Laboratory Equipment

Tree Rings Show Mega-Fires are Atypical, New

Today’s mega forest fires of the southwestern U.S. are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests a new study that examined hundreds of years of ancient tree ring and fire data from two distinct climate periods.

Researchers constructed and analyzed a statistical model that encompassed 1,500 years of climate and fire patterns to test, in part, whether today’s dry, hot climate alone is causing the mega-fires that routinely destroy millions of acres of forest, according to study co-author and fire anthropologist Christopher Roos, Southern Methodist Univ.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Tree-Rings-Show-Megafire-are-Atypical-New-052112.aspx

Lacquerware is Ancient Astronomical Measuring Instruments

A few pieces of “lacquerware of unknown names” unearthed 35 years ago from a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, are found to be a gnomon with template and an equatorial device for the positional measurement of celestial bodies. They are among the oldest instruments for astronomical measurement that can still be seen in the world.

In 1977, archaeologists unearthed a great number of precious relics from the tomb of Xiahou Zao (?-165BCE), the 2nd Marquis of Ruyin of the Western Han dynasty. They named a piece of lacquerware “lacquerware of unknown name”, for no one has been able to identify it. Divergent views also have been held over the possible function of a pair of overlapping lacquered disks from the same tomb.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Lacquerware-is-Ancient-Astronomical-Measuring-Instruments-050312.aspx

Tiny Spherules Show Earth’s Impact History

Researchers are learning details about asteroid impacts going back to the Earth’s early history by using a new method for extracting precise information from tiny “spherules” embedded in layers of rock.

The spherules were created when asteroids crashed into the Earth, vaporizing rock that expanded into space as a giant vapor plume. Small droplets of molten and vaporized rock in the plume condensed and solidified, falling back to Earth as a thin layer. The round or oblong particles were preserved in layers of rock, and now researchers have analyzed them to record precise information about asteroids impacting Earth from 3.5 billion to 35 million years ago.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Tiny-Spherules-Show-Earths-Impact-History-042612.aspx

Titanic Disasters Still Happen

In a few days, the 100th anniversary of one of history’s most tragic events will occur – the sinking of the Titanic – and the question often asked is, could such a disaster happen again? The answer is not only “yes,” but it has happened many times since and will almost certainly happen again, says a Texas A&M Univ. oceanographer.

Mahlon “Chuck” Kennicutt II, professor of oceanography who has conducted marine research for 30 years, says the Titanic has captured the public’s attention as few ships have ever done. The largest ship afloat at the time, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from England to New York City. The ship carried more than 2,200 people – over 1,300 passengers and about 900 crew. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people and is etched in the history books as one of the worst maritime disasters ever.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Titanic-Disasters-Still-Happen-040212.aspx

Fossilized Raindrops Reveal Ancient Greenhouse Gases

In ancient Earth history, the sun burned as much as 30 percent dimmer than it does now. Theoretically that should have encased the planet in ice, but there is geologic evidence for rivers and ocean sediments between 2 billion and 4 billion years ago.

Scientists have speculated that temperatures warm enough to maintain liquid water were the result of a much thicker atmosphere, high concentrations of greenhouse gases or a combination of the two. Now Univ. of Washington researchers, using evidence from fossilized raindrop impressions from 2.7 billion years ago to deduce atmospheric pressure at the time, have demonstrated that an abundance of greenhouse gases most likely caused the warm temperatures.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Fossilized-Raindrop-Impressions-Show-Abundant-Greenhouse-Gases-032912.aspx

Explosive Volcanism Extended Little Ice Age

A new Univ. of Colorado Boulder-led study appears to answer contentious questions about the onset and cause of Earth’s Little Ice Age, a period of cooling temperatures that began after the Middle Ages and lasted into the late 19th century. According to the new study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to CU-Boulder Prof. Gifford Miller, who led the study. The primary evidence comes from radiocarbon dates from dead vegetation emerging from rapidly melting icecaps on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, combined with ice and sediment core data from the poles and Iceland and from sea ice climate model simulations, says Miller.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Self-Perpetuating-Cycle-Caused-Little-Ice-Age-013112.aspx

Cancer Found in Ancient Mummy Caused by Genetics

A professor from American Univ. in Cairo says the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment. The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-cancer-found-in-ancient-mummy-caused-by-genetics-013012.aspx

Earth’s Lithosphere Holds 1-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

Like lines in a deeply weathered face, the cracks and fissures in the Earth’s crust reveal a long and tumultuous lifetime. Massive continent-bearing plates have come together and broken apart, setting off earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have fragmented underlying rock, changing the face of the planet over billions of years. Despite a geologically fractious history, Earth’s rigid outer layer, or lithosphere, retains ancient sections called cratons in which rocks have been left relatively undisturbed since they formed billions of years ago.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Areas-Remain-Tectonically-Stable-for-Over-1-Billion-Years-010912.aspx

Researchers Restore Bell’s “Lost” Recordings

Alexander Graham Bell foresaw many things, including that people could someday talk over a telephone. Yet the inventor certainly never could have anticipated that his audio-recording experiments in a Washington, D.C., lab could be recovered 130 years later and played for a gathering of scientists, curators and journalists.

“To be or not to be…” a man’s voice can be heard saying in one recording as it was played on a computer at the Library of Congress. The speaker from the 1880s recites a portion of Hamlet’s Soliloquy as a green wax disc crackles to life from computer speakers.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Bells-Recordings-Exhibited-for-First-Time-121511.aspx

Death of Elephants Meant Rise of Homo Sapiens

Elephants have long been known to be part of the Homo erectus diet. But the significance of this specific food source, in relation to both the survival of Homo erectus and the evolution of modern humans, has never been understood—until now.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Death-of-Elephants-Meant-Rise-of-Homo-Sapiens-121311.aspx