Fresh Bigfoot mystery as police admit they are baffled by giant decomposed foot found in Massachusetts wood

 

Two young boys stumble across a giant, decomposing foot in the woods, leaving local police to wonder whether the grisly find is evidence of the fabled Bigfoot.

But that's exactly what has happened in Massachusetts, U.S., where tests are being carried out on the mysterious remains amid speculation over exactly what kind of creature it belonged to.


Big foot? The giant decomposing foot was discovered by two young boys in woodland in Massachusetts, U.S.

According to a report on Discovery.com, the boys found the decomposing foot in woods in Quincy last month.

Baffled officers at the Lakeville Police Department sent the foot to medical examiners to see if they can shed any more light on its origin.

'On March 29, Sgt Steven Leanues picked up what appears to be a decomposed foot that the boys found in the woods off Pantheon Road,' it said, citing the Patriot Ledger newspaper.

'Police Chief Frank Alvihiera sent it to the medical examiner, who determined it is not human, although it appears to have five toes.'
Sasquatch: Roger Patterson claimed to have caught Bigfoot on camera in California in 1967
The legendary creature was immortalised in the film Bigfoot and the Hendersons

 

Fact or fiction: There have been countless reported sightings - such as this footage captured in California in 1967 - of the mysterious creature, which was immortalised in the film Bigfoot and the Hendersons

 
Scene of the find: The woodland where the rotting foot was found

Also known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot is the name given to the hairy, ape-like creature that some believe live in forests in North America.

Sightings of the beast have been reported over decades by people who have pointed variously to mysterious sightings, inexplicably huge footprints, and giant nest-like structures as evidence that the elusive creature does in fact exist.

Believers who claim to have spotted the legendary creature - which was immortalised in the 1987 film Bigfoot and the Hendersons - say it stands between 6ft and 10ft tall, is covered in reddish brown fur, and has a distinctive, unpleasant odour.

While fans are likely to seize upon the find as further proof of the beast's existence, sceptics might predict the tests will reveal the foot belonged not to Bigfoot, but to a big bear.

 

A disappearing island..?



Last year, a group of Australian researchers "undiscovered" an island the size of Manhattan in the South Pacific.

A mysterious place called Sandy Island had popped up on maps, northwest of New Caledonia. It even showed up as a black polygon on Google Earth. But when scientists sailed there last November, they found open water instead of solid ground.

In an obituary for the island published this month, the researchers explained why the phantom landmass had been included on some maps for more than a century, pointing to some human errors and a possible pumice raft.

Sandy Island was first recorded by the whaling ship Velocity in 1876 and first mentioned on a British Admiralty chart in 1908. But future expeditions failed to find the island, and it was removed from some official hydrographic charts by the 1970s.

However, the errant island stuck on some maps and then crept into digital databases like the widely used World Vector Shoreline Database, which was developed by the U.S. military.

"During the conversion from hard-copy charts to digital formats the 'Sandy Island' error was entrenched," said Maria Seton, of the University of Sydney. (Seton was chief scientist on an expedition to study plate tectonics on the RV Southern Surveyor when the "undiscovery" was made.)

"We all had a good giggle at Google as we sailed through the island," Steven Micklethwaite, a scientist at the University of Western Australia who was on the voyage, told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time of the undiscovery. "Then we started compiling information about the seafloor, which we will send to the relevant authorities so that we can change the world map."
Floating pumice in the South Pacific.

 Taken in the afternoon on July 19, 2012, this NASA MODIS image reveals the Havre Seamount eruption, including the gray pumice, ash-stained water and the volcanic plume.

Cat circus reopens in Moscow

Cat fanciers, take note: the world's only cat circus has reopened in Moscow.

The acrocats cross tightropes, scamper atop rocking horses, and even deign to get their paws dirty with a little comedy at the Moscow Cat Theater.

The theater, founded by Yuri Kuklachev and his son Dmitri in 1990, boasts 120 feline stars (and a few human assistants). Some of the marquee acts include Catnappers, Cat Clowns and Cats from the Universe, the Daily Mail reported.

The theater's director, Dmitri Kuklachev, says the cats participate willingly. "The animals feel good and each of them has found its place. That's great because it shows that the atmosphere here is favorable for them," Kuklachev told New Tang Dynasty Television.

The theater had been closed for renovations.

 The UFO Phenomenon



 Former KGB agent reveals Soviet UFO phenomen





Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was recently asked an unusual question. A REN TV correspondent asked him, as a former president, if it was true that, together with the nuclear briefcase, the head of state was presented with a classified folder with materials about UFOs.

Dmitry Medvedev said this was true. According to the prime minister, in addition to the folder, the head of state was presented with a report from the secret services, whose task it was to control the aliens on Russian territory. When asked by journalist if there were many aliens living among us, Medvedev refused to elaborate, “so as not to create a panic.”  However, he did suggest that those interested in the subject watch a "documentary chronicle" called "Men in Black."

Of course, this response can be treated as a joke. Seriously speaking, however, both in the Soviet Union and in modern Russia, the topic of UFOs and other paranormal phenomena was and still remains classified – and none of the officials will ever say anything about it publicly.

On the other hand, there are experts who no longer hold any senior posts and therefore have more room to maneuver. Some former, high-ranking Soviet military officials have recently decided to lift the veil of secrecy on the mystery of UFOs.

It happened at end of March, at the Zigel Readings conference named after Felix Zigel – a Soviet astronomer and mathematician who is largely credited with being the founder of ufology in Russia. This biannual event has been held in Moscow for more than 20 years and is devoted to the study of paranormal phenomena.

For many years, reports of UFO sightings were treated in the Soviet Union as non-science, or fiction not worthy of attention from serious scientists. Only a few enthusiasts like Felix Zigel realized that those facts needed to be studied seriously. In the 1960s, Zigel delivered many public lectures on the topic, thus prompting volunteers to join in the task of collecting information on unidentified flying objects.

The watershed moment for the official attitude toward UFOs came in 1978, when hundreds – if not thousands – of people in Petrozavodsk witnessed a strange luminous object in the sky for several hours. The local emergencies services were inundated with letters and calls from frightened members of the public. Even neighboring countries asked the Soviet Union to explain what mysterious military exercise it was holding.

The last straw was a letter from the academic Aleksandrov – the founding father of Soviet nuclear power plants – claiming that it would be a mistake to keep ignoring this issue. According to him, it was necessary to set up special programs to study these phenomena.

The source for this story is a retired FSB major general and researcher with an Academy of Security, Defense and Law and Order Issues, Vasily Yeremenko. At the time, Yeremenko was in charge of the KGB division overseeing the air force and aircraft manufacturing. It was his division that was entrusted with the task of collecting all reports of UFO sightings.

By that time, as Yeremenko told RBTH, there had been an accumulation of reports on numerous paranormal incidents. Missile Troops units were even instructed on how to behave in the event that they spotted a UFO: the main thing was not to act in a way that could create an opportunity for a retaliatory aggression.

In the early 1980s, an experiment to "summon" a UFO was staged at a military range in Astrakhan Region.  By then, experts had realized that UFOs were frequently sighted in areas of "heightened tension" – for instance, during weapons tests, or when there was a lot of military hardware gathered in one area.

"One could say that, during that experiment, we learned how to summon a UFO. To achieve that, there would be a sharp increase in the number of flights performed by combat aircraft and a lot of movement of hardware. Then UFOs appeared with a probability of nearly 100 percent," Yeremenko said. According to him, most of the objects looked like luminous spheres.

Over time, all the participants in the experiment became so used to these phenomena that they took them for granted. Some even tried to make contact with the objects. "It looked like this: a person on the ground would wave their arms, twice to the right and twice to the left. The ball in the sky would react to it by swinging twice to the right and then twice to the left. We had no idea how to explain that," said Yeremenko.

In the end, the military, together with the scientists who took part in the experiment, came to three main conclusions. First, these may be natural phenomena that modern science is not yet able to explain. Second, these may be U.S. or Japanese reconnaissance equipment. Finally, these may be extraterrestrial objects.

These days, UFOs have been relegated to the pages of sensationalist tabloids. That is why, as Yeremenko believes, serious scientists do not dare make their attitude toward this issue known and remain silent. In private conversations with pilots and cosmonauts, he has more than once heard stories of UFOs – yet they do not want to speak about it publicly. Still, the expert is convinced that this issue should be taken seriously as a matter of security.

The haunted Oriental Express





The Orient Express is a legendary long distance international passenger train railway service that ran from 1883 to 2009 and was operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Even though it is discontinued, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service continues to run to this present day. In 1974, I was in Paris, France and visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Tomb and the Triumphal Arch. I also made sure I rode on the Orient Express, that traveled from Paris, France to Istanbul, Turkey.

 Even though I was on the Orient Express for a short time, it was an honor to be on such a legendary train. The reason why this legendary train service is called the Orient Express is because Turkey is considered as part of the Orient, so therefore the train that went from Paris to Istanbul was given the name the Orient Express.

 Your greatest literature, movies and TV shows talk about famous icons and dignitaries from Dracula to Hercule Poirot to James Bond to Sir Harry Paget Flashman to the 102 Dalmatians have been on the Orient Express.

I received a report from Michael Jayson Hodges. Michael is 72 years old and tells me his experience on the Orient Express.

"Paul, I am not sure if you about the Orient Express, it may be before your time, but during my days in the Army, I rode on the Orient Express, it’s a memory that will be with me for a long time. It was 1967 and I was enjoying a bit of R&R and my German girlfriend Hilda took me on this adventurous train ride.

As we went through Budapest, I was looking out the window. It must have been about 1400 Hours, sometime in mid-August. There were a few Cumulus clouds in the sky. I noticed that one of these fluffy clouds seemed to be tremendous in size and it seemed to rotate. I told Hilda about it. I told her:

"Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Is that cloud rotating?" Hilda looked at it and confirmed that it seemed that the cloud was rotating. We kept our eye on the cloud and then all of a sudden about 15 tiny golden spheres shot out of the cloud and were going in all different directions.

 It happened so fast, when the spheres shot out, they were out of eye shot in a matter of 3 seconds, if you weren’t watching the cloud, you would have never seen this crazy sky show. I have never seen anything like this in my whole life." Michael.

Before I close this article, I remember when I was on this legendary train, a couple told me that the Orient Express was haunted by a little blonde haired girl, nicknamed Strasbourg Gelbes Haar which means: Strasbourg Yellow Hair. Supposingly, a little blonde haired girl in 1903 fell from the moving train in Strasbourg.

 She wanted to feel the wind and instead fell to her death from this moving train. Some passengers reported seeing the little blonde girl ghost in the restrooms and it would scare them to death. ThThe haunted Oriental Express

Boat trip to mark the 80th anniversary of Loch Ness Monster sighting



 


One of the world’s greatest and most enduring mysteries will be celebrated on Sunday when a special boat trip marks the 80th anniversary of the first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.

On April 14, 1933, Mrs Aldie Mackay, manageress of the Drumnadrochit Hotel, spoke of seeing a “whale-like fish” in the loch.

Alex Campbell, a water bailiff and part-time journalist, recorded the sighting in the Inverness Courier, under the headline: “Strange Spectacle in Loch Ness”.

Exactly eight decades on since Mrs Mackay first saw something strange in the loch, a group of monster buffs will head out on to the water to raise a glass of whisky to the woman whose sighting sparked a phenomenon that continues to captivate the world.

Adrian Shine, leader of the Loch Ness Research Project and designer of the five-star Loch Ness Exhibition in Drumnadrochit, will lead the excursion, which also includes Edinburgh Fortean Society President, Gordon Rutter, Loch Ness investigator Dick Raynor and a number of other noted Loch Ness specialists.

Organisers said that although Nessie has not yet confirmed her attendance, she will not be left out of the party as some beer will be poured into the loch.

Adrian Shine, one of VisitScotland’s Meet the Scots ambassadors and Loch Ness expert, said: “Even without Nessie, Loch Ness is a place of great beauty and remarkable intrigue, but the first modern sighting by Mrs Mackay was a key date in history, not only for Loch Ness, but for Scotland as a whole.”

Malcolm Roughhead, chief executive of VisitScotland added: “It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Mrs Mackay’s sighting of the Loch Ness Monster to tourism in Scotland.

"There are few places in the world where people haven’t heard of the phenomenon and the 80th anniversary is sure to spark renewed interest and encourage even more visitors to come here and see if they can spot Nessie for themselves.”

Graeme Ambrose, executive director at Destination Loch Ness, said Mrs MacKay’s sighting had a huge impact on the worldwide perception and tourism potential of Loch Ness.

“The icing on the cake is that there is even more to this fascinating area beyond the monster, and we know that visitors to Loch Ness are intrigued, inspired and impressed by what they do see,” he said.

 


Mysteriously shrinking proton continues to puzzle physicists




 The size of a proton, long thought to be well-understood, may remain a mystery for a while longer, according to physicists.

Speaking yesterday(April 13) at the April meeting of the American Physical Society, researchers said they need more data to understand why new measurements of proton size don't match old ones.

"The discrepancy is rather severe," said Randolf Pohl, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. The question, Pohl and his colleagues said, is whether the explanation is a boring one — someone messed up the measurements — or something that will generate new physics theories. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Particles in Nature]

The incredible shrinking proton

The proton is a positively charged particle in the nucleus of atoms, the building blocks of everything. Years of measurements pegged the proton at 0.8768 femtometers in radius (a femtometer is a millionth of a billionth of a meter).

But a new method used in 2009 found a different measurement: 0.84087 femtometers, a 4 percent difference in radius.

The previous measurements had used electrons, negatively charged particles that circle the nucleus in a cloud, to determine proton radius. To make the measurement with electrons, researchers can do one of two things. First, they can fire electrons at protons to measure how the electrons are deflected. This electron-scattering method provides insight into the size of the positively charged proton.

An alternative is to try to make the electron move. Electrons zing around the nucleus of an atom, where protons reside, at different levels called orbitals. They can jump from orbital to orbital by increasing or decreasing their energy, which electrons do by losing or gaining an elementary particle of light called a photon. The amount of energy it takes to budge an electron from orbital to orbital tells physicists how much pull the proton has, and thus the proton's size.
 Pohl and his colleagues didn't use electrons at all in their measurements of the proton. Instead, they turned to another negatively charged particle called the muon. The muon is 200 times heavier than an electron, so it orbits the proton 200 times closer. This heft makes it easier for scientists to predict which orbital a muon resides in and thus a much more sensitive measure of proton size.

"The muon is closer to the proton and it has a better view," Pohl said.

Possible explanations

These sensitive muon measurements are the ones that gave the smaller-than-expected result for the proton radius, a totally unexpected discovery, Pohl said. Now, physicists are racing to explain the discrepancies.

One possibility is that the measurements are simply wrong. Pohl said this "boring explanation" is the most probable, but not all physicists agree.

"I would say it's not the experimental side," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Jan Bernauer.

The electron-based measurements have been repeated many times and are well-understood, Bernauer said, and muon experiments have the advantage that if they're done wrong, they don't provide results at all.

If experimental error turns out not to be the culprit, there may be some calculation issue, "so we actually know everything that goes on but we are just not calculating it quite right," Bernauer told reporters.

Most exciting of all, the discrepancy could reveal some new physics not explained by the dominant physics theory, the Standard Model. Perhaps there is something unknown about how muons and electrons interact with other particles, said John Arrington, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. [Twisted Physcis: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings]

One possibility is that photons aren't the only particles that carry forces between particles — perhaps an unknown particle is in the mix, causing the proton-measurement discrepancies.

Next steps

To find out what's going on, physicists are launching a new set of experiments across multiple laboratories. One major line of research involves testing electron-scattering experiments to be sure they've been done correctly and that all the facets are understood, Arrington said.

Another goal is to repeat the scattering experiments, but instead of shooting electrons at protons they'll shoot muons at protons. This project, the Muon Scattering Experiment, or MUSE, is set to take place at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. The facilities there will allow researchers to simultaneously measure electron- and muon-scattering in one experiment.

"The hope is that on the electron-scattering side, we'll have double-checked all the things that are challenging in these measurements," Arrington said. "If we still have this discrepancy, we'll be able to fill in this last box and look at the muon-scattering and see, independent of how you make the measurement, do electrons and muons give you something different?"

The plan is to start collecting data in that experiment in 2015 or 2016, Arrington said, meaning the size of the proton will remain in limbo for a little longer.

"It's not easy," Arrington said. "We hope to do it in a little less than 10 years, but maybe we're being optimistic."
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Write

Why do earthworms surface after rain?





Earthworms laying on sidewalks or streets after a heavy spring rain has become commonplace, but why do they do this ... and could they be a travel hazard?

Researchers hypothesize several reasons why heavy rain storms bring crawlers out of their soil homes.

For years scientists seemed to think the only reason earthworms came to the soil surface after a good rain was to prevent drowning in their water-filled burrows.

"This is not true as earthworms breathe through their skins and actually require moisture in the soil to do so," said Dr. Chris Lowe, Lecturer in Waste and Environmental Management, University of Central Lancashire in Preston, United Kingdom.

 
 
Earthworms are unable to drown like a human would, and they can even survive several days fully submerged in water.

Soil experts now think earthworms surface during rain storms for migration purposes.

"It gives them an opportunity to move greater distances across the soil surface than they could do through soil," said Dr. Lowe. "They cannot do this when it is dry because of their moisture requirements."

Certain species of earthworms surface to mate, but only a few of the 4,400 existing species, making it unlikely that mating is a primary reason for widespread surfacing.

Another explanation involves rain drop vibrations on the soil surface sounding similar to predator vibrations, like that of moles. Earthworms often come to the surface to escape moles.

"Rain can set up vibrations on top of the soil like mole vibrations," said Professor Josef Gorres of the University of Vermont's Department of Plant and Soil Science. "Similar to how earthworms move upwards and out of the way when predator vibrations are felt, they could move in a similar way for rain vibrations."

Similarly, humans create vibrations when "fiddling" for bait earthworms.

To coax worms from their burrows, fishermen run a piece of steel or a hand saw across the top of a stake, which causes a rubbing sound to occur as the stake vibrates.

Earthworms are then moved to the surface, much to the fisherman's delight.

A Travel Hazard?
Although there are no reports of travel disruptions or injuries due to earthworms creating slick road conditions, some researchers haven't ruled out the possibility.

"I have not heard of earthworms causing slick conditions on sidewalks, but I can believe it might happen as they exude a mucous through their skin that may cause slippery conditions," said Dr. Lowe.

Can Drought Affect Worms?

It is essential that worms live in a moist environment, but during drought conditions, life is certainly more difficult for a worm.

"Earthworms dig deeper into the soil where it is moister when conditions are dry," said Mary Ann Bruns, Associate Professor of Agronomy/Soil Microbiology in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Penn State. "They will do all they can to avoid extreme temperature fluctuations."

Earthworm Swarming

New research published in the journal Ethology revealed that earthworms form herds, swarming together to make "group decisions," as reported by BBC.

Earthworms use touch to communicate and interact, according to scientists who performed experiments on earthworm swarms outside of soil.

Research confirmed that social cues among earthworms influence behavior.

Exactly why earthworms have come to form herds is still being investigated, but it is possible that worms swarm to protect themselves. Protection from weather elements hasn't been ruled out.

Michelangelo's Ugliest Drawing May Not Be His




Michelangelo's portrait of Cleopatra holding an asp to her breast has been celebrated as an ideal Renaissance composition of an idealized woman. With pearls, braided hair and a slender neck, the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt faces her death by snakebite with a detached, elegant gaze.

Curators had suspected there was another Michelangelo sketch on black-chalk drawing's reverse side; they could vaguely make out a hidden picture when the work was held up to light. But 25 years ago, when conservators finally peeled off its thick paper backing, art historians were astounded by the ugliness of the secret portrait of Cleopatra that was revealed.

The drawing that had been concealed for centuries showed the Ptolemaic ruler in a grotesque state of anguish, with her bulging, blank eyes looking forward and her mouth gracelessly agape, baring big teeth. Perhaps even more puzzling was the poor draftsmanship of the sketch.

 Michelangelo knew how to how to make stylishly tormented figures, so why was this one so especially ugly? At least one art historian thinks the reverse drawing is merely misattributed to the Renaissance master, and may have been sketched by his student instead.

The lovelier Cleopatra portrait was known to have been made for a handsome young Roman nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri, with whom Michelangelo struck up a friendship in 1532. Writing for ARTnews, William E. Wallace, of Washington University in Saint Louis, says Cavalieri may have tried his hand at drawing a classicized head, perhaps based on an antique sculpture, during a lesson with Michelangelo.

When the student's drawing foundered, the teacher may have stepped in, according to Wallace's version of events.

"To demonstrate 'buon disegno' (good design), Michelangelo reversed the sheet and performed a miracle of artistic alchemy: ugliness became beauty, harrowing but unbecoming emotion became serene resignation, an indecorous head was transformed into a doomed Cleopatra," Wallace writes.

Both sides of the artwork are set to go on display this month at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts as part of an exhibition of the Italian master's drawings, called "Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane." The show, which was organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., brings together 11 drawings of figures and 14 architectural designs by Michelangelo, including his unrealized plan for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a church in Rome.

Mysterious Stone Structure Discovered Beneath Sea of Galilee





A giant "monumental" stone structure discovered beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists puzzled as to its purpose and even how long ago it was built.

The mysterious structure is cone shaped, made of "unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders," and weighs an estimated 60,000 tons the researchers said. That makes it heavier than most modern-day warships.

Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height.

It appears to be a giant cairn, rocks piled on top of each other. Structures like this are known from elsewhere in the world and are sometimes used to mark burials. Researchers do not know if the newly discovered structure was used for this purpose.

The structure was first detected in the summer of 2003 during a sonar survey of the southwest portion of the sea. Divers have since been down to investigate, they write in the latest issue of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

"Close inspection by scuba diving revealed that the structure is made of basalt boulders up to 1 m (3.2 feet) long with no apparent construction pattern," the researchers write in their journal article. "The boulders have natural faces with no signs of cutting or chiselling. Similarly, we did not find any sign of arrangement or walls that delineate this structure." [See Photos of the Mysterious Sea of Galilee Structure]

They say it is definitely human-made and probably was built on land, only later to be covered by the Sea of Galilee as the water level rose. "The shape and composition of the submerged structure does not resemble any natural feature. We therefore conclude that it is man-made and might be termed a cairn," the researchers write.

More than 4,000 years old?

Underwater archaeological excavation is needed so scientists can find associated artifacts and determine the structure's date and purpose, the researchers said.

Researcher Yitzhak Paz, of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University, believes it could date back more than 4,000 years. "The more logical possibility is that it belongs to the third millennium B.C., because there are other megalithic phenomena [from that time] that are found close by," Paz told LiveScience in an interview, noting that those sites are associated with fortified settlements.

The researchers list several examples of megalithic structures found close to the Sea of Galilee that are more than 4,000 years-old. One example is the monumental site of Khirbet Beteiha, located some 19 miles (30 kilometers) north-east of the submerged stone structure, the researchers write. It "comprises three concentric stone circles, the largest of which is 56 m [184 feet] in diameter." [Gallery: Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]

An ancient city

If the third-millennium B.C. date idea proves correct it would put the structure about a mile to the north of a city that researchers call "Bet Yerah" or "Khirbet Kerak."

During the third millennium B.C. the city was one of the biggest sites in the region, Paz said. "It's the most powerful and fortified town in this region and, as a matter of fact, in the whole of Israel."

Archaeologist Raphael Greenberg describes it in a chapter of the book "Daily Life, Materiality, and Complexity in Early Urban Communities of the Southern Levant" (Eisenbrauns, 2011) as being a heavily fortified 74-acre (30 hectares) site with up to 5,000 inhabitants.

With paved streets and towering defenses its people were clearly well organized. "They also indicate the existence of some kind of municipal authority able to maintain public structures ..." Greenberg writes.

The research team says that, like the leaders of Bet Yerah, whoever built the newly discovered Sea of Galilee structure needed sophisticated organization and planning skills to construct it. The "effort invested in such an enterprise is indicative of a complex, well-organized society, with planning skills and economic ability," they write in their journal paper.

Paz added that "in order to build such a structure a lot of working hours were required" in an organized community effort.

Future exploration

Paz said that he hopes soon that an underwater archaeological expedition will set out to excavate the structure. They can search for artifacts and try to determine its date with certainty.

He said that the Israel Antiquities Authority has a research branch capable of excavating it. "We will try to do it in the near future, I hope, but it depends on a lot of factors."

Secrets to Viking Navigation Unearthed?



 


A mysterious Viking sundial found in Greenland may have helped the ancient mariners sail at the same north-south latitude across the Atlantic, new research suggests.

The study, detailed Tuesday (April 9) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical and Physical Sciences, suggests that the raiding Norsemen might have been even more impressive sailors than previously thought.

"It is widely accepted that Norse people were excellent mariners. Now it seems they used much more sophisticated navigational instruments than we thought before," said study co-author Balázs Bernáth, a researcher at Eötvös University in Hungary.

Mysterious artifact
Exactly how Vikings navigated the open seas has been the subject of speculation and folklore. Researchers think the Vikings used sophisticated sun compasses to find true north and relied on a "magic" crystal to navigate on cloudy days. (Scientists recently unearthed evidence of one of these Viking sunstones.)

In 1948, an archaeologist discovered a mysterious wooden artifact under the ruins of a Benedictine monastery in a fjord in Uunartoq, Greenland, which was settled by Norse farmers during the 10th century. The half-circle had a center hole and a zigzag engraved along its perimeter. It also had several lines scratched onto the plate's interior.
 


Some skeptics argued it was a household decoration, but most researchers thought it was an elusive Viking sun compass. Past researchers even took a similarly constructed compass aboard replica Viking ships and tested its navigational mettle.

But navigational lines scored on the compass were incomplete, so this ancient sundial wasn't great at finding north. It was off by about one degree, which could lead to days of sailing in the wrong direction, said Amit Lerner, an ocean optics researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was not involved in the study.

Ancient mariners

That led the team behind the new study to wonder whether the compass had a more sophisticated primary function: determining latitude, or the north-south position on the globe.

"Vikings performed latitude sailing, which means crossing open seas along a chosen latitude. For example, they regularly sailed more than 2,500 miles [4,000 kilometers] along the 61st latitude from Norway to Greenland and back. To do that one needs a fine compass or needs to regularly check his or her current latitude," Bernath said.
 

But wind and ocean currents would have quickly diverted the Vikings' small ships, forcing the mariners to frequently check their latitude to stay on course. While Arabian sailors used the stars to check latitude, Vikings sailed near the Arctic Circle, where the sun never sets in summer. So they must have navigated by the sun, not the stars, researchers reasoned.

The team found that at noon every day, when the sun is highest in the sky, a dial in the center of the compass would have cast a shadow between two lines on the plate. The ancient seafarers could have measured the length of that noon shadow using scaling lines on the dial, and then determined the latitude.

But while the calculations of latitude and longitude may be accurate, there's no way to test their hypothesis, Lerner told LiveScience.

"Nobody can know for sure if it's true or not," Lerner said.

 Goes to the dentist: 3D scans reveal 5,300 year old had terrible teeth and bad breath.Ötzi the iceman

Ötzi, the 5,300 year old man found frozen in the Italian alps, has undergone his first dental examination.

Researchers were stunned by the poor condition of Ötzi's teeth, and found he suffered from several major cavities as well as a damaged front tooth probably caused by an accident.

Researchers say the iceman probably never cleaned his teeth, and suffered from bad breath as a result.

Ötzi , the 3,300 year old man found frozen in the Italian alps, has undergone his first dental examination - and researchers found huge problems

This is the skull of the Iceman seen from the front.

This is the skull of the Iceman seen from the front. The genetic increased distance between the central front teeth as well as the severe dental abrasion can be seen, which led to a loss of more than half of the crowns in the front.

The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.

Today it was revealed he displays an 'astoundingly large' number of oral diseases and dentition problems that are still widespread today.


Professor Frank Rühli, head of the study, said 'Ötzi suffered from heavy dental abrasions, had several carious lesions – some severe – and had mechanical trauma to one of his front teeth which was probably due to an accident.'

Although research has been underway on this important mummy for over 20 years now, the teeth had scarcely been examined.

Dentist Roger Seiler from the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich has now examined Ötzi's teeth based on the latest computer tomography data.

The three-dimensional computer tomography reconstructions give an insight into the oral cavity of the Iceman and show how severely he was suffering from advanced periodontitis.

Particularly in the area of the rear molars, Seiler found loss of the periodontal supporting tissue that almost extended to the tip of the root.

While Ötzi is scarcely likely to have cleaned his teeth, his abrasive diet contributed significantly to a process of self-cleaning.

The fact that the Iceman suffered from tooth decay is attributable to his eating more and more starchy foods such as bread and cereal porridge which were consumed more commonly in the Neolithic period because of the rise of agriculture, the researchers say.
This is the view of the right side of the rows of teeth in a 3D reconstruction. The arrow pointing right shows deep carious lesions, and the arrow pointing left severe bone loss around the molars

 

This is the view of the right side of the rows of teeth in a 3D reconstruction. The arrow pointing right shows deep carious lesions, and the arrow pointing left severe bone loss around the molars

In addition, the food was very abrasive because of contaminants and the rub-off from the quern, as is demonstrated by the Iceman's abraded teeth.

His accident-related dental damage and his other injuries testify to his troubled life at that time, the team believe.

One front tooth has suffered mechanical trauma – the discoloration is still clearly visible – and one molar has lost a cusp, probably from chewing on something, perhaps a small stone in the cereal porridge.
Clearly visible is the heavy sanding of the teeth. In a circle on the first molar tooth fracture of the palate side bump is visible. The molar on the opposite side, however, is indeed strongly abraded, its palate-sided enamel edge but still intact.

 


Clearly visible is the heavy sanding of the teeth. In a circle on the first molar tooth fracture of the palate side bump is visible. The molar on the opposite side, however, is indeed strongly abraded, its palate-sided enamel edge but still intact.


The loss of the periodontium has always been a very common disease, as the discovery of Stone Age skulls and the examination of Egyptian mummies has shown.

Ötzi allows us an especially good insight into such an early stage of this disease, said explains Seiler.

The Iceman – known widely as 'Ötzi' – is the oldest 'wet' mummy in the world.

Since its discovery in 1991, numerous scientific examinations have taken place.

In 2007, for example, also with the involvement of Frank Rühli, Ötzi's cause of death was determined as probably stemming from internal bleeding.

WHO WAS OTZI?

DNA analysis has revealed details of the iceman's life

The 5,300-year-old 'ice mummy' known as Otzi suffered from the world's first-known case of Lyme disease, a bacterial parasite spread by ticks, according to new DNA analysis.

Otzi, who was 46 at the time of his death and measured 5ft2, also had brown eyes, had relatives in Sardinia, and was lactose intolerant.

Otzi was also predisposed to heart disease.

The new research focused on the DNA in the nuclei of Otzi's cells, and could yield further insights into the famous 'ice mummy's life.

He was unearthed in September 1991 by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.

He was about 46 years old when he met his death.

The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.

Researchers examining the contents of his stomach worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.

Archaeologists believe Oetzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.

Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.

His perfectly preserved body is stored in his own specially designed cold storage chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy at a constant temperature of -6°C. Visitors can view the mummy through a small window.

Alongside his remains is a new Oetzi model created using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology by two Dutch artists – Alfons and Adrie Kennis.

Sea Urchins Adapt to Climate Change

Mushrooming carbon-dioxide levels are leading to caustic ocean conditions, but some species, like the purple sea urchin, have the ability to adapt to this changing environment, a new study shows.

Researchers grew purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) — which are echinoderms (a group that also includes sea stars and brittle stars) with spiky protrusions made of calcium carbonate — in the lab. The invertebrates were grown under conditions mimicking expected future levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

In response to high carbon dioxide levels, the urchins showed substantial changes in the proportion of genes involved in regulating their cells' pH (the degree of acidity) and skeletal development.

The oceans are expected to become increasingly acidic this century as carbon dioxide gets pumped into the atmosphere and, ultimately, the seas. The acidity is particularly problematic for organisms that must create shells from calcium carbonate, because the shells are more likely to dissolve under acidic conditions. [Gallery: Sea Urchins]

"The big unanswered question is, if and how marine organisms will be able to respond to ocean acidification," said Melissa Pespeni, an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University and lead author of the study, published today (April 8) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Pespeni and her colleagues bred adult sea urchins, collected from the Pacific Ocean between central Oregon and Southern California, in tanks exposed to regular carbon-dioxide levels or elevated levels of carbon dioxide forecasted to occur as a result of climate change. The scientists measured the growth and genetic variation of the urchin larvae during their first week of development, a time when the larvae are still free-swimming blobs undergoing major skeletal growth.

The immature urchins showed few visible changes in growth and development, but there were noticeable differences in the abundance of certain genes. The urchins exposed to higher carbon-dioxide levels showed changes in genes involved in promoting growth, producing minerals and keeping pH within a range that's tolerable to them. In comparison, the urchins exposed to current carbon-dioxide levels showed only random genetic variation.

 

The findings demonstrate that the high-carbon-dioxide environment was exerting natural selection on the urchin larvae: Only the "fittest" — those with the most advantageous genes — survived. It was exciting to see that the urchins could adapt, Pespeni told LiveScience.

"If any organism were able to adapt and evolve, it would be the sea urchins, because they live in an environment where they're experiencing daily changes in pH," she said.

The urchins are very long-lived and have more genetic variability than any other species — including humans, she added. Consequently, the urchins have a broad arsenal for responding to changes in their environment. The findings give scientists hope that organisms like the purple sea urchin might be able to adapt to rising carbon-dioxide levels, but it's unclear whether other organisms will be so flexible.

Moreover, increasing levels of greenhouse gases is just one of many changes associated with climate change. It would be interesting, Pespeni said, to find out how the urchins would adapt to other stressors, such as temperature.

Despite the ability of some species to adapt to climate change, it is still important to preserve large, robust populations of various animals, Pespeni and her colleagues stressed.