Plante de 30.000 de ani, readuse la viata din permafrostul siberian

Savantii de la Institutul de biofizica celulara din Rusia au reusit sa cultive plante din semintele unor fructe, depozitate de veverite in permafrostul siberian in urma cu 30.000 de ani, informeaza BBC.

Oamenii de stiinta au descoperit semintele de "Silene stenophylla" pe malurile raului Kolmya din Siberia, un loc frecventat de cautatorii de schelete de mamut, si au reusit obtinerea unor plante viabile in laborator.

Descoperire uimitoare a astronomilor. "Stelele imposibile" i-au pus pe gânduri pe cercetători

Patru perechi de "stele imposibile", aşa cum sunt numite de către astonomi stelele gemene care au orbite atât de apropiate încât sfidează orice explicaţie, au fost descoperite în Calea Lactee, informează Space.com.

Astronomii au folosit telescopul UKIRT în Hawaii şi au descoperit patru perechi de stele, fiecare dintre ele fiind un sistem binar în care cele două corpuri cereşti se învârt unul în jurul celuilalt în mai puţin de patru ore, lucru pe care oamenii de ştiinţă în considerau până acum imposibil.

How Hot Is the Hottest Star?

What's the densest object in the universe? The brightest? The loudest? In his new book Extreme Cosmos (Perigee, 2012), astronomer Bryan Gaensler reveals the cosmic record holders of these and many other titles. In an excerpt below, from the chapter "Extremes of Temperature," Gaensler explains the physics behind some of the hottest stars known:

We all know that if you heat something up, it glows. A poker in a fire shines a dull orange or red, while a conventional (incandescent) lightbulb works by heating up a tungsten filament to several thousand degrees so that it glows yellow or white. These are special cases of a universal process first properly explained by German physicist Max Planck: Virtually every object (whether on Earth or in space) radiates light, and the color of this light is tied to the object's temperature.

Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae

Heinrich Schliemann excavated at Mycenae in 1876. He excavated several graves finding many golden funerary gifts. He was convinced that the graves, and the bodies he found within them, were those of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon, Clymestra, and Aegisthus but this is debatable. 

Archaeologists have disputed his beliefs ever since. However, there is no doubt is that Heinrich found undeniably ancient and wonderful things. Understanding Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at Mycenae, and the still raging controversy about them among archaeologists, is impossible without understanding a little about the man.

Atacul soarelui vampir. Secunda in care un soare este absorbit de o alta stea, surprinsa pe telescop

Stiati ca sunt mai multe tipuri de iubitori de soare pe lumea asta? Unii il iubesc pentru ca se pot bucura de el la plaja, altii insa il studiaza indeaproape si descopera de la o zi la alta lucruri uimitoare despre steaua care ne tine in viata.

Exista insa mai multe tipuri de stele in acest univers, cum ar fi stelele de tip O, de 15 ori mai mari decat soarele nostru si mult mai puternice. 

Mermaid Body Found? Discovery Channel Re-Airs Program Sparking Debate

The two hour documentary "Mermaids: The Body Found" which aired on Animal Planet in May, has been re-aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, and has caused another huge stir.

The program, however, is just a documentary-style science fiction program, but that has not stopped thousands of people from instantly believing that mermaids do in fact exist.

"Mermaids: The Body Found" was just a fictional account put together in a documentary format telling the story of a mermaid's body being found. However, many have failed to realize the account was just fictional and immediately believed a real mermaid had been found.

What Is Myth?

Question: What Is Myth? Although it may seem obvious, there is no single, simple answer. Here are some of the common ideas and their short-comings. Following these is a look at what folklorists and psychologists/psychoanalysts take the term to mean. Finally, there is a working definition you may find useful.

Answer: If It's a Silly Story, It Could Be a MythEveryone knows what a myth is, right? Centaurs. Flying pigs or horses. Return trips to the Underworld. Stories like: Obviously, you might argue, a myth is a (ridiculous) story no one really believes. Maybe some time, long ago, there were people naive enough to have believed in it, but now we know better.

Crater Lake, Oregon

A trecut ceva timp de la ultima noastră relatare de călătorie, şi chiar avem destule de povestit. Am fost plecaţi în vacanţă în Oregon, unde ne-am simţit excepţional. Ne-am propus să plecăm vineri seara, dar o vacanţă de 5 zile cu rulota şi cu doi copii presupune să luăm o jumătate de casă cu noi.:). Aşa că ne hotărâm să plecăm sâmbătă de dimineaţă la prima oră, cu condiţia să avem totul pregătit de vineri seara. A fost o experienţă tare interesantă să fac curat in rulotă cu fetele în jurul meu, dar până la urmă am reuşit: am spălat perdelele şi le-am pus la locul lor (cu mare “calm” reuşesc să rup un dispozitiv de prindere al perdelelor şi Maria îmi spune: “Mami, rău te mai supără perdelele acestea.”), dăm cu aspiratorul, curăţăm dulapurile şi punem folie nouă, spălăm acoperitoarele de la paturi şi le punem la loc (s-au micşorat în uscător, dar până la urmă reuşim să le îndesăm), spălăm geamurile şi facem curat în baie.

Hiking Ciudad Perdida - The Lost City

While most hikers and outdoor adventure enthusiasts head straight for the majesty of Machu Picchu or the wonder of Patagonia, they often miss out on one of the most wild and spectacular areas in South America.

Ciudad Perdida, also known as the Lost City, is found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Santa Marta in Colombia. It is a remote area, only accessible by hiking and the trek takes 5-6 days through ancient paths in the jungle, over 25km of coca plantations, across numerous rivers and finally 1200 steep steps to the top.

A pulsar with a tremendous hiccup

Max Planck scientists discover a young and energetic neutron star with unusually irregular rotation

Pulsars are superlative cosmic beacons. These compact neutron stars rotate about their axes many times per second, emitting radio waves and gamma radiation into space.  Using ingenious data analysis methods, researchers from the Max Planck Institutes for Gravitational Physics and for Radio Astronomy, in an international collaboration, dug a very special gamma-ray pulsar out of data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The pulsar J1838-0537 is radio-quiet, very young, and, during the observation period, experienced the strongest rotation glitch ever observed for a gamma-ray-only pulsar.