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Jean-Baptiste Chevance senses that we’re closing in on our target. Paused in a jungle clearing in northwestern Cambodia, the French archaeologist studies his GPS and mops the sweat from his forehead with a bandanna. The temperature is pushing 95, and the equatorial sun beats down through the forest canopy. For two hours, Chevance, known to everyone as JB, has been leading me, along with a two-man Cambodian research team, on a grueling trek. We’ve ripped our arms and faces on six-foot shrubs studded with thorns, been savaged by red biting ants, and stumbled over vines that stretch at ankle height...

Volcanic activity worldwide 1 Jun 2016: Colima volcano, Bromo, Semeru, Dukono, Turrialba, Nyiragongo...

Radiocarbon dating of a prehistoric archeological site in Florida suggests that 14,550 years ago, hunter-gatherers, possibly accompanied by dogs, butchered or scavenged a mastodon next to a small pond. The findings, based on a four-year study of the Page-Ladson archaeological site in the Aucilla River, about 45 minutes from Tallahassee, Florida, provide a rare glimpse of the earliest human occupation in the southeastern United States, and offer clues to the timing of the disappearance of large animals like the mastodon and camel that roamed the American Southeast during the Late Pleistocene. Additionally, the artifacts at Page-Ladson highlight that much of...

From a reader: “I'm a little confused about where you are going with Genesis... Can you give me some hint of where you are going and the purpose of all of this?” Response: My concern is that Genesis be understood at the deepest possible level since the material there is foundational to the whole canon. Genesis should not be forced into a modern mold. We should make the effort to understand what this material meant to the archaic peoples for whom this divine revelation was sacred. One of the best ways to do this is to apply the tools of...

Drive-By Post: Remember those death panels? Well, they are here. I can speak from experience. Patients are being denied services based on the dictates of the state. It's called "prior authorization".

Notes to Stephen Hawking's Personal Diary -- May 28, 2016 This Trump guy is utterly dangerous to the scientific community. Doesn't he understand that you can't teach the average working stiff anything about science and the way the world really works? I've spent decades writing books and lecturing to show that science can only be understood by professionals and academics who are paid a good salary to stare out into space and wonder about things that have zero relationship to life on Earth. And to protect that glorious profession -- keep it funded -- we've groomed our Ph. D's...

US scientists have found what it could be key for the future of the country’s ailing coal industry as they detected that ashes from local operations, particularly those around the Appalachian region, are very rich in rare earth elements. Researchers from North Carolina-based Duke University analyzed coal ashes from coal-fired power plants throughout the US, including those in the largest coal-producing regions: the Appalachian Mountains; southern and western Illinois; and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. One of the team main conclusions was that coal waste generated by the Appalachian coal operations was the richest in rare earth...

A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense. Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole. The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the...

Climate Change, global warming or whatever the politically appropriate name of the day may be, let’s look at some of the claims our left-wing, media doom-sayers are directing at low information voters about the coming environmental Armageddon. 1. The earth is getting hotter! According to satellite data there has been no warming in over 17 years 2. The polar ice caps are melting! One picture of a polar bear on a small piece of ice has been used for ten years now. In reality, the polar bears are thriving and the ice cap is 10% bigger than in 2010. 3....

Researchers at MIT are seeking to redesign concrete — the most widely used human-made material in the world — by following nature’s blueprints. In a paper published online in the journal Construction and Building Materials, the team contrasts cement paste — concrete’s binding ingredient — with the structure and properties of natural materials such as bones, shells, and deep-sea sponges. As the researchers observed, these biological materials are exceptionally strong and durable, thanks in part to their precise assembly of structures at multiple length scales, from the molecular to the macro, or visible, level. From their observations, the team, led...

It’d be easy to miss the unobtrusive brown door to Joon Yun’s second floor office, tucked away next to a dry cleaners and a hair salon in downtown Palo Alto, California. But the address itself speaks loud enough. Four-hundred-seventy University Avenue is located in the heart of a neighborhood that holds a special place in the lore of Silicon Valley start-up culture. A few minutes’ walk away are the early homes of PayPal, Facebook, and Google. Yet the early ambitions of these famous companies are modest when compared to the ideas I’ve come to discuss with Yun. I’ve been led...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/utsa-researchers-close-to-using-3d-printer-to-print-organs/186674319

Two months ago Attorney General Loretta Lynch admitted during congressional testimony that Justice Department attorneys were looking into punishment for the fossil fuel industry and certain individuals, including academics and researchers. Their crime? Rejection or denial of climate change and therefore being opposed to President Obama's agenda on the issue. Today, five Republican Senators have sent a letter to Lynch reminding her that in America, we don't have thought police and the Justice Department doesn't have the power or authority to punish an entire industry because the people in it they think differently than the progressives in charge of the...

Israeli 3D printer firm Nano Dimension has successfully lab-tested a 3D bioprinter for stem cells, paving the way for the potential printing of large tissues and organs, the company said on Wednesday. While 3D printers are used already to create stem cells for research, Nano Dimension said the trial, conducted with Israeli biotech firm Accellta Ltd, showed its adapted printer could make large volumes of high resolution cells quickly....

Inspired by the geniuses Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein, teenager Max Loughan loves to invent things, in fact, he says he has known his entire short life that his purpose was to change the world with his inventions. And he may just do it. “As cheesy as this sounds, from day one, on this planet that I knew I was put here for a reason,” said Max. “And that reason is to invent, to bring the future.” Wearing a lab coat while speaking in a televised interview with KTVN Channel 2 in Reno and Tahoe, Nevada, Max explains the free...

Photo: Polaris ATV and snowmobile specialist Polaris has introduced a true battlefield replacement for the original Jeep, courtesy of it's Polaris Defense division. Like that original soldier's best friend, the turbo diesel MRZR is light, compact and capable of crossing tough terrain, not to mention great looking. By way of comparison, today's Humvee and its upcoming replacement are mammoth vehicles, bloated by mission creep into armored personnel carriers rather than zippy battlefield transportation. Photo: Polaris The MRZR is a return to that original mission. Coming from an ATV background and using a smallish 875 cc twin-cylinder engine, it would...

Graphene is widely regarded to be the most important development in the world of advanced manufacturing to date. The world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material was isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004. The potential of graphene is vast and research is currently underway into everything from bendable electronics to portable, energy-efficient water filtration plants and corrosion-proof coatings, anti-cancer drugs and even energy sources sewn into people’s skin. Last autumn, the National Graphene Institute received a major boost when China’s largest mobile phone manufacturer Huawei signed a partnership with the university to develop graphene-based technologies. Huawei stated at...

Take 10 - The Universe and the CellIn this Take 10 we will briefly look at the immensity of our Universe and delve into the complexity of the cell. Please take time watch this 3 minute video – Cosmic Eye (Scale of the Universe) Now consider, the human world stands about midway between the infinitesimal and the immense . The size of our planet is near the geometric mean of the size of the known universe and the size of the atom. The mass of a human being is the geometric mean of the mass of the earth and the...

Italian 3D printing firm WASP is no ordinary company, claiming as its mission to save the world with digital fabrication technology and a new maker economy. To do its part in the World Advanced Saving Project (WASP), the firm has built its Big Delta 3D printer, a large-scale system capable of printing structures made from concrete and meant to produce homes for people in developing nations. It has yet to fulfill this latter goal, but a bit of news announced today indicates that WASP is making moves in the right direction. Together with Siam Cement Group (SCG) and architect Pitupong...

Every now and then, a distant star called KIC 8462852 dims by as much as 20 percent. That's huge. Even a passing planet as big as Jupiter would only block about 1 percent of the star's light. Ruling out a planet, scientists have no idea what could be eclipsing the star (which is informally known as 'Tabby's Star'). The leading hypothesis is a family of really big comets, but that doesn't quite fit. Astronomer Jason Wright pointed out that the light patterns are consistent with what we'd expect if aliens had built a Dyson swarm of solar collectors around the...