Rocket News » Science

Life in Antarctic lake? It’s everywhere else (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:21:50 +0000

WASHINGTON – If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake two miles beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places.

And it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth.

Russian researchers reported Wednesday that they had reached Lake Vostok, a pristine body of water untouched by light or wind for about 20 million years. They want to know what type of microbial life — bacteria too small to see — might exist there.

Finding microbes may not sound like much. But they were the first form of Earth life eons before plants and animals existed.

If scientists find these tiny germs in Lake Vostok, it bolsters already strong hope that elsewhere in our solar system, life also might exist where once it didn’t seem possible.

There are plenty of examples of life forms existing in the most

Researchers probe 200-year-old shipwreck off RI (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:21:31 +0000

WESTERLY, R.I. – For two centuries it rested a mile from shore, shrouded by a treacherous reef from the pleasure boaters and beachgoers who haunt New England’s southern coast.

Now, researchers from the U.S. Navy are hoping to confirm what the men who discovered the wreck believe: that the sunken ship off the coast of Rhode Island is the USS Revenge, commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry and lost on a stormy January day in 1811.

“The Revenge was forgotten, it became a footnote,” said Charlie Buffum, a brewery owner from Stonington, Conn., who found the shipwreck while diving with friend Craig Harger. “We are very confident this is it.”

On Wednesday, Buffum and Harger braved the raw weather of Block Island Sound to accompany the researchers as they surveyed the wreck site. The Navy — along with help from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — is using high-tech sensor equipment to map the

Mexican experts excited to find ancient home ruins (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:21:19 +0000

MEXICO CITY – The ruins aren’t particularly impressive, just some stone and clay footings for houses that probably supported walls of wood or clay wattle. And it’s that very ordinariness that has experts excited.

The remnants being uncovered in the hills east of Mexico City at a spot known as Amecameca are from an ancient neighborhood — a home to regular folks.

“What makes this important is that it is a residential area, not a ceremonial or religious site,” said Felipe Echenique, a historian for the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, which is in charge of reviewing the site.

“In Mexico, we really have very little evidence of how the cities really were, or how people lived,” said Echenique, who was not involved in the dig but is familiar with preliminary findings.

Towering pyramids in Mexico like Chichen Itza or temple complexes like Uxmal are well known, but the vast urban

Life in Antarctic lake? It’s everywhere else (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:21:06 +0000

And it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth.

Finding microbes may not sound like much. But they were the first form of Earth life eons before plants and animals existed.

If scientists find these tiny germs in Lake Vostok, it bolsters already strong hope that elsewhere in our solar system, life also might exist where once it didn’t seem possible.

There are plenty of examples of life forms existing in the most

Researchers probe 200-year-old shipwreck off RI (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:57 +0000

WESTERLY, R.I. – For two centuries it rested a mile from shore, shrouded by a treacherous reef from the pleasure boaters and beachgoers who haunt New England’s southern coast.

Researchers probe 200-year-old shipwreck off RI (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:52 +0000

WESTERLY, R.I. – For two centuries it rested a mile from shore, shrouded by a treacherous reef from the pleasure boaters and beachgoers who haunt New England’s southern coast.

Mexican experts excited to find ancient home ruins (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:49 +0000

The remnants being uncovered in the hills east of Mexico City at a spot known as Amecameca are from an ancient neighborhood — a home to regular folks.

“In Mexico, we really have very little evidence of how the cities really were, or how people lived,” said Echenique, who was not involved in the dig but is familiar with preliminary findings.

Towering pyramids in Mexico like Chichen Itza or temple complexes like Uxmal are well known, but the vast urban

Mexican experts excited to find ancient home ruins (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:43 +0000

The remnants being uncovered in the hills east of Mexico City at a spot known as Amecameca are from an ancient neighborhood — a home to regular folks.

“In Mexico, we really have very little evidence of how the cities really were, or how people lived,” said Echenique, who was not involved in the dig but is familiar with preliminary findings.

Towering pyramids in Mexico like Chichen Itza or temple complexes like Uxmal are well known, but the vast urban

Nearly 1 in 20 US adults over 50 have fake knees (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:41 +0000

CHICAGO – Nearly 1 in 20 Americans older than 50 have artificial knees, or more than 4 million people, according to the first national estimate showing how common these replacement joints have become in an aging population.

Doctors know the number of knee replacement operations has surged in the past decade, especially in baby boomers. But until now, there was no good fix on the total number of people living with them.

The estimate is important because it shows that a big segment of the population might need future knee-related care, said Dr. Daniel Berry, president of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and chairman of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He was not involved in the research.

People with knee replacements sometimes develop knee infections or scar tissue that require additional treatment. But also, even artificial knees wear out, so as the operations are increasingly done on younger

Nearly 1 in 20 US adults over 50 have fake knees (AP)

Editor - Science News — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:36 +0000

Doctors know the number of knee replacement operations has surged in the past decade, especially in baby boomers. But until now, there was no good fix on the total number of people living with them.