World’s oldest cave art found on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia.
Hand stencils on the walls of limestone caves in Indonesia. (Image courtesy of Nature Magazine.)
Cave art found in Limestone caves of Indonesia has been determined to be the oldest found in the world. Upon its original discovery in the 1950s, it was thought that the paintings could not be any older than 10 000 years; anything older would have deteriorated by now. However, researches have used uranium-thoring dating to establish the minimum age of the paintings. By dating the bumpy calcium carbonate that covered them, they have discovered that the oldest hand stencil is at least 39 000 years old. These discoveries have sparked a rush of interest to the other caves on the same island.
Source and more information can be found here.
Involvement of Mexican officials with the death of 43 Mexican student teachers exposed.
Investigation in process at the site of the mass grave. Bodies were doused in gasoline before being burned. (Image courtesy of The New York Times.)
Twenty eight disembodied and burned corpses were recovered from mass graves on the outskirts of Iguala, Guerrero state, Mexico. These bodies are believed to belong to Mexican teaching students who went missing after their buses, ferrying them to a rally against school budget cuts, were attacked by police. Two gang members of the Guerrero Unidos gang have confessed to the murder of 17 of the students, and have given statements expressing that the police chief and Iguala Director of Public Security, Francisco Vallardes ordered them to pursue the students. The order to kill the students came from a local gang leader, El Chucky.
Source and more information can be found here.
$30 million U.S. military aircraft crash lands in Lincolnshire field; pilot was safely ejected.
Firefighters and emergency vehicles at the scene of the crash putting out the flaming aircraft and sealing off the area. (Image courtesy of Albanpix.com.)
A U.S. $30-million military F-15 aircraft crashed in Lincolnshire field, UK, after departure from the nearby RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The pilot was successfully ejected out of his seat and only suffered minor injuries, and there were no civilian casualties. The plane crashed in an isolated field, at least 100 meters from the closest residents. However, the nearby elementary school was evacuated after the right wing of the plane landed in a field 400m away from the school. Boundaries have been placed since and it is currently unadvised for the public to be near the crash site due to the ongoing investigation.
Source and more information can be found here.
Study reveals that captive orcas are capable of imitating the vocalizations of dolphins.
Killer whales are among the few animals capable of vocal learning. (Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)
Two years ago, on 20 January, 2012, an article was released by Science Magazine that proved that dolphins could imitate the sounds of whales and other animals. The research is now supported by a new study published this month in Acoustical Society of America. It demonstrates that captive orcas living with bottlenose dolphins are able to mimic their sounds. The study is based on the analysis of seven captive orcas living exclusively with other orcas, and three orcas living exclusively with bottlenose dolphins. Other species that are able to modify their voices include humans, birds, elephants, bats, and seals.
Source and more information can be found here.
The use of stem cells to produce beta cells is the first step towards the cure for type 1 diabetes.
The production of beta cells from human embryonic stem cells. (Image courtesy of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute).
A team at Harvard University, spearheaded by Professor Doug Melton, has led to a “potentially major medical breakthrough” in finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of beta cells in the pancreas by the immune system, which are responsible for producing insulin to bring down blood sugar levels. The body’s immune system attacks the beta cells and prevents the regulation of blood sugar levels, destroying around 150 million insulin-producing beta cells in the human body.
Professor Melton and his team used a combination of chemicals to convert embryonic stem cells into functioning beta cells, which were tested on mice, and proved that the beta cells created in the laboratory could pump out insulin and regulate blood sugar levels for several months. The next goal is not only to replace the beta cells but also to eliminate the immune response in order to enable long-term function and sustainability of the cells in the body.
Source and more information can be found here.
