The Secrets behind the Human Body

Allah The Almighty and The Wise, created man as the best of creation. And behind this creation, stored a lot of secrets and wisdom. Secrets that will be displayed below are just small parts of it. The Knower of all secrets only Allah Ta'ala.

In fact, many parts of our body engraved symbols and Arabic script, and, more precisely, there is the name of God and the symbols associated with Islam in it. Why do our hand have five fingers? Why our necks made ​​upright by God? Why is the act of prayer consists of standing, bowing, prostration and sitting between two prostrations? These are the signs of God on human beings that rarely noticed.

Name of Allah on 5 fingers

Allah, God the Almighty, the Wise, He showed His glory through the creation of five human finger, that symbolizes the letters: Alif, Lam, Lam and Ha forming the word Allah in Arabic words and writings, as in the picture below;

Normal human fingers are 5 So symbolically the obligatory prayers that Muslims must fulfill in prayer 5 times a day, consisting of Subh (Fajr), Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha' prayers.

The number of the names of God on the palm of the hand

If we turn back the hands, and look into the base, then there we will see the veins that forms in the Arabic script numbers. That number is 81 in the palm of the left hand and 18 in the palm of the right hand. If the two numbers are added, the total is 99.

And the number 99 is symbolic to the 99 names of God mentioned in the Quran, which is called as أسماء الله الحسنى‎ / Asma-ul Husna (Beautiful Names).

Airways on the lungs forming the word of Tawheed

Scientists have discovered that air channels in human lung form the word 'La ilaha illallah' (There is no God but Allah) in Arabic script. See the picture below, the shape of the airway exactly clear spell the word of Tawheed (kalimah Syahadah).

Acts in prayer is a symbol for the name of the Prophet 

Standing straight in prayers represent letter Alif (ا), bowing represent letter Ha (ح), prostration symbolizes the letter Mim (م), and sitting represents the letter Dal (د). It eventually forming the word Ahmad in Arabic script, the name of the Last Prophet who brought the Last Testament (Al-Qur'an).

احمد  =  ا + ح + م + د  =  Ahmad

Know that Ahmad is another name for Prophet Muhammad. And according to historians, his mother Aminah wanted to call him with the name of Ahmad, but then his grandfather Abdul Muttalib gave him the name Muhammad. 

However, Ahmad and Muhammad in the Arabic language means the same, "The Blessed".

"And (mention) when Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "O children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of Allah to you confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad." But when he came to them with clear evidences, they said, "This is obvious magic."" [Surah as-Shaaf : verse 6]

Act of standing can also be symbolized as the nature of the fire standing. Bowing as the nature of the wind blowing sideways. Sitting as the fixed nature of land on earth. Bowed as the nature of water falling to earth.

Human brains in conditions like prostrate in prayer

Shape of the human brain even if observed closely looks like people who are prostrate. Appropriate because the brain is in the skull used to prostrate.

The brain is at the very top of people, but when we prostrate, it was at the lowest point, marking our devotion to the Creator of us. So why are people still cocky and arrogant does not want to prostrate to the God that created us?

"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?" [Surah Fusshilat : verse 53]

The name of God when lifting the index finger on the tasyahhud sit in prayer

At the end of tahiyyat sit in prayer, it is sunat we lifted forefinger while reciting the Syahadah. Lifted index finger denotes God alone. And see in the picture below, on the finger veins will form the word Allah in Arabic, Subhanallah.

"O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous. Who created you, proportioned you, and balanced you? In whatever form He willed has He assembled you." [Surah al-Infithar : verse 6-8]

Balance on the word Allah and Muhammad

There is equilibrium (balance) on the word Allah and Muhammad in Arabic. Similarly, the word of Tawheed (kalimah Syahadah). Please see below;

الله  

= 4 letters,  Alif lam lam ha'

محمد

= 4 letters , mim haa' mim dal

4 + 4 = 8

Allah S.w.t says in Surah Ar-Ra'd verse 8 which means; "....... And everything with Him is by due measure."

لا إله إلا الله

= 12 letters

محمد رسول الله

= 12 letters

12 + 12 = 24  , there are 24 hours in a day.

24/8 = 3. Islam is divided into 3 major branches of Aqeedah (Tawhid / Ushuluddin), Fiqh (Syaria) and Morals (Ehsan / Tasawwuf). Those knowledge is Fardhu 'Ain (obligatory) on every Muslim to learn. 

In a year there are 12 months all, and four sacred months of Dzulqa'idah, Dzulhijjah, Muharram and Rajab.

"One year has 12 months. Among them are four sacred months, 3 months in a row, Dzulqa'idah, Dzulhijjah, and Muharram, and Rajab which is between the months of Jumada and Sya'ban." [Narrated by Bukhari Hadith No. 2958]

Prophet Muhammad was born on 12th Rabi `al-Awwal and also died on the 12th of Rabi` al-Awwal.

And many more ....... Wallahu a'lam.

Read also From the tiniest to the largest beings, all praise Allah

Also read in Malay language = Rahsia kalimah Tauhid dan keseimbangan

p/s: Sorry for grammar mistakes. I'm not fluent in English.

Peace and justice for all. All the best ....... :-)

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18 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT HUMAN BODY - INFOGRAPHIC

Researched and produced by Advanced Physical Medicine - Chicago Bucktown Physical Therapy..

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Men's magazines describe women in the same way as rapists, say psychologists

Far from being harmless or ironic fun, lads’ mags could be legitimising hostile sexist attitudes, according to new research.

Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes.

The research due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology also revealed that most men who took part identified themselves more with the language expressed by the convicted rapists.

Psychologists presented men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a range of statements taken from magazines* and from convicted rapists, giving the men the source of the quotes in only some cases. Men identified more with the comments made by rapists than the quotes made in lads’ mags, but when told which quotes were from lads’ mags they identified more with these, despite some being incorrectly attributed and actually from rapists.

The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were, and to try to identify the source of the quotes. Men and women rated the quotes from lads’ mags as somewhat more derogatory, but generally couldn’t categorise the quotes more accurately than if guessing.

Dr Miranda Horvath and Dr Peter Hegarty argue that lads’ mags could normalise hostile sexism, by making it seem more acceptable when its source is a popular magazine.

Dr Horvath, lead researcher from Middlesex University, said: “We were surprised that participants identified more with the rapists’ quotes, and we are concerned that the legitimisation strategies that rapists deploy when they talk about women are more familiar to these young men than we had anticipated.”

Due to concerns about their content, from February this year many major supermarket chains and petrol stations in the United Kingdom agreed to place lads’ mags on the top shelf, out of the eye line of children and some have installed modesty boards to hide front cover images.

But the measures to protect children do not address the concerns born out by the findings of the research and Miranda Horvath, is concerned that lads’ magazine editors are not working hard enough to moderate the content of their magazines: "A lot of debate around the regulation of lads’ mags has been to do with how they affect children but less has been said about the influence they have on their intended audience of young men and the women with whom those men socialise."

"These magazines support the legitimisation of sexist attitudes and behaviours and need to be more responsible about their portrayal of women, both in words and images. They give the appearance that sexism is acceptable and normal - when really it should be rejected and challenged. Rapists try to justify their actions, suggesting that women lead men on, or want sex even when they say no. There is clearly something wrong when people feel the sort of language used in a lads’ mag could have come from a convicted rapist.”

Dr Peter Hegarty, of the University of Surrey’s Psychology Department, added: “There is a fundamental concern that the content of such magazines normalises the treatment of women as sexual objects. We are not killjoys or prudes who think that there should be no sexual information and media for young people. But are teenage boys and young men best prepared for fulfilling love and sex when they normalise views about women that are disturbingly close to those mirrored in the language of sexual offenders?”

He added that young men should be given credible sex education and not have to rely on lads’ mags as a source of information as they grow up.

Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Manager for OBJECT, a human rights campaign group which campaigns against the objectification of women, said: "This crucial and chilling piece of research lays bare the hateful messages which seep out of lads' mags and indoctrinate young men's attitudes towards women and girls. When the content of magazines aimed at teenage boys mirrors the attitudes of convicted rapists, alarm bells must ring.

“If we are serious about wanting an end to discrimination and violence against women and girls, we must tackle the associated attitudes and behaviours. This means tackling the publications which peddle them. The Leveson Inquiry is currently looking into the culture and ethics of the press. These disturbing findings unequivocally demonstrate the need for the portrayal of women to be included in the remit of this inquiry. Now is the time for action."

*The study used quotes from the four UK lad’s mags with the highest circulation: FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo, published between January and March 2010. (Circulation data from the abc website)

Quotes from convicted rapists from verbatim interview transcripts in the United States in the book: ‘The Rapist Files: Interviews With Convicted Rapists’ by Sussman & Bordwell

[Middlesex University]

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17 new pyramids has been discovered by a satellite

17 lost pyramids has been discovered by a satellite survey at Egypt amongst thousands of tombs and ancient settlements.

Scientists made the discovery using infrared images which enabled them to identify underground structures.

The existence of two pyramids have already been confirmed by researchers on the ground.

This cutting edge form of “space archaeology” is being pioneered by a team of archaeologists from the University of Alabama in Birmingham lead by US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.

The team analysed images from satellite-cameras so powerful they can zoom in on objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth's surface.

Infra-red imaging was then used to identify different materials undeground.

Read more ....... TNT Magazine

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Scientists make eye's retina from stem cells, hope for 'blindness cure'

An early-stage retina in a test tube in a picture released by the RIKEN Centre in Kobe

Scientists have grown part of an eyeball that has been created in the laboratory from animal stem cells that could one day give millions of blind people back their sight.

One day it might be possible to make an eye in a dish, Nature journal reports.

British eye expert Professor Robin Ali said: 'It is a really, really major landmark. I have never been so excited.'

Writing in the prestigious journal Nature, the Japanese researchers started with a ball of embryonic stem cells and allowed it to develop to the point at which eyeballs appeared to 'bulge' through.

They then removed the budding eyeballs and grew them separately, using the right cocktail of proteins and chemicals to coax them into developing into 3D retinas.

Although the retina not fully mature, it was roughly at the stage that would be found in a baby shortly before it is born.

With the right mix of nutrients, the cells changed and began to grow to make a synthetic retina.

Ultimately, scientists hope they can use this approach to make endless supplies of retinal cells or indeed whole retinas that can be transplanted into patients with visual impairment.

Eventually, it may even be possible to create a whole eye.

A US biotech company has already been granted a license to begin human trials of a stem cell treatment for blindness.

Read more at BBC News & Dailymail.co.uk

~ Library of weird and wonderful news blog ~

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White blood cell chases bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus)

Here is a video of a white blood cell (neutrophil) in the human body are pursuing bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) recorded by David Rogers from Vanderbilt University. This video has been recorded many years ago I just want to share here for those who have not seen it yet  :)  Subhanallah .......

~ Library of weird and wonderful news blog ~

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Science takes the spotlight at Swiss film fest

The European Organization for Nuclear Research is screening films dedicated to science at the CineGlobe festival near Geneva. Russia’s “Two or Three Things It Would Not Be Bad to Know About” has made it into the event.

CineGlobe, an international festival of short films and science documentaries, will be held from February 16 to February 20. Movies taking part compete for the titles of best general fiction, best science fiction and best science documentary.

Within five days a selection of some 80 films from 27 different countries from over 700 submissions will be shown in the Swiss town of Meyrin. This year marks CineGlobe’s second installment.

Russia’s entry, a documentary by Russian director Nikolay Makarov, is made as a media performance. It features six Russian philosophers rethinking the threats of the relations between a human and the technological world he has created. The film was made around the image of an anonymous Internet surfer, who happens to find a webpage revealing the catastrophic threats of the future. Step by step the hero discovers more and more dangers… The film ends with a symbolic scene of the hero being offered to choose either to “quit” or to “continue” this weird “race of curiosity” over how the world would come to its end.

Indeed, the town where the festival is taking place is an apt choice; nearby the Large Hadron Collider can be found buried under the French-Swiss border.

Open to film creators from around the world working in both French and English, the CineGlobe festival is a unique event organized and supported by the world’s largest physics laboratory, CERN, that has attracted more than 1,500 entries from more than 83 countries around the globe. The festival is poised to become one of the most important festivals worldwide for films about science.

Via - Russia Today

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Scientists demonstrate the world's first germanium laser

Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium, the first works at room temperature that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication.

Traditionally used lasers are made from gallium arsenide and other expensive materials that have to be attached to computing chips after each component has been separately manufactured. Unlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips.

The result could be useful for high-speed optical data pathways within computers - so the scientists hope to apply this new technology to the world of processors and begin moving data and (maybe) performing calculations using light instead of electricity.

But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief; a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.

As chips' computational capacity increases, they need higher-bandwidth connections to send data to memory.

But, conventional electrical connections will soon become impractical, because they'll require too much power to transport data at ever higher rates.

Transmitting data with lasers - devices that concentrate light into a narrow, powerful beam - could be much more power-efficient, but it requires a cheap way to integrate optical and electronic components on silicon chips.

Chip assembly is a painstaking process in which layers of different materials are deposited on a wafer of silicon, and patterns are etched into them.

Inserting a new material into this process is difficult: it has to be able to chemically bond to the layers above and below it, and depositing it must be possible at the temperatures and in the chemical environments suitable to the other materials.

The materials used in today's lasers, such as gallium arsenide, are "all tough fits," according to Tremont Miao, a marketing director at Massachusetts-based Analog Devices Semiconductor.

Integrating germanium into the manufacturing process, however, is something that almost all major chip manufacturers have already begun to do, since the addition of germanium increases the speed of silicon chips.

"The ability to grow germanium on silicon is a discovery of this group and the ability to control the strain of those germanium films on silicon is a discovery of this group," said Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who leads the group.

"High-speed optical circuits like germanium in general. That's a good marriage and a good combination. So their laser research is very, very promising," said Miao.

Miao points out that the germanium lasers need to become more power-efficient before they're a practical source of light for optical communications systems.

MIT's primary germanium laser investigator was Jurgen Michel. Jifeng Liu was lead author of the paper, and Lionel Kimerling, Xiaochen Sun, and Rodolfo Camacho-Aguilera are coauthors.

Via - Cnet , DailyTech , Physorg

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Stone Age amputee proves Neolithic medics more advanced than previously thought

Stone Age medicine was far more advanced than previously thought, scientists discovered, after unearthing the 7,000-year-old skeleton of a man with an amputated arm.

Early Neolithic surgeons used a sharpened flint stone and rudimentary anaesthetics to amputate the elderly man’s left forearm, and treated the wound in sterile conditions, experts believe.

Evidence of the early surgery was unearthed by Cécile Buquet-Marcon and Anaick Samzun, both archaeologists, and Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist, during work on a tomb discovered at Buthiers-Boulancourt, about 40 miles south of Paris.

The man, who lived in the Linearbandkeramik period, when European hunter-gatherers began subsistence farming, was found to be missing his forearm and hand bones.

Tests showed that the humerus bone had been severed above the elbow in what scientists described as “an intentional and successful amputation”.

The patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, is thought likely to have damaged his arm in a fall, animal attack or battle.

Pain-killing plants such as the hallucinogenic Datura are likely to have been used in the operation, and the wound was probably cleaned using antiseptic herbs like sage, the scientists said.

“I don’t think you could say that those who carried out the operation were doctors in the modern sense that they did only that, but they obviously had medical knowledge,” Mrs Buquet-Marcon said.

Researchers have also recently reported signs of two other Neolithic amputations in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Stone Age doctors were previously known to have performed trephinations, making incisions in the skull, but not amputations.

Via - Telegraph

Further reading at A possible Early Neolithic amputation at Buthiers-Boulancourt

(Seine-et-Marne), France

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Archaeologists found tomb of ancient Chinese ruler Cao Cao

Archaeologists in China have unearthed the tomb of Cao Cao, a legendary ruler who features as a cunning and deceitful politician in folklore stories.

They have excavated a 8,000 square-foot (740-square metre) chamber in Xigaoxue, a village in Henan province, according to the China Daily newspaper.

Cao Cao's military talents in the third century AD led him to be the inspiration behind many popular stories.

The leader of the Anyang Xigaoxue Tomb Archaeological Team, Pan Wenbing says they found armored clothes, swords and spears believed to be once used by Cao Cao.

"Cao Cao commonly uses broadswords and short spears for defense. We have found six of them in the tomb.”

The excavation team also found the skull of a man in his 60s - corresponding to Cao Cao's age at his death. The remains of two women were also found in the cave.

The Chinese equivalent of the English phrase "speak of the devil" is "speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives".

In one fictional tale, he is quoted as saying: "Better for me to wrong the world than for the world to wrong me."

Cao Cao was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, who formed his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was named, after his death, Emperor Wu of the Wei state that he founded.

Tablets carrying the inscription "King Wu of Wei", Cao's posthumous title, were seized from people who had apparently stolen them from the tomb, the report said.

"The stone tablets bearing inscriptions of Cao's posthumous reference are the strongest evidence," archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying.

"No one would or could have so many relics inscribed with Cao's posthumous reference in the tomb unless it was Cao's."

Via - Sky News , NTDTV

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Scientists discovered world's oldest known DNA

True or not, only God knows. But for me, i will not believe just like that for something to be said from 419 million years ago. The first human, Adam, start living on Earth about 6 thousands years ago. And how scientists know that something from million years ago? To me, that's only an opinion, not fact.

There are so many propagandas from Illuminati like dinasours, walk on moon, aliens and so on. They're all to make people dreaming and believe of something that don't exist. Illuminati can make money and start to conquer Earth from these.

So let's read what they wanna tell us this time :)

ABC Science - It won't make Jurassic Park a reality, but scientists have discovered 419 million-year-old DNA intact inside ancient salt deposits.

The genetic material, the oldest ever found, belongs to salt-loving bacteria whose ancestors may have been among the first life forms on Earth.

Scientists have previously recovered similar genetic material from the Michigan Basin, the same region where the latest discovery was made. But the DNA was so similar to that of modern microbes that many scientists believed the samples had been contaminated.

Not so this time around.

A team of researchers led by Dr Jong Soo Park of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, found six segments of identical DNA that have never been seen before by science. Their work appears in the December issue of the journal Geobiology .

"We went back and collected DNA sequences from all known halophilic bacteria and compared them to what we had," says Dr Russell Vreeland of West Chester University in Pennsylvania. "These six pieces were unique."

The team's finding reshuffles the family tree for salt-loving bacteria, organisms that trace their ancestors back to the dawn of life.

The first representative of the group, Halobacterium salinarum, was found living on a salt-cured buffalo hide in the 1930s. Scientists assumed it was a modern species, but the team's work has shown that H. salinarum is in fact a close genetic relative of bugs that lived between 121 and 419 million years ago.

Waiting for the moment

Vreeland tracked down the origins of the buffalo skin and found that the salt probably came from a mine in Saskatchewan.

Rocks in the mine formed when a sea dried up around 300 million years ago, and Vreeland suspects those first H. salinarum spent the entire time living inside tiny brine-filled defects in salt crystals, waiting for the right moment to re-emerge.

It's a bold claim, but evidence suggests the creatures may be nature's Rip Van Winkles, hunkering inside salt deposits for eons until natural forces - or in this case, humans - bring them back to the surface.

"There is better and better evidence that these organisms can somehow survive for these amazing amounts of time," and then repopulate in the planet's vast saltwater basins whenever conditions allow, says Associate Professor Melanie Mormile of Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Salt-loving bacteria living underground have likely survived several mass extinctions, Vreeland says, only to re-seed the planet with life as conditions improved.

"It's a perfect example of how it's not just organisms staying alive, but how Earth has a way of keeping itself alive," he says.

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Bacteria also can get lonely

Not only humans can go crazy when they're been locked up. Scientists from New Mexico and New Hampshire are reporting that bacteria locked in solitary confinement know they are locked up, talk to themselves, and try to break free of their imprisonment.

The research could have important health implications, from how an individual bacterium can trigger full-blown infections to how a single human cancer cell can metastasize into a deadly tumor.

A human locked up in solitary confinement can see the walls around them, touch their rough surfaces, hear their pleas and curses echoing around the cell. Bacteria lack these senses, but they do have excellent noses. They smell the walls around them, using a chemical process known as quorum sensing.

Quorum sensing is how bacteria communicate with each other, and with the world around them. Bacteria send out specific chemicals, often called autoinducers, that diffuse away, their concentration decreasing the farther away the chemical travels. Low levels of autoinducers usually means that a bacterium is alone. High levels of autoinducers means there are many bacteria.

Once the signal reaches a certain threshold, or quorum, the bacteria change their behavior, turning some genes on, turning other genes off. The bacteria become an organized pack, known as a biofilm, instead of lone wolves. In a biofilm, certain bacteria are responsible for protection, others for food, and still others for replication. A biofilm can be anything from the brown scum on river rocks to the yellow mucus hacked up during a lung infection.

Via - Discovery News

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Scientists believed earth's atmosphere came from outer space

The Earth's atmosphere and oceans which gave rise to life came from outer space probably on the back of meteorites or comets, scientists now believe.

Previously it was thought that the gases and minerals were locked deep within the Earth's crust and only released in huge volcanic eruptions.

But now researchers have proved that they must have come from outer space billions of years after the Earth was first formed.

Dr Greg Holland, of the University of Manchester, said: "We found a clear meteorite signature in volcanic gases. From that we now know the volcanic gases could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth's atmosphere.

"The atmosphere and oceans must have come from somewhere else – possibly from a late bombardment of gas and water rich materials similar to comets."

Dr Holland and colleagues, whose findings are published in Science, tested volcanic gases to uncover the new evidence.

They found that they had chemical fingerprints matching that of meteorites rather than the inner Earth.

The techniques enabled the researchers tiny quantities of volcanic gases Krypton and Xenon which revealed a chemical fingerprint matching that of meteorites.

Soon after it formed, the Earth's core was enveloped by an ocean of magma. Intense bombardment by meteorites combined with the core's heat to turn rocks into gases.

Within a few million years, a thick, dense atmosphere formed, even though a large portion of it was probably expelled by the gigantic impact that created the Moon 4.4 billion years ago.

Professor Chris Ballentine of The University of Manchester, the project director, said: "Many people have seen artist's impressions of the primordial Earth with huge volcanoes in the background spewing gas to form the atmosphere.

"We will now have to redraw this picture."



Via - Telegraph



Quran and science

"In the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and day, and the ships which sail the seas to people's benefit, and the water which Allah sends down from the sky, by which He brings the earth to life when it was dead and scatters about in it creatures of every kind - and the varying direction of the winds, and the clouds subservient between heaven and earth, there are Signs for people who use their intellect." AlQuran - Surah al-Baqara : 164

"We did not create heaven and earth and everything between them to no purpose. That is the opinion of those who are disbelievers." AlQuran - Surah Saad : 27

"Do those who are disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them and that We made from water every living thing? So will they not have faith?"  AlQuran - Surah al-Anbiya' : 30

"It is We Who have built the universe with (Our creative) power, and, verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it." AlQuran - Surah adh-Dhariyat : 47

"He to whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly." AlQuran - Surah al-Furqan : 2

"Among His Signs is that heaven and earth hold firm by His command." AlQuran Surah ar-Rum : 25

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New fossil plant discovery links Patagonia to New Guinea in a warmer past

<-- Foliage of Papuacedrus prechilensis

How revising an ancient species can change what we know of a lineage’s historical distribution and the climate in which it lived

Fossil plants are windows to the past, providing us with clues as to what our planet looked like millions of years ago. Not only do fossils tell us which species were present before human-recorded history, but they can provide information about the climate and how and when lineages may have dispersed around the world. Identifying fossil plants can be tricky, however, when plant organs fail to be preserved or when only a few sparse parts can be found.

In the November issue of the American Journal of Botany (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/96/11/2031), Peter Wilf (of Pennsylvania State University) and his U.S. and Argentine colleagues published their recent discovery of abundant fossilized specimens of a conifer previously known as "Libocedrus" prechilensis found in Argentinean Patagonia. This plant was first described in 1938 based on one fossil vegetative branch whose characteristics were said to most closely match those of a living South American dry, cold-climate conifer found in the study area: Austrocedrus (Libocedrus) chilensis, the Cordilleran Cypress.

However, numerous characteristics of the leaves, including their distinctive shape and stomatal arrangements, as well as seed cone details of the newly discovered specimens entirely match those of extant Papuacedrus, a closely related genus, currently found only in tropical, montane New Guinea and the Moluccas.

Based on the newly discovered fossil specimens from 52 and 47 million years ago, Wilf and colleagues reassigned the fossil species to Papuacedrus, under the new name combination Papuacedrus prechilensis. One of the major implications of this reassignment is that, because Papuacedrus is known from tropical montane habitats and is physiologically limited to extremely wet climates, it adds to the emerging evidence that Patagonia in the Eocene was a warm, wet tropical place and not a cold, dry steppe as much of it is today. It also adds a tropical West Pacific connection for Papuacedrus, further establishing the interchange of flora with Australia and neighboring areas via a warm and forested Antarctic land connection during the Eocene. Indeed, less complete Papuacedrus fossils have previously been found in Australia and Antarctica.

"This is a wonderful example of how securely identifying well-preserved and well-dated fossils can have many impacts," Wilf noted. "These fossils contribute critical information about conifer evolution as well as the biogeographic history of the Southern Hemisphere. Combined with the robust site geology we have generated, they also contribute to an important environmental reinterpretation of a large area in the past. Papuacedrus physiologically requires lots of moisture and cannot withstand prolonged droughts."

Another important consequence of this find is how it relates to the great diversity of other fossil plant as well as insect species known from the Patagonian fossil sites. The lush, possibly montane, rainforest environment indicated by Papuacedrus helps to explain this stunning richness from the Eocene. "The revision [of this species] not only forces a major shift in biogeographic affinity (Patagonia to New Guinea), but also provides a decisive boost to important hypotheses of rainforest climates during the Eocene in Patagonia that had not been fully substantiated in previous work," Wilf said. "This in turn helps to explain the remarkable plant and insect diversity found in Eocene Patagonia."

Source - American Journal of Botany

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Clay Lamps and Glass Kohl Jars Found in Horta Site in Hama

The excavations of the National-Polish Joint Expedition during 2009 in the site of Horta, 15 kilometers north of the ancient city of Apamea in Hama, uncovered a number of clay lamps and glass kohl jars dating back to the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Representative of the Syrian side in the expedition Nadim al-Khouri pointed out that the Horta site has two levels, one Roman and one Byzantine, and that excavations for this season focused on uncovering a temple dedicated to the god Mithras, the principal figure of the Greco-Roman religion of Mithraism.

A big part of the temple was uncovered, particularly the altar and the main hall. The walls of the main hall bear frescos depicting Mithras and other gods associated with him.

The roof western side of the temple is almost completely collapsed, and the clay lamps and glass kohl jars were found during the process of clearing the rubble from that area, in addition to uncovering remains pottery that possibly date back to the Byzantine period since they bear the sign of the cross.

Excavations also uncovered the remaining parts of a clay container that was discovered in 2003.

The expedition will work in upcoming seasons to uncover the exterior parts of the temple, which has an area of approximately 200 square meters.

Earlier excavations in the Horta site uncovered the Alexandros church, one of the oldest churches in the region, dating back to 421 AD.

Meanwhile, the Syrian-Japanese Archeological Expedition uncovered a burial chamber dating back to the Bronze Age circa 2000 BC at Tel Ghanem al-Ali site, which is located on the Eastern bank of the Euphrates River east of al-Raqqah city.

The burial chamber contained several clay jars and plates, beads, and bronze drill. The National Archeological expedition working at the Maslama bin Abdel-Malek Keep site, which is located 70 kilometers north of al-Raqqah, uncovered the praying niche of mosque, painted in white plaster from the inside and covered in carved bricks on the outside, with a floor made of bricks.

The same expedition uncovered buildings and bath-houses near al-Imara Castle, in addition to a well, bronze artifacts and clay pots.

H. Sabbagh / Kh. Aridi



Source - SANA

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Nibiru will not destroy Earth in 2012 according to NASA

Scientist from NASA has sought to dispel hysterical rumors that claim an imaginary traveling planet known as Nibiru will create Armageddon and destroy the Earth in 2012.

"You have to be pretty dumb not to realize that Nibiru is a no-show," said David Morrison of NASA, who was quoted by the Washington Post.

Morrison explained that a speculative 2012 doomsday scenario represented little more than a "convergence" of New Age mysticism and Hollywood opportunism.

Indeed, author Zecharia Sitchin has penned a series of books describing an enigmatic planet known as Nibiru, which was apparently visible to no one else but the ancient Sumerians. Sitchin hypothesizes that a previous collision between the mysterious Nibiru and another, unnamed planet created both Earth and the asteroid belt.

This threatening planet on a 3600-year orbit was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians, who named it Nibiru, and it was known also to the Mayans, who associated it with the end of their calendar 'long count' in December 2012. They claim that the completion of a time cycle known as Baktun 13 heralds the end of the world as we know it. However, Mayans believe that the Baktun 14 cycle will begin immediately after the conclusion of Baktun 13.

Morrison calls this sort of thing "cosmophobia." His efforts to head off 2012 paranoia is ironic in a sense: He's been a pioneer in the study of near-Earth objects that might potentially pose a hazard to the planet. In recent years, astronomers have mapped all the asteroids near Earth that are two miles in diameter or larger, Morrison said. Nothing seen so far poses an imminent threat to Earth.

Although Earth is unlikely to meet an untimely demise in 2012, the planet does remain vulnerable to future interstellar collisions.

One near-Earth asteroid, named Apophis, will pass near Earth in 2029 and again in 2036 and 2068, but recent calculations of its orbit show that it won't get closer to the planet than about 18,000 miles. And Apophis isn't really that big - about the length of about 2 1/2 football fields.

"It would basically take out a small state," Morrison said.

Via - TgDaily




2012 Exclusive 5 Minute Movie Trailer - We Were Warned!

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32 New exoplanets discovered by HARPS

The team who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS, the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-metre telescope, reports on the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, cementing HARPS's position as the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter. This result also increases the number of known low-mass planets by an impressive 30%. Over the past five years HARPS has spotted more than 75 of the roughly 400 or so exoplanets now known.

"HARPS is a unique, extremely high precision instrument that is ideal for discovering alien worlds," says Stéphane Udry, who made the announcement. “We have now completed our initial five-year programme, which has succeeded well beyond our expectations.”

The latest batch of exoplanets announced today comprises no less than 32 new discoveries. Including these new results, data from HARPS have led to the discovery of more than 75 exoplanets in 30 different planetary systems. In particular, thanks to its amazing precision, the search for small planets, those with a mass of a few times that of the Earth - known as super-Earths and Neptune-like planets - has been given a dramatic boost. HARPS has facilitated the discovery of 24 of the 28 planets known with masses below 20 Earth masses. As with the previously detected super-Earths, most of the new low-mass candidates reside in multi-planet systems, with up to five planets per system.

In 1999, ESO launched a call for opportunities to build a high resolution, extremely precise spectrograph for the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile. Michel Mayor, from the Geneva Observatory, led a consortium to build HARPS, which was installed in 2003 and was soon able to measure the back-and-forward motions of stars by detecting small changes in a star’s radial velocity - as small as 3.5 km/hour, a steady walking pace. Such a precision is crucial for the discovery of exoplanets and the radial velocity method, which detects small changes in the radial velocity of a star as it wobbles slightly under the gentle gravitational pull from an (unseen) exoplanet, has been most prolific method in the search for exoplanets.

In return for building the instrument, the HARPS consortium was granted 100 observing nights per year during a five-year period to carry out one of the most ambitious systematic searches for exoplanets so far implemented worldwide by repeatedly measuring the radial velocities of hundreds of stars that may harbour planetary systems.

The programme soon proved very successful. Using HARPS, Mayor’s team discovered - among others - in 2004, the first super-Earth (around µ Ara; ESO 22/04); in 2006, the trio of Neptunes around HD 69830 (ESO 18/06); in 2007, Gliese 581d, the first super Earth in the habitable zone of a small star (ESO 22/07); and in 2009, the lightest exoplanet so far detected around a normal star, Gliese 581e (ESO 15/09). More recently, they found a potentially lava-covered world, with density similar to that of the Earth’s (ESO 33/09).

“These observations have given astronomers a great insight into the diversity of planetary systems and help us understand how they can form,” says team member Nuno Santos.

The team found three candidate exoplanets around stars that are metal-deficient. Such stars are thought to be less favourable for the formation of planets, which form in the metal-rich disc around the young star. However, planets up to several Jupiter masses have been found orbiting metal-deficient stars, setting an important constraint for planet formation models.

Although the first phase of the observing programme is now officially concluded, the team will pursue their effort with two ESO Large Programmes looking for super-Earths around solar-type stars and M dwarfs and some new announcements are already foreseen in the coming months, based on the last five years of measurements. There is no doubt that HARPS will continue to lead the field of exoplanet discoveries, especially pushing towards the detection of Earth-type planets.

Source - ESO

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Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth

A new study found that the growth of spruce trees in northern Britain appears to follow a cosmic pattern, with trees growing faster when high levels of cosmic radiation arrive from space. The study is published in the scientific journal New Phytologist.

"We were originally interested in a different topic, the climatological factors influencing forest growth," says Ms Sigrid Dengel a postgraduate researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science at the University of Edinburgh.

To do this, Ms Dengel and University of Edinburgh colleagues Mr Dominik Aeby and Professor John Grace obtained slices of spruce tree trunks.

These had been freshly-felled from the Forest of Ae in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, by Forest Research, the research branch of the UK's Forestry Commission.

The trees had been planted in 1953 and felled in 2006. The researchers froze the trunk slices, to prevent the wood shrinking, then scanned them on to a computer and used software to count the number and width of the growth rings.

As the trees aged, they showed a usual decline in growth.

Complete reading at BBC News

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Al-Hasakah Tel - Ancient Civilizations, Incessant Human Settlement

The 2.5 hectare archeological Al-Hasakah Tel (hill) located at the center of the city of al-Hasakah, 309.25 m above sea level, is an archeological landmark telling the story and secrets of a number of the ancient and most deep-rooted historical eras and civilizations of varying cultures and traditions.

"The excavation works for 2008 showed the non-stop human settlement in al-Hasakah from the 4th century until today." Head of the national archeological mission working at the site Abd al-Masih Baghdo said Friday.

Three archeological platforms dating back to different historical periods were unearthed during the first excavation season conducted last year.

Adobe buildings were revealed in the first platform, inside which there were archeological findings dating back to the Arab and Islamic epoch between the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.

Excavations at the second platform which dates back to the Byzantine Era in the 5th century uncovered gypsum plastered basins as well as a part of a cathedral building made of basalt.

The western wall of the cathedral was 2.10 m high and 17.75 long. An 83 cm wide second entrance was located 3.21 m to the northwestern corner of the wall, leading to the service section sited in the northwestern part of the cathedral.

A plastered stone-covered cemetery was also discovered within the second platform. Inside the cemetery a skeleton for a man aged between 40 and 45 was found with iron nails indicating death under torture.

A basin daubed with gypsum plaster in the western part of the cathedral building was believed to be a wine press.

"The cathedral building, with its decorated stone pillars, the cemetery and the tiled floor, is the first of its kind in al-Hasakah reflecting the importance of architecture during that period." Member of the Executive Bureau of Tourism and Archeology Sector in al-Hasaka governorate George Elias said.

Adobe walls coated with gypsum plaster were unearthed in the third archeological platform, dating back to the Neo-Assyrian Era between the 11th and 8th centuries B.C.

Haifa Said /Ghossoun


Archeology news from SANA

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French archeologist discovers ancient sacred lake in northern Egypt

Egyptian and French archeologists have unearthed a sacred lake 12 metres underground at the San al-Hagar archaeological site in the ancient city of Tanis, Egypt's eastern Nile Delta. 120 kilometres northeast of Cairo, Egypt's Minister of Culture announced Thursday.

The lake, which is 15 metres long and 12 metres wide, is part of a temple which was built in ancient Egypt to honour the goddess Mut, who was the wife of Amun, god of wind and the breath of life, according to a statement by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

"This is the second lake to be discovered in Tanis city. The first was discovered in 1928, and was dedicated to the temple of the ancient god Amun, Mut's husband," Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass was quoted in the statement as saying.

Tanis is a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of Egypt and was founded in the late twentieth dynasty. It became the northern capital of Egypt during the following dynasty.

The lake is made of limestone blocks and is in a good condition. The chief deities of Tanis were Amun, Mut, and their child Khonsu.

The first sacred lake was found in 1928, Egypt's Culture Ministry said.

Via - Reuters

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