Trumpet Frenzy

Why Brass Musicians Can't Resist Serbia's Wildest Festival

Every August, Serbians celebrate the trumpet - or, more accurately, the flugelhorn - at the Guča Trumpet Festival, which brings more than half a million people to a tiny Serbian village for a riotous weekend of music and drinking.

In 2010, New York’s Zlatne Uste became the first American group to compete at Guča, where Serbian orchestras have long battled for the title of best band in the country. The band's journey caught the attention of Adam Pogoff, who produced 'Brasslands,' a documentary film about the 2010 Guča festival, 11 years after NATO waged the Kosovo War against Serbia.

Most Influential Psychologists Working Today

The quest to understand the workings of human thought and behavior can be traced back to ancient peoples. Before it was established as a scientific discipline, the study of psychology was of interest to many great thinkers and philosophers.

These days, it has become a popular field, even outside the realm of science. After all, psychology influences so many different spheres of life, from marketing, education and entertainment to economics and even law enforcement. Here is a list of 30 of the most influential psychologists who continue to do groundbreaking and far-reaching work today.

Hoaxes That Fooled The World

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It's distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.

There have always been hoaxes (even before the Internet), and we've all fallen for them at one time or another.

Random Celebrity Photos

Ginger Rogers at the beach, 1936.

Little Red Riding Hood

1st-Century Roots of 'Little Red Riding Hood' Found

Using analytical models, a researcher traces the roots of the fairy tale to oral traditions in Asia and Africa.

Early uses of chili peppers in Mexico

Chili peppers may have been used to make spicy beverages thousands of years ago in Mexico, according to new research published November 13 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Terry Powis at Kennesaw State University and colleagues from other institutions.

This photo shows the vessels that tested positive for Capsicum. Each vessel had
a culinary use [Credit: Roberto Lopez and Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta]

Capsicum species are usually referred to as chili peppers, and their uses are well known in the history of Spain and Portugal. There are relatively few sites in Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America that contain remains of Capsicum, and therefore, we know little about how groups such as the Mayans and the Mixe-Zoquean, inhabitants of the site studied here, used chili peppers in those regions.

In this study, the authors used chemical extractions to reveal the presence of Capsicum residues in pottery samples from a site in southern Mexico. Some of these pottery vessels were over 2000 years old, dating from 400 BC to 300 AD.

They found Capsicum residue in multiple types of jars and vessels, which suggests that those cultures may have been using chili peppers for many different culinary purposes. For instance, Capsicum was found in a vessel called a sprouted jar, which is used for pouring a liquid into another container. The authors suggest that chili peppers may have been used to prepare spicy beverages or dining condiments.

Powis elaborates, "The significance of our study is that it is the first of its kind to detect ancient chili pepper residues from early Mixe-Zoquean pottery in Mexico. While our findings of Capsicum species in these Preclassic pots provides the earliest evidence of chili consumption in well-dated Mesoamerican archaeological contexts, we believe our scientific study opens the door for further collaborative research into how the pepper may have been used either from a culinary, pharmaceutical, or ritual perspective during the last few centuries before the time of christ."

Oldest large body of ancient seawater identified under Chesapeake Bay

USGS scientists have determined that high-salinity groundwater found more than 1,000 meters (0.6 mi.) deep under the Chesapeake Bay is actually remnant water from the Early Cretaceous North Atlantic Sea and is probably 100-145 million years old. This is the oldest sizeable body of seawater to be identified worldwide.

Satellite picture of Chesapeake Bay (center) and Delaware Bay (upper right)
and Atlantic coast of the central-eastern United States. [Credit: NASA]

Twice as salty as modern seawater, the ancient seawater was preserved like a prehistoric fly in amber, partly by the aid of the impact of a massive comet or meteorite that struck the area about 35 million years ago, creating Chesapeake Bay.

"Previous evidence for temperature and salinity levels of geologic-era oceans around the globe have been estimated indirectly from various types of evidence in deep sediment cores," said Ward Sanford, a USGS research hydrologist and lead author of the investigation. "In contrast, our study identifies ancient seawater that remains in place in its geologic setting, enabling us to provide a direct estimate of its age and salinity."

The largest crater discovered in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay impact crater is one of only a few oceanic impact craters that have been documented worldwide.

About 35 million years ago a huge rock or chunk of ice traveling through space blasted a 56-mile-wide hole in the shallow ocean floor near what is now the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The force of the impact ejected enormous amounts of debris into the atmosphere and spawned a train of gigantic tsunamis that probably reached as far as the Blue Ridge Mountains, more than 110 miles away.

The impact of the comet or meteorite would have deformed and broken up the existing arrangement of aquifers (water-bearing rocks) and confining units (layers of rock that restrict the flow of groundwater). Virginia's "inland saltwater wedge" is a well-known phenomenon that is thought to be related to the impact crater. The outer rim of the crater appears to coincide with the boundary separating salty and fresh groundwater.

"We knew from previous observations that there is deep groundwater in quite a few areas in the Atlantic Coastal Plain around the Chesapeake Bay that have salinities higher than seawater,” said Jerad Bales, acting USGS Associate Director for Water. "Various theories related to the crater impact have been developed to explain the origin of this high salinity. But, up to this point, no one thought that this was North Atlantic Ocean water that had essentially been in place for about 100 million years."

"This study gives us confidence that we are working directly with seawater that dates far back in Earth’s history,” Bales continued. “The study also has heightened our understanding of the geologic context of the Chesapeake Bay region as it relates to improving our understanding of hydrology in the region."

The research study appears in the November 14 issue of the journal Nature.

Ziggy

Nazca archaeological sites in danger

Illegal use and occupation of land near Ica is worrying cultural and archaeological authorities in the area.

Illegal occupation of protected lands near Ica has led to damage to Nazca culture
archaeological sites in the area [Credit: Flickr/Patrick Nouhailler]

According to El Comercio, ‘invasores’ (‘invaders’) have taken possession of two large tracts of land in a protected area. El Comercio reports that several groups of lines and trapezoid shapes have been destroyed by machinery, and the occupants of the land have also constructed a stone fence, as well as divided the territory into lots, abandoned equipment there, and vandalized the area.

El Comercio reports that cultural authorities are unsure what to do in the face of such destruction. “We’re surprised by the indifference shown by the ‘invasores’ about preserving this legacy,” said Giuseppe Orefici, Director of the Center for Pre Columbian Archaeological Studies and the Nasca Project. Orefici also told El Comercio that these kinds of “invasions” have become very common in the area.

According to Orefici, the problem isn’t just that people come and take the land— rather, it’s that no one seems to be doing anything about it. “And adding to the illegal action [of taking the protected land], you have to add the indifference of the authorities who are supposed to be protecting the cultural heritage […] they generally don’t act until well after the damage has been done, and it’s irreversible,” explained the archaeologist.

Orefici is fed up with inaction. “It’s imperative that the cultural authorities take on their responsibility, that they mark off and put of signs denoting archaeological sites […] and take action towards sanctioning the ‘invasores,’ because they keep destroying protected sites in Nasca with impunity,” said Orefici.

Hubble views an old and mysterious cluster

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best ever image of the globular cluster Messier 15, a gathering of very old stars that orbits the center of the Milky Way. This glittering cluster contains over 100,000 stars, and could also hide a rare type of black hole at its center.

This cluster of stars is known as Messier 15, and is located some 35 000 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (The Winged Horse). It is one of the oldest globular clusters known, with an age of around 12 billion years. Both very hot blue stars and cooler golden stars can be seen swarming together in the image, becoming more concentrated towards the cluster's bright centre. Messier 15 is one of the densest globular clusters known, with most of its mass concentrated at its core. As well as stars, Messier 15 was the first cluster known to host a planetary nebula, and it has been found to have a rare type of black hole at its centre. This new image is made up of observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum [Credit: NASA, ESA]

This multi-colored firework display is a cluster of stars known as Messier 15, located some 35,000 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (The Winged Horse). It is one of the oldest globular clusters [1] known, with an age of around 12 billion years.

Very hot blue stars and cooler golden stars are seen swarming together in this image, becoming more concentrated towards the cluster's bright center. Messier 15 is one of the densest globular clusters known, with most of its mass concentrated at its core.

However, this sparkling bauble has hidden secrets. Astronomers studying the cluster with Hubble in 2002 found there to be something dark and mysterious lurking at its heart. It could either be a collection of dark neutron stars [2], or an intermediate-mass black hole. Of the two possibilities it is more likely that Messier 15 harbors a black hole at its center, as does the massive globular cluster Mayall II.

This is an animation of a rare and exotic intermediate-mass black hole at the centre of a star cluster, similar to the one thought to be at the centre of globular cluster Messier 15. Studying these unusual black holes could tell us about how such objects grow and evolve within both star clusters and galaxies [Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser]

Intermediate-mass black holes are thought to form either from the merging of several smaller, stellar-mass black holes, or as a result of a collision between massive stars in dense clusters. A third possibility is that they were formed during the Big Bang. In terms of mass they lie between the more commonly found stellar-mass and supermassive types of black hole [3], and could tell us about how black holes grow and evolve within clusters like Messier 15, and within galaxies.

As well as this black hole, Messier 15 is known to house a planetary nebula, Pease 1 [4] -- and it was the first globular known to contain one of these objects [5]. This nebula is visible as the bright blue object just to the left of the cluster's center.

This new image is made up of observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys in the ultraviolet, infrared and optical parts of the spectrum.

Notes

[1] A globular cluster is a roughly spherical group of stars that orbits the core of a galaxy. The Milky Way has over 150 of these starry satellites -- including Messier 15. However, other galaxies have many more than this; a staggering 160,000 were recently discovered by Hubble in the galaxy cluster Abell 1689 (heic1317). Globular clusters contain some of the most ancient stars in the Universe.

[2] A neutron star is formed from the collapse of a massive star. They are very hot and very dense, with an average mass of around two solar masses contained within a radius of tens of kilometers.

[3] Stellar-mass black holes have masses of a few to a few tens of times the mass of the Sun. Supermassive black holes have masses ranging from hundreds of thousands to billions of times the mass of the Sun.

[4] Pease 1 is also known as PN Ku 648, or Kürster 648.

[5] Since the discovery of Pease 1, only three other globular clusters have been found to host planetary nebulae: Messier 22, NGC 6441, and Palomar 6. This number is so low because planetary nebulae are a very brief, short-lived phase at the end of the lives of low to moderate mass stars -- which are not common within globular clusters.

New model explains why Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot has not disappeared

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is one of the solar system's most mysterious landmarks. Based on what scientists understand about fluid dynamics, this massive storm -- which is big enough to engulf Earth two or three times over -- should have disappeared centuries ago.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in 2000 as seen by NASA's Cassini orbiter [Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute]

Pedram Hassanzadeh, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and Philip Marcus, a professor of fluid dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley, think they can explain why. Their work, which Hassanzadeh will present at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics in Pittsburgh on November 25, also provides insight into persistent ocean eddies and vortices that contribute to star and planet formation.

"Based on current theories, the Great Red Spot should have disappeared after several decades. Instead, it has been there for hundreds of years," said Hassanzadeh, who is a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard's Center for the Environment and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Many processes dissipate vortices like the Red Spot, Hassanzadeh explained. The turbulence and waves in and around the Red Spot sap the energy of its winds. The vortex also loses energy by radiating heat. Finally, the Red Spot sits between two strong jet streams that flow in opposite directions and may slow down its spinning.

Some researchers argue that the Red Spot gains energy by absorbing smaller vortices. "Some computer models show that large vortices would live longer if they merge with smaller vortices, but this does not happen often enough to explain the Red Spot's longevity," Marcus said.

To probe the mystery of the Red Spot's survival, Hassanzadeh and Marcus built a model of their own. It differed from existing models because it was fully three dimensional and had very high resolution. Many vortex models focus on the swirling horizontal winds, where most of the energy resides. Vortices also have vertical flows, but these have much less energy.

"In the past, researchers either ignored the vertical flow because they thought it was not important, or they used simpler equations because it was so difficult to model," Hassanzadeh said.

Yet the vertical motion turns out to hold the key to the Red Spot's persistence. As the vortex loses energy, the vertical flow transports hot gases from above and cold gases from below the vortex toward its center, restoring part of its lost energy.

The model also predicts a radial flow, which sucks winds from the high-speed jet streams toward the vortex center. This pumps energy into the vortex, enabling it to last longer.

According to Hassanzadeh, the same vertical flow could explain why oceanic vortices, such as those formed near the Straits of Gibraltar, can last for years in the Atlantic Ocean. Their vertical flow plays a role in the ocean ecosystem by lifting nutrients to the surface.

Vortices may also midwife the formation of stars and planets, lasting for millions of years as they pull interstellar dust and rocks into large masses.

Hassanzadeh and Marcus know their model does not entirely explain the Red Spot's long life span. They believe the occasional absorption of smaller vortices, consistent with observation, may provide the extra energy needed for hundreds of years of life. They have begun modifying their computer model to test this thesis.

Perhaps, one day, Jupiter's Great Red Spot will seem a little less mysterious.

Astronomical News

Taking a Closer Look at Mysterious Pluto

This is Pluto, rendered from real data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Mars Probe to Study How Planet Lost Its Water

Where did all the water go? A new Mars probe, MAVEN, aims to find out.

After ISON Outbust, Comet Now Naked Eye Object

Get ready for a stellar show. The much-anticipated Comet ISON is now visible to the naked eye according to reports from many observers.

The First Aliens We Discover May Be Purple

In our quest to discover strange new life on strange new worlds, a group of astronomers have determined that if we are to detect extraterrestrial biology, we should fine-tune our search to the color purple.

Daily Comic Relief

Head-butting did not lure mates for horny-domed dinosaur

Pachycephalosaurus is famous for its appearance in the movie Jurassic Park: The Lost World, where one is shown battering a man and his car. To achieve the feat the dinosaur used its greatly-thickened skull, which is one of its unique features. But for many years there has been a feud between researchers about the real-life role of this skull.

Reconstruction of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis with cranial lesion
[Credit: PLOS, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068620.g009]

The dome-shaped skull is often decorated with knobs and spikes, which made some researchers think that the skull of pachycephalosaurs was for some sort of sexual display. But now, in a new study published in PLOS ONE, researchers have shown that pachycephalosaurs were into head-butting far before Zinedine Zidane. They used it as a weapon against rivals.

To work out whether pachycephalosaur skulls were for lovers or fighters, Joseph Peterson of the University of Wisconsin looked at the "wounds" of specimens recovered from palaeontological digsites. He found that more than 20% showed signs of having suffered from combat. More interestingly, most of the wounds appeared at the top of the skull. This bit of the skull could only have been used so often if it was used as a weapon. This pattern is seen across most of the 14 analysed species in a decent sample-size of 109 skulls.

There is a possibility that these "wound marks" were caused after the animal had died, for example by getting hit by pebbles in a river. But Peterson published another study testing this hyphothesis using a method called "experimental taphonomy". The idea is to reconstruct the post-mortem activities that might have influenced an animals' transformation into a fossil. This also involves factoring processes like tissue degradation.

Hypothetical head-to-head interactions among pachycephalosaurids
[Credit: PLOS, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068620.g009]

Peterson created several casts of pachycephalosaur skulls of almost identical density and consistency as bone. He then plopped them in a flume which can mimic the flow of water and sediments within a stream. They found that the skull domes landed either on their top or bottom surfaces. If erosional damage did leave marks, you would expect to find scars on both sides of the skull. But that wasn't the case with the skulls Peterson used for the analysis.

Such traumatic scars are arguably more value than the fossils they are scorched onto. Whereas a standard bone tells us about when an animal died, the traces left behind on these, such as bite marks or other combat wounds, give us an insight into the behavior of animals that have been dead for 66 million years.

It also shows that palaeontology is a lot like trying to solve a rubik's cube – we have a jumble of information, which needs to be solved to give us the story. In the process we are led down different paths or interpretations of that data – and sometimes we need to go backwards. But there are times when exquisite and rare fossils, and their accompanying studies such as this, give us a completed face to continue forward and discover ever more. Maybe one day we'll be able to solve the cube.

Rome drowns in bird droppings as austerity bites

Rome is facing a "guano alarm" as millions of starlings leave the city covered in a thick layer of droppings.

Some four million starlings annually overwinter in the capital, but this year spending cuts have derailed efforts to discourage the birds from settling in central areas.

In previous years, anti-starling measures have included pruning plane trees and broadcasting amplified cries of birds of prey through loudspeakers. But such efforts have not been put into action in 2013, so the birds have deposited a thick layer of droppings on streets, vehicles and buildings.

The tree-lined Lungotevere, the boulevard running along the river Tiber, is particularly badly affected. Sections of it are thick with droppings, creating slip hazards for pedestrians, cyclists and motorbike riders alike. Pedestrians arm themselves with umbrellas or run for cover. The situation is so bad that some residents bang on pots and pans in the streets and squares to scare the birds away.

There's a photo gallery here.

Kangaroo returned home after being spotted hopping down Texas highway

On Tuesday night, a kangaroo was on the loose in Midland County, Texas. "I've seen a lot of weird stuff but I've never seen anything like that," Ryan Murray said. Murray was driving on Highway 158 when he pulled up on an unusual scene. "I saw all these cops and I was wondering what was going on and then I saw the silhouette of a little baby kangaroo," Murray said.

The kangaroo was hopping around Midland County, like it was the outback. Murray pulled out his phone and started recording. "I couldn't believe it," Murray said. "I was like that's pretty strange." Midland County deputies couldn't believe it either. The initial call had them scratching their heads.

"They were questioning the call you know, kangaroo? In Midland, Texas? There ain't no kangaroos out here, surely it's gotta be something different," Midland County Sheriff, Gary Painter, said. "They thought dispatch was crazy so they went out there and sure enough they found it."

YouTube link.

It turns out, the animal got loose from its owner who was also trying to find him. Deputies cornered the kangaroo while the owner distracted him. "He got out of the car and then had a treat and as soon as he reached in to grab the treat, he scooped him up," Murray said. The animal is now back with its owner.

Tasmanian Devils

Tasmanian devils: Will rare infectious cancer lead to their extinction?

Taz, was his name, the Tasmanian devil of Warner Bros. cartoon fame. A scrappy omnivore who ate anything and everything, he spun in a vortex and bit through everything in his path. The devil was […]

Animal News

Sweet Methuselah! Oldest Animals on the Planet

Check out these five animals that smash longevity records.

Old Dog, New Origin: First Pooches Were European

Dogs were first domesticated by European hunter-gatherers, according to a new genetic analysis of prehistoric dog remains.

Ocean Glow Stick: Sea Worm Emits Strange Glow

A common sea worm glows blue in ways that are uncommon in the world of bioluminescent organisms.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

The Cute Factor ...!

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Today is - Homemade Bread Day

 

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