplitudes of the Naska, a Peruvian desert, these lines drawn over the red docks of the desert depict over 100 known plants and animals, geometrical figures, as well as a lot of unknown separate straight lines. There are a plenty of theories available which try to explain the sense of the drawing and the reason why these pictures had been drawn at all. But nobody has known so far their real destination. |
|
| HOW BUSINESSMEN AND BUSINESSWOMEN RESPOND ON CRITICISM |
| Good criticism is a gift for a man it’s addressed. If this man understands his mistakes and demerits, he will never do them once again.
It was found that women, on the contrary to men, more seriously accept criticism targeted at them, and take it into account as a good experience.
This situation happens because women, stepping up in the career hierarchy, have to overcome obstacles laid by men who think that there is no room for women in business. Therefore, increased requirements women face make them carefully take into account all their mistakes and demerits. Otherwise, women will not be able to compete with men dominating in business. |
|
| HOW TO FIGHT WITH FATNESS? |
| Trying to get rid of the overweight quicker, many go on fasting or take excessive physical exercises. Meanwhile, this isn't the best way to grow thin, since it results in proteolysis of proteins, but not in splitting the fat, which is a chief reason of overweight. At the same time, metabolic processes start passing strongly disbalanced. |
|
| IT IS FOOLISH TO DIE OF THIRST IN A DESERT IF IT`S FULL OF WATER |
| Any arid desert is actually full of water. And it is not a joke. The soil absorbs the atmosphere steam and even in ordinary and
apparently dry sand there is water – several tenths of a per cent by weight. |
|
