2,500 years ago, the warring King Cambyses, son to Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers to the Temple of Amun to legitimize his claim to Egypt. During the seven-day trek through sweltering heat and rising dunes, the soldiers eventually … disappeared.
Myths arose to explain their disappearance. It was believed that a sandstorm had swallowed them whole: “A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which eventually covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear,” wrote Herodotus, a historian of those times. No traces of the missing army were ever found, and people began to dismiss it as merely a myth.
Recently, two archaeologists, Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni, have found evidence of this missing army near Bahrain. While surveying an area, the brothers located a large rock that could be used as a natural shelter in the midst of a sandstorm. Within this shelter, the Castiglionis found a bronze dagger and several arrow tips, dating back to Cambyses’ time.
Other archaeologists searching for the lost army of Cambyses had believed the troops took a widely used caravan route. Castiglioni hypothesized that the troops had taken a westerly route instead: “This [alternative] route had the advantage of taking the enemy aback. Moreover, the army could march undisturbed. On the contrary, since the oases on the other route were controlled by the Egyptians, the army would have had to fight at each oasis.”
They followed this route and found now-bone dry water sources and artificial wells buried under the sand – water sources that would have been available during the army’s trek.
Near where the temple was believed to have been located, the Castiglioni brothers found a mass grave with hundreds of bones and skulls, with arrow heads and horse bits interspersed among the remains. But a more thorough expedition will be needed to confirm that this is, indeed, the lost army of Cambyses.
Source: Discovery
Building giant robots and banning fat people were just tiny steps towards establishing Japan’s official policy of “if we can think it, we can do it.” Next on their list of far-fetched ideas is to create a giant solar power farm in space.
Selecting candidates from their prosperous motor industry (including such giants as Mitsubishi and Fujitsu), JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, has given them an official mission: make their dream of a solar power farm in space a reality.
Officially, JAXA wants an apparatus that will reduce the costs of electricity by 1/6 by the year 2030. Solar cells embedded in the apparatus would capture the natural solar energy coming from the sun and beam it down to antennae located at sea in a cluster of lasers or microwaves. (Rays collected in space are five-times stronger than the ones that make it down to Earth.)
According to Mitsubishi, one of the sponsors: “Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming.”
Despite the massive costs of building and maintaining a solar power farm in space, JAXA apparently also has to contend with rumors that the apparatus would send down laser beams which could roast birds and aircraft out of the sky.
The main problem I have with contacts is that on a bright, sunny day, I still have to lug around a pair of sunglasses. And they’re not even the cool kind of sunglasses – you know, the kind that transitions from more to less coverage based on the amount of UV light in the room. I always wondered why we couldn’t create a contact lens that could do the same thing.
Apparently, creating them would be a major pain in the butt, mostly because it would be difficult to evenly apply coatings to soft lenses. However, a team led by Jackie Ying have created contact lenses that adjust to UV light.
Similar to the transition sunglasses, the contact lenses work by harnessing molecules which change shape based on the amount of UV light available. When there is a lot of UV light, they absorb the light and the lens darkens. When UV light disappears, the molecules change back to normal.
The contacts are covered with a material that has nano-sized tunnels in it. The dyes that respond to UV light are loaded into these tunnels. The material is porous and flexible enough to allow the dyes to expand. The researchers were able to pack more dyes into the contact lenses, which makes them react to light and transition quicker than the sunglasses do.
Source: Discover
I’m sure we all have that friend that’s just awful with money. You know, the one that complains about being broke, but then maxes out his or her credit card at the mall. You may shake your head at their folly, but perhaps you should be reconsidering your friendship. As it turns out, the more you hang out with a spendthrift, the more you may see your own spending habits change for the worse.
In a recent study, participants followed text updates from two fictitious volunteers that were trying to outbid each other on a prize. Each bidder had 360 points available to bid towards the item, which had a real-world value of $4.45.
The participants were told that once the bidder reached bid 356 points, they would start to lose some of the $12 they were paid to be in the study.When the bidders were near the 356 point threshold, the participants had the chance to take over bidding for them.
Here’s the interesting part. Some of the participants were told that they had things in common with the bidders; the same birthday, or the same home town. Other participants were not told anything about the bidder.
The participants who identified with the bidder made 60-percent more bids and were more likely to continue bidding past 356 points and start losing the $12 payment than those who did not feel a connection with them. Scientists hypothesize that this can show that people are more likely to adopt the psychology of friends and make the same money mistakes as them.
Source: Discover
Published: Nov 16, 2009 10:00 pm