Is this your first time to witness a solar eclipse? If it were many years back then, technology wasn't available to capture so many awesome pictures.
One news story is here. Hope you learn something about the solar system we live in.
Enjoy!
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Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in cloak of darkness
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Myanmar fossil may shed light on evolution
07/02/2009 | 08:53 AM
BANGKOK, Thailand – Fossils recently discovered in Myanmar could prove that the common ancestors of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, rather than Africa, researchers contend in a study released Wednesday.
However, other scientists said that the finding, while significant, won't end the debate over the origin of anthropoids — the primate grouping that includes ancient species as well as modern humans.
The pieces of 38 million-year-old jawbones and teeth found near Bagan in central Myanmar in 2005 show typical characteristics of primates, said Dr. Chris Beard, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and a member of the team that found the fossils.
"When we found it, we knew we had a new type of primate and basically what kind of primate it was," Beard said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh. "It turns out that jaws and teeth are very diagnostic. ... They are almost like fingerprints for fossils like this."
The findings were published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society B, a London-based peer-reviewed journal.
Beard and his team from France, Thailand and Myanmar concluded that the fossils — which they dubbed Ganlea megacanina — came from 10 to 15 individuals of a new species that belonged to an extinct family of Asian anthropoid primates known as Amphipithecidae.
Wear and tear found on the canine teeth suggest the tree-dwelling, monkey-like creatures with long tails used their teeth to crack open tropical fruit to get to the pulp and seeds — behavior similar to modern South American saki monkeys that inhabit the Amazon basin, Beard said.
"Not only does Ganlea look like an anthropoid, but it was acting like an anthropoid 38 million years ago by having this feeding ecology that was quite specialized," Beard said.
His team determined that the fossil was 38 million years old, making it several million years older than any anthropoid found in Africa and the second-oldest discovered in Asia.
In 1994, Beard and his Chinese colleagues found fossilized foot bones of the anthropoid Eosimias — one of the worlds smallest primates — which lived between 40 million and 45 million years ago and roamed ancient rain forest on the eastern coast of China.
Beard said the age of both fossils was the evidence he needed to challenge contentions that anthropoid primates had evolved in Africa, where Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old fossil, was discovered in 1974.
"This new fossil Ganlea definitely helps us argue — and we think the argument is pretty close to settled now — that when you go back this far in time, the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans was definitely in Asia, not in Africa," Beard said.
In May, researchers unveiled a nearly intact skeleton of a 47 million-year-old primate — found in Germany and dubbed "Ida" — that they said provides a glimpse into how our distant ancestors may have looked.
"We wouldn't claim Ganlea is missing link, but we know Ganlea is much more closely related to our ancestors than Ida ever was — even though, unfortunately, we don't have complete skeleton like they did for Ida," he said.
Jorn Hurum, who brought Ida to the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, said that it was too early to draw conclusions from the Myanmar fossils because only jawbones and teeth were found.
"These fragments are still too few and far between," Hurum said. "This is the kind of scientific debate that will continue until more complete skeletons like Ida has been found, and this may take several hundred years."
Stony Brook University Prof. John G. Fleagle, a paleontologist, said the discovery of Ganlea is important because it shows how several different primates found in Myanmar are related and provides interesting suggestions about a unique dietary specialization.
But he said the Myanmar fossils do little to prove whether anthropoids evolved in Asia or Africa — or even whether Ganlea was an anthropoid or an early relative of lemurs.
"This doesn't add anything new about whether anthropoids came from Africa or Asia or the broader evolutionary relationships of these particular primates ," Fleagle said.
"The definitive features that would resolve it in people's mind would be in the skull," he said. "Without a skull to demonstrate the distinctive anthropoid features of the eye and ear regions, scientists will still continue to debate whether the dental similarities just indicate similar diets or are the result of a common heritage."
Beard isn't letting the criticism slow him down. He and his team expect to return in November to Myanmar to continue searching for more fossils and exploring how anthropoids evolved in Asia and then migrated to Africa.
"The question is when and how did this big evolutionary shift occur from Asia to Africa," Beard said. "That is something we are trying to establish. We have a team working in Myanmar which has ideas of places to go in Africa to try and pick up thread there." - AP
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Black, white and loved all over
You won't be able to resist the cuddly stars, stunning scenery
Genevieve Loh
05:55 AM Jun 17, 2009
YOU can never go wrong with pandas. Especially when these deceptively serene-looking endangered Chinese national treasures appear as cute and cuddly-looking as they do (sans sharp teeth and claws).
Scene from Trail of the Panda
Even more so when your film - about a little panda cub who is separated from its mother and subsequently rescued by an orphaned boy after going through a series of hardships and dangers in the forest - is the first full-length feature to receive full support and supervision from Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Reserve in the history of the wildlife preservation.
Throw in the fact these precious stars were provided by China's foremost panda research and preservation centre and bore the brunt of the devastating Sichuan earthquake last year, and this 90-minute gentle heart-warmer will no doubt tug at the tear ducts and milk your every emotion for all its worth.
Scene from Trail of the Panda
Acclaimed Chinese director Yu Zhong gives the audiences a rare opportunity to see the majestic beauty of the area by poignantly capturing the spectacular scenery that has since been destroyed, and brings out a moving (if a tad over-sentimental) relationship between Chinese-Japanese child actor Daichi Harashima and the cub he becomes attached to.
Trail of the Panda will reignite the world's love for pandas, while cleverly providing a platform for the importance of environmental and wild animal preservation.
From TODAY, Plus – Wednesday, 17-Jun-2009; see the source article here.
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Black, white and loved all over
You won't be able to resist the cuddly stars, stunning scenery
Genevieve Loh
05:55 AM Jun 17, 2009
YOU can never go wrong with pandas. Especially when these deceptively serene-looking endangered Chinese national treasures appear as cute and cuddly-looking as they do (sans sharp teeth and claws).
Scene from Trail of the Panda
Even more so when your film - about a little panda cub who is separated from its mother and subsequently rescued by an orphaned boy after going through a series of hardships and dangers in the forest - is the first full-length feature to receive full support and supervision from Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Reserve in the history of the wildlife preservation.
Throw in the fact these precious stars were provided by China's foremost panda research and preservation centre and bore the brunt of the devastating Sichuan earthquake last year, and this 90-minute gentle heart-warmer will no doubt tug at the tear ducts and milk your every emotion for all its worth.
Scene from Trail of the Panda
Acclaimed Chinese director Yu Zhong gives the audiences a rare opportunity to see the majestic beauty of the area by poignantly capturing the spectacular scenery that has since been destroyed, and brings out a moving (if a tad over-sentimental) relationship between Chinese-Japanese child actor Daichi Harashima and the cub he becomes attached to.
Trail of the Panda will reignite the world's love for pandas, while cleverly providing a platform for the importance of environmental and wild animal preservation.
From TODAY, Plus – Wednesday, 17-Jun-2009; see the source article here.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Ancient eruption 'killed off world's sea life'
AFP - Friday, May 29
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.
The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilized rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms -- clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe.
"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe," said Paul Wignall, a professor and palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, who was the lead author of the research paper in the May 29 edition of Science.
The eruption in southwest China unleashed about a half million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales, according to the research by scientists at the British university.
The mass extinction of ocean life came about because of the collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water, which caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions and threw huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.
"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea ... there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," Wignall said.
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
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Ancient eruption 'killed off world's sea life'
AFP - Friday, May 29
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.
The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilized rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms -- clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe.
"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe," said Paul Wignall, a professor and palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, who was the lead author of the research paper in the May 29 edition of Science.
The eruption in southwest China unleashed about a half million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales, according to the research by scientists at the British university.
The mass extinction of ocean life came about because of the collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water, which caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions and threw huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.
"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea ... there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," Wignall said.
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
China to go solar
ENERGY POLICY
BEIJING — China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.
The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has finalised a proposal for billions of dollars of incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels. Once approved, it is expected to give a boost to the domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments.
China is the world's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95 per cent of these are exported. However, the increasing concerns about climate change and energy security have changed attitudes.
Since last year, a glut in supply of PV panels has pushed prices down by more than 30 per cent. To widen China's energy base, the plan is expected to include the biggest boost for solar power ever, along with extra spending and policy support for nuclear, wind and biomass power.
By 2020, the government is committed to raising the share of renewable energy (excluding hydroelectric power) in the mix to 6 per cent, from the current 1.5 per cent.
Mr Julian Wong, a Washington-based energy analyst, said 2009 was shaping up to be the year of solar power in China. "The unique confluence of lower productions costs and decreased overseas demand means the cost of going solar is lower than ever and makes it an opportune time to make a policy push for domestic solar deployment," he noted.
China is still expected to remain dependent on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy needs for at least the next two decades, meaning it will remain the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. The Guardian
From TODAYOnline.com, World News – Thursday, 28-May-2009; see the source article here.
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China to go solar
ENERGY POLICY
BEIJING — China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.
The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has finalised a proposal for billions of dollars of incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels. Once approved, it is expected to give a boost to the domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments.
China is the world's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95 per cent of these are exported. However, the increasing concerns about climate change and energy security have changed attitudes.
Since last year, a glut in supply of PV panels has pushed prices down by more than 30 per cent. To widen China's energy base, the plan is expected to include the biggest boost for solar power ever, along with extra spending and policy support for nuclear, wind and biomass power.
By 2020, the government is committed to raising the share of renewable energy (excluding hydroelectric power) in the mix to 6 per cent, from the current 1.5 per cent.
Mr Julian Wong, a Washington-based energy analyst, said 2009 was shaping up to be the year of solar power in China. "The unique confluence of lower productions costs and decreased overseas demand means the cost of going solar is lower than ever and makes it an opportune time to make a policy push for domestic solar deployment," he noted.
China is still expected to remain dependent on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy needs for at least the next two decades, meaning it will remain the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. The Guardian
From TODAYOnline.com, World News – Thursday, 28-May-2009; see the source article here.
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