[Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2006

Tue May 9 17:06:12 EDT 2006

The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2006.

Science Over the Edge
A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the News:

*New Prehistoric Reptile Found in Basement - Two scientists examining 
holdings in basement of a museum have discovered a new species of 
prehistoric reptile. The researchers found the remains of a toothless, 
two-legged ancestor of the crocodiles that walked upright, in storage at 
American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The animal had been dug 
up in 1947 or 1948 and was thought to have been a specimen of Coelophysis, a 
small, carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 210 million years ago. A new 
examination by museum curator Mark Norell and graduate student Sterling 
Nesbitt showed that the creature was instead a type of reptile called an 
archosaur. They have named this particular species Effigia okeeffeae. 
Okeeffeae lived at the same time as Coelophysis, but was not a dinosaur. The 
animal is interesting, according to the scientists, because it closely 
resembles a completely unrelated dinosaur called an ostrich dinosaur that 
lived 80 million years later.

*King Tut Killed By Infection - A new study suggests that perhaps King 
Tutankhamun, the mysterious pharaoh whose remains were unearthed in 1922, 
died of an infection to the knee. A CT scan of the mummy has revealed that 
King Tut's kneecap was broken, as well as his left foot, and embalming fluid 
had entered the spaces within the knee indicating the pharaoh was mummified 
when the wounds were still open. Also tiny bits of gold leaf found in the 
wound apparently were driven in there when armor around the knee area was 
struck by something, perhaps a sword. Experts think that, soon after, an 
infection set in, killing the "boy king" at the age of around 19. Scientists 
have long speculated that King Tut was murdered based on X-rays of the mummy 
taken in 1968 showing a fragment of bone inside the skull. The most recent 
examination, though, suggests that this damage was caused by the process of 
mummification.

*NASA Considers a "Gravitational Tractor" - NASA astronauts Edward Lu and 
Stanley Love have come up with a novel way to change the course of an 
asteroid if one threatens earth with a catastrophic collision. The plan 
calls for a special spaceship called a "gravitational tractor" that would 
hover near the asteroid for an extended length of time. Just the small 
gravitational force exerted on the asteroid by the spaceship's presence 
should be enough to pull it into a slightly different orbit, avoiding a 
collision with Earth. To deflect a 700-foot asteroid a 20-ton 
nuclear-powered spacecraft shaped like a pendulum would be needed. "It's 
like changing the angle of a bank shot in pool," Love says. "A little change 
early on has a large effect down the line." Their plan avoids problems 
associated with deflecting asteroids using nuclear missiles or robotic 
impactors that might split the object into several pieces that could still 
strike Earth.

*Historic Papyrus Recovered from Mummy - Scientists have recovered part of a 
lost ancient Greek document on map making and a sketchbook for ancient 
artists from a first- century B.C. mummy's wrappings. The papyrus was found 
in fragments in a shell-like coffin of paper and glue used for mummies. 
Before being turned into mummy wrap, the paper was first used around the 
mid-first century B.C., in Alexandria, Egypt, when a copyist transcribed a 
book by Greek geographer Artemidorus. When the copyist made an error the 
papyrus was ruined and later blank spaces were used as a catalog of drawings 
for mosaics and frescos. The papyrus was eventually sold as pulp paper, and 
was buried with the mummy for some 1,800 years. According to Claudio 
Gallazzi, a professor of Papirology at the University of Milan, the document 
"helps write new pages of Greek literature, cartography and art history. One 
might wonder how a single papyrus can conceal such a big treasure. Well, it 
was used at different times, for different purposes, and by different 
people."

*"Lost World" Found - An international expedition to the Foja Mountains 
western part of the island of New Guinea has found a virtual "lost world" of 
new animal species, giant flowers, and rare mammals. Experts discovered 
species that had never been seen before, including frogs, butterflies, 
plants and the first new bird discovered on the island in more than 60 
years. A spokesman for the expedition said," It's as close to the Garden of 
Eden as you're going to find on Earth." The finds have led scientists to 
conclude that more than 750,000 acres of old-growth tropical forest in the 
Foja Mountains remain virtually untouched by man.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's New at the Museum:

*The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone - Part II: - Jacques-Joseph Champollion 
was working in his office at the Institute of France on September 14 of 1822 
and worrying about his little brother. The younger Champollion, 
Jean-Francios, had been working night and day on his obsession: deciphering 
the strange little drawings, known as hieroglyphics, left by the ancient 
Egyptians. Suddenly the elder Champollion's door burst open and 
Jean-Francios rushed in and in frenzy shouted, "I've done it! I've done it!" 
He started to tell his brother what he had done, but before he got very far 
he fell to the floor as if he were dead... 
 >(http://www.unmuseum.org/rosetta2.htm)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ask the Curator:

*Foggy Notion - Why does a hot liquid poured on cold ground produce steam? - 
Anonymous

First let's note that if the ground is cold, then most likely the air 
directly above is cold also. This is important to our explanation. When warm 
water hits the ground it starts to spread out and some of the warmth is 
transferred to the air immediately above the water. Warm air always holds 
more moisture than cold air, so this promotes the evaporation of the water. 
As the warm water vapor rises, however, it soon gets to a layer of air that 
has not been warmed. As cold air does not hold as much moisture as warm air, 
some of the water vapor is condensed out as a steam or fog. This is the same 
effect you get when warm rain hits the cold ground and ground fog forms. It 
is also similar to the "steam" fog the forms over lakes when cold, dry air 
sweeps over warm water. The rising water vapor hits and layer of air colder 
than the layer it was in and condenses out as fog.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In History:

*19th Century Airship - An article in the Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican for 
March 29, 1880 is the first known reference to a mysterious "airship" in the 
press. Though the end of the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth , 
there would be periodic bursts of reports of airships appearing in the skies 
over the United States. The most famous of these "flaps" started late in 
1896 and ran though the first half of 1897. What were people seeing in the 
skies? They reported blimp-like objects piloted by humans, not 
extraterrestrial craft. Could there been some mysterious inventors exploring 
aviation secretly? It seems an very unlikely, but intriguing possibility. 
For more information check out The Mysterious Airship of 1896 
(http://www.unmuseum.org/airship.htm)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Sky:

*Zodiacal Light - If you can get away from city lights sometime from March 
16th though the end of the month you might have a chance of observing 
Zodiacal Light. It will appear as a luminous cone of light tapering upward 
from the western horizon. It is caused by sunlight reflected off dust 
particles in the inner solar system. The light roughtly follows the plane of 
the Earth's orbit, which this time of year extends from the western horizon 
upward toward the Pleiades and Mars. The end of this month there are 
moonless twlights and with the zodiac is steeply inclined to the horizon you 
have the best chance to see this phenomenon. Look for it just after sunset.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Observed:

*Top Ten List for Extraterrestrials - Margaret Turnbull of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington released a "top 10" list of locations that should 
be searched for extraterrestrial life. These will be the first targets of a 
future space telescope system, NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder, with parts 
scheduled for launch in 2014 and 2020. The list of stars includes only those 
that could have planets with liquid water and stars not so bright that they 
would obscure their planets. Variable stars, with wide temperatures changes 
have been eliminated from the list. Also not on the list are gassy stars 
that could not have created planets like Earth, which contain a lot of 
metal. No stars with massive companions were put on the list as this can 
create unstable conditions on any associated planets. The list currently 
includes 51 Pegasus, 18 Sco in the Scorpio constellation, epsilon Indi A; 
and alpha Centauri B.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Tube:

Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these 
programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations.

*NOVA - The Great Robot Race - High-tech, driverless cars compete in a 
Pentagon-sponsored race across a 130-mile desert course. On the PBS: March 
28 at 8 pm ET/PT

*World's Strangest UFO Stories: The Great Alien Conspiracy - In an age of 
conspiracy, paranoia surrounds almost all facets of life from government to 
royalty, to big business and the media. There's one conspiracy that makes 
all the others seem like child's play; our every day lives are being run by 
aliens. On The Discovery Channel: MAR 02 2006 @ 09:00 PM, MAR 03 2006 @ 
01:00 AM; ET/PT

*Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science - The legend of a North American Ape 
species known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot and Yeti has been around since recorded 
time. Even today, sighting and physical evidence are gathered on a regular 
basis. Is this creature fact or fiction? On The Discovery Channel: MAR 02 
2006 @ 11:00 PM; ET/PT

*The Mystery of the Human Hobbit - It was the most striking scientific 
discovery of last year. An entirely new species of mini-human found on an 
island in Indonesia. Is the hobbit a new species that transforms our view of 
evolution, or is it simply a very small, modern human being? On The 
Discovery Channel: MAR 04 2006 @ 08:00, PM MAR 05 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT.

*Search for the Loch Ness Monster - Steve Leonard leaves no stone unturned 
in his hunt for the elusive prehistoric creature, Nessie. He travels to the 
wetlands of Northern Australia to test the awesome bite of the monster's 
closest living relative - the Australian salt-water crocodile. On The 
Discovery Channel: MAR 09 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 10 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT.

*Inside Area 51 - The mysterious place of secret aircraft, covert military 
bases that don't exist on any maps and strange conspiracy theories. Follow 
the accusations of closed-door alien autopsies and other covert operations. 
On The Discovery Channel: MAR 16 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 17 2006 @ 12:00 AM; 
ET/PT.

*Are Aliens Invading Scotland? - According to Ufologists there are certain 
places around the world where UFOs congregate. The really big question 
though is, why would aliens who've travelled half way across the universe be 
so keen on visiting a small area of Scotland? On The Discovery Channel: MAR 
23 2006 @ 10:00 PM, MAR 24 2006 @ 02:00 AM; ET/PT.

*Rise of the Feathered Dragon - Follow the work of paleontologists in remote 
northwestern China as they search for fossil evidence to the origins of 
modern birds. On The Science Channel: MAR 12 2006 @ 10:00 PM, MAR 13 2006 @ 
01:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 05:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 11:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 
03:00 PM, MAR 19 2006 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT.

*When Dinosaurs Roamed America - Follow dinosaur evolution. State of the art 
computer animation, live-action backgrounds and the latest scientific finds 
show how dinosaurs lived and died in our backyards. Go inside dinosaurs to 
see the latest known about their anatomy and physiology. On the Science 
Channel: MAR 20 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 20 2006 @ 11:00 PM, MAR 21 2006 @ 03:00 
AM, MAR 21 2006 @ 09:00 AM, MAR 21 2006 @ 01:00 PM, MAR 25 2006 @ 04:00 PM; 
ET/PT.

*Ancient Marvels: Cities of the Underworld - Istanbul is undoubtedly one of 
the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world. Once the capital city of 
three of the world's most powerful empires--The Roman, Byzantine, and 
Ottoman--its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to 
rise, fall...and rise again. Today Istanbul's residents are walking on top 
of remnants of these fallen civilizations...literally. Taxis drive over 
parts of Constantine's Lost Great Palace; children play on cobblestone 
streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon; a high school sits on a 3rd 
century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman 
Hippodrome; and basement's of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels 
and secret cisterns. Join host Eric Geller as he leaves the buzz of the city 
streets behind and follows the pull of the past. Teamed with leading 
archeologists and experts, Eric peels back the layers of the past--to reveal 
a hidden history that hasn't seen the light of day for ages. On History 
Channel: March 2 @ 8pm, ET/PT.

*Digging for the Truth: Secrets of the Nasca Lines. - Etched into the driest 
desert in the world, the mysterious lines and figures of Nasca in Southern 
Peru are invisible from the ground. Thought to have been made by the Nasca 
people, who flourished between 200 BC and 600 AD, in fact, these huge 
drawings were not discovered until the 1930s--and only then by commercial 
airline pilots who happened to over-fly them. Ever since, they have 
intrigued the world. Who built them, and why? Host, explorer, and survival 
expert Josh Bernstein takes on the secrets of the Nasca Lines, while flying 
micro-lites and powered para-gliders, clambering through thousand-year old 
irrigation tunnels, and even recreating rituals with contemporary Native 
Americans. On History Channel: March 3 @ 6pm, ET/PT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying 
saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm)