[Jawlist] Weekly Science Report 1-29-10

Sat Jan 30 16:23:13 PST 2010

Good Evening Everyone,

Below is this week's edition.  Enjoy!

Steve Detwiler

Weekly Science Report
January 29, 2010

“To the people of antiquity Egypt appeared as the very mother of magic”.
Lewis Spence, Egypt

News Articles

Paleontology, Evolution and Prehistoric Studies

Evidence of Stone Age amputation forces rethink over history of surgery
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7000810.ece

Magnificence on Cave Walls
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575003441739599812.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

For Cave Women, Farmers Had Extra Sex Appeal
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122944258

Feathered dinos leapt from trees, not ground
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35065795/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Stolen Dino Fossil Found in Montana
http://news.discovery.com/dinosaurs/stolen-rare-dinosaur-skeleton-found-in-montana.html

Dinosaur had ginger feathers 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8481448.stm

Last Neanderthals in Europe Died out 37,000 Years Ago
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100126220321.htm

Is the Hobbit's Brain Unfeasibly Small?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100126220325.htm

New Theory of Primate Origins Sparks Controversy
http://www.livescience.com/history/primate-origins-100127.html

Horizontal and vertical: The evolution of evolution
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527441.500-horizontal-and-vertical-the-evolution-of-evolution.html?full=true

Tests Find Ancient Birds Could Glide
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/25/tech/main6140252.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines

Breeding made dogs' heads incredibly diverse
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35060717/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Ancient and General History

'Da Vinci Code' may hold the secret to perfect smile
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Da-Vinci-Code-may-hold-the-secret-to-perfect-smile/articleshow/5500538.cms

Is the Mona Lisa a Self-Portrait?
http://www.physorg.com/news183667169.html

'Bomb Power' by Garry Wills
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/20/entertainment/la-et-rutten20-2010jan20

A Chinese American immigration secret emerges from the dark days of discrimination
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-paper-son24-2010jan24,0,590955.story

Book: John Paul II used belt to whip himself
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35079187/ns/world_news-europe/

Most Holocaust survivors battle depression
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35082451/ns/health-mental_health/

Survivors Remember Auschwitz Liberation
http://news.discovery.com/history/auschwitz-concentration-camp-survivors-mark-anniversary.html

Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting 
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Radio-Activity-The-100th-Anniversary-of-Public-Broadcasting.html#ixzz0ds7ijzEx

J.D. Salinger, enigmatic author, dies at 91
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26185613/ns/today-the_new_york_times/

What's in Salinger's safe?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_salinger

Putting names to the lost soldiers of Fromelles 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8473444.stm

Search for frozen camera may reveal who climbed Everest first
http://www.physorg.com/news183972557.html

Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/29/muslim.inventions/index.html?hpt=C2

Gandhi's ashes scattered off South Africa coast
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-01-30-gandhi-ashes_N.htm

Couple finds Thomas Jefferson letter at Old Town Alexandria's American Legion
By Anne Miller
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, January 25, 2010; C01 

Army veteran Tom Hewitt hovered over the stained and brittle page, itching to get closer but afraid to touch. Crowded into the upstairs office at American Legion Post 24 in Old Town Alexandria, he couldn't believe what his wife was saying. 

Not an hour before, Hewitt, 39, and his friends were drinking beer and talking about updating the walls with historic photos. His wife, Candice Bennett, dropped by, and the couple went upstairs to poke through the drawers and file cabinets in the messy third-floor office to look for some photos. 
In a drawer, Bennett, 34, spotted a paper that looked very old and unusual. She pulled out her iPhone and tapped away, frantically searching for names. Then she turned to her husband. 
"Tom, I think this is a Thomas Jefferson letter," she said. 

"You're kidding me," he said. 

She wasn't. 

It's a fairly rare occurrence when someone stumbles across a valuable historical artifact, like a letter from Thomas Jefferson. Coincidentally, the same week in early December that the Virginia couple ventured upstairs at the local American Legion, the University of Delaware announced that two graduate students had discovered a Jefferson letter in papers the university received from a local museum. The Virginia couple made their find public this month. 

What makes the Old Town discovery special, one historian says, is that the note sheds light on 
Jefferson's private life during his chaotic last year as the nation's third president. 
"It's a nice, personal interlude in a life that is very difficult for him," said Barbara Oberg, a historian and professor at Princeton University who serves as the general editor of a massive project compiling every one of Jefferson's papers into more than 50 volumes. "The personal notes are rarer than the presidential notes." 

A weather report
The commander of Post 24, Michael Conner, wrote in a January newsletter that negotiations are underway with the city of Alexandria to help preserve and display the letter. Conner said in a phone interview that he did not want to comment until he met with city officials. The city's Office of Historic Alexandria also declined to comment. 

But Bennett and Hewitt took photographs, which they posted on Facebook, and the newsletter is available on Post 24's Web site. The couple consulted two independent experts, including Allan J. Stypeck Jr. of Second Story Books in Rockville, who has worked with the Smithsonian and the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow." Bennett said she and her husband paid him for a formal appraisal. 

The letter is dated July 25, 1808, and addressed to Jefferson's friend, the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow. Barlow dubbed his Northwest Washington estate Kalorama, Greek for "beautiful view," according to the D.C. Office of Historic Preservation. The estate was later split up but the name stuck. 

In his letter, Jefferson opens with mention of the weather. He gives Barlow directions to Monticello, including places he'll find once he crosses the Georgetown Ferry. 
Historians know this, without having seen the letter that was sent, because Jefferson made copies of many of his papers. Oberg checked Jefferson's copy of the July 1808 letter in New Jersey, and confirmed that there was no record of anyone having found the actual sent letter before now. 

The letter also appears in a volume about Barlow, "The Life and Letters of Joel Barlow," compiled by Charles Burr Todd and digitized and published online by Google. 

In his travel tips, Jefferson marks the good and bad establishments, and notes distances -- six miles to the "Fairfax Court House," the first stop, and then seven miles from Walton's Tavern, the last stop, to Monticello. 

Jefferson closes: 
"In the hope that nothing may intervene to deprive us of the pleasure of possessing Mrs Barlow and yourself here after presenting her my respects I salute you with friendship and great consideration TH JEFFERSON" 

As for the letter Bennett found, a huge stain covers the paper. The date and reference to the weather are clearly visible, but the travel notes are faded. The page is split down the middle, where it was clearly folded. 

Touching history
Bennett, who owns a private consulting business, and her husband, who works for the Pentagon, live in Lorton. She rarely stops into Post 24. That Friday she was nearby visiting a friend and decided to swing by. 

After finding the letter, the couple called the National Archives and the Library of Congress, which eventually led them to Stypeck, and to Gary Eyler, who owns the Old Colony Shop in Alexandria and is an expert in early American manuscripts. 

The next Tuesday, Bennett rushed into his shop. 

"I'm not going to tell you what it is," she said. "I want you to tell me." 

"I saw the handwriting, and I knew," Eyler said. "It's one of the ultimate finds you can find, a letter from Thomas Jefferson that could have been tossed away." 

Speaking generally, Eyler said a letter in Jefferson's own hand is worth more than a simple autograph. A letter detailing grand philosophies of state might fetch $100,000 or more. A brief, damaged correspondence would likely bring less than $10,000. 

At Monticello, Jeff Looney is the editor of "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: The Retirement Series," in conjunction with the project Oberg is directing. He hasn't seen the letter from the American Legion, but said that the inks and paper used back then would be hard to fake. 
"You can't just take a letter like that from the Library of Congress and trace it," he said. "An expert can see that in an instant." 

No one knows exactly how the letter ended up at the American Legion post. 
Hewitt's best guess is that someone connected to the post years ago had no heirs, and so gave or deeded papers to the organization. It had happened before, most notably with a soldier's World 

War I diary. 
Hewitt served 14 years in the Army, including tours in Bosnia and Iraq. For him, the fact that he could actually touch a page that once graced the hands of a president, a page that could easily have wound up in the trash, was enough. 

"We have the actual letter that Thomas Jefferson put his hand on, wrote and folded," Hewitt said. "I've never held one of these in my hand before, and I'll never hold one again." 

Book review: 'Remembering Survival' by Christopher Browning
By Jonathan Yardley
Sunday, January 24, 2010; B08 

The literature of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany is so vast as to defy comprehension, yet there remain aspects of the subject that are insufficiently covered or not covered at all. Christopher Browning's fine, harrowing "Remembering Survival" points us in yet another little-charted direction. It is the history of a Nazi slave-labor camp at Starachowice, in central Poland, where between 1942 and 1944 thousands of Jews were forced to work -- without compensation in any form and often under brutal conditions -- to produce munitions for the Nazi war machine.
Browning, a prominent Holocaust historian who teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first heard of Starachowice when he read about the trial in Hamburg in 1972 of Walther Becker, 75 years old, "for his role in the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Wierzbnik on October 27, 1942 -- an action in which close to 4,000 Jews were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers of Treblinka, some sixty to eighty Jews were murdered on the spot, and about 1,600 Jews were sent to three slave-labor camps in nearby Starachowice." Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Becker was acquitted by a judge who dismissed the testimony of Jewish witnesses on entirely specious grounds. Browning writes: 

"I have worked in the German court records of trials of accused Nazi criminals for more than thirty-five years. They are an invaluable source to the historian, and the numerous survivor testimonies collected by conscientious investigators for the Starachowice trials are no exception. I must say that in those thirty-five years I have read scores of trial verdicts, and many I found disheartening. But never have I studied a case in detail and encountered a verdict that represented such a miscarriage of justice and disgrace to the German judicial system as that in the trial of Walther Becker." 

Wierzbnik had a Jewish population of about 5,400 and "was remembered quite simply as 'a nice Jewish life' " by most of those who survived the war. It was a close-knit community, "more provincial and conservative than larger, more cosmopolitan Jewish urban communities," though Polish anti-Semitism was widespread and at times virulent: "As one survivor stated emphatically and bitterly: 'We had a beautiful life . . . except for having Poles around, which was very unpleasant.' " By 1941 the Jews of Wierzbnik had been subjected to "ghettoization," though "the ghetto there was 'open,' demarcated by signs but not physically sealed off by a wall or fence." 
Few had any illusions about what this meant, though, as violence by Nazis and their Ukrainian hired guards was frequent, brutal and often random. One survivor reported seeing "a young girl walking to the well where German soldiers were washing themselves. One took a gun from his holster, aimed carefully and deliberately, and shot her dead." People were rounded up, crammed into trains and taken to the gas chambers. It became obvious that the only way to survive was to work for the Nazis, for whom the munitions produced at Starachowice were essential, all the more so as events began to turn against Germany: "Most Wierzbnikers made the same calculation as those who were flocking to the Starachowice factories from elsewhere -- namely, that the best chance for survival lay in obtaining employment crucial to the German war industry." Browning writes: 

"As one Starachowice survivor noted, the Jews there did not die from how little the Germans fed them but they could not live from it either. A Jewish strategy of survival through labor, therefore, was burdened with terrible ironies. It depended not only on Jews buying their own enslavement through the purchase of work permits and providing labor indispensable to the war effort, thereby prolonging German rule, but also to no small extent on supplementing the inadequate German food supply through their own ingenuity and efforts." 

As the survivors remembered it, life at Starachowice depended on "the most visible and notorious German [officers]. . . . The prisoners referred to them as 'commandants,' though that was not their official German title," which could be "commander of factory security" or "head of the Jewish camp police or Lagerpolizei." Walther Becker was not involved with the slave-labor camps but was "the highest-ranked SS officer" in Wierzbnik, so though his role in the brutal liquidation of the city's ghetto in October 1942 was beyond dispute -- "the Germans sent approximately 1,600 Jews . . . to work camps and deported nearly 4,000 Jews to the gas chambers of Treblinka" -- other men played the dominant roles at Starachowice. 

By far the worst of these was a monster named Ralf Alois "Willi" Althoff, who "was indelibly imprinted on the memories of survivors who subsequently experienced Auschwitz-Birkenau, many notorious camps in Germany, and the death marches." Althoff was near-universally described as "the worst of all." He may well have been insane. "In his early thirties, Althoff was a good-looking young man, obviously concerned about his appearance. Shunning anything as commonplace as a regular uniform, he wore a three-quarter-length leather jacket lined and trimmed in white fur, tall leather boots, and white leather gloves. When he came to camp for major killing actions, however, he wore rubber coat, boots, and gloves to keep his fine clothing from being spattered with the blood of his victims." And: 

"Althoff's murderous predilections were evident very soon. Just a few days after the prisoners arrived in the camps, Althoff reportedly lined up three or four Jews against a wall and shot them for no discernible reason other than that he disliked them. He also began to prowl the camp kitchens on a fairly regular basis, looking for unauthorized people to shoot and even killing some who had been assigned to work there. And . . . after several prisoners escaped, he staged a theatrical 'deterrent' killing. Althoff descended upon the camp in the middle of the night and selected ten prisoners, who were blindfolded and placed against a wall illuminated by truck headlights. Althoff then carried out target practice until they were all dead." 

In March 1943 Althoff "disappeared," and German policy toward the camp softened somewhat. For a while there was a period of stability, but that was a relative term. Nothing at Starachowice was ever easy or, for that matter, stable. The prisoners were always at the mercy of their captors, who may have been only occasionally (and unpredictably) violent but were consistently venal, demanding bribes for better treatment or, in more than a few cases, for sparing lives. Prisoners who had somehow held on to wherewithal in one form or another had obvious advantages over prisoners who did not, contributing to "pervasive inequality within the prisoner community." Though by and large the Jews of Starachowice hung together and helped each other as much as circumstances permitted, there were tensions and rivalries among them that only intensified the nightmare. 

At war's end Wierzbnik's Jewish community had been reduced to "perhaps 600 to 700," which is appallingly low yet, considering the conditions, not unremarkable. Browning attributes their survival to several factors, among them the judicious use of bribery and the strength of family ties. Among the survivors, 292 gave "testimonies, some multiple," to various courts and investigators. Browning is keenly sensitive to the unreliability of memory, especially memory of distant events, so as he stitches together the story of Starachowice he is especially careful to distinguish between reliable and unreliable evidence. There can be no doubt, however, of the essential truth of this story, a small one when viewed against everything else that happened in that dreadful time, but an important and revealing one, exceptionally well told in "Remembering Survival." 

Archaeology

U.S.  Returns World War II-Era Cultural Artifacts to Germany
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/cultural_artifacts_germany

Two thousand year old Roman aqueduct discovered
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7067184/Two-thousand-year-old-Roman-aqueduct-discovered.html

Valencian archaeologists find Mayan figurehead in Guatemala
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/17577/valencian-archaeologists-find-mayan-figurehead-in-guatemala

Amman idol, copper coins unearthed near Mannargudi
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/amman-idol-copper-coins-unearthed-near-mannargudi-458

Medusas in Caesarea Harbor
http://www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14

Tomb of 800 year old shaman discovered
http://enperublog.com/2010/01/23/tomb-of-800-year-old-shaman-discovered/

Weapons cache halts building
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=375303

British Museum in battle with Iran over ancient 'charter of rights'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/24/cyrus-cylinder-iran-museum-row

Explorers find rare ancient books
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/23/content_9365954.htm

Ptolemaic tomb found in Egypt
http://www.projo.com/art/content/artsun-tomb-found_01-24-10_8NH5OSE_v7.1b8adb4.html

Archaeological Rocky Cave Unearthed in South Syria
http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201001234485/Travel/archaeological-rocky-cave-unearthed-in-south-syria.html

Iron Age discovery uncovers prehistoric burial customs in Laos
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305145,iron-age-discovery-uncovers-prehistoric-burial-customs-in-laos.html

Hidden graveyard surprises archaeologists
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20100123/NEWS01/1230329

Lost Roman law code discovered in London
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/ucl-lrl012610.php

Viking settlement unearthed by OPW
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0127/1224263210796.html

Ambassador or slave? East Asian skeleton discovered in Vagnari Roman Cemetery
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/ambassador-or-slave-east-asian-skeleton-discovered-in-vagnari-roman-cemetery-1879551.html

Italy: Birthplace of Roman emperor 'found' in Lazio 
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/CultureAndMedia/?id=3.0.4244627106

The Ancient City of Ulpiana
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/life_and_style/25109/

Exploring the Rise and Demise of Empires
http://www.physorg.com/news183740408.html

Silver coin dating to 211 BC is oldest piece of Roman money ever found
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1247092/Silver-coin-dating-211BC-oldest-piece-Roman-money-Britain.html

Archaeology in Jerusalem: Digging Up Trouble
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957350,00.html

Skeleton of Western man found in ancient Mongolian tomb
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/55811/title/Skeleton_of_Western_man_found_in_ancient_Mongolian_tomb

Mexican archaeologist finds tomb in Mayan area, say it could shed light on collapse
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gHzRAPQqxE5hM1_7NrVtYaSpiNnQ

UA archaelogist backtracks on claim about Oxford stone mound
http://www.whnt.com/news/sns-ap-al--indianmounddispute,0,7500104.story

Early copy of the Gospel of Mark is a forgery
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Early-copy-of-the-Gospel-of-Mark-is-a-forgery%20/20134

Tomb raiders bulldoze Jiangsu site
http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-01/501682.html

Bulgaria: New Archaeological Finds Presented in Veliko Tarnovo and Sofia
http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1714

Police Bust Massive Antiquities Smuggling Ring
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/ancient-artifacts-theft-smuggling.html

Egyptology

Avenue of the sphinxes will be restored
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20100129010733701C521010

The most sacred of cities
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/983/heritage.htm

General Science

Going For Exawatts: Building the most powerful laser in the world
http://www.physorg.com/news183664504.html

Video: Airborne Laser Tracks and Engages A Missile in Flight
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/video-airborne-laser-tracks-engages-missile-flight

Apple announces ‘iPad’ tablet
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35085524/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Getting a Peek at Future of Virtual Worlds
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/28/tech/cnettechnews/main6151438.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines

Russia unveils stealth fighter to rival US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100129/sc_afp/russiadefencemilitary_20100129172150

Physics, Earth and Space Sciences

Weird Rock Offers Glimpse Deep Inside Mars
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100125/sc_space/weirdrockoffersglimpsedeepinsidemars

Scientists find smallest known Pluto sibling
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35065024/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Sky-mapping scope spots first new asteroid
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35063213/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Got Dust? Acoustic Levitation Might Clear It
http://news.discovery.com/space/got-dust-acoustic-levitation-might-be-the-key.html

Groovy Hills Rising from Titan Surface
http://www.physorg.com/news183658072.html

Geoscientists Drill Deepest Hole in Ocean Crust in Scientific Ocean Drilling History
http://www.physorg.com/news183663703.html

Comet storm split destiny of Jupiter's twin moons
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18425-comet-storm-split-destiny-of-jupiters-twin-moons.html

Mysterious band of particles holds clues to Solar System's future
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3251/mysterious-band-particles-holds-clues-solar-systems-future

Pentagon Tests Global Internet Routing Via Satellite 
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/pentagon-satellite-experiment-tests-internet-routing-space

Aurora Mystery Solved?
http://news.discovery.com/space/aurora-mystery-solved.html

The sea level has been rising and falling over the last 2,500 years
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/uoh-tsl012610.php

Scientists extend black-hole frontier
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35104340/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Star death may explain universe's biggest bangs
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35106087/ns/technology_and_science/

India plans manned space mission in 2016
http://www.physorg.com/news183801094.html

U.S. general urges world war on space debris
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100127/sc_nm/us_space_debris_usa

Destination Phobos: humanity's next giant leap
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527451.100-destination-phobos-humanitys-next-giant-leap.html

New Animations Take You Flying Over Mars
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/mars-fly-overs/

Google Teams With NOAA to Make Better Ocean Visualizations
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/google-noaa-ocean-visualizations/

The Moon May Have Been Created By a Massive Nuclear Blast Inside the Earth
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/how-moon-may-have-formed-massive-nuclear-blast

Obama budget ends return-to-moon plan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35131431/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Could An Asteroid Slam Earth Without Warning?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123115534

Dwarfs in Space: Colonization, 'Phantasm' and Transhumanism
http://news.discovery.com/space/dwarfs-in-space-space-colonization-phantasm-and-transhumanism.html

Astronomers discover cool stars in nearby space
http://www.physorg.com/news183977039.html

The Cosmic Distance Scale
http://www.physorg.com/news183996094.html

California lists moon junk as historical resource
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100130/sc_nm/us_moon_history

Glaciers discovered in 'cursed' mountains of Albania
http://www.physorg.com/news183843058.html

Supercomputer shares universe simulations
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35146603/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Environment, Climate Change and Alternative Energy Sources

Tobacco plants tapped to grow solar cells
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35062357/ns/technology_and_science-science/

MIT Experiment Envisions a New Way to Harness Fusion Power (With a 1,000-Pound Magnet)
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/mit-experiment-takes-step-toward-fusion-powered-future

Temperature and CO2 feedback loop 'weaker than thought'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8483722.stm

Bacteria rebuilt to make oil
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2186743.aspx

Energy-harvesting rubber sheets could power pacemakers, mobile phones
http://www.physorg.com/news183832835.html

Let the sunlight in on climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527452.600-let-the-sunlight-in-on-climate-change.html

Robo Weather Patrol: NASA Uses UAVs to Spy on Climate Patterns
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/st_roboweather

Laser fusion test results raise energy hopes 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8485669.stm

With $4.5M of Pocket Change, Bill Gates Funds Geoengineering Research
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/29/with-4-5m-of-pocket-change-bill-gates-funds-geoengineering-research/

Peering inside an artificial sun
http://www.physorg.com/news183983627.html

Silicone Implants Become Energy-Harvesting Devices 
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/silicone-rubber-implants-becomes-energy-harvesting-devices

Biological, Genetics and Medical Sciences

No surgery: A 15-min cure for diabetes, obesity
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/No-surgery-A-15-min-cure-for-diabetes-obesity/articleshow/5496034.cms

Is Genetically Modified Corn Toxic?
http://news.discovery.com/earth/is-genetically-modified-corn-toxic.html

Study of shark virgin birth shows offspring can survive long term
http://www.physorg.com/news183641468.html

Scientists achieve first rewire of genetic switches
http://www.physorg.com/news183653104.html

Scientists find quicker way to study cancer drivers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100125/sc_nm/us_cancer_cells

Homing In on Mammalian Echolocation
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mammalian-echolocation

Open-Source Lab Promises Free DNA Parts for Bioengineers
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/open-source-lab-promises-free-dna-parts-bioengineers

Scientists find potential new way to enhance vaccines
http://www.physorg.com/news183833126.html

Stem cells: 'Huge leap forward,' claim scientists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100127/hl_afp/healthstemcellsneurons_20100127195805

Scientists find quicker way to study cancer drivers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100125/sc_nm/us_cancer_cells

Drug could turn soldiers into super-survivors
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527454.200-drug-could-turn-soldiers-into-supersurvivors.html

Researchers welcome new multiple sclerosis drug
http://www.physorg.com/news183437559.html

Other

Law of probabilities backs hopes for E.T., conference hears
http://www.physorg.com/news183642293.html

Museum exhibit explores history of sasquatch
http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstory/story/1041929.html

The search for aliens should start on Earth not outer space, says scientist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7068765/The-search-for-aliens-should-start-on-Earth-not-outer-space-says-scientist.html

Scientists worry that real aliens might want to kill us
http://scifiwire.com/2010/01/scientists-worry-that-rea.php

Hebrew: Why Netanyahu wants Israelis to send a 'misron,' not a text
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100125/wl_csm/275821

Largest book in the world goes on show for the first time
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/26/klencke-atlas-british-library-exhibition

Aliens can't hear us, says astronomer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/27/aliens-cant-hear-us-astronomer

Many children 'hear voices'; most aren't bothered
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100125/hl_nm/us_children_voices

Bay Area Beasts: Pterodactyls, Mystery Cats, and Sea Serpents
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/01/san_francisco_monsters.php

Religion could survive discovery of ET, survey suggests
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18437-religion-could-survive-discovery-of-et-survey-suggests.html

Sean Carroll On The Mysteries Of Time
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123115538

Almost never-seen bird resurfaces in Afghanistan
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100125_orinus.htm

Russia loses science powerhouse standing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100126/sc_nm/us_russia_research

Additional Informational

The Science & the Fiction (Photo Gallery)
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/20-the-science-and-the-fiction/

Eight UFO cases that generate buzz
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34940931/ns/technology_and_science-space

The Intricate Beauty of the Solar Corona : Big Pic
http://news.discovery.com/space/solar-eclipse-corona-magnetism.html

Science Weekly: Evolution's greatest hits, and ancient Muslim science
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2010/jan/22/nick-lane-life-ascending-evolution

Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors
http://www.livescience.com/culture/top10-destructive-human-behaviors-100122.html

Notable addresses: From Lincoln to Bush
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/25/historic.sotu/index.html?hpt=Mid

Events at the UN on the international Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust- Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9otjwXKnj8M

Earth's Haunting Craters: BIG PICS
http://news.discovery.com/earth/impact-craters-slide-show.html

First Detailed Pictures: Antarctica's "Ghost Mountains"
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/photogalleries/100122-antarctic-ghost-mountains-under-ice-pictures/#025673_600x450.jpg

7 Gadgets That Gather Energy While They Work
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4343681.html

Audio slideshow: Greece and Rome rediscovered
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8485654.stm

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