Scientists find fossil of enormous bug

LONDON - This was a bug you couldn't swat and definitely couldn't step on. British scientists have stumbled across a fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that is of such large proportion it would make the entire creature the biggest bug ever.

How big? Bigger than you, and at 8 feet long as big as some Smart cars.

The discovery in 390-million-year-old rocks suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were far larger in the past than previously thought, said Simon Braddy, a University of Bristol paleontologist and one of the study's three authors.

"This is an amazing discovery," he said Tuesday.

"We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies. But we never realized until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were," he said.

The research found a type of sea scorpion that was almost half a yard longer than previous estimates and the largest one ever to have evolved.

The study, published online Tuesday in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, means that before this sea scorpion became extinct it was much longer than today's average man is tall.

Prof. Jeorg W. Schneider, a paleontologist at Freiberg Mining Academy in southeastern Germany, said the study provides valuable new information about "the last of the giant scorpions."

Schneider, who was not involved in the study, said these scorpions "were dominant for millions of years because they didn't have natural enemies. Eventually they were wiped out by large fish with jaws and teeth."

Braddy's partner paleontologist Markus Poschmann found the claw fossil several years ago in a quarry near Prum, Germany, that probably had once been an ancient estuary or swamp.

"I was loosening pieces of rock with a hammer and chisel when I suddenly realized there was a dark patch of organic matter on a freshly removed slab. After some cleaning I could identify this as a small part of a large claw," said Poschmann, another author of the study.

"Although I did not know if it was more complete or not, I decided to try and get it out. The pieces had to be cleaned separately, dried, and then glued back together. It was then put into a white plaster jacket to stabilize it," he said.

Eurypterids, or ancient sea scorpions, are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of today's scorpions and possibly all arachnids, a class of joint-legged, invertebrate animals, including spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.

Braddy said the fossil was from a Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae, a kind of scorpion that lived only in Germany for about 10 million years, about 400 million years ago.

He said some geologists believe that gigantic sea scorpions evolved due to higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere in the past. Others suspect they evolved in an "arms race" alongside their likely prey, fish that had armor on their outer bodies.

Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be.

"The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates — backboned animals like ourselves."

That competition ended long ago.

But the next time you swat a fly, or squish a spider at home, Braddy said, try to "think about the insects that lived long ago. You wouldn't want to swat one of those."


By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

New Method Equalizes Stem Cell Debate

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — It has been more than six years since President Bush, in the first major televised address of his presidency, drew a stark moral line against the destruction of human embryos in medical research.

Since then, he has steadfastly maintained that scientists would come up with an alternative method of developing embryonic stem cells, one that did not involve killing embryos.

Critics were skeptical. But now that scientists in Japan and Wisconsin have apparently achieved what Mr. Bush envisioned, the White House is saying, “I told you so.”

Conservative Republican presidential hopefuls like former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts are breathing a sigh of relief. And opponents of embryonic stem cell research are congratulating themselves.

The discovery that skin cells can be reprogrammed to mimic embryonic stem cells is likely to transform the sticky political debate over the science, a debate that has pitted Mr. Bush against two-thirds of the American public including prominent Republicans like Nancy Reagan and has even helped decide some elections.

The findings have put people on both sides of the stem cell divide on nearly equal political footing. Each side can now say it has fruitful research to pursue.

Each side can even lay claim to the same scientists. The author of the new skin cell studies is James A. Thomson, the University of Wisconsin researcher who extracted stem cells from human embryos in the first place.

Perhaps no one outside the world of science is as acutely aware of this as Mr. Bush. The president and his aides have been quietly monitoring the Wisconsin experiments for months, receiving briefings from Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.

On Tuesday, senior aides to Mr. Bush said he drove the experiments by holding his moral ground.

“This is very much in accord with the president’s vision from the get-go,” said Karl Zinsmeister, a domestic policy adviser to Mr. Bush who kept the president apprised of the work. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the president’s drawing of lines on cloning and embryo use was a positive factor in making this come to fruition.”

Mr. Bush’s critics say he should not be so quick to take credit. They note that the reprogramming method has some kinks to be worked out and say the research would never have proceeded without the initial embryo experiments. The critics say that far from encouraging research, Mr. Bush has stood in its way.

In 2001, in a compromise aimed at discouraging the destruction of embryos, Mr. Bush told federal researchers that they could work just on those stem cell lines, or colonies, already in existence. He has twice vetoed bills to ease those restrictions.

“I really don’t think anybody ought to take credit in light of the six-year delay we’ve had,” said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the lead Republican sponsor of the bill that Mr. Bush vetoed in July 2006. “My own view is that science ought to be unfettered and that every possible alternative ought to be explored.”

“You’ve got a life-and-death situation here,” Mr. Specter continued, “and if we can find something which is certifiably equivalent to embryonic stem cells, fine. But we are not there yet.”

Embryonic stem cells are attractive to scientists because they have the potential to grow into any cell or tissue in the body and could, theoretically, be used to treat many ailments. Opponents, including Christian conservatives, say it is immoral to destroy embryos to obtain cells.

Early in the controversy, opponents, including Mr. Bush, often said they supported studies using so-called adult stem cells that involve cells extracted from blood and bone marrow. But those cells have more limited potential than embryonic stem cells, and proponents of embryo experiments said it was like comparing apples to oranges. The reprogrammed skin cells, by contrast, appear to hold the same properties as embryonic stem cells, more an apples-to-apples comparison.

“We now have a situation where, ironically, despite an inability to get political consensus, the science has presented opportunities for a variety of moral views to have an outlet,” Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said. “Proponents can no longer say that there aren’t any real options.”

The debate has even been a factor in some elections like the Missouri Senate race last year. In that contest, Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, unseated Jim Talent, a Republican who opposed the research. The race drew national attention after the actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease and has been a vocal advocate for stem cell studies, made a commercial for Ms. McCaskill.

The new findings could defuse the issue in the 2008 campaign, or at least that is the hope of candidates like Mr. Romney.

“This will bolster the arguments of folks like Governor Romney, who look at alternative types of research that they believe are more promising and don’t have those same ethical dilemmas,” Kevin Madden, Mr. Romney’s press secretary, said. At the same time, scientists may well begin pursuing reprogramming with vigor, if only because it is easier to obtain federal money for it, said Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton who is on the president’s Council on Bioethics and opposes embryo experiments.

“I’m sure in their ideal world, we would be pursuing all methods, and that includes embryo-destructive methods,” Professor George said. “Those who want to continue to fight on this will no doubt continue. But the ranks are going to be reduced.”

That is not to say advocates for embryonic stem cell studies plan to give up. Mr. Specter and other supporters of the bill to lift Mr. Bush’s rules say they intend to continue to try to turn that bill into law, if not in this administration, then in the next one.

“None of this feels like it should be one versus the other,” said Representative Diana DeGette, the Colorado Democrat who is sponsoring the bill in the House. “That’s the politicization of science.”


By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: November 21, 2007

The Boy King, Tutankhamun, faces the world after 3,000 years

More than 3,000 years after his death, King Tutankhamun went on display to the public yesterday in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, a slightly bucktoothed boy who died aged 19.
King Tut’s mummified face – which has been seen only by about 50 people since the British archaeologist Howard Carter opened the tomb exactly 85 years ago – was revealed to the world in a climate-controlled glass display case in an antechamber of his own tomb in the valley near Luxor, where generations of Egyptian pharaohs were buried.

“Everyone is dreaming of what he looks like. The face of Tutankhamun is different from any king in the Cairo museum. With his beautiful buck teeth, the tourists will see a little bit of the smile from the face of the golden boy,” said Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s leading expert on the famous boy King.

Dr Hawass expects a huge influx of tourists to see the mummy, to be displayed in the tomb indefinitely. Only the face can be seen, with the body wrapped in linen. It was badly damaged when Carter tried to pull off the golden mask after discovering the tomb – almost entirely intact with all its treasures – on November 4, 1922.

The discovery set off a craze for King Tut and Ancient Egypt that has endured to this day. The circumstances of the pharaoh’s death at such an early age remain unclear. A bone chip found inside the skull led some archaeologists to speculate that he was murdered, ten years after ascending to the throne.

Egypt’s 18th dynasty was enduring “ turbulent times after Tutankhamun’s predecessor Akhenaten – husband of the famously beautiful Nefertiti – abandoned the country’s pantheon of gods and chose to worship just one, the sun-disk Aten.

After Akhenaten’s death, his vizier, Ay, restored the worship of the gods; and some have speculated that Tutankhamun may have been murdered, in 1323BC, for trying to return Egypt to monotheism.

The murder theory has largely been dismissed, however, since scientists carried out a CT scan two years ago which revealed no trauma to the skull. Experts said that the bone chip could have been the result of the embalming process, when morticians removed all the internal organs and placed them in jars in preparation for the afterlife.

Dr Hawass now believes that the King may have died after he broke his leg and the wound became infected. Until then, the young King had been in good health, with the tests showing that he was a well-fed youth, slightly built and standing at 5ft 6in (1.67m). A recent reconstruction of his face shows a striking looking young man with almond eyes, an aquiline nose and full lips, with his head shaved. He had the pronounced overbite typical of his Royal Family line, and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.

When the mummy was unwrapped in 1925 it was found to have a wound on the left cheek in the same position as the insect bite that had supposedly killed the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, sponsor of Carter’s excavations, which fuelled speculation that the discovery had unleashed a curse. “Death Shall Come on Swift Wings To Him Who Disturbs the Peace of the King” was the inscription that was claimed to be engraved on the tomb’s exterior.

Over the years the mummy has broken into 18 parts. Dr Hawass was worried that the crush of tourists would have caused irreparable damage had the body been left in the golden sarcophagus. “The humidity and heat caused by . . . people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder. The only good thing [left] in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face,” he said.

The 2005 scan also resolved another mystery: that of the Pharaoh’s missing penis. It had long been thought to have been stolen in 1942, but the scan revealed it to be hidden in sand inside the mummified wrappings.

The public’s unflagging mania for King Tut has been fed by an exhibition that has toured the US and will be opening in the O2 Gallery in Greenwich, London, on November 15. Tutankhamun and the Golden Age, which is partnered by The Times, shows some of the stunning golden artefacts from the tomb that defied looters and the effects of time. It also features the latex reconstruction of the young King’s head based on the scan.

The tale of Tut

- Howard Carter and the 5th Earl Carnarvon, his chief backer, spent six seasons excavating in the Valley of the Kings but found nothing

- Worried about his investment, Lord Carnarvon gave them one final season to dig

- In November 1922 initial reports appeared in The Times, above, announcing that the team had found the tomb of Tutankhamun

- Lord Carnarvon died seven weeks after the tomb was found, probably because of blood poisoning caused by a mosquito bite. Others blamed his death on the “curse of Tutankhamun”

James Hider and Michael Theodoulou

Temple built 4,000 years ago unearthed in Peru

LIMA (Reuters) - A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.

The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.

It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said.

"It's a temple that is about 4,000 years old," Alva, director of the Museum Tumbas Reales (Royal Tombs) of Sipan, told Reuters by telephone after announcing the results of carbon dating at a ceremony north of Lima sponsored by Peru's government.

"What's surprising are the construction methods, the architectural design and most of all the existence of murals that could be the oldest in the Americas," he said.

Lambayeque is 472 miles from Lima, Peru's capital.

Discoveries at Sipan, an administrative and religious center of the Moche culture, have included a gold-filled tomb built 1,700 years ago for a pre-Incan king.

Peru is rich in archaeological treasures, including the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes.

Until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, the Incas ruled an empire for several centuries that stretched from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to what are now Peru and Chile in the south.

"The discovery of this temple reveals evidence suggesting the region of Lambayeque was one of great cultural exchange between the Pacific coast and the rest of Peru," said Alva.

(Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Peter Cooney)

By Marco Aquino

Comet draws scientific, amateur interest

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A comet that unexpectedly brightened in the last couple of weeks and is now visible to the naked eye is attracting professional and amateur interest.

Paul Lewis, director of astronomy outreach at the University of Tennessee, is drawing students to the roof of the Nielsen Physics Building for special viewings of Comet 17P/Holmes.

The comet is exploding and its coma, a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the sun, has grown to be bigger than the planet Jupiter. The comet lacks the tail usually associated with such celestial bodies but can be seen in the northern sky, in the constellation Perseus, as a fuzzy spot of light about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.

"This is truly a celestial surprise," Lewis said. "Absolutely amazing."

Until Oct. 23, the comet had been visible to modern astronomers only with a telescope, but that night it suddenly erupted and expanded.

A similar burst in 1892 led to the comet's discovery by Edwin Holmes.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event to witness, along the lines of when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter back in 1994," Lewis said.

Scientists speculate the comet has exploded because there are sinkholes in its nucleus, giving it a honeycomb-like structure. The collapse exposed comet ice to the sun, which transformed the ice into gas.

"What comets do when they are near the sun is very unpredictable," Lewis said. "We expect to see a coma cloud and a tail, but this is more like an explosion, and we are seeing the bubble of gas and dust as it expands away from the center of the blast."

Experts aren't sure how long the comet's show will last but estimate it could be weeks if not months. Using a telescope or binoculars help bring the comet's details into view, they said.

Egypt puts King Tut on public display

LUXOR, Egypt - King Tut's buck-toothed face was unveiled Sunday for the first time in public — more than 3,000 years after the youngest and most famous pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt was shrouded in linen and buried in his golden underground tomb.

Archeologists carefully lifted thae fragile mummy out of a quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses, momentarily pulling aside a beige covering to reveal a leathery black body.

The linen was then replaced over Tut's narrow body so only his face and tiny feet were exposed, and the 19-year-old king, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was moved to a simple glass climate-controlled case to keep it from turning to dust.

"I can say for the first time that the mummy is safe and the mummy is well preserved, and at the same time, all the tourists who will enter this tomb will be able to see the face of Tutankhamun for the first time," Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said from inside the hot and sticky tomb.

"The face of the golden boy is amazing. It has magic and it has mystery," he added.

Hawass said scientists began restoring the badly damaged mummy more than two years ago. Much of the body is broken into 18 pieces — damage sustained when British archaeologist Howard Carter first discovered it 85 years ago, took it from its tomb and tried to pull off the famous golden mask, Hawass said.

But experts fear a more recent phenomenon — mass tourism — is further deteriorating Tut's mummy. Thousands of tourists visit the underground chamber every month, and Hawass said within 50 years the mummy could dissolve into dust.

"The humidity and heat caused by ... people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder. The only good thing (left) in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face," said Hawass, who wore his signature Indiana Jones-style tan hat.

The mystery surrounding King Tutankhamun — who ruled during the 18th dynasty and ascended to the throne at age 8 — and his glittering gold tomb has entranced ancient Egypt fans since Carter first discovered the hidden tomb, revealing a trove of fabulous gold and precious stone treasures and propelling the once-forgotten pharaoh into global stardom.

He wasn't Egypt's most powerful or important king, but his staggering treasures, rumors of a mysterious curse that plagued Carter and his team — debunked by experts long ago — and several books and TV documentaries dedicated to Tut have added to his intrigue.

Archeologists in recent years have tried to resolve lingering questions over how he died and his precise royal lineage. In 2005, scientists removed Tut's mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.

The results ruled out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts, including Hawass, suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, an apparent accident that may have resulted in a fatal infection.

The CT scan also provided the most revealing insight yet into Tut's life. He was well-fed and healthy, but slight, standing 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death. The scan also showed he had the overbite characteristic of other kings from his family, large incisor teeth and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.

The unveiling of Tut's mummy comes amid a resurgence in the frenzy over the boy king. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during its initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open Nov. 15 in London and later will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art.

The Egyptian tourism industry is hoping to capitalize on that interest and draw tourists to Luxor to see something they couldn't in traveling exhibit — the mummy itself.

The number of tourists who visit Tut's tomb is expected to double to 700 a day now that the mummy will be on display indefinitely, said Mostafa Wazery, who heads the Valley of the Kings for Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Most of Egypt's other identified mummies are on display in museums in Luxor and Cairo.

But not every tourist was eager to find out that Tut's mummy was being moved to a modern, see-through case.

"I really think he should be left alone in quiet, in peace," said British tourist Bob Philpotts after viewing Tut's tomb before the mummy was moved on Sunday. "This is his resting place, and he should be left (there)."

Hawass said experts will begin another project to determine the pharaoh's precise royal lineage. It is unclear if he is the son or a half brother of Akhenaten, the "heretic" pharaoh who introduced a revolutionary form of monotheism to ancient Egypt and was the son of Amenhotep III.

Sunday's unveiling ensured the boy pharaoh would remain eternal, said Hawass.

"I can assure you that putting this mummy in this case, this showcase, can make the golden boy live forever," he said.

By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer