The idea that life on Earth came from another planet has been around as a modern scientific theory since the 1960s when it was proposed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe. At the time they were ridiculed for their idea — known as panspermia. But now, with growing evidence, it’s back in vogue and even being studied by NASA.

We meet the scientists on a mission to get to the bottom of the beginnings of life on Earth – from the team in Texas who are lovingly building a robotic submarine called DEPTHX to explore a moon of Jupiter, to Southern India where they are investigating a mysterious red rain which fell for two months in 2001. According to local scientist Godfrey Louis, the rain contains biological cells unlike any he had seen before — with no DNA and the ability to replicate at 300°C. Louis has come to the conclusion that the cells are extra-terrestrial in origin.

Could all this really be proof that we are the aliens?

Eyewitness states: “I was out last night getting some video of the moon when something caught my attention. I saw a flash on the screen so I hit record and slewed the camera over in that direction. The UFO hung around for 7 minutes.”

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“Most research in physics is continuations of things that have gone before,” said Wilczek, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This, he said, was “kind of outside the box.”

Wilczek’s idea met with a muted response from physicists. Here was a brilliant professor known for developing exotic theories that later entered the mainstream, including the existence of particles called axions and anyons, and discovering a property of nuclear forces known as asymptotic freedom (for which he shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2004). But perpetual motion, deemed impossible by the fundamental laws of physics, was hard to swallow. Did the work constitute a major breakthrough or faulty logic? Jakub Zakrzewski, a professor of physics and head of atomic optics at Jagiellonian University in Poland who wrote a perspective on the research that accompanied Wilczek’s publication, says: “I simply don’t know.”

Now, a technological advance has made it possible for physicists to test the idea. They plan to build a time crystal, not in the hope that this perpetuum mobile will generate an endless supply of energy (as inventors have striven in vain to do for more than a thousand years) but that it will yield a better theory of time itself. Continue, Simons Foundation

Archaeologists working on the site now believe they have uncovered the remains of a family crypt having found bones from three fully grown adults, four infants and a skull.

The exciting discovery comes one month after experts ­excavated the burial site of a medieval knight – affectionately christened Sir Eck – within the grounds of the new Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) at High School Yards, off Infirmary Street.

Carvings of the Calvary Cross on an elaborate sandstone tomb and an ornate sword found beside the remains led archaeologists to believe it was the burial plot of a high-status individual such as a knight or nobleman.

Archaeologist Ross ­Murray, of city-based Headland Archaeology, who first uncovered the grave, said: “This site just keeps on getting more and more interesting – it is turning out to be a real treasure trove of archaeology. We just can’t seem to stop finding skeletons and bones. These new finds look likely to be the possible relations of the suspected medieval knight we found earlier this year.

An elaborately decorated sandstone slab with the telltale markings of a member of the nobility – Credit: Scotsman

“The skull of the skeleton found immediately beneath the location of the knight looks like that of a female and the remains found on the other side of the ornate slab belong to an infant from the same period.”

The fruitful dig centres on the site of three historic former buildings: Old High School founded in the 1700s, the 16th-century Royal High School and Blackfriars Monastery, established in 1230 by Alexander II and destroyed during the ­Reformation.

It has been described as one of Edinburgh’s most significant recent archaeological finds. Once complete in the summer, the ECCI will open as an ­innovation and skills hub for the University of Edinburgh.

The car park has been demolished to make way for a rainwater-harvesting tank, – one of a host of low-carbon measures designers hope will help create a sustainable construction – which is expected to achieve a green building rating of ­“outstanding”.

In February, a skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park was confirmed as that of English king Richard III.

Author: David O’Leary | Source: Scotsman [April 25, 2013]

The discovery was found during routine excavation work at the archaeological site of Tell Abu-Seifi, located east of the Suez Canal and south of Qantara East.

The industrial area includes of a number of workshops for clay and bronze statues, vessels, pots and pans as well as a collection of administrative buildings, store galleries and a whole residential area for labours. Amphora, imported from south of Italy, was also unearthed.

“It is a very important discovery that highlights Egypt’s economical and commercial relation with its neighbouring countries on the Mediterranean Sea,” MSA Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online. He added that it also gives a complete idea of the Egyptian labours’ daily life.

For his part, Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, supervisor of the excavation mission, pointed out that among the newly discovered objects is a very important Roman engraving that provides detailed information on the military importance of Tell Abu-Seifi and the army divisions in this area.

The fully furnished Graeco-Roman industrial area discovered on Thursday in Tell Abu-Seifi area, east of Egypt’s Suez Canal – Credit: Ahram

Tell Abu-Seifi is one of the most important historical military sites of Egypt on the Al-Bilozi Nile branch, where three Ptolemaic and Roman military castles are located.

The archaeological site of Tell Abu-Seifi is found on Egypt’s eastern gate, where a great military group was once located, Abdel Maqsoud told Ahram Online in a telephone interview.

The newly discovered engraving shows how and where soldiers were divided and distributed in different locations inside the castles, he explained.

A collection of bronze coins dated to the eras of King Ptolemy II and IV were also unearthed as well as terracotta (burned clay) statues of the god of war Bes.

This discovery came within the framework of routine excavations along the Belozi Nile branch, which is now non-existant, to discover the Horus Ancient Military Road once used by King Ahmose to expel the Hyksos.

Abdel Maqsoud pointed out that Egypt’s MSA is applying a new training system for junior archaeologists and approximately 200 have joined the excavation mission to train them in excavations and restorations.

Until now, our mission has trained 600 archaeologists in five years, Abdel Maqsoud concluded.

Author: Nevine El-Aref | Source: Ahram Online [April 24, 2013]

Bruno Escribano and colleagues explain that scientists know surprisingly little about brinicles, which are hollow tubes of ice that can grow to several yards in length around streamers of cold seawater under pack ice. That’s because brinicles are difficult to study. The scientists set out to gather more information on the topic with an analysis of the growth process of brinicles.

They are shown to be analogous to a “chemical garden,” a standby demonstration in chemistry classes and children’s chemistry sets, in which tubes grow upward from metal salts dropped into silicate solution. But brinicles grow downward from the bottom of the ice pack.

The analysis concluded that brinicles provide an environment that could well have fostered the emergence of life on Earth billions of years ago, and could have done so on other planets. “Beyond Earth, the brinicle formation mechanism may be important in the context of planets and moons with ice-covered oceans,” the report states, citing in particular two moons of Jupiter named Ganymede and Callisto. The article appears in ACS’ journal Langmuir.

Source: American Chemical Society [April 24, 2013]

Joining him is a team of young NASA scientists and marine biologists who consider how these life forms represent life we may one day find in outer space not only on distant planets orbiting distant stars, but also within our own solar system. Aliens of the Deep is the result of expeditions to several hydrothermal vent sites in the Atlantic and the Pacific.

These are violent volcanic regions where new planet is literally being born and where the interaction between ocean and molten rock creates plumes of super-heated, chemically-charged water that serve as oases for animals unlike anything ever discovered. Six-foot tall worms with blood-red plumes and no stomach, blind white crabs, and a biomass of shrimp capable of “seeing” heat all compete to find just the right location in the flow of the super-heated, life-giving water or to fry trying.

Not dependent on sunlight (like all other life on earth), these ecosystems are as close to alien as anything ever imagined and provide one possible blueprint for the life that might exist beyond our world.

The Australian border collie – appropriately named Jumpy – has received almost universal praise for his exploits.

He is seen performing incredible jumps, running up walls, skateboarding over ramps, surfing, water-skiing, diving underwater, walking on his front legs through a slalom course, and other stunts before speeding off into the distance on a scooter.

Jumpy was trained by owner Omar Von Muller, who trained Uggie, the dog from Oscar winning film The Artist.

Mr Von Muller says the secret to his success was being consistent with the animals.

Hundreds of thousands of viewers have watched the clip on YouTube.

In his story Brethel said that he almost opened the door and let the children in until he noticed that their eyes were completely black, with no iris or pupil. As he says, as soon as children realized he sees something odd, they became angry and insistent, and he drove away quickly. In his posting he implies that this children may have been using some mind control method to induce him to open the door.

Since this post, there have been other reports of similar experiences in other parts of the country. These accounts are similar to Bethel’s in that they generally involve the children’s request for the person to let them inside their car or house, frequently using an excuse such as “I need to get home to my mother,” or something that implies the child is in need.

What could these children be?

If we are to trow away at least 70% of the stories found online about these approaches and take that 30% are some of the truth how can we explain it? There are lot of people who would for their own entertainment or write a story of this kind just to make fun of people who are into paranormal stuff. If we are to look logically into these stories about meetings with these children, we get to learn that all of them were asking to be let in, saying that they can’t get in until they are invited. It seems like, all of the people who are reporting about this unusual encounter, have never let the child or children in because of the fear. There for we don’t know what happens if you invite this kind of a child into your home or car. Going down the logical path, you all know that contact lenses of these kind can be found easily, this is not a mission impossible. But, still, stay logic with me, why would a child do something like this? For a laugh? Still this doesn’t sound right to me.

The most bizarre contradiction to the story is the fact that Black Eyed Kids are said to give off a frightening vibe. Those that meet them claim to feel threatened, panicked and even disoriented. Some believe that this could be a result of their black eyes, maybe some sort of hypnotic suggestion used as an attempt to convince the person to let them inside their house or vehicle.

Their persistence to be invited in is a scary one. We must remember that the idea of an evil presence needing some sort of invitation before entering a house (or even a human being) is a longstanding belief in many religions.
Choosing a form of a child is a clever one. Because, people would rather say yes to a needy child coming up in the middle of the night on the doorstep than to a man or women.

What could these children be? Vampires, human/alien hybrids, lost souls, demons in disguise? None of these are something you can point a finger on it. Can this be a hoax? Did we get any conclusion? Sadly, no, but we’ll look into this and if you had an encounter with these children let us know…

The oldest ruins at the site date to 9,000 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said, but it was still inhabited thousands of years later. The location was excavated in a salvage dig ahead of the construction of new train tracks from Haifa to Carmiel.

The findings include the most complete buildings from that time discovered so far in Israel, and some of the oldest evidence of organized legume agriculture in the Middle East, archaeologists Yitzhak Paz and Yaakov Vardi said in a statement.

The objects discovered at the site also show that residents traded with faraway cultures, they said.

A prehistoric stone fertility object in the shape of a phallus, found on the route of a planned rail line in
northern Israel – Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority

“The large number of tools made from obsidian, which is not found in Israel, shows trade ties with Turkey, Georgia and other areas as long ago as this period,” read the statement, released earlier this month.

The fertility objects, like the small stone phallus, “also represented the fertility of the land,” they said. The archaeologists link those findings to a civilization that existed in what is now Israel between 5500 and 4500 BCE.

The civilization, known as the Wadi Rabbah culture, was named for the first site at which it was discovered northeast of Tel Aviv in the 1950s.

Author: Matti Friedman | Source: The Times of Israel [March 26, 2013]