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POPSJerusalem dig uncovers ancient walls Jerusalem is an old city. For most of it to be uncovered they need to wait until the right scanners are developed, to scan it virtually. We only need to know what is there, so we can keep putting our past in a better context. We won't have to unearth it to know.
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POPSBrain and Creativity Institute The mission of the Brain and Creativity Institute is to gather new knowledge about the human emotions, decision-making, memory, and communication, from a neurological perspective, and to apply this knowledge to the solution of problems in the biomedical and sociocultural arenas.
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POPSScientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life "Retroelements are an ancient and highly diverse class of proteins; therefore, they provide a rigorous benchmark for us to test our approach. We are happy with the results we derived, even though our method is in an early stage," said Patterson. The team plans to make the algorithms that they used in their method available to others as open-source software that is freely available on the Web. Scientists map out the evolutionary histories of organisms by comparing their genetic and/or protein sequences. Those organisms that are closely related and share a recent common ancestor have greater degrees of similarity among their sequences.
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POPSAncient Chinese Bells The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one. It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity.
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POPSOpening Minds "Those who teach our children science have a duty to reveal the workings of nature – even if it means challenging their faith"
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POPSSmell Your Way to Happiness "This incense chemical may be the key to a new class of antidepressants and shed light on the molecular workings of the brain and emotion."
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POPSFuture for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates. Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
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POPSAn Animated Version of the Mahabarata More from the site: "This is not a strictly accurate historical portrayal of events, but a poetic, fantastic interpretation of the original text," says Grant Morrison. "The world of MBX is a place of incredible art and technology. This kingdom of sages, warriors, noble men and women is stronger, faster, fitter and smarter than we are, but still prey to the same emotional foibles that lead us all into disaster."
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POPSPalin: You're no Hillary Clinton John McCain has gone from maverick to "me too" -- trying to out-Democrat the Democrats and pick up some Hillary voters. But it ain't working. ~ Van Jones
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POPSWhy Greenland isn't so green Greenhouse gas levels before the Industrial Revolution were 280 parts per million (ppm), and now stand at around 385 ppm - just shy of the 400 ppm that prevailed in Greenland's pre-ice era. The more they study climate models the more uncertainty they have, because the weather keeps showing them it involves a lot more than they imagined. But almost any weatherman could tell you that. They usually have trouble predicting tomorrows weather. They also know, that in 20 years they'll be forgotten, and people will be asking the incumbent weathermen. Who will still be predicting a 60% chance of showers. In case you were interested In 982 Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder., he named the land Grænland ("Greenland").] Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. They also say (in Wikki) that while only small parts of the island are green, they are, they are Very green. Perhaps it's the contrast.
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