Discoveries & Inventions Around The World

Antarctica Mistery - Strange Fossil Forests Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 12:32:00 +0000

(Image credit: Erik Gulbranson)
A fossilized Glossopteris tree in the Transantarctic Mountains grew there some 280 million years ago, before being covered with volcanic ash and turned to stone. This is now an extinct species that used to dominate the landscape of South Pole once. During that time the Earth's climate was much warmer.

"Trees in Antarctica" - sounds weird... right? Quite surprisingly, researchers have indicated lush green forests in the Antarctica!

Earlier 2018 scientists have discovered fossil forests on the Earth's southern-most continent - Antarctica. The discovery of 280-million-year-old tree stump still attached to its roots in Antarctica suggests that the continent wasn't a desert of ice as this is known today. The land was green, as trees used to grow near the south pole when Antarctica was a part of southern hemisphere landmass called Gondwana.

The newly discovered fossils of some of those trees that grew there, indicates the existence of plants in the Anractica region. According to the researchers that there were forests that might look much like the ones that we can see warmer parts of the Earth today. Erik Gulbranson, a paleoecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said, "Antarctica preserves an ecologic history of polar biomes that ranges for about 400 million years, which is basically the entirety of plant evolution."
From about 400 million to 14 million years ago Antarctica was a greener and warmer place - much different from what is it today! The trees that used to survive at that time could cope up with the extremely chilling winters with 24 hours of darkness and summers with 24 hours of daylight (much like what we find today).

Gulbranson along with his working partners have worked hard in the middle of the intensely cold bone-chilling ice desert to excavate the fossil remains of the trees.
Around 250 million years ago there were Permian-Triassic mass extinction, when almost 95 percent of Earth's species came to an end. The oceans got acidified. The Permian mass extinction was probably due to severe emissions of greenhouse gas from the volcanoes. Before this Permian extinction time, the southern polar region used to be lively green with forests existing, where trees were those of the Glossopteris genus - the largest and best-known member of the Glossopteridales. This was informed to "Live Science" by Gulbranson. According to Gulbranson, those plants were extremely large that grew from 65 to 131 feet tall. They had broad, flat leaves that were longer than a human arm.

In 2016, while hunting for the fossils, Gulbranson and his team discovered the oldest polar forest in the southern polar region. They According to the researchers, the large forest might have flourished about 280 million years ago before being buried in poisonous volcanic ash. But, quite interestingly, the forests did not die out completely; they evolved into a new form of evergreen and deciduous trees.

According to Gulbranson, the trees turned into fossil, but they were so wonderfully preserved in the rock that some of the amino-acids The plants are so well-preserved in rock that some of the amino-acid that built the protein of those trees could still be extracted. Isn't this surprisingly interesting?
Gulbranson said, by studying these chemical building blocks, the mystery how those trees could sustain the weird sunlight conditions of the southern latitudes would be clear. He also said, we will know the factors that allowed those plants to thrive but drove Glossopteris to its extinction.

Exoplanet (K2-18 b) Has Water in its Atmosphere. Could Life Exist There?

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 08:38:00 +0000

In a very recent study, a team of scientists led by professor Björn Benneke, (professor at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal) has discovered an exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system) K2-18 b that has water vapour. Scientists assumes that the exoplanet K2-18 b may like be having even clouds in the atmosphere that may rain.
This strange exoplanet exists in a habitable zone of its host star which is approximately 110 light-years from the planet Earth. Although K2-18 b was discovered in the year 2015, but it wasn't until very recent past that the water vapour in its atmosphere was detected. Interestingly, K2-18 b is orbiting a red dwarf star, which is close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as the Earth does from our start (sun).

Could this means that K2-18 b has a chance to have life on it?

Possibly yes! This study has found the evidence of liquid water and hydrogen in the atmosphere of this exoplanet and it lies is a habitable zone. Scientists assume that there is quite a good possibility that this planet is much like our Earth and may have life!

Professor BennekeSuch who was leading this research has suggested that planets with atmosphere rich in hydrogen could sustain life. But the large atmosphere of K2-18 b is very thick. Thick atmosphere creates very high-pressure conditions, which according to the professor is "likely prevents life as we know it from existing on the planet's surface". He said, the type of life that may exist in this exoplanet is "certainly not some animal crawling around on this planet." Therefore, the possibility of existence of life in K2-18 b has not been ruled out.

Drawing a conclusion here...

Exoplanet K2-18 b has water in its atmosphere and may have life on it in different forms!

The team of researchers has analysed data of the planet K2-18 b derived from the Hubble Space Telescope observations, that were made between 2016 and 2017. Based on the study the scientists concluded that they have the presence of water in the planet's atmosphere.

Could this make K2-18 b an "Earth-like planet"? "We are not quite there yet," professor BennekeSuch said, but "this is really exciting."

Similar Post: Discovery of a New Planet Leaves The Solar System With Only 8 Planets

Revolutionary Invention: Linux-powered Pen Prevents You to Make Spelling Errors

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 07:10:00 +0000

Lernshift - A Pen That Corrects Your Spelling Mistakes...

Inventors from Germany have invented a pen prevents you from making spelling mistakes. Lernstift is seemingly a normal pen with regular ink, but the first even of its kind in the world because it can vibrate when you make a spelling mistake or senses the sloppy, unreadable handwriting.

Lernshift has a built-in special motion sensor and a small battery-powered Linux computer with a Wi-Fi chip that is smart enough to detect spelling mistakes by recognizing the specific movement patterns while you write. It also recognizes the shapes of the letters and has a genuinely smart collection of words in its built-in dictionary. The vibrator starts vibrating as soon as it senses mal-formed letters and unreadable handwriting that may generate legibility issues.

Writers can choose between two options: Calligraphy Mode and Orthography Mode.

Calligraphy Mode - points out the flaws of form of letters and legibility
Orthography Mode - recognizes words and comparing each word to a language database - built-in dictionary.

New Moon (S/2004 N1) Discovered Orbiting Neptune

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 06:09:00 +0000

Image courtesey: NASA. On Monday, July 15, 2013 NASA announced the discovery of Neptune’s 14th moon

NASA researchers have spotted a tiny new moon - named S/2004 N1, revolving Neptune. This moon is the smallest one to orbit Neptune and is not more than about 12 miles across according to the observations by NASA. According to NASA the newly discovered star is approximately 100 million times fainter than the dimmest star that can be seen with the naked eye.

This discovery was almost an accident. Astronomers discovered the moon by spotting out a white dot that was found in more than 150 photos taken by Hubble Space telescope between the years 2004 and 2009. The presence of the moon was not officially confirmed until on July 1, 2013 Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, found the moon in the course of his study with the faint arcs around Neptune. Mark said, "the moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system." He added, "it's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete — the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs."

The moon takes approximately 23 hours to orbit Neptune once. According to NASA, S/2004 N1 is the 14th known moon to circle Neptune. This moon is so small small that the Voyager spacecraft could not detect it in the year 1989 when it passed close by Neptune, surveying Neptune's system of moons and rings.

Re-discovery: Corpse Eating Flies Are Back After 160 Years

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 05:24:00 +0000

Corpse-eating fly that was already officially declared to be extinct approximately 160 years ago, came back again European researchers have rediscovered the fly that had been assumed to be disappeared permanently. The fly has been currently seen after around 160 years. The study shows that these flies did not get extinct as it was thought.

These flies is called 'Corpse-eating flies' because they feed on dead bodies of animals in the "advanced stages of decay". They do not eat bodies that are recently died. The researchers have now been able to scientifically classify these fly.

Google Science Fair - 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Google science fair 2013 is almost around the corner. This online science competition is opened to all students across the globe of the age group 13 to 18. The search giant Google is in the hunt for tallents with ability to bring in twists in lifestyle. All you need is to have a Google account and students can sign up for the competition. They have to sit for an experiment or a test on their favorite subject. They have to fill in all the required information on their project. April 30, 2013 is last date for the submission.

Judgement

After the completion of first round of judgement Google will announce the 90 regional finalists. Their works will be put before the paanel of judges for more crucial reviews. After the top 15 students will be invited to the finalist event at Google\'s headquarters in Mountain View, Canada. They will have to exhibit their work to a panel of scientists, tech innovators and Nobel Laureates. For more information please visit the official site of Google Science Fair 2013

Discoveries in Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:38:00 +0000

South America is an area abundant in archeological sites, which make it one of the most attractive places for both travelers and scientists. The number of artifacts left by prehistoric and antique civilizations increases every year and new discoveries are announced for public attention frequently. One of the Latin-American countries, marked with the biggest and the most incredible sites, is Peru. Certainly, its historical heritage is much associated with Machu Picchu and Nazca Lines, left by Maya and other prehistoric civilizations. However, the archeological investigation of Peruvian lands is not satisfied with what has already been achieved and upcoming discoveries do not make us wait long.

Nazca Lines, usually called geoglyphs, is giant figures site, which covers Nazca plateau in southern Peru.In 1994 it was added to UNESCO World Heritage list regardless the discovery in 1939. One may answer why these giant paintings was not revealed before; the thing is that they were noticed during flight performance over the area, which became possible only in 1930s thanks to technological progress. In fact, the discovery of Nazca Lines has led to more questions, which nowadays bother world scientists: who and why created these figures?

One of the recent findings is related to a new road to Machu Picchu. The alternative path is 4 km long with a width of 1,7 meters. Alike most of the leading ways, it takes place on the altitude of 3,6 km in Andes mountains. The relation to Machu Picchu and, therefore, culture of indigenous Indians is non-doubtful, as far as its infrastructure is full of constructions performed in their style. Specifically, it is reflected by a rock tunnel with 28 steps, numerous drainage channels, observation posts and retaining walls 10 meters high. Practically, 70 per cent of the road remains in its original state.

Americans has made a major discovery too. Specifically, they have found a cemetery, where most of the graves belong to children under 3 years. Scientists conclude that it is a place of sacrifices, which is also confirmed by intricate ceramic paintings, assigned to Colla culture of the 13-15 th century. There are also lots of buried tributes to gods and, in addition, children were buried in special baskets. Earlier such rituals were common for Incas culture, but Americans proved its distribution over other civilizations. To date 7 similar sites were revealed.

A new archeological site was found in Peru recently, which is located in Cajamarca region. The significance of this place is preconditioned by existence of two ritual constructions. Previous estimations assume that it can be the oldest architect remains found in Peru, as far as their age reaches nearly 4 thousand years. There are also revealed places of sacrifice cults. The site is likely to be untouched by invaders, which contributes to its scientific value.

Discovery of Mountain Gorilla

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Despite public awareness of gorillas’ species, their discovery occurred about one century ago, in 1902. There are lots of controversies and ideas concerning their reveal, but the key fact is that gorillas are vivid examples of how valuable and magnificent African animal world is.

Less people know that the first one to encounter with giant gorilla was German officer Oscar von Beringe in Eastern Africa. By that time locals knew that small gorillas’ habitat embraced certain parts on the west, and discovery of gorillas in rainforests of German East Africa was an obvious surprise. In particular, von Beringe shot giant gorilla thousands kilometers away from their natural habitat. Scientists and zoologists neglected this fact because Oscar von Beringe had no scientific or even specific educational background. However, their opinion changed rapidly as they received the skeleton of murdered animal. A new species was called mountain gorilla, insomuch as it was much bigger than common ones, which were renamed into western lowland gorillas (due to natural environment).

The next stage in gorillas’ study occurred several decades later; it is associated with the name of Carl Akeley. Despite his fame of devoted conservationist and animal rights’ defender, his work in Africa started with killing these giant primates. In particular, while working at American Museum of Natural History he received an assignment to kill five gorillas for scientific research. After accomplishment of the task, Akeley returned to Africa, but in face of passionate environmentalist.

To be more précised, he put all his efforts in gorillas’ protection, alerting an attention of press and international society. One of his biggest achievements was an establishment of Alberta National Park in 1925 (Virunga National Park to date). The idea was to protect mountain gorillas’ population in their essential environment, which is why Akeley needed the permission of Belgian authorities to start the conservation. Eastern Africa was one of the Belgian colonies at the moment. Without exact population estimates Carl Akeley convinced King Albert I of Belgium in person that a national reserve would be the most effective solution of the problem. It is the story how the first biosphere reserve emerged in Africa. This park is also a place where famous scientist was buried; unfortunately, he died during the first expedition aimed to study gorillas’ living habits.

There are at least two confirmed facts familiar to people: first, gorillas are on the verge of extinction due to massive hunting and poaching; second, these primates are pretty peaceful and calm animals. The last one was proved due to numerous scientific investigations, as far as several zoologists managed to live within gorillas’ band. This merit is assigned to Dian Fossey and George Schaller. The last one succeeded to live a whole year with gorillas, armored with camera and binocular. His deed was honored with international recognition and glory.

Fact Discovered – Birth of Charlie Chaplin

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:42:00 +0000

Where was sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin born?

Until the recent times certain facts about the legendary movie star Charlie Chaplin remained unearthed, although Britain’s MI5 and the US spy agency CIA had burnt their midnight oil to grab information about star’s birth place. Almost nothing was known about the birth of Mr. Charlie Chaplin. A letter was fortunately discovered that had been laying locked in Mr. Chaplin’s bedroom. The letter was written sometime during 70s to Mr. Chaplin by Jack Hill, who used to live in Tamworth, Stafordshire. According to the letter the legendary star of the silence movies was born in a gypsy caravan somewhere in Smethwick, West Midlands in the United Kingdom.

The letter was discovered in the year 1991 by the daughter of Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin after she had inherited the desk wherein the letter was locked away for many years. In that letter Mr. Jack Hill wrote to the star that region where he was born (Smethwick, West Midlands) was under the rule of a gypsy queen. According to the letter, Me. Hill was the only man alive there who knew the fact about Charlie’s birth. Hill also wrote in the letter that Chaplin’s dad used to work with Hill’s dad in the Pat Collins troupe.

The question is if Hill’s claims have a ground to be trusted.

Researcher Ellis Edward who lives in Manchester is working hard to find if Hill’s claim in worthy enough to be trusted. Chaplin did not know where he was born, nor he had any birth certificate.

This still remain a hard nut to crack!

Ancient Egyptian Formula For Toothpaste Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Just discovered a document about the ancient Egyptian formula for toothpaste. There's no proof as to how far this information is true, but documentation have recorded that there wasn't much awareness for dental health during the ancient civilization, although some people used to use tooth paste in order to keep their teeth healthy. World's oldest known toothpaste was used around more than 1650 years ago. This record was discovered in the basement of Viennese museum in a piece of shabby, almost ruined papyrus paper. Colgate launched its first toothpaste in the year 1873, while the world's first toothpaste formula was discovered to have existed over 1500 years before Colgate's first toothpaste.

It is said that some ancient Egyptian writer (during 4th century AD) had documented in the Arabic dialect with faded black ink that was probably prepared by the soot and gum mixed with water that the ancient Egyptian toothpaste used to be kind of powder which people used for white and healthy teeth. The powder when mixed with the saliva used to turn into paste like substance - tasted pungent. According to the record the toothpaste was prepared quite scientifically, where the ingredients were as follows:

1 drachma of rock salt
2 drachmas of mint
1 drachma of dried Iris flowers
20 grains of pepper

All these ingredients used to be crushed and form a powder like substance that was thought to be healthy for teeth and also used as teeth whitening.

Please note: 1 drachma = 1/100 ounce

Amazing Facts Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Discoveries of some facts...

Just for a change in the tune, here's a bit different kind of a post that would be both entertaining and informative. Amazing fact has been discovered. And here's what has been discovered...

Really Amazing Fact

Coca-Cola was originally green.
The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men!
You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history.

Spades - King David
Clubs - Alexander the Great,
Hearts - Charlemagne
Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laserprinters all have in common? All invented by women.
Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
A snail can sleep for three years.
All polar bears are left handed.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Most lipstick contains fish scales.
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different
And finally 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

Huge Blanket of Cold Plasma Discovered High Above The Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:51:00 +0000

Although not much could be explained about this, but a great blanket of "cold plasma" - what the researchers consider as the clouds of charged particles have been discovered high above the Earth's surface. This coulds of old plasma - according cluster of European satellites and researchers - have been discovered in the top of the Earth's atmosphere reaching to approximately a quarter the sdistance between the Earth and the Moon. Researchers were considering that these charged particles that was hard to detect might have had influenced the incoming space weather. The greatest and most recent example of this is the solar flare resulting geomagnetic storm that happened in the early 2012. That was because the solar storms act as a strong barrier (with similar but high-speed charged particles) for the external space weather trying to come in to the Earth. It has been scientifically established that the Earth generates cold plasma (comparative low speed) - charged particles at the edge of its space, in the areas where sunlight strips electrons from gas atoms, leaving only their positively charged cores, or nuclei.

"It's like the weather forecast on TV. It's very complicated to make a reasonable forecast without the basic variables. Discovering this cold plasma is like saying, Oh gosh, there are oceans here that affect our weather," said space scientist Mats André, of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. As a matter of fact, it has not yet been certainly established about how will be affect the Earth without the abundance of cold Plasma round the planet. Researchers already knew about the presence of cold plasma in the ionosphere above the Earth - approximately 100 kilometers above surface of our planet. Some scientists had clue about such clouds of charged particles between 20,000 and 100,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

Space scientists Chris Cully and Mats André believe that the plasma cloud have been already there, but the positive charge of spacecraft was failing to detect it. This has been supported by a very simple scientific explanation... The positive charge of spacecraft couldn't detect the cloud of positively charged particles because the spacecraft would repulse any cold plasma around it, due to the fact that two matching magnetic poles repulse each other.

In order to the find this, André and Cully got down to analyze the data collected from European Space Agency's Cluster II spacecraft - a group of 4 probes (satellites) each of which swings around Earth in a widely elliptical orbit. At the extreme peak of the orbit, each of these satellites reach almost halfway the distance to the moon. This huge distance traversed by the probe helped the scientists to research more effectively, thereby monitoring the magnetic field and electrical activities of our planet. The anomalies in the data gathered from Cluster II spacecraft gave clear indication of the presence of shockwaves from cold plasma - the clouds of charged particles existing around the satellites.

In this regard, Mats André considers that the time has arrived when researchers should start working on updating space-weather models by taking into consideration the cold plasma. The major concern in the present time is that nothing could be established about how the plasma will be influencing the solar storms, and this influence is "not a minor thing in space weather," considers André. He said, "it's an elephant in the room." This is doubtlessly a great research and has opened a new horizon for the researchers to come. The weather model of the Earth is now expected to be re-modeled. A lot of theories in Geophysics will now be revised. This research on cold-plasma has been approved for the mass publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

Discovery : Tomb of Ancient Egyptian Female singer - 3,000 Years Old

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:01:00 +0000

Archaeologists have reported that they have discovered a tomb of an ancient Egyptian female singer, which dates back to around 3,000 years. The antiquities minister Mohammed Ibrahim Ali said on Sunday, January 15, 2012 that the discovery was made in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. This finding is considered as one of the rarest discoveries of its kind, and according to the antiquities minister Ibrahim Ali, this finding has been made accidentally by a team of expert archeologists from Switzerland's Basel University in Karnak, situated near Luxor in Upper Egypt. This team was led by a couple of experts, Elena Pauline-Grothe and Susanne Bickel.

According to the information inscribed on the wood plaque that was found in the singer's tomb, the woman, who used to be called "Nehmes Bastet" was a singer for the deity "Amon Ra", during Twenty-Second Dynasty (945-712 BC). Based on the researched information, Mr. Mohammed Ali stated that the singer, "Nehmes Bastet" was the daughter of high priest of "Amon Ra". Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said, "it shows that the Valley of the Kings was also used for the burial of ordinary individuals and priests of the Twenty-Second Dynasty." This fact was practically unknown, but there are good chances that archeologists may discover much more in the Valley of the Kings. This discovery is hence very significant. Till date the tombs that have been discovered in the valley were of those , who had been somehow linked to the royal families of ancient Egypt.

The tomb of a female singer dating back almost 3,000 years (AFP: SCA)

World's First Website

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

There have been a lot of talks about discoveries and inventions all around the globe. Here's another one, and that's going to be a real interesting topic for sure. Yes... World's First Website! I am sure everybody who are
reading this has one or more Facebook profile(s), Twitter accounts, blogs etc. I can hardly find anyone who has not heard of Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL etc. Have you ever spared a thought on World's first website or have you ever visited it? Well the history's recalled here...

It wasn't until the year 1989 that the main idea of World Wide Web (WWW) was proposed by Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, also known as "TimBL" - a British computer scientist, MIT professor. Tim Berners-Lee proposed it to persuade CERN - (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is considered as the world's largest particle physics laboratory) - that a global hypertext system would be in the organization's best interest. One most interesting
fact about WWW is that professor TimBL never mentioned the phrase World Wide Web in his proposal. He had mentioned the term "Mesh" instead, but the term WWW happened to coin as he was working on preparing the code in the year 1990 - much like an accident!

The year 1990 created a buzz all across the globe through media through bringing in a world wide revolution. Professor Tim Berners-Lee finished off his codding for WWW in the year 1990, on the basis of his proposal. Alongside he also set the standard for HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - not a programing language), HTTP (The Hypertext Transfer Protocol - an application protocol for collaborative and hypermedia information systems, and is considered as the base of WWW.), URL (Uniform Resource Locator, which is a specific character string acting as a unique reference to a resource on the Internet.)

AND... in the year 1991 the world's first website ever had been created and the URL was http://info.cern.ch. The world's first textual content on the first website encompassed explanation of the World Wide Web (WWW).

A bit about professor Berners-Lee

Currently Sir Berners-Lee acts as the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C - www.w3c.org) - an global community that develops open standards to ensure a steady and healthy growth of the Web. Professor Berners-Lee is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, and is a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He also holds the position of the director of The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), and
a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.

In the year 2004 Queen Elizabeth II had honored him with the title "KNIGHT" for his unparalleled contribution. Sir Berners-Lee had been elected as a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, based in Washington, D.C in the year 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:05:00 +0000

"Discovery Discovered" wishes you a Merry Christmas. May you and your loved ones be showered by happiness, peace and fun in the New Year to come. Let me also wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I am really honored to have such nice readers like you. I wish all the teachers, students and parents to great time ahead! Thank you...

Presence of Ghost and Einstein's Theory on Conservation of Energy

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:36:00 +0000

Here’s something that I have been thinking for long! I am not too sure if I believe in ghost. But I believe in energy and if I believe that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed; it can only be transformed, then I think I should believe in something that exist after my death, as my energy would be transformed into…

There are many organizations and groups carrying amateur research on ghosts. They believe in the presence of Ghost, in act. But for people like you and me – I mean people those who are a bit more inclined towards the modern science – the evidence for the presence of ghosts is a bit confusing. Despite years of experimentation by ghosts hunters, we do not have any solid proof of the presence of ghostly energy yet still. Most scientifically inclined believers of ghosts believe that the proof of the existence of ghosts has been well supported by Einstein’s theory in Modern physics! Many ghost hunters believe that Albert Einstein – one of the great scientists of all time had laid the logical base for the presence of ghostly energy.

Very recently a Google search exhibited around 8 million results on its Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) suggesting the link between the presence of ghost and Einstein’s research work that covers the “Conservation of Energy” that concludes “energy can neither be created, nor be destroyed; it can only be transformed.” Many leading ghost researchers have repeatedly mentioned Einstein’s theory on “Conservation of Energy”. For instance, in his book - "Ghosthunters" (2007, New Page Books), John Kachuba mentioned, "Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed. ... So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then, according to Dr. Einstein, be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy? ... Could we call that new creation a ghost?"

Another renowned group called Tri County Paranormal states, "Albert Einstein said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. When we are alive, we have electrical energy in our bodies. ... What happens to the electricity that was in our body, causing our heart to beat and making our breathing possible? There is no easy answer to that."

The truth unleashed here!

Yes… Energy is neither created… nor destroyed; it can only be transformed. When I shall die my energy (which is too negligible as compared to the overall energy of the environment) goes out to the environment. Should I be buried or burnt my energy would be transformed into heat or light. If I die amidst the wood, and if there wouldn’t be anyone of bury me or burn me, I will be eaten by the wild, may be the maggots, or worms and bacteria for sure. My energy will be transferred to them, very much like when we eat veggies. The energy stored into the cabbage or carrots are transferred in you, when you eat it. When we eat meat, the food is metabolized as it gets digested. The Chemical reaction that happens within us releases energy which we use for our living.

Mysterious Lines Discovered in the Chinese Desert

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:12:00 +0000

The credit of this image goes to Google Map. A network of a strange tangles of while mysterious lines have been discovered in China's Desert. New satellite photos have appeared in the Google map, showing unidentified linear structures in the middle of the China’s desert. What are these lines? The news has created a sensational buzz across the web. Big brains are wondering who would have made them and why have these tangles of white lines been made! Are they some gigantic structures that China has been building in the middle of the desert? The location is in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu, north of the Shule River that crosses the Tibetan Plateau to the west into the Kumtag Desert. The total coverage area of white lines stretches approximately one mile long and over 3,000 feet in width.

Seemingly made of huge metallic stripes, this could be the dust that has been dug by machinery. The tracks are neatly executed, and they seem to be designed to be seen from the orbit. While examining this mysterious lines ni the desert of China a few things have been cleared off. Firstly, the image doesn’t represent any “structure”. The photographed lines are flat as if they are roadways entangled with each other. The lines may appear as if they are formed by sand blown over them in places, which suggests that they have indeed smooth surface, most likely that they are low to the ground.

Similar lines had been discovered called “Nazca Lines”, in the Atacama desert of Peru. The fact that the lines are visible only from a great height, doesn’t mean that they were created to be seen from the orbit.

Amazing Discovery - Four-eared Dog Discovered in China

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 08:21:00 +0000

A Four-eared small Dog has been discovered in China, a land that is blessed with waves of unusuals.

The news of this amazing discovery o the four-eared small Dog has created a buzz across the world wide web, thereafter sparking debates all around the Internet. While some consider it as matted fur built up, some are taking it as tangled coat made by the owner. Many other obviously have used their scientific brains, saying if we can have 6 fingers, it is also possible to have animals with extra organs, which can make a pooch like Shun Shun a dog of news.

The owner, Peng Qiang, from Wulumuqi, Xinjiang province, said the dog was taken from one of his friends, around a year ago. Peng explained: "Originally we didn't spot any difference until six months ago when he started to grow another pair of ears behind the original ears."

Pang says that his family did not spare any attention on this during her early age, but with the passage of time the extra pair of ears started growing longer right behind the original ones. The extra ears are around 10cm in length.

Shun Shun s a beloved member of the family. His favorite foods are tomatoes and watermelon.

25,000-year-old Stone Pendant Discovered in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:03:00 +0000

25,000 years old oblong pendant with perforation at on end

One more news of interesting discovery... 25,000-year-old Pendant discovered and excavated safely in Basque region of Northern Spain.

Yes... once more! A group of archaeologists from the Sociedad Aranzadi in the Irikaitz dig near the town of Zestoa in Gipuzkoa, Basque region of Northern Spain has discovered a pendant which is supposed to be around 25,000 years old. Alvaro Arrizabalaga, who had been directing the excavation stated that the pendant was even older than all the other articles discovered so far in the Praileaitz cave, estimating to be around 15,000 years old.

This 25,000 years old pendant, which was oval and elongated shaped and around 4 inches long was discovered perforated at an end and was probably wore by the person round his/her neck, hung from a cord. The director of the excavation, Arrizabalaga also said that the other end of the stone pendant was used as a tool to retouch the edges of weapons such as arrows, scrapers etc. Interestingly there were around "some 20 pieces from this same epoch" that were discovered on the Iberian peninsula till date - all been discovered in caves.

Director Arrizabalaga said, "the piece is very well preserved and we've been lucky to be able to remove it without damaging it in any way." According to him the 25,000 years old stone pendant did not need any more restoration, and after the experts' study no the article would be over it would included in the collection of "Cromagnon discoveries" found at the site. Finally the pendant would be kept in a public museum.

The Irikaitz dig near the town of Zestoa in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, where this team of hugely experienced archaeologists started working in the year 1998, is known for being the site of discoveries of things up to around 250,000 years old, a timeline when the forerunner of Homo sapiens (us) had been into existence. "Twenty-five thousand years ago, human beings of our species (Homo sapiens) had come to this place that functioned as a hunting place for wandering groups... they moved eight times per year to zones where there were specific types of resources" stated the dig leader Alvaro Arrizabalaga.

216 Kleopatra - The Unusual Dog Bone Shape Astoroid Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:00:00 +0000

On 2000 May 10, an asteroid -

, which is almost of the size of New Jersey has been discovered. What's most interesting about it is that this asteroid has a very unusual shaped 0- the shape of a dog bone. It orbits the Sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. 216 Kleopatra - the dog bone shaped asteroid had been mapped with Earth-based radar, reflects back the radio waves so well that astronomers could assume that it is composed mostly of metals such as nickel and iron. The unusual dog bone shape and the unique composition of 216 Kleopatra could have been resulted from the central regions of a tremendous collision between larger asteroids billions of years ago. Kleopatra - the dog bone shaped asteroid, according to the astronomers is not completely solid. The surface is made of loosely consolidated rubble, although its core may contain large solid-metal lodes.

Good news is that the Astronomers said that 216 Kleopatra will never collide with the Earth, rather it may serve as one of the most important sources of raw building materials - may be sometimes in the future.

Note: Credits for the images go to Stephen Ostro et al. (JPL), Arecibo Radio Telescope, NSF, NASA

Running with time

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:37:00 +0000

I do not think I can ever run out of things to do. Assignments are getting piled up one over the other. Well... this sounds good 'coz my brain is never empty to think about unimportant, valueless stuff, but works sometimes eat away my life, on the other level! So buddies, I may get into hibernation for the next few days. Stay tuned... will come up again with something really interesting!

America Hunts for the Next Top Young Scientist - 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Howdy buddies? Today's April 1, and I promise to make no joke here. I intended to flash this news on the 1st day of April, 2011, about the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. No prank... be serious... my heartfelt good luck to all of you!

So here's again the great opportunity to proof your worth! Yess... the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is coming up on April 15, 2011. This is the premier national science competition for students between grades 5 to 8. The Scientist Challenge competition has been designed to encourage young intellectuals to explore science and innovation amongst the youth of America. This in turn will help promote the importance of science communication.

Here's just a brief and rapid eyewash on the history of Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge

During 1999, Discovery Communications had launched a competition to nourish the next generation scientists of America. Most interestingly Discovery Communications had selected this age group (standard 5-8), because at this age the interest in science and scientific activities start diminishing.

In the year 2008 3M got hooked up with Discovery Education with a common cause of nurturing the nex-gen US scientists. They jointly introduced an innovative and interactive science program for the middle school students of America. Since then over the tenure of the last decade, more than 600,000 middle school students have been nominated to participate in the Scientist Challenge competition. Winners have been given opportunities to speak before the members of Congress. this is not the end of the story...
The winners have gone to work with the top scientists of America and pursue their academic careers in the field of sciences.

So get yourself groomed up, and be at it! Let the scientist within you come out to work for a better future for the world!

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All the best and God Bless!

How Hot is Mercury?

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:34:00 +0000

Back in December 2008, I had made a post about how cold is Pluto here on this blog! I get hits to this post still today, which made me wonder how intensely people are interested to know about the other planets. Well... I am of no exception! My post on how cold is pluto has been a big hit on this blog. Seeing this I started to make a bit of research work across the web and a few other sources like magazines, books and encyclopedias etc. to know more about Mercury. Here's now how hot is murcury :) Read on...

Being a planet closest to the sun, Murcury is known to be the hotest of all planets in the solar system... known fact! But how hot is it? Incredibly hot? Blisteringly hot? Blazingly hot? Or is it even more than what you can think of? Adjectives do not always work well while explaining certain things!

Bare Fats About Mercury

Mercury is lack in significant atmosphere, which acts as the blanket on a planet. Since in case of Mercury the atmosphere is abent, it receives the full heat generated by the sun. I used to think that the planet Mercury is hot in totality, which after coming across certain documentations of researchers, has proved to be a wrong notion.

Researchers say, only the side of the planet Mercury that faces the Sun is hot. The opposite side, facing off the Sun, is almost as cold as space itself.

Like our planet - Earth, Mercury rotates. The face of Mercury facing the sun is always changing and it takes over 58 days to complete a single day. So the temperature changes according to planet's portion facing the sun. Researchers have discovered that every single part on Mercury receives 6.5 times as much sunlight as the same spot on the Earth.

At the hottest point of Mercury, temperature may rise as high as 700 Kelvin (430 °C) for the regions directly facing the Sun, while its opposite side can get down to 110 Kelvin (-163 °C). The absolute coldest regions of Mercury are the darker regions of the planet’s polar craters. These are parts of this planet that that never face sun, and the planet's surface temperature gets as low as 90 Kelvin (-183 °C).

Hence, the average temperature of this planet is around 452 Kelvin (179 °C).

Quite interestingly, the planetary scientists are hoping to find evidence of water ice in these shadowed craters of the planet. They hope that if water at all exist on mercury it might have been existed on Mercury for millions of years, because these parts are protected from the blazing Sun.

Earth's Lowest Point on Land

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:05:00 +0000

The lowest point of the Earth discovered - the shore of Dead Sea.

With about 9 times more saline than any other oceans on this planet, Dead sea has been aptly name, as no life has been able to survive there, except of a few - too few hardy bacteria. Dead Sea has been considered to be one of the most extreme habitat on this planet. While on a project to discover life under Dead Sea, a researcher Dr. Joseph Lati said,"No one can answer for sure what the response of nature to the mixing will be." He added, "We have to go very carefully with this project until we know more about the biological and chemical effects. There might be micro-impacts that we don't know about until they hit us."

Howbeit, this was just a bit about the mystic Dead Sea. This post is all about probably one of the most interesting discoveries ever! Yes... The lowest point of our Earth. The shore of the Dead Sea has been scientifically determined to be around 1,400 feet (nearly 420 meters) below sea level, which marks it as the planet's lowest point on land.

Documentations have been brought forth with the evidence that the lowest point of the Earth on land is the Dead Sea that borders Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. The Dead Sea is sitting above the Dead Sea Rift, which is a tectonic fault line between the Arabian and the African plates. The occasional movement of these plates causes the Dead Sea dip down nearly 1 meter down each year. Historians have researched out that the Dead Sea used to be linked to the Mediterranean Sea in the past. Over a geologic time scale, the Dead Sea got de-linked from the Mediterranean Sea, gradually got evaporated, which concentrated the salt in the water. The Result is... today Dead Sea is 30 to 31 percent mineral salts.

On the other hand, if we delve deeper into the lowest point issue, we will come up with a different conclusion altogether. Lowest point on the crust of the Earth has been discovered to be the Mariana’s Trench in the North Pacific Ocean. The Mariana’s Trench that is considered as the lowest point of the crust of our planet is around 11 kilometers deep. Like the other deep extremes of the Earth, the Mariana’s Trench also is the consequence of Pacific tectonic plate's subduction beneath the Philippine plate. By this I mean that the Pacific Plate is slowly sliding underneath the Philippine plate, and it causes the Mariana’s Trench shrink down, because the particular point where the Philippine plate overlaps is the Mariana’s Trench.

Deep-sea discoveries off Canada's coast

noreply@blogger.com (Aringsburg) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:31:00 +0000

In the year 2010, a group of researchers has got the first rare glimpse of of a marine life in the North Atlantic. They have used a high-tech robotic camera to discover this marine life that, they claim, could give a more in depth clue about the ecosystem of the under-sea world and the climate thereby some 1,000 years back. The submersible robot camera had been operated by the crew aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Hudson. This hi-tech underwater, robotic camera enabled the crew to reach around 500 meters deeper than they had reached ever before.

The submersible robotic camera sent deep under the see by the scientists returned back amazing images of tulip-shaped sponges, brightly colored corals, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms. This never-seen-before amazing organism were found scoured the bed of the ocean at a depth of around 9,800 feet [3,000 meters] off the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

A group of researchers from three Canadian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography had worked on this for 20 days to study 11 zones under the protection of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization. Exploring these zones was very important as there were "trees of the ocean," said Ellen Kenchington (one of the lead scientists in the expedition), research scientist with the Fisheries Department of Canada. Kenchington told CNN affiliate CTV from her office at the institute as pictures from the robot streamed on her computer, "It's been really spectacular. It's really changing our perception of the diversity that's out there. ... We're seeing new species in deeper waters." She also told the Montreal Gazette that the scientists could look at the coral's chemical composition, which helped them determining the temperature of the water and other relevant data from 1,000 years ago. she said, "That's how we are able to say if there is warming or a change in climate direction. In order to understand the present, we need to put it into context."

The finds were really interesting! The corals have been a highly successful life form for 250 million years. They are very tiny animals and polyps, which are genetically identical individuals. Interestingly, they can eat - kill plankton for food and also defend themselves. In the living process they use to secrete calcium carbonate, which becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit. These hard calcified skeletal bodies can grow enormously big over long span of time to form coral reefs. T, which are amongst the very important part of the ecosystems and can provide shelter to over 4,000 species marine lives, including fishes.

According to the lead researcher Ellen Kenchington, the research would be helpful to "evaluate areas that are still too deep for current fishing technologies but could be accessible in years to come. This will enable us to give advice in the future about what types of organisms are in these areas before they're fished."