Fault line below Rome set scene for success of city
ANN ARBOR — Rome wasn’t built in a day—but the land that gave the city its economic advantage may have been birthed over a very short period of time, geologically speaking. (more…)
Tag Archives: rome
Why we embrace the ritual of Valentine’s Day: Q&A with a Yale sociologist
Whether you’re a die-hard romantic or a callous cynic, there’s no escaping the millions of couples cozying up this Feb. 14 to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The origins of our only holiday devoted to love are somewhat murky. It is thought to have its beginnings in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated in mid-February. The fertility ritual included animal sacrifice, nude men, women flogged with animal hides, and a matchmaking lottery akin to a 1970s key party. (more…)
NASA Space Assets Detect Ocean inside Saturn Moon
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence Saturn’s moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes.
Researchers theorized the presence of an interior reservoir of water in 2005 when Cassini discovered water vapor and ice spewing from vents near the moon’s south pole. The new data provide the first geophysical measurements of the internal structure of Enceladus, consistent with the existence of a hidden ocean inside the moon. Findings from the gravity measurements are in the Friday, April 4 edition of the journal Science. (more…)
Found: Tiny ancient crustaceans, buried alive with eggs and embryos
Scientists have found 450-million-year-old fossilized crustaceans entombed with their eggs and newly hatched offspring. At least one of the animals is a newly identified species.
The tiny ostracods — arthropods related to shrimps, lobsters, and crabs — were buried by a mudslide in an area of upstate New York, near Rome, at a time when the entire region was deep underwater. In one specimen, both eggs and early embryos are present with the adult female. (more…)
Etch-a-sketch with Superconductors
Reporting in Nature Materials this week, researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome have discovered a technique to ‘draw’ superconducting shapes using an X-ray beam. This ability to create and control tiny superconducting structures has implications for a completely new generation of electronic devices.
Superconductivity is a special state where a material conducts electricity with no resistance, meaning absolutely zero energy is wasted. (more…)