Stone Monolith Likely an Astronomical Marker

An ancient stone monolith in England was likely an astronomical marker, according to new archaeological evidence.

The 4,000-year-old stone is triangular in shape and angles up toward geographic south. Its orientation and slant angle are aligned with the altitude of the sun at midsummer, researchers said.

And new evidence shows that there are packing stones around the base of the 7.2-foot tall (2.2-meter) monolith, indicating that it was placed carefully in its location and position, they added.

"Given the sensitivity of the site, we can't probe under the surface of the soil," astronomer Daniel Brown of Nottingham Trent University in England said in a statement. "However, through our survey, we have found a higher density of packing stones on one side, supporting the case that the stone has been orientated intentionally."

The monolith is located at a ridge called Gardom's Edge in the Peak District National Park near Manchester, an area that shows evidence of human occupation extending far back though its history. Other ancient monuments such as Bronze Age roundhouses and a late Neolithic enclosure have been found nearby.

The seemingly astronomical monolith is thought to have been erected by Neolithic people around 2000 B.C.

"The stone would have been an ideal marker for a social arena for seasonal gatherings," Brown said. "It's not a sundial in the sense that people would have used it to determine an exact time. We think that it was set in position to give a symbolic meaning to its location, a bit like the way that some religious buildings are aligned in a specific direction for symbolic reasons."

The researchers used a 3D computer model to analyze how the stone would have been illuminated throughout the different seasons four millennia ago, given that the tilt of Earth's axis has changed over time.

Read more at Discovery News

Ancient Beluga Enjoyed Warmer Waters

An ancient beast related to today's Arctic-loving beluga whales and narwhals seemed to prefer toasty, tropical waters.

Called Bohaskaia monodontoides, the new species of toothed whale lived some 3 million to 4 million years ago during the Pliocene in warm water. Researchers aren't sure why modern belugas have left these tropical destinations and strayed pole-ward, where life would seem to be more difficult.

The fossil had been sitting in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since its discovery in a mine near Hampton, Va., in 1969. The nearly complete skull represents the only fossilized remains known of the new species. Before it was closely examined, the skull's discoverers loosely identified it as a beluga whale and left it in storage.

In 2010, Jorge Velez-Juarbe, Smithsonian pre-doctoral fellow from Howard University, finally took a close look at the skull. He compared it with the skulls of closely related toothed whales, like modern Arctic belugas and narwhals (also called unicorns of the sea for their twisted horn). While the skull shared many features, particularly in the face and snout, with modern toothed whales, the researchers say there are enough unique features to merit its placement in a new genus and species.

"We realized this skull was not something assignable to a beluga, and when we sat down, comparing the fossil side by side with the actual skulls of belugas and narwhals, we found it was a very different animal," study researcher Nicholas Pyenson, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.

This and a second temperate example of a beluga-related whale indicate that the love of frosty water developed recently in these whales.

Read more at Discovery News

Most Ancient, 'Impossible' Alien Worlds Discovered

As we discover more worlds orbiting distant stars, we are finding that "conventional thinking" doesn't seem to apply to the growing menagerie of exoplanets. And this most recent exoplanetary discovery is no different.

In fact, the two exoplanets found to be orbiting a star 375 light-years away shouldn't exist at all.

The two gas giant planets were spotted during a survey of "metal poor" stars. When focusing on a star called HIP 11952, researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, discovered a slight wobble in the star's position.

The wobble is being caused by the gravitational tug of two exoplanets -- one is nearly the size of Jupiter and orbits the star every seven days, the other is approximately three-times the size of Jupiter and has an orbital period of 290 days.

They're Metal Poor and Ancient

This may sound like a typical exoplanet discovery that uses the "radial velocity method" to detect the gravitational presence of planets around other stars, but this star isn't the kind of star one would expect to find planets at all.

HIP 11952 is a "metal-poor" star, which, in astrophysicist-speak, means this stellar example contains a very low abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. It turns out that metals are very important in the construction of planets, so metal-poor stars aren't exactly fertile places for planets to form.

"So far there are only very few planetary companions detected around stars with low stellar metallicity," said Johny Setiawan, astronomer who led this research at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy.

In the case of HIP 11952, the logarithm of the ratio of iron and hydrogen -- [Fe/H] -- is less than one.

"That means, the abundance of heavy elements, e.g., iron, is less than 10 percent compared to that of the sun," Setiawan told Discovery News.

This poses a very interesting question, and a conundrum.

So far, of the 750 confirmed exoplanet discoveries, there is a better statistical likelihood of a metal-rich star playing host to planets. And from our experience in the solar system, metals are obviously a very important component for planetary evolution. So, to find worlds orbiting a star with such a low metallicity seems to contradict this view.

But there's another thing. Metal-poor stars formed when the Universe was very young. The heavy elements that are ubiquitous throughout the cosmos today were formed inside the cores of generations of stars and when massive stars popped-off as supernovae. But the presence of metal-poor stars in the modern universe suggest they are very old.

In fact, it is thought HIP 11952 may be a surviving artifact of the dawn of the Universe -- it's nearly 13 billion years old. In other words, this star was born when the Universe was less than a billion years old. It is also thought to be a star from another, older galaxy -- the Milky Way probably acquired it during an ancient galactic collision.

As the star formed 13 billion years ago, it is likely that these two exoplanets (dubbed HIP 11952 b and HIP 11952 c) also formed around 13 billion years ago. These truly are cosmological oddities, they are the oldest exoplanets known.

It Depends On Your Definition

OK, so these worlds are really old and they shouldn't even exist, but as pointed out by Setiawan, it doesn't mean we need to re-write planetary formation theories.

"Of course, there is a problem in the definition of 'metal-rich' and 'metal-poor,'" he said. "HIP 11952 is from the point of view of the now universe 'metal-poor.' But in an epoch of the early universe (13 billion years ago) compared to other stars, HIP 11952 is extremely 'metal-rich.'

"At this age, stars normally have much lower metallicities. Heavy elements were created much later."

Read more at Discovery News

The Four Ages of the Universe -- What's Next?

The Greek poet Hesiod described the Five Ages of Man in mythology.

They progress from the Golden Age, when people lived among the gods, through the warlike Bronze Age and on to the Heroic Age. His narrative ends with the Iron Age, a period of toil and misery for mankind.

Science has now replaced these mythologies. We are at the point where we look at the entire universe as a grand series of game-changing leaps toward our emergence as an intelligent species. It is an epic story more compelling than anything from creation mythology.

In a recent paper, Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth College describes the universe’s first three ages as the physical age, chemical age, and biological age. He says that we are now entering the cognitive age, the emergence of intelligence life on Earth and presumably across the universe.

This leaves us with an enticing question: what will be the fifth age of the universe? Will this be a period of decline toward the burnout of the last star, as our extrapolations from current astrophysics predict? Or could it be something more existential and unpredictable given the potential influence of "thinking matter" on the arrow of time? Are we entering a cosmological Age of Aquarius?

Knowing Our Place in the Universe

Advances in astronomy over the past several decades allow us to precisely retrace the four ages of the universe to the present. We are the first generation to know the geometry, material composition, and evolution of the universe.

This has been largely accomplished by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background and large-scale telescopic surveys of the distribution of galaxies in space and time.

Within only the past 50 years we have learned that life as we know it relies on chemical elements forged in dying heavy stars. The first stars formed perhaps as early as 200 million years after the Big Bang. They forge the heavy elements in a fireworks finale of supernova explosions. We are confident that chemically-enriched second generation stars went on to build a plethora of stable planetary systems.

Some fraction of planets became astrobiological "Petri dishes" for biochemical reactions. The hallmark of the biological era is the still unknown leap from dormant matter to self-replicating matter. This remarkable process is driven by complex molecular nanomachines storing and reprocessing information under Darwinian rules.

But is Gleiser's cognitive era isolated to Earth? It presumes intelligent life could be co-emerging among the myriad stars and galaxies. At present it's probably simplest to say that the vast gulf of time and space keeps us in cosmic isolation, if not quarantine, from fully answering this question.

This leads me to the idea of a fifth age for the universe, yet to be realized. Perhaps intelligent entities can evolve to have mastery over entire galaxies, as predicted by the Soviet Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. He imagined that through extraordinary astroengineering projects, far advanced aliens might reshape a galaxy to their liking. They may tap energy off the galaxy's central black hole and construct artificial habitats free of destruction from cosmic catastrophes.

Read more at Discovery News

Some Gulf Dolphins Severely Ill After Gulf Oil Spill

Bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, are showing signs of severe ill health, according to NOAA marine mammal biologists and their local, state, federal and other research partners.

Barataria Bay, located in the northern Gulf of Mexico, received heavy and prolonged exposure to oil during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Based on comprehensive physicals of 32 live dolphins from Barataria Bay in the summer of 2011, preliminary results show that many of the dolphins in the study are underweight, anemic, have low blood sugar and/or some symptoms of liver and lung disease. Nearly half also have abnormally low levels of the hormones that help with stress response, metabolism and immune function.

Researchers fear that some of the study dolphins are in such poor health that they will not survive. One of these dolphins, which was last observed and studied in late 2011, was found dead in January 2012.

Investigation of Dolphin Strandings in the Northern Gulf Continues

Since February 2010, more than 675 dolphins have stranded in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Franklin County, Florida, to the Louisiana/Texas border)-a much higher rate than the usual average of 74 dolphins per year, prompting NOAA to declare an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) and investigate the cause of death for as many of the dolphins as possible. The vast majority of stranded dolphins have been found dead; however, 33 have stranded alive and seven have been taken to facilities for rehabilitation.

In the spring, it is typical to see some newborn, fetal and stillborn dolphins strand, and there has been an increase in strandings of this younger age class during this UME in 2010 and 2011. Yet all age classes continue to strand at high levels. NOAA is working with a team of marine mammal health experts to investigate the factors that may be contributing to the dolphin mortalities.

Gulf Seafood Safety Since the 2010 oil spill, the Food and Drug Administration, NOAA and the Gulf Coast states have used an agreed-upon protocol to test seafood and ensure that it is free of harmful oil and dispersant residues. NOAA opened federal waters to fishing after extensive testing, and the Gulf states continue to use the protocol to routinely test finfish and shellfish to ensure all seafood reaching the consumer is safe. Some waters in the northern Barataria Basin, a larger area that includes Barataria Bay, remain closed to commercial fishing, as visible oil is still present along the shoreline where the closures are in place. The joint protocol directs seafood safety testing to begin only after visible oil is gone.

Read more at Science Daily

Hammerhead Shark Double Whammy

Identity confusion between a new, yet unnamed shark species, originally discovered off the eastern United States by Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center (NSU-OC) researchers, and its look-alike cousin -- the endangered scalloped hammerhead shark -- may threaten the survival of both species.

According to an April 2012 article in the scientific journal Marine Biology, the new look-alike hammerhead species has now been discovered more than 4,300 miles away near the coast of southern Brazil. This confirms that the original finding was not a local oddity and the new species is much wider spread. The look-alike species may face the same fishery pressures as the real scalloped hammerhead, which is being fished unsustainably for its highly prized fins.

"It's a classic case of long-standing species misidentification that not only casts further uncertainty on the status of the real scalloped hammerhead but also raises concerns about the population status of this new species," says professor Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., who oversaw the new research at the NSU-OC's Save Our Seas Shark Center USA and Guy Harvey Research Institute.

Tens of millions of sharks are being killed for their fins and meat worldwide, resulting in dramatic reductions in shark populations and concerns about the broad scale negative impacts to ocean ecosystems. This has prompted international protection and other management efforts to reduce the unsustainable slaughter of sharks.

"It's very important to officially recognize, name and learn more about this new hammerhead species and the condition of its populations through systematic surveys," Shivji says. "Without management intervention to curtail its inadvertent killing, we run the risk that overfishing could eradicate an entire shark species before its existence is even properly acknowledged."

Shivji's team first discovered the new hammerhead species in 2005 when examining the DNA of sharks thought to be scalloped hammerheads based on their physical appearance. A research team from the University of South Carolina independently confirmed the existence of the new species in 2006.

Combining genetic assessments of NSU and South Carolina researchers shows that at least 7 percent of the sharks in U.S. waters originally thought to be scalloped hammerheads turned out to be the new species. This means that the population of the endangered real scalloped hammerhead in U.S. waters is probably smaller than originally thought.

The status of the scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) is currently under review by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to determine if it warrants listing as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. It's already on the red list of endangered species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The new species is on neither list.

"We hope that during this important scalloped hammerhead status review, the new look-alike species will be recognized, and possible impacts of historical mix-ups between the two species on past scalloped hammerhead stock assessments will be considered," says Shivji.

According to Danillo Pinhal, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the UNESP-São Paulo State University in Brazil who performed the lab work as a visiting graduate student in Shivji's laboratory in 2009, "the finding of this species all the way down in Brazilian waters, where hammerhead sharks are heavily fished, raises concerns about the population status of both species not just in U.S. waters but throughout the western Atlantic. It's an international issue now and it's essential that further research on this new species be conducted in Brazilian waters."

Other than differences in their DNA, the two shark species also differ in their number of vertebrae. The new look-alike species has approximately 20 fewer vertebrae than the scalloped hammerhead, in the range of 170 vs. 190. An analysis of the DNA suggests that the new species and the scalloped hammerhead separated from each other approximately 4.5 million years ago, a surprisingly long time given how similar they look externally.

There are three well-documented species of large hammerhead sharks (scalloped, great and smooth hammerheads), and their fins have high value in the international shark fin trade. The finding of this new hammerhead now brings the total to four large species with this unique hammerhead shape.

Read more at Science Daily

Moon's Creation Questioned by Chemistry

New questions have been raised about the birth of the moon after a new study found samples from Earth and the lunar surface to be virtually identical.

The study reported in the journal Nature Geoscience contradicts the theory that the moon formed after the impact of a Mars-sized object named Theia with the early Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.

At the time both the Earth and Theia were still partially molten, the impact causing Theia's core to sink into the Earth's core, while lighter ejecta and debris was thrown into space eventually coalescing to form the moon.

The new study by Junjun Zhang, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues compared isotopic ratios of titanium in lunar and terrestrial samples.

Zhang and colleagues found the ratio of titanium isotopes on both Earth and the moon to be identical to within about four parts per million.

Because the Mars-sized impactor is expected to have been isotopically different, the measurements suggest the moon is either made entirely of material from Earth, or intense mixing occurred on both bodies after impact.

Zhang and colleagues say the similarity can't be explained by both bodies forming in the same part of the solar system because meteorite samples show extensive diversity in titanium isotopic ratios.

They conclude the isotopes are far more likely to have come from Earth rather than another planet.

Planetary scientist Brad Carter from the University of Southern Queensland says while it's unlikely to have two planets with the same chemical composition, it's not impossible.

"Despite what the paper says, a planet forming very close to the early Earth could have a similar composition resulting in similar isotopic ratios," says Carter.

"It's also possible that Theia was essentially made of ice, something from the Kuiper belt in the outer solar system."

"This would have provided the energy of impact, but with the ice evaporating away leaving Earth material to eject into space and form the moon."

Another option suggested by Zhang and colleagues involved the proto-Earth spinning much faster than previously thought, allowing a greater degree of mixing.

"However we don't really think Earth had spun rapidly enough for that to happen," says Carter.

"And then you have the problem of slowing down the Earth's rotation afterwards."

"Zhang and colleagues suggest a gravitational resonance effect between the Earth, moon and sun may have provided the forces needed to slow down the Earth's spin rate," says Carter.

Read more at Discovery News

Venice Sinking More Than Previously Thought

Venice has begun sinking again and is even tilting slightly eastward, new satellite measurements have revealed.

Despite previous studies suggesting the subsidence had levelled off, new research indicates that the lagoon city continues to sink an average of one to two millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 inches) a year.  That's more than researchers previously thought.

"It’s a small effect, but it’s important," Yehuda Bock, a research geodesist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif., said.

With the Adriatic rising in the Venetian lagoon at the same rate, the combined effect is a 4mm (0.16 inches) a year increase in sea level. This means that Venice could sink up to 80 mm (3.2 inches) by 2032.

The study, which will be published March 28 in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, also found that the City of Water in north-east Italy is listing one millimeter or two (0.04 to 0.08 inches) eastward per year, meaning that the western part is higher than the rest.is listing one millimeter or two (0.04 to 0.08 inches) eastward per year, meaning that the western part is higher than the rest.

Prior satellite analyses didn’t pick up on the tilt, Bock said.

Bock worked on the project with colleagues from the University of Miami in Florida and Italy's Tele-Rilevamento Europa, a company that specialises in the measurement of ground deformations.

The team used a combination of GPS and and satellite radar to map how Venice and its lagoon were drifting over the decade between 2000 and 2010.

"Our analysis clearly captured the movements over the last decade that neither GPS nor InSAR could sense alone," said Shimon Wdowinski, associate research professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics at the University of Miami.

The subsidence was confirmed by the slow sinking of Venice's 117 islands, with those in the north dropping at a rate of two to three millimeters (0.08 to 0.12 inches) per year, and those in the south subsiding at three to four millimeters (0.12 to 0.16 inches) per year.

Venice’s subsidence is well known. Precise measurements of the city's sea level date only to 1872, but 18th-century Venetian landscapes by the artist Canaletto, so true to detail to portray the dark algae stains left on canal-side buildings by retreating high tides, allowed scientists to determine that the city  has sunk more than 60 centimeters (2 feet) since 1727.

The frequency of floods in Venice is now increasing, and about four or five times a year residents have to walk on wooden planks to stay above the floodwaters in large parts of the city.

According to the researchers, builders of the ambitious multi-billion euro MOSE flood-protection system, which is set for completion in 2014, will have to take into consideration "not only the rising of sea level, but also the subsidence," they said.

However, researchers in Italy estimate that a subsidence of one-two millimeter per year is not a significant drop.

"One millimeter is nothing with respect to the problem that Venice experienced 20, 30 years ago," said Pietro Teatini, a researcher with the University of Padova in Italy.

Indeed, Venice subsided about 120 mm ( 4.72 inches) in the 20th century due to natural process and groundwater extraction, plus saw a sea level rise of about 110 mm (4.33 inches) at the same time.

Luigi Tosi, a geologist at Italy's Institute of Marine Science - National Research Council, agrees that the lagoon city has to face "a complex future" in which the MOSE's adjustable barriers will have to be used very often.

According to Tosi, the sea rising, which could reach 50 centimeters (19.68 inches) by the end of the century, could be a significant problem.

Read more at Discovery News

Monster Hailstone Drops On Hawaii

A grapefruit-size hailstone that pummeled Oahu during a hailstorm this month has now been confirmed as the largest on record for the state of Hawaii, announced officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

A final measurement of the hailstone, which dropped from the skies on March 9, places it at 4.25 inches long, 2.25 inches tall and 2 inches wide (10.8 by 5.7 by 5 centimeters).

"According to hail report records for Hawaii kept back to 1950, the previous state record hailstone was 1 inch in diameter," Michael Cantin, warning coordination meteorologist at NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) in Honolulu, said in a statement. The NWS, along with NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee confirmed the new state record.

The record-setting hailstone was dropped by a so-called supercell thunderstorm on the windward side of Oahu that also produced large hail in Kaneohe and Kailua. Perhaps the most violent of all thunderstorm types, supercell thunderstorms can generate damaging winds large hail, and even tornadoes, according to NOAA. They are most common during the spring across the central United States.

NOAA received several reports of hail with diameters of 2 to 3 in. (5 to 7.6 cm) and greater in Hawaii during the storm. One such report, the new record breaker, came from a resident in the Aikahi neighborhood of Kailua, who reported a hailstone larger than 3 inches in diameter. Inspection by the NWS revealed the chunk was much larger, and has now been confirmed the largest on record.

In fact, since records began, there have been no reports of hail larger than an inch in diameter; penny-size (just under an inch) or quarter-size (1 inch in diameter) hailstones, have been reported just eight times in Hawaii. Conditions needed to produce supercell thunderstorms, and thus to form large hailstones, the size of golf balls and baseballs, are rare in Hawaii.

To form, supercells need warm, most air to rise, forming progressively colder and drier air; at the same time, winds that change direction and increase in speed with increasing height off the ground are needed. Both sets of conditions existed on March 9, an ideal day for a supercell storm, it seems.

Read more at Discovery News

Thousands of Atheists Rally in D.C.

Thousands of atheists, agnostics and other non-believers turned out in the US capital on Saturday to celebrate their rejection of the idea of God and to claim a bigger place in public life.

The Reason Rally, sponsored by 20 atheist, secular and humanist groups, was billed as the biggest-ever "coming-out" party for the fastest-growing religious group in the United States -- those with no religion.

"There are too many people in this country who have been cowed into fear of coming out as atheists, secularists or agnostics," said the event's star turn, Richard Dawkins, the British scientist and best-selling atheist author.

"We are far more numerous than anybody realizes," he said, prompting a loud cheer from the youthful crowd that defied gray skies and drizzle for an afternoon of speeches, music and satire on the National Mall.

Jesse Galef of the Secular Student Alliance, a spokesman for the rally, told AFP he conservatively estimated the turnout at 10,000. The National Park Service, which oversees the mall, had issued a permit for 15,000.

In the center of the good-humored crowd rose a crucifix with an affixed sign that declared: "Banish the Ten Commandments to the dustbin of history." Other posters read: "Good without a god" and "Hi Mom! I'm an atheist."

"This country was not built on religion and God," said another of the day's speaker, Michael Shermer, a self-defined "skeptic" and columnist for the respected Scientific American magazine. "It was built on reason."

"God fixation won't fix our nation, because nothing fails like prayer," added Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is contesting Pennsylvania's declaration of 2012 as "the year of the Bible."

On the edges of the Mall, atheists engaged in vigorous debates with a handful of Christians who turned up with their own placards that read: "Study and obey the Bible" and "Jesus forgives sin."

"Jesus Christ is your only hope," exclaimed one soapbox preacher through a bullhorn. "Humble yourself today."

In no other Western country does religion figure so highly in society as in the United States, where "In God We Trust" appears on bank notes and "one nation under God" is part of the national Pledge of Allegiance.

Yet the most recent American Religious Identification Survey, published in 2009, found that Americans with no religious affiliations -- "the nones" in sociological jargon -- make up 15 percent of the total adult population.

"That is more than Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists combined and doubled," said David Silverman, president of American Atheists, which campaigns for the civil rights of non-believers.

David Roozen of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut said the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has "about doubled" in the last 20 years.

"It's probably the fastest-growing category of religion in the United States," the sociologist told AFP in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Silverman, who defines atheism simply as "the lack of belief in a god," said a deep-seated fear of prejudice and discrimination leads many Americans with no religious affiliation not to acknowledge themselves as atheists.

Read more at Discovery News