EARTHQUAKE HITS SOUTH WEST

FURTHER INFOA earthquake that measured 4.1 magnitude hit parts of the SOUTH WEST on THURSDAY 20/2/2014.It is believed to have started in the BRISTOL CHANNEL at 1.21pm and was felt in DARTMOOR,SOUTH MOLTON,BARNSTAPLE,GLOUCESTER,SWANSEA,LLANELLI.

Master monkey's brain controls sedated 'avatar'

The brain of one monkey has been used to control the movements of another, "avatar", monkey, US scientists report.

Brain scans read the master monkey's mind and were used to electrically stimulate the avatar's spinal cord, resulting in controlled movement.
The team hope the method can be refined to allow paralysed people to regain control of their own body.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, have been described as "a key step forward".
Damage to the spinal cord can stop the flow of information from the brain to the body, leaving people unable to walk or feed themselves.
The researchers are aiming to bridge the damage with machinery.
Match electrical activity The scientists at Harvard Medical School said they could not justify paralysing a monkey. Instead, two were used - a master monkey and a sedated avatar.
The master had a brain chip implanted that could monitor the activity of up to 100 neurons.
During training, the physical actions of the monkey were matched up with the patterns of electrical activity in the neurons.
The avatar had 36 electrodes implanted in the spinal cord and tests were performed to see how stimulating different combinations of electrodes affected movement.READ MORE

Tourism best hope for critically endangered lemurs

Madagascar's lemurs - the world's most threatened primate - could be saved from extinction by eco-tourism, conservationists say.

The big-eyed fluffy creatures are unique to the island but their numbers have declined dramatically in recent years.
Now researchers have unveiled a survival plan that combines tourism with increased conservation efforts.
Writing in Science, the team says the project will cost £4.6m ($7.6m),
There are over 100 species of lemur known to science, the majority of which are at dangerously low levels, largely due to habitat loss from illegal logging.
Madagascar is the only known home of these species as its unique location, split off from the African mainland, has allowed the primates to evolve in near isolation. READ MORE

HARPY EAGLE-FOOTAGE

VIKINGS-10 FACTS

Never  wore helmets with horns on.Excavations of viking sites uncovered tweezers,combs,razors,ear cleaners and thier bathed at least once a week.Viking woman could inherit property,request divorce,reclaim dowry payments thier parents give thier husbands.Used primitive ski,s and skied for fun.Used soap containing lye which bleached hair,beards for fashion and killed lice.Applied dark eyeliner to make eyes look whitier.Filed horizonal lines in thier teeth  and coloured the marks with red resin to look fiecier .Wore baggy trousers down to knee,fastened shut with small clasps.The viking woman loved bling- brooches,dragon-headed pin.Boiled fungus in human uraine which created a substance which smouldered so they could carry a spark to light fires when on the move.

Ancient American's genome mapped

Present-day Native Americans are descended from some of the continent's earliest settlers, a genetic study suggests.

Scientists sequenced the genome of a one-year-old boy who died in what is now Montana about 12,500 years ago.

Some researchers have raised questions about the origins of early Americans, with one theory even proposing a link to Ice Age Europeans.

But the Nature study places the origins of these ancient people in Asia.

The infant was a member of the Clovis people, a widespread, sophisticated Ice Age culture in North America. They appeared in America about 13,000 years ago and hunted mammoth, mastodon and bison.

The boy's remains, uncovered at the Anzick Site in Montana in 1968, were associated with distinctive Clovis stone tools. In fact, it is the only known skeleton directly linked to artefacts from this culture.

But the origins of the Clovis people, and who they are related to today, has been the subject of intense discussion.

Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen, and his colleagues were able to extract DNA from the bones of the Anzick boy and map his genome (the genetic information contained in the nucleus of his cells).

The researchers found that around 80% of today's Native Americans are related to the "clan" from which the boy came.READ MORE

Nazis 'researched use of mosquitoes for war' at Dachau

German scientists at Dachau concentration camp researched the possible use of malaria-infected mosquitoes as weapons during World War Two, a researcher has claimed.

Dr Klaus Reinhardt of Tuebingen University examined the archives of the Entomological Institute at Dachau.

He found that biologists had looked at which mosquitoes might best be able to survive outside their natural habitat.

He speculates that such insects could have been dropped over enemy territory.

Continue reading the main story

Nazi experiments

• According to medical historian Paul Weindling, almost 25,000 victims of Nazi scientific experiments have now been identified.
• Dr Weindling says there were different "phases" to the Nazis' experiments. The first was linked to eugenics and forced sterilisation.
• The second phase coincided with the start of the war. "Doctors began experimenting on patients in psychiatric hospitals," Prof Weindling writes. "Sporadic experiments were made in concentration camps like Sachsenhausen near Berlin, and anthropological observations at Dachau."
• The third phase began in 1942, when the SS and German military took greater control of the experiments. There was a surge in the numbers of experiments, with lethal diseases including malaria and louse-borne typhus administered to thousands of victims.
• During a fourth phase in 1944-45, explains Dr Weindling, "scientists knew the war was lost but they continued their experiments".

• Read one researcher's account of uncovering the Nazis' lost victims

Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, set up the institute at Dachau in 1942.

Disease

The organisation's work was believed to have focused on insect-borne diseases such as typhus, which afflicted the camp inmates.

Dr Reinhardt, writing in the journal Endeavour, has found evidence that the unit's researchers investigated a particular type of mosquito which could live without food and water for four daysREAD MORE