[Jawlist] Weekly Science Report 12-18-09

Tue Jan 12 16:07:47 PST 2010

Good Evening Everyone,

Below is this week's edition.  Enjoy!

Steve Detwiler

Weekly Science Report 
December 18, 2009 

“In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity.” 
Alexander the Great 

News Articles 

Paleontology, Evolution and Prehistoric Studies 

Historian Asks, 'What On Earth Evolved?' 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121426659 

Prehistoric Pygmy Sea Cow Discovered in Madagascar 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091212-pygmy-sea-cow.html 

Meet "Antonio"- A New Italian Dinosaur
http://news.discovery.com/dinosaurs/meet-antonio--a-new-italian-dinosaur.html 

French find puts humans in Europe 200,000 years earlier 
http://www.physorg.com/news180110953.html 

Genetic studies show modern humans on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 21,000 years ago 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/14/content_12645443.htm 

Mammoths lived later than previously thought 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34435240/ns/technology_and_science-science/ 

Stone Age Pantry: Archaeologist Unearths Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans Using Wild Grains and Tubers for Food 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217141312.htm 

Science's breakthrough of the year: Uncovering 'Ardi' 
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/aaft-bo121109.php

UF researcher helps reveal ancient origins of modern opossum
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uof-urh121409.php

'Screaming Roadrunner' Ran Circles Around Dinos
http://news.discovery.com/dinosaurs/screaming-roadrunner-bird-dinosaurs.html

Evolution may take giant leaps
http://www.physorg.com/news179737267.html
Inside the Nursery That Supercharges Evolution
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/st_evolution_factory

2010 preview: Arise, Neanderthal brother
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427395.700-2010-preview-arise-neanderthal-brother.html

Ancient and General History 

Efforts to save endangered languages 
http://www.physorg.com/news179999981.html 

Soup can reopens mystery of doomed Franklin Expedition 
http://www.physorg.com/news180115596.html 

Dec. 16, 1832: A Towering Engineer Is Born 
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1216gustav-eiffel-born 

Bones find from abandoned village 'show tough life of medieval women'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/17/women-yorkshire-archeaology-find

Ancient Book of Mark Found Not So Ancient After All
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091211203717.htm

Saving Earth From an Asteroid Will Take Diplomats, Not Heroes
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/saving-earth-from-an-asteroid/

Myths of the American Revolution
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Myths-of-the-American-Revolution.html

Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Who-Wrote-the-Dead-Sea-Scrolls.html

3rd Genocide Charge in Cambodian Tribunal
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948683,00.html

Spanish dig to find Lorca's remains finds nothing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_lorca_s_grave

The Young Victoria: How a Queen Shapes Her Destiny
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1948663,00.html#ixzz0a9U5rbBk

Thieves steal Auschwitz 'Work Sets You Free' sign
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_auschwitz_sign_stolen

John Paul II moves a step closer to sainthood
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-12-19-pope-vatican_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Archaeology 

Viking Weapon-Recycling Site Found in England? 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-viking-recycling.html 

World's Oldest Santa Figurine Believed Found
http://news.discovery.com/human/worlds-oldest-santa-figurine-believed-found.html 

Roman Column Painted in Light- Video 
http://news.discovery.com/videos/archaeo-roman-column-painted-in-light.html 

4,000-year-old flowers found at Bronze Age dig 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8412938.stm 

Byzantine mosaic unearthed in northeast Syria 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/15/content_12646979.htm 

Archaeologists find late Roman grave in Budapest 
http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/article/11/archaeologis-2/?cHash=73de456cfa 

Conservation center prepares to excavate ‘temple’ site 
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/15/conservation-center-prepares-excavate-%E2%80%98temple%E2%80%99-site.html 

Experts bid to decode Roman altar 
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Experts-bid-to-decode-Roman.5922231.jp 

Archaeological find on N9
http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/Archaeological-find-on-N9.5922139.jp

Century-old butter found in Scott's Antarctic hut
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091216/wl_uk_afp/antarcticanzealandheritageoffbeat

Davy Jones's lock-up
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15125181

Over 200 ancient sites found in western Iran 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113906&sectionid=351020105

Remains in 2,000-year-old tomb near Old City show first known case of leprosy
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260894117527&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

First archaeological survey of Paphlagonia published
http://www.physorg.com/news180185776.html

Rising seas 'clue' in sunken world off Orkney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8416600.stm

Indian College found?
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/12/indian-college-foundation/

December 18, 2009 
Rock Art Redefines ‘Ancient’ 
By DAVID PAGE 

Ridgecrest, Calif. — We were inside Restricted Area R-505 of the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, rolling in a minivan across the vast salt pan of an extinct Pleistocene lake on our way to see a renowned collection of ancient rock art. On the console between the seats was a long-range two-way radio. It was there so that our escort, a civilian Navy public affairs officer named Peggy Shoaf, could keep abreast of where and when any bombs would be dropped — or launched, or whatever — so that we wouldn’t be there when it happened. 

Established in the summer of 1943 in the heat of Allied offensives in the Pacific, China Lake is the Navy’s premier weapons testing range and its largest real estate holding. “Every weapon being used overseas right now was tested here,” Ms. Shoaf said. The property comprises 1.1 million acres of Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles and west of Death Valley, including the Coso Mountain range and an active volcanic field that is one of the largest producers of geothermal electricity in the country. 

The base is a haven for wild horses, burros, rattlesnakes and scorpions. It is also home to a complex of remote canyons holding the greatest concentration of ancient rock art in the Western Hemisphere, known as the Coso Petroglyphs. 

With us rode David S. Whitley, an archaeologist and expert on prehistoric rock art and iconographic interpretation. Having visited hundreds of sites all over the world, including Lascaux and Chauvet in France and the Côa Valley in Portugal, he believes the Coso Petroglyphs to be one of the most important rock art sites on earth. 

Mr. Whitley estimated that there may be as many as 100,000 images carved into the dark volcanic canyons above the China Lake basin, some as old as 12,000 to 16,000 years, others as recent as the mid-20th century. 

Floating across a landscape strewn with more than a half-century’s weapons-testing debris — observation towers, armored vehicles, projectile-riddled shipping containers — I tried to fathom that people had been coming here and making art since at least 90 centuries before the founding of Rome. 

“It was a very different place then,” Mr. Whitley explained, conjuring the end of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago, the melting of glaciers, the system of saline lakes across what is now called the Great Basin. “This had water over 100 feet deep,” he said. Mammoths, saber-toothed cats and giant Pleistocene bison still roamed the upland peninsulas. 

Then, progressively, and with big ups and downs, the climate grew hotter and drier. The lakes and big animals disappeared, the pinyon and juniper woodlands moved up in elevation, and life for humans got significantly more difficult. And yet for many thousands of years thereafter people continued to carve figures and designs into the rocks. 

We turned onto a washboard gravel road and 12 minutes later came to a small parking area, 49 road miles inside the base’s main gate at the edge of Ridgecrest. On this November day the thermometer read 43 degrees, but the air was still and the sun felt warm. We shouldered our lunches and camera gear and walked out along a path made of interlocking plastic tiles laid down in recent years so that Shoshone tribal elders could reach the site without having to struggle in the soft sand. Almost immediately we were in what is known as Little Petroglyph Canyon. 
Everywhere we looked, for a mile or so down canyon, there were images pecked or scratched into the rock faces: stylized human figures in a variety of headgear, stick figures with bows and arrows, dogs or coyotes, bear paws with extra digits, all manner of abstract geometric patterns, zigzags and circles and dots, and hundreds upon hundreds of what looked like bighorn sheep, some small, some larger than life size. 

Theories abound as to what the images might mean — all but the most recent, that is — or why they were put there. Some archaeologists believe that the images are evidence of simple hunting rituals. Mr. Whitley sees in them nothing less than the origins of human creativity and religion. 
He theorizes, based on his research, that the petroglyphs are the work of generations of shamans, or medicine men, who traveled here (from all over what is now the southwestern United States) to fast and smoke native tobacco, to hallucinate or have visions, and to render their hallucinations on the rock. Perhaps the goal was to make rain. Perhaps it was to impress upon their followers a sense of the supernatural. Either way, where some might see a dearth of material wealth and technology, Mr. Whitley sees evidence of cognitive sophistication. 

“We think of intelligence as expressed in iPods and the latest iPhone,” he said. But technology is often a poor substitute for knowledge: “Drop any of us in Death Valley and unless we had an RV fully stocked with all sorts of supplies we’d be dead in a week,” he said. The people who came before us, on the other hand, were adapted to this environment, so they could survive with nothing but what they could find or make, in a way that, he said, “runs counter to our technological materialistic view, is probably more admirable, and certainly more sustainable.” 
For a time, after 9/11, civilian visits to the petroglyphs were suspended. “There’s always a risk when you let civilians into a secured area,” Ms. Shoaf said. But she said she felt the place was too precious for the public not to have access. So she rewrote the protocol to show the commanding officer how it might be possible to allow tours and still protect the base’s security. He agreed. More than 1,100 civilians visit the site every year, either on tours available to the public or as part of private tours with command-approved escorts arranged through Ms. Shoaf’s office. 

We rested near the southern end of the canyon, sitting on the rocks in the sun and tucking into our lunches. I looked at one particularly elaborate frieze of images and tried to imagine what it would be like to spend four days here without food, smoking a native plant and thinking about the cosmos. I tried to imagine the distance between myself and the person who made those images. Then we stowed our garbage in our packs, made our way back up to the minivan and headed down to the base’s armaments museum, evidence of more modern human creativity of a different kind. 

Egyptology 

France Returns Ancient Treasures to Egypt 
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/france-returns-ancient-treasures-to-egypt.html 

Tourist Regulations 
http://www.drhawass.com/node/387 

Monument lifted from Cleopatra's underwater city
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hj2ISVgyh3V91TUO-c54GOrFidKgD9CL3KD00

General Science 

Slam dunk for future smart robots 
http://www.physorg.com/news180031696.html 

Micromachined piezoelectric harvester drives fully autonomous wireless sensor 
http://www.physorg.com/news180120643.html 

Physics, Earth and Space Sciences 

NASA launches infrared telescope to scan entire sky 
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/12/14/wise.spacecraft.launch/index.html 

Fiber-Optic Link Brings Undersea Science Data Onto the Web 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/14/fiber-optic-link-connects-underwater-sensors-to-the-internet/ 

Super-Earths Orbit Neighboring Stars 
http://news.discovery.com/space/super-earths-neighbor-stars.html 

Scientist uncovers relics of ancient cosmos 
http://www.physorg.com/news180032250.html 

Theorists propose a new way to shine -- and a new kind of star 
http://www.physorg.com/news180021867.html 

Kansas scientists probe mysterious possible comet strikes on Earth 
http://www.physorg.com/news179994144.html 

Black hole closer to Earth than thought 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436949/ns/technology_and_science-space/ 

Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life 
http://www.physorg.com/news180112635.html 

Scientists Investigate Cause of 'Singing Dunes' 
http://www.physorg.com/news180086325.html 

MESSENGER team releases first global map of mercury 
http://www.physorg.com/news180114935.html 

Large Hadron Collider produces first physics results 
http://www.physorg.com/news180094677.html 

From greenhouse to icehouse -- reconstructing the environment of the Voring Plateau 
http://www.physorg.com/news180096839.html 

Scientists watch deep-sea volcano for first time 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gY3wohlRlhAdAInujn9CfE5jHwsAD9CL8JQ80 

Data to expose 'ghost mountains' 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8420837.stm 

Physicists Find Hints of Dark Matter But No Clear Discovery
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/18/physicists-find-hints-of-dark-matter-but-no-clear-discovery/

Gravity Satellites Show a Huge Groundwater Loss in California
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/16/gravity-satellites-show-a-huge-groundwater-loss-in-california/

Report: Obama to Ramp Up Human Space Program
http://news.discovery.com/space/report-obama-to-ramp-up-human-space-program.html

Scientists discover fog on Titan
http://www.physorg.com/news180350535.html

New Study of Meteorite Provides More Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars
http://www.physorg.com/news180264793.html

Proposed Spacetime Structure Could Provide Hints for Quantum Gravity Theory
http://www.physorg.com/news180203376.html

The Asteroid That Will Almost Hit Earth- Video
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/closest-asteroid-approach-to-earth/

Could Parallel Universes Be Congenial to Life?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=life-quest

NASA reveals first-ever photo of liquid on another world
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/12/18/saturn.titan.reflection/index.html

Deep-sea glider
The first robot to cross the Atlantic offers new possibilities for ocean and climate research 
By David Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 

She was at sea for 221 days. She was alone, often in dangerous places, and usually out of touch. Her predecessor had disappeared on a similar trip, probably killed by a shark. Yet she was always able to do what was asked, to head in a different direction on a moment's notice and report back without complaint. 

So is it any surprise tears were shed when people could finally wrap their arms around her steel torso once more? 

"She was a hero," said Rutgers University oceanographer Scott Glenn last week after retrieving an aquatic glider called the Scarlet Knight from the stormy Atlantic off western Spain. The 7-foot-9-inch submersible device, shaped like a large-winged torpedo, had just become the first robot to cross an ocean. 

Named after the New Jersey university's athletic teams and officially designated RU-27 in a long line of related devices, this one was always known simply as "Scarlet." Like Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, or perhaps Columbus's Pinta and Niña, it seemed more a living thing than a mechanical conveyance. But unlike them, Scarlet crossed the Atlantic without a single passenger. 
The people responsible for building, funding and flyingScarlet hope the end of the robot's successful voyage will mark a new start in ocean and climate research. 

"We think this will just be a precursor, like Lindbergh's trip across the Atlantic," said Clayton Jones, an engineer at Teledyne Webb Research, in Falmouth, Mass., which made Scarlet. "In a decade we think it will be commonplace to have roving fleets of these gliders making transoceanic trips around the world." 

"This really is a seminal event for us," said Richard W. Spinrad, assistant administrator for research in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We see gliders as offering a whole new world in our capability of using the oceans to help answer society's questions." 
"We're ready to do it again," Glenn said from Spain last week, where he, a half-dozen members of the Rutgers team, and a U.S. government official went to pick up the glider from Spanish colleagues. "If we can do it once, we can do it 10 times, and if we can do it 10 times, we can do it 100 times." 

More data 
Gathering more data from the oceans, which cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, is essential to understanding global climate change. The temperature, salinity and acidity of ocean water are all affected by atmospheric warming and the accumulation of greenhouse gases. The warm surface layer is the engine that drives hurricanes. Changes in currents can portend changes in weather; understanding currents better can be of great practical use to fishing and oceangoing commerce. 

"In general, access to the ocean is the limiting factor to those who do ocean science," said Jerry L. Miller, a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who accompanied the research team to Spain. "When we have hundreds of them, or thousands of them, it will revolutionize how we can observe the oceans." 

Currently, oceanographic data are gathered in three ways. Satellites collect information on water temperature, color, currents and other surface features. Subsurface water is sampled by the so-called Argo system of 3,000 untethered buoys that wander the oceans, periodically sinking to depths of up to 6,500 feet to take measurements before rising again to the surface and transmitting the information to shore stations. The third way is with manned research vessels, which can cost up to $30,000 a day to operate. At a price of $100,000 to $150,000 apiece (which is likely to drop once large-scale production begins), fleets of aquatic gliders outfitted with varying arrays of physical, chemical, acoustical and optical sensors promise to increase the store of data considerably at reasonable cost. The U.S. Navy has just ordered 150. 

Scarlet's recovery on Dec. 4 ended a trip that began April 27 off the coast of New Jersey. For those seven months she was directed by computer, modem, satellite and GPS device from a control room on the Rutgers campus and, one time, from Palmer Research Station in Antarctica. Most of the time, however, the glider was out of contact underwater, moving slowly up and down to depths of 600 feet, safe from ships, nets and storms. 

Along the way, Scarlet took measurements of temperature and salinity of the water. From its position at each surfacing, the researchers could calculate the net effect of currents deep and shallow. After surface currents were measured, the scientists could then make inferences about what was happening deeper in the water column. The data were uploaded to researchers three times a day, when the glider surfaced and called home via an Iridium telephone parked in its tail. 
"This robot's life depended on everybody's cooperation, and that motivated people in a way you don't usually see," Glenn said. "It took on this living presence. Everybody wanted to save this robot. She was a force that united scientists from many nations." 

The gliders that follow her are likely to be nameless and thankless drones that wander the seas on automatic pilot, uploading data to other machines. They will have all the personality and sex appeal of weather balloons. 

Which is actually the point. 

"What we want is to have all sorts of cheap sensors, all tweeting back information to give us that full voice of the sea. Omnipresence -- that's our concept," Glenn said. 

Flying through the water 
The analogy to weather balloons -- and to atmospheric activities in general -- is apt. 
Scarlet is more similar to an airborne glider than a submarine. Like the former, it has no engine to provide forward thrust or motion. It descends by pumping a small volume of water -- about a cup -- into its nose, causing that part of the glider to sink relative to the tail. Because of the unequal buoyancy along the fuselage and the action of its two stationary wings, the glider makes headway as it "flies" downward in the water column. To ascend, the reverse occurs: it pumps the water out of the nose, which then floats upward, pulling the rest of the glider with it. 

The glider cannot travel forward at a fixed depth. Consequently, its course across the Atlantic took the form of a series of more than 10,000 dives and ascents, usually staying well below the surface. 

For many ocean creatures, the surface is where danger lies, and that was the case with Scarlet as well. 

The hazards were apparent early in the trip, when the glider crossed the shipping lanes off the East Coast and passed through the heavily fished offshore canyons and continental shelf. Over the past decade, Glenn and his fellow lead scientist, Oscar Schofield, have created an ocean observatory off the New Jersey coast, collecting current and temperature data of value to commercial fishermen and making it available for free. The fishermen, in turn, provided information about the location of ships and nets during the first treacherous week. 

"Nets scare me," Schofield said last week. "Just as they are designed to catch fish, they will catch gliders." Scarlet stayed underwater for eight hours at a stretch, diving deep under nets and, with the peak of its ascents at 60 feet, keeping well below the draft of the biggest oceangoing vessels. A few times a day it would surface for a few minutes to get a new waypoint toward which to head. 
"When we are in a danger zone, we really minimize our time at the surface and try to get back underwater," Schofield said. 

As a rule, though, there isn't much that bothers a glider. In November, the Rutgers team had a pack of four gliders off the Jersey shore, practicing what Schofield called "swarming behaviors." While they were out, a nor'easter came along the coast. The gliders stayed safely underwater, taking measurements of how the storm was reshaping the sea floor. 

Going with the flow 
For much of the recent trip, Scarlet rode the Gulf Stream, a powerful current that flows north and east off the coast of North America before crossing the Atlantic and dividing into several smaller currents off the west coast of Europe. 

But things got tricky when it began to approach Spain. The glider began to struggle against westbound currents. One option was to use Scarlet's rudder to head south, toward Portugal. The other was to go north, around the top of a large eddy, and then turn again east. 
At the suggestion of one of their Spanish collaborators, Antonio Gonzalez, the Rutgers team opted for the northern route. After all, it had worked before. 

In February 1493, Columbus's two-ship fleet returning from the New World faced a similar predicament. (The admiral's flagship, the Santa Maria, had wrecked off Haiti on Christmas Day 1492.) The Pinta and Niña had survived a big storm, but the Pinta was heavily damaged and had trouble making headway in the same currents Scarlet encountered. Her captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón , sailed north into calmer waters, while Columbus, on the Niña, sailed south. Pinzón eventually caught favorable southeast winds and landed in Baiona, Spain -- which, as it happens, is where the Spaniards turned Scarlet over to the Americans on Dec. 9. 

"We had the spirit of Pinzón looking out for us in the final leg," Schofield said. 

Scarlet's struggle, however, was nothing compared with what befell the RU-17, a similar glider the Rutgers team attempted to get across the Atlantic last year. It collided with something underwater while it was off the Azores, triggering an emergency surfacing maneuver. It was leaking too much to save itself, however, and was lost. 

"Something violent and strong hit it from below. There's not that much out there. If you're a betting man, shark is probably the answer," Schofield said. 

Environment, Climate Change and Alternative Energy Sources 

Bad News for Geothermal Energy: Two Major Projects Bite the Dust 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/14/bad-news-for-geothermal-energy-two-major-projects-bite-the-dust/ 

'Rock-breathing' bacteria could generate electricity and clean up oil spills 
http://www.physorg.com/news180028197.html 

Ethanol-powered vehicles generate more ozone than gas-powered ones 
http://www.physorg.com/news180011426.html 

US in plan to aid poor nations develop clean energy 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091214/pl_afp/unclimatewarmingusdeveloping_20091214171948 

Indian farmers adapt to shifting weather patterns 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091214/sc_nm/us_india_climate_adaptation 

Chinese "Sun Dial" is the World's Largest Solar-Powered Office Building 
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-12/chinese-sun-dial-worlds-largest-solar-powered-office-building 

First Geoengineering Field Trial Carried Out In Russia 
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/first-geoengineering-field-trial-carried-out-russia-0 

Bad wine makes for good energy 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436043/ns/technology_and_science-future_of_energy/ 

Miracle light: Can lasers solve the energy crisis? 
http://www.physorg.com/news180125332.html 

U.S. Unveils a $350-Million Energy-Efficiency Initiative at Copenhagen 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=solar-lanterns-light-chu 

‘After big 5, we’re in midst of 6th mass wipeout’
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/After-big-5-were-in-midst-of-6th-mass-wipeout/articleshow/5353799.cms

Hot Electrons Could Double Solar Cell Power Efficiency
http://www.physorg.com/news180365359.html

Copenhagen climate summit: Five possible scenarios for our future climate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-five-climate-scenarios

Acid oceans: the 'evil twin' of climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_sc/climate_blue_carbon

Biological, Genetics and Medical Sciences 

With a Blood Sample & 20 Minutes, Nanosensors Could Detect Cancer 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/14/with-a-blood-sample-20-minutes-nanosensors-could-detect-cancer/ 

Lab-Built Red Blood Cells Look & Act Like the Real Deal 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/15/lab-built-red-blood-cells-look-act-like-the-real-deal/ 

Heart cells on lab chip display 'nanosense' that guides behavior 
http://www.physorg.com/news180116595.html 

Device connected to tongue designed to help blind perceive images 
http://www.physorg.com/news180125418.html 

Ancient seed sprouts plant from the past 
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ancient-seed-came-into-leaf-2009-12-16

Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/17/gaza.gender.id/index.html

Other 

Awesomely bizarre light show freaks out Norway 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/09/awesomely-bizarre-light-show-freaks-out-norway/ 

50 years of science sagas 
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/14/2151535.aspx 

Previously undiscovered ancient city found on Caribbean sea floor 
http://www.heralddeparis.com/previously-undiscovered-ancient-city-found-on-caribbean-sea-floor/65855 

Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopus 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_sc/as_australia_coconut_octopus 

Debating the end of the world – if time allows 
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091210/NATIONAL/712099864/1010/rss 

"Imperial Cruiser" spotted over Kremlin 
http://scifiwire.com/2009/12/imperial-cruiser-spotted.php 

How do we understand written language?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/e-hdw121609.php

Five laws of human nature
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18301-five-laws-of-human-nature.html

Is religion about war -- or peace?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/18/moses.st.francis.interfaith/index.html

China stretches the imagination with world's longest sea bridge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/15/worlds-longest-sea-bridge

Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Crop-Circles-The-Art-of-the-Hoax.html

Additional Informational 

On a Roll: Autonomous Navigation Lasers and Robotics Push "Smart" Wheelchair Technology to the Cutting Edge (Slide Show) 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smart-wheelchair 

Eight ways to cool a warming planet 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34471883/ns/technology_and_science-science/ 

Eight ancient drinks uncorked by science 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34435526 

Mayas Saving Maya Culture- Video     
An association of Tz’utujil Maya people from Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, struggle to establish a cultural center and archaeological site museum at the nearby lakeside site of Chuitinamit, once home to the Pre-Hispanic Maya King Tepepul and now badly looted. Including a tour of the museum, this film documents their accomplishments thus far and current endeavors in the face of artifact looting and natural catastrophe in the form of Hurricane Stan, which struck in 2005. 
http://www.archaeologychannel.org/ 

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