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Jessica Simpson - Looks Hot

She's looking So hot with that dress , everytime she bends it like her boobs gonna pop out.

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Hayden Panettiere - Cover it up, girl!

Heroes hottie Hayden Panettiere is in NYC for the Larry King Live show, and protecting that crotch from the paparazzi lens is definitely something she’s been practicing. Exiting the vehicle gracefully wearing a black dress, Hayden made sure to cover up between those legs to deny us all the infamous upskirt shot. At this point in her career, a nipple slip is all she needs to provide until at least season 3 of the show. After all, flashing your crotch can only look good on a resume!


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Nora Amile in Sexy Bikini Paparazzi Candids (HQ)

Heroes hottie Hayden Panettiere is in NYC for the Larry King Live show, and protecting that crotch from the paparazzi lens is definitely something she’s been practicing. Exiting the vehicle gracefully wearing a black dress, Hayden made sure to cover up between those legs to deny us all the infamous upskirt shot. At this point in her career, a nipple slip is all she needs to provide until at least season 3 of the show. After all, flashing your crotch can only look good on a resume!
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Michael Jackson Got Married?

It was reported that Michael Jackson married the nanny of his kids, Grace Rwaramba, earlier this year in Vegas. A source tells the Enquirer:

"Grace... is one of his dearest friends. She is one of the few people who stood by his side through all of his problems - including the child molestation trial in 2005"


I just can't picture Jacko with a woman. I still remember the awkward kiss he had on the VMAs with his wife back then, Lisa Marie Presley. If you don't remember that just click on the video below. (But be warned, it will probably ruin your breakfast!)

Courtney Love Has Droopy Boobs

She was spotted at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill for the British Film Institute benefit. Her dress revealed a little of her boobs.
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Paris Hilton - New Swedish Tourist boyfriend

In case you’re wondering, Paris Hilton’s current flavor of the month is Swedish tourist Alex Vaggo. Hilton met the 22-year-old at a youth hostel in Hollywood. The socialite is rumored to be so smitten by Vaggo that she’s introducing him to modeling scouts this week. A friend of Hilton’s told the New York Post:

“We all met Alex on the street near the USA Hostel in Hollywood. The hostel is $27 a night and they shove in six people to a room. But in the morning there are all the pancakes you can eat. Our friend introduced him to Paris and she immediately took a liking to him. He’s very hot. He’s living much better now.” (Source)

“Much better now”–besides the burning sensation. And red bumps. And Google search results for “Alex Vaggo” that forever link him to Paris Hilton. I’d rather be linked to elderly gay porn. Not that I’ve ever searched for that twice in my life. Oh god, the mental scarring, someone please make it go away.






Source : celeslam

Sexually suspect panda gives birth to twins

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A panda once believed to be male and sent to Japan to breed with a female without success gave birth to twin cubs this week, state media reported on Thursday.

The panda, "Jinzhu", gave birth to two female cubs on Monday at the Wolong Nature Reserve in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan, 11 years after being declared male at birth in 1996, Xinhua news agency said.

"Jinzhu was believed to be male owing to her inconspicuous secondary sex characteristic and behavior," the agency quoted Wei Rongping, assistant director of the reserve's research center, as saying.

Jinzhu was sent to Japan in 2000 to mate with a female, the report said.

"When the pandas showed complete disinterest, experts decided to turn to artificial insemination, leading to the discovery that Jinzhu had no penis," it added.

Jinzhu was sent back to China in 2002, with experts arguing the panda was either a hermaphrodite or had "undeveloped" sexual organs.

"The penis of an adult panda is only about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long," Xinhua quoted Li Deshen, a panda expert, as saying, as a possible reason for the mix-up.

It was not until 2005 that scientists discovered nine-year-old Jinzhu's ovaries were positioned in the wrong place, and gave her a two-hour operation to make her a "normal girl", Xinhua said.

Jinzhu subsequently mated with a male in March 2007 and gave birth 142 days later, Xinhua said.

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found only in China. An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in China's Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

Missing Chicago Woman's Body Found.

CHICAGO — The family of a missing Chicago woman said a body found early Thursday is that of their loved one.


Nailah Franklin, 28, a pharmaceutical sales representative for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, was last heard from a week ago.

Dwayne Johnson, Franklin's uncle, said authorities confirmed it was his niece's body.

Suburban Chicago officials found a body in a forest preserve near where Franklin's car was found abandoned last Friday, police said.

On Thursday morning, authorities in Calumet City reported that they found a body in the Wentworth Woods Forest Preserve, near where her car was found abandoned.

Her family has been offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts. The pharmaceutical sales representative was reported missing Sept. 19 after she didn't show up for an important work meeting.

Chicago police interviewed a man last week but have not named him a suspect. Franklin filed a police report about threatening phone calls she said she received from the man. The man told FOX Chicago that he was not involved in her disappearance and offered to take a polygraph test.

Vietnam bridge collapse kills 52

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- A section of a bridge under construction in southern Vietnam collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 52 workers and injuring 97 others, officials said.

The bridge was being built across the Hau River, a branch of the Mekong River, in the southern city of Can Tho. It is part of a heavily used route linking the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.

The collapsed section was more than 98 feet tall and was situated above land on the river bank in Vinh Long province, said Vo Thanh Tong, chairman of the Can Tho people's committee. The four-lane bridge was not yet open to traffic.

Images broadcast on Vietnamese television showed mounds of twisted steel and cables shrouded in dust and smoke. Dozens of workers in yellow helmets rushed about the wreckage, some carrying stretchers with bloody victims.

At least 52 people were dead and 97 others were injured, said Le Van Ut, the vice chief of police in Vinh Long Province. The exact number of missing was unknown, but officials said at least 200 people were working on the 328-foot-long section when it buckled at about 8 a.m.

"I expect the death toll to rise, as there still victims trapped under the concrete," said Dang Van Tam, director of Central Can Tho General Hospital.

Local hospitals were overwhelmed and had called in 20 surgeons from Ho Chi Minh City to help. "We have never had this many patients," Tam said.

Le Viet Hung, vice chief of the Can Tho police, said the scene was "total chaos."

"It sounded like a huge explosion," Hung said. "It's the biggest accident I've ever seen."

The 1.7-mile bridge was started in 2004 and expected to be finished next year. It was to be the largest suspension bridge in Vietnam and would greatly speed the trip across the river, which thousands now make daily by ferry.

Officials were still investigating the cause of the accident. Concrete had been poured into the collapsed section just one day earlier, on Tuesday. The bracing supporting it had apparently weakened, said Pham Van Dau, chairman of the Vinh Long people's committee.

Japan provided a $218 million loan to finance the project, enough to cover 85 percent of the cost, said Yoshifumi Omura, of the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation in Hanoi. The Vietnamese government provided the rest of the funding.

Paris Hilton-Puts Her Drunk Face.

PARIS HILTON apparently partied a little too hard on Emmy night; She ended up stumbling around the streets of LA Sunday evening, and make attempts at scaling the iron gates at a friend’s home. Fortunately, she made in through the night in one piece.

New Antibiotic Drug Combo To Speed Up Treatment Of Tuberculosis

Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Date: September 19, 2007


Science Daliy--A team of tuberculosis (TB) experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil have evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could dramatically shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six months to four.

Adding moxifloxacin to a standard combination of other antibiotics increased by 17 percent the number of patients who cleared active infections from their lungs (raising cure rates from 68 percent to 85 percent), after just two months of therapy, and when compared to patients taking the standard combination with another, older antibiotic, ethambutol.

"This is the most compelling evidence in nearly 25 years that a novel antibiotic drug combination works better than the current gold standard at curing active TB infection," says study senior author Richard E. Chaisson, M.D., a professor of medicine, epidemiology and international health at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and founding director of its Center for Tuberculosis Research.

"Beyond the obvious value of healing patients more quickly, a shorter treatment time could also cut down on transmission of the disease to others and make it easier for health care workers worldwide, who are overwhelmed by large numbers of patients, to treat more people and to treat them faster," says Chaisson, who started the study in 2003.

He notes that worldwide, each year, nearly 9 million new cases of TB are diagnosed, and more than one and a half million people die from the disease, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

TB also remains the leading cause of death worldwide among those with HIV and AIDS and is epidemic in developing countries with the highest HIV-infection rates.

The new study of more than 170 men and women in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- all with active TB -- showed that combination drug therapy with moxifloxacin was more potent than combination therapy with an older, more traditional anti-TB drug, ethambutol. Symptoms of active TB include fever, cough, night sweats and weight loss.

After two months of combination therapy, cultured sputum samples from patients taking moxifloxacin were significantly less likely to grow TB bacteria than samples from those on traditional ethambutol therapy. The time to clear the infectious organism from sputum was also significantly shorter in the moxifloxacin group.

Conventional TB therapy prescribes a mix of antibiotics, typically four, given in view of a caregiver and taken together for six months. Commonly known by its acronym DOTS, short for Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course, the treatment cures on average 95 percent of patients who finish taking their medications as originally prescribed.

But experts say the lengthy treatment period has proven a problem for patients, who sometimes miss taking their drugs on time, minimizing the therapy's effectiveness and increasing the risk that drug-resistant strains will develop.

History, says Chaisson, demonstrates that shorter regimens boost drug compliance and cure rates, often by as much as 50 percent. In the 1950s, TB treatment lasted from 18 to 24 months, and nearly a quarter of patients failed to complete therapy. It was not until new drugs appeared in the 1970s and 1980s, when treatment times were shortened to an average of six months, that cure rates shot up.

In the latest study, all participants were given a standard combination of three antibiotic pills -- isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinaminde -- and then randomly assigned to receive a fourth pill, either moxifloxacin or ethambutol. Moxifloxacin, approved for use in the United States since 1999 as a treatment for pneumonia, is not currently approved as a treatment for TB. However, ethambutol has been approved to treat TB since 1962.

The three combination drugs, which must be taken several times daily for six to eight months, have all been widely used to treat TB disease for decades: isoniazid (since 1952), rifampin (1968) and pyrazinamide (1954).

"It was remarkable to see just how potent moxifloxacin was," says Chaisson. After just two weeks of therapy with moxifloxacin, 21 percent of the sputum samples were negative and cleared of visible disease, while in the ethambutol study group, it was just 3 percent. After four weeks, the gap widened to 51 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Chaisson says substituting moxifloxacin for one of the key ingredients in DOTS could also make treatment far less costly overall, allowing TB programs to expand their coverage. The medication currently costs $10 per day for short-term use, but the researcher says the drug's manufacturer, Bayer Healthcare AG, has promised to make the drug available at affordable prices in poor countries should it gain approval for use in TB.

Chaisson and his team next plan to investigate a potentially even more potent drug combination that includes traditional DOTS drugs with yet another substitution, rifapentine in place of rifampin. Rifapentine became available in the United States in 1998 and scientists say it is more effective against drug-resistant strains of TB.

Chaisson and colleagues conducted their research with funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Orphan Product Development. The study was part of a series of studies on moxifloxacin that are being coordinated by the nonprofit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (GATB) in collaboration with Bayer.

The GATB estimates that 1 billion people worldwide will be infected with tuberculosis by the year 2020, of whom 200 million will fall ill and 35 million will die.

As part of the research program, Bayer donated supplies of moxifloxacin.

In addition to the moxifloxacin study, Chaisson directs the Hopkins-based Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic, called Create, an international effort to control the spread of tuberculosis and treat the disease in countries hit most hard by the duel epidemics. Create is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Chaisson will present his team's findings Sept. 18 in Chicago at the 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

Besides Chaisson, other researchers from Hopkins involved in this study were Anne Efron, M.S.N., M.P.H.; Malathi Ram, Sc.D.; Mohammed Chaudhary, Ph.D.; and William Bishai, M.D., Ph.D. Researchers from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil were M. Conde, M.D., Ph.D.; C. Loredo, R.N.; G. de Souza, M.D.; N. Graça, M.D.; M. Cezar, M.D.; and A. Kritski, M.D., Ph.D.

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of moxifloxacin versus ethambutol in the initial phase of tuberculosis therapy in Brazil.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Predation Linked To Evolution, Study Suggests

Source:	Virginia Tech
Date:	September 14, 2007

science Daily.... The fossil record seems to indicate that the diversity of marine creatures increased and decreased over hundreds of millions of years in step with predator-prey encounters, Virginia Tech geoscientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

For decades, there has been a debate between paleontologists, biologists, and ecologists on the role of ecological interactions, such as predation, in the long term patterns of animal evolution.

John Warren Huntley, a postdoctoral scientist in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, and Geosciences Professor Micha³ Kowalewski decided to look at the importance of ecology by surveying the literature for incidents of predation in marine invertebrates, such as clams and their relatives.

"Today, certain predators leave easy to identify marks on the shells of their prey, such as clean, round holes," said Huntley. "Such holes drilled by predators can also be found in fossil shells."

The researchers also looked for repair scars on the shells of creatures that survived an attack.

The study was conducted by looking at studies which reported the frequency of drill holes and repair scars in fossil species from the last 550 million years.

First Huntley and Kowalewski found that predation increased notably about 480 million years ago, some 50 million years earlier than previous studies have found. "The earlier studies were based on changes in morphology -- predators with stronger claws and jaws and prey with more ornamented shells. We looked at the frequency of attacks, which increased about 50 million years before the changes in armor," said Huntley.

But the most notable discovery is the observation that the incidence of drill holes and repair scars are strikingly parallel to Sepkoski's diversity curve for marine invertebrates. This diversity curve, compiled by the late Jack Sepkoski of the University of Chicago, records the origination and extinction of marine animal genera through the last 540 million years (Phanerozoic). "There is a strong correlation between predation intensity and global marine biodiversity in the Phanerozoic," Huntley said.

In their article, "Strong Coupling of Predation Intensity and Diversity in the Phanerozoic Fossil Record," the researchers offer three rival hypotheses to explain the correlation. "It's the classic problem with interpreting a correlation," said Huntley "you have to be careful when ascribing a cause. Let's say factors X and Y are correlated. A change in X could cause a change in Y, a change in Y could cause a change in X, or X and Y could both be controlled by another factor."

The first hypothesis is that predation intensity could be driving diversity. "In this case, ecological interactions would matter in evolution," said Huntley. "Organisms evolve over the long term in response to their enemies, and with increased predation intensity more species evolve."

The second hypothesis is that as biodiversity increased, by chance predators with more complex feeding strategies evolved. "Predatory techniques like drilling and peeling shells are more evolutionarily-derived than more primitive forms of predation like whole ingestion. In this scenario you would expect to evolve sophisticated forms of predation only when diversity is high," said Huntley.

And the third hypothesis is that something else is driving both predation and biodiversity. "Some periods have more sedimentary rocks, and therefore more fossils, preserved than others," said Huntley. "There is less diversity to be observed when there are fewer fossils to study. Perhaps this sampling bias affects our ability to find samples with high predation intensities as well."

"Now we will try to pick this apart," said Huntley. "We can test these hypotheses by examining relevant linkages between predation intensity and diversity in modern oceanic environments. Also, understanding the true nature of Sepkoski's curve will help us interpret our findings. Is it biological? Is it the product of uneven sampling?"

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Virginia Tech.

Fossil Whale Puts Limit On Origin Of Oily, Buoyant Bones In Whales

Source: University of California - Berkeley
Date: September 14, 2007


Science Daily.... A fossilized whale skeleton excavated 20 years ago amid the stench and noise of a seabird and elephant seal rookery on California's Año Nuevo Island turns out to be the youngest example on the Pacific coast of a fossil whale fall and the first in California, according to University of California, Berkeley, paleontologists.

Whale falls, first recognized in the 1980s, are whale carcasses that fall to the deep-ocean floor where, like an oasis in the desert, they attract a specialized group of clams, crabs and worms that feed for up to decades on the oil-rich bones and tissues.

Some scientists think these random, deep-ocean oases are stepping stones for organisms moving from one ocean floor environment to another - whether a hot vent, a cold seep or a whale carcass - in search of sustenance from energy-rich chemicals.

"The fossil whale fall shows that these deep-sea communities didn't need especially large whales as a source of nutrients - in fact, the fossil whale from Año Nuevo Island was no longer than a VW bug," said Nick Pyenson, a graduate student in UC Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology.

Pyenson and museum scientist David M. Haasl, both of UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology, recently published their findings in the journal Biology Letters.

The Año Nuevo skeleton, discovered in 1987 by then-UC Santa Cruz graduate student Brian Fadely and excavated by Graham Worthy and local fossil expert Frank Perry, was considered a rather small and unremarkable fossil whale - at 11 feet, it was less than half the size of today's smallest baleen whales. The bones, including skull, spine and ribs, were displayed at Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz until the lab donated the partially articulated skeleton to the Museum of Paleontology in 2005.

As Pyenson prepared it for the museum's collection, however, he noticed small clams in the nooks and crannies of the skull. He found 21 clams in all, each less than a centimeter in length, or two-fifths of an inch, plus one snail. Most of these organisms were on the skull, but some were nestled in the vertebrae. Haasl, a mollusk expert, thought the clams might be similar to those that cluster around whale falls today and that are able to extract energy from chemicals in bones with the help of specialized symbiotic bacteria. At whale fall depths of more than 1,000 meters, there is no light for photosynthesis.

Based on the shape of the fossil clam shells attached to the whale skeleton, Pyenson and Haasl determined that they belong to the same group of mollusks whose living relatives are chemosynthetic, confirming their initial hypothesis that this was a whale fall. A visit by Pyenson and Haasl to Año Nuevo Island in January 2007 showed that the whale came from 15 million-year-old sediments, the Monterey Formation, making the Año Nuevo find much younger than most fossil whale falls discovered around the globe, the oldest of which date from 40 million years ago, Pyenson said.

Whale falls were unknown to science until 1989, when the first example of a deep-sea community living on recently deceased whale carcasses was reported from southern California.

"The ocean floor is pretty much a desert until you get a whole whale carcass sinking to the bottom," Pyenson said. "We don't know how these creatures know to colonize it. Are they ever-present on the sea floor waiting for an animal to fall? But when the whale carcass hits, it forms this island refuge of high nutrient levels that can sustain an undersea community, some scientists calculate, for decades."

Over the past 18 years, more whale falls have been found around the world, and paleontologists have found examples in the fossil record as well. Most fossil examples, however, consist of isolated bones adjacent to deep-sea mollusks, Pyenson said. Little is known about the size or identity of the whale host.

In contrast, the Año Nuevo skeleton was unusually complete and hosted multiple mollusks. It also was small, which suggested to Pyenson that these specialized deep-sea communities didn't need large whale carcasses to evolve. Previous researchers had hypothesized that whale-fall communities evolved with the origin of large baleen whales, such as blue whales, and oil-rich bones. Pyenson and Haasl proposed instead that the oil content of the whale's bones was the more crucial factor.

"What we have are relatives of modern chemosynthetic clams associated directly with the skeleton of a tiny, tiny whale, smaller than any other known from modern whale falls," Pyenson said. "That tells us that you don't need very large whales to sustain a whale fall, but what you probably need is a really oily skeleton."

Because they are more buoyant, oil-rich bones are likely one adaptation to allow deep diving, Pyenson said. The Año Nuevo whale fall find puts a lower limit of 11 million years on the origin of oily bones in whales, he added.

Pyenson and Haasl are currently working with scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who routinely study recent whale falls in Monterey Bay. They hope to do "side-by-side comparisons of the fossil and modern whale-fall clam shells" to better characterize those from the fossil whale fall.

The work was supported by funds from the UC Museum of Paleontology and a fellowship to Pyenson from the National Science Foundation.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California - Berkeley.

Extra Gene Copies Were Enough To Make Early Humans' Mouths Water

Source: University of California - Santa Cruz
Date: September 14, 2007


Science Daily.... To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That's one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene.

Humans have many more copies of this gene than any of their ape relatives, the study found, and they use the copies to flood their mouths with amylase, an enzyme that digests starch. The finding bolsters the idea that starch was a crucial addition to the diet of early humans, and that natural selection favored individuals who could make more starch-digesting protein.

"Extra gene copies are an easy way for evolution to ramp up expression of a protein," said Nathaniel Dominy, assistant professor of anthropology at University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the paper's authors. "Why wait for chance mutations to improve gene function? Natural selection can favor duplicate copies of a gene that already works well, and enzyme production will increase."

Other primates eat mainly ripe fruits containing very little starch. A new ability to supplement the diet with calorie-rich starches could have fed our large brains and opened up new food supplies that fueled our unrivaled colonization of the planet, Dominy said.

The researchers sampled saliva from 50 European-American undergraduates and found as many as 15 copies of the amylase gene per person. By comparison, all 15 chimpanzees they sampled had exactly two copies each. Students with more copies of the gene also had higher concentrations of the enzyme in their spit.

Next, the team studied groups of humans with differing diets. They found a similar correspondence between the amount of starch in a group's diet and the average number of amylase gene copies its individuals possessed. For example, the Yakut of the Arctic, whose traditional diet centers around fish, had fewer copies than the related Japanese, whose diet includes starchy foods like rice, Dominy said. The same pattern existed for two Tanzanian tribes--the Datog, who raise livestock, and the Hadza, who primarily gather tubers and roots.

"Even though they're closely related genetically and live close to each other geographically, still there are big differences in the average number of copies in these populations," Dominy said. "So we felt like geography and relatedness are not driving these differences. It's got to be diet."

For Dominy and his coauthors, the finding goes beyond the mouth. In pondering human origins, Dominy said, anthropologists have long been stumped by the sudden, nearly simultaneous increases in our brain size, body size, and geographic range, while other apes changed little. Early humans simply must have found some source of better nutrition to make it all possible, they reasoned.

"That's the big mystery of paleoanthropology," Dominy said. "What changed? Why did our earliest human ancestors deviate from the pattern we see in living apes to evolve this incredibly large brain, which is very energetically expensive to maintain, and to become a much more efficient bipedal organism?"

For years, the answer was thought to be the growing importance of meat in the diet, as early humans learned to hunt. But, Dominy pointed out, "Even when you look at modern human hunter-gatherers, meat is a relatively small fraction of their diet. They cooperate with language, use nets; they have poisoned arrows, even, and still it's not that easy to hunt meat. To think that, two to four million years ago, a small-brained, awkwardly bipedal animal could efficiently acquire meat, even by scavenging, just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Some anthropologists have begun to suspect the new source of food consisted of starches, stored by plants in the form of underground tubers and bulbs--wild versions of modern-day foods like carrots, potatoes, and onions. Once early humans learned to recognize tuber-forming plants, they opened up a food source unknown to other apes.

"It's kind of a goldmine," Dominy said. "All you have to do is dig it up."

Tubers may have been especially critical for the first widely successful humans, known as Homo erectus, who may have learned to cook with fire. Since this idea was proposed, about a decade ago, researchers have been looking for evidence to support or refute it--no easy task for a theory that concerns highly perishable food consumed two million years ago. But in work earlier this year, Dominy and his colleagues found that animals eating tubers and bulbs produce body tissues with an isotopic signature that matches what has been measured in early fossilized humans.

The new discovery is a separate line of evidence pointing to the importance of starch in human beginnings, Dominy said. When early humans mastered fire, cooking starchy vegetables would have made them even easier to eat, he added. At the same time it would have made extra amylase gene copies an even more valuable trait.

"We roast tubers, and we eat French fries and baked potatoes," Dominy said. "When you cook, you can afford to eat less overall, because the food is easier to digest. Some marginal food resource that you might only eat in times of famine, now you can cook it and eat it. Now you can have population growth and expand into new territories."

Dominy's coauthors include George Perry, Katrina Claw, John Werner, Rajeev Misra, and Anne Stone of Arizona State University; Arthur Lee and Charles Lee of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.; Heike Fiegler, Richard Redon, and Nigel Carter of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK; Fernando Villanea, a former graduate fellow at UCSC who is now at the University of Costa Rica; and Joanna Mountain of Stanford University.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California - Santa Cruz.

New Evidence On The Role Of Climate In Neanderthal Extinction

Source: University of Leeds
Date: September 13, 2007


Science Daily... The mystery of what killed the Neanderthals has moved a step closer to resolution after an international study led by the University of Leeds has ruled out one of the competing theories -- catastrophic climate change -- as the most likely cause.

The bones of more than 400 Neanderthals have been found since the first discoveries were made in the early 19th century. The finds suggest the Neanderthals, named after the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, where they were first recognized as an extinct kind of archaic humans, inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia for more than 100,000 years.

The causes of their extinction have puzzled scientists for years -- with some believing it was due to competition with modern humans, while others blamed deteriorating climatic conditions. But a new study recently published in Nature has shown that the Neanderthal extinction did not coincide with any of the extreme climate events that punctuated the last glacial period.

The research was led by Professor Chronis Tzedakis, a palaeoecologist at the University of Leeds, who explained: "Until now, there have been three limitations to understanding the role of climate in the Neanderthal extinction: uncertainty over the exact timing of their disappearance; uncertainties in converting radiocarbon dates to actual calendar years; and the chronological imprecision of the ancient climate record."

The team's novel method -- mapping radiocarbon dates of interest directly onto a well-dated palaeoclimate archive -- circumvented the last two problems, providing a much more detailed picture of the climate at the possible times of the Neanderthal disappearance.

The researchers applied the new method to three alternative sets of dates for the timing of the Neanderthal extinction from Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, a site which is thought to have been occupied by some of the latest surviving Neanderthals:

• a set of generally accepted but older dates (around 30-32,000 radiocarbon years ago)
• newly-suggested younger dates (around 28,000 radiocarbon years ago)
• more contentious dates (around 24,000 radiocarbon years ago).

The team showed that during the first two sets of dates, Europe was experiencing conditions similar to the general climatic instability of the last glacial period -- conditions the Neanderthals had already proved able to survive.

The much more controversial date of around 24,000 radiocarbon years ago placed the last Neanderthals just before a large expansion of ice sheets and the onset of cold conditions in northern Europe. "But at that time, Gibraltar's climate remained relatively unaffected, perhaps as a result of warm water from the subtropical Atlantic entering the western Mediterranean," explained palaeoceanographer Isabel Cacho of the University of Barcelona.

"Our findings suggest that there was no single climatic event that caused the extinction of the Neanderthals," concludes palaeonthropologist Katerina Harvati of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "Only the controversial date of 24,000 radiocarbon years for their disappearance, if proven correct, coincides with a major environmental shift. Even in this case, however, the role of climate would have been indirect, by promoting competition with other human groups."

The work also has wider implications for other studies, as paleoclimatologist Konrad Hughen of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution explained: "Our approach offers the huge potential to unravel the role of climate in critical events of the recent fossil record as it can be applied to any radiocarbon date from any deposit."

The article Placing late Neanderthals in a climatic context (Tzedakis, P.C., Hughen, K.A., Cacho, I. & Harvati, K) is published in Nature on September 13. The study was conducted by Chronis Tzedakis (University of Leeds); Konrad Hughen (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); Isabel Cacho (University of Barcelona); Katerina Harvati (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology).

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Leeds.

Bog Mummies Yield Secrets

Source: North Dakota State University
Date: September 10, 2007



Science Daily.... Human remains yield secrets. Researchers, including Dr. Heather Gill-Robinson, assistant professor of anthropology at North Dakota State University, are now probing the secrets of 'bog mummies' some dating back 2000 years, preserved from the Iron Age with amazing detail in peat bogs of Europe.

Bog mummies have particularly interesting stories to tell. Physical anthropologists draw conclusions from the eerily preserved hair, leathery skin and other features that emerge from the bogs.

During the Iron Age from approximately 500BC to 500AD, bodies were often cremated, often leading experts to believe that mummies uniquely preserved by the bogs were people who met their demise through particularly violent means or were used as sacrifices, although there are numerous possible other explanations. A violent demise was thought to be the case for a mummy known as Windeby Girl, studied by Dr. Gill-Robinson. Discovered in northern Germany in 1952, experts thought she may have been an adulteress whose head was shaved, after which she was blindfolded and drowned in the bog.

But, on closer inspection, Heather Gill-Robinson of North Dakota State University determined that the Windeby Girl was actually more likely to have been a young man. He may have lost his hair when archaeologists’ trowels dug up the body. Physical examination of the mummy showed that growth interruptions in the bones of the specimen indicated a sick young man who may have died from natural causes.

The water and other substances in peat bogs create a natural preservative for the bodies found in them, though Dr. Gill-Robinson says researchers are still trying to determine why. The lack of oxygen, antimicrobial action and the sphagnum found in bogs seem to conspire to preserve the bodies tossed into them thousands of years ago. Bogs were once seen as homes for gods and outcast spirits.

But increasingly sophisticated computer programs and use of medical technology such as CT scans, radiocarbon dating and 3-D imaging have resulted in additional and potentially more accurate answers to the mysteries of the peat bog mummies. In her research, which includes the study of other mummies in addition to “Windeby Girl,” Gill-Robinson can also determine other details such as what they ate and their possible occupations.

The research being conducted at NDSU also gives students an opportunity to learn more about physical anthropology, according to Gill-Robinson. Two recent NDSU graduates, for example, analyzed CT scans of mummy specimens for a year and four more students are involved in image analysis projects this year. The mummies studied in Gill-Robinson’s research were found between 1871 and 1960. She has studied them for the past four years.

“Detailed analysis of the bog bodies provides us a window into cultures, heritage and the way people lived thousands of years ago,” says Gill-Robinson. “When we think we may have discovered something new about a mummy, we can re-visit it several years later and with new technology, refine our research results. In these cases, we need to present a revised interpretation to the public. Communities where discoveries are made have a high level of interest in what is found. Respectfully addressing folklore surrounding such discoveries in communities also plays a role.”

Gill-Robinson’s areas of research interest have focused on a collection of seven bodies (six mummies and one skeleton) from peat bogs in northern Germany. After a receiving a three-month research grant from the German Academic Exchange Service, Bonn, Germany, Gill-Robinson spent the summer exploring aspects of peat bog mummies in conjunction with Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf, a museum in Schleswig, Germany. Her research was included in a recent National Geographic article in September of 2007 and previously cited in the article, “Rehabilitation of a Moorland Corpse,” in Abenteuer Archaeologie, a German popular press archaeology magazine.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by North Dakota State University.

Ancient 'Escape Tunnel' Discovered In Israel

Source: Israel Antiquities Authority
Date: September 10, 2007

Science daily.... In excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the City of David in order to expose the main road of Jerusalem from the time of the Second Temple period, the city’s main drainage channel was discovered. According to the writings of Josephus Flavius, the residents of the city fled to this channel at the time of the revolt in order to hide from the Romans.

In excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is jointly carrying out with the Elad Association in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park, approximately 70 meters of Jerusalem’s main drainage channel from the time of the Second Temple period have been exposed so far. The channel is located along the route from the Temple Mount to the Shiloah Pool. The channel, which passes beneath the main road of the city and apparently continues to Nahal Kidron on its way to the Dead Sea, drained the rainfall of ancient Jerusalem; the Jewish quarter, the western region of the City of David and the Temple Mount.

The channel is built of ashlar stones and is covered with heavy stone slabs that are actually the paving stones of the street. In some places the channel reaches a height of about 3 meters and is one meter wide, so that it is possible to walk in it comfortably.

According to the excavation directors, Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the last two thousand years the valley has become blocked with thick layers of alluvium and collapse. Therefore the Israel Antiquities Authority was asked to excavate some 10 meters for the purpose of uncovering the main road of Jerusalem and the channel below it.

“There is evidence in the writings of Josephus Flavius, the historian who described the revolt, the conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem, that numerous people took shelter in the channel and even lived in it for a period until they succeeded to flee the city through its southern end”, they added.

Pottery shards, fragments of vessels, and coins from the end of the Second Temple period, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 CE, were discovered inside the channel.

The northern part of the channel, which is still unexcavated, apparently reaches the area of the Western Wall where in the past a large drainage channel was found that is the continuation of the channel that was exposed in the southern part of the City of David. The construction of the channel is characterized by its advanced technology. The further south one goes in the channel the deeper it is below the surface level so as to allow the rainwater to flow to Nahal Kidron.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Israel Antiquities Authority.

Physics Reveals The Secrets Of Saint Francis

Source: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Date: September 11, 2007


Science Daily....The tunic believed to have been worn by Saint Francis of Assisi preserved in the Church of Saint Francis in Cortona (Province of Arezzo) dates back to the period in which the saint lived, whereas the tunic preserved in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence was made after his death.

Carbon 14 measurements, which allow a relic to be dated, show that the tunic in Santa Croce dates back to some time between the late 13th century and late 14th century and thus could not have belonged to the “Poor Man of Assisi”, who died in 1226. These and other discovers were made possible through the analysis of the relics with a tandem particle accelerator, which was performed by the Laboratory of Nuclear Techniques for Cultural Heritage (LABEC) of the INFN of Florence.

The results of the study were presented in Florence at the European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology (ECAART) and will be published in the volume “L’eredità del Padre: le reliquie di San Francesco a Cortona” (which will be released in a few weeks by Edizioni Messaggero di Sant’Antonio). The volume will include the complete results of an interdisciplinary investigation which included both scientific and humanist research and which was promoted by the Tuscany Province Chapter of the Franciscan Order “Friars Minor Conventual”.

The analyses were conducted with a radiocarbon method, measuring the radiocarbon using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). From each tunic, researchers took from 5 to 7 samples of fabric, each of which was smaller than one square centimetre and weighed around 10 milligrams. Multiple samples were taken to avoid doubts or ambiguities (due to, for example, the presence of patches that were added to the tunic at a later time), thus increasing the analysis’ validity.

Each sample of wool was then treated so as to extract only the carbon, obtaining a small graphite pellet weighing about 0.8 milligrams. The pellet was then placed in the accelerator’s chamber, where it was exposed to a beam of cesium ions, “scratching” the pellet’s surface and extracting carbon isotopes 12, 13, and 14. The accelerator used by the INFN separately measured the quantity of the three isotopes. Relics are dated by calculating the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12, the quantities of which are “counted” in the accelerator’s detectors. Both great delicacy and exceptional sensitivity are required for taking these measurements; in fact, the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 is only around one to one trillion, or even lower.

The analysis of the tunic preserved in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence showed that it dates back to a period between the end of the 1200s and the end of the 1300s, revealing that it was made at least 80 years after Saint Francis’ death and thus could not have belonged to him.

By contrast, the dates of all of the fragments taken from the tunic in the church in Cortona coincide with the period of Saint Francis’ life (the average results show that the tunic was made between 1155 and 1225). The tunic is one of three Franciscan relics, which also include a finely embroidered cushion and a book of gospels believed to have been brought to Cortona by Friar Elia, Saint Francis’ first successor as leader of the order.

LABEC researchers also analysed the composition of the precious metal thread used to embroider the cover of the cushion on which the Saint’s head was placed upon his death, and they used the carbon 14 method to date the fabric of the cushion itself. Moreover, the book of gospels was subjected to in-depth codicological and paleographic investigations by researchers at the University of Siena. Based on both the scientific evidence and humanistic research, the cushion and the book of gospels were also found to date back to the period in which Saint Francis lived.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare.

Ancient Human DNA Extracted From Yucca Leaves Spat Out

Source: Harvard University


Science Daily In a groundbreaking study, two Harvard scientists have for the first time extracted human DNA from ancient artifacts. The work potentially opens up a new universe of sources for ancient genetic material, which is used to map human migrations in prehistoric times.

Before this, archaeologists could only get ancient DNA from relics of the human body itself, including prehistoric teeth, bones, fossilized feces, or — rarely — preserved flesh. Such sources of DNA are hard to find, poorly preserved, or unavailable because of cultural and legal barriers.

By contrast, the genetic material used in the Harvard study came from two types of artifacts — 800 to 2,400 years old — that are found by the hundreds at archaeological sites in the American Southwest.

“Quids” — small fibrous bundles of stripped yucca leaves — are the spit-out remnants of a kind of ancient chewing gum. Cells from long-dried saliva yield usable DNA. And “aprons” were thong-like woven garments worn by women. They are stained with traces of apparent menstrual blood, a source of DNA.

The Harvard study, featured in the summer 2007 issue of the Journal of Field Archaeology, “opens up the possibility of utilizing a much larger variety of human-handled artifacts” for DNA evidence, said project co-director Steven LeBlanc, director of collections at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Among the likely future sources of ancient DNA, he said, are “sandals, textiles, and cane cigarettes,” a reedlike smoke favored by early humans. LeBlanc’s co-director in the project was Thomas Benjamin, a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.

LeBlanc and others sampled 48 quids from four Southwestern archaeological sites — some of them on Harvard museum shelves for nearly 100 years — and 18 aprons found in Canyon de Chelly, a National Park Service site in Arizona still occupied by the Navajo Nation.

Aprons, and especially quids, are very common in archaeological collections, and are recovered from rock shelters or caves in the Southwest, Utah, Texas, California, and central Mexico. The DNA is preserved by the extreme dryness of such sites.

The Harvard study brings other good news for historians of ancient times. LeBlanc said the DNA captured from quids and aprons shows — in a preliminary way — that early farming populations in the Southwest descended from farmers in what is now central Mexico. That helps answer an old question among those who study the ancient Southwest: Was the idea of farming imported, or was it adopted by indigenous populations?

More broadly, archaeologists interested in migration patterns anywhere now have a new source for the DNA that can be used to track the movement of ancient people — though LeBlanc cautioned that the methods have to be retested and refined.

The origins of the earliest North American farmers are still officially a puzzle, and center on a now-lost tribe known as the Western Basketmakers. More than 2,000 years ago, these indigenous Americans started growing corn in what is now southeastern Utah and northern Arizona.

In what is now a boon to archaeologists who look at DNA, early farmers rested in the shade of rock formations, and spit out quids of chewed yucca leaves.

“The team was as surprised as everyone else that we could learn something about a possible migration over 2,000 years ago from ancient spit,” said LeBlanc. “Every artifact that we recover from such ancient sites now needs to be thought of in a new light, and handled in new ways, to ensure we preserve this DNA for future studies.”

To make sure the DNA was from ancient farmers and not from modern handlers, samples were taken from the cores of the quids and not from their surfaces.

Peabody Museum experts say future studies of ancient DNA from quids, aprons, and other appropriate artifacts are needed to test and refine Harvard’s preliminary findings.

The study was a collaborative project. Harvard researchers worked with genetic anthropologist Shawn W. Carlyle at the University of Utah; pathologist Lori S. Cobb Kreisman at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; curator Anna N. Dhody at the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; anthropologist Brian M. Kemp at Vanderbilt University; and Francis E. Smiley, an anthropologist at Northern Arizona University. Ancient DNA expert David Glenn Smith offered his advice and the use of his laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

Some of the artifacts used in the DNA analysis were from collections at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Southwest Museum, and Northern Arizona University.

The study was supported by the Provost’s Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration at Harvard University and by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Harvard University.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Harvard University.

Dark, but Light: Smallest Galaxies Ever Seen Help Solve a Big Problem

Source: W. M. Keck Observatory

DescriptionScientists have studied a population of the darkest, most lightweight galaxies known, each containing 99% dark matter. The findings suggest a major puzzle known as the “Missing Dwarf Galaxy” problem is not as severe as previously thought, and may have been solved completely.




Scientists may have solved a discrepancy between the number of extremely small, faint galaxies predicted to exist near the Milky Way and the number actually observed. In an attempt to resolve the “Missing Dwarf Galaxy” problem, two astronomers used the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to study a population of the darkest, most lightweight galaxies known, each containing 99% dark matter. The findings suggest the “Missing Dwarf Galaxy” problem is not as severe as previously thought, and may have been solved completely.

“It seems that very small, ultra-faint galaxies are far more plentiful than we thought,” said Dr. Marla Geha, co-author of the study and a Plaskett Research Fellow at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada. “If you asked me last year whether galaxies this small and this dark existed, I would have said no. I’m astonished that so many tiny, dark matter-dominated galaxies have now been discovered.”


The Missing Dwarf Galaxy puzzle comes from a prediction of the “Cold Dark Matter” model, which explains the growth and evolution of the universe. It predicts large galaxies like the Milky Way should be surrounded by a swarm of up to several hundred smaller galaxies known as “dwarf galaxies.” However, until recently, only 11 such companions were known to be orbiting the Milky Way. To explain this large discrepancy, theorists suggested that while hundreds of dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way may indeed exist, the majority might have few, if any, stars. If so, the galaxies would be comprised almost entirely of dark matter—a mysterious type of matter that has gravitational effects on ordinary atoms, but which does not produce any light. But proving the existence of a large number of nearly invisible galaxies seemed problematic, until now.

Menopause may cause Obesity

It has been demonstrated that major weight increases occur during menopause,in that time in a woman's body stopped cyclic ovarian function and the ovarian hormones progesterone and estrogen slowly decries.

Researcher Judy Cameron, of Oregon Health & Science University, and her colleagues studied 47 adult female monkeys. Nineteen of the monkeys had their ovaries surgically removed. That resulted in a decline in estrogen and progesterone levels, much like menopause. The other 28 monkeys were the control group.

"What we witnessed was that the absence of these hormones resulted in a 67 percent jump in food intake and a 5 percent jump in weight in a matter of weeks," Cameron says.

"We would expect weight gain to continue over time. Additionally, we noted an increase of the hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells and has been shown to play a role in food intake," she says.

The study noted a relationship between the loss of ovaries in the monkeys and a change in metabolism. Cameron and her colleagues plan to do more research in this area to better understand metabolism changes through life related to menopause and other factors.

Menopausal weight gain also increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and has been strongly linked to increased incidence of breast and other hormone-related cancers post menopause. These healthcare concerns have led to the conception of specific products that target menopausal weight gain.

Scientists discover 'fat gene'

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent

Last Updated: 7:01am BST 05/09/2007

Scientists have identified a genetic “master switch” that tells the body whether to store or burn fat.

The discovery of the function of the adipose gene could lead to the development of new treatments to fight obesity. US researchers, whose work is published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed animals created with greater adipose activity were thinner and less likely to suffer diabetes than average.

Lead author Dr. Jonathan Graff, associate professor of developmental biology and internal medicine at UT Southwestern, said: “From worms to mammals, this gene controls fat formation.

“It could explain why so many people struggle to lose weight and suggests an entirely new direction for developing medical treatments that address the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity.

“People who want to fit in their jeans might someday be able to overcome their genes.”

The adipose gene was first discovered in fat fruit flies more than 50 years ago, but the way it worked has remained unknown.

In the new study the researchers manipulated adipose in worms and genetically mice, turning the gene on and off at different stages in the animals’ lives and in various parts of their bodies.

They found the gene, which is also present in humans, is like a master switch that tells the body whether to accumulate or burn fat.


Mice created with increased adipose activity ate as much as normal mice, but were thinner, had diabetes-resistant fat cells, and were better able to control insulin and blood-sugar metabolism.

Animals engineered to have reduced adipose activity were fatter, less healthy and had diabetes.

The researchers’ work on flies showed that the gene is “dose-sensitive” – meaning various combinations of the gene’s variants led to a range of body types from slim to medium to obese.

Dr Graff added: “This is good news for potential obesity treatments, because it’s like a volume control instead of a light switch. It can be turned up or down, not just on or off. Eventually, of course, the idea is to develop drugs to target this system.”

10th Planet Discovered.

Astronomers have found a new planet in the outer reaches of the solar system

July 29, 2005: "It's definitely bigger than Pluto." So says Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology who announced today the discovery of a new planet in the outer solar system.

The planet, which hasn't been officially named yet, was found by Brown and colleagues using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego. It is currently about 97 times farther from the sun than Earth, or 97 Astronomical Units (AU). For comparison, Pluto is 40 AU from the sun.

Right: An artist's concept of the new planet. [More]

This places the new planet more or less in the Kuiper Belt, a dark realm beyond Neptune where thousands of small icy bodies orbit the sun. The planet appears to be typical of Kuiper Belt objects--only much bigger. Its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet itself, Brown says.

Backyard astronomers with large telescopes can see the new planet. But don't expect to be impressed: It looks like a dim speck of light, visual magnitude 19, moving very slowly against the starry background. "It is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky in the constellation Cetus," notes Brown.

The planet was discovered by, in addition to Brown, Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. They first photographed the new planet with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. The object was so far away, however, that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.

"We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown adds.


Right: The new planet, circled in white, moves across a field of stars on Oct. 21, 2003. The three photos were taken about 90 minutes apart. Image credit: Samuel Oschin Telescope, Palomar Observatory. [More]

Telescopes have not yet revealed the planet's disk. To estimate how big it is, the astronomers must rely on measurements of the planet's brightness. Like all planets, this new one presumably shines by reflecting sunlight. The bigger the planet, generally speaking, the bigger the reflection. The reflectance, the fraction of light that bounces off the planet, is not yet known. Nevertheless, it is possible to set limits on the planet's diameter:

"Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. Pluto is 1400 miles (2300 km) wide. "I'd say it's probably [about] one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure."

The planet's temporary name is 2003 UB313. A permanent name has been proposed by the discoverers to the International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of this body before announcing the name. Stay tuned!

First Beehives In Ancient Near East Discovered

Science Daily Archaeological proof of the Biblical description of Israel really as "the land of milk and honey" (or at least the latter) has been uncovered by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology.

Amihai Mazar, Eleazar L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, revealed that the first apiary (beehive colony) dating from the Biblical period has been found in excavations he directed this summer at Tel Rehov in Israel's Beth Shean Valley. This is the earliest apiary to be revealed to date in an archaeological excavation anywhere in the ancient Near East, said Prof. Mazar. It dates from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E.
Tel Rehov is believed to have been one of the most important cities of Israel during the Israelite monarchy. The beehives there were found in the center of a built-up area there that has been excavated since 1997 by Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen of the Hebrew University. Three rows of beehives were found in the apiary, containing more than 30 hives. It is estimated, however, based on excavations to date, that in all the total area would have contained some 100 beehives.
Each row contained at least three tiers of hives, each of which is a cylinder composed of unbaked clay and dry straw, around 80 centimeters long and 40 centimeters in diameter.
One end of the cylinder was closed and had a small hole in it, which allowed for the entry and exit of the bees. The opposite end was covered with a clay lid that could be removed when the beekeeper extracted the honeycombs. Experienced beekeepers and scholars who visited the site estimated that as much as half a ton of honey could be culled each year from these hives.
Prof. Mazar emphasizes the uniqueness of this latest find by pointing out that actual beehives have never been discovered at any site in the ancient Near East. While fired ceramic vessels that served as beehives are known in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, none were found in situ, and beekeeping on an industrial level such as the apiary at Tel Rehov is hitherto unknown in the archaeological record. Pictorial depictions of apiaries are known from Pharaonic Egypt, showing extraction of honey from stacked cylinders which are very similar to those found at Tel Rehov.
Cylindrical clay beehives placed in horizontal rows, similar to those found at Tel Rehov, are well-known in numerous contemporary traditional cultures in Arab villages in Israel, as well as throughout the Mediterranean. The various products of beehives are put to diverse use: the honey is, of course, a delicacy, but is also known for its medicinal and cultic value. Beeswax was also utilized in the metal and leather industries, as well as for writing material when coated on wooden tablets.
The term "honey" appears 55 times in the Bible, 16 of which as part of the image of Israel as "the land of milk and honey". It is commonly believed that the term refers to honey produced from fruits such as dates and figs. Bees' honey, on the other hand, is mentioned explicitly only twice, both related to wild bees. The first instance is how Samson culled bees' honey from inside the corpse of the lion in the Soreq Valley (Judges 14: 8-9). The second case is the story of Jonathan, King Saul's son, who dipped his hand into a honeycomb during the battle of Mikhmash (Samuel I 14:27).
While the Bible tells us nothing about beekeeping in Israel at that time, the discovery of the apiary at Tel Rehov indicates that beekeeping and the extraction of bees' honey and honeycomb was a highly developed industry as early as the First Temple period. Thus, it is possible that the term "honey" in the Bible indeed pertains to bees' honey.
Cultic objects were also found in the apiary, including a four-horned altar adorned with figures of naked fertility goddesses, as well as an elaborately painted chalice. This could be evidence of deviant cultic practices by the ancient Israelites related to the production of honey and beeswax.
Study of the beehives found at Tel Rehov is being conducted with the participation of various researchers. Dr. Guy Bloch of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences of the Hebrew University is studying the biological aspects of the finds; he already discovered parts of bees' bodies in the remains of honeycomb extracted from inside the hives. Dr. Dvori Namdar of the Weizmann Institute of Science succeeded in identifying beeswax molecules from the walls of the beehives, and Prof. Mina Evron from Haifa University is analyzing the pollen remains in the hives.
Dating of the beehives was done by measuring the decaying of the 14C isotope in organic materials, using grains of wheat found next to the beehives. This grain was dated at the laboratory of Groningen University in Holland to the period between the mid-10th century B.C.E. until the early 9th century B.C.E. This is the time period attributed to the reign of King Solomon and the first kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel following the division of the monarchy. The city of Rehov is indeed mentioned in an Egyptian inscription dating to the time of the Pharaoh Shoshenq I (Biblical Shishak), whom the Bible notes as the contemporary of King Solomon and who invaded Israel following that monarch's death.
A particularly fascinating find at the site is an inscription on a ceramic storage jar found near the beehives that reads "To nmsh". This name was also found inscribed on another storage jar from a slightly later occupation level at Tel Rehov, dated to the time of the Omride Dynasty in the 9th century BCE. Moreover, this same name was found on a contemporary jar from nearby Tel Amal, situated in the Gan HaShelosha National Park (Sachne).
The name "Nimshi" is known in the Bible as the name of the father and in several verses the grandfather of Israelite King Jehu, the founder of the dynasty that usurped power from the Omrides (II Kings: 9-12). It is possible that the discovery of three inscriptions bearing this name in the same region and dating to the same period indicates that Jehu's family originated from the Beth Shean Valley and possibly even from the large city located at Tel Rehov. The large apiary discovered at the site might have belonged to this illustrious local clan.
The excavations at Tel Rehov were supported by John Camp from Minneapolis in the U.S. with the participation of archaeological students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and numerous volunteers.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.