the-BA : Science News Digest

Stonehenge (image copyright: istockphoto.com)

In the science news this week: an excavation that could unlock the mystery of Stonehenge, creation of the first human-animal cybrids, and discovery of a baby planet. Plus, some monkey medicine…

The first excavation to take place inside Stonehenge’s ring for more than 40 years is under way. It aims to unlock the secrets of the monument’s purpose as well as establishing, once and for all, when it was first created.

Two of the UK’s leading Stonehenge experts - Professor Tim Darvill of the University of Bournemouth and Professor Geoff Wainwright of the Society of Antiquaries - will lead the BBC-funded research that is being filmed for a special Timewatch programme.

They have traced the bluestone rocks that stand in the centre of Stonehenge to their exact point of origin in the Welsh Preseli hills, some 250km away. Neolithic inscriptions found there indicate the local ancient people believed the stones to be magical and that the local waters had healing properties and they hope the dig - involving a 3.5m by 2.5 m trench - will demonstrate that such beliefs also lay behind the creation of Stonehenge.

The idea of its role as a place to go to be cured, a ‘Neolithic Lourdes’, is supported by the fact that a significant proportion of newly discovered remains show clear signs of poor health - such a broken bones, skull operations or factors that would have caused a limp - and had travelled long distances to get to the area.

The Chief Executive of English Heritage (which manages the site), Dr Simon Thurley, commented: ‘Very occasionally, we have the opportunity to find out something new archeologically - we are at that moment now. We believe that this dig has a chance of genuinely unlocking part of the mystery of Stonehenge.’
(Read more at BBC News)
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The discovery of what is believed to be the oldest unambiguous evidence for humans in the Americas was published in the journal Science. The fossilised faeces have been confirmed by genetic testing as being of human origin and radiocarbon dating indicates they are 14,00-14,300-years-old, reported the Times.

The discovery, in the Paisley Caves on the US Pacific coast, predates any other confirmed New World human archaeological site - including examples of the ‘Clovis culture’, known across North America from distinctive spearheads and dated to about 12,900 years ago. Until recently, these people had long been considered the first Americans, until the discovery of apparently dissimilar and older stone implements were discovered in Chile. The new coprolite evidence predates both of these.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA obtained from the dried excrement strongly supports the theory that these humans migrated to the American continent from Siberia.

Alongside the coprolites, the Paisley Caves yielded other artefacts such as fine threads made from plant fibres and animal sinews, baskets, cords, wooden pegs and projectile points.
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In other news, astronomers announced at the Royal Astronomical Society’s annual conference in Belfast that they have observed a protoplanet in the first stages of formation around the star HL Tau, 520 light years from Earth. Named HL Tau b, the embryonic planet could be the youngest ever observed, potentially just a few hundred years old, and is condensing from dust in a disc around the young star.

‘The planet will probably take millions of years to settle down into its final form something like Jupiter,’ lead researcher Jane Greaves, of the University of St Andrews, told the Times. ‘We really are seeing it very early - even a bit like the first cells that make up a human embryo in the womb.’
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The first footage of a solar ‘tsunami’ speeding through the Sun’s atmosphere has been captured by Nasa’s twin Stereo spacecraft. The details were also reported at the astronomy conference.

Whilst solar tsunamis (that involve a wave of pressure travelling through gas rather than water) were originally discovered almost a decade ago, the observations didn’t fit well with theory as the waves appeared to be travelling too slowly. However, the faster imaging rate allowed by the two Stereo spacecraft have revealed that previously the speed of the waves had been underestimated and that in fact the observations did match theoretical predictions.

Solar tsunamis are caused by huge explosions such as coronal mass ejections or flares. The tsunami in the footage took place on 19 May 2007 and lasted for about 35 minutes, hurtling through the Sun’s atmosphere at over a million kilometres per hour. It can be watched on the BBC News website.

‘The energy released in these explosions is phenomenal; about two billion times the annual world energy consumption in just a fraction of a second,’ commented David Long, from Trinity College Dublin. ‘In half an hour, we saw the tsunami cover almost the full disc of the Sun, nearly a million kilometres away from the epicentre.’
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Further evidence indicating that solar activity is not behind modern day climate change has been produced by physicists from Lancaster University.

The cosmic ray hypothesis proposed by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark claims that when solar wind is weak, more cosmic rays make it to Earth. This results in more charged particles in the atmosphere, leading to greater cloud formation and cooling the climate. The opposite would be true during weak solar output, and as a result the planet would warm up.

This hypothesis is popular among climate change sceptics and shot to fame in the controversial 2006 documentary The Great Global Warmin Swindle. However, the latest research by the Lancaster team failed to find any significant link between solar activity and cloud cover, despite using three different methods to search for a correlation.
(Read more at BBC News)
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BBC News also reported that the government has announced a shortlist of ‘eco-towns’. 10 sites will be finalised in the next six months. Ministers want five built by 2016, with the remainder completed by 2020. They will be the first new towns in England since the 1960s. In addition to providing affordable new housing, they are intended to be carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials that are also exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal.
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However, in related BBC news, according to a National House-Building Council Foundation study UK homeowners aren’t prepared to make the changes necessary to live in ‘zero carbon’ homes.

The report, carried out by research organisation EPR, was based on more than 500 interviews with homeowners and nine focus groups. It found buyers feared extra expense and maintenance, and an impact on what appliances they could use. Rather than considering energy efficiency when choosing a new home, most respondents preferred a better bathroom or kitchen.

‘What has happened since the Stern Review is that there has been a general understanding of global warming and carbon emissions. But the debate about house building has largely been between government, regulators and the construction industry; in short, the supply side,’ explained NHBC Chief Executive Imtiaz Farookhi. ‘The demand side - home-buyers and home-owners - actually haven’t been involved in this process. Unless people actually understand and engage in this, they are not going to be willing to buy these homes and change their lifestyles.’
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Scientists at Newcastle University confirmed this week that they have created human-animal ‘hybrid’ embryos in Britain using a mammalian egg for the first time, reported the Independent. The license to conduct the research was granted earlier this year by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority after governmental consultation.

The work is part of an effort to help understand and develop treatments for conditions such as motor neuron disease, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease.

The cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) were genetically 99.9 per cent human, produced by introducing human genetic material into cow egg cells that had the majority of their own DNA removed. The cybrids survived for three days in a test tube. The preliminary findings were presented at a conference in Israel but have not yet been verified by peer-review.

While some groups are ethically opposed, with the Catholic Church describing it as ‘monstrous’, a HFEA consultation found that 61 per cent of the public are in favour, if it is used to improve understanding of serious diseases.

The House of Commons is due to debate the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill next month. If passed, it will confirm the arrangements for regulation of this type of research.
(Further discussion of the background behind the research is available from the Times)
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The Telegraph reported that evidence is emerging that medicine is not purely a human occupation, but is also practised by fellow primates.

Chimpanzees in Uganda have been found to eat a particular kind of soil rich in the clay mineral kaolinite, as well as leaves from trichilia rubescens trees. Scientists replicated the effects of mastication, gastic and intestinal digestion of the soil and leaves in the laboratory. To their surprise, they found that the leaves had no significant effects if the soil wasn’t present, but if they were digested together, the mixture developed anti-malarial properties.

In another remarkable example of self-medication, chimps sick with parasitic worm infections have been found to swallow leaves whole - apparently to flush the worms out of their systems (unchewed leaves have a laxative-like action, and live worms have been observed entrapped in the hairy folds of swallowed leaves in chimpanzee dung).

In addition to the use of curative medication, animals have been observed demonstrating preventative behaviour. For example, baboons in Saudia Arabia dig drinking holes next to murky, algae-tainted pools and then patiently wait for the water to filter through the sand.

In Costa Rica capuchin monkeys rub each other’s fur with citrus fruits during the rainy season, and the citrus oils help repel insects and fight bacterial and fungal infections. Likewise, for weeper capuchins in Venezuela, millipedes secretions are the ointment of choice - acting as an antiseptic and repelling mosquitos and ticks.

Experts on ape culture also believe it is easy to conclude that the animals can learn symptoms, medicines and dosages from their peers.
(Read the article for other interesting examples)
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Other news in brief:

A new study has revealed that, while climate change pushed the woolly mammoth to the point of extinction, it was mankind that delivered the ‘coup de grace’ - the final shove into oblivion.
(The Telegraph)
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The long-awaited marine Bill has been published by the government. It includes the creation of a new agency, the Marine Management organisation to enforce environmental laws and regulate development at sea, as well as pledging better protection for wildlife, with the creation of ‘marine conservation zones’, and better management of inshore fisheries.
(BBC News)
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The first manned hydrogen-powered plane has successfully undergone three test flights. The Chief Technology Officer of Boeing, who developed the small, propeller-driven craft, said the flights were ‘a historical technological success’ and ‘full of promises for a greener future’.
(BBC News)
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And finally…

With the start of the month came April Fool’s Day. Professor Steve Jones took a look in the Telegraph at some of the jokes scientists have come up with over the years. These included Patrick Moore’s announcement 30 years ago that the alignment of Pluto behind Jupiter at a precise moment in the morning would reduce the force of gravity on Earth. Thousands leapt, to experience the odd sense of floating promised - and hundreds claimed that they had indeed felt the effect.

Meanwhile 10 years ago biologists orchestrated a hoax announcing that the state of Alabama had changed the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159... to a ‘Biblical value’ of precisely three. The School Board supposedly issued a statement that the new value should be included in textbooks as an alternative to the old since the figure was ‘only a theory’ - mocking the state’s real attempts to do the same with creationism versus evolution.
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Also in the Telegraph was the news that horses can count. It wasn’t published on April 1st, although it may sound like an April Fool.

100 years ago a horse known as Clever Hans caused a sensation with his apparent ability to carry out simple arithmetic. However, investigation by a psychologist revealed that the horse wasn’t actually counting, but interpreting the reactions of his owner and other observers. Since then nobody has been able to demonstrate any mathematical abilities in horses. Until now.

Dr Claudia Uller, of the University of Essex, told the British Psychological conference in Dublin: ‘Our results suggest that horses too, and not only primates, are able to spontaneously discriminate between two small numbers.’

Using fake fruit, to ensure no difference in smell, horses were offered a choice between a bucket containing three plastic apples and another containing two. 11 out of 13 horses consistently chose the bucket containing three. When 12 different horses were shown a box holding either two small apples or another containing a single large apple with double the surface area, all but two selected the greater number of apples.