News tagged with ancient

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The entwined destinies of mankind and leprosy bacteria

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Leprosy still affects hundreds of thousands of people today throughout the entire world. An international team headed by EPFL professor Stewart Cole has traced the history of the disease from ancient Egypt to today and in ...


Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall

Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ancient South American civilisation which disappeared around 1,500 years ago helped to cause its own demise by damaging the fragile ecosystem that held it in place, a study has found. ...


Inequality, 'silver spoon' effect found in ancient societies

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (15) | comments 22

The so-called "silver spoon" effect -- in which wealth is passed down from one generation to another -- is well established in some of the world's most ancient economies, according to an international study coordinated by ...


Snail fossils suggest semiarid eastern Canary Islands were wetter 50,000 years ago

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands show that the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years.


Scientists nail quail mystery

Scientists nail quail mystery

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 23, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Massey biology researcher has used DNA analysis to prove quail on Tiritiri Matangi Island are Australian and not remnants of an extinct New Zealand species.


Greeks uncorked French passion for wine

Greeks uncorked French passion for wine

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 23, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The bottle sitting in your wine rack at home is probably labelled as a juicy, full-bodied French number, with dark berry flavours and a long, complex finish.


Ancient bison genetic treasure trove for farmers

Ancient bison genetic treasure trove for farmers

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Genetic information from an extinct species of bison preserved in permafrost for thousands of years could help improve modern agricultural livestock and breeding programs, according to University ...


Research gives glimpse of tectonic history on Puget Sound-region fault zones

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research on the Kitsap Peninsula, at the west edge of Washington state's Puget Sound, finds evidence that land was raised at least 6 feet by ancient earthquakes.


Technology brings new insights to ancient language

Technology brings new insights to ancient language

Technology / Engineering

created Oct 14, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- New technologies and academic collaborations are helping scholars at the University of Chicago analyze hundreds of ancient documents in Aramaic, one of the Middle East's oldest continuously ...


Early hominid first walked on 2 legs in the woods

Early hominid first walked on two legs in the woods

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 1

Among the many surprises associated with the discovery of the oldest known, nearly complete skeleton of a hominid is the finding that this species took its first steps toward bipedalism not on the open, grassy ...


Alligator

Loyal alligators display the mating habits of birds

Biology / Ecology

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Alligators display the same loyalty to their mating partners as birds reveals a study published today in Molecular Ecology. The ten-year-study by scientists from the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory reveal ...


Buried Coins Key to Roman Population Mystery?

Buried Coins Key to Roman Population Mystery?

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (14) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first century BC in Italy was culturally a brilliant age, unequaled by any other period in Roman history. It was a time of Cicero, Caesar, Vergil, Horace and many other major literary ...


The Athenians: Another warning from history?

The Athenians: Another warning from history?

Other Sciences / Other

created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (48) | comments 27

(PhysOrg.com) -- The collapse of Greek democracy 2,400 years ago occurred in circumstances so similar to our own it could be read as a dark and often ignored lesson from the past, a new study suggests. ...


Princeton paleomagnetists put controversy to rest

Paleomagnetists put controversy to rest

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Princeton University scientists have shown that, in ancient times, the Earth's magnetic field was structured like the two-pole model of today, suggesting that the methods geoscientists use ...


British archaeologists work at the discovered ruins outside Ostia

Ruins of ancient arena discovered outside Rome

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

British archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an arena built early in the third century BC outside Ostia, the ancient imperial port 25 kilometres (16 miles) from Rome, the team leader said Friday.