Dating Methods – Page 25

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Quartz Hydration Dating Method Announced

April 12, 2004

A press release from University of California, Irvine announced that Jonathon Ericson of UCI’s department of Environmental Health has “created a new method for determining the approximate age of many artifacts between 50,000 to 100,000 years old – a period for which other dating methods are less effective.” The method depends on measuring […]

Physical Science

How Little We Know What Lies Below

April 2, 2004

Those cutaway views of the earth, with its core, mantle and crust, make nice diagrams in textbooks. But without a Hollywood-style probe and time machine to the center of the earth, how do we know what’s down there, and how it got that way? We know surprisingly little, admits David Stevenson (geologist, Caltech) writing in […]

Uncategorized

Major Cave with Fossils Found in Arizona

March 11, 2004

Arizona Central has announced a major cave discovery east of Tucson. The cave, named La Tetera, was discovered eight years ago but was kept secret till today. The first human exploration only began New Years Day 2002. The cave, located within Colossal Cave State Park, is said to rival or exceed Kartchner Caverns in the […]

Geology

Rethinking the Geological Layers

March 5, 2004

One of the most formative ideas in Darwin’s intellectual journey was the concept of gradualism, the principle of “small agencies and their cumulative effects.” This idea became a dominant motif in his philosophy of life. Describing how the assumption of gradualism permeated his last book (on earthworms) shortly before his death, Janet Browne, in her […]

Dating Methods

Hundreds of Whales Buried Suddenly in Diatoms

February 2, 2004

A remarkable fossil find has been found in Peru: 346 whales buried in diatomaceous earth. The preservation of the whales is so pristine and complete, the authors of the paper in the Feb. 2004 issue of Geology1 conclude that the whales had to be buried rapidly, in days or weeks. If so, it represents a […]

Origin of Life

Early Oxygen Causes Evolutionary Gasps

January 24, 2004

The rise of oxygen in the primitive Earth’s atmosphere has been pushed back 100 million more years, according to Sid Perkins writing for the Jan. 24 issue of Science News. This is based on studies of sediments in South Africa. Though estimated at just a millionth of today’s concentrations, the finding comes as a surprise. […]

Uncategorized

How Long Can DNA Survive?

January 6, 2004

An international team of scientists takes issue with recent claims that ancient DNA has been found in ice, amber, salt or rock many millions of years old (see 05/23/2002 entry, for instance). They think such cases are due to contamination and have not been independently replicated. They gathered samples in Siberian and Antarctic permafrost under […]

Cosmology

Instant Galaxies?

January 2, 2004

The Hubble Space Telescope, with its Advanced Camera for Surveys, has taken a peek at the most distant galaxy clusters ever seen. The astronomers found “embryonic” galaxies in a “proto-cluster” of galaxies, named TN J1338-1942, that they estimate formed a mere 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. This find has been reported in the […]

Astronomy

Globular Cluster Origins: Where Do We Go From Here?

January 1, 2004

The simple explanation of globular clusters as bundles of ancient stars seems to be in a state of crisis, though the authors of a paper in the Jan. 1 issue of Nature1 try to keep a stiff upper lip. They begin, “Nearly a century after the true nature of galaxies as distant ‘island universes’ was […]

Early Man

Art Evolution Is Backwards

December 18, 2003

Early art has again been shown to be the work of advanced intellect and culture (see Apr. 22 headline and embedded links). Carved animal figurines found in Germany1 estimated to be 30,000 to 33,000 years old, display a level of craftsmanship not expected among primitive humans. In the Dec. 18 issue of Nature2, Anthony Sinclair […]

Physics

The Magnetic Sky Is Falling

December 15, 2003

Space.Com reports that the strength of Earth’s magnetic field has dropped 10% over the last 150 years. At that rate of decline, it could vanish in 1500 to 2000 years. Scientists gathered recently at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union pondered whether a reversal is occurring, but a Harvard scientist claimed that would be […]

Solar System

Keeping Planetary Rings Going for Eons

December 8, 2003

It’s common knowledge that planetary rings, like those at Saturn, don’t last forever (see 02/12/2002 headline), so scientists either have to find a way to keep them going, or admit that we live in a special period in the lifetime of the solar system to see them now. That latter option is “philosophically unappealing” to […]

Fossils

New Record-Setting Living Fossil Flabbergasts Scientists

December 5, 2003

A remarkably-detailed fossil ostracode, a type of crustacean, has been announced in the Dec. 5 issue of Science1 that is blowing the socks off its discoverers. Erik Stokstad in a review of the discovery in the same issue2 explains its significance in the evolutionary picture of prehistory: Over the past half-billion years, evolution has dished […]

Uncategorized

Crystals Envision Crusty Earth

November 20, 2002

Reuters reported that “Tiny zircon crystals dug up from ancient Australian deposits appear to have been formed right after the birth of the planet – a finding that suggests that early on, Earth had a cool crust much like today’s that could have harbored life, scientists said on Thursday.” (see MSNBC News). This interpretation comes […]

Solar System

Ring Around the Moons

October 20, 2002

51; Saturn is known for its rings, and some small moons have been found inside its rings. But wouldn’t it be strange if some of its moons had rings of their own? Such a thing had not been widely considered before 2007, when there was a tentative detection of a ring around Rhea (see 03/10/2008). […]

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