From the burning of wood to the action of medicines, the properties and behavior of matter are governed by the way chemical elements bond with one another. For many of the 118 known elements, the intricate electronic structures of the atoms that are responsible for chemical bonding are well understood. But for the superheavy elements lying at the far edge of the periodic table, measuring even a single property of these exotic species is a major challenge.
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There is a limit to how big we can build particle colliders on Earth, whether that is because of limited space or limited economics. Since size is equivalent to energy output for particle colliders, that also means there’s a limit to how energetic we can make them. And again, since high energies are required to test theories that go beyond the standard model (BSM) of particle physics, that means we will be limited in our ability to validate those theories until we build a collider big enough.
On July 4, 2012, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland announced with great fanfare that they had successfully detected the Higgs boson, the manifestation of the mechanism that gives some elementary particles their mass. The finding was a triumph of both the experimental skill required to definitively detect the particle, and the theoretical acumen of those who predicted its existence, recognized by the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Video shows the NYPD officers instructing the suspect to drop the gun he was holding multiple times before he raised and pointed it at the lieutenant
After unsuccessfully attempting to carjack a vehicle, the armed man fled from Fresno officers on foot; the officers pursued the man into a parking lot before striking him with a cruiser
Hillsborough County deputies responded as the suspect, wearing a motorcycle helmet and tactical vests barricaded himself in a bedroom with his 7-year-old brother
The Easter Island in the South Pacific is famous for the Moai statues, the monumental zoomorphic sculptures created by a culture that still arouses controversy and admiration. But the island keeps other lesser-known peculiarities, although equally interesting and important. One of them is the Rongorongo, a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century unique to Easter Island. This mysterious script is important for a few reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, because there is nothing like it elsewhere in the Pacific. Secondly because if someday researchers manage to prove that it is a writing system and that it was a local development and not something imported, it would constitute one of the few cases of independent invention of writing in the history of humanity.  And while many authors believe it is, in fact, a unique writing system, it still has to be proven. However, despite the efforts made in recent decades, the Rongorongo script continues to elude decipherment. So far, experts have only been able to identify some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information. Two dozen objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late 19th century and are now scattered in museums and private collections. All of the rongorongo-bearing artifacts are made of wood and have irregular shapes, among which there is one in the form of a reimiro, a crescent-shaped pectoral ornament once worn by the people of Easter Island, and another that resembles a man-bird. Regrettably, none remain on Easter Island. According to the oral tradition of Easter Island, the rongorongo tablets had a sacred character, and that only the ruling and religious elite knew how to read them. The texts are written following a system of alternate direction called Bustrofedon, very used in ancient Greece, which consists of writing a row from left to right and the next from right to left or vice versa. In addition, the rongorongo texts are also read from bottom to top, starting in the lower left corner of the tablets, and the lines continue on both sides of the tablet, meaning that you have to turn it before going up towards the next line.  The symbols used are schematic figures representing humans, animals, plants, geometric shapes and artifacts, many of them difficult to identify. According to tradition, they were engraved on the wood using shark teeth. Rongorongo is the modern name given to these inscriptions, which in the Rapa Nui language means to recite, declaim or sing. Its original name or description according to oral tradition was kohau motu mo rongorongo (lines to sing). This tradition also assigned a specific name to each tablet, based on what was written. Thus, kohau ta’u are chronicles, kohau ika were lists of people killed in combat, and kohau ranga were lists of war refugees. The rongorongo glyphs used are approximately one centimeter in height, and cover the entire usable surface of the tablets, making the most of the available space, due to the scarcity of wood on the island. The analysis of seven of the tablets revealed that the wood came from Thespesia populnea, an arborescent species possibly native to Hawaii and other Pacific islands, disseminated by the ancient Polynesians for the usefulness of their wood and fibers to make ropes.  Three other tablets were found to be Podocarpus latifolius, from South Africa and, therefore, may have been imported wood or were obtained as a result of contact with Westerners or from a shipwreck. Since it has not been possible to decipher what the tablets say, beyond what has been transmitted orally, the origin of this writing system is not known either. There is no archaeological evidence of written tradition in all of Polynesia, which is why researchers believe it could have been a local development. However, the legend says that the legendary founders of Rapa Nui brought 67 tablets, from wherever they may have come. Experts believe that the rongorongo script had not been invented before the thirteenth century. The only tablet analyzed with radiocarbon method dates from about 1680.  When González de Ahedo’s expedition annexed the island to Spain in 1770, the Rapa Nui chiefs signed the treaty using their own form of writing. That is why some believe that the invention of the rongorongo may have been inspired by this fact. Evidence of this is the fact that no expedition reported news about something similar to the Rongorongo before that of Eugene Eyraud in 1864, considered as the discoverer of the tablets. They also believe that the symbols with which the chiefs signed the treaty do not resemble those of the tablets at all. Since we have absolutely no idea what the tablets contain, the most widespread and accepted theory is that the rongorongo is not authentic writing system, but a mnemonic system of proto-writing that each scribe was reinterpreting in their own way. Who doesn’t love a good adventure story? And who doesn’t love Indiana Jones Movies, right? And wouldn’t’ it be awesome to find Atlantis one day? Despite the fact that Atlantis may be one of the most well-known ‘lost’ ancient cities, there are many other places as mysterious and stunning as Atlantis. In this article, I invite to join me as we explore five of lost legendary ancient cities that have eluded experts for centuries. The Lost City of Z In April of 1925 when Percy Fawcett, a British explorer, and archaeologist, was introduced to an adventure in the Brazilian jungle from which he would never return. Fawcett set out to find a lost city, which he named Z, somewhere in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Fawcett never returned from the trip, and nothing was heard from him or his companions who from Cuiabá went to Alto Xingu, a southeastern tributary of the Amazon River. The source on which he built the dream of finding a legendary city in the Brazilian jungle, a kind of El Dorado, was Manuscript 512 housed at the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. Manuscript 512 was a document written by a Portuguese explorer in 1753 in which he had discovered a walled city in the confines of the Mato Grosso region reminiscent of design to cities of Ancient Greece. It was not the first time that Fawcett embarked on an expedition to find the Lost City of Z but this was his definitive one. To date, just as Atlantis, the Legendary Lost City of Z remains a profound mystery, and many experts argue it only exists in legend. Shambala More than just a lost city, Shambala is to be a powerful kingdom. Sometimes called Shangri-La, Shambala holds an important place in both Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions. The kingdom is said to be laid out in precisely the same form as an eight-petalled lotus blossom enclosed by a series of snow mountains. At the center lies the palace of the King of Shambala who governed from the city called Kalapa. Shambhala is also often-called Shangri-La in some texts. Hindu texts such as the Vishnu Purana (4.24) mention the village Shambhala as the birthplace of Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu, who will usher in a new Golden Age (Satya Yuga).  Aztlan The legendary home place of one of the most prominent ancient civilizations from the American Continent, the Aztecs, has never been found. Aztlan is like an American Atlantis, and some authors have even ventured out and said it might be the Atlantis we are looking for. Aztlan was the homeland of the Aztecs, from where they left to build their mighty empire with capital in what is now Mexico City. According to different theories, this lost city is located somewhere in North America, with some authors claiming that Aztlan existed in modern-day Utah. Aztlan, whose name means “the land to the North” or ‘the place of whiteness,’ has never been found. But the Annals of Tlatelolco place the migration of the Aztecs from Aztlan to Tenochtitlan on May 24, 1064, the first year of the Aztec solar calendar. The Lost City of El Dorado After Atlantis, I think the legend of El Dorado is one of the best known today. In fact, the search for the lost city of gold was what motivated many Conquistadores to travel thousands of kilometers through inhospitable terrains in South America, searching for a city that according to accounts, was made entirely of Gold. The myth of El Dorado was associated with a ruler who bathed in gold every morning and washed at night in a sacred lake, the lake of Guatavita, in which all wealth was deposited. Although in reality the myth was actually a ceremony of the Colombian Muisca people, carried out since ancient times. In 1541 Francisco de Orellana was the first European conqueror to cross the Amazon River, flogged by the search for El Dorado. Later, Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1594, left for the first time in his search and in two of his trips he failed. No one has found the legendary city, and, just as Atlantis and Aztlan, many believe it is nothing more than a Myth. Camelot  Camelot is the name of the fortress and kingdom of the legendary King Arthur, from where he fought many of the battles that marked his life. Just as with other famous cities and places, the exact location of Camelot remains a mystery, and many scholars have argued that Camelot is entirely a work of fiction, and not real. The stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, although its exact location is not revealed. The city was introduced for the first time in French romances of the twelfth century. Arthur’s court at Camelot is mentioned for the first time in Chrétien’s poem Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, dating to the 1170s, though it does not appear in all the manuscripts. Camelot eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur’s realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world. Since the location of Camelot remains a mystery, the truth about it, if it existed, remains an enigma. Featured image credit: Leon Tukker. Posted with Permission. India launched its heaviest ever communication satellite on Sunday, the latest step in the country’s ambitious space program.
BWC footage released by the Southgate PD shows officers pounding on residents’ doors to warn them of the fire that by then had spread through roughly half of the building
YouTube Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/nr5Pj6GQL2o?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1 NASA has just released a 4K video tour of Earth’s moon and the footage will make your jaw drop. Even though Earth’s moon can be viewed in unprecedented detail from Earth, NASA has recently released a video filmed in 4k showing off the surface of the moon in unprecedented close-up detail, and the video will definitely take your breath away. How can we describe the video footage? Well, it’s stunning. It’s mesmerizing. It’s Fresh. It offers an entirely new way of exploring the surface of the moon, and you can see all of the most important and prominent features of the Earth’s satellite in the stunning video footage. The footage dubbed as “virtual tour of the moon” in breathtaking 4K has been collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft over a span of nine years.  “The tour visits a number of interesting sites chosen to illustrate a variety of lunar terrain features,” Ernie Wright of NASA’s Space Visualization Studio explained in a blog post. “Some are on the near side and are familiar to both professional and amateur observers on Earth, while others can only be seen clearly from space.” Wright explains that this recently published video is, in fact, an updated version of another one released 7 years ago, in 2011. Despite the fact that the camera path may be the same, the data that has been gathered in 7 years has made it possible for NASA to create a far more incredible and detailed presentation of the moon.  The recently released 4k video displays a number of the moon’s features, combining colors that highlight important or noteworthy data to make sure you not only enjoy the view but learn something new. One of the most interesting parts of the video is when we have the chance to fly over the Tycho Crater, a lunar formation said to be around 100 million years old. The most interesting part occurs when you think you’ve seen the best part, the video zooms in unprecedently, focusing on Tycho Crater’s mesmerizing central peak which features an enigmatic 100-meter-wide bolder at the summit, “the origins of which are still a mystery,” the video’s narrator says, adding to the suspense. In addition to the Tycho crater, you can also fly above the Apollo 17 landing site at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, which as explained in the video, is deeper than the Grand Canyon on Earth.  I wonder, does that make the Taurus-Littrow Valley the ‘Grander Canyon’? Anyway, while exploring the Apollo 17 landing site, the video offers a few overlays that show us the path NASA astronauts took as they spent three days on the surface of the moon in 1972. You can appreciate the bottom half of the mission’s lunar lander and rover vehicle, items that have remained untouched and undisturbed for the last 46 years. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4619 Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/David Ladd If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Drone footage shows the Atlantic City Police officer swimming to the dog, which had drifted about 100 yards from shore
Spokane Police’s “dialogue” officers focus on mixing into the protest by establishing positive connections, building rapport and talking with participants
The moon will look slightly bigger and brighter Wednesday night during the closest supermoon of the year.
Located on the Greek Island of Euboea lies a true archaeological mystery: 25 massive structures called Drakóspita or Dragon houses. Erected using supermassive limestone blocks forming a pyramid-shaped roof, the mysterious dragon houses are a true ancient enigma. Experts are unsure who built them, how they were built, but most importantly, experts have no idea when they were built. The dragon houses (in Greek Drakospita) are 20 large buildings spread across the south of the island of Euboea, the sixth largest in the Mediterranean, located off the eastern coast of mainland Greece. The so-called Dragon houses are rectangular constructions composed of huge stones, built in a cyclopean style, placed one above the other without any type of mortar. The spaces between them are filled with other smaller stones, and the roof is covered with equally large stone plates leaving a gap for the entrance of light.  The best preserved Dragon houses are those located on Mount Ochi , in the southeast of the island. Three other Cyclopean Dragon Houses can be found at Palli-Lakka and in Kapsala. Despite the fact that they are called Dragon houses, the massive structures don’t really have anything to do with these mythological creatures. They are dubbed Dragon houses because the local tradition attributed to their creators unknown superhuman powers, given the size of the stone blocks used in the building process. Ordinary people could not have built these massive structures, right?
Their true age remains a mystery, just as their unknown builders. Although ‘Dragon Houses’ were first described at the end of the 18th century, there is still no exact dating of the buildings. Some scholars believe that they can be traced back to the seventh century BC, being the precursors of the later Greek temples. Others consider them defensive constructions of the Hellenistic period, of the III-IV century BC.  However, experts are still unable to agree on their date, and the lack of materials surrounding the massive structures has made the job more difficult. The Dragon houses were ‘found’ by British geologist John Hawkins, who ascended Mount Ochi (1,398 meters of altitude) on October 21, 1797. There, he found a construction that he inspected and from which he drew sketches, concluding, based on their design that the massive structures should be older than classic Greek temples. After word got out of the existence of massive structures in the Mediterranean, many others ventured out to Greece to see the ‘Dragon houses’ for themselves. In the following years after Hawkins discovered them, numerous archaeologists visited the site, such as Heinrich Ulrichs, who published a monograph about the structures in 1842. In more recent times the main researchers are those of the Americans Jean Carpenter and Dan Boyd. The enigmatic Dragon Houses of Mount Ochi are located at an altitude of 1386 meters of and have an average dimension of 12.7 by 7.7 meters, with a door in the center of the south wall, 2 meters high by one wide and crowned by a huge 10-tonne lintel protruding above it, as well as small windows on the sides. The walls have an average thickness of 1.4 meters, suitable to support the heavy stone roof, and the interior rises to an average height of around 2.4 meters. The surface of the construction is 48 square meters and the entire floor is covered with stone panels.  As noted by experts, the three Dragon Houses of Palli-Lakka are very similar in dimensions to that of Mount Ochi, but the walls are less thick, only 1.1 meters on average. The stone blocks used are smaller and, in general, the style is more rustic, less elaborate and possibly even older. The strange things is that, despite their supermassive size and intricate design elements, there is absolutely no reference to these buildings in the ancient sources, so all the available information comes from the legends and folklore of the area where they were built, as well as details of explorers who have visited the structures in more recent times. In 1959, excavations were carried out on the structures of Mount Ochi which brought to light ceramic fragments which have been dated to the Hellenistic period. Archaeologists also found various reinforcements, on one of which they fund a small text written in an unknown script, which is now kept at the archaeological museum of Karystos. An Otherworldly Connection?  Interesting details were discovered in 2002 and 2004 when researchers from the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Athens studied the orientation of the Dragon Houses on Mount Ochi. Experts came to the conclusion that the Dragon Houses were oriented to the Sirius star system around 1100 BC., suggesting that the mysterious Cyclopean structures may have been used as some sort of astronomical observatories. However, due to the lack of more exhaustive data, the Greek Dragon houses continue to be an enigma for archaeologists. As noted by some authors, the mysterious structures could well be the key to understanding the evolution of later Greek architecture. Whatever their purpose was, it remains a mystery as to how the massive structures were built, how they have remained standing, and most importantly their exact age. Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
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