[Jawlist] Weekly Science Report 5-15-09

Sat May 16 14:54:32 PDT 2009

Good Evening Everyone,

Below is this week's edition.  Enjoy!

Steve Detwiler

Weekly Science Report
May 15, 2009

“The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.”
President John F. Kennedy

News Articles

Paleontology, Evolution and Prehistoric Studies

200,000 year old human hair found in dung
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/archeology/5299352/200000-year-old-human-hair-found-in-dung.html

Evidence of pre-historic humans in Thanjavur
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/10/stories/2009051054690600.htm

Biocides inducing resistance in Lascaux cave’s microbes
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/43632/title/Biocides_inducing_resistance_in_Lascaux_cave%E2%80%99s_microbes

Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090509-marsupial-lion.html

Deadliest Catch 22: Prehistoric Edition
http://www.archaeology.org/online/reviews/reedboat.html

African tribe colonized world 70,000 yrs ago
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/African-tribe-colonized-world-70000-yrs-ago/articleshow/4507306.cms

Stone Age Superglue Found -- Hints at Unknown Smarts?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090511-stone-age-glue.html

New dinosaur species possible in Northwestern Alberta
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/uoa-nds051209.php

Ancient animals may be Darwin's 'missing links'
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/12/MNT71728EC.DTL&type=science

Obsession with Naked Women Dates Back 35,000 Years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090513/sc_livescience/obsessionwithnakedwomendatesback35000years

Neanderthals Sophisticated And Fearless Hunters, New Analysis Shows
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090514084115.htm

Giant Dinosaurs Stuck Their Necks Out, Not Up?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090514-dinosaurs-long-necks.html

Fossil Find May Tweak Evolution Debate
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/15/tech/main5015948.shtml

Earliest animal traces solve time-gap mystery
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17105-earliest-animal-traces-solve-timegap-mystery.html

Ancient and General History

Leo & Kate Help Last Titanic Survivor
http://omg.yahoo.com/news/leo-kate-help-last-titanic-survivor/22348?nc

Pope visits Israel's Holocaust memorial
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30671818/

Pope's WWII-era activities stir up controversy on Holy Land visit
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope13-2009may13,0,3629877.story

Demjanjuk deported to Germany 
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/11/us.demjanjuk/index.html

Nazi war crimes trial 'could be last of its kind'
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/14/backgrounder.demjanjuk.warcrimes/index.html

China's "first emperor" banned Buddhism, expert says
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/11/content_11354232.htm

Former fundamentalist 'debunks' Bible
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/15/bible.critic/index.html

Torture Practices of the Ancient World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,625172,00.html

Study looks at early Navajo use of smoke signals
http://www.kdbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10372302&nav=menu608_2_2

Berlin pays thanks to airlift veterans 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8046296.stm

'Lone' longitude genius may have had help
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17119-lone-longitude-genius-may-have-had-help.html

Secret Memoir Reveals Dissent by Chinese Leader
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:19 AM 

Zhao Ziyang violated one of the central tenets of Communist Party doctrine: He spoke out. But it is only now, four years after his death that the world is hearing what he had to say. 
In a long-secret memoir to be published in English and Chinese next week, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party claims that the decision to impose martial law around Beijing in May 1989 was illegal and that the party's leaders could easily have negotiated a peaceful solution to the unrest. 
The posthumous appearance of Zhao's memoir, which he dictated onto audiotapes and the publisher has titled "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang," marks the first time since the establishment of the People's Republic of China 60 years ago that a senior Chinese leader has spoken out so directly against the party and its system. 

Reaching from the grave, Zhao pillories a conservative wing of the party for missteps that led to the bloody crackdown, which began after dark on June 3, 1989, and left hundreds dead. Few in China's leadership at the time escape Zhao's criticism. He castigates Deng Xiaoping, the man credited with opening China to the West and launching its economic reforms; Li Peng, the dour premier at the time of the Tiananmen tragedy; Deng Liqun, a hard-line party theoretician; Li Xiannian, a former vice president; and even Hu Yaobang, Zhao's longtime ally, whose death April 15, 1989, touched off the student-led protests. 

But Zhao's memoir also constitutes a broader challenge to the generally accepted version of history, especially in China, that places Deng at the center of the economic reforms that have turned China into a global economic power. While acknowledging that none of the reforms "would have been possible without Deng Xiaoping's support," Zhao depicts Deng as more of a benevolent godfather than a hands-on architect. Much of the critical design -- such as dismantling agricultural communes, mapping out China's hugely successful export-led growth model and conjuring up ideological sleights-of-hand that allowed China's Communists to embrace capitalism -- was left to Zhao. In China, Zhao's role in the momentous economic changes and political events that led up to the Tiananmen crackdown have been airbrushed from history. "Prisoner of the State" is his attempt to place himself back in the picture. 

"Reading Zhao's unadorned and unboastful account of his stewardship, it becomes apparent that it was he rather than Deng who was the actual architect of reform," wrote Roderick MacFarquhar, a professor of Chinese history at Harvard University, in a foreword to the book. 
It has long been known from numerous accounts that Zhao opposed the decision to suppress the student-led demonstrations but was overruled by China's other top leaders. Purged from his post as general secretary of the Communist Party just days before the crackdown, Zhao spent the next 16 years, until his death in 2005, as the most prominent "non-person" in the world -- "consigned," as he says in the memoir, "to oblivion through silence." 

Under virtual house arrest, in 1999 he secretly started making cassette recordings with friends, according to Bao Pu, one of the editors of the memoir for the publisher, Simon & Schuster. Bao Pu is the son of Bao Tong, a top political aide to Zhao who was jailed for six years after the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests. Over the course of a year or so, he said in an interview, Zhao recorded roughly 30 tapes in a game of cat-and-mouse with security agents stationed at his home in a courtyard in central Beijing. 

Initially, Zhao made the tapes on the rare occasions he was allowed to leave his home. But that proved perilous, because each time Zhao ventured out, he was wrapped in a security bubble and confronted at his destination by more police. So Zhao continued the project at home, passing completed tapes to trusted visitors. Bao Pu first learned of the tapes following Zhao's death Jan. 17, 2005; it took several years to amass all of them and to gain permission from people close to Zhao to publish the memoirs, he said. 

"Prisoner of the State" might enrage China's Communist leaders who, despite their nation's economic success, remain vigilant about any potential challenge to the party's legitimacy. When Zhao died in 2005, the party's leaders convened emergency meetings to ensure that his death would not touch off pro-democracy demonstrations or a renewed debate about the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square. TV and radio were banned from reporting the death. Newspapers could only use a one-sentence obituary that referred to Zhao as "comrade." 

Central to Zhao's memoir is his depiction of Deng, the power behind the opening of China to the West. Deng believed strongly, Zhao says, in market reforms. But he also obsessively opposed what he called "bourgeois liberalization," or Western influences. In a revealing chapter, Zhao says that Deng often spoke about "political reform," but that what he really meant were measures "precisely intended to further consolidate the Communist Party's one-party rule." Zhao describes Deng as a "mother-in-law" riding herd over senior officials constantly battling for his attention, particularly during the nasty and often petty competition between China's leaders in the run-up to the Tiananmen crackdown. 

China's official explanation of the bloodshed is that, with hundreds of thousands of people occupying the central square in Beijing, the situation bordered on chaos and the party had no real choice but to clear the square by force. Zhao's counterpunch is that bumbling moves by the hardliners, led by Li Peng, created the chaos. "If the right measures had been taken," he contends, "there would not have been such dire results." 

Following Hu Yaobang's death April 15, 1989, students who believed that conservatives in the party had unfairly treated the more liberal Hu began demonstrating. Zhao took a soft line against the protests and, he writes, they had started to die down after about a week. Then, on April 26, while Zhao was visiting North Korea, Li Peng masterminded a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee during which Li and others convinced Deng that the protests threatened the party's rule. Li then ordered the publication of an editorial in the People's Daily that termed the protests "premeditated and organized turmoil with anti-Party and anti-socialist motives." 

Li thought the editorial would cower participants, Zhao writes. Instead, "those who were moderate before were then forced to take sides with the extremists," and the marches ballooned to more than 10,000 people in Beijing and spread nationwide. On his return to China, Zhao attempted to make peace with the protesters, offering dialogue with student groups and the establishment of a special commission to investigate corruption charges. 

But, Zhao writes, "Li Peng and others in his group actively attempted to block, delay and even sabotage the process." 

Zhao requested a meeting with Deng to try to convince China's leader that they needed to retract the April 26 editorial. On May 17, he went to Deng's home, thinking it was going to be a private meeting. Instead, the whole Politburo Standing Committee was present. Zhao advocated modifying the editorial. President Yang Shangkun suggested imposing martial law. Ultimately, Deng decided on martial law; there was no vote, according to Zhao. 

The question of whether the Politburo's five-member Standing Committee took a vote is the only place where Zhao's version of events clashes significantly with the one provided in "The Tiananmen Papers," a collection of party documents published in 2001 that is considered the most definitive previous account of the crackdown. "The Tiananmen Papers" reported that there was a split vote of 2-2, with one abstention, and that retired Communist Party leaders were called in to decide. 

Zhao's contention is that because there was no vote, the crackdown was illegal, even by the party's own rules. And once again, he contends, the hardliners around Li Peng had miscalculated. The martial law declaration prompted even bigger protests. 

"A more intense confrontation was made inevitable," Zhao writes. "On the night of June 3rd while sitting in the courtyard with my family, I heard intense gunfire. A tragedy to shock the world had not been averted, and was happening after all." 

Zhao's book is not just about the past. In a final chapter he writes of his metamorphosis from a cautious reformer who believed in tweaking China's system to one who advocated parliamentary democracy. China should move slowly in that direction, he writes, but "it would be wrong if our party never makes the transition from a state that was suitable in a time of war to a state more suitable to a democratic society." 

Still, 20 years after the crackdown, it is remarkable how Deng's vision, as described by Zhao, of an authoritarian state oddly married with a free market holds sway in China. For three years after the tragic events at Tiananmen Square crackdown, Li Peng and the conservatives blocked market reforms. Then, in 1992, Deng reversed China's course, and all of Zhao's economic initiatives were embraced. In 1988, state-owned enterprises accounted for 60 percent of China's economy. Today, 60 percent of the economy is in private hands. China is en route to become the greatest trading nation in the world, with four of the world's top 10 busiest container ports. And yet "democratic reforms," when they are considered, are still implemented to strengthen the party's rule. 

"Zhao's story reminds us of the great debates that China's leadership had about these issues," Bao Pu said, "and of his role in pushing China into the modern world." 

Archaeology

Rare coin found in Domat Al-Jandal
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=122347&d=9&m=5&y=2009

Think your life is bad? Archaeologists show us worse
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-05-09-Pazyryk-warriors_N.htm

'Mayan king' remains found
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_375009.html

Ancient tenon heads discovered in Ancash, Peru
http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=mLXMZsqstxc=

Camp Floyd dig protects original site 
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/308447/3/

Archaeologists uncover remains of ancient empire in Jharkhand
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/312174.php

Iran attempts to maintain 4 salt mummies
http://www.payvand.com/news/09/may/1123.html

The king of Stonehenge: Were artifacts at ancient chief’s burial site Britain’s first Crown Jewels? 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1180243/The-king-Stonehenge-Were-artefacts-ancient-chiefs-burial-site-Britains-Crown-Jewels.html

Method Of Repairing Cadiz’s Walls Has Hardly Changed Since The 17th Century
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090511091534.htm

Race to preserve the world's oldest submerged town
http://www.physorg.com/news161274284.html

Duke City Archaeologist Searches For Sodom
http://www.koat.com/news/19433106/detail.html

Sarangani cave yields human-shaped potteries
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p090508.htm&no=79

Archeological team to gauge condition of 'ghost ships'
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1563946

Hidden treasure discovered in southern Sweden
http://www.thelocal.se/19394/20090512/

A historic grave found in İzmir by accident
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11628133.asp?scr=1

World’s biggest puzzle made in consul’s house at Ephesus
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=175015&bolum=100

Texas museum acquires Michelangelo's 1st painting
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_kimbell_museum_michelangelo

Ancient Trading Raft Sails Anew
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090513183516.htm

Bronze Age man inhabited water-logged north
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/netherlands/090513-Enkhuizen

2,000-YEAR-OLD CAVES FOUND IN RAIGAD
http://www.sakaaltimes.com/2009/05/14131311/2000YEAROLD-CAVES-FOUND-IN.html

Macedonia: Archaeologists to Reconstruct Jewish Cemetery in Shtip
http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1202

New excavations at Ed-Dur
http://www.wam.org.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=WamLocEnews&cid=1241072597989&p=1135099400124&pagename=WAM%2FWamLocEnews%2FW-T-LEN-FullNews

Ancient Elite Island With Pyramid Found in Mexico
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090513-mexico-ritual-island.html

Roman Ruins Survive the Ages Thanks to Volcanic Ash
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/13/roman-ruins-ash.html

Inca stone with 41 angles discovered in Peru
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-9075-artculturehistory-inca-stone-with-41-angles-discovered-peru

New light on land of black magic- Huge swords unearthed at Mayong in Assam point to human sacrifice
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090514/jsp/northeast/story_10958581.jsp

Emperor Trajan's Palace discovered in southwestern Romania 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/15/content_11376185.htm

Roman remains will be undamaged 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/8051902.stm

German scientists find clues to Roman mass production 
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/268987,german-scientists-find-clues-to-roman-mass-production.html

Much of history lies below the surface
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200905150069.html

Sardinians unlock 'sardonic grin'
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-05-15_115343756.html

Researchers find artifacts in western Kansas
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1194059.html

Pirate bones could be in that box, author says
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1528007.html

Egyptology

Swiss art historian claims Nefertiti bust a fake
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/05/09/72373.html

Rare statue of marble discovered in Alexandria
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000002/0203000000000000001144.htm

Culture Minister: 132 archaeological sites in Egypt not excavated
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000002/0203000000000000001147.htm

Prehistoric fishing tackle found in Egypt
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/May/international_May855.xml&section=international

What's going on in Luxor?
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/947/heritage.htm

General Science

A (virtual) smart home controlled by your thoughts
http://www.physorg.com/news161248986.html

New nanocrystals show potential for cheap lasers, new lighting
http://www.physorg.com/news161190228.html

Physics, Earth and Space Sciences

The Final Frontier: The Science of Star Trek
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=star-trek-movie-science

The day the universe froze: New dark energy model includes cosmological phase transition
http://www.physorg.com/news161026176.html

European prepares to command ISS 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8037431.stm

A Scientist's Guide to Finding Alien Life: Where, When, and in What Universe
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/may/11-a-scientists-guide-to-finding-alien-life

More 'Star Trek' than 'Snuggie': Student design to protect lunar outpost from dangerous radiation
http://www.physorg.com/news161268400.html

Our Planet's Leaky Atmosphere
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-planets-lose-their-atmospheres

Evolving autopilots could boost space slingshots
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227075.800-evolving-autopilots-could-boost-space-slingshots.html

When Comets Attack: Solving the Mystery of the Biggest Natural Explosion in Modern History
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4316464.html

Expedition to bursting, undersea volcano yields marvels
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090505_volcano.htm

Will This Mars Rover Ever Rove Again? Spirit Gets Stuck in the Sand
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/12/mars-rover-to-earth-im-stuck/

What lurks in the depths of the ocean?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/5309790/What-lurks-in-the-depths-of-the-ocean.html

Underwater 'flying machine' launched 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8049179.stm

Under Andean glaciers, a gold mine
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/Under-Andean-glaciers-a-gold-mine/articleshow/4527137.cms

ANTIMATTER GOES TO THE MOVIES
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/14/1932376.aspx

Space tomato packs nutritional super-punch
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30767047/

QUIET team to deploy new gravity-wave probe in June
http://www.physorg.com/news161612749.html

First comprehensive geological Arctic map published
http://www.physorg.com/news161612529.html

Life began in a flash; Science takes four billion years to catch up
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=life-began-in-a-flash-science-takes-2009-05-14

Chernobyl fallout could drive evolution of 'space plants'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17136-chernobyl-fallout-could-drive-evolution-of-space-plants.html

Angels & Demons’ Antimatter Bombs - for Real?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/angels-demons-antimatter-bombs-for-real/

A View Back Into Time
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/10/sunday/main5004371.shtml

Planck: The future of probing the past
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227073.700-planck-the-future-of-probing-the-past.html

Environment, Climate Change and Alternative Energy Sources

What Is The Best Way to Turn Plants into Energy?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bioelectricity-versus-biofuel

Coal Supply May Be Vastly Overestimated
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/11/peak-coal-energy.html

High-pressure compound could be key to hydrogen-powered vehicles
http://www.physorg.com/news161258047.html

Biomass as a source of raw materials
http://www.physorg.com/news161343267.html

Existing gas power plants could pump out hydrogen
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17115-existing-gas-power-plants-could-pump-out-hydrogen.html

Camarillo-area greenhouses produce 21st century crops
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-greenhouse14-2009may14,0,4784175.story

Ice sheet melt threat reassessed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8050094.stm

Relief as Arctic quest concludes 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8049563.stm

BrightSource signs world’s biggest solar deal – again
http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/13/brightsource-signs-worlds-biggest-solar-deal-again/

San Diego Will Soon Be First U.S. Metropolis to Drink Desalinated Seawater
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/15/san-diego-will-soon-be-first-us-metropolis-to-drink-desalinated-seawater/

NASA grows algae for biofuel, treats waste
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30767086/

David Attenborough: Our planet is overcrowded
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227081.000-david-attenborough-our-planet-is-overcrowded.html

Biological, Genetics and Medical Sciences

Researchers gain genome-wide insights into patterns of the world's human population structures
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/uow-rgg051409.php

New Tissue Scaffold Regrows Cartilage And Bone
http://www.interndaily.com/reports/New_Tissue_Scaffold_Regrows_Cartilage_And_Bone_999.html

New Lawsuit Challenges the Patenting of Human Genes
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/15/new-lawsuit-challenges-the-patenting-of-human-genes/

Other

Rules for Time Travelers
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/05/14/rules-for-time-travelers/

Additional Informational

Five new robots march into hall of fame
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn17099-robot-hall-of-fame-new-members/

The Face of Da Vinci: An Enduring Mystery
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/slideshows/da-vinci-face.html

PHOTO: Biggest Trilobite Sea Beasts
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090511-giant-trilobites-swarms-picture.html

iReporters explore ancient Rome
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/getaways/05/13/travel.snaps.rome/index.html

Seven secret societies in fiction and fact
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30751629/

Gallery: The most important telescopes in history
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16663-gallery-the-most-important-telescopes-in-history.html

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