Pyramids Discovered on Mars

Is there life on Mars? Mankind started looking for an answer to this question in 1976, after the publication of the iconic photo depicting something that looked like a human face on the surface of Mars. Many said that the Face on Mars was only a pile of rocks, some explained the photo with light tricks, but the origin of the face still remains a secret. There are scientists who say that it could probably be a message from an ancient civilization, which may have existed before or still exists underneath the surface of Mars.

Powerful telescopes from a spacecraft orbiting Mars have found new evidence to prove the existence of life on Mars. Telescopes took pictures of nine pyramids on the surface of Mars. The pyramids, as it seems, are not of the natural origin. The images include striking statues of human and animal faces, clearly visible from space, as well as large drawings featuring the profiles of primates and canines.

Andrew Basiago, the president of Mars Anomaly Research Society, named the discovery ‘A New Cydonia.’ The scientist believes that there were three civilizations on Mars, one of which was hidden underneath the planet’s surface.

The scientist previously said that the pictures, taken by Spirit rover, contained images of five primate species, one of which he named ‘Sendak.’ Basiago is certain that Mars used to be a home for a highly-developed civilization. However, a space catastrophe, which supposedly hit the planet about 11,500 years ago, destroyed nearly everything on the Red Planet, as well as Atlantis on Earth. Some of the Martians, the scientist believes, moved to Earth afterwards.

Source - Pravda , 19 Sept 2009

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Squirrel seen attempting to savage fruit bat

Mr William Stanley witnessed a squirrel trying to savage a fruit bat to death, while he was conducting fieldwork in the forests of Tanzania.

"No-one has recorded this type of behaviour or incident before," says Mr Stanley, who saw the squirrel try to kill the bat in a tree above his head.

Rodents are not known to eat meat or hunt animals, so it is unclear why the squirrel would launch such an attack.

Mr Stanley, who works at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US has published details of the incident in the African Journal of Ecology.

For the past 20 years, he has studied small mammals in Tanzania, focusing on shrews, bats and rodents, usually conducting field work during July and August.

During one afternoon survey in the Mwofwomero Forest, in the Rubeho Mountains, he heard a fruit bat shrieking.

"It was strange to hear an alarm call or vocalisation from a fruit bat typically we hear at night," he told BBC Earth News.

"That's what caught my attention. When I looked up I realised that there was a squirrel up in the branches where the noise was coming from. The next thing I saw was the flapping of the bat's wings."

"It became apparent that there was an altercation happening between the squirrel and the bat, something I'd never seen before or ever heard of."

"The squirrel had the bat in its mouth, or it was at least biting it, and then the bat went quiet for a while and then starting flapping its wings again."

More reading at BBC News, 18 Sept 2009

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Secrets of insect flight revealed

Researchers are one step closer to creating a micro-aircraft that flies with the manoeuvrability and energy efficiency of an insect after decoding the aerodynamic secrets of insect flight.

Dr John Young, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a team of animal flight researchers from Oxford University, used high-speed digital video cameras to film locusts in action in a wind tunnel, capturing how the shape of a locust's wing changes in flight. They used that information to create a computer model which recreates the airflow and thrust generated by the complex flapping movement.

The breakthrough result, published in the journal Science this week, means engineers understand for the first time the aerodynamic secrets of one of nature’s most efficient flyers – information vital to the creation of miniature robot flyers for use in situations such as search and rescue, military applications and inspecting hazardous environments.

“The so-called `bumblebee paradox' claiming that insects defy the laws of aerodynamics, is dead. Modern aerodynamics really can accurately model insect flight,” said Dr Young, a lecturer in the School of Aerospace, Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

“Biological systems have been optimised through evolutionary pressures over millions of years, and offer many examples of performance that far outstrips what we can achieve artificially.

"An insect’s delicately structured wings, with their twists and curves, and ridged and wrinkled surfaces, are about as far away as you can get from the streamlined wing of an aircraft,” Dr Young said.

“Until very recently it hasn’t been possible to measure the actual shape of an insect’s wings in flight – partly because their wings flap so fast, and partly because their shape is so complicated.

“Locusts are an interesting insect for engineers to study because of their ability to fly extremely long distances on very limited energy reserves.”

Once the computer model of the locust wing movement was perfected, the researchers ran modified simulations to find out why the wing structure was so complex.

In one test they removed the wrinkles and curves but left the twist, while in the second test they replaced the wings with rigid flat plates. The results showed that the simplified models produced lift but were much less efficient, requiring much more power for flight.

“The message for engineers working to build insect-like micro-air vehicles is that the high lift of insect wings may be relatively easy to achieve, but that if the aim is to achieve efficiency of the sort that enables inter-continental flight in locusts, then the details of deforming wing design are critical,” Dr Young said.

The Oxford team were Dr Simon Walker, Dr Richard Bomphrey, Dr Graham Taylor and Professor Adrian Thomas of the Animal Flight Group in the Department of Zoology.

A News from University of New South Wales, 18 Sept 2009

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Walk on the mud to perform Idul Fitri morning prayer

Even the area full with mud, these people still go out to perform Idul Fitri morning prayer. Lapindo victims walk on a dike at the mudflow site before performing the Idul Fitri morning prayer at Ketapang Keres village in Sidoarjo, East Java, on Sunday. More than 5,000 mudflow victim performed their morning prayers near the mudflow site.

Source - Antara/Eric Ireng

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More risk if inexperienced surgeons use the robots

High-tech robotic equipment to operate on patients with prostate cancer and other conditions are increasing now, but some medical authorities worry about inadequate training and lax standards among practitioners.

Doctors are opting for Intuitive Surgical's popular da Vinci Surgical System over conventional surgery, especially for removing the prostate gland, because it is less invasive and allows for greater precision. There were some 80,000 robotic prostatectomy procedures in the United States last year.

The device's robotic arms are equipped with tiny instruments and a camera. The instruments, inserted through small incisions, do the actual prodding and cutting with the surgeon operating the controls while viewing the procedure via a magnified three-dimensional screen.

The rate of failure for such surgeries is comparable to that of traditional surgeries but patients are more at risk if inexperienced surgeons use the robots.

Currently, there is no credentialing system to evaluate a surgeon's competency and surgeons cannot practice on simulators before taking on live patients. Dr Kevin Zorn, chief of urology at Weiss Memorial Hospital at the University of Chicago, believes such machines ought to exist.

He recounted one case of a surgeon who was using the system for the fourth time. After eight hours of surgery, the proctor - an experienced surgeon who supervises the operation - told the surgeon that progress was too slow.

He recommended the surgeon switch to conventional surgery, where an incision is made from the navel to the pubic bone to access the prostate.

After the proctor left the operating room, the surgeon continued using the robot. The patient later died from complications.

Source - Reuters

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