Terry Pratchett creates a sword with meteorites

ENGLISH fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett says he was so excited after being knighted by the Queen that he decided to make his own sword to equip himself for his new status.

It was not enough, however, simply to find some metal and get a blacksmith to bash it into shape.

Pratchett, believing the sword would not truly be his own unless it was made from metal he had produced, found a field with deposits of iron ore near his home in Wiltshire, west of London.

He gathered the deposits and smelted the iron ore himself.

The author, 62, who has sold about 65 million copies of his books, which include the Discworld series, said: “Most of my life I’ve been producing stuff which is intangible and so it’s amazing the achievement you feel when you have made something which is really real.”

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With help from his friend Jake Keen — an expert on ancient metal-making techniques — the author dug up 81kg of ore and smelted it in the grounds of his house, using a makeshift kiln built from clay and hay and fuelled with damp sheep manure.

Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s disease, also said he had thrown in “several pieces of meteorites — thunderbolt iron, you see — highly magical, you’ve got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not”.

After days of hammering the metal into bars, he took it to a blacksmith, whom he helped to shape it into a blade, which was finished with silverwork.

Pratchett has stored the sword, which he completed last year, in a secret location, apparently concerned about the authorities taking an interest in it.

He said: “It annoys me that knights aren’t allowed to carry their swords. That would be knife crime.”

via Terry Pratchett creates a sword with meteorites | News.com.au.

At least 280 crocs escape enclosure in storm

At least 280 crocodiles have escaped from a Mexican refuge near the Gulf of Mexico after heavy flooding caused by Hurricane Karl, Mexican media said Tuesday.

The endangered Morelet crocodiles were on the roam in six coastal areas in the Mexican state of Veracruz and residents were told not to try to capture or kill them, El Economista reported.

The governor of Veracruz told reporters about 280 crocodiles were missing from the reserve in La Antigua, although some media put the number of reptiles at closer to 400.

Morelet crocodiles can grow to nearly 10 feet and are found in freshwater swamps, lakes and rivers, and the brackish coastal waters of eastern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

Federal authorities from the agency charged with environmental protection said crocodile experts would be sent to the region to try to recapture the animals.

At least 15 people were killed and thousands displaced by the hurricane, which ripped through the Yucatan peninsula and slammed into Mexico’s Gulf coast this past weekend.

via At least 280 crocs escape enclosure in storm – Weather – msnbc.com.

Neanderthals more advanced than previously thought

For decades scientists believed Neanderthals developed `modern’ tools and ornaments solely through contact with Homo sapiens, but new research from the University of Colorado Denver now shows these sturdy ancients could adapt, innovate and evolve technology on their own.

The findings by anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore challenge a half-century of conventional wisdom maintaining that Neanderthals were thick-skulled, primitive `cavemen’ overrun and outcompeted by more advanced modern humans arriving in Europe from Africa.

“Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals,” said Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Denver. “They were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for.”

His research, to be published in December’s Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, was based on seven years of studying Neanderthal sites throughout Italy, with special focus on the vanished Uluzzian culture.

About 42,000 years ago, the Aurignacian culture, attributed to modern Homo sapiens, appeared in northern Italy while central Italy continued to be occupied by Neanderthals of the Mousterian culture which had been around for at least 100,000 years. At this time a new culture arose in the south, one also thought to be created by Neanderthals. They were the Uluzzian and they were very different.

Riel-Salvatore identified projectile points, ochre, bone tools, ornaments and possible evidence of fishing and small game hunting at Uluzzian archeological sites throughout southern Italy. Such innovations are not traditionally associated with Neanderthals, strongly suggesting that they evolved independently, possibly due to dramatic changes in climate. More importantly, they emerged in an area geographically separated from modern humans.

“My conclusion is that if the Uluzzian is a Neanderthal culture it suggests that contacts with modern humans are not necessary to explain the origin of this new behavior. This stands in contrast to the ideas of the past 50 years that Neanderthals had to be acculturated to humans to come up with this technology,” he said. “When we show Neanderthals could innovate on their own it casts them in a new light. It `humanizes’ them if you will.”

via Neanderthals more advanced than previously thought.

I don’t think most people get the fact that there were two entirely different species of humans sharing the planet once. Not something you’ll find in religious teachings, right? Perhaps parts of the Gilgamesh story have ancient origins, handed down for tens of thousands of years. One might make a case that Enkidu, the wild man from the forest, was a Neanderthal. I like the theory that some Neanderthal ancestors survived under ground and are now responsible for occasional Bigfoot sightings.  They may be as smarter than we are, smart enough to avoid us. Wouldn’t that be a discovery!

Hares can be permanently pregnant

A German study has found that European brown hares are capable of being pregnant twice at the same time, and can potentially be permanently pregnant.

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin fertilised female hares from a captive colony in late pregnancy and found they developed a second pregnancy about four days before delivery, a phenomenon called “superfetation” (superconception).

Simultaneous pregnancies mean female hares can give birth to as many as a third more offspring each reproductive season due to the interval between delivery of litters being reduced from 42 days — the normal length of pregnancy for hares — to 38.

“Therefore we think superfetation might be an evolutionary adaptation to increase reproductive success,” said Dr. Kathleen Roellig, who led the study.

via Hares can be permanently pregnant – German study – Yahoo! News.

CarLashes: the kitschest car accessory

CarLashes are already a hit among women drivers in the US and are rapidly gaining popularity in Britain.

The accessories are fixed above the headlights with tape designed not to damage the paintwork when removed.

For those who feel that attaching a set of plain eyelashes to their car is not kitsch enough, the firm who invented the accessory also sells strips of “crystal eyeliner” to stick along the top.

The US firm which launched CarLashes in January, Turbo Style Products, invites customers to “dress up your headlights with a touch of fashion and a twinkle of crystal!”

Fans of the accessory have created a Facebook group to share pictures of their cars. Around 3,000 people have become fans of the product on the social networking site.

One user wrote: “I do eyelash extensions, so eyelashes on my car are the perfect advert for my business.”

Carlashes cost around £16 and the crystal “eyeliner” strips cost around £13.

via CarLashes: the kitschest car accessory – Telegraph.

Scientists to drill 13,000ft into active volcano in test that could cause earthquake

Scientists are planning to drill 13,000ft into the heart of an active volcano in Italy in an attempt to protect the nearby city of Naples by gauging when it is likely to erupt.

But experts have warned that the project could trigger an explosion of red hot magma or even an earthquake.

The team of scientists wants to insert a borehole inside Campi Flegrei, a huge volcanic formation outside Naples, in the hope of gauging how active it is.

Also known as the Phlegraean Fields, Campi Flegrei is an eight-mile-wide caldera lying west of Naples.

It comprises 24 volcanic fissures and craters – one of which was believed by the ancient Romans to be the home of Vulcan, the god of fire – although much of it lies under water as it extends into the Bay of Naples.

It last erupted in 1538, and recent seismic activity in the area has raised fears that it could be ready to blow again.

The project is due to start early next month, when the team will drill 1640ft into the ground at a site in Bagnoli, near Naples.

The second phase, due to start in the spring, will involve the drilling of a 4,000 metre deep borehole at the same location.

Scientists will use sensors to measure seismic activity and the temperature of the rock at different depths in an attempt to understand how unstable the area is.

“Calderas are the only volcanoes that can cause truly catastrophic eruptions with global consequences, yet they are still poorly understood,” Giuseppe De Natale, the project’s coordinator and a geophysicist at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology, told the science magazine Nature.

But there are fears that the experiment, which will tap into 500-600C hot magma, could lead to an eruption which would endanger the 1.5 million people who live in and around Naples.

via Scientists to drill 13,000ft into active volcano in test that could cause earthquake – Telegraph.

Seek, and they will find.

Humans less geneticallycomplex than a chocolate biscuit

It is a droll discovery that on a numerical basis, a human seems genetically less complex than a chocolate biscuit

US researchers have just completed the DNA sequence of Theobroma cacao, the fruit of which provides the world’s chocolate and cocoa. The project – funded by Mars, the chocolate giant – is likely to benefit more than six million chocolate farmers in the tropics, by delivering disease-resistant trees, or tastier fruit, or higher yields per hectare, or all three. That the research was completed on a plant of interest to small farmers in the poorer nations is itself a measure of the progress of genomic science.

Cacao joins more than 180 life forms for which scientists now have the complete genetic sequence. These include rice, wheat and poplar trees; yeast, grapes and the honeybee; chimpanzees, dogs, puffer fish and Norwegian rats; modern humans, the chicken and the laboratory mouse; and a host of microbes, including leprosy, bubonic plague and the malaria parasite. This is a gathering of knowledge that, even 20 years ago, could not have been imagined. Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, was first isolated in a laboratory dish of pneumonia bacteria in 1944. Its story has been unfolded in one human lifetime, first by Francis Crick and James Watson, who described its structure in 1953; then by Frederick Sanger, who in 1975 first discovered a way to read the sequence of the genetic code; and lastly by Alec Jeffreys, who in 1985 identified a way of using repetitive patterns in inherited DNA to pinpoint a murder suspect. But even then, hardly anyone believed that it would be possible to “read” the entire sequence coiled up in the chromosomes of a living cell.

The first living organism to be sequenced, in 1995, was a humble bacterium. The genetic recipes for yeast, a nematode worm and a fruit fly followed, and the human genome was completed in 2000. The heady mix of high-speed computing, sophisticated automation and research enthusiasm soon built up a momentum that proved unstoppable. Scientists are now matching genetic sequences to answer questions about plant and animal evolution, about the life cycles of disease, about human origins, about individual human responses to drug dosage, and about crop resistance to pests and mildews.

The science has already delivered unexpected and humbling answers. Humans, who consider themselves the pinnacle of creation, have only about 30,000 genes. Cacao seems to have 35,000. Wheat DNA is believed to contain 40,000 genes. …

via Genome research: the complexity of chocolate biscuits | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Titanium foam dental implants

Porous titanium foam dental implants (a prototype is shown) being developed by NRC scientists will improve the way we replace lost of damaged teeth. Traditional dental implants are solid pieces of titanium, a biocompatible metal. The implant is surgically inserted into the jaw bone and capped with a ceramic tooth. However, the proprietary NRC titanium foam has a porous structure similar to that of bone. The pores provide a site for bone cells to grow into the implant and thus more solidly anchor it. This will facilitate faster healing and the use of smaller implants.

via Manufacturing and Industrial Materials – NRC-CNRC.

Portable laser devices to improve disease diagnosis

Portable devices that use a laser beam to probe bones, teeth, and other parts of the body for early signs of diseases like osteoporosis and tooth decay may seem like something out of science fiction. But those devices are moving closer to reality, according to an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS’ weekly newsmagazine.

C&EN Senior Editor Celia Henry Arnaud notes that these new diagnostic tools will have the ability to see beneath the skin and detect disease, without exposing patients to X-rays. They embrace a technology that involves focusing a laser beam painlessly through the skin onto a bone or onto the surface of a tooth. After hitting its target, the beam returns to an electronic detector with imprinted information that can reveal whether disease is present. Called Raman spectroscopy, the technology is a mainstay tool in chemistry laboratories that is finding a new life in medicine.

The article describes growing medical interest in Raman-based devices, especially for diagnosing osteoporosis and other bone diseases, and for tracking the effectiveness of treatment. Another application may be in very early detection of tooth decay, so that dentists can treat soft spots on tooth enamel before “drill-and-fill” becomes the only option. The technique could also mean blood tests done without taking blood samples, the article indicates.

via Portable laser devices to improve disease diagnosis.

Titanium foams replace injured bones

Flexible yet rigid like a human bone, and immediately capable of bearing loads: A new kind of implant, made of titanium foam, resembles the inside of a bone in terms of its structural configuration. Not only does this make it less stiff than conventional massive implants. It also promotes ingrowth into surrounding bones.

The greater one‘s responsibilities, the more a person grows. The same principle applies to the human bone: The greater the forces it bears, the thicker the tissue it develops. Those parts of the human skeleton subject to lesser strains tend to have lesser bone density. The force of stress stimulates the growth of the matrix. Medical professionals will soon be able to utilize this effect more efficiently, so that implants bond to their patients‘ bones on more sustained and stable basis. To do so, however, the bone replacement must be shaped in a manner that fosters ingrowth – featuring pores and channels into which blood vessels and bone cells can grow unimpeded. Among implants, the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V is the material of choice. It is durable, stable, resilient, and well tolerated by the body. But it is somewhat difficult to manufacture: titanium reacts with oxygen, nitrogen and carbon at high temperatures, for example. This makes it brittle and breakable. The range of production processes is equally limited.

There are still no established processes that can be used to produce complex internal structures. This is why massive titanium implants are primarily used for defects in load-bearing bones. Admittedly, many of these possess structured surfaces that provide bone cells with firm support. But the resulting bond remains delicate. Moreover, the traits of massive implants are different from those of the human skeleton: they are substantially stiffer, and, thus, carry higher loads. »The adjacent bone bears hardly any load any more, and even deteriorates in the worst case. Then the implant becomes loose and has to be replaced«, explains Dr.-Ing. Peter Quadbeck of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden. Quadbeck coordinates the »TiFoam« Project, which yielded a titanium-based substance for a new generation of implants. The foam-like structure of the substance resembles the spongiosa found inside the bone.

The titanium foam is the result of a powder metallurgy-based molding process that has already proven its value in the industrial production of ceramic filters for aluminum casting. Open-cell polyurethane (PU) foams are saturated with a solution consisting of a binding medium and a fine titanium powder. The powder cleaves to the cellular structures of the foams. The PU and binding agents are then vaporized. What remains is a semblance of the foam structures, which is ultimately sintered. …

via Titanium foams replace injured bones – Research News 09-2010-Topic 1 – Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.