[Jawlist] Weekly Science Report 7-3-09

Fri Jul 3 19:36:23 PDT 2009

Good Evening Everyone,

Below is this week's edition.  Enjoy!

Steve Detwiler

Weekly Science Report
July 3, 2009

“Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
Winston Churchill

News Articles

Paleontology, Evolution and Prehistoric Studies

Do bow and arrow predate modern humans?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227134.800-do-bow-and-arrow-predate-modern-humans.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Humans worked the Welsh hills 10,000 years ago
http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Culture&F=1&id=16956

Stone Age flutes found in Germany
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/44941/title/Stone_Age_flutes_found_in_Germany

Domestication Of Chile Pepper Provides Insights Into Crop Origin And Evolution
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090619152137.htm

The first Europeans were cannibals: archaeologists
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iI9OgX-_Mirtk1K5zuNW2CLn4OzQ

Neanderthals Made Mammoth Jerky
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/23/neanderthal-mammoth.html

Study: Food storage began well before farming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_sc/us_sci_ancient_grain_storage_1

Dinosaurs May Have Been Smaller Than We Thought: New Study
http://www.physorg.com/news165147675.html

Ancient primate sniffed out food in the trees
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2009-06-22-ancient-primate_N.htm

Europeans' sweet tooth may have been survival trait
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html

Giant prehistoric kangaroos wiped out by hungry Ice Age hunters
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6559930.ece

Scientists study foes’ ways at Creation Museum
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31569042/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Forgotten evolutionist lives in Darwin's shadow
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_sc/as_fea_malaysia_forgotten_evolutionist

Dino tooth sheds new light on ancient riddle
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/uol-dts062609.php

Researchers find fossils of new type of European camel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090629/sc_afp/spainpaleontologycamel_20090629165011

Myanmar fossil may shed light on evolution
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfBpw9sw_qIrKFzUzGHNHBgLsmoQD995NURG3

Dinosaur “Mummy” Reveals a Creature With Bird-Like Skin
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/01/dinosaur-mummy-reveals-a-creature-with-bird-like-skin/

Nut-Size Ancient Skull Explains Our Brains' Bigness?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090630-tiny-skull-big-brains.html

Fossil Feathers Revealing Extinct Moa's True Colors
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/01/moa-feathers-extinct.html

Three new dinosaurs discovered in Qld
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/833433/three-new-dinosaurs-discovered-in-qld

Parents’ keepsake
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090715&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=29

New Fossil Primate Challenges "Missing Link" Ida
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/701/1

Ben-Gurion U. researchers reveal connection between cancer and human evolution
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/aabu-bur070209.php

Models of Earliest (Camel-Pulled) Vehicles Found
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/26/wheeled-vehicle-camel.html

Indonesian elephant fossil opens window to past
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2009-06-23-prehistoric-elephant_N.htm

Ancient and General History

A New Way to See Ancient Athens
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597199236156969.html

Carvings tell story of ancient female solidarity
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/26/carvings-tell-story-ancient-female-solidarity.html

Osage people claim link to Sugarloaf Mound
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2009/06/24/south/news/0624ssj-sugarloaf0.txt

Urban sprawl hastened Angkor's collapse
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25681717-2703,00.html

Obsidian 'trail' provides clues to how humans settled, interacted in Kuril Islands
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/uow-op062209.php

Tlaltecuhtli Cult was Exclusively for Priesthood
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31544

Burnt City women outlived their men
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/98612.htm?sectionid=351020105

June 25, 1876: Was Custer Outgunned at Little Bighorn?
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/06/dayintech_0625/

1941 science test shows how things have changed
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-06-24-evolution-exam_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Khmer Rouge Survivor Testifies
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1907631,00.html

Opportunity knocks, again, in the Andes
http://www.livinginperu.com/features-808-environment-opportunity-knocks-again-andes

‘Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are the only record of old Tamil’
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20090717261407000.htm

Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124648494429082661.html?mod=yhoofront

No Etruscan link to modern Tuscans
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-07-03_103376095.html

Inquiry reopened in discovery of poet's remains
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGwHiLipSUh-7Ybmz1rmrTJJr7HgD996KDTG0

Vatican should learn from Galileo mess, prelate says
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090702/sc_nm/us_pope_science

Walter Isaacson on Albert Einstein in America, 1921
http://press.princeton.edu/blog/2009/07/01/walter-isaacson-on-albert-einstein-in-america-1921/

July 4, 1776: Preserving the Declaration
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0704/

Archaeology

UVa Archeology Dig Finds Ancient Indian Artifacts
http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/news/headlines/48557462.html

Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Remains of Medieval Book in Veliko Tarnovo
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=104810

Bronze Age burial ground uncovered
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Bronze-Age-burial-ground-uncovered.5405429.jp

Oldest human settlement in Aegean unearthed on Limnos island
http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=7735875&maindocimg=7735858&service=144

South county site might have oldest structure in state
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/nbh/2009/06/26-26/South-county-site-might-have-oldest-structure-in-state.html

Rare petroglyphs found in Cuban caves
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/rare-petroglyphs-found-in-cuban-caves_100209429.html

The Heart of Volga-Kama Bolghar Discovered
http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2009-06-25&article=27913

Mystery cult's temple unearthed in northern Iraq
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/89A303F8F3E64089862575E0000DC2AF?OpenDocument

Ancient well, and body, found in Cyprus
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMAxmJompMRkaF_P0AvNxli2rm6gD9913EK01

Marble Head of Emperor Titus Found
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/24/titus-marble-naples.html

Untouched Tomb Uncovered in Bethlehem
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/23/tomb-found-bethlehem.html

Bulgarian Archaeologists Uncover Intact Thracian Settlement
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=104963

Iron Age graveyard unearthed in Tamil Nadu
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200906221831.htm

Underground cave dating from the year 1 A.D. exposed in Jordan Valley
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/uoh-ucd062209.php

Excavated bronze horse statue repaired in Hubei
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/21/content_11577430.htm

Archaeological find at Snohomish County site
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090621/NEWS01/706219813&news01ad%3D1

New eyes on old Native American digs
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090621/NEWS/906209988/-1/RSS08

Roman shipwreck find
http://technology.iafrica.com/news/science/1738420.htm

Archaeologist investigating who built ancient chapel
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3904&Itemid=72

What are subsurface circles at Poverty Point?
http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10567348

China's Mount Wutai, Italy's Dolomites join World Heritage List
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090626/sc_afp/unescoheritagechinaeurope_20090626171316

Who’s in the Alexander Sarcophagus?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904574246094055079788.html

Current laws are inadequate to protect antiquities
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_12699368

Topper dig is becoming a reknown archeological treasure trove
http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/887761.html

Dutch Anthropologists Research Bulgaria Neolithic Archaeology Site
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=105092

Rome catacomb reveals "oldest" image of St Paul
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090628/sc_nm/us_italy_saint

Pope says bone fragments found in St Paul's tomb
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090628/sc_nm/us_italy_saint_bone

Go online for look inside dig
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/06/27/archaeology0627.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

YOUNG: Scrapers, tools used by the Native American females
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/local/local_story_178182645.html

Dig to provide 'windows' into the past at Camp Security
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_12705021?source=rss

Titanic Artifacts Arrive in NYC (Video)
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/news-titanic-artifacts-arrive-in-nyc.html

Ancient Philippine boat re-created for odyssey
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31596466/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Castle bones may belong to knight 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8124109.stm

Indus Valley’s secrets to remain buried: Insecurity forces archaeologists to abandon excavations
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\06\29\story_29-6-2009_pg13_5

Archaeologists unravel WNC's ancient secrets
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090628/NEWS01/906280346

Paikuli inscriptions studied, restored in Iraq
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99355&sectionid=3510212

Bulgaria: Archaeologists Discover Building Remains in Ancient Town of Marcianopolis
http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1303

Road Threatens Site of Ancient Afghan City
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/29/afghanistan-gorge.html

Stone Age wells found in Cyprus 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8118318.stm

Called home: Native Americans pursue the return of ancestral remains to places of origin for reburial
http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2009/06/28/news/doc4a46c9c522ebc661336394.txt

Bulgarian Speleologists Discover Unique Thracian Sanctuary
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=105236

Computer recognises archaeological material and fake Van Goghs
http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/7824083/computer-recognises-archaeological-material-and-fake-van-goghs.html

Grid makes a SPLASH in underwater archaeology
http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001892

Turkey plans to restart work on controversial dam project
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/01/turkey-river-dam-environment

Ancient mosaic comes out of hiding in Israel
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20090701152154391C346828

Naga ancestral sites dated to 7th cent. AD
http://www.morungexpress.com/frontpage/27540.html

Archaeological Excavations at Tetovo Fortress in Macedonia Yield Finds from Ottoman Period
http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1309

De Luna shipwreck rising from the deep
http://www.pnj.com/article/20090630/NEWS01/906300315

German-Iraqi dispute mounts over 4,500-year-old gold vase 
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/275498,german-iraqi-dispute-mounts-over-4500-year-old-gold-vase.html

Ancient structure unearthed in Semarang
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/30/ancient-structure-unearthed-semarang.html

Ancient military town dating back to 26th Dynasty discovered in Ismailiya
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000002/0203000000000000001174.htm

Soldiers to Learn about Preserving Archaeology
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/167217

Saving NY's Valley Forge: Revolutionary War patriots' graves besieged by development
http://www.startribune.com/nation/49875837.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Excavation work uncovers settlement that may have been major market center
http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/07/03/breaking_news/doc4a4e13c15bf22863652239.txt

Digging for evidence of Maryland's Indian heritage
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bal-md.archaeology02jul02,0,1296148.story?track=rss

Elamite Jar Burial Transferred to Haft-Tappeh Museum
http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=1:news-july-2009&id=51:elamite-jar-burial-transferred-to-haft-tappeh-museum

Bulgaria: Archaeologists Research Balkans’ Oldest Funeral Site
http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1312

Ancient child deaths uncovered
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20090307-19375.html

Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover 7 000-Years-Old Settlement
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=105276

Excavation work uncovers settlement that may have been major market center
http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/07/03/breaking_news/doc4a4e13c15bf22863652239.txt

Computer reveals stone tablet 'handwriting' in a flash
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17405-computer-reveals-stone-tablet-handwriting-in-a-flash.html

June 30, 2009

Scientist Tries to Connect Migration Dots of Ancient Southwest 
By GEORGE JOHNSON

CASAS GRANDES, Mexico — From the sky, the Mound of the Cross at Paquimé, a 14th-century ruin in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, looks like a compass rose — the roundish emblem indicating the cardinal directions on a map. About 30 feet in diameter and molded from compacted earth and rock taken near the banks of the Casas Grandes River, the crisscross arms point to four circular platforms. They might as well be labeled N, S, E and W.

“It’s a hell of a long way from here to Chaco,” says Steve Lekson, an archaeologist from the University of Colorado, as he sights along the north-south spoke of the cross. Follow his gaze 400 miles north and you reach Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, a major cultural center occupied from about A.D. 900 to A.D. 1150 by the pueblo people known as Anasazi. Despite the distance, Dr. Lekson believes the two sites were linked by an ancient pattern of migration and a common set of religious beliefs.

But don’t stop at Chaco. Continue about 60 miles northward along the same straight line and you come to another Anasazi center called Aztec Ruins. For Dr. Lekson the alignment must be more than a coincidence. 

A decade ago in “The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest,” he argued that for centuries the Anasazi leaders, reckoning by the stars, aligned their principal settlements along this north-south axis — the 108th meridian of longitude. In an article this year for Archaeology magazine, he added two older ruins to the trajectory: Shabik’eschee, south of Chaco, and Sacred Ridge, north of Aztec. Each in its time was the regional focus of economic and political power, and each lies along the meridian. As one site was abandoned, because of drought, violence, environmental degradation — the reasons are obscure — the leaders led an exodus to a new location: sometimes north, sometimes south, but hewing as closely as they could to the 108th meridian.

“I think the reason is ideological,” Dr. Lekson said on a recent visit to Paquimé. “The cultural response to something not working is to move north, and when that doesn’t work you move south. And then you move north again and then you move south again, and then you finally say the hell with it, I’m out of here, and you go down to Chihuahua.”

For many of Dr. Lekson’s colleagues that is an awfully big leap. With all the ambiguities involved in interpreting patterns of dirt and rock — the Anasazi left no written history — archaeologists have been more comfortable focusing on a particular culture or a particular ruin. Dr. Lekson is constantly reaching — some say overreaching — to make connections between isolated islands of thought. Scheduled for publication this summer, his new book, “A History of the Ancient Southwest,” will go even further, offering a kind of unified theory of the Native American population movements that have puzzled Southwest archaeologists for many years.

“Steve has definitely been the one who has dragged us kicking and screaming into ‘big picture’ archaeology,” said William D. Lipe, emeritus professor of archaeology at Washington State University. “In many ways, Steve’s ideas and publications have driven much of the intellectual agenda for Southwestern archaeology over the last 20 or more years.” That does not mean, Dr. Lipe added, that he buys the idea of the Chaco meridian.

On a walk around Paquimé, Dr. Lekson points out his evidence. Casas Grandes, the Spanish name for the ruins, means “big houses,” and the multistory structures remind him of the palatial “great houses” at Chaco and Aztec. Inside the structures, people moved from room to room through T-shaped passages like those at Anasazi sites. At the House of the Pillars, a row of three colonnades formed a grand entranceway. “No one around here had colonnades except at Chaco,” Dr. Lekson says. A coincidence or a connection?

Paquimé also hints at other influences. Ball courts, used for ceremonial games, are typical of those found in southern Mexico and Central America. Effigy mounds, in which dirt was shaped to form birds and other figures, resemble those built long ago by Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. A long sinuous row of mud and stone called the Mound of the Serpent seems to undulate like a snake.

“This thing runs north and south,” Dr. Lekson says. “I love it.” He points toward a prominent hill on the horizon called Cerro de Moctezuma. Barely visible on its summit are the remains of a centuries-old stone watchtower. Nearby, he says, is another snakelike mound running north and south.
“It’s not as easy to see,” he says. “You have to believe it.”

There is plenty of evidence that ancient Americans were keenly aware of the cardinal directions. Watch the night sky long enough and it becomes clear that there is one star that does not move while the others circle around it: the north star or Polaris. Motivated perhaps by this knowledge, some ceremonial structures at Chaco are aligned on north-south axes, and the earthen walls at Paquimé zig and zag as though, Dr. Lekson says, they were “laid out on giant graph paper or with the old children’s toy Etch A Sketch.” Throughout the Southwest, modern pueblo religions typically include four sacred mountains, one for each direction, and pueblo people tell stories of ancestors moving south because of bad things that happened in the north.

If these people had been “meridian compulsive,” as Dr. Lekson puts it, they had the astronomical knowledge to plot and follow a long straight line. “Lining things up is not an issue,” he says. “The question is why.”

“Chaco Meridian” came with a warning: “This book is not for the faint of heart, or for neophytes. If you are a practicing Southwestern archaeologist with hypertension problems, stop. Read something safe.” Few of Dr. Lekson’s colleagues heeded the advice.

“Steve is possibly the best writer in Southwest archaeology,” said David Phillips, curator of archaeology at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. “Our academic writing has this inherent gift of taking something interesting and making it dull and boring. And Steve doesn’t have that problem. He thinks outside the box, and the rest of us comb through his ideas.”

“Having said all that,” Dr. Phillips added, “I personally think that the Chaco meridian is a crock.” 
In a vivisection of the theory, available online, Dr. Phillips laid out his objections. To begin with, the meridian is not exactly a straight line: if you zoom in, there are deviations of a few miles. Dr. Phillips also noted overlaps in the chronology of the rise and fall of the settlements. For example, Aztec, depicted in Dr. Lekson’s book as the last outpost before the southward migration, was still occupied when Paquimé began.

In a good-natured rejoinder, Dr. Lekson answered these and other points. It is no surprise, he said, that the meridian “wobbles.” Driven by the north-south compulsion, the leaders “did the best they could, lacking chronometers and GPS.” He also disagreed that the overlapping timeline was a problem: “If I were the High Panjandrum, I’d surely send a gang ahead to build a comfortable palace before I dragged my Royal Self over hill and dale to the new Pleasure Dome in Xanadu.”
Debates like this can go on forever. Where the two archaeologists fundamentally disagree is over how a theory should be constructed. To Dr. Phillips, Dr. Lekson is arguing more like a lawyer than a scientist — marshaling corroborating evidence for what he already has decided is true.

“Anyone can take any position and find evidence,” Dr. Phillips said. “Done properly, science means that you stop yourself and figure out what the opposite is — the null hypothesis — and you prove the null hypothesis couldn’t possibly be true. By process of elimination, your desired outcome becomes more plausible. This gets back to Karl Popper. You can only falsify.”
But Dr. Lekson insists that archaeology can advance only by pushing beyond the Popperian ideal, trying to make sense of all the data with plausible accounts of what was happening historically in the ancient Southwest.

“We were trained to treat ancient Pueblo societies like cultures in laboratory petri dishes,” he recently wrote. “Sprinkle the right amount of rainfall on the proper soil and up popped pueblos.” What has been neglected, he says, is an appreciation for the unquantifiable.

“Unless you understand the broad outlines of the story — the history,” he says, — the questions you are asking could be pointless. “You may be answering them very, very nicely and staying close to the data and doing good conservative science, but you could be asking the wrong questions and wasting a lot of money and time doing it.”

With its grand sweep, the new book, “History of the Ancient Southwest,” is vintage Lekson, and there is no reason to think the book will be any less controversial than the meridian theory, which forms but one thread of the saga. 

“Lots of people could do what I’m doing, but they are choosing not to,” Dr. Lekson said late one afternoon at Paquimé. “It’s professionally dangerous to some extent.” As he cracked open a Tecate, he described his frustrations at the slow pace of the field.

“The Southwest is one of the most heavily studied archaeological regions in the world, bar none except maybe downtown Athens,” he said. “Per square mile, probably more money and time and energy and thought have been invested than anywhere else. If we can’t take a stab now and try to put everything together, we should probably just hang up our trowels and say, ‘Let’s quit. We’re not learning anything. We’re just spinning our wheels.’ ”

Egyptology

Eu-eke-a!
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/952/eg12.htm

Surprises rise from dead: Mummy turns out to be a daddy
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/24/2009-06-24_brooklyn_museum_mummys_a_daddy.html

Archaeological discovery in Saqqara
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000002/0203000000000000001168.htm

Archaeologists uncover secrets of daily life among the great pyramids of Giza
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2009/06/28/sci_Egyptologist.ART_ART_06-28-09_G3_MNE9H7A.html?sid=101

General Science

Scientists create first electronic quantum processor
http://www.physorg.com/news165418586.html

Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17389-innovation-physics-brings-realism-to-virtual-reality.html

Lasers to seek, but not destroy, subs
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31615988/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

Laser Transistors Could Usher in Super-Fast “Photonic” Computers
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/02/laser-transistors-could-usher-in-super-fast-photonic-computers/

Physics, Earth and Space Sciences

Herschel gives glimpse of power 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8110345.stm

THE 5-YEAR-OLD SPACE AGE
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/19/1971623.aspx

Apollo astronaut Aldrin urges US to land on Mars
http://www.physorg.com/news164620816.html

Earth's poles may be tugged around by oceans
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17340-earths-poles-may-be-tugged-around-by-oceans.html

Nuclear nations rush to lock in uranium deals
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE55H51920090618

Ocean core provides ancient climate record
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/06/17/Ocean-core-provides-ancient-climate-record/UPI-68561245268446

Solar system's most volcanic body to go dormant
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17328-solar-systems-most-volcanic-body-to-go-dormant.html

Cloud clue in space blast mystery 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8119097.stm

Light goes out on solar mission 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8121625.stm

'Misty caverns' on Enceladus moon 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8115148.stm

Where Can You Contain An Explosive Molecule? In a Molecular Cage, of Course.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/06/26/where-can-you-contain-an-explosive-molecule-in-a-molecular-cage-of-course/

8 Ways Scientists Look at—But Don't Yet See—Dark Matter
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/08-ways-scientists-look-dark-matter/

Science plunges to a depth of 8,000ft
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/Science-plunges-to-a-depth-of-8000ft/articleshow/4704095.cms

Source of super cosmic rays pinned down
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31550899/ns/technology_and_science-space/

ET's Earth Appears More as Pale, Red Dot
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/26/earth-alien-molecules.html

Galactic Colonization Limited By The Inability To Expand Exponentially
http://www.physorg.com/news164986606.html

Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil
http://www.physorg.com/news165164322.html

NASA's new moon probe sends back moon shots
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_rocket

Work begins on world's deepest underground lab
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-06-22-underground-lab_N.htm

The hunt for astronomical gold in familiar phenomena
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/06/26/the-hunt-for-astronomical-gold-in-familiar-phenomena/

Mars may hide secret water table
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227145.000-mars-may-hide-secret-water-table.html

Surf's up: Learning to forecast the waves
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227141.500-surfs-up-learning-to-forecast-the-waves.html

Sun leaves Earth wide open to cosmic rays
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227144.700-sun-leaves-earth-wide-open-to-cosmic-rays.html

Joint Mars plan on talks agenda 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8124882.stm

Geological landforms indicate 'recent' warm weather on Mars
http://www.physorg.com/news165509449.html

Aliens and the future of planet Earth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2009/jun/18/climate-change-scienceofclimatechange

Grains of Sand Reveal Possible Fifth State of Matter
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/sandgrains/

Uranium Found on the Moon
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090629-uranium-moon.html

Ariane lofts biggest 'space bird' 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8129546.stm

Gravity's imprint sought in big bang’s glow
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31685643/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Trees Buffered Earth From Iceball Fate
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/01/trees-earth-freeze.html

Astronomers Identify New Class of Black Hole
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/01/new-black-hole.html

The least sea ice in 800 years
http://www.physorg.com/news165668875.html

Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward
http://www.physorg.com/news165675816.html

Intense heat killed the Universe's would-be galaxies, researchers say
http://www.physorg.com/news165645175.html

NASA manager pitches a cheaper return-to-moon plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_rocket

Triple eclipse, a precursor to calamity?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Triple-eclipse-a-precursor-to-calamity/articleshow/4722188.cms

Moon probe returns first images 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8131658.stm

How Martian clouds create snowfall
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31713000/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Scientists explain Martian soil surprises
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31712980/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Team makes Tunguska crater claim 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6239334.stm

Environment, Climate Change and Alternative Energy Sources

Initial development of bio fuel cells
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/Initial-development-of-bio-fuel-cells/articleshow/4679738.cms

Round-the-world solar plane debut 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8120026.stm

6 Bright Ideas for the Future of Energy
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4322757.html

Ice Sheets Can Retreat 'In a Geologic Instant,' Study of Prehistoric Glacier Shows
http://www.physorg.com/news164810243.html

Chicken feathers could make cheap hydrogen store
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227145.600-chicken-feathers-could-make-cheap-hydrogen-store.html

Biofuels could clean up Chernobyl 'badlands'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227144.500-biofuels-could-clean-up-chernobyl-badlands.html

Dow Chemical joins algae-based biofuel project
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090629/bs_afp/usclimateenergyethanoldow_20090629184915

Deep in bedrock, clean energy and quake fears
http://news.cnet.com/Deep-in-bedrock,-clean-energy-and-quake-fears/2100-13840_3-6249813.html

Climate war could kill nearly all of us, leaving survivors in the Stone Age
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/29/climate-war-lovelock

Grassoline: Biofuels beyond Corn
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=grassoline-biofuels-beyond-corn

An insurance plan for climate change victims
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327154.000-an-insurance-plan-for-climate-change-victims.html

5 Climate Studies That Don't Live Up to Their Hype
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4323558.html

Tiny New Battery Is Printable
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090702/sc_livescience/tinynewbatteryisprintable

Producing hydrogen from urine
http://www.physorg.com/news165836803.html

Wind + water = untapped energy: An abundance of power exists above Earth's oceans, study finds
http://www.physorg.com/news165594303.html

What the future of the auto industry will look like
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/07/02/what-the-future-of-the-auto-industry-will-look-like/

Biological, Genetics and Medical Sciences

Honey-Loving Chimps Handy, Too
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/origins/2009/06/honeyloving-chimps-handy-too.html

'Look Mom No Electricity': Transmitting Information with Chemistry
http://www.physorg.com/news164629201.html

Japan approves first generic biotech drug
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090625/sc_nm/us_novartis

Doctors Baffled, Intrigued by Girl Who Doesn't Age
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=7880954&page=1

Toyota technology has brain waves move wheelchair
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota-technology-has-brain-apf-2893135796.html?x=0&.v=1

Hi-tech 'Trojan horse' can kill cancer cells: researchers
http://www.physorg.com/news165478894.html

Extending the shelf life of antibody drugs
http://www.physorg.com/news165514408.html

New biomarker method could increase the number of diagnostic tests for cancer
http://www.physorg.com/news165500119.html

A New Clue About Salamanders’ Amazing Regenerating Limbs
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/01/a-new-clue-about-salamanders-amazing-regenerating-limbs/

New study rewrites textbook on key genetic phenomenon
http://www.physorg.com/news165675004.html

Linking genes to geography could revive race myth
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327156.500-linking-genes-to-geography-could-revive-race-myth.html

Could Stem Cells Patch Up a Broken Heart?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/03/could-stem-cells-patch-up-a-broken-heart/

Scientists find a biological 'fountain of youth' in new world bat caves
http://www.physorg.com/news165576476.html

Sound imaging: clever acoustics help blind people see the world (w/ Video)
http://www.physorg.com/news165759079.html

Other

Facedown Burials Widely Used to Humiliate the Dead
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090623-facedown-burials.html

Hidden Whale Culture Could Be Critical to Species Survival
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whaleculture/

The Holy Grail and the Great Design
http://newsblaze.com/story/20090624055109dale.nb/topstory.html

Africa alone could feed the world
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227143.100-africa-alone-could-feed-the-world.html

Depiction vs. Reality: The Air Force Hardware of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-06/depiction-vs-reality-air-force-hardware-transformers-revenge-fallen

Chimpanzees learn from video demo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8128325.stm

Mega colony of ants takes over the world
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health-Science/Science/Mega-colony-of-ants-takes-over-the-world/articleshow/4730795.cms

Child's Nightmares and Memories Prove Reincarnation
http://www.fox8.com/wjw-reincarnation-txt%2C0%2C1190900.story

Additional Informational

PICTURES: Hand Stencils Through Time
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-art-handprints-missions-pictures/index.html

PICTURES: Prehistoric European Cave Artists Were Female
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/index.html

PHOTOS: "Glorious" Ancient Chamber Found in Israel
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/underground-cave-israel-photos/index.html

The Once and Future Warplane: Bomber Tech Picture Gallery
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4323509.html

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