64-Million-Year Controversy: Grand Canyon Age Debated

64-Million-Year Controversy: Grand Canyon Age Debated - Since two researchers suggested last year that the Grand Canyon was carved 70 million years ago (much older than the consensus of 6 million years), a rousing debate over the canyon's true age has played out at scientific meetings, through email, and now, in the pages of a respected journal.

In today's (April 11) issue of the journal Science, several geologists who've spent years roaming the Southwest's red rocks and cliffs respond to the original old Grand Canyon study, published in November 2012 in Science. Their critique hinges on two primary points: Assessing the laboratory techniques that revealed when the Grand Canyon's deepest rocks were brought to the surface, and rock evidence that points to a young Colorado River, the waterway now filling the gorge.

Grand Canyon viewed from Hopi Point, on the south rim. New evidence suggests the western Grand Canyon was cut to within 70 percent of its current depth long before the Colorado River existed.

View of the western Grand Canyon and the Colorado River from the canyon bottom. New data suggests most of this portion of the canyon was carved by 70 Ma, more than 60 Ma earlier than generally believed.

"If there was a canyon where the present canyon is, it would have left some evidence at the mouth of the canyon at the Grand Wash trough," said Ivo Lucchitta, an emeritus geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Arizona and one of the technical comment authors. The Grand Wash trough, a basin in the Lake Mead region west of the Grand Canyon, contains a thick pile of gravel, limestone and volcanic rocks that pin down the 6-million-year age of the Colorado River. Geologic evidence for canyon-carving in the present-day Grand Canyon before 6 million years is lacking, Lucchita and his co-authors said.

In a point-counterpoint that's common in Science and other academic journals, the lead author of the initial study, Rebecca Flowers, said the ancient Southwest was an even more arid environment, with different topography than today, which meant older rivers likely left behind less sediment than today's Colorado River. Older materials could also have eroded away when the Colorado River punched through, said Flowers, a geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "The absence of obvious detritus in the Grand Wash trough does not preclude the ancient Grand Canyon," she told OurAmazingPlanet.

But the case for Flowers' ancient canyon primarily rests on what are called thermochronologic dating techniques that reveal when rock was exposed near the surface. Tiny mineral grains indicated the western Grand Canyon was carved 70 million years ago to within about 1,000 feet (300 meters) of its current depth, and the eastern Grand Canyon was cut more shallowly by about 55 million years ago.

Geologists led by Karl Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, lead author of one of the critiques, said their mineral samples support a young canyon, but Flowers said the opposing side's data could be interpreted in favor of an old canyon too. The argument rests on how the different groups model the escape of elements such as helium, uranium and thorium from the mineral apatite. The apatite measurements point to cooling of the rocks as layers of overlying sediment were removed by erosion.

"I think we have a data set that really provides for ancient canyon carving, and I agree this is going to continue to be controversial," Flowers said. One of the world's natural wonders, though the spectacular setting lays out nearly half of Earth's history in a colorful layer cake of rocks, the age of the Grand Canyon has been debated for a century.

Though the jigsaw puzzle of Colorado Plateau geology has many missing pieces, removed by erosion or tectonics, scientists do believe a consensus on the Grand Canyon's history will emerge.

"It's very complicated, but we have some hope that in the not-to-distant future we may be able to approach a solution," Lucchitta said. ( LiveScience.com )

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Five facts about sinkholes

Five facts about sinkholes - A gaping, 50-foot sinkhole that took the life of a Florida man, Jeff Bush, whose bedroom was swallowed up, made for scary headlines worldwide. But sinkholes, it turns out, are not as rare you would think. The phenomena, for instance, are common in Florida, if only occasionally deadly. Here, with help from sources including the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Geological Survey, sinkholes explained:

 

Aerial view of the sinkhole in Seffner, Fla. (AP Photo/ABC Action News-WFTS TV)

How does a sinkhole form? 

"Cover-collapse" sinkholes occur when groundwater causes underground gaps that grow so big the ground above can’t support them. These can be dramatic events, since the holes can grow big enough to swallow a house, a road, a field or a swimming pool, even as those above ground go about their lives completely oblivious to the growing danger.

Are there other types of sinkholes? 

There are two other kinds: "solution" and "subsidence" sinkholes, which don't make the nightly news. That's because the changes to the topography happen slowly over time without catastrophic results.

Which states have sinkholes? 

The entire state of Florida is prone to sinkholes since it sits on top of a layer of limestone rock known as karst, which can be dissolved by acidic groundwater, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), other vulnerable states include Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

Are sinkholes common? 

Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, sinkholes aren’t tracked. But CNN reports that from 2006 to 2010 in Florida alone, there were 24,671 insurance claims for sinkhole damage, totaling a whopping $1.4 billion.

Can humans cause sinkholes? 

Yes. According to an interview with Randall Orndorff a U.S. Geological Survey supervisory geologist, human activities like drilling for a well or mining, which lower water levels underground, can cause sinkholes. So can putting up buildings and parking lots, he added, which changes where water drains. “Instead of the water naturally soaking into the ground, it's now running off and being concentrated—being put into the ground at one point," he said.

The massive sinkhole in Guatemala that was created in June 2010 is an example of one that was probably caused by human activity. ( The Lookout )

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Mysterious African 'Fairy Circles' Stump Scientists

Mysterious African 'Fairy Circles' Stump Scientists - In the sandy desert grasslands of Namibia in southern Africa, mysterious bare spots known as "fairy circles" will form and then disappear years later for no reason anyone can determine. A new look at these strange patterns doesn't solve the wistful mystery but at least reveals that the largest of the circles can linger for a lifetime.

Small fairy circles stick around an average of 24 years, while larger ones can exist as long as 75 years, according to research detailed today (June 27) in the journal PLoS ONE. Still, the study sheds little light on why the circles form, persist and then vanish into the landscape after decades.

"The why question is very difficult," said study researcher Walter Tschinkel, a biologist at Florida State University. "There are a number of hypotheses on the table, and the evidence for none of them is convincing."

The smallest are about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter, while the largest can be almost 40 feet (12 m) across. Eventually, plants move back in, re-colonizing the circles and leaving only slightly indented "ghost …more circles" behind. (Photo By Mike and Ann Scott of the Namib Rand Nature Reserve)

Circles of life (and death)

Tschinkel grew interested in fairy circles during a 2005 safari to NamibRand Nature Reserve in southwest Namibia, in the Namib Desert. It was his first experience with the round clearings, tens of thousands of which expose the red sandy soil in the area. A short time after the circles form, a tall ring of grass grows around the border, highlighting the bare area.

Few researchers have studied fairy circles, in part because of their remoteness, 111 miles (180 km) from the nearest village. It's an arid landscape where springbok, ostriches, leopards and other large animals roam, Tschinkel told LiveScience.

"It's like dying and going to heaven if you like remote, beautiful desert places," he said.

At first glance, Tschinkel assumed the circles marked underground nests of harvester termites. But digs have shown no evidence of termite nests under fairy circles. Other explanations, such as differences in soil nutrients or the death of seedlings by toxic vapors from the ground, have likewise failed to hold up to study.

In fact, little was known even about the life cycle of the circles, Tschinkel said. With the help of the nature reserve's staff, satellite images and aerial photos, he set out to change that. By comparing satellite images from 2004 and 2008, he found that circles are quite stable, popping up at nearly their full size, or growing quickly to full size once they get started. The smallest are about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter, while the largest can be almost 40 feet (12 m) across. Winds scour the bare areas of soil, turning them into slight depressions. Eventually plants move back in, recolonizing the circles and leaving only slightly indented "ghost circles" behind.

Assuming that the overall number of fairy circles on the landscape is fairly steady, Tschinkel used the satellite photos to look at how quickly the circles go from birth to maturity to revegetation. That yielded rough estimates of the circles' life spans. Most probably exist for 30 to 60 years, Tschinkel said.

Persisting mystery

Tschinkel was able to bolster these estimates thanks to a fundraising effort by the Namib Rand Nature Reserve, which sells sponsorships to fairy circles. The sponsored circles are marked with a ceramic plate, and their GPS coordinates are recorded. Over the 10 years of the sponsorship program, staff members have checked on the status of the sold circles. Their data yielded similar age ranges for fairy circles as the satellite images did, Tschinkel found.

He also determined that the circles form only on sandy soil with minimal stoniness, and that they don't form on shifting dunes or alluvial fans, where sands are deposited by water.

Some of Tschinkel's experiments are still ongoing, but so far, they've generated no leads on the circles' origins. Tschinkel suspects the circles are the product of some form of natural self-organization by plants.

"There are some mathematical models that are based on the idea that plants can withdraw resources toward themselves, which has a positive feedback on plant growth where they're located, but it has a negative effect on plants at a greater distance," he said.

Computer models based on this math can generate landscapes that look a bit like the fairy circle fields of Namibia, he said. But even if that hypothesis is on the right track, it doesn't explain how the plants are creating this pattern, not when hoarding soil nutrients and some other possible factors have already been ruled out.

With few people studying the circles — and no funding for chasing down the mysteries of the landscape of southern Africa — Tschinkel said the fairy circles will likely remain an enigma.

"I'm not too worried that this mystery is going to be solved anytime soon," he said. And the persistence of the mystery makes it ever more intriguing.

"That's science, isn't it?" Tschinkel said. "If you knew the answer ahead of time, it wouldn't be much fun." ( LiveScience.com )

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Loch Ness Monster used to debunk evolution in state-funded school

Loch Ness Monster used to debunk evolution in state-funded school - It sounds like a hoax, but it's apparently true: The Loch Ness Monster is on the science class syllabus for kids at Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana.

As reported by the Herald Scotland (which must track all Loch Ness-related news), a school that will receive tax-payer dollars, will teach kids that the mythological sea creature is real in order to debunk the theory of evolution. So pay attention: That will be on the test.

Eternity Christian Academy uses the fundamentalist A.C.E. Curriculum to teach students "to see life from God's point of view."

An alleged photo of the Loch Ness monster in Scotland. (Associated Press)

According to the Herald, one textbook, Biology 1099, reads, "Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the 'Loch Ness Monster' in Scotland? 'Nessie' for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur."

Starting in the fall, thousands of schoolchildren will receive publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools, some of which are religious. Religious schools in Louisiana will receive public funding as part of a push from Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal, to move millions of tax dollars to cover tuition for private schools, including small bible-based church schools. Money will fund schools that have "bible-based math books" and biology texts that refute evolution.

At Eternity Christian Academy, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier says that the her first through eighth-grade students learn at their own pace from Christian workbooks. The beginning science text explains "what God made" on each of the six days of creation. Evolution is not taught.

Carrier said, "We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children." She hopes to secure enrollment of 135 voucher students for the 2012-2013 school year. According to the website Salon, the school currently has just 38 students.

Whether this gambit will help move Louisiana from the bottom of math and science rankings in the country is unclear. A 2011 study of how well primary education prepares students for engineering careers had Louisiana third from the bottom, with only West Virginia and Mississippi performing worse. ( The Sideshow )

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Famous Leonardo self portrait in critical condition

Famous Leonardo self portrait in critical condition - Leonardo da Vinci is sick and no one really knows if he ever will be able to receive visitors again.

Art conservation and restoration experts recently concluded weeks of tests on the famous self portrait of one of history's greatest geniuses, sketched in the early 1500s when he was in his 60s.

And the diagnosis is decidedly grim.

The famous self portrait of Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci is seen in critical condition in this handout photo released to Reuters in Rome June 26, 2012. The portrait is suffering from blotches, stains and fungi, and art experts say because the small drawing is so delicate they will have to be prudent in deciding whether to attempt a restoration or cleaning. The small drawing was done in the early 1500s, when Leonardo was in his 60s. REUTERS/Handout

The non-invasive studies confirmed art experts' worst fears: the drawing is seriously damaged and deteriorating and any restoration would be delicate and risky to say the least.

"I think we need to think very hard before we do anything to this very familiar face," said Jane Roberts, Royal Librarian and Curator of the Print Room at Windsor Castle.

"But we can tell quite a lot more about it by continuing to ask questions," she told a news conference in Rome.

The small drawing of the Renaissance master, which measures 33.5 by 21.6 centimeters (13.2 by 8.5 inches), shows Leonardo with pensive, baggy eyes, bushy eyebrows and a flowing beard.

The self portrait, done with red chalk on paper, is suffering from what the art restoration world calls "foxing," a generic term for blotches, spots and stains -- marks that should not be there.

Foxing can be caused by oxidation of the pigmentation Leonardo used as well as fungi on the paper, made of hemp, flax and wool, or rust from the iron in the pigments.

Leonardo's forehead, aquiline nose and puffy cheeks look like he has a bad case of the measles.

"Because this is a masterpiece, prudence has prevailed," said Maria Cristina Misiti, head of Italy's Central Institute for Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Book Patrimony.

"It scary to deal with a work of art of this magnitude and uniqueness," she said.

The decision on whether to restore the drawing would be a difficult one to make, and would be taken by the Royal Library of Turin, the restoration institute, and scientists, she said.

The drawing was acquired by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy in 1839 and was well preserved in the Royal Library for nearly 100 years. But in 1929 it was framed and put on a wall, exposing it to sunlight.

"We will continue to study it, to diagnose it. Everyone agrees on that," Misiti said.

The drawing, which is kept in a vault in Turin, was shown in an extremely rare exhibit for two months last year in connection with celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

But art experts say that any other exhibition would be for short periods of time and with a limited number of visitors, because, like any sick old man, Leonardo will need what art experts call "long periods of rest". ( Reuters )


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Who was CB? Rare intact skeleton of unknown 'British' soldier found on battlefield of Waterloo - still with the musket ball that killed him lodged in

Who was CB? Rare intact skeleton of unknown 'British' soldier found on battlefield of Waterloo - still with the musket ball that killed him lodged in his ribs - Remains of soldier found on land British held during 1815 defeat of Napoleon - Thought to be 20 years old and buried hurriedly during the heat of battle - Archeologists hope possessions - including inscribed wood - may ID him - Discovered as bulldozers dug site for car park near Lion Mound monument

Among the thousands of men slain on the battlefield at Waterloo, he died, unrecognised and uncelebrated.

But almost 200 years later, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of the soldier – with the musket ball that felled him still between his ribs.

Historians believe he is from one of the Duke of Wellington’s British regiments, and described the discovery of the skeleton as one of the best ever war finds.

Amazing discovery: The almost complete skeleton, found buried on land the British held, is believed to be a 20-year-old soldier from one of the Duke of Wellington's regiments who died during the Battle of Waterloo

Cause of death: A musket ball in the soldier's rib cage is believed to have felled him on June 18, 1815

They are now hoping that the thick Flanders mud has preserved his personal items well enough to help them identify him.

Archaeologists have uncovered a regimental spoon, a piece of decorated leather from his uniform, coins, and a piece of wood, possibly a rifle butt, inscribed with the initials ‘C B’.

Analysis of the items could lead them to the army, regiment and even the name of the fallen hero.

Belgian archaeologist Dominique Bosquet said: ‘The remains were found behind the British lines close to the infirmary which makes the soldier most likely British.

‘The position where the skeleton was found would make it very difficult for it to be from a French soldier. A musket ball was found inside the rib cage. This was probably the cause of death – a gunshot wound to the chest.

‘We believe that after he was injured he was carried back from the line and that is where he died.’

Clue: The initials C.B. carved into a nearby piece of wood - possibly a rifle butt - may help reveal his identity

Possessions: Some coins found by the skeleton's remains might also help archeologists identify him

Preserved: A large spoon was also found lying next to the engraved piece of wood

The skeleton came to light as Belgium prepares for the 200th anniversary of the battle that ended the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte and France’s domination of Europe.

The remains were unearthed during the excavation of plots of land for a car park close to the Lion Mound monument, near the hamlet of Mont Saint-Jean.

Sadly the skull was crushed by the mechanical digger before the remains became visible.

But the skeleton is still one of the best preserved from the battle, although it is missing a foot and some small hand bones.

1815: NAPOLEON’S LAST STAND

Napoleon Bonaparte and his ruthlessly efficient Grande Armee once dominated continental Europe.

Britain - fearing the diminutive general’s spread of revolutionary republicanism - engaged in seven campaigns against him, losing five.

Napoleon’s greatest victory came in 1805 at Austerlitz in 1805, where French troops killed 19,000 of their numerically superior adversaries while sustaining only 7,000 casualties themselves. What made the win even more impressive was that his soldiers completed the rout in just six hours.

Yet, by 1814, he had abdicated as emporer after failing to encourage the French to continue fighting following his disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia. But despite his exile in the isle of Elba, the great general managed to return to France, raise an army and fight one last epic battle.

On June 18, 1815, Napoleon led his 72,000-strong army into battle with 120,000 Allied soldiers on the gently rolling plateau of Waterloo in Belgium.

The Allied army was a coalition of British, Dutch, German, Belgian and Prussian soldiers.
The two sides remained in a bloody embrace for several hours that resulted in the slaughter of 9,500 men.

But at the end of the afternoon the French emperor's Great Army was defeated by the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Blucher, commander of the Prussian army.

Early analysis suggests the remains are of a 20-year-old man, who was 5ft 1in tall with teeth worn by biting open gunpowder tubes.

Most of the British casualties were buried at a cemetery in Evere, near Brussels, but many remained where they fell. Yves Van Der Cruysen, director of the Battle of Waterloo Association, said: ‘This is a major discovery.

'It is the first time for over a hundred years that a complete corpse of a combatant from the time has been discovered in such a good state.

‘The body clearly has not been robbed as we found money on him, including a half franc coin from 1811.

'There were also other coins which we are having analysed.

‘He could have been buried by a comrade or simply missed when the bodies were gathered up after the battle for burial.

‘We hope to find evidence of his regiment from the spoon and the leather epaulets that were found with the corpse. And we know the names of the combatants thanks to military records of the time.

‘When the soldier’s regiment can be determined we should be able to find his identity.’

The Battle of Waterloo, on June 18, 1815, was fought in a sprawling field some ten miles south of Brussels.

The battle was between France and the Allied armies of British, German, Dutch and Belgian soldiers under the command of the Duke of Wellington and General Blucher of Prussia.

The French defeat drew to a close 23 years of war that had begun with the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792 and continued with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803.

Lion Mound: The body was found on a bulldozed site near the monument to William II of the Netherlands

Last stand: French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who returned from exile to fight the battle in a bid to regain dominance of Europe , was defeated by Dutch, Prussian and British troops led by the Duke of Wellington, right

Red outfitted warriors: How British troops looked during the battle as portrayed in the iconic 1970 film Waterloo ( dailymail.co.uk )

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Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad?

Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad? - What did you eat for dinner one week ago today? Chances are, you can’t quite recall. But for at least a short while after your meal, you knew exactly what you ate, and could easily remember what was on your plate in great detail. What happened to your memory between then and now? Did it slowly fade away? Or did it vanish, all at once?

Memories of visual images (e.g., dinner plates) are stored in what is called visual memory. Our minds use visual memory to perform even the simplest of computations; from remembering the face of someone we’ve just met, to remembering what time it was last we checked. Without visual memory, we wouldn’t be able to store—and later retrieve—anything we see. Just as a computer’s memory capacity constrains its abilities, visual memory capacity has been correlated with a number of higher cognitive abilities, including academic success, fluid intelligence (the ability to solve novel problems), and general comprehension.

For many reasons, then, it would be very useful to understand how visual memory facilitates these mental operations, as well as constrains our ability to perform them. Yet although these big questions have long been debated, we are only now beginning to answer them.

Memories like what you had for dinner are stored in visual short-term memory—particularly, in a kind of short-term memory often called “visual working memory.” Visual working memory is where visual images are temporarily stored while your mind works away at other tasks—like a whiteboard on which things are briefly written and then wiped away. We rely on visual working memory when remembering things over brief intervals, such as when copying lecture notes to a notebook.

The question is: when are these memories wiped away? And when they are, can we still discern traces of what was originally ‘written,’ or does nothing at all remain? If visual short-term memories are only gradually wiped away, then remnants of these memories should still be retrievable; but if these memories are wiped out all at once, then we shouldn’t be able to retrieve them in any form whatsoever.

UC Davis psychologists Weiwei Zhang and Steven Luck have shed some light on this problem. In their , participants briefly saw three colored squares flashed on a computer screen, and were asked to remember the colors of each square. Then, after 1, 4 or 10 seconds the squares re-appeared, except this time their colors were missing, so that all that was visible were black squares outlined in white. The participants had a simple task: to recall the color of one particular square, not knowing in advance which square they would be asked to recall. The psychologists assumed that measuring how visual working memory behaves over increasing demands (i.e., the increasing durations of 1,4 or 10 seconds) would reveal something about how the system works.

If short-term visual memories fade away—if they are gradually wiped away from the whiteboard—then after longer intervals participants’ accuracy in remembering the colors should still be high, deviating only slightly from the square’s original color. But if these memories are wiped out all at once—if the whiteboard is left untouched until, all at once, scrubbed clean—then participants should make very precise responses (corresponding to instances when the memories are still untouched) and then, after the interval grows too long, very random guesses.

Which is exactly what happened: Zhang & Luck found that participants were either very precise, or they completely guessed; that is, they either remembered the square’s color with great accuracy, or forgot it completely. It was almost as if their memories behaved like files on a computer: Your Microsoft Word documents don’t lose letters over time, and your digital photos don’t yellow; rather, they continue to exist until you move them into the trash—where they are wiped out all at once.

But this, it turns out, is not true of all memories. In a recent , Researchers at MIT and Harvard found that, if a memory can survive long enough to make it into what is called “visual long-term memory,” then it doesn’t have to be wiped out at all. Talia Konkle and colleagues showed participants a stream of three thousand images of different scenes, such as ocean waves, golf courses or amusement parks. Then, participants were shown two hundred pairs of images—an old one they had seen in the first task, and a completely new one—and asked to indicate which was the old one.

Participants were remarkably accurate at spotting differences between the new and old images—96 percent. In other words, despite needing to remember nearly 3,000 images, they still performed almost perfectly.

However, it turns out that they were only this accurate when the new and old images came from different types of scenes (e.g., a golf course and an amusement park). In order to test just how detailed these memories really were, the psychologists also analyzed how participants performed when the images were from the same types of scenes (e.g., two different amusement parks). Since images from the same scene type differ from each other in fewer ways than do images from different scene types, the only way participants would’ve been able to succeed at pointing out differences between these similar images is if they had remembered them with a truly vast amount of detail.

As you might expect, participants were worse at discriminating between same-category images, but not by much, scoring as high as 84 percent. In fact, even when the experimenters increased the number of images that participants initially needed to remember for a given type of scene, participants were still good at distinguishing the old image from the new—with only slight decreases in performance. That said, the fact that memory performance decreased at all shows that, although our memories are very detailed, they are not photographic.

These two separate experiments present a paradox: why are we capable of remembering such a massive number of images with great detail in some instances, and not even a few images after a couple of seconds in others? What determines whether an image is stored in long-term vs. short-term memory?

In a recent , researchers at Harvard and MIT argue that the critical factor is how meaningful the remembered images are—whether the content of the images you see connects to pre-existing knowledge about them. In the Zhang & Luck experiment, you try to remember meaningless, unrelated colors, and so no connection with stored knowledge is made; it’s as if the white board is scrubbed clean before you get a chance to copy the scribbles into your notebook. But in the Konkle et al. experiment, you see images of recognizable scenes that you already have meaningful knowledge about—such as where the roller coaster is likely to be located relative to the ground. This prior knowledge changes how these images are processed, allowing thousands of them to be transferred from the whiteboard of short-term memory into the bank vault of long-term memory, where they are stored with remarkable detail.

Together, these experiments suggest why memories are not eliminated equally— indeed, some don’t seem to be eliminated at all. This might also explain why we’re so hopeless at remembering some things, and yet so awesome at remembering others. ( Scientific American )

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Mystery of the Brown Mountain lights

Mystery of the Brown Mountain lights: Tourists flock to see see eerie phenomenon which have baffled residents for 100 years - Phenomenon has been spotted in the foothills of Brown Mountain in North Carolina

It is a phenomenon that has baffled residents and tourists for more than a century: mysterious lights spotted floating in the foothills of Brown Mountain in North Carolina.

Bobbing and weaving their way through a small area over the Linville Gorge in Burke County, the strange orb-like illuminations appear to float and glow near a modest peak, according to those who have seen them.

Some of the theories about their origin include claims that they reflections from car headlights, brush fires, a paranormal phenomenon - or something entirely natural which science has not yet explained.

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Investigators: Astronomy professor Dan Caton, left, adjusts a web cam as Lee Hawkins, right, looks at an image from the camera on his computer at the Wiseman's View Overlook

Whatever the explanation, the mysterious lights are attracting tourists in their droves, with scores making their way to the area in the hope of witnessing the spectacle for themselves.

Tourism officials are hoping to capitalise on the strange phenomenon, it has been reported. Since the Brown Mountain Lights were the subject of a cable television documentary and sparked online communities of amateur investigators, more and more people have been flocking to the area.

Earlier this month, a seminar held at Morganton City Hall on the Brown Mountain Lights attracted a sell-out crowd of 120 people, who each paid $20 a head. So popular was the seminar, there was even a crowd outside the door hoping to get in.

Ed Phillips, tourism director of Burke County, told the Huffington Post: 'It's a good problem to have. I could have sold 500 tickets.'

Another seminar is in the pipeline, and a contest - with a cash prize for the best photo of video of the lights - has been thrown open for enthusiasts.

T-shirts and fridge magnets featuring the lights have also gone on sale in the area to cash in on the spectacle.

Another event which tourist officials hope will take off is the Brown Mountain Paranormal Expedition.

Strange phenomenon: Glowing lights appear in the foothills of Brown Mountain. Sightings have been reported in the area for at least 100 years

Unexplained: Some of the theories behind the cause of the lights include reflections from cars, brush fires or a paranormal phenomenon

Attendees pay for a special dinner presentation about the lights before embarking on a tour of the sites where the phenomenon has been reported, led by a paranormal investigator.

Sightings of the lights have been reported for at least 100 years.

Steve Woody remembers seeing two orange orbs as he hunted deer with his father more than 50 years ago.

He said the lights passed him and his father before dropping down the side of a gorge, it has been reported.

He told the Huffington Post: 'I didn't feel anything spooky or look around for Martians or anything like that. It was just a unique situation. It's just as vivid now as when I was 12 years old.'

One of the first-known references to the lights in print appeared in 1913 in The Charlotte Observer.

In the sky: Orb-like lights appear to float in the sky above the mountainous landscape

Tourist attraction: Visitors are flocking to the area in the hope of witnessing the spectacle for themselves

The Brown Mountain Lights have been the subject of serious scientific interest since the 1920s.

It was this time the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report in which scientists claimed the phenomenon was the result of reflections from vehicles, trains or brush fires.

However, this might only be part of the explanation, according to Professor Daniel Caton who thinks there is more to it.

Caton, a professor in the physics and astronomy department at Appalachian State University, he had been on the verge of abandoning his research into the lights when he started hearing from people who claimed to have seen them up close - just feet away - instead of for miles across the Linville Gorge.

According to Caton, these later reports sounded like firsthand reports of ball lightning - a natural but little-understood phenomenon involving spheres of luminous lights which appear to bounce about in the air.

Caton is now hoping to catch these balls of light on camera, by setting up cameras at the site that will feed directly to his. This means the footage will be able to be viewed online at any time by anyone. ( dailymail.co.uk )

Now watch the video

READ MORE - Mystery of the Brown Mountain lights

Why 2011 was a bumper year to see Nessie: THREE monster hunters compete for £1,000 prize for Best Sighting

Why 2011 was a bumper year to see Nessie: THREE monster hunters compete for £1,000 prize for Best Sighting - The last recorded sighting was in 2002, when a postman captured video footage of something moving deep in the water.

But sightings were thin on the ground until May last year, when she was caught on camera by holidaymakers and spotted again in June and September.

Now one of the three Loch Ness Monster hunters will win the £1,000 Best Nessie Sighting of the Year prize, unclaimed for a decade.

Peekaboo: William and Joan Jobes, of Ayrshire, were walking along the Abbey footpath in Fort Augustus when they spotted what appeared to be a head bobbing above the water 200 to 300 yards from the shore

In May, holidaymakers William and Joan Jobes spotted what appeared to be a head bobbing above the water 200 to 300 yards from the shore as they walked along the Abbey footpath in Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire.

Mr Jobes, of Ayrshire, managed to take a single picture before the ‘head’ disappeared beneath the surface.

However, to his delight a dark, hump-like shape broke the waves and he was able to take more photographs.

The following month, Jan and Simon Hargreaves spotted a creature while taking a break from the shop and cafe they run in the village of Foyers, by Loch Ness.

The couple said they saw something black with a long neck disappear underwater and then surface again.

It was around for four to five minutes but they did not manage to take a photograph.

In September, fish farm worker Jon Rowe captured a large, dark shape in the water while photographing a rainbow.

The 31-year-old, of Lewiston, Inverness-shire, then spotted two unexplained ‘Nessie-like’ humps appearing from below the surface of the water.

Could this be Nessie? Jon Rowe, a fish farm worker from Lewiston, photographed a large, dark shape in the water while photographing a rainbow

The Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club has classed 89 sightings as ‘good’ since 1996 but the prize has not been awarded since 2002, when it went to Glasgow postal worker Bobbie Pollock.

He captured video footage of something moving in the water while walking with his family in the hills above Invermoriston Bay.

Mr Pollock described the section out of the water as ‘quite tall and narrow like a pole’ and moving slowly towards Fort Augustus against the wind and waves.

Fan club president Gary Campbell said: ‘In the past seven years there have been very few sightings.

‘Nessie, it seems, has been in the wilderness but there were at least three sightings last year – two have been photographed and the third sounds plausible.’

Bookmaker William Hill will announce the winner of the Best Nessie Sighting prize later this year. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Why 2011 was a bumper year to see Nessie: THREE monster hunters compete for £1,000 prize for Best Sighting

Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved

Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved - The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been written, at least in part, by a sectarian group called the Essenes, according to nearly 200 textiles discovered in caves at Qumran, in the West Bank, where the religious texts had been stored.

Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran, and so the new finding could help clear up this long-standing mystery.

The research reveals that all the textiles were made of linen, rather than wool, which was the preferred textile used in ancient Israel. Also they lack decoration, some actually being bleached white, even though fabrics from the period often have vivid colours. Altogether, researchers say these finds suggest that the Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect, "penned" some of the scrolls.

Not everyone agrees with this interpretation. An archaeologist who has excavated at Qumran told LiveScience that the linen could have come from people fleeing the Roman army after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that they are in fact responsible for putting the scrolls into caves.

First excavated by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s, the site of Qumran in Israel is mired in controversy. De Vaux believed that it was a monastic settlement used by the Essenes and that the Dead Sea Scrolls were composed here. More recent archaeological work has cast doubt on this idea. The new textile research may help resolve the debate

Iconic scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of nearly 900 texts, the first batch of which were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They date from before A.D. 70, and some may go back to as early as the third century B.C. The scrolls contain a wide variety of writings including early copies of the Hebrew Bible, along with hymns, calendars and psalms, among other works.

Nearly 200 textiles were found in the same caves, along with a few examples from Qumran, the archaeological site close to the caves where the scrolls were hidden.

Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, compared the white-linen textiles found in the11 caves to examples found elsewhere in ancient Israel, publishing their results in the most recent issue of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.

A breakthrough in studying these remains was made in 2007 when a team of archaeologists was able to ascertain that colorful wool textiles found at a site to the south of Qumran, known as the Christmas Cave, were not related to the inhabitants of the site. This meant that Shamir and Sukenik were able to focus on the 200 textiles found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves and at Qumran itself, knowing that these are the only surviving textiles related to the scrolls.

They discovered that every single one of these textiles was made of linen, even though wool was the most popular fabric at the time in Israel. They also found that most of the textiles would have originally been used as clothing, later being cut apart and re-used for other purposes such as bandages and for packing the scrolls into jars.

Some of the textiles were bleached white and most of them lacked decoration, even though decoration is commonly seen in textiles from other sites in ancient Israel.

According to the researchers the finds suggest that the residents of Qumran dressed simply.

"They wanted to be different than the Roman world," Shamir told LiveScience in a telephone interview. "They were very humble, they didn't want to wear colorful textiles, they wanted to use very simple textiles."

The owners of the clothing likely were not poor, as only one of the textiles had a patch on it."This is very, very, important," Shamir said. "Patching is connected with [the] economic situation of the site."

Shamir pointed out that textiles found at sites where people were under stress, such as at the Cave of Letters, which was used in a revolt against the Romans, were often patched. On the other hand "if the site is in a very good economic situation, if it is a very rich site, the textiles will not be patched," she said. With Qumran, "I think [economically] they were in the middle, but I'm sure they were not poor."

Robert Cargill, a professor at the University of Iowa, has written extensively about Qumran and has developed a virtual model of it. He said that archaeological evidence from the site, including coins and glassware, also suggests the inhabitants were not poor.

"Far from being poor monastics, I think there was wealth at Qumran, at least some form of wealth," Cargill said, arguing that trade was important at the site. "I think they made their own pottery and sold some of it, I think they bred animals and sold them, I think they made honey and sold it."

Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran. Some argue that the scrolls were written at the site itself while others say they were written in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel.

Qumran itself was first excavated by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s. He came to the conclusion that the site was inhabited by a religious sect called the Essenes who wrote the scrolls and stored them in caves. Among the finds he made were water pools, which he believed were used for ritual bathing, and multiple inkwells found in a room that became known as the "scriptorium." Based on his excavations, scholars have estimated the population of the site at as high as 200.

More recent archaeological work, conducted by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, suggests that the site could not have supported more than a few dozen people and had nothing to do with the scrolls themselves. They believe that the scrolls were deposited in the caves by refugees fleeing the Roman army after Jerusalem was conquered in A.D. 70.

Magen and Peleg found that the site came into existence around 100 B.C. as a military outpost used by the Hasmoneans, a Jewish kingdom that flourished in the area. After the Romans took over Judaea in 63 B.C. the site was abandoned and eventually was taken over by civilians who used it for pottery production. They found that the pools de Vaux discovered include a fine layer of potters' clay.

There are other ideas as well. Cargill argues that while Qumran started out as a fort it was later occupied by a sectarian group whose members were deeply concerned with ritual purity. "Whether or not they are the Essenes, that's a different question," he said. This group, much smaller than earlier estimates of 200 people, would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others, he argues.

Other groups, not part of the Qumran community, may also have been putting scrolls into the caves, Cargill said.

Can clothing solve the mystery?

The new clothing research may help to identify the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Shamir told LiveScience that it is unlikely the scrolls were deposited in the caves by Roman refugees. If that were the case, the more-popular textile in ancient Israel, wool, would have been found in the caves along with other garments.

"If people run away from Jerusalem they would take all sorts of textiles with them, not only linen textiles," she said. "The people who ran away to the Cave of Letters, they took wool textiles with them."

Peleg, the archaeologist who co-led the recent archaeological work at Qumran, told LiveScience he disagrees with that assessment. He said he stands by the idea that there is no connection between Qumran and the scrolls stored in the caves.

"We must remember that almost all the textiles were found in the caves andnot at the site. The main question is the connection between the site and the scrolls," Peleg wrote in an email. "I can find alternative explanations for the fact that scrolls were found with linen."

For instance, linen could have been chosen as scroll wrapping for religious reasons or perhaps priests were responsible for storing the scrolls and they wore linen clothing. "The clothes of the priests were made from linen," Peleg wrote.

In their paper, Shamir and Sukenik say that the clothing found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves is similar to historical descriptions of the clothing of the Essenes, suggesting that they in fact lived at Qumran. They point to an ancient Jewish writer, Flavius Josephus, who wrote that the Essenes "make a point of keeping a dry skin and always being dressed in white." (However, Josephus never said anything about the clothing being made of linen, Peleg points out.)

Josephusalso wrote that the Essenes were very frugal when it came to clothing and shared goods with each other.

"In their dress and deportment they resemble children under rigorous discipline. They do not change their garments or shoes until they are torn to shreds or worn threadbare with age. There is no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives what he has to any in need and receives from him in exchange something useful to himself ..."

(Translation from "Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings," Louis Feldman and Meyer Reinhold, 1996.)

In their paper, Shamir and Sukenikalso point to another ancient writer, Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that the Essenes wore a common style of simple dress.

"And not only is their table in common but their clothes also. For in winter they have a stock of stout coats ready and in summer cheap vests, so that he who wishes may easily take any garment he likes, since what one has is held to belong to all and conversely what all have one has."

(Translation from the "Selected Writing of Philo of Alexandria," edited by Hans Lewy, 1965.)

Cargill said that the clothing is further evidence that there was a Jewish sectarian group living at Qumran.

"You do have evidence of a group that raised its own animals, pressed its own date honey, that appears to have worn distinctive clothes and made its own pottery, and followed its own calendar, at least a calendar different from the temple priesthood," he said. "Those are all signs of a sectarian group."

He also noted the presence of mikveh (ritual baths) at the site and the fact that the residents could make pottery that was ritually pure.

This group appears to have wanted to separate itself from the priests based at the temple in Jerusalem. "There is a congruency within many of the sectarian documents that appears to be consistent with a sectarian group that has separated itself from the temple priesthood in Jerusalem," Cargill said.

According to Cargill's theory, the people of Qumran would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others. "Obviously they didn't write all of the scrolls," Cargill said. Dating indicates some of the scrolls were written before Qumran even existed. One unusual scroll, made of copper, may have been deposited after Qumran was abandoned in A.D. 70.

Cargill says it's possible that some of the scrolls may have been put in caves from people outside the community. If that's true, some of the textiles could also be from people outside of Qumran.

"[If] not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are the responsibility of sectarians at Qumran then it would follow that not all of the textiles that are discovered in the caves are [the] product of a sect at Qumran," Cargill said.

Were there women at Qumran?

The new research may alsoshed light on who created the textiles.

The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site.

"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."

She explained that the textiles were likely created at another site in Israel, with women playing a key role in their production. This suggests that there were few women living at Qumran itself. "Weaving is connected with men and women, but spinning was only a production of women, [and] we don't find this item at Qumran." ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved

Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist?

Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist? - Every night, amateur ghost-hunting groups across the country head out into abandoned warehouses, old buildings and cemeteries to look for ghosts. They often bring along electronic equipment that they believe helps them locate ghostly energy.

Despite years of efforts by ghost hunters on TV and in real life, we still do not have good proof that ghosts are real. Many ghost hunters believe that strong support for the existence of ghosts can be found in modern physics. Specifically, that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, offered a scientific basis for the reality of ghosts.

A recent Google search turned up nearly 8 million results suggesting a link between ghosts and Einstein's work covering the conservation of energy. This assertion is repeated by many top experts in the field. For example, ghost researcher John Kachuba, in his book "Ghosthunters" (2007, New Page Books), writes, "Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed. ... So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then, according to Dr. Einstein, be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy? ... Could we call that new creation a ghost?"

This idea shows up — and is presented as evidence for ghosts — on virtually all ghost-themed websites as well. For example, a group called Tri County Paranormal states, "Albert Einstein said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. When we are alive, we have electrical energy in our bodies. ... What happens to the electricity that was in our body, causing our heart to beat and making our breathing possible? There is no easy answer to that."

In fact, the answer is very simple, and not at all mysterious. After a person dies, the energy in his or her body goes where all organisms' energy goes after death: into the environment. When a human dies, the energy stored in his or her body is released in the form of heat, and transferred into the animals that eat us (i.e., wild animals if we are left unburied, or worms and bacteria if we are interred), and the plants that absorb us. If we are cremated, the energy in our bodies is released in the form of heat and light.

When we eat dead plants and animals, we are consuming their energy and converting it for our own use. Food is metabolized when digested, and chemical reactions release the energy the animal needs to live, move, reproduce, etc. That energy does not exist in the form of a glowing, ghostly ball of electromagnetic energy, but rather in the form of heat and chemical energy.

Many ghost hunters say they can detect the electric fields created by ghosts. And while it's true that the metabolic processes of humans and other organisms actually do generate very low-level electrical currents, these are no longer generated once the organism dies. Because the source of the energy stops, the electrical current stops — just as a light bulb turns off when you switch off the electricity running to it.

Most of the "energy" that any dead person leaves behind takes years to re-enter the environment in the form of food; the rest dissipates shortly after death, and is not in a form that can be detected years later with popular ghost-hunting devices like electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors. Ghost hunters who repeat the claim that Einstein's theories provide a sound basis for ghosts reveal less about ghosts than they do about their poor understanding of basic science. Ghosts may indeed exist, but neither Einstein nor his laws of physics suggests that ghosts are real. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist?

Why the World Will End (Again) on Friday

Why the World Will End (Again) on Friday -The world is about to end. Again.

Oct. 21 is the next in a long line of supposed apocalypses, stretching back thousands of years. This time, the prophet of doom is Harold Camping, a radio preacher who received international media attention in May when he predicted that Judgment Day would fall on May 21, followed by months of torment on Earth and an end to everything in autumn.

Judgment Day didn't bring the promised earthquakes and Rapture, but Camping now says May 21 marked a spiritual Judgment Day and that the world will still end "quietly" on Friday. It may seem odd that Camping's faith remains strong, but apocalypse experts say that doomsday prophets have often built their entire lives around their end-of-the-world views, and that worldview is hard to shake. For an elderly preacher like Camping, who suffered a stroke in June, apocalypse beliefs may also reflect his struggle with his own mortality.

"I would not be surprised to discover that Mr. Camping sees this prediction as his life's work, the culmination of decades of intensive Bible study, filtered through the sieve of faith," said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal. "If this is correct, then perhaps he sees in the world a reflection of his self."

The appeal of the end

Doomsday predictions, whether secular or religious, often attract those who feel the world is unsalvageable. Sometimes the world-ending catastrophe is nuclear winter; sometimes it’s the Mayan apocalypse. But religious doomsday groups often draw on mainstream faith, said Stephen Kent, a sociologist at the University of Alberta.

"Almost all apocalyptic beliefs show Christian influence," Kent told LiveScience.

That's because a central tenant of the faith is that Jesus will return — although many mainstream Christians point to the Bible verse Matthew 24:36 to condemn doomsday prophets such as Camping. That verse says that no one knows the day or hour of the end, "not even the angels in heaven."

Those who try to predict when doomsday will occur often focus on the world's sin. Camping, for example, has said that God left all churches in 1988, leaving Satan to rule those institutions. Famous 1800s doomsday prophet William Miller, who predicted that the end would come on Oct. 22, 1844, was "disillusioned with humanity," Kent said.

"He read a considerable amount of history and came to see humans as brutes," Kent said.

With this worldview, the end of the world is a welcome way to wipe Earth clean.

"Despite fire, death and destruction, the god of apocalypticism is a god of order, not chaos," DiTommaso told LiveScience in May. "That's the reassurance."

The personal is the prophetic

An individual's psychology and environment may contribute to the apocalyptic worldview. Followers often live and socialize in small groups where outside opinions aren't heard, DiTommaso said. This "social encapsulation" keeps faith-shaking questions at bay.

Camping and his followers are also operating from a worldview that holds that the Bible and its prophecies cannot be wrong, DiTommaso told LiveScience.

"But human ego doesn't easily admit to error, either," he added. That can lead to creative re-interpretations of the prophecies as believers try to explain what went wrong. After Miller's doomsday prophecy failed in 1844, for example, one group of followers concluded that Oct. 22 had actually been the date when Jesus Christ entered a holy sanctuary in heaven in preparation for returning to Earth.

Miller and Camping may share another characteristic: a fear of death. Camping is 90 and is recovering at home from his stroke, according to the Family Radio website. Miller, Kent said, was "deeply troubled" by death. It's possible Camping feels the same way.

"He insists no person can know who God saves and who God damns, but the implication very clearly is that he is among the saved," Kent said. "With that implication, belief in the Rapture means that Mr. Camping would escape the fate that befalls all human beings, which is death." ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Why the World Will End (Again) on Friday

Russian and US Scientists Gather to Hunt Down Yeti

Russian and US Scientists Gather to Hunt Down Yeti – Scientists from several countries, including Russia and the U.S., will gather in the Kemerova region of Siberia to hunt down the Yeti, after alleged sightings of the legendary creatures increased threefold in the area over the past 20 years.

Scientists from Russia, the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Estonia, Mongolia and China were invited to evaluate evidence of the creatures -- the existence of which has never been proven -- at a conference later this week, according to Russian radio station the Voice of Russia.

Alleged sightings of Yetis in Kemerovo and the neighboring Altai region, about 1,988 miles (3,200 kilometers) east of Moscow, are up three times compared to 20 years ago, with scientists estimating that there is a current population of at least several dozen in the area.

Oct. 21, 2008: A footprint was found in the snow on the Mount Dhaulagiri in northern Nepal by a group of Japanese mountaineers during a 2008 expedition. They claimed it was of the legendary Yeti -- and said it could prove the long-rumored existence of a giant ape living in the Himalayan peaks.

Other evidence of the existence of the creatures -- such as basic twig huts, twisted branches and footprints of up to 35 centimeters (14 inches) -- also has been found in the area.

A group of scientists from the conference will be sent out to search the region's mountains to examine the evidence and try spot a Yeti.

It will be the first expedition of its kind since 1958, when scientists from the Soviet Academy of Sciences scoured Western Siberia trying to catch a Yeti.

Igor Burtsev, who heads the Moscow-based International Center of Hominology, said, "When Homo sapiens started populating the world, it viciously exterminated its closest relative in the hominid family, Homo neanderthalensis. Some of the Neanderthals, however, may have survived to this day in some mountainous wooded habitats that are more or less off limits to their arch foes." ( foxnews.com )

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Siberian Region Claims 'Indisputable Proof' Yeti Exists

Siberian Region Claims 'Indisputable Proof' Yeti Exists – A Russian region in Siberia on Monday confidently proclaimed that its mountains are home to yetis after finding "indisputable proof" of the existence of the hairy beasts in an expedition.

The local administration of the Kemerovo region in the south of Siberia said in a statement on its website that footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti were found on the research trip to its remote mountains.

"During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the 'Snow Man,'" the Kemerovo region administration said in a press-release.

Oct. 21, 2008: A footprint was found in the snow on the Mount Dhaulagiri in northern Nepal by a group of Japanese mountaineers during a 2008 expedition. They claimed it was of the legendary Yeti -- and said it could prove the long-rumored existence of a giant ape living in the Himalayan peaks.

The expedition was organized after Kemerovo's governor invited researchers from the United States, Canada, and several other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference.

"They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analyzed in a special laboratory, it said.

Yetis, or Abominable Snowmen, are hairy ape-like creatures of popular myth, that are generally held to inhabit the Himalayas.

But some believe Russia also holds a population of yetis, which it calls Snow Men, in remote areas of Siberia.

Kemerovo region's Shoria is a sparsely populated territory in Western Siberia that has historically been a territory of coal and metal mining.

The region, the administrative center of Kuznetsk coal basin, has pursued the elusive Yeti for several years as it tries to develop tourism into its mostly industrial economy.

Considering the latest findings, the region may "create a special research center to study the Yeti" in the regional university and "create a journal" dedicated to the science of the Yeti, the administration's statement said. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - Siberian Region Claims 'Indisputable Proof' Yeti Exists