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News in Science 18/4/2003 Ancient dung reveals a picture of the past [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s833847.htm] An arctic mound of soil covering a core of solid ice in northeastern Siberia (Pic: Science) The successful dating of the most ancient genetic material yet may allow scientists to use preserved DNA from sources such as mammoth dung to help paint a picture of past environments. An international research effort led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark reports in today?s issue of the journal Science it has extracted well preserved animal and plant DNA from...

A routine construction dig has turned up a fossil skull that is giving scientists a better glimpse inside the head of our ancient predecessor, Homo erectus. According to a report published today in the journal Science, the find suggests that the H. erectus population that occupied the island of Java was isolated from other Asian populations and probably made only minimal genetic contributions to the ancestry of modern humans. So far, more than 20 hominid skull fossils have been found at sites in Java. The latest, dubbed Sm 4 (see image), was recovered from the bed of the Solo River...

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Date: 2003-02-26 Fossil Records Show Methane In Seafloor Sediments Released During Periods Of Rapid Climate Warming Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid climate warming methane gas has been released periodically from the seafloor in intense eruptions. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Science, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and colleagues Laura Hmelo and Sean Sylva of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provide a direct link between methane reservoirs in coastal marine sediments and the global carbon cycle, an indicator of global warming and cooling. Molecular fossils from...

New Age For Mungo Man, New Human HistoryA University of Melbourne-led study has finally got scientists to agree on the age of Mungo Man, Australia's oldest human remains, and the consensus is he is 22,000 years younger. A University of Melbourne-led team say Mungo Man's new age is 40,000 years, reigniting the debate for the 'Out of Africa' theory. The research also boosted the age of Mungo Lady, the world's first recorded cremation, by 10,000 years putting her at the same age as Mungo Man. It is the first time scientists have reached a broad agreement on the ages of...

Cyclops Myth Spurred by One-Eyed Fossils? Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News February 5, 2003 Ever wonder where our worst nightmares come from? For the ancient Greeks, it may have been the fossils of giant prehistoric animals. The tusk, several teeth, and some bones of a Deinotherium giganteum, which, loosely translated means really huge terrible beast, have been found on the Greek island Crete. A distant relative to today's elephants, the giant mammal stood 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall at the shoulder, and had tusks that were 4.5 feet (1.3 meters) long. It was one of the largest mammals ever...

Shell-Shock: Three University Of Arkansas Students Find World's Longest Nautiloid Fossil FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Three undergraduate students from the University of Arkansas made a world-class discovery this week when they uncovered a 325-million-year-old nautiloid fossil just yards from two of Fayetteville's busiest roads. At exactly eight feet in length, their find represents the longest actinoceratoid nautiloid fossil in the world. On Jan. 20, while the University community observed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, freshman geology major Sarah Kee and senior Kevin Morgan set out to hunt for fossils. Their excursion led them to a culvert near Interstate 540,...

    Four-winged dinosaur makes feathers fly   19:00 22 January 03 Jeff Hecht   Long flight feathers adorn the hind legs of Microraptor gui (Image: Xing Xu) A stunning set of six fossils discovered in China could rewrite our understanding of how and why birds first took to the sky. The fossils clearly show a small dinosaur that had flight feathers covering its legs, as well as tail and arms, forming an extra pair of wings never before seen by palaeontologists. News of the find comes just days after scientists published work showing that baby partridges flap their tiny wings to...

POSTED: 11:29 a.m. EST November 25, 2002 UPDATED: 11:36 a.m. EST November 25, 2002 WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has an unusual -- some would say autocratic -- approach to his job. In a book published this week, the president is quoted as saying that because he is the "commander" he doesn't have to explain his positions. In the book "Bush at War," by Bob Woodward, Bush talks about his job as "the strategic thinker" of his administration who makes provocative comments to prod his staff. Woodward then asked if Bush ever explained "what he was doing." "Of course...

Would love to hear comments on the show, if anyone dares to watch

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Back of the Book segment, the Bill Moyers empire. The liberal commentator works at PBS where his left-wing outlook has drawn some attention -- by us yesterday -- and Mr. Moyers is very, very well funded. He is paid $200,000 by The Florence & John Schuman Foundation. As the president, Moyers oversees $75 million in grant money. Much of it flows into some very interesting hands. In addition, Moyers has a production company that is paid by PBS, which, of course, gets taxpayer money. Joining us now from Washington is a man who's been investigating...

ANCIENT RAMAYANA BRIDGE - A REALISTIC POSSIBILITY

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 16 Oklo: Ancient African Nuclear Reactors Credit & Copyright: Robert D. Loss, WAISRC Explanation: The remnants of nuclear reactors nearly two billion years old were found in the 1970s in Africa. These reactors are thought to have occurred naturally. No natural reactors exist today, as the relative density of fissionable uranium has now decayed below that needed for a sustainable reaction. Pictured above is Fossil Reactor...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Solar power is one of the world's fastest-growing renewable energy sources, offering a potentially endless supply of power generation capable of meeting the electricity demands of the whole planet. Yet two billion people in developing countries lack access to modern energy services, while solar power -- a possible solution because of its availability anywhere on the globe -- accounts for just 0.1 percent of the world's primary energy demand. "Solar power is all capital costs. What we are struggling with is how to get the capital -- how do we get the investment -- to these people...

After a decade of digging through the sand dunes of northern Chad, Michel Brunet found a skull 6-7 million years old. He named it Toumaï.Toumaï is thought to be the oldest fossil from a member of the human family. It's a dispatch from the time when humans and chimpanzee were going their separate evolutionary ways. A thrilling, but confusing dispatch1,2. Sahelanthropus tchadensis - Toumaï's scientific name - was probably one of many similar species living in Africa at that time. "There must have been a group of apes knocking around between 5 and 8 million years ago for which there's...

English heritage archaeologist Pete Wilson holds the skull of a 4th century castrated priest unearthed from a grave at Catterick, North Yorkshire in this undated photo. The remains of the young Roman man, who apparently dressed as a woman, show a previously unknown side of Britain's ancient history, archaeologists said May 21, 2002. (Reuters - Handout)

Dino-Era Vomit Fossil Found in England National Geographic News February 12, 2002 British scientists have discovered the world's oldest fossilized vomit, believed to have come from a large marine reptile 160 million years ago. The vomit contains the remains of dozens of belemnites—squid-like shellfish that lived in abundance in the seas around what is now Britain. The belemnites were eaten in great numbers by ichthyosaurs, large marine reptiles (related to land-dwelling dinosaurs) common in the warm seas of the Jurassic era, similar in size and shape to dolphins but with pointed snouts full of sharp teeth. The vomit fossil shows...

<p>The fossil, which measures less than a quarter-inch long, is believed to be from the middle or late Jurassic Period, perhaps 170 million years old. Researchers said it suggests that mammals developed independently in the Southern Hemisphere.</p> <p>The fossil, named Asfaltomylos patagonicus, was discovered in a mudstone formation in the province of Chubut, 950 miles south of Buenos Aires. The now-arid region also has yielded some remarkable dinosaur fossils from the same era in a vast ancient boneyard covering hundreds of square miles.</p>