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Hebrew University academic predicts more rights abuse for Iraqis

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:40:00 -0500

A researcher at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University has warned that present policies being followed by the U.S. in Iraq, could expose that country’s citizens to human rights abuse similar to what they experienced in the last century.

In an article being released in conjunction with Human Rights Week, Dr. Noga Efrati, the head of the Iraq research group at the Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, drew a comparison between British tribal policy in Iraq from 1914-1932 and U.S. policy on Iraq in the period 2003-2007.

According to Dr. Efrati, the British came to Iraq during the First World War in order to defend their interests in the region, and sought to revive a disintegrating tribal system to control the country’s vast rural areas.

They appointed sheikhs as tribal leaders, granting them wide discretionary powers, including the settling of disputes via
"tribal law." This had an adverse effect particularly on women.

"Under the British mandate, rural women – the majority of women in Iraq – were not constructed as citizens of a modern state whose rights and liberties should be protected, but as tribal possessions, abandoned and left outside state jurisdiction," Dr. Efrati writes in her article.

Dr. Efrati says the Americans today are also increasingly depending on local leaders to restore order.

Cautioning the Bush Administration to learn from the past, Dr. Efrati says it should be aware of the severe consequences that will arise by leaving the administration of "tribal" affairs in the hands of local leaders.

Her article on the subject appears in a new book, Britain and the Middle East, to be published later this month. (ANI)

Researchers discover 1699 Captain Kidd Shipwreck in the Caribbean

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:40:00 -0500

Indiana University’s underwater archaeology team has discovered the remains of the ship abandoned by the unfortunate 17^th century pirate Captain Kidd.

The ‘Quedagh Merchant’ is speculated to be the ship the captain was racing to New York in the same ship in an ill-fated attempt to clear his name.

However, the researchers are still arguing over its announcement in order to keep the looters away.

Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs in IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, revealed that his team has been authorized to study the wreckage in order to convert the site into an underwater preserve for easier accessibility to public.

He said that it was amazing that the wreck has still remained undiscovered after so many years as its location was just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic, and also the treasure hunters had long been seeking for it.

"I've been on literally thousands of shipwrecks in my career," Beeker said.

He added: "This is one of the first sites I've been on where I haven't seen any looting. We've got a shipwreck in crystal clear, pristine water that's amazingly untouched. We want to keep it that way, so we made the announcement now to ensure the site's protection from looters."

It is an important discovery as it has the potential to reveal important information about piracy in the Caribbean and about the legendary Capt. Kidd, said John Foster, California's state underwater archaeologist, who is participating in the research.

"I look forward to a meticulous study of the ship, its age, its armament, its construction, its use, its contents and the reconstructed wrecking process that resulted in the site we see today," said Foster.

He added: "Because there is extensive, written documentation, this is an opportunity we rarely have to test historic information against the archaeological record."

However, the historians do not have a fixed idea of whether Kidd was actually a pirate or a privateer (someone who captured pirates).

Kidd was left to hang over the River Thames for two years after his conviction of piracy and murder charges in a scandalous London trial.

According to the historians, Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant, laden with precious satins and silks, gold, silver and other East Indian merchandise,

However, he abandoned the ship in the Caribbean when he sailed to New York on a less known ship to clear his name of the criminal charges.

The men to whom Kidd handed over his ship eventually looted it, and then set it on flame and left it to go down the Rio Dulce, said anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum of World Cultures.

Conrad said that the historical records of the ship were found to be consistent with the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which were used as ballast. Pieces of several anchors under the cannons were also discovered.

"All the evidence that we find underwater is consistent with what we know from historical documentation, which is extensive," said Conrad.

"Through rigorous archeological investigations, we will conclusively prove that this is the Capt. Kidd shipwreck,” he added.

The IU team examined the shipwreck at the demand of the Dominican Republic's Oficina Nacional De Patrimonio Cultural Subacuático.

"The site was initially discovered by a local prominent resident of Casa De Campo, who recognized the significance of the numerous cannons and requested the site be properly investigated. So, I contacted IU,” said ONPCS Technical Director Francis Soto.

(ANI)

Fresh investigations reveal detailed plan of Caistor Roman town

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:44:00 -0500

Fresh investigations into the Caistor Roman town, which caused a sensation after its discovery in 1928, have revealed never been seen before detailed plans of the buried town.

On July 20, 1928, the crew of an RAF aircraft took photographs over the site of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk, a site which now lies in open fields to the south of Norwich.

Now, scientists at the University of Nottingham have carried out a high-resolution geophysical survey, using a Caesium Vapour magnetometer to plot buried remains across the entire walled area of the Roman town.

The survey, led by Dr Will Bowden of the University, has brought out the clearest plan of the town yet seen confirming the street plan that was shown by previous aerial photographs; the town's water supply system - detecting the iron collars connecting wooden water pipes; and the series of public buildings including the baths, temples and forum, known from earlier excavations.

However, the survey also showed that earlier interpretations of the town as a densely occupied urban area, given by reconstruction paintings, might be completely erroneous.

The survey showed that buildings were clustered along the main streets of the town, but other areas within the street grid seem to have been empty and were perhaps used for grazing or cultivation.

"The results of the survey have far exceeded our expectations. It's not an exaggeration to say that the survey has advanced our knowledge of Caistor to the same extent that the first aerial photograph did 80 years ago,” Dr Bowden, a lecturer in Roman Archaeology, said.

“The presence of possible Iron Age and Saxon features suggests that the town had a much longer life than we previously thought and the fact that it's just sitting there in open fields instead of being under a modern town means we can ask the questions we want to,” he added.

One of the most exciting new discoveries from the survey is what appears to be a Roman theatre, with traces of a large semi-circular building found next to the town's temples clearly visible.

“This is a fantastic discovery, and it goes to show that Caistor Roman town still has a great number of secrets to be disclosed in the years ahead through surveys or excavations,” David Gurney, Principal Archaeologist of Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service, said.

“The town is already well-established as the most important Roman site in northern East Anglia, but the presence of a theatre is a significant indicator of the town's status, and of the cultural facilities available to its inhabitants,” he added.

Caistor lies in the territory of the Iceni, the tribe of Boudica who famously rebelled against Roman rule in AD 60/61. The survey revealed numerous circular features that apparently predate the Roman town.

These are probably of prehistoric date, and suggest that Caistor was the site of a large settlement before the Roman town was built.

According to researchers, the burning questions that need to be looked into are: was Caistor built on the site of an Iceni stronghold as retribution after Boudica's rebellion, or was it built to favour a faction of the Iceni who had not taken part in the revolt?

Life at Roman Caistor was thought to have ended in the 5th century AD, when Britain was abandoned by the emperor of the struggling Western Roman Empire.

However, the new survey clearly shows a large ditched enclosure that cuts the surface of the Roman street in the north-west corner of the site. Possible structures are visible within this enclosure.

Researchers say that the new survey has demonstrated that Caistor is a site of international importance. (ANI)

Soon, Ã¢â‚¬ËœSuperbusÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ for faster, luxurious bus travel

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:44:00 -0500

With a view to encouraging people to travel by bus, researchers in the Netherlands are creating a smart vehicle which will be similar to the limousine in many respects.

Dubbed the Superbus, the vehicle will provide riders with a high-tech and luxurious environment. It will also be able to get people to their destinations in a fast, convenient, and fuel-efficient manner.

"All of the smartness is in the vehicle," Discovery News quoted Wubbo J. Ockels, professor and general manager of the AeroSpace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology program at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, as saying.

"It receives requests by Internet or SMS. It then collects and gathers those people who are going roughly at the same time and to the same destination," said Ockels, who is working with former Formula 1 designer Antonia Terzi and aerospace engineer Joris Melkert to develop a prototype in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

He said that as compared to conventional buses that have set schedules and routes, the Superbus would be very flexible because its schedules and pickup locations would be based entirely on the people who need it.

The journeys would be optimised by software, which is being installed in the bus to find fastest and most efficient path for a group of riders.

The Superbus’ rubber tires will enable it to drive on conventional roads, offering near-home pickup. Its low profile, racecar-like design gives it the aerodynamics to achieve speeds of 155 mph on a 10-foot concrete track, and thus offers fast service.

The vehicle's frame can also zoom along just a few inches above the ground while on the dedicated track. In the city, the bus will rise up to a foot off the ground. (ANI)

Saturn's elusive rotation path revealed

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:44:00 -0500

A team of European scientists has claimed that it is close to understanding what prompts the Planet Saturn to rotate.

Using data retrieved from the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument on the spacecraft Cassini, the scientists claimed in their report, which was published in one of the issues of Nature this week, that electrically charged particles were trapped in the planet's magnetic field and released radio waves with frequencies around 100 kilo Hertz. This enabled them to monitor the planet’s rotation rate.

They said that the magnetic field itself is generated deep inside the planet, so watching the variation of the radio emission as the magnetic field sweeps around can reveal the planet's rotation rate.

Using nine months worth of data from NASA's Voyager spacecraft, which flew past the planet during the 1980s, planetary scientists calculated Saturn's rotation period to be 10 hours 39 minutes 24 seconds, with an uncertainty of 7 seconds.

Repeating the measurement over 15 years later, the Ulysses spacecraft discovered that Saturn's period of radio emission varied and most recently, the Cassini spacecraft found the planet apparently rotating in 10 hours 45 minutes 45 seconds, with an uncertainty of 36 seconds.

According to the scientists, it is inconceivable that a planet could have slowed down by six minutes in a few decades.

As well as this long-period variation, Cassini's near continuous observations have also shown that the rotation rate seemed to vary by as much as one percent in a week.

The scientists forwarded two models to explain the variations in the radio emission period.

Firstly, that the wind of electrically charged particles given off by the Sun, the so-called solar wind, impacted the magnetic field, causing the radio emission to vary due to the variation of the solar wind speed.

Secondly, particles from the geysers on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus were affecting the magnetic field, causing it to drag around Saturn.

Now, after further careful analysis, Cassini's data strongly implicates the solar wind as the source of at least some of the radio period variation.

It shows that there is a characteristic variation in the behavior of the short-period radio emission every 25 days.

"This immediately points to the Sun because it is the rotation rate of the Sun as seen from Saturn," says Philippe Zarka, CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, France, who led the research.

Zarka and colleagues analysed the properties of the solar wind and found that the speed variation of the wind is probably responsible.

It does not vary completely randomly but instead follows a saw-tooth pattern, first building up in speed and then suddenly slowing down.

The work is not finished yet because the long-period variation must still be explained.

The team is now seeing if they can remove the effects of the solar wind and deduce the true rotation rate of Saturn, a key piece of information to understand Saturn's atmosphere and interior.

Knowledge of the planet's true rotation rate will allow planetary scientists to compare observations taken years apart and calculate the true wind speeds on the planet. (ANI)

Moss may help create crops to survive drought

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:20:00 -0500

Moss might be one of the simplest plants, but according to some scientists they can help in creating crops for surviving the ravages of drought.

The finding was based on a study that was started over 20 years ago by Professor David Cove at the Leeds University. And, now Dr Andy Cuming has continued Cove’s work, have sequenced the genome for Physcomitrella, and found the ability of moss to survive severe dehydration and then regrow when watered could be of enormous use in crops grown in drought-stricken areas of the developing world.

The moss Physcomitrella patens is a primitive plant, similar to the first plants that began to grow on land around 450 million years ago. Just one cell thick, these early plants had to adapt to withstand cold, heat and drought without roots or complex leaves.

With the sequencing of moss’s DNA, scientists will be able to identify which genes control these survival tactics and adapt crops to do the same.

“Physcomitrella is a really useful plant to study. In addition to being the link between water-based algae and land plants, it also has many important characteristics, which make it special. By sequencing the genome, we can start to identify their genetic basis and use the knowledge for crop improvement,” Cuming said.

Physcomitrella has a single ‘haploid’ genome, which makes it easier to identify which characteristics link to which gene.

The moss is also able to integrate new DNA into a defined target in the genome, unlike most plants, which integrate new DNA randomly. This means that modification of the moss genome is far more controlled than with other plants and allows the moss to be adapted as a ‘green factory’ to produce pharmaceutical products.

“If we can discover what mechanisms cause the Physcomitrella genome to integrate DNA in this way – we may be able to transfer those to other plants, to allow more controlled modification of their genomes,” Cuming said.

“However, we also believe many of the useful genes in Physcomitrella are probably still present in ‘higher’ crop plants, but are no longer active in the same way. So rather than adding new DNA – we’ll just be activating what’s already there to create the properties we want.

“Until now, only a handful of flowering plant genomes have been sequenced, compared with a large number of diverse animal genomes.

“But knowledge of a range of genomes is really important for scientific study. To help in understanding the human genome, scientists use the DNA of fruit flies, nematode worms and mice, to name only a few. We need that range in plant sciences too – and Physcomitrella patens is a fantastic one to add to the list,” Cuming added.

The study is published in Science. (ANI)

Wild chimpanzees do not routinely experience menopause

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:20:00 -0500

A ground-breaking study has revealed that wild chimpanzees do not routinely experience menopause, rebutting previous findings in captive animals that female chimpanzees reach reproductive senescence at 35 to 40 years of age.

Coupled with recent data from wild gorillas and orang-utans, the new finding suggests that human females are rare or even unique among primates in experiencing a lengthy post-reproductive lifespan.

"We find no evidence that menopause is common among wild chimpanzee populations. While some female chimpanzees do technically outlive their fertility, it's not at all uncommon for individuals in their 40s and 50s -- quite elderly for wild chimpanzees -- to remain reproductively active," says lead author Melissa Emery Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology at Harvard University.

Together with recent data from wild gorillas and orang-utans, the finding -- described this week in the journal Current Biology -- suggests that human females are rare or even unique among primates in experiencing a lengthy post-reproductive lifespan.

Both wild chimpanzees and humans experience fertility declines starting in the fourth decade of life, but most other human organ systems can remain healthy and functional for many years longer, far outstripping the longevity of the reproductive system and giving many women several decades of post-reproductive life.

In chimpanzees, reproductive declines occur in tandem with overall mortality. A chimpanzee's life expectancy at birth is only 15 years, and just 7 percent of individuals live to age 40.

Emery Thompson’s team has, however, found that females who reach such advanced ages tend to remain fertile to the end, with 47 percent giving birth once after age 40, including 12 percent observed to give birth twice after age 40.

"Fertility in chimpanzees declines at a similar pace to the decline in survival probability, whereas human reproduction nearly ceases at a time when mortality is still very low. This suggests that reproductive senescence in chimpanzees, unlike in humans, is consistent with the somatic aging process," the researchers write in Current Biology.

In other words, human evolution has resulted in an extended life span without complementary extended reproduction.

Emery Thompson has also suggested a reason for why reproduction has not kept pace with the general increase in human longevity. She says that it could be because there hasn't been anything for natural selection to act on, though there is heritable variation in age of menopause.

"However, it may be that the advantage older females gain by assisting their grandchildren outstrips any advantage they might get by reproducing themselves," she says.

The oldest known wild chimpanzee, who died earlier this year at approximately age 63, gave birth to her last offspring just eight years ago, at about 55.

Female chimpanzees only give birth every 6 to 8 years on average and they generally begin reproducing at age 13 to 15, which makes the chimpanzee reproductive profile much longer and flatter than that of humans, whose procreation is concentrated from age 25 to 35.

Emery Thompson and her colleagues gathered data from six wild chimpanzee populations in Tanzania, Uganda, Guinea, and Gambia. The researchers compared the chimpanzees' fertility patterns to those seen among two well-studied human foraging populations, in Botswana and Paraguay.

The study has been reported in the journal Current Biology. (ANI)

One of two planets around Gliese 581 may indeed be habitable

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:20:00 -0500

Two independent studies confirm that one of the two Earth-like planets, the discovery of which was announced in April, may indeed be located within the habitable zone around the star Gliese 581.

A European team of astronomers had announced in April that they had discovered two new planets — Gliese 581c and Gliese 581d — orbiting the M star Gliese 581 (a red dwarf), with masses of at least 5 and 8 Earth masses. Given their distance to their parent star, the new planets were the first ever-possible candidates for habitable planets.

Now, two international teams — one led by Franck Selsis of CRAL and LAB in France and the other by Werner von Bloh of PIK, Germany — have conducted two theoretical studies of the Gliese 581 planetary system to investigate the possible habitability of the new super-Earths from two different points of view.

The researchers have estimated the boundaries of the habitable zone around Gliese 581 to determine how close and how far from this star liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet.

F. Selsis’ team computed the properties of a planet’s atmosphere at various distances from Gliese 581. It was done with the theory in mind that the water reservoir would vaporise if the planet were too close to the star, and thus Earth-like life forms could not exist.

W. von Bloh’s team studied a narrower region of the habitable zone where Earth-like photosynthesis could be possible. This photosynthetic biomass production depends on the atmospheric CO2 concentration as much as on the presence of liquid water on the planet.

Using a thermal evolution model for the super-Earths, the researchers have computed the sources of atmospheric CO2 released through ridges and volcanoes, and its sinks (the consumption of gaseous CO2 by weathering processes). The main aspect of their model was the persistent balance between the sink of CO2 in the atmosphere-ocean system and its release through plate-tectonics, as it exists on Earth.

In this model, the ability to sustain a photosynthetic biosphere strongly depends on the age of the planet because a too old planet might not release enough gaseous CO2, and in that case the planet would no longer be habitable.

The findings of the two studies indicate, while Gliese 581 c is too close to the star to be habitable, the planet Gliese 581 d may be habitable.

However, the environmental conditions on planet d might be too harsh to allow complex life to appear. Planet d is tidally locked, like the Moon in our Earth-Moon system, meaning that one side of the planet is permanently dark. The temperature difference between the day and night sides of the planet may cause strong winds.

As the planet is located at the outer edge of the habitable zone, life forms would have to grow with reduced stellar irradiation and a very peculiar climate.

The studies also suggest that the distances of planets c and d to the central star has strong variations due to the eccentricity of their orbits, and that their orbital periods are short as they are close to the star.

The research shows that planet d might temporarily leave and re-enter the habitable zone during its journey. But even under such strange conditions, it might still be habitable if its atmosphere is dense enough.

However, in any case, habitable conditions on planet d should be very different from the conditions on Earth.

The two studies have been reported by Astronomy & Astrophysics. (ANI)