Cape Coral High School
DEAR Reading Initiative 2013
Read, Inquire, and
Discover.
Table of Contents
Article Title
Page Number
The Mystery of Easter Island
1
Archaeologist digs deep to reveal Easter Island Toros
3
Stonehenge
4
How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built
6
Ancient Egypt: The Pyramids at Giza
8
The Rise and Fall of the Mayans
9
What Happened to the Ancient Maya
11
The Star In You
13
Redshift and an Expanding Universe
16
Evidence of the Big Bang Theory
17
Origins of Life: The Panspermia Theory
18
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
20
What is Intelligent Design
22
What are Stem Cells
23
The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over
24
Why Death Isn’t Always Permanent
25
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
29
What Happened to the Aral Sea
32
The Colorado River
32
Abrupt Climate Change
34
Zero Energy Homes in Lakeland Florida
37
Net Zero Energy Buildings Take Hold in U.S.
38
The French Revolution and Bastille Day
41
The French Revolution and Bastille Day (In French)
42
Sunken Spanish Treasure
43
Sunken Spanish Treasure (In Spanish)
44
Spain Claims Sunken Treasure
46
Spain Claims Sunken Treasure (In Spanish)
47
The Mystery of Easter Island
On Easter Day 1722, Dutch explorers landed on Easter Island. A civilization isolated by 4,000km of Pacific
Ocean was about to meet the outside world for the first time in centuries. The strangers were about to find
something very strange themselves - an island dotted with hundreds of huge stone statues and a society that was
not as primitive as they expected. The first meeting was an immense clash of cultures. (Bloody too: the sailors
killed ten natives within minutes of landing.) Where had the Islanders originally come from? Why and how had
they built the figures? Modern science is piecing together the story, but it is far too late for the Easter Islanders
themselves.
They were virtually wiped out by a series of disasters - natural and manmade - that brought a population of 12,000
down to just 111 in a few centuries. The Island's inhabitants today all have Chilean roots, making solving the
mysteries even harder. There is no one to ask about the first people of Easter Island. Although fragmentary
legends have been passed down, only science can hope to explain the rise and fall of this unusual civilization.
From where did they sail?
Genetic science has resolved the first great question: from where did they sail? In the 1950s, the world famous
explorer, Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated that it was possible to cross the open ocean from South America to Easter
Island. Plenty of other scientists felt that the seafaring Polynesian people were more likely to have made such an
awesome journey. Only recently though has DNA evidence provided proof of the first Islanders' origins. Erika
Hagelberg has studied the DNA of skeletons unearthed on Easter Island. They contain a genetic marker, the socalled Polynesian motif, characteristic DNA that categorically shows the link between Polynesia and Easter
Island's first settlers. They came to the Island from the west not the east, a journey which marked the furthest
outpost of Polynesian society. Heyerdahl's hypothesis has been disproved.
Carbon dating of artifacts on Easter Island shows the Polynesians landed around AD700. It seems they lived an
isolated existence for the next thousand years on an island measuring 22x11km, roughly the size of Jersey. The
society flourished with abundant sea life and farming to feed a growing population, estimated at up to 12,000
people. The people's success manifested itself in a way that has become the Island's iconic trademark: hundreds of
immense stone figures - moai.
The statue builders
The moai have intrigued all who have seen them since 1722. None was standing when scientists first arrived,
those upright today have been re-erected. But how did an ostensibly Stone Age society ever make, move and raise
them in the first place? And why?
There are nearly 900 moai on Easter Island, in various stages of construction. Opinions differ widely on how they
were moved and raised (Some think they were walked; others that they were pushed on log rollers.) but no one
disputes the years of effort involved in getting the statues carved and into place. Some stones weighed 80t, twice
the weight of Stonehenge's, and were transported 16km from the quarry.
It was an Easter Islander's local knowledge that helped unlock the reason for their construction. Archaeologist,
Sergio Rapu, matched coral fragments with a traditional name for the moai, 'living face of our ancestors' and
realized that the figures had once had eyes. He believes the statues were overseeing the people, part of a
Polynesian tradition of ancestor worship but on a scale seen nowhere else. Each totem was different to
immortalise a particular chief, halfway between the living and the gods. With their backs to the sea they could
inspire and protect the Islanders.
1
Scarce, violent times
That protection fell apart in the 1600s. The moai were torn down. Legends talk of a time of hardship, terror and
cannibalism. Archaeological evidence includes wooden carvings of emaciated people and the appearance of a new
implement - spear tips. Examination of skeletons from that time confirms the violence that took hold in the
Island's society. He describes the people of the time as, "at war with themselves."
The civil war coincides with changes in the diet. The Island's bird life seems to have disappeared as does evidence
of people eating porpoise and tuna. The wood carvings were made by starving people. A land of plenty had
become desperately short of food. Had the population overexploited natural resources? It seems there is a simpler
answer - the felling of the last tree.
A parable for the world?
John Flenley's studies of pollen from lakebeds shows Easter Island was once covered with palms. Yet the Dutch
in 1722 described an island devoid of trees. The disappearance of tree pollen coincides with the civil war. The
society relied on wood to make canoes. Treeless, their ability to fish for food was limited.
Making moai, too, must have used huge numbers of trees. The statues had been getting more elaborate at that
time, which must have depleted the forests ever more rapidly. Flenley believes Easter Island is an amazing
example of total deforestation, sparked by obsession. The Islanders' cult of ancestor worship cost many of them
their lives. Soil erosion with no trees severely hit farming. And there were no canoes in which to escape. Trapped
in a hell of their own making, the Islanders turned on each other. It was a self-inflicted ecological disaster.
Back from the brink
But if a violent, even cannibalistic, society had emerged in the 1600s, why did the Dutch in 1722 report fields of
yams and healthy, fit people? The key to the recovery lies at a place called Orongo, a cliff between a volcano and
a small offshore islet. There, carvings in the stones from just after the catastrophe show a birdman.
Historical accounts describe a contest between tribes - the challenge, to swim across a mile of sea and climb a
cliff to bring back a bird's egg. Whichever tribe won got first call on the Island's diminishing resources. In place
of warfare there was an orderly distribution of food.
Final assault
The real killer of the original Easter Islanders came across the ocean. After 1722, it became fashionable for
explorers to visit Easter Island, bringing their own diseases. Syphilis appears in the bones of the native people for
the first time. But the final blow came in 1862 when slave traders landed from Peru and took away 1,500 people,
a third of the population. Transported to South America, within one year all but 15 were dead. They were brought
back to their homes. Little did the Islanders know with what they had returned. A smallpox epidemic left only 111
alive by 1877.
Against the guns and germs of the modern world, what chance had the birdmen stood? Jo Anne van Tilburg
regards their story as one of triumph over adversity, a hymn to the human spirit. Others like anthropologist
Charlie Love point to a testing ground for the development of remote societies, one that reached equilibrium at a
bloody end. The mystery of Easter Island is also a story of terrible folly.
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2
Archaeologist digs deep to reveal Easter Island torsos
There’s more to the world-famous heads of Easter Island than meets the eye. Ask archaeologist Jo Anne Van
Tilburg, a research associate at the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and director of its Rock Art Archive,
who has been lecturing and writing about Easter Island’s iconic monolithic statues for years.
As the director of the Easter Island Statue Project — the longest-continuous collaborative artifact inventory ever
conducted on the Polynesian island that belongs to Chile — Van Tilburg has opened a window on one of the
greatest achievements of Pacific prehistory on one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. She and her
team of resident Rapa Nui have spent nine years locating and meticulously documenting the nearly 1,000 statues
on the island, determining their symbolic meaning and function, and conserving them using state-of-the-art
techniques.
After spending four months over the last two years excavating two of the statues and posting the results of their
digs on the project’s website, Van Tilburg was surprised to discover that a large segment of the general public
hadn’t realized that what they knew only as the Easter Island "heads" actually had bodies.
The two "heads" in the quarry where Van Tilburg’s team dug are standing figures with torsos, truncated at the
waist, that have become partially buried by eroded dirt and detritus over centuries.
When Van Tilburg posted photos of the excavated statues on the project’s website about four months ago, the
blogosphere lit up with surprise, generating a mass flurry of emails. Three million hits later, the Easter Island
Statues Project (EISP) website crashed. "I was completely blindsided," said Van Tilburg, who is back in Los
Angeles, but will return to Easter Island in October to continue excavating. "But now I quite understand it,
because most of the photographs that are widely available on the Internet, and certainly in books, deal only with
the very photogenic statues that are located on the slopes of the quarry in which they were carved."
Buried to mid-torso, she said, the statues (which the Rapa Nui call moai, pronounced MO-eye) "do appear to be
heads only. And, indeed, over the years, the statues were usually referred to as the Easter Island heads. But now
people are aware they have bodies. I think that’s fabulous. I love it when good science can be turned into public
information so quickly."
While many of the statues were moved by their creators to ceremonial sites, about half of the statues remain in
and around the quarry, the Rano Raraku volcano crater. Attempts have been made to excavate more than 90 of the
149 statues that are upright and buried to their torsos there. But the EISP’s two excavations are the first in that
location to be methodically done and documented according to archaeological standards, Van Tilburg said. The
excavations, which began in 2009, are funded by the Cotsen Institute, the Archaeological Institute of America and
EISP.
From her studies of these two statues, the archaeologist is convinced that the statues were partially buried
naturally by eroded dirt, not by the Rapa Nui. She found approximately the same amount of dirt that partially
buried the statues also filled the quarries located near where they stood. The excavations also revealed other facts
about these megaton behemoths. While petroglyphs have been seen before on parts of the statues that were above
ground, Van Tilburg’s excavations extended down to the base of the statues and revealed etched petroglyphs on
the backs of the figures. She was especially intrigued by the repetition of crescent shapes that represent
Polynesian canoes, she said.
3
"What we found underneath the base of one of the statues was a signature stone, a basalt rock with an incised
drawing of a crescent, or canoe motif" she said. Van Tilburg believes this was the mark of its carver or the family
group to which the carver belonged. "Over time, it seems, more of these canoes were etched onto the statue in a
constant repetition of identity reasserting who they were. As the community lost a sense of identity over time,
perhaps they wanted to mark these statues as their own," she said.
Between the two statues, the diggers also uncovered evidence of the technology that was used to move the large
statues upright — one of the statues Van Tilburg worked on stood 21 feet (about two stories ) tall.
"We found a round, deep post hole into which the Rapa Nui had inserted a tree trunk," she said. Van Tilburg said
ropes were attached to the tree trunk and to the partially carved statue. "We found a rope guide that was actually
carved into the bedrock near the statue." The Rapa Nui then used the tree trunk to raise the statue upright. Before
the statue was upright, they carved its front. Once it stood erect, they finished the back, Van Tilburg explained.
The excavation team also found about 800 grams of natural red pigment — nearly two pounds — in the burial
hole, along with a human burial. Van Tilburg believes the pigment was used to paint the statues, just as the Rapa
Nui used pigment to paint their bodies for certain ceremonies. The unusually large amount of pigment found
indicates that it might have been used by a priest or chief, perhaps as part of mortuary practice, she said. Human
bones were found throughout the dig, indicating that people buried their dead around the statues.
To protect the statues from water damage, Van Tilburg’s team, which included Monica Bahamondez, director of
Chile’s National Center of Conservation and Restoration, applied a chemical solution to the surface and then
refilled the hole they had dug. Cotsen Research Associate Christian Fischer, working with the UCLA/Getty
Master’s Program on the Conservation of Ethnographic and Archaeological Materials, aided in this effort.
"Conservation is a really important part of what we’re doing," the archaeologist said. She said she hoped that
Rapa Nui young people can be trained and employed to treat the remaining statues standing in the quarry. The
Rapa Nui National Park, the agency in charge of this World Heritage site, and Van Tilburg and her team are
planning together to make that a reality.
"The entire staff that I work with on Easter Island are from Rapa Nui. I’m very proud of that," said Van Tilberg.
________________________________________________________
Stonehenge
Stonehenge's Multiphase Construction
Archaeologists believe England most iconic prehistoric ruin was built in several stages, with the earliest
constructed 5,000 or more years ago. First, Neolithic Britons used primitive tools—possibly made from deer
antlers—to dig a massive circular ditch and bank, or henge, on Salisbury Plain. Deep pits dating back to that era
and located within the circle—known as Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the 17th-century antiquarian who
discovered them—may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars.
Several hundred years later, it is thought, Stonehenge’s builders hoisted an estimated 80 non-indigenous
bluestones, 43 of which remain today, into standing positions and placed them in either a horseshoe or circular
formation. During the third phase of construction, which took place around 2000 B.C., sarsen sandstone slabs
were arranged into an outer crescent or ring; some were assembled into the iconic three-pieced structures called
trilithons that stand tall in the center of Stonehenge. Some 50 sarsen stones are now visible on the site, which may
once have contained many more. Radiocarbon dating suggests that work continued at Stonehenge until roughly
1600 B.C., with the bluestones in particularly being repositioned multiple times.
4
The Megaliths of Stonehenge
Stonehenge’s sarsens, of which the largest weighs more than 40 tons and rises 24 feet, were likely sourced from
quarries 25 miles north of Salisbury Plain and transported with the help of sledges and ropes; they may even have
already been scattered in the immediate vicinity when the monument’s Neolithic architects first broke ground
there. The smaller bluestones, on the other hand, have been traced all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some
200 miles away from Stonehenge. How, then, did prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering
haul these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over such a great distance?
According to one longstanding theory, Stonehenge’s builders fashioned sledges and rollers out of tree trunks to
lug the bluestones from the Preseli Hills. They then transferred the boulders onto rafts and floated them first along
the Welsh coast and then up the River Avon toward Salisbury Plain; alternatively, they may have towed each
stone with a fleet of vessels. More recent hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized
wicker baskets or a combination of ball bearings, long grooved planks and teams of oxen.
As early as the 1970s, geologists have been adding their voices to the debate over how Stonehenge came into
being. Challenging the classic image of industrious Neolithic builders pushing, carting, rolling or hauling the
craggy bluestones from faraway Wales, some scientists have suggested that glaciers, not humans, did most of the
heavy lifting. The globe is dotted with giant rocks known as glacial erratics that were carried over long distances
by moving ice floes. Perhaps Stonehenge’s mammoth slabs were snatched from the Preseli Hills by glaciers
during one of the Ice Ages and deposited a stone’s throw away—at least comparatively—from Salisbury Plain.
Most archaeologists have remained cool toward the glacial theory, however, wondering how the forces of nature
could possibly have delivered the exact number of stones needed to complete the circle.
Who Built Stonehenge?
According to the 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose tale of King Arthur and mythical account of
English history were considered factual well into the Middle Ages, Stonehenge is the handiwork of the wizard
Merlin. In the mid-fifth century, the story goes, hundreds of British nobles were slaughtered by the Saxons and
buried on Salisbury Plain. Hoping to erect a memorial to his fallen subjects, King Aureoles Ambrosias sent an
army to Ireland to retrieve a stone circle known as the Giants’ Ring, which ancient giants had built from magical
African bluestones. The soldiers successfully defeated the Irish but failed to move the stones, so Merlin used his
sorcery to spirit them across the sea and arrange them above the mass grave. Legend has it that Ambrosias and his
brother Uther, King Arthur’s father, are buried there as well.
While many believed Monmouth’s account to be the true story of Stonehenge’s creation for centuries, the
monument’s construction predates Merlin—or, at least, the real-life figures who are said to have inspired him—by
several thousand years. Other early hypotheses attributed its building to the Saxons, Danes, Romans, Greeks or
Egyptians. In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of the
Celtic high priests known as the Druids, a theory widely popularized by the antiquarian William Stukeley, who
had unearthed primitive graves at the site. Even today, people who identify as modern Druids continue to gather
at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. However, in the mid-20th century, radiocarbon dating demonstrated that
Stonehenge stood more than 1,000 years before the Celts inhabited the region, eliminating the ancient Druids
from the running.
Many modern historians and archaeologists now agree that several distinct tribes of people contributed to
Stonehenge, each undertaking a different phase of its construction. Bones, tools and other artifacts found on the
site seem to support this hypothesis. The first stage was achieved by Neolithic agrarians who were likely
indigenous to the British Isles. Later, it is believed, groups with advanced tools and a more communal way of life
left their stamp on the site. Some have suggested that they were immigrants from the European continent, but
many scientists think they were native Britons descended from the original builders.
5
Stonehenge's Function and Significance
If the facts surrounding the architects and construction of Stonehenge remain shadowy at best, the purpose of the
arresting monument is even more of a mystery. While historians agree that it was a place of great importance for
over 1,000 years, we may never know what drew early Britons to Salisbury Plain and inspired them to continue
developing it. There is strong archaeological evidence that Stonehenge was used as a burial site, at least for part of
its long history, but most scholars believe it served other functions as well—either as a ceremonial site, a religious
pilgrimage destination, a final resting place for royalty or a memorial erected to honor and perhaps spiritually
connect with distant ancestors.
In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic stones operated as an
astronomical calendar, with different points corresponding to astrological phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes
and eclipses. While his theory has received quite a bit of attention over the years, critics maintain that
Stonehenge’s builders probably lacked the knowledge necessary to predict such events or that England’s dense
cloud cover would have obscured their view of the skies. More recently, signs of illness and injury in the human
remains unearthed at Stonehenge led a group of British archaeologists to speculate that it was considered a place
of healing, perhaps because bluestones were thought to have curative powers.
Stonehenge Today
One of the most famous and recognizable sites in the world, Stonehenge draws more than 800,000 tourists a year,
many of whom also visit the region’s numerous other Neolithic and Bronze Age marvels. In 1986 Stonehenge
was added to UNESCO’s register of World Heritage sites in a co-listing with Avebury, a Neolithic henge located
17 miles away that is older and larger than its more famous neighbor. Stonehenge has undergone several
restorations over the years, and some of its boulders have been set in concrete to prevent collapse. Meanwhile,
archaeological excavations and development of the surrounding area to facilitate tourism have turned up other
significant sites nearby, including other henges.
________________________________________________________
How Were The Egyptian Pyramids Built?
The Aztecs, Mayans and ancient Egyptians were three very different civilizations with one very large similarity:
pyramids. However, of these three ancient cultures, the Egyptians set the standard for what most people recognize
as classic pyramid design: massive monuments with a square base and four smooth-sided triangular sides, rising
to a point. The Aztecs and Mayans built their pyramids with tiered steps and a flat top.
The ancient Egyptians probably chose that distinctive form for their pharaohs' tombs because of their solar
religion, explained Donald Redford, professor of Classics and ancient Mediterranean studies at Penn State. The
Egyptian sun god Ra, considered the father of all pharaohs, was said to have created himself from a pyramidshaped mound of earth before creating all other gods. The pyramid's shape is thought to have symbolized the sun's
rays.
According to Redford, "The Egyptians began using the pyramid form shortly after 2700 B.C., and the great
heyday of constructing them for royalty extended for about a thousand years, until about 1700 B.C." The first
pyramid was built by King Djoser during Egypt's Third Dynasty. His architect, Imohtep, created a step pyramid
by stacking six mastabas, rectangular buildings of the sort in which earlier kings had been buried. The largest and
most well-known pyramids in Egypt are the Pyramids at Giza, including the Great Pyramid of Giza designed for
Pharaoh Khufu.
6
For centuries, people have theorized how the great pyramids were built. Some have suggested that they must have
been constructed by extraterrestrials, while others believe the Egyptians possessed a technology that has been lost
through the ages.
But the process of building pyramids, while complicated, was not as colossal an undertaking as many of us
believe, Redford says. Estimates suggest that between 20,000 and 30,000 laborers were needed to build the Great
Pyramid at Giza in less than 23 years. By comparison, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris took almost 200 years to
complete.
According to Redford, pharaohs traditionally began building their pyramids as soon as they took the throne. The
pharaoh would first establish a committee composed of an overseer of construction, a chief engineer and an
architect. The pyramids were usually placed on the western side of the Nile because the pharaoh's soul was meant
to join with the sun disc during its descent before continuing with the sun in its eternal round. Added Redford, the
two deciding factors when choosing a building site were its orientation to the western horizon where the sun set
and the proximity to Memphis, the central city of ancient Egypt.
The cores of the pyramids were often composed of local limestone, said Redford. Finer quality limestone
composed the outer layer of the pyramids, giving them a white sheen that could be seen from miles away. The
capstone was usually made of granite, basalt, or another very hard stone and could be plated with gold, silver or
electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, and would also be highly reflective in the bright sun.
Said Redford, the image most people have of slaves being forced to build the pyramids against their will is
incorrect. "The concept of slavery is a very complicated problem in ancient Egypt," he noted, "because the legal
aspects of indentured servitude and slavery were very complicated." The peasants who worked on the pyramids
were given tax breaks and were taken to 'pyramid cities' where they were given shelter, food and clothing, he
noted.
According to Redford, ancient Egyptian quarrying methods -- the processes for cutting and removing stone -- are
still being studied. Scholars have found evidence that copper chisels were using for quarrying sandstone and
limestone, for example, but harder stones such as granite and diorite would have required stronger materials, said
Redford. Dolerite, a hard, black igneous rock, was used in the quarries of Aswan to remove granite.
During excavation, massive dolerite "pounders" were used to pulverize the stone around the edge of the granite
block that needed to be extracted. According to Redford, 60 to 70 men would pound out the stone. At the bottom,
they rammed wooden pegs into slots they had cut, and filled the slots with water. The pegs would expand,
splitting the stone, and the block was then slid down onto a waiting boat.
Teams of oxen or manpower were used to drag the stones on a prepared slipway that was lubricated with oil. Said
Redford, a scene from a 19th century B.C. tomb in Middle Egypt depicts "an alabaster statue 20 feet high pulled
by 173 men on four ropes with a man lubricating the slipway as the pulling went on."
Once the stones were at the construction site, ramps were built to get them into place on the pyramid, said
Redford. These ramps were made of mud brick and coated with chips of plaster to harden the surface. "If they
consistently raised the ramp course by course as the teams dragged their blocks up, they could have gotten them
into place fairly easily," he noted. At least one such ramp still exists, he said.
When answering to skepticism about how such heavy stones could have been moved without machinery, Redford
says, "I usually show the skeptic a picture of 20 of my workers at an archaeological dig site pulling up a two-anda-half ton granite block." He added, "I know it's possible because I was on the ropes too."
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7
Ancient Egypt: The Pyramids at Giza
What was the purpose of the Egyptian pyramids?
The people of ancient Egypt believed that death on Earth was the start of a journey to the next world. The
embalmed body of the king was entombed underneath or within the pyramid to protect it and allow his
transformation and ascension to the afterlife, and a place among the gods. Each of the Giza Pyramids formed part
of a pyramid complex that included an adjoining mortuary temple where rituals for the dead king and for the
Egyptian gods may have been carried out. A causeway ran to a lower temple near the Nile floodplain that acted as
an entrance to the complex. The complex around the Great Pyramid of Khufu also included three minor pyramids
for his queens, pits for funerary boats and numerous mastaba tombs for the royal family and officials.
Unfortunately, pyramids became obvious targets for tomb robbers. The Giza Pyramids were plundered long ago
of bodies and anything entombed with them, despite the almost superhuman efforts of the Egyptians to protect the
remains of their kings.
Marvels of size and precision
The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Khufu (Cheops to the
Greeks) ruled about 2589-2566 BCE when the Old Kingdom of Egypt was nearing a peak of prosperity and
culture. His pyramid is astonishing for both its size and mathematical precision. It is often said that the Great
Pyramid of Khufu contains 2.3 million stone blocks, although some now question this figure. The four sides of the
pyramid are accurately oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. The base is a near perfect square with sides
230 meters long and a difference between them of only a few centimeters. The pyramid was originally encased in
smooth, white limestone that must have gleamed in the harsh Egyptian sun. Unfortunately, this was plundered
long ago to provide building materials for Cairo. This colossal structure was originally 146 meters high until it
lost this outer casing and its capstone.
How were the pyramids built?
It seems likely that the Pyramids of Giza were not built by slaves but by paid laborers motivated by a faith in the
divinity and immortality of their kings. Exactly how the pyramids were built is unclear. It is likely that a sloping
embankment was built up to or around the pyramid. The huge blocks may then have been hauled on sledges with
the aid of rollers, papyrus ropes and levers. Although most stone was quarried locally at Giza, some had to be
transported to the site along the Nile.
Inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu
From an entrance just above the base of the Great Pyramid, a cramped Ascending Passage climbs for 36 meters
up through the solid stone core to a towering Grand Gallery. This climbs another 46 meters to reach the King's
Chamber and an empty sarcophagus in the heart of this colossal pyramid. The enormous weight that bears down
on the King's Chamber is dissipated by a series of ingenious stress-relieving chambers and massive granite beams
built above it.
The sarcophagus in the King's Chamber was fashioned from a single piece of red granite. The stark chamber was
walled by huge blocks of the same stone. We will never know whether Khufu or anyone else was really entombed
here. Despite efforts of the ancient Egyptians to seal the sacred chamber, it was probably violated and robbed
even before the end of the Old Kingdom.
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8
The Rise and Fall of the Mayans
Locating the Maya
The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to
describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike other scattered
indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the
Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas;
and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. This concentration showed that the Maya remained relatively
secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples.
Within that expanse, the Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with distinct environmental and cultural
differences: the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the Peten district of
northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya
highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. Most famously, the Maya of the southern lowland
region reached their peak during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D. 250 to 900), and built the great
stone cities and monuments that have fascinated explorers and scholars of the region.
Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250
The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or
Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and
cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to
expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions. The Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of
the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican peoples, such as the Zapotec,
Totonac, Teotihuacán and Aztec, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits--as well as their
number system and their famous calendar--from the Olmec.
In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building,
city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.
The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greatest cities ever built in the preColumbian Americas. Its size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence proves that the Maya
flourished centuries before the Classic Period.
Cities of Stone: The Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900
The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya
civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque
and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population
may have reached 2,000,000.
Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the
ball games that were ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and
supported by a large population of farmers. Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of "slash-and-burn"
agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and terracing.
The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the
moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who claimed to be
related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods
and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya
culture.
The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with
elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of
Mesoamerica. Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and
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astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of a complex calendar system based on 365 days.
Though early researchers concluded that the Maya were a peaceful society of priests and scribes, later evidence-including a thorough examination of the artwork and inscriptions on their temple walls--showed the less peaceful
side of Maya culture, including the war between rival Mayan city-states and the importance of torture and human
sacrifice to their religious ritual.
Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of
their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known.
Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including
stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments. The Maya also made paper from tree bark and
wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived.
Life in the Rainforest
One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical
rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized
management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This was
the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya
lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an
irrigation system.
By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite
environmentally diverse. Though foreign invaders were disappointed by the region's relative lack of silver and
gold, the Maya took advantage of the area’s many natural resources, including limestone (for construction), the
volcanic rock obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt. The environment also held other treasures for the Maya,
including jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine shells,
which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.
Mysterious Decline of the Maya
From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya
civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by
A.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown,
though scholars have developed several competing theories.
Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it
could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among
competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to
break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power. As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their
complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental
change--like an extremely long, intense period of drought--may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization.
Drought would have hit cities like Tikal--where rainwater was necessary for drinking as well as for crop
irrigation--especially hard.
All three of these factors--overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought--may have
played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya
cities--such as Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Mayapán--continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 9001500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their
great cities buried under a layer of rainforest green.
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What Happened to the Ancient Maya?
The End of the Maya Empire:
In 800 A.D., the Maya Empire consisted of a number of powerful city-states spreading from southern Mexico to
northern Honduras. These cities were home to vast populations and were ruled by a dominant elite who could
command mighty armies and claimed to be descended from the stars and planets themselves. Maya culture was at
its peak: mighty temples were lined up in precision with the night sky, stonecarvings were made to celebrate the
accomplishments of great leaders and long-distance trade was flourishing. Yet a hundred years later, the cities
were in ruins, abandoned and left to the jungle to reclaim. What happened to the Maya?
Classic Maya Culture:
The Classic Era Maya civilization was quite advanced. Powerful city-states vied for supremacy, militarily and
culturally. Close ties with the grand city of Teoithuacán, far to the north, helped Maya civilization reach its peak
around 600-800 A.D. The Maya were keen astronomers, plotting every aspect of the sky and accurately predicting
eclipses and other phenomena. They had a series of overlapping calendars which were quite accurate. They had a
well-developed religion and divine pantheon, some of which is described in the Popol Vuh. In the cities,
stonemasons created stelae, statues which recorded the greatness of their leaders. Trade, particularly for prestige
items like obsidian and jade, flourished. The Maya were well on their way to becoming a powerful empire when
suddenly the civilization collapsed and the mighty cities were abandoned.
The Collapse of Maya Civilization:
The fall of the Maya is one of history’s great mysteries. One of the mightiest civilizations in the ancient Americas
simply fell into ruin in a very short time. Mighty cities like Tikal were abandoned and Maya stonemasons stopped
making temples and stelae. The dates are not in doubt: deciphered glyphs at several sites indicate a thriving
culture in the ninth century A.D., but the record goes eerily silent after the last recorded date on a Maya stela, 904
A.D. There are many theories as to what happened to the Maya, but little consensus among experts.
The Disaster Theory:
Early Maya researchers believed that some catastrophic event may have doomed the Maya. An earthquake,
volcanic eruption or sudden epidemic disease could have destroyed cities and killed or displaced tens of
thousands of people, bringing the Maya civilization crashing down. These theories have been discarded today,
however, largely because of the fact that the decline of the Maya took about 200 years: some cities fell while
others thrived, at least for a while longer. An earthquake, disease or other widespread calamity would have
snuffed out the great Maya cities more or less simultaneously.
The Warfare Theory:
The Maya were once thought to have been a peaceful, pacific culture. This image has been shattered by the
historical record: new discoveries and newly deciphered stonecarvings clearly indicate that the Maya warred
frequently and viciously among themselves. City-states such as Dos Pilas, Tikal, Copán and Quirigua went to war
with one another quite often: Dos Pilas was invaded and destroyed in 760 A.D. Did they war with one another
enough to cause the collapse of their civilization? It’s quite possible: war brings with it economic disaster as well
as collateral damage that could have caused a domino effect in the Maya cities.
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The Famine Theory:
Preclassic Maya (1000 B.C. - 300 A.D.) practiced basic subsistence agriculture: slash-and-burn cultivation on
small family plots. They planted mostly corn, beans and squash. On the coast and lakes there was some basic
fishing as well. As the Maya civilization advanced, the cities grew, their population growing much larger than
could be fed by local production. Improved agricultural techniques such as draining wetlands for planting or
terracing hills picked up some of the slack, and improved trade also helped, but the large population in the cities
must have put great strain on the food production. A famine or other agricultural calamity affecting these basic
crops could certainly have caused the downfall of the ancient Maya.
Civil Strife Theory:
As the populations in the large cities boomed, great strain was placed on the working class to produce food, build
temples, clear rainforest, mine obsidian and jade and do other labor intensive tasks. At the same time, food was
becoming more and more scarce. The idea that a hungry, overworked working class might overthrow the ruling
elite is not too farfetched, especially if warfare between city-states was as endemic as researchers believe.
Environmental Change Theory:
Climate change may also have done in the ancient Maya. As the Maya were dependent on the most basic
agriculture and a handful of crops, supplemented by hunting and fishing, they were extremely vulnerable to
droughts, floods, or any change in the conditions that affected their food supply. Some researchers have identified
some climatic change that occurred around that time: for example, the coastal water levels rose towards the end of
the Classic period. As coastal villages flooded, people would have moved to the large inland cities, placing strain
upon their resources while at the same time losing food from farms and fishing.
So…What Happened to the Ancient Maya?:
Experts in the field simply do not have enough solid information to state with clear-cut certainty how the Maya
civilization ended. The downfall of the ancient Maya was likely caused by some combination of the factors above.
The question seems to be which factors were most important and if they were linked somehow. For example, did
a famine lead to starvation, which in turn led to civil strife and warring upon neighbors?
That doesn't mean that they've giving up trying to find out. Archaeological digs are ongoing at many sites and
new technology is being used to re-examine already excavated sites. For example, recent research, using chemical
analysis of soil samples, indicates that a certain area at the Chunchucmil archaeological site in Yucatan was used
for a food market, as had been long suspected. Mayan glyphs, long a mystery to researchers, have mostly been
deciphered.
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The Star In You
Here's an amazing fact for your next cocktail party: Every single atom in your body—the calcium in your bones,
the carbon in your genes, the iron in your blood, the gold in your filling—was created in a star billions of years
ago. All except atoms of hydrogen and one or two of the next lightest elements. They were formed even earlier,
shortly after the Big Bang began 13.7 billion years ago.
It's true, according to astrophysicists. You and everything around you, every single natural and man-made thing
you can see, every rock, tree, butterfly, and building, comprises atoms that originally arose during the Big Bang
or, for all but the lightest two or three elements, from millions of burning and exploding stars far back in the
history of the universe. You live because stars died; it's that simple.
How is this so? How can you possibly be a walking galaxy of fossil stardust? Well, the story is not a new one, but
it bears retelling, if only because its working out was one of the finest achievements of 20th-century
astrophysics—and because it's so astonishing.
The start of it all
The story begins at the beginning, as in the Big Bang. That is when, astrophysicists say, all the hydrogen in the
universe came into being. Initially it was just protons, and then, as the young universe expanded and cooled, these
became bound to electrons, forming hydrogen atoms. The very hydrogen atoms in the H2O that makes up over
half your body were born then. They didn't come from your parents; they came from the early universe. Did you
have any idea you have atoms in your body that are over 13 billion years old?
If you could separate one hydrogen atom from one molecule of water in your body, shrink down to its atomically
tiny size like the scientists in Fantastic Voyage, then reverse time and follow it back to through its unimaginable
lifetime, you would find yourself in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang. That very hydrogen atom, an atom
now inside you as you read this, has remained unchanged since the beginning of time.
Everything else, every other chemical element, including carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and all the other elements
essential for your life, is thought to have been fabricated in stars.
How? Well, the story is either simple or horrendously complex depending on whether you're a science writer or a
scientist. Here's the simple story:
Table for 118
First, what are we talking about when we talk about an element? A chemical element is a substance that cannot be
broken down or changed into another substance using chemical means. It can be changed using nuclear means,
which is what happens inside stars.
As we learn in high school chemistry—and can remind ourselves with a quick glance at the Periodic Table—
hydrogen, the lightest element, has one proton in its nucleus and thus is given the atomic number 1. Helium has
two protons and so is number 2, and so on all the way up to uranium, which, with 92 protons in its nucleus, is the
heaviest of the "naturally occurring" elements. Remarkably, all life on Earth, all everything we see around us,
consists of various combinations of those 92 elements. There are still heavier elements, ranging from neptunium
(93) all the way up to the unofficially named ununoctium (118), though with the exception of trace amounts of
neptunium and plutonium (94), these are not found naturally on Earth.
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Stars are born
How did—and do, for the process continues today—all the chemical elements first come into existence?
Several hundred million years after the Big Bang, about 13 billion years ago, the hydrogen and helium in the early
universe began coalescing into gas clouds, which, in turn, collapsed into the first stars. Gravity, that not-to-bedenied force, caused these newborn stars to contract, heating their cores to temperatures high enough to ignite
their hydrogen and trigger its fusion into helium.
This is the first link in a chain of thermonuclear reactions that, depending on the size of the star and its fate, bring
about the genesis of all the other chemical elements up to about californium, element 98. (Heavier elements than
that are produced only in particle accelerators, physicists believe.) Imagine starting out in your kitchen with just a
single natural ingredient and, after baking it in your oven, winding up with all other possible natural ingredients.
This is what the universe has done with hydrogen.
The burning of H to He is what our star, the sun, does for a living. In the searing heat of its core—about 27
million °F—the reaction of four hydrogen nuclei fusing to become one helium nucleus happens over and over and
over again, ad infinitum. Every second, the sun converts about 500 million tons of hydrogen into helium. (And for
every helium atom formed, roughly a trillion photons are emitted from the sun's surface. This is why we wear
sunglasses.)
Cooking elements
Our star enables us to live, but at this stage in its own life, it doesn't give us any elements heavier than helium. It's
not massive enough. With stars more massive than ours, and up to about eight times its mass*, gravity is forcible
enough to compress the core sufficiently to trigger nuclear reactions that produce heavier elements, starting with
carbon (element 6) and oxygen (8). In such cores, the heat is high enough, about 180 million °F, to force three
helium nuclei to fuse into a carbon nucleus, or four helium nuclei into an oxygen nucleus, millions of times over.
This will happen in the sun when it becomes a red giant in five billion years.
In very massive stars, those of more than eight solar masses, the force of gravity drives the temperature in the core
up so outlandishly high that it triggers thermonuclear reactions that create elements all the way up to iron (26). At
1,080 million °F, carbon fuses into neon; at 2,700 million °F, oxygen fuses into silicon; and at 7,200 million °F,
silicon fuses into iron.
Iron, alas, marks a major turning point when it comes to fusing ever-heavier elements inside stars. All the way up
to iron, every time a new fusion reaction occurs, some heat is released. With iron, no other rearrangement of
nuclei can generate any more energy. But stars do form elements heavier than iron, including cherished ones like
silver and gold, dangerous ones like radon and uranium, and ones you've never heard of (or could pronounce if
you had) like praseodymium and ytterbium.
Two ways to you
Stars have one of two ways to produce these heavier-than-iron elements—and, not incidentally, to get them and
all the other elements forged in their nuclear furnaces out into space so they can be incorporated into new stars,
planets, and people.
The first way occurs in red giants. These are stars that have burned up all the hydrogen in their centers. When that
happens, the star becomes, as the astrophysicist Craig Wheeler has put it, somewhat schizophrenic: The core loses
energy, contracts, and heats up even as the envelope—the rest of the star outside the core—gains energy, expands,
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and cools (and appears redder). The expansion is quite, well, expansive: When our sun becomes a red giant, it will
grow so large that it will engulf and evaporate the inner planets, including the Earth.
Some red giants last long enough to create elements in their cores heavier than iron through something called the
s-process, for slow. Over a time scale of thousands of years, the s-process can result in the manufacture of
elements all the way up to bismuth (83). These get pulled to the star's surface by convection and sloughed off into
space via the star's stellar wind. Some of that widely dispersed stardust is holding you up right now.
A real blast
Elements heavier than bismuth only arise through the r-process, for rapid. How rapid? Seconds flat. The r-process
is what happens when a star explodes in a supernova. It's easy for us to think of stars as lasting essentially forever,
but the most massive stars survive only a few million years—a cosmic moment, really—and when they go, they
go fast.
What happens? When a red giant gets to the stage of having fused all its lighter elements and is left with an iron
core, the star can no longer retain its equilibrium—heat energy pushing out as gravity pulls in. Gravity suddenly
gains the upper hand, collapsing the core all at once to billions of times the density of the Earth. The star then
blows itself apart in an astronomical cataclysm. For a brief period, it shines as brightly as an entire galaxy and
releases as much energy as our sun will in its 10-billion-year lifetime.
In the first few seconds, protons in the atoms created during the star's life collide with highly energetic neutrons,
fashioning in an instant all the naturally occurring elements heavier than bismuth up to uranium, and even a few
short-lived still-heavier elements such as plutonium and californium. All these blast out into space at millions of
miles an hour, seeding the interstellar medium with the atoms that eventually end up in new stars, new solar
systems, and, in your case, you.
The birth of you
Over time, molecular clouds of gas and dust out in deep space develop from those strewn elements and begin to
contract under their own gravity. Such clouds are almost all hydrogen and helium, but they've got a scatter of
heavier elements, too. And the most abundant elements begin to assemble into molecules, simple ones like water
(H2O) and more complex ones like the sugar glycoaldehyde (C2H4O2). Astronomers can identify these
compounds, and individual elements, using spectrometers.
Eventually, a kind of raw-clay star called a proto-star forms, with a disk of material surrounding it that will
eventually beget planets. That process happened in our own solar system about five billion years ago, resulting in
the sun, the planets, and, five billion years later, you.
Just how those atoms and molecules that ended up on our planet went from non-living to living remains one of the
great unanswered questions in science. But where the elements came from to start with has now been worked out,
in broad strokes anyway, to astrophysicists' widespread satisfaction. It is an amazing story, isn't it?
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15
Redshift and an Expanding Universe
Throughout our universe, light is bursting from stars, bouncing off planets, diving into black holes, wandering
into nebulae, and generally going every which way. Meanwhile, a little bit of it actually shows up here on earth.
The light that does arrive here all seems to bear the same message: the universe is expanding.
How can light from the night sky tell us that the universe is growing in size? The main clue comes from
something called redshift.
Redshift is light's version of a phenomenon we experience all the time with sound. Have you ever noticed how the
pitch of a police siren seems to drop suddenly as the car zooms by you? As the siren approaches you, the waves of
sound are squeezed together, and you hear them as being higher-pitched. After the car passes by, sound waves
from the receding siren are stretched apart. You hear these stretched waves as being lowerpitched.
This apparent change in the pitch (or frequency) of sound is called Doppler shift. Light from
distant stars and galaxies can be shifted in much the same way.
Like sound, light is a wave that can be described in terms of its frequency, the number of wave peaks that pass by
each second. Just like a cosmic police car, a star zooming toward you has its light waves squeezed together. You
see these light waves as having a higher frequency than normal. Since blue is at the high-frequency end of the
visible spectrum, we say the light from an approaching star is shifted toward blue, or blueshifted.
Likewise, if a star is zooming away from you, any light it emits gets stretched. You see these stretched-out light
waves as having a lower frequency. Since red is at the low-frequency end of the visible spectrum, we say that
light from a receding star is shifted toward red, or redshifted.
The amount of the shift depends on the speed of the star, relative to you. For a moving object to create an
appreciable redshift or blueshift requires some pretty serious speeds. To get just a 1% change in the frequency of
light, a star has to be moving 1,864 miles per second. For a blue lightbulb to look red, it would have to be flying
away from you at 3/4 of the speed of light.
Studying light from galaxies throughout our universe, astronomers have noticed something surprising: almost all
of it is redshifted. In fact, not only is it redshifted, galaxies that are farther away are more redshifted than closer
ones. So it seems that not only are all the galaxies in the universe moving away from us, the farther ones are
moving away from us the fastest.
On first glance, this seems to put us at ground zero of a major cosmological exodus. However, we aren't really at
the center of the expansion. In an expanding universe, anyone standing anywhere in the universe would see
everything as moving away, or redshifted.
What puzzles astronomers most now is not that the universe is expanding, but that the rate of this expansion
seems to be increasing. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers hope to be able to figure out
the likely fate of our universe: Will it expand forever, or will the expansion reverse and cause the universe to
collapse back into another Big Bang?
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Evidence of the Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory
Billions of years ago - more than 14 billion years - there was nothing: no matter, no energy, no space. Scientists
needed a way to explain how everything began, where it came from, what happened. Although there are several
different theories about the origins of the universe, the Big Bang theory is the prevalent one because no other
model is as good at explaining everything in the universe. The Big Bang theory isn't perfect, but it's the best
we've got.
Scientists believe our universe comes from a singularity. Scientists don't actually know where this singularity
came from or exactly what it is, but they do know that a singularity is an infinitely small, hot area of infinite
pressure and density. These singularities defy our known laws of physics because they didn't appear in space.
Rather, space began inside them. Before the singularity, nothing existed. There was no space, no time, no
matter, no energy.
One of the misconceptions about the Big Bang is that it was an explosion, like with fire and sound and, well,
kind of like a bomb. It wasn't. Instead, it was probably more like a balloon being blown up - a really tiny
balloon. A balloon starts small and expands outward at roughly the same speed all around. Our universe is that
balloon.
When scientists first propose a hypothesis to explain a phenomenon, they expect to find certain evidence to
support it and turn their hypothesis into a theory. There are several main pieces of evidence that support the Big
Bang theory. One is the fact that the universe is expanding, proven with something called red shift. The second
is something called cosmic microwave background radiation. The third is the abundance of different elements in
the universe.
Universe Expansion and Red shift
The evidence that the universe is expanding comes with something called the red shift of light. Light travels to
Earth from other galaxies. As the light from that galaxy gets closer to Earth, the distance between Earth and the
galaxy increases, which causes the wavelength of that light to get longer.
This is similar to the Doppler effect of sound waves, which also happens with light waves. I'm sure you've heard
it for yourself in real life: as an ambulance approaches you, the siren pitch seems to increase, and as it moves
away from you, the siren pitch decreases. This is due to how the sound waves increase or decrease depending on
the movement of the object emitting the waves relative to the person hearing them. As the ambulance
approaches you, the sound waves get closer together and shorter, which results in a higher pitch. As the
ambulance moves away from you, the sound waves stretch out and get longer, which results in a lower pitch. If
everything in the universe is moving apart from everything else, then those light waves should move further
apart and get longer. Longer wavelengths of visible light are red, and that is why it is called the red shift.
This red shift of light gives scientists information on the speed and direction that a star is moving. This in turn
tells scientists that stars are not only moving away from us, but they are also moving away from each other.
In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble used the 100-inch Hooker telescope in Southern California to study the Andromeda
Galaxy. He took pictures of faint galaxies and studied them. Eventually, he was able to calculate the velocity for
the galaxy and show that everything is moving away from everything else and thus expanding. If that's true, then
scientists figured that the universe was previously much smaller than it is now. All of this evidence was the first
observational support for the Big Bang theory that Georges Lemaitre first proposed in 1927.
If the universe is currently growing, then the universe was smaller in the past. There must have been some point
in time when the universe was half its current size. Then there must have been a time when it was half that size.
Think about this: if the universe has grown to currently be a size 1, sometime in the past it was a size 1/2, and
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before that 1/4, and before that 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, etc. If you keep doing the fractions, you will get down to an
infinitesimally small size and, eventually, nothing. (Yes, I know you can't really get down to nothing, but as I
mentioned, the singularity from which the universe comes defies the laws of physics.)
Cosmic Background Radiation
The next piece of evidence that supports the Big Bang theory is the finding of cosmic microwave background
radiation (CMB). With a normal telescope, all you can see in between stars is darkness, but if you have a very
sensitive radio telescope, you can see more. Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is the faint
background radiation that astronomers pick up with sensitive radio telescopes.
When the universe was first born, it was foggy, not clear the way it is now. The fog was from the hot hydrogen
plasma that formed after the Big Bang. As the universe expanded, it cooled, stable atoms formed, and the fog
dissipated. The CMB is the remnant from that initial fog. It is the afterglow scientists expected to find if the Big
Bang started the universe, and they did find this evidence to support their theory.
This background radiation was discovered by accident. In 1965, two astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert
Wilson, were trying to detect microwaves from outer space for a different project. What they detected instead
was background radiation that scientists now believe is left over from the beginning of the universe.
Elements in the Universe
The last major finding that supports the Big Bang theory is the abundance of elements in the universe. The
elements in the universe were created in one of two ways. The lighter elements, such as helium and hydrogen,
were produced in the first few moments of the Big Bang. The heavier elements, such as iron, silicon, and
magnesium, formed in the interiors of stars much later on in the universe's timeline. If the Big Bang theory is
true, then scientists expected from their calculations to find certain amounts of each heavy element in the
universe. Observations have shown almost exactly the amounts that are predicted, which supports the theory.
Lesson Summary
The Big Bang theory has many pieces of supporting evidence, but there are three main ones. The evidence that
the universe is expanding is shown with the red shift of light, the finding of cosmic background radiation that is
left over from the initial heat of the Big Bang, and the amount and types of elements in the universe that are
almost exactly the amounts predicted by the theory. Three main pieces of evidence for the Big Bang theory are
the red shift of light, cosmic background radiation, and types of elements.
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Origins of Life: The Panspermia Theory
How life originated on earth is a question that people have pondered for ages. Theories abound, from those based
on religious doctrine, to the purely scientific, to others that border on science fiction. One possibility that hovers
on this border is the panspermia theory, which suggests that life on Earth did not originate on our planet, but was
transported here from somewhere else in the universe. While this idea may seem straight out of a science fiction
novel, some evidence suggests that an extraterrestrial origin of life may not be such a far out idea.
One argument that supports the panspermia theory is the emergence of life soon after the heavy bombardment
period of earth, between 4 and 3.8 billion years ago. During this period, researchers believe the Earth endured an
extended and very powerful series of meteor showers. However, the earliest evidence for life on Earth suggests it
was present some 3.83 billion years ago, overlapping with this bombardment phase. These observations suggest
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that living things during this period would have faced extinction, contributing to the idea that life did not originate
on Earth.
However, in order for life to originate elsewhere in the universe, there would have to be an environment on
another planet capable of supporting it. Our study of the universe suggests that life as we know it would have a
hard time surviving outside of the Earth. But, it is important to note that life on Earth can withstand many extreme
conditions. Some bacteria grow at temperatures as high as 113°C. At the other end, microbes can thrive at
temperatures as low as -18°C; many can be preserved in liquid nitrogen at -196°C. They can also tolerate high
doses of ionizing and UV radiation, extreme pressure, etc. These observations suggest that it is difficult to define
the conditions that favor life, and make it harder for us to predict that life is unique to Earth.
The presence of water elsewhere in the universe reinforces this. Mars is believed to have contained water in the
past. Much excitement for the presence of life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has been fueled by speculations
that it may have underground oceans. However, while water is essential for life that we are familiar with, its
presence does not necessarily indicate the presence of life.
The fact that organic matter is relatively common in space could also support the idea of extraterrestrial life.
Organic matter refers to matter composed of compounds that contain carbon. All living things on Earth are
carbon-based. A variety of organic compounds have been detected in meteorites that have landed on earth,
including amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins (and proteins are primary components all of
living cells). The presence of carbon-based matter in meteorites supports the possibility that life on our planet
could have come from outer space. But, even though life on earth is composed of organic matter, organic matter
itself is not considered life.
Even if extraterrestrial life did exist, proponents of the panspermia theory must still determine how life arrived on
Earth. The best candidates to act as “seeds of life” are bacterial spores, which allow bacteria to remain in a
dormant state in the absence of nutrients. Bacteria constitute about one-third of Earth’s biomass and are
characterized by their ability to survive under extreme conditions—those that we initially believed were unable to
support life. In light of panspermia, the important question is if bacteria or bacterial spores could survive in space.
To address this question, scientists at the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne designed experiments using the
Russian FOTON satellite. They mixed bacterial spores with particles of clay, red sandstone, Martian meteorite or
simulated Martian soil to make small lumps a centimeter across. The lumps were then exposed via the satellite to
outer space. After two weeks of exposure, researchers found that nearly all of the bacterial spores mixed with red
sandstone were able to survive. Another study showed that bacterial spores could survive the extreme conditions
of outer space for six years if they were protected from extraterrestrial solar UV radiation. This would be possible
if the spores traveled within comets or meteorites.
However, interplanetary distances are large, so the time a bacterial spore would have to spend in a meteorite or
comet before hitting a host planet could range in the millions of years. Two studies involving the isolation of
bacterial spores, either from the abdomen of extinct bees preserved in amber or from a brine inclusion in an old
salt crystal from the Permian Salado formation, suggest that bacterial spores can remain viable for up to 250
million years. Thus, bacterial spores could potentially account for life on earth.
But are there bacterial spores floating through space? One study focused on the heat radiation emitted from
Halley’s Comet's dust particles as the comet approached the sun. The particles' radiation fingerprint corresponded
surprisingly well to that of bacteria heated to elevated temperatures – no material other than bacteria matched the
observed spectrum. As comets are known to have collided with Earth at different points in the past, this
observation presents an interesting argument for panspermia. While this study does not provide conclusive
evidence for presence of life in outer space, it does raise the possibility that our galaxy may be littered with
bacterial spores.
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An important thing to note about the panspermia hypothesis is that it gives no explanation for how life that arrived
on Earth came to be. Even if we are able to show that life on Earth was a result of panspermia, the question of
where and how life originated will be a lot harder to answer. So far our knowledge of the solar system suggests
that life is unique to Earth, but, as science and technology advance, we will have to modify ideas that we currently
regard as facts. It remains to be seen if the questions regarding the origin of life on Earth and the origin of life in
the universe have the same answer.
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
More than 150 years after Charles Darwin published his theory, evolution remains controversial. Some politicians
and religious leaders denounce it and would invoke a higher being as a designer to explain the complex world of
living things, especially such specimens as humans.
School boards debate whether the theory of evolution should be taught alongside other ideas, such as intelligent
design or creationism.
Mainstream scientists see no controversy. Evolution is well supported by many examples of changes in various
species leading to the diversity of life seen today. So just what is evolution, and how does it work?
Chapter 1
In the first edition of "The Origin of Species" in 1859, Charles Darwin speculated about how natural selection
could cause a land mammal to turn into a whale. As a hypothetical example, Darwin used North American black
bears, which were known to catch insects by swimming in the water with their mouths open:
"I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and
habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale," he speculated.
The idea didn't go over very well with the public. Darwin was so embarrassed by the ridicule he received that the
swimming-bear passage was removed from later editions of the book. Scientists now know that Darwin had the
right idea but the wrong animal: instead of looking at bears, he should have instead been looking at cows and
hippopotamuses.
The story of the origin of whales is one of evolution's most fascinating tales and one of the best examples
scientists have of natural selection.
Natural selection
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science,
supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and
developmental biology.
To understand the origin of whales, it's necessary to have a basic understanding of how natural selection works: It
is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral
traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more
offspring.
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Natural selection can change a species in small ways, causing a population to change color or size over the course
of several generations. This is called "microevolution."
But natural selection is also capable of much more. Given enough time and enough accumulated changes, natural
selection can create entirely new species. It can turn dinosaurs into birds, apes into humans and amphibious
mammals into whales.
Mutations
The physical and behavioral changes that make natural selection possible happen at the level of DNA and genes.
Such changes are called "mutations." Mutations can be caused by chemical or radiation damage or errors in DNA
replication. Mutations can even be deliberately induced in order to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
Most times, mutations are either harmful or neutral but in rare instances, a mutation might prove beneficial to the
organism. If so, it will become more prevalent in the next generation and spread throughout the population.
In this way, natural selection guides the evolutionary process, preserving and adding up the beneficial mutations
and rejecting the bad ones.
How whales took to water
Using evolution as their guide and knowing how natural selection works, biologists knew that the transition of
early whales from land to water occurred in a series of predictable steps. The evolution of the blowhole, for
example, might have happened in the following way:
Random mutations resulted in at least one whale having its nostrils placed farther back on its head. Those animals
with this adaptation would have been better suited to a marine lifestyle, since they would not have had to
completely surface to breathe. Such animals would have been more successful and had more offspring. In later
generations, more mutations occurred, moving the nose farther back on the head.
Other body parts of early whales also changed. Front legs became flippers. Back legs disappeared. Their bodies
became more streamlined and they developed tail flukes to better propel themselves through water.
Smoking gun
Even though scientists could predict what early whales should look like, they lacked the fossil evidence to back
up their claim. Creationists took this absence as proof that evolution didn't occur. They mocked the idea that there
could have ever been such a thing as a walking whale. But since the early 1990s, that's exactly what scientists
have been finding.
The smoking gun came in 1994, when paleontologists found the fossilized remains of Ambulocetus natans, an
animal whose name literally means "swimming-walking whale." Its forelimbs had fingers and small hooves but its
hind feet were enormous given its size. It was clearly adapted for swimming but it was also capable of moving
clumsily on land, much like a seal.
When it swam, the ancient creature moved like an otter, pushing back with its hind feet and undulating its spine
and tail.
Modern whales propel themselves through the water with powerful beats of their horizontal tail flukes but
Ambulocetus still had a whip-like tail and had to use its legs to provide most of the propulsive force needed to
move through water.
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What is Intelligent Design?
What is intelligent design (ID)?
Intelligent design is the theory that living things show signs of having been designed. ID supporters argue that
living creatures and their biological systems are too complex to be accounted for by the Darwinian theory of
evolution, and that a designer or a higher intelligence may be responsible for their complexity.
What do ID proponents believe about evolution?
Many ID proponents do not quarrel with most of Darwin's original claims about evolution. They do, however,
believe that random genetic mutation and natural selection cannot account for certain biological phenomena, such
as the human eye or the body's blood clotting mechanism. ID supporters argue that for these systems to arise via a
gradual series of mutations is statistically impossible, which implies that a designer may have guided the process.
Is creationism the same thing as intelligent design?
No, although many critics of Intelligent Design conflate the two.
Creationism usually refers to the theory or belief that God created the universe and human beings in six days as
recorded in the Bible's first book, Genesis.
In the United States today, some creationists--called Young Earth Creationists--accept the Genesis account
literally and believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old, basing their calculations on the genealogies in the
Hebrew scriptures. Young Earth creationists believe God created humans directly; humans did not evolve from
other species.
Others, seeking to reconcile the Bible with modern science, believe that each Genesis day may have represented
several billion years. (Gerald Schroeder, a physicist and Orthodox Jewish scholar, has calculated what the time
spans may be.)
Intelligent design does not posit that the universe was created in six days; it does not contradict the commonlyheld scientific view that the universe has been in existence for about 14 billion years. ID also does not challenge
the idea that humans developed over time as a result of evolution.
However, critics of intelligent design have called it "creationism in a lab coat," saying that to point to an
intelligent designer as the cause of certain biological systems is to abandon scientific inquiry. They argue that,
over the decades, science has frequently closed "gaps" and explained previously inexplicable phenomena.
What are the origins of intelligent design theory?
The argument from design, as it has been known for hundreds of years, was expounded most famously by
William Paley, a 19th century British theologian. Using the analogy of the watchmaker, Paley argued that just as
we infer a watchmaker from the complex workings of a pocket watch, we must infer a creator of the universe
from the complex systems of the natural order.
Today's advocates of intelligent design maintain that while Paley's perspective was rooted in the idea of a
benevolent Christian God, theirs is the outgrowth of scientific discovery, which has left some profound and
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fundamental phenomena, such as cell structure, unexplained. But the overwhelming majority of intelligent design
advocates are Christians, and virtually all are theists.
Some critics equate intelligent design theory with the so-called "God of the gaps" fallacy—resorting to a divine
intelligence to explain the existence of natural phenomena for which we have no scientific explanation. But
proponents of intelligent design respond by arguing that their perspective is based upon the latest scientific
inquiry into the complexity of the natural order and recognition that evolutionary and other more recent scientific
theory is inadequate to explain many biological and physical phenomena.
________________________________________________________
What are stem cells?
Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important?
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life
and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without
limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell
has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such
as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types by two important characteristics. First, they are unspecialized
cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second,
under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific
cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to
repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs, however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem
cells only divide under special conditions.
Until recently, scientists primarily worked with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans: embryonic
stem cells and non-embryonic "somatic" or "adult" stem cells. The functions and characteristics of these cells will
be explained in this document. Scientists discovered ways to derive embryonic stem cells from early mouse
embryos nearly 30 years ago, in 1981. The detailed study of the biology of mouse stem cells led to the discovery,
in 1998, of a method to derive stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in the laboratory. These cells
are called human embryonic stem cells. The embryos used in these studies were created for reproductive purposes
through in vitro fertilization procedures. When they were no longer needed for that purpose, they were donated
for research with the informed consent of the donor. In 2006, researchers made another breakthrough by
identifying conditions that would allow some specialized adult cells to be "reprogrammed" genetically to assume
a stem cell-like state. This new type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), will be discussed
in a later section of this document.
Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old embryo, called a blastocyst,
the inner cells give rise to the entire body of the organism, including all of the many specialized cell types and
organs such as the heart, lung, skin, sperm, eggs and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow,
muscle, and brain, discrete populations of adult stem cells generate replacements for cells that are lost through
normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.
Given their unique regenerative abilities, stem cells offer new potentials for treating diseases such as diabetes, and
heart disease. However, much work remains to be done in the laboratory and the clinic to understand how to use
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these cells for cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is also referred to as regenerative or reparative
medicine.
Laboratory studies of stem cells enable scientists to learn about the cells’ essential properties and what makes
them different from specialized cell types. Scientists are already using stem cells in the laboratory to screen new
drugs and to develop model systems to study normal growth and identify the causes of birth defects.
Research on stem cells continues to advance knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and
how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating
areas of contemporary biology, but, as with many expanding fields of scientific inquiry, research on stem cells
raises scientific questions as rapidly as it generates new discoveries.
________________________________________________________
The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over?
Stem cell therapies are not new. Doctors have been performing bone marrow stem cell transplants for decades.
But when scientists learned how to remove stem cells from human embryos in 1998, both excitement and
controversy ensued.
The excitement was due to the huge potential these cells have in curing human disease. The controversy centered
on the moral implications of destroying human embryos. Political leaders began to debate over how to regulate
and fund research involving human embryonic stem (hES) cells.
New breakthroughs may soon bring this debate to an end. Scientists have learned how to stimulate a patient's own
cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. These so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are reducing the
need for human embryos in research and opening up exciting new possibilities for stem cell therapies.
Until recently, the only way to get pluripotent stem cells for research was to remove the inner cell mass of an
embryo and put it in a dish. The thought of destroying a human embryo can be unsettling, even if it is only five
days old.
Stem cell research thus raised difficult questions:
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Does life begin at fertilization, in the womb, or at birth?
Is a human embryo equivalent to a human child?
Does a human embryo have any rights?
Might the destruction of a single embryo be justified if it provides a cure for a countless number of
patients?
Since ES cells can grow indefinitely in a dish and can, in theory, still grow into a human being, is the
embryo really destroyed?
With iPS cells now available as an alternative to hES cells, the debate over stem cell research is becoming
increasingly irrelevant. But ethical questions regarding hES cells may not entirely go away.
Inevitably, some human embryos will still be needed for research. iPS cells are not exactly the same as hES cells,
and hES cells still provide important controls: they are a gold standard against which the "stemness" of iPS cells
is measured.
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Some experts believe it's wise to continue the study of all stem cell types, since we're not sure yet which one will
be the most useful for cell replacement therapies.
An additional ethical consideration is that iPS cells have the potential to develop into a human embryo, in effect
producing a clone of the donor. Many nations are already prepared for this, having legislation in place that bans
human cloning.
Governments around the globe have passed legislation to regulate stem cell research. In the United States, laws
prohibit the creation of embryos for research purposes. Scientists instead receive "leftover" embryos from fertility
clinics with consent from donors. Most people agree that these guidelines are appropriate.
Disagreements surface, however, when political parties debate about how to fund stem cell research. The federal
government allocates billions of dollars each year to biomedical research. But should taxpayer dollars be used to
fund embryo and stem cell research when some believe it to be unethical? Legislators have had the unique
challenge of encouraging advances in science and medicine while preserving a respect for life.
U.S. President Bush, for example, limited federal funding to a study of 70 or so hES cell lines back in 2001.
While this did slow the destruction of human embryos, many believe the restrictions set back the progress of stem
cell research.
President Obama overturned Bush's stem cell policy in 2009 to expand the number of stem cell lines available to
researchers. Policy-makers are now grappling with a new question: Should the laws that govern iPS cells differ
from those for hES cells? If so, what new legislation is needed?
________________________________________________________
Why Death Isn’t Always Permanent
Sam Parnia practices resuscitation medicine. In other words, he helps bring people back from the dead — and
some return with stories. Their tales could help save lives, and even challenge traditional scientific ideas about the
nature of consciousness.
“The evidence we have so far is that human consciousness does not become annihilated,” said Parnia, a doctor at
Stony Brook University Hospital and director of the school’s resuscitation research program. “It continues for a
few hours after death, albeit in a hibernated state we cannot see from the outside.”
Resuscitation medicine grew out of the mid-twentieth century discovery of CPR, the medical procedure by which
hearts that have stopped beating are revived. Originally effective for a few minutes after cardiac arrest, advances
in CPR have pushed that time to a half-hour or more.
New techniques promise to even further extend the boundary between life and death. At the same time,
experiences reported by resuscitated people sometimes defy what’s thought to be possible. They claim to have
seen and heard things, though activity in their brains appears to have stopped.
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It sounds supernatural, and if their memories are accurate and their brains really have stopped, it’s neurologically
inexplicable, at least with what’s now known. Parnia, leader of the Human Consciousness Project’s AWARE
study, which documents after-death experiences in 25 hospitals across North America and Europe, is studying the
phenomenon scientifically.
Parnia discusses his work in the new book Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between
Life and Death. Wired talked to Parnia about resuscitation and the nature of consciousness.
Wired: In the book you say that death is not a moment in time, but a process. What do you mean by that?
Sam Parnia: There’s a point used to define death: Your heart stops beating, your brain shuts down. The moment
of cardiac arrest. Until fifty years ago, when CPR was developed, when you reached this point, you couldn’t come
back. That led to the perception that death is completely irreversible.
But if I were to die this instant, the cells inside my body wouldn’t have died yet. It takes time for cells to die after
they’re deprived of oxygen. It doesn’t happen instantly. We have a longer period of time than people perceive.
We know now that when you become a corpse, when the doctor declares you dead, there’s still a possibility, from
a biological and medical perspective, of death being reversed.
Of course, if someone dies and you leave them alone long enough, the cells become damaged. There’s going to be
a time when you can’t bring them back. But nobody knows exactly when that moment is. It might not just be in
tens of minutes, but in over an hour. Death is really a process. 'The idea that electrochemical processes in the
brain lead to consciousness may no longer be correct.'
Wired: How can people be brought back from death?
Parnia: Death is, essentially, the same as a stroke, and that’s especially true for the brain. A stroke is some process
that stops blood flow from getting into the brain. Whether it’s because the heart stopped pumping, or there was a
clot that stopped blood flow, the cells don’t care.
Brain cells can be viable for up to eight hours after blood flow stops. If doctors can learn to manipulate processes
going on in cells, and slow down the rate at which cells die, we could go back and fix the problem that caused a
person to die, then re-start the heart and bring them back. In a sense, death could become reversible for conditions
for which treatments become available.
If someone dies of a heart attack, for example, and it can be fixed, then in principle we can protect the brain, make
sure it doesn’t experience permanent cellular death, and re-start the heart. If someone dies of cancer, though, and
that particular cancer is untreatable, then it’s futile.
Wired: Are you talking about bringing people to life days or weeks or even years after they’ve died?
Parnia: No. This is not cryogenics. When you die, most of your cell death occurs through apoptosis, or
programmed cell death. If your body is cold, the chemical reactions underlying apoptosis are slower. Making the
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body cold slows the rate at which cells decay. But we’re talking about chilling, not freezing. The process of
freezing will damage cells.
Wired: You also study near-death experiences, but you have a different term for it: After-death experience.
Parnia: I decided that we should study what people have experienced when they’ve gone beyond cardiac arrest. I
found that 10 percent of patients who survived cardiac arrests report these incredible accounts of seeing things.
When I looked at the cardiac arrest literature, it became clear that it’s after the heart stops and blood flow into the
brain ceases. There’s no blood flow into the brain, no activity, about 10 seconds after the heart stops. When
doctors start to do CPR, they still can’t get enough blood into the brain. It remains flatlined. That’s the physiology
of people who’ve died or are receiving CPR.
Not just my study, but four others, all demonstrated the same thing: People have memories and recollections.
Combined with anecdotal reports from all over the world, from people who see things accurately and remember
them, it suggests this needs to be studied in more detail.
Wired: One of the first after-death accounts in your book involves Joe Tiralosi, who was resuscitated 40 minutes
after his heart stopped. Can you tell me more about him?
Parnia: I wasn’t involved in his care when he arrived at the hospital, but I know his doctors well. We’d been
working with the emergency room to make sure they knew the importance of starting to cool people down. When
Tiralosi arrived, they cooled him, which helped preserve his brain cells. They found vessels blocked in his heart.
That’s now treatable. By doing CPR and cooling him down, the doctors managed to fix him and ensure that he
didn’t have brain damage.
When Tiralosi woke up, he told nurses that he had a profound experience and wanted to talk about it. That’s how
we met. He told me that he felt incredibly peaceful, and saw this perfect being, full of love and compassion. This
is not uncommon.
People tend to interpret what they see based on their background: A Hindu describes a Hindu god, an atheist
doesn’t see a Hindu god or a Christian god, but some being. Different cultures see the same thing, but their
interpretation depends on what they believe.
Wired: What can we learn from the fact that people report seeing the same thing?
Parnia: At the very least, it tells us that there’s this unique experience that humans have when they go through
death. It’s universal. It’s described by children as young as three. And it tells us that we should not be afraid of
death.
Wired: How do we know after-death experiences happen when people think they do? Maybe people
misremember thoughts from just before death, or just after regaining consciousness.
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Parnia: That’s a very important question. Do these memories occur when a person is truly flatlined and had no
brain activity, as science suggests? Or when they’re beginning to wake up, but are still unconscious?
The point that goes against the experiences happening afterwards, or before the brain shut down, is that many
people describe very specific details of what happened to them during cardiac arrest. They describe conversations
people had, clothes people wore, events that went on 10 or 20 minutes into resuscitation. That is not compatible
with brain activity.
It may be that some people receive better-quality resuscitation, and that — though there’s no evidence to support
it — they did have brain activity. Or it could indicate that human consciousness, the psyche, the soul, the self,
continued to function.
Wired: Couldn’t the experiences just reflect some extremely subtle type of brain activity?
Parnia: When you die, there’s no blood flow going into your brain. If it goes below a certain level, you can’t have
electrical activity. It takes a lot of imagination to think there’s somehow a hidden area of your brain that comes
into action when everything else isn’t working.
These observations raise a question about our current concept of how brain and mind interact. The historical idea
is that electrochemical processes in the brain lead to consciousness. That may no longer be correct, because we
can demonstrate that those processes don’t go on after death.
There may be something in the brain we haven’t discovered that accounts for consciousness, or it may be that
consciousness is a separate entity from the brain.
Wired: This seems to verge on supernatural explanations of consciousness.
Parnia: Throughout history, we try to explain things the best we can with the tools of science. But most openminded and objective scientists recognize that we have limitations. Just because something is inexplicable with
our current science doesn’t make it superstitious or wrong. When people discovered electromagnetism, forces that
couldn’t then be seen or measured, a lot of scientists made fun of it.
Scientists have come to believe that the self is brain cell processes, but there’s never been an experiment to show
how cells in the brain could possibly lead to human thought. If you look at a brain cell under a microscope, and I
tell you, “this brain cell thinks I’m hungry,” that’s impossible.
It could be that, like electromagnetism, the human psyche and consciousness are a very subtle type of force that
interacts with the brain, but are not necessarily produced by the brain. The jury is still out.
Wired: But what about all the fMRI brain imaging studies of thoughts and feelings? Or experiments in which
scientists can tell what someone is seeing, or what they’re dreaming, by looking at brain activity?
Parnia: All the evidence we have shows an association between certain parts of the brain and certain mental
processes. But it’s a chicken and egg question: Does cellular activity produce the mind, or does the mind produce
cellular activity?
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Some people have tried to conclude that what we observe indicates that cells produce thought: here’s a picture of
depression, here’s a picture of happiness. But this is simply an association, not a causation. If you accept that
theory, there should be no reports of people hearing or seeing things after activity in their brain has stopped. If
people can have consciousness, maybe that raises the possibility that our theories are premature.
Wired: What comes next in your own research?
Parnia: In terms of resuscitation, we’re trying to non-invasively measure what happens in the brain, in real-time,
using a special sensor that allows us to detect any impending danger and intervene before extensive damage is
done.
On the question of consciousness, I’m interested in understanding the brain-based modulators of consciousness.
What helps a person become conscious or unconscious? How can we manipulate that to help people who look like
they’re unconscious? And I’m studying how consciousness can be present in people who’ve gone beyond the
threshold of death. All we can say now is that the data suggests that consciousness is not annihilated.
________________________________________________________
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Not all garbage ends up at the dump. A river, sewer or beach can't catch everything the rain washes away, either.
In fact, Earth's largest landfill isn't on land at all.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches for hundreds of miles across the North Pacific Ocean, forming a
nebulous, floating junk yard on the high seas. It's the poster child for a worldwide problem: plastic that begins in
human hands yet ends up in the ocean, often inside animals' stomachs or around their necks. This marine debris
has sloshed into the public spotlight recently, thanks to growing media coverage as well as scientists and
explorers who are increasingly visiting the North Pacific to see plastic pollution in action.
What's it made of?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes been described as a "trash island," but that's a misconception,
says Holly Bamford, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program. If only things were that simple.
"We could just go out there and scoop up an island," Bamford says. "If it was one big mass, it would make our
jobs a whole lot easier."
Instead, it's like a galaxy of garbage, populated by billions of smaller trash islands that may be hidden underwater
or spread out over many miles. That can make it maddeningly difficult to study — Bamford says we still don't
know how big the garbage patch is, despite the oft-cited claim that it's as big as Texas.
"You see these quotes that it's the size of Texas, then it's the size of France, and I even heard one description of it
as a continent," she says. "That alone should lend some concern that there's not consistency in our idea of its size.
It's these hot spots, not one big mass. Maybe if you added them all up it's the size of Texas, but we still don't
know. It could be bigger than Texas."
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While there's still much we don't understand about the garbage patch, we do know that most of it's made of
plastic. And that's where the problems begin.
Unlike most other trash, plastic isn't biodegradable — i.e., the microbes that break down other substances don't
recognize plastic as food, leaving it to float there forever. Sunlight does eventually "photodegrade" the bonds in
plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still
never goes away; it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food
chain.
About 80 percent of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land, much of which is plastic bags,
bottles and various other consumer products. Free-floating fishing nets make up another 10 percent of all marine
litter, or about 705,000 tons, according to U.N. estimates. The rest comes largely from recreational boaters,
offshore oil rigs and large cargo ships, which drop about 10,000 steel shipping containers into the sea each year,
full of things like hockey gloves, computer monitors, resin pellets and LEGOs. But despite such diversity — and
plenty of metal, glass and rubber in the garbage patch — the majority of material is still plastic, since most
everything else sinks or biodegrades before it gets there.
How is it formed?
Earth has five or six major oceanic gyres — huge spirals of seawater formed by colliding currents — but one of
the largest is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, filling most of the space between Japan and California. The
upper part of this gyre, a few hundred miles north of Hawaii, is where warm water from the South Pacific crashes
into cooler water from the north. Known as the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, this is also where
the trash collects.
Bamford refers to the convergence zone as a "trash superhighway" because it ferries plastic rubbish along an
elongated, east-west corridor that links two spinning eddies known as the Eastern Garbage Patch and the Western
Garbage Patch. The whole system collectively makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
It may take several years for debris to reach this area, depending on its origin. Plastic can be washed from the
interiors of continents to the sea via sewers, streams and rivers, or it might simply wash away from the coast.
Either way, it can be a six- or seven-year journey before it's spinning around in the garbage patch. On the other
hand, fishing nets and shipping containers often fall right in with the rest of the trash. One of the most famous
such debris spills came in 1992, when 28,000 rubber ducks fell overboard in the Pacific Ocean. The ducks
continue to turn up on beaches around the world to this day.
What's the problem?
Marine debris threatens environmental health in several ways. Here are the main ones:
• Entanglement: The growing number of abandoned plastic fishing nets is one of the greatest dangers from marine
debris, Bamford says. The nets entangle seals, sea turtles and other animals in a phenomenon known as "ghost
fishing," often drowning them. With more fishermen from developing countries now using plastic for its low cost
and high durability, many abandoned nets can continue fishing on their own for months or years. One of the most
controversial types are bottom-set gill nets, which are buoyed by floats and anchored to the sea floor, sometimes
stretching for thousands of feet.
Virtually any marine life can be endangered by plastic, but sea turtles seem especially susceptible. In addition to
being entangled by fishing nets, they often swallow plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish, their main prey.
They can also get caught up in a variety of other objects, such as this snapping turtle that grew up constricted by a
plastic ring around its body.
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• Small surface debris: Plastic resin pellets are another common piece of marine debris; the tiny, industrial-use
granules are shipped in bulk around the world, melted down at manufacturing sites and remolded into commercial
plastics. Being so small and plentiful, they can easily get lost along the way, washing through the watershed with
other plastics and into the sea. They tend to float there and eventually photodegrade, but that takes many years. In
the meantime, they wreak havoc with sea birds such as the short-tailed albatross.
Albatross parents leave their chicks on land in Pacific islands to go scour the ocean surface for food, namely
protein-rich fish eggs. These are small dots bobbing just below the surface, and look unfortunately similar to resin
pellets. Well-meaning albatrosses scoop up these pellets — along with other floating trash such as cigarette
lighters — and return to feed the indigestible plastic to their chicks, which eventually die of starvation or ruptured
organs. Decaying albatross chicks are frequently found with stomachs full of plastic debris (see photo above).
• Photodegradation: As sunlight breaks down floating debris, the surface water thickens with suspended plastic
bits. This is bad for a couple of reasons. First, Bamford says, is plastic's "inherent toxicity": It often contains
colorants and chemicals like bisphenol-A, which studies have linked to various environmental and health
problems, and these toxins may leach out into the seawater. Plastic has also been shown to absorb pre-existing
organic pollutants like PCBs from the surrounding seawater, which can enter the food chain — along with BPA
and other inherent toxins — if the plastic bits are accidentally ingested by marine life.
What can we do?
The discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Capt. Charles Moore, once said a cleanup effort "would
bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went."
"He makes a really good point there," Bamford says. "It's very difficult."
Still, NOAA conducts flyovers to study the garbage patch, and two research teams recently sailed there to collect
debris and water samples. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography held a press conference after
returning from their three-week voyage in 2009, describing the amount of trash as "shocking." They found large
and small items as well as a vast underwater haze of photodegraded plastic flakes, and are now analyzing their
samples to figure out how the plastic interacts with its marine environment.
Meanwhile, the international Project Kaisei team also recently spent time in the garbage patch, studying its
contents in hopes of eventually recycling them or turning them into fuel. And "adventure ecologist" David de
Rothschild is pushing on with plans to sail around the garbage patch in a boat made entirely of recycled plastics,
taking a test voyage earlier this month after a long delay due to construction trouble. Called "Plastiki," the ship is
intended to highlight the connection between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea — an increasingly
evident link, thanks not only to media attention for the Pacific patch, but also the recent discovery of a similar
patch in the North Atlantic.
Ultimately, more plastic recycling and wider use of biodegradable materials is the best hope for controlling these
garbage patches, Bamford says, but that's an uphill battle.
"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not
break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy
three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy.”
________________________________________________________
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What Happened to the Aral Sea?
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union undertook a major water diversion project on the arid plains of Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The region’s two major rivers, fed by snowmelt and precipitation in faraway
mountains, were used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops. Before the project, the Syr
Darya and the Amu Darya rivers flowed down from the mountains, cut northwest through the Kyzylkum Desert,
and finally pooled together in the lowest part of the basin. The lake they made, the Aral Sea, was once the fourth
largest in the world.
Although irrigation made the desert bloom, it devastated the Aral Sea. This series of images from the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite documents the changes. At the start
of the series in 2000, the lake was already a fraction of its 1960 extent (black line). The Northern Aral Sea
(sometimes called the Small Aral Sea) had separated from the Southern (Large) Aral Sea. The Southern Aral Sea
had split into eastern and western lobes that remained tenuously connected at both ends.
By 2001, the southern connection had been severed, and the shallower eastern part retreated rapidly over the next
several years. Especially large retreats in the eastern lobe of the Southern Sea appear to have occurred between
2005 and 2009, when drought limited and then cut off the flow of the Amu Darya. Water levels then fluctuated
annually between 2009 and 2012 in alternately dry and wet years.
As the lake dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed. The increasingly salty water
became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with
agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard. The salty dust blew off the lakebed and settled onto fields,
degrading the soil. Croplands had to be flushed with larger and larger volumes of river water. The loss of the
moderating influence of such a large body of water made winters colder and summers hotter and drier.
In a last-ditch effort to save some of the lake, Kazakhstan built a dam between the northern and southern parts of
the Aral Sea. Completed in 2005, the dam was basically a death sentence for the southern Aral Sea, which was
judged to be beyond saving. All of the water flowing into the desert basin from the Syr Darya now stays in the
Northern Aral Sea. Between 2005 and 2006, the water levels in that part of the lake rebounded significantly and
very small increases are visible throughout the rest of the time period. The differences in water color are due to
changes in sediment.
________________________________________________________
The Colorado River
From its source high in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado River channels water south nearly 1,500 miles, over
falls, through deserts and canyons, to the lush wetlands of a vast delta in Mexico and into the Gulf of California.
That is, it did so for six million years.
Then, beginning in the 1920s, Western states began divvying up the Colorado’s water, building dams and
diverting the flow hundreds of miles, to Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and other fast-growing cities. The river
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now serves 30 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico, with 70 percent or more of its water siphoned off
to irrigate 3.5 million acres of cropland.
The damming and diverting of the Colorado, the nation’s seventh-longest river, may be seen by some as a triumph
of engineering and by others as a crime against nature, but there are ominous new twists. The river has been
running especially low for the past decade, as drought has gripped the Southwest. It still tumbles through the
Grand Canyon, much to the delight of rafters and other visitors. And boaters still roar across Nevada and
Arizona’s Lake Mead, 110 miles long and formed by the Hoover Dam. But at the lake’s edge they can see lines in
the rock walls, distinct as bathtub rings, showing the water level far lower than it once was—some 130 feet lower,
as it happens, since 2000. Water resource officials say some of the reservoirs fed by the river will never be full
again.
Climate change will likely decrease the river’s flow by 5 to 20 percent in the next 40 years, says geoscientist Brad
Udall, director of the University of Colorado Western Water Assessment. Less precipitation in the Rocky
Mountains will yield less water to begin with. Droughts will last longer. Higher overall air temperatures will mean
more water lost to evaporation. “You’re going to see earlier runoff and lower flows later in the year,” so water
will be more scarce during the growing season, says Udall.
Other regions—the Mediterranean, southern Africa, parts of South America and Asia—also face fresh-water
shortages, perhaps outright crises. In the Andes Mountains of South America, glaciers are melting so quickly that
millions of people in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador are expected to lose a major source of fresh water by 2020. In
southwestern Australia, which is in the midst of its worst drought in 750 years, fresh water is so scarce the city of
Perth is building plants to remove the salt from seawater. More than one billion people around the world now live
in water-stressed regions, according to the World Health Organization, a number that is expected to double by
2050, when an estimated nine billion people will inhabit the planet.
“There’s not enough fresh water to handle nine billion people at current consumption levels,” says Patricia
Mulroy, a board member of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation, which promotes the development of
safe, affordable drinking water worldwide. People need a “fundamental, cultural attitude change about water
supply in the Southwest,” she adds. “It’s not abundant, it’s not reliable, it’s not going to always be there.”
Mulroy is also general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves two million people in
greater Las Vegas. The city is one of the largest in the Colorado River basin, but its share of the river is relatively
small; when officials allocated the Colorado’s water to different states in 1922, no one expected so many people
to be living in the Nevada desert. So Nevadans have gotten used to coping with limitations. They can’t water their
yards or wash their cars whenever they like; communities follow strict watering schedules. The water authority
pays homeowners to replace water-gulping lawns with rocks and drought-tolerant plants. Golf courses adhere to
water restrictions. Almost all wastewater is reused or returned to the Colorado River.
In 1922, conservationist Aldo Leopold paddled a canoe through the great delta at the mouth of the Colorado
River. He wrote about a “wealth of fowl and fish” and “still waters...of a deep emerald hue.” In Leopold’s time,
the delta stretched over nearly 3,000 square miles; today, it covers fewer than 250, and the only water flowing
through it, except after heavy rains, is the runoff from alfalfa, lettuce and melon fields and pecan orchards.
The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it
disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea.
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Invasive plants, such as salt cedar and cattails, now dominate the delta, a landscape of seemingly endless mud
flats where forests used to stand. And in the Gulf of California itself, shellfish, shrimp and waterfowl have
declined dramatically as fresh water has dried up.
Peter McBride has spent two years photographing the great river, paddling a kayak through its headwaters, flying
in small planes over cities and fields, rafting through the Grand Canyon and using his own two feet to traverse the
delta. In his career, McBride, who lives near Basalt, Colorado, has taken pictures in 50 nations on six continents
for magazines, books and films, but he relished the chance to turn his camera on the river that fed his childhood
home, a Colorado cattle ranch. “I never knew much about where the river went and where it ended,” he says. In
his work, McBride depicts not only the extraordinary scale of the human impact on the river but also the
considerable beauty that remains.
McBride knew the delta was suffering, but he was surprised when he visited it for the first time. “I spent two
weeks walking the most parched, barren earth you can imagine,” he recalls. “It’s sad to see the mighty Colorado
River come to a dribble and end some 50 miles north of the sea.”
________________________________________________________
Abrupt Climate Change
Two high-profile events are putting the issue of "abrupt climate change" squarely in the public eye. The first is a
February 2004 Fortune Magazine article that broke the news of a report prepared for the Pentagon on abrupt
climate change and its implications for U.S. national security. The Pentagon report describes a scenario in which
human-caused global warming leads to a near-term collapse of the ocean's thermohaline circulation, which brings
warm surface waters from the tropics to the North Atlantic, warming parts of Western Europe. The authors
propose dramatic impacts, including rapid cooling in Europe, greatly diminished rainfall in many important
agricultural and urban centers and consequent disruptions in food supply and water supply with enormous
geopolitical and security implications.
The second is the May 2004 release of The Day After Tomorrow a 20th Century Fox blockbuster disaster movie
with a similar premise. With a dashing paleoclimatologist as the action hero, The Day After Tomorrow depicts a
world careening toward an ice age over a few weeks' time. Here too, the culprit is the warming-induced shutdown
of the thermohaline circulation.
The authors of the Pentagon report and the producers of The Day After Tomorrow caution readers and viewers
against treating these extreme scenarios as serious possibilities. The Pentagon report intentionally considers the
worst possible scenario, one that stretches the boundary of scientific plausibility. The Day After Tomorrow leaps
beyond that boundary to unleash a collection of climate catastrophes intended to thrill audiences and showcase the
latest special effects. Yet underlying even these extreme scenarios are the sober facts of human-caused global
warming and the real opportunities to minimize climate change by reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases.
UCS views the publicity generated by these events as an opportunity to help the public and decision makers better
understand what we know about the causes, consequences and solutions to climate change. Toward that end, we
provide the following answers to some frequently asked questions.
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Can what happens in The Day After Tomorrow happen in real life?
No. The dramatic, virtually instantaneous and widespread cooling envisioned in the film is fiction. But like all
good science fiction, the film is premised on several important scientific facts. We know with great certainty that
Earth is already warming, largely because as we burn fossil fuels and clear forests we are releasing carbon dioxide
and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. This warming is expected to continue in the coming decades,
accompanied by changes in rainfall patterns and rising sea levels. The possibility of an abrupt shift in the climate
system is only one feature of a changing climate that is expected to become more erratic, with extreme weather
events like droughts, torrential rainfall, and extreme heat becoming more common. We can slow down global
warming and reduce the likelihood of future abrupt climate changes by reducing our emissions of heat-trapping
gases.
What is "abrupt climate change?"
The term "abrupt climate change" describes changes in climate that occur over the span of years to decades,
compared to the human-caused changes in climate that are occurring over the time span of decades to centuries.
From ice cores, ocean sediments, tree rings, and other records of Earth's past climate, scientists have found that
changes in climate have occurred quickly in the past—over the course of a decade. An example of an abrupt
climate change event is the Younger Dryas (~12,000 years ago), a period of abrupt cooling that interrupted a
general warming trend as Earth emerged from the last Ice Age. During the Younger Dryas period, average
summertime temperatures in New England cooled by about 5-7°F (3-4°C). This and other abrupt events have been
linked to changes in an ocean circulation pattern known as thermohaline circulation.
How might abrupt climate change affect people?
While the scenarios depicted in the Day After Tomorrow and the Pentagon report are extreme, changes in climate,
including possible abrupt climate changes, will have serious consequences for people's lives and livelihoods. As
Earth warms, higher temperatures and more common extreme heat conditions will affect human health, energy
demand, water supply and demand, and agriculture. Rising sea levels will impact coastal communities as flooding
happens more often and damage from coastal storms becomes more severe. Some regions will become much
drier, while others will become much wetter, affecting agriculture, water supply, and the spread of diseases. Many
of these impacts will be most severe in developing countries, where scarce resources and limited technological
capacity will limit options for coping with the consequences of climate change.
Can we avoid abrupt climate change?
Yes. While abrupt climate change is not a certainty, human-caused climate change makes abrupt events more
likely. What is certain is that human-caused climate change is already under way, and is expected to continue over
the next century as a result of our emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere.
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher today than they have been for more than 400,000 years.
Earth's surface temperature has increased measurably over the past 100 years, and 10 of the warmest years on
record have occurred since 1990. This warming has caused changes in rainfall—some regions have become wetter
while others have become drier—and droughts and severe rainfall events have become more common. By making
choices now to reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases, we can slow the rate of global warming and reduce
the likelihood of unexpected climate changes.
How can global warming make things cooler?
As we rapidly increase Earth's average temperature, some regions, such as high latitudes, will experience greater
warming than others, such as the tropics. As warming alters ocean and atmosphere circulation patterns, some
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regions could even experience cooling. Much of Western Europe is now warmed by ocean circulation as well as
the atmosphere. Heat is transported to the region by a global ocean circulation pattern variably known as
thermohaline circulation, the North Atlantic heat pump, or the "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt." This "heat pump"
pulls warm salty water northward from the tropics into the North Atlantic, where heat is released, warming air
temperatures over Europe.
As Earth warms, melting of ice caps and glaciers, increased precipitation and other inflows of fresh water to the
North Atlantic Ocean may weaken or shut down thermohaline circulation. This change in ocean circulation could
disrupt the transfer of heat northward from the tropics, resulting in cooling in the North Atlantic region. Regional
cooling of as much as 14-29°F (8-16°C) has been seen in the past climate record. However, any regional cooling
would be superimposed on the global warming that is already underway. Contrary to the "Day After Tomorrow"
dramatization, abrupt climate change will not result in an ice age, because the cooling effects are regional and
Earth is currently in an interglacial, or warm, period.
What is thermohaline circulation?
Thermohaline circulation is a global ocean circulation pattern that distributes water and heat both vertically,
through the water column, and horizontally across the globe. As cold, salty water sinks at high latitudes, it pulls
warmer water from lower latitudes to replace it. Water that sinks in the North Atlantic flows down to the southern
hemisphere, skirts the Antarctic continent, where it is joined by more sinking water, and then crosses south of the
Indian Ocean to enter the Pacific Ocean basin. There, the cold deep water rises to the surface, where heat from the
tropical sun warms the water at the ocean's surface and drives evaporation, leaving behind saltier water. This
warm, salty water flows northward to join the Gulf Stream, traveling up the Eastern coast of the United States and
across the Atlantic Ocean into the North Atlantic region. There, heat is released to the atmosphere, warming parts
of Western Europe. Once this warm, salty water reaches the North Atlantic and releases its heat, it again becomes
very cold and dense, and sinks to the deep ocean.
What is the difference between thermohaline circulation and the Gulf Stream?
Media coverage has tended to cite a shutdown of the Gulf Stream as the mechanism for abrupt climate change, but
this is not fully accurate. The Gulf Stream is a strong ocean current that flows north along the coast of the U.S.
then crosses the North Atlantic to Western Europe, forming part of a larger clockwise circulation of surface
waters in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream is part of the global thermohaline circulation, but it is also
driven by winds (resulting form uneven heating of Earth's surface)contacting the ocean surface. Both the winds
and the resulting currents are greatly influenced by Earth's rotation. If the deep-ocean thermohaline circulation
were shut off, these winds would still drive the Gulf Stream and the clockwise currents in the Atlantic. However,
the influx of warm, salty water from the tropics would decrease and the Gulf Stream might become fresher and
cooler, and might not extend as far north.
How might thermohaline circulation be turned off?
Thermohaline circulation is driven by the sinking of cold, salty water at high latitudes. Fresh water flowing into
the North Atlantic Ocean from rainfall or the melting of ice and permafrost can make the ocean water less salty,
and therefore less dense. If it becomes "light" enough, it will not sink any more, possibly slowing or shutting
down global thermohaline circulation. Indeed, during some of the abrupt events in Earth's past climate, scientists
find evidence of large catastrophic flows of fresh water into the North Atlantic from the melting of glaciers and
ice caps, and due to flooding from glacier-dammed lakes. Without the large-scale sinking of salty water in the
North Atlantic the influx of warm water to replace it from the tropics would not occur, effectively switching off
the thermohaline circulation.
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Past changes in thermohaline circulation have occurred during periods of relatively rapid climate change, such as
transitions in and out of glaciations. Similarly, the rapid warming we are currently experiencing could trigger an
abrupt thermohaline shutdown and subsequent regional cooling. While a shutdown of thermohaline circulation is
unlikely to occur in the next century, scientists have recently found that freshwater inputs have already caused
measurable "freshening" of North Atlantic surface waters over the past 40 years. Human activities may be driving
the climate system toward a threshold and thus increasing the chance of abrupt climate changes occurring.
Will abrupt climate change cause another Ice Age?
No. Human-caused climate change, including possible abrupt climate changes, will not lead to another Ice Age.
Earth is warming, and will continue to warm as a result of our emissions of heat-trapping gases, even if an abrupt
change in climate occurred. The cooling that might take place if thermohaline circulation switched off would only
occur in regions that are currently warmed by the current.
________________________________________________________
Zero Energy homes in Lakeland Florida
Experimenting with Efficiency
In the spring of 1998, the Florida Solar Energy Center partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Building America program to construct a comprehensive home efficiency experiment in Lakeland, Fla.
Two homes, a control and a variable, were constructed for this experiment. Built with the same orientation to the
sun, same floor plan, and same square-footage, the objective of this experiment was to compare the energy usage
and savings between a single-family residence built to standard construction codes and a home engineered to
reduce energy use to an absolute minimum.
Cool Results
In a typical Florida home, 35 percent of all electricity is used for cooling. The near zero energy home was built
with a dozen extra energy-efficient features, from extra insulation to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), to
help combat wasting energy while trying to keep the house cool during Florida’s hot summers. Installing a high
efficiency refrigerator and CFLs –both appliances release less heat while operating – throughout the home helped
lower electrical usage for cooling. The near zero energy home’s windows are spectrally selective, which means
they transmit about 70 percent of the visible light into a room while capturing about 98 percent of the infrared and
ultraviolet portions that can overheat a room and fade furniture. Paired with extra-long overhangs from the roof,
these windows contributed to one-fifth of the energy savings for cooling the home. The home also utilizes a
programmable Solar-Control windows and
Larger overhangs contributed to 1/5 of the energy savings for cooling.
Hot days In Florida
On June 18, 1998, the hottest day of that summer, the control home’s air conditioner consumed an average of
2,980 watts of power, while the near zero energy home’s A/C consumed a mere 833 watts. When power from the
PV system was factored in, cooling the near zero energy home required only 199 watts of utility-supplied power
on that day. This is an astonishing 93% reduction compared to the control home.
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Solar + Efficiency = Big Savings
Not only is the home built to high efficiency standards, it also employs the use of clean power through solar water
heating and photovoltaic (PV). The 80-gallon solar water heating system supplies most of the hot water for the
occupants’ needs using a two-kilowatt solar collector. The PV system is a four kilowatt utility-interactive system
that allows the homeowners to sell back power produced by the PV system to the utility. One of the two PV
arrays is located on the south-facing roof, which is generally the preferred location for PV systems in Florida. The
other half of the array was placed on the west-facing roof to provide more PV power during the hot afternoons,
when the utility experiences its peak demand period. In this case, the high efficiency of the near zero energy home
paired with the two solar systems resulted in the offset of about 85 percent of all annual grid electricity needs.
________________________________________________________
Net-Zero Energy Buildings Take Hold in U.S.
A weak economy and rising energy prices have led to a buzz over building efficiency. Light bulb regulations,
LEED and Energy Star ratings for homes and appliances, stricter construction codes, and government incentives
are all parts of a national effort to cut energy waste in the building sector.
Nearly 40 percent of the nation's energy is consumed by homes and commercial buildings, which means that
making them more efficient would not only save money but also drastically reduce carbon emissions. So a
handful of builders are taking the idea one step further: Why construct a building that uses less energy when we
can make one that uses no energy at all?
That's the philosophy behind "net-zero" buildings, and they have been springing up all over the country in recent
years. By the purest definition, a net-zero building produces all the renewable energy it needs on site, drawing no
more power from the grid than it gives back.
Considering that a shack in the woods is technically net zero, the concept isn't exactly new. But advances in
technology over the past decade have made it easier to design sophisticated buildings that produce 100 percent of
their own energy. At least 21 commercial buildings in the United States meet net-zero standards, according to a
study released yesterday by the New Buildings Institute and the Zero Energy Commercial Building Consortium.
They run the gamut from offices to libraries to elementary schools. Researchers identified eight more unverified
buildings that may also be net zero and an additional 39 that would classify if they installed more on-site
renewable energy systems, plus dozens more under construction.
"We are seeing commercial examples of larger and more complicated buildings, which I think is a positive sign,"
says Stacey Hobart, the communications director at the New Buildings Institute. "Most of these buildings are
smaller buildings, and most of them are early market adopters." Universities and local governments have also
been responsible for much of the construction, largely because "they have a charge to say, 'This is a net-zero
building,'" explains Hobart.
Expanding the possibilities
The first commercial-scale net-zero building was a center for environmental studies, completed at Oberlin College
in Ohio in 2000. At that time, the project was largely an experiment in sustainable architecture.
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"We intended to create not just a place for classes but rather a building that would help to redefine the relationship
between humankind and the environment -- one that would expand our sense of ecological possibilities," said
David Orr, the director of Oberlin's Environmental Studies program, at the center's groundbreaking ceremony in
1999. "We now know that such things are possible -- that buildings can be designed to give more than they take."
Commercial net-zero construction has steadily increased since then, with the number of completed buildings more
than doubling since 2008, according to the latest study. Thanks to advances in structural insulation, energyefficient appliances, new government incentives and the falling price of solar, expensive green-building projects -like net zero -- are now within reach. And they don't always require a commercial-scale budget.
When Frank Walker first stepped inside a net-zero house in Denver two summers ago, he knew he wanted to
trying building one himself. As the chief operating officer of a major Colorado homebuilding company, Oakwood
Homes, he couldn't believe such a structure was possible.
"It was a 102-degree day in Denver, and the house was 72 degrees with no air conditioning and no cooling
systems whatsoever," he remembers. "It's like building a Thermos."
The house was contracted by a local resident who had researched German "passive houses" and wanted to have
one of his own. The design was so efficient, says Walker, that "you could heat the house using a hair dryer."
$188,000 homes in Colo.
Inspired by what he saw, Walker decided to replicate the building. With the help of students from a University of
Denver work-study program, his company was able to complete two experimental net-zero homes -- the second of
which recently sold for under $190,000.
Having perfected its net-zero design, Oakwood plans to start marketing more of the homes in Colorado later this
year. Each four-bedroom house will feature rooftop solar panels, a high-efficiency tankless water heater, superinsulated windows and airtight construction.
With a $188,000 price tag -- only $9,000 more than Oakwood's Energy Star version of the same house -- it could
soon be the most affordable net-zero home in the country. With about $750 in energy savings predicted annually,
homeowners are expected to see a full return on their investment in less than 12 years.
"We've hit a price point that no one else has been able to hit in our marketplace," says Walker, and "we've gotten
a lot of great response."
At least a dozen other U.S. commercial homebuilders have begun to offer net-zero residences. The Los Angelesbased company KB Home recently introduced a net-zero option for its houses in parts of Florida, Texas, Colorado
and California. Another company, Nexus EnergyHomes, is building 59 duplex units in Frederick, Md., and 14
additional houses near the Chesapeake Bay. The duplexes are about 1,700 square feet -- the same size as
Oakwood's homes -- and sell for $275,000 and up.
Each commercial and residential building employs a unique blend of renewable energy and architectural design to
reach net zero, but there are some characteristics that nearly every structure shares. Most use solar panels to
achieve the bulk of their power and have numerous windows to minimize the need for artificial light. Tight
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insulation and low-energy appliances are also key elements. Paradoxically, most buildings actually receive
electricity bills -- though not very many.
This happens because a net-zero building may need to draw electricity from the grid to power its lights at night,
for example, then returns that energy the next day, when its solar panels are most efficient. Likewise, residents
may have to pay for heating costs in the winter, but in the summer they would receive a check for their overflow
of energy.
Transitioning into a net-zero world without electric bills may sound like a no-brainer, but the technology still
faces significant obstacles.
Cost and space remain drawbacks
The success of a building depends largely on the people who use it. If occupants aren't committed to reducing
their personal energy use by shutting windows and turning off appliances, a net-zero structure can easily lose its
status, becoming just another "efficient" building.
Some areas are also poorly suited for net zero. A building needs enough sunshine to power its solar panels, and
that's not always possible in a densely populated city, where tall buildings can cast shadows onto shorter ones. It's
also tough to keep structures cool in very hot and humid climates, like in the Southeast, says Hobart. But most
experts agree the main barrier is still the price.
"Most building owners aren't going to add 1 percent to their costs. They are just going to build to code," Hobart
says. And retrofitting existing buildings to be net zero becomes even costlier.
"When you put all the pieces together, the payback becomes so great that it doesn't make sense," Walker says of
the retrofits. Aside from solar panels, thicker windows, and a new heating and cooling system, buildings often
need far more insulation than the walls can hold. That requires shrinking rooms or expanding the exterior, which
isn't cheap. Walker believes net-zero upgrades are for people who "are less worried about payback and more
concerned to do something good for the environment."
Net-zero construction may not be dominating the industry any time soon, but with countless commercial and
residential projects in the works, the trend shows no signs of slowing down. Experts say strong government
support for building efficiency, coupled with falling costs, means we will likely see more and more net-zero
buildings.
"Lofty goals have been set for achieving zero-energy buildings by 2030," says Dave Hewitt, executive director of
the New Buildings Institute. "The really good news is extremely energy-efficient buildings are being
demonstrated in a multitude of climates and across building types. This is certainly a good sign for the future of
zero-energy buildings."
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The French Revolution and Bastille Day
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to
symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French
Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of
thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.
The Bastille was originally constructed in 1370 as a bastide, or "fortification," to protect the walled city of Paris
from English attack. It was later made into an independent stronghold, and its name--bastide--was corrupted to
Bastille. The Bastille was first used as a state prison in the 17th century, and its cells were reserved for upperclass felons, political troublemakers, and spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under direct
orders of the king. Standing 100 feet tall and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille was an
imposing structure in the Parisian landscape.
By the summer of 1789, France was moving quickly toward revolution. There were severe food shortages in
France that year, and popular resentment against the rule of King Louis XVI was turning to fury. In June, the
Third Estate, which represented commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly and
called for the drafting of a constitution. Initially seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly but then
surrounded Paris with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a popular minister of state who had supported
reforms. In response, mobs began rioting in Paris at the instigation of revolutionary leaders.
Bernard-Jordan de Launay, the military governor of the Bastille, feared that his fortress would be a target for the
revolutionaries and so requested reinforcements. A company of Swiss mercenary soldiers arrived on July 7 to
bolster his garrison of 82 soldiers. The Marquis de Sade, one of the few prisoners in the Bastille at the time, was
transferred to an insane asylum after he attempted to incite a crowd outside his window by yelling: "They are
massacring the prisoners; you must come and free them." On July 12, royal authorities transferred 250 barrels of
gunpowder to the Bastille from the Paris Arsenal, which was more vulnerable to attack. Launay brought his men
into the Bastille and raised its two drawbridges.
On July 13, revolutionaries with muskets began firing at soldiers standing guard on the Bastille's towers and then
took cover in the Bastille's courtyard when Launay's men fired back. That evening, mobs stormed the Paris
Arsenal and another armory and acquired thousands of muskets. At dawn on July 14, a great crowd armed with
muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons began to gather around the Bastille.
Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders but refused to surrender the fortress and its munitions as
they requested. He later received a second delegation and promised he would not open fire on the crowd. To
convince the revolutionaries, he showed them that his cannons were not loaded. Instead of calming the agitated
crowd, news of the unloaded cannons emboldened a group of men to climb over the outer wall of the courtyard
and lower a drawbridge. Three hundred revolutionaries rushed in, and Launay's men took up a defensive position.
When the mob outside began trying to lower the second drawbridge, Launay ordered his men to open fire. One
hundred rioters were killed or wounded.
Launay's men were able to hold the mob back, but more and more Parisians were converging on the Bastille.
Around 3 p.m., a company of deserters from the French army arrived. The soldiers, hidden by smoke from fires
set by the mob, dragged five cannons into the courtyard and aimed them at the Bastille. Launay raised a white flag
of surrender over the fortress. Launay and his men were taken into custody, the gunpowder and cannons were
seized, and the seven prisoners of the Bastille were freed. Upon arriving at the Hotel de Ville, where Launay was
to be arrested by a revolutionary council, the governor was pulled away from his escort by a mob and murdered.
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The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancien regime and provided the French revolutionary cause
with an irresistible momentum. Joined by four-fifths of the French army, the revolutionaries seized control of
Paris and then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional government. In 1792,
the monarchy was abolished and Louis and his wife Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine for treason in
1793.
By order of the new revolutionary government, the Bastille was torn down. On February 6, 1790, the last stone of
the hated prison-fortress was presented to the National Assembly. Today, July 14--Bastille Day--is celebrated as a
national holiday in France.
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The French Revolution and Bastille Day (In French)
Les révolutionnaires parisiens et des soldats mutins storm et démantèlent la Bastille, une forteresse royale qui était
venu à symboliser la tyrannie des Rois Bourbon. Cette action spectaculaire a signalé le début de la Révolution
française, une dizaine d'années de troubles politiques et de la terreur dans laquelle le roi Louis XVI est renversé
et des dizaines de milliers de personnes, y compris le roi et son épouse, Marie Antoinette, ont été exécutés.
La Bastille a été construit en 1370 une bastide, ou « fortification,"pour protéger la ville fortifiée de Paris d'une
attaque anglaise. Il est ensuite transformé en un bastion indépendant et son nom--bastide--a été altéré à Bastille.
La Bastille a été utilisé comme une prison d'État au XVIIe siècle, et ses cellules étaient réservés aux criminels de
classe supérieure, des fauteurs de troubles politiques et des espions. La plupart des prisonniers y ont été
emprisonnés sans procès sous les ordres directs du roi. Permanent 100 pieds de hautes et entourés d'un fossé de
plus de 80 pieds de large, que la Bastille était une structure imposante dans le paysage parisien.
De l'été 1789, la France se déplaçait rapidement vers la révolution. Il y avait une pénurie alimentaire en France
cette année, et le ressentiment populaire contre le règne du roi Louis XVI tournait à la fureur. En juin, le tiers état,
qui représentait les roturiers et le bas clergé, se déclare l'Assemblée nationale et appelé à la rédaction d'une
constitution. Initialement qu'il semble céder, Louis légalisé l'Assemblée nationale mais alors Paris entourée de
troupes et rejeté Jacques Necker, ministre populaire d'État qui avait soutenu les réformes. En réponse, les foules
ont commencé émeutes à Paris à l'instigation de dirigeants révolutionnaires.
Bernard-Jordan de Launay, gouverneur militaire de la Bastille, craint que sa forteresse serait une cible pour les
révolutionnaires et donc demandé des renforts. Une compagnie de soldats mercenaires suisses sont arrivés le 7
juillet pour renforcer sa garnison de 82 soldats. Le Marquis de Sade, un des rares prisonniers à la Bastille à
l'époque, a été transféré dans un asile d'aliénés après qu'il a tenté d'inciter à une foule à l'extérieur de sa fenêtre en
criant: « ils sont massacrer les prisonniers ; vous devez venir et libérez-les. » Le 12 juillet, les autorités royale
transféré 250 barils de poudre à la Bastille de l'Arsenal de Paris, qui était plus vulnérable aux attaques. Launay a
apporté ses hommes dans la Bastille et élevé ses deux ponts-levis.
Le 13 juillet, révolutionnaires avec fusils ont ouvert le feu sur des soldats de garde sur les tours de la Bastille et
ensuite pris la couverture dans la Cour de la Bastille quand les hommes de Launay ont tiré en arrière. Ce soir-là,
les foules ont pris d'assaut l'Arsenal de Paris et une autre armurerie et acquis des milliers de mousquets. À l'aube
du 14 juillet, une grande foule armée de mousquets, épées et diverses armes de fortune a commencé à rassembler
autour de la Bastille.
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Launay a reçu une délégation de dirigeants révolutionnaires, mais a refusé d'abandonner la forteresse et ses
munitions, comme ils l'ont demandé. Plus tard, il a reçu une deuxième délégation et a promis qu'il n'ouvrirait pas
de feu sur la foule. Pour convaincre les révolutionnaires, qu'il leur montra que ses canons n'étaient pas chargés.
Au lieu de calmer la foule agitée, Actualités des canons déchargés a encouragé un groupe d'hommes pour
escalader la paroi extérieure de la Cour et abaisser un pont-levis. Trois cents révolutionnaires se précipitèrent
dans, et les hommes de Launay a pris une position défensive. Quand la foule à l'extérieur a commencé à essayer
d'abaisser le second pont-levis, Launay ordonne à ses hommes d'ouvrir le feu. Cent émeutiers ont été tués ou
blessés.
Hommes de Launay ont été en mesure de tenir la foule à l'arrière, mais de plus en plus de parisiens étaient
convergeant sur la Bastille. Autour de 15, une compagnie de déserteurs de l'armée française est arrivée. Les
soldats, cachés par la fumée provenant des incendies par la foule, entraîné cinq canons dans la Cour et les visant à
la Bastille. Launay a déclenché un drapeau blanc de la reddition au cours de la forteresse. Launay et ses hommes
ont été placés en détention, la poudre à Canon et les canons ont été saisis et les sept prisonniers de la Bastille ont
été libérés. En arrivant à l'hôtel de Ville, où Launay devait être arrêté par un Conseil révolutionnaire, le
gouverneur a été tiré loin de son escorte par une foule et assassiné.
La prise de la Bastille symbolise la fin de l' ancien régime et fourni que les français révolutionnaires causent avec
un élan irrésistible. Rejoints par les quatre cinquièmes de l'armée française, les révolutionnaires ont pris le
contrôle de Paris, puis la campagne française, forçant le roi Louis XVI à accepter un gouvernement
constitutionnel. En 1792, la monarchie fut abolie et Louis et sa femme Marie-Antoinette furent envoyés à la
guillotine pour trahison en 1793.
Sur ordre du nouveau gouvernement révolutionnaire, la Bastille a été démolie. Le 6 février 1790, la dernière
pierre de la prison-forteresse détestée a été présentée à l'Assemblée nationale. Aujourd'hui, le 14 juillet--Bastille
Day--est célébré comme une fête nationale en France.
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Sunken Spanish Treasure
At the height of the Spanish Empire, Spanish ships sailed endlessly carrying gold and silver, as well as other
goods from the New World to Europe. Many of the Spanish galleon ships met their fate at the sea, resulting in an
incalculable amount of sunken Spanish treasures.
Expert archaeologists assume that the value of sunken Spanish galleon ships and treasures could be equivalent to
the GDP of Ireland, whereas others estimate that the total value of Spanish patrimony lying at the bottom of the
sea is priceless.
From the sixteenth century onwards, at the height of the Spanish dominance, the Indian fleet was set into motion.
The fleet consisted of Spanish galleons that carried goods from the New World to Europe. Upon arrival, all goods
passed through the Seville House of Trade, the organism in charge of keeping track of all the importations.
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean was by no means simple. The ships were subject to various hazards, the most
important being the sea itself. Sea storms were frequent in the Atlantic and as a result countless ships were sunk
along with their cargo of raw materials, gold and silver.
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Besides the weather, the imperial Spanish galleons suffered a variety of other dangers. The political fight over
areas of interest in the New World resulted in woven alliances and conflicts principally among three governments:
Britain, France and Spain.
Undoubtedly, the main enemy of the Spanish Empire overseas until the nineteenth century was England. English
corsair fleets incessantly attacked Spanish ships and coastal cities in both Spain and the Americas. As a result,
many of the Caribbean Islands became part of the English Commonwealth, as is the case of Jamaica.
France and Holland also took part in the conquest and today France maintains territory in the Guadeloupe in
Lesser Antilles and Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. The Dutch Antilles consist of two groups of islands
in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean.
The European domination of the Caribbean put the most important ship route between Spain and New Spain
(present day Mexico) in danger. It is estimated that off the coasts of Puerto Rico alone there could be over 400
sunken ships, including both official and smuggling ships.
The governments of the zone have taken measures to prevent plundering, which are not always successful. Many
people hire treasure hunters in hopes that the return is worth the investment, although most are unsuccessful.
It is often thought that Spanish galleons were filled with gold, but that is not normally the case. The vast majority
of the ships carried mainly perishable goods such as food, tobacco and leather.
One of the most important treasure hunters was Mel Fisher. After a 20 year search, Fisher discovered a Spanish
galleon ship called Nuestra Señora de Atocha which sunk in 1622 in the Florida Keys. The treasure hunter was
richly rewarded and it is estimated that treasures from the wreck fetched a total of 400 million dollars at auction.
However, doubts still exist regarding the authenticity of some of the silver coins, which some believe Fisher
minted himself. Mel Fisher passed away without having ever revealed the truth.
One of the most notorious cases in recent years involved the Odyssey Company which discovered the Spanish
ship off the coast of Spain. The ship was called Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes and had sunk in 1808 between
Cadiz and the southern part of Portugal. The Spanish State took the Odyssey Company to court, demanding the
return of the treasures, and won. Spain maintains strict laws prohibiting the trafficking of items of historical
heritage.
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Sunken Spanish Treasure (In Spanish)
a la altura de la Imperio Español , Barcos españoles navegó sin fin llevar oro y plata, así como otros productos del
nuevo mundo a Europa. Muchas de las naves de galeón español reunieron a su suerte en el mar, dando por
resultado una cantidad incalculable de tesoros sumergidos españolas.
Expertos arqueólogos asumen que el valor de galeón español hundido barcos y tesoros podría ser equivalente al
PIB de Irlanda, mientras que otros estiman que el valor total de Patrimonio español mentira en el fondo del mar
no tiene precio.
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Desde el siglo XVI, a la altura de la Español dominio, la flota de India se puso en marcha. La flota se componía
de los galeones españoles que llevan a los productos del nuevo mundo a Europa. A su llegada, todos los bienes
pasaron por el Sevilla Casa de comercio, el organismo encargado de realizar un seguimiento de todas las
importaciones.
Cruzando el océano Atlántico era de ninguna manera simple. Las naves estaban sujetas a varios riesgos, las más
importantes son el mismo mar. Las tormentas del mar eran frecuentes en el Atlántico y como resultado
innumerables naves fueron hundidas junto con su carga de materias primas, oro y plata .
Además el tiempo, el imperial galeones españoles sufrieron una variedad de otros peligros. La lucha política
sobre áreas de interés en el nuevo mundo dio lugar a tejido alianzas y conflictos entre tres gobiernos: Gran
Bretaña, Francia y España .
Sin duda, el principal enemigo del Imperio español en el extranjero hasta el siglo XIX fue Inglaterra. Corsario
inglés flotas incesantemente atacaron naves españolas y ciudades costeras en ambos España y las Américas.
Como resultado, muchas de las Islas del Caribe llegó a ser parte de la Commonwealth en inglés, como es el caso
de Jamaica.
Francia y Holanda también participaron en la conquista y Francia mantiene hoy territorio en Guadalupe en las
Antillas menores y Martinica en el este del mar Caribe. Las Antillas Holandesas consisten en dos grupos de islas
de las Antillas del Caribe.
La dominación europea del Caribe pone la más importante ruta de la nave entre España y Nueva España (hoy en
día México) en peligro. Se estima que frente a las costas de Puerto Rico solo podría ser más de 400 barcos
hundidos, incluidos los buques oficiales y contrabando.
Los gobiernos de la zona han tomado medidas para evitar el saqueo, que no siempre tienen éxito. Muchas
personas contratan cazadores de tesoros con la esperanza de que la vuelta vale la pena la inversión, aunque la
mayoría son infructuosa.
A menudo se piensa que los galeones españoles estaban llenos de oro, pero es generalmente no es el caso. La
mayoría de las naves había llevado principalmente productos perecederos tales como alimentos, tabaco y cuero.
Uno de los más importantes buscadores de tesoros fue Mel Fisher. Después de una búsqueda de 20 años, Fisher
descubrió un galeón español la nave llamada Nuestra Señora de Atocha que hundido en 1622 en los Cayos de la
Florida. El cazador de tesoros Rico fue recompensado y se estima que los tesoros de la ruina trajo un total de 400
millones de dólares en una subasta. Sin embargo, dudas persisten en cuanto a la autenticidad de algunas de las
monedas de plata, que algunos creen Fisher acuñadas a sí mismo. Mel Fisher falleció sin haber jamás reveló la
verdad.
Uno de los casos más notorios en los últimos años implicó la Empresa Odyssey que descubrieron que los
españoles de la nave de la costa de España. La nave fue llamada Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes y se había
hundido en 1808 entre Cádiz y la parte sur de Portugal. El estado español llevó la empresa Odyssey ante tribunal,
exigiéndole la devolución de los tesoros y ganó. España mantiene estrictas leyes que prohíben el tráfico de objetos
del patrimonio histórico.
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Spain Claims Sunken Treasure
The deep surrendered one of its mysteries today. Ever since May 2007, when the American shipwreck salvage
company Odyssey Marine gave its latest and most spectacular discovery the appropriately pirate-esque code name
of "The Black Swan," controversy about the ship's true identity has spawned speculation and even litigation about
who owned the lucrative shipwreck. Today, the Spanish government submitted evidence a Florida court that the
ship was actually Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a Spanish navy frigate that sank in the early 19th century. In
other words, that it was theirs.
"The mystery is over," said James Goold, the lawyer representing the Spanish government, at a Madrid press
conference on Thursday. "Odyssey stripped the gravesite of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes." Although Odyssey
representatives said they had sought to keep the shipwreck's exact location secret out of concern for the site's
security, in January, the court ordered the American company to reveal its findings to Spain. That information,
coupled with the government's own investigations, enabled Madrid to assert today that the sunken ship — and the
trove of silver treasure it contained — rightfully belong to the Spanish state.
The ownership dispute first erupted in April 2007, when the for-profit company Odyssey filed claim to and
extracted some 17 tons of silver coins and other treasure from the underwater site, moving the artifacts to an
undisclosed storage facility near its company headquarters in Tampa. From the outset, Spain believed that the ship
was Spanish, and that the excavation therefore amounted to an attack on its historical patrimony. Odyssey, on the
other hand, argued that as salvager it had the right to a significant percentage of the reclaimed booty regardless of
the ship's origins. And as recently as January 2008, Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm said that the company's own
experts were still uncertain of the ship's identity.
But according to the Spanish, both the wreck's location and the booty recovered from it clearly point to the
Mercedes. "We have been able to pinpoint Odyssey's operations in international waters, and confirm that they
were working where the Battle of Cape Saint Mary occurred," says Goold, referring to the 1804 battle in which a
British warship fired upon the Mercedes and blew it up. "The artifacts that remain are spilled in a way consistent
with an explosion. There's only one ship that fits that description." Stemm contests Goold's conclusion. "He is
either trying to twist the historical records," the Odyssey CEO says, "or he has not reviewed them."
At the press conference, Carmen Marcos, chief coin curator for Spain's National Archaeology Museum, said that
limited, preliminary evidence suggested that the pieces of eight recovered from the ship were minted in 1803 in
the then-Spanish colony of Peru. "The coins show us that the ship had recently left the port of El Callao in Lima.
Of that, there is no doubt," she said. Historical documents that Spain presented today show that the Mercedes left
El Callao in April 1804.
They also show that approximately 200 sailors and members of their families were killed in the explosion. "We
can consider the site an underwater cemetery," said José Jiménez, director of fine arts for the culture ministry. "It
contains the human remains of our sailors." Those remains now look to play a significant role in Spain's legal
strategy, as the case drags on in the Tampa court. One of Odyssey's arguments is that Spain had abandoned the
shipwreck site — a justification that another salvager, Mel Fisher, used successfully to lay claim to a pair of
Spanish ships sunk off the coast of Florida. But by contending that the shipwreck constitutes a "cemetery", Spain
can say that it hasn't disturbed the site out of respect for its own dead.
The depiction also makes for good p.r. "People have this idea of treasure hunters as glamorous," says Goold. "But
if it involves going down to a gravesite and taking someone's wedding ring, it's a different kind of thing."
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Spain Claims Sunken Treasure (In Spanish)
La profunda rindió uno de sus misterios en la actualidad. Desde mayo de 2007, cuando el estadounidense
naufragio salvamento empresa Odyssey Marine dio su último y más espectacular descubrimiento el nombre en
clave apropiada pirata al estilo de "El Cisne Negro", la controversia sobre la verdadera identidad de la nave ha
dado lugar a la especulación e incluso litigios acerca de quién era el dueño de la lucrativo naufragio. Hoy, el
gobierno español presentó pruebas de un tribunal de Florida que la nave era en realidad Nuestra Señora de las
Mercedes, una fragata armada española que se hundió en el siglo 19. En otras palabras, que era de ellos.
"El misterio ha terminado", dijo James Goold, el abogado que representa al gobierno español, en una conferencia
de prensa de Madrid el jueves. "Odyssey despojó a la tumba de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes". Aunque los
representantes de Odyssey dijeron que habían tratado de mantener en secreto la ubicación exacta del naufragio de
la preocupación por la seguridad del sitio, en enero, el tribunal ordenó a la empresa estadounidense para revelar
sus conclusiones a España. Esa información, junto con las propias investigaciones del gobierno, permitió a
Madrid a afirmar hoy que el barco hundido - y el hallazgo de un tesoro de plata que contenía - por derecho
pertenecen al Estado español.
La disputa por la propiedad surgió por primera vez en abril de 2007, cuando la empresa con fines de lucro
Odyssey presentó reclamación y extrae unas 17 toneladas de monedas de plata y otros tesoros del lugar bajo el
agua, moviendo los artefactos a una instalación de almacenamiento no revelado cerca de su sede central en
Tampa. Desde el principio, España cree que el barco era español, y que por lo tanto, la excavación fue de un
ataque a su patrimonio histórico. Odyssey, por su parte, sostuvo que como rescatador tenía derecho a un
porcentaje importante del botín recuperado independientemente de los orígenes de la nave. Más recientemente, en
enero de 2008, Odyssey Greg Stemm CEO dijo que los propios expertos de la compañía eran todavía incierto de
la identidad de la nave.
Pero, según el, tanto por su ubicación españoles del naufragio y el botín recuperado claramente que apunte al
Mercedes. "Hemos sido capaces de identificar las operaciones de Odyssey en aguas internacionales, y confirmar
que estaban trabajando cuando se produjo la Batalla del Cabo de Santa María", dijo Goold, en referencia al 1804
batalla en el que un buque de guerra británico disparó contra el Mercedes y lo hizo estallar . "Los artefactos que
quedan se vierten en una manera consistente con una explosión. Sólo hay un barco que se ajusta a esa
descripción". La conclusión de Stemm concursos Goold. "O se está tratando de torcer los registros históricos",
dijo el CEO Odyssey dice, "o no los ha revisado."
En la conferencia de prensa, Carmen Marcos, curador en jefe de monedas para el Museo Arqueológico Nacional
de España, dijo que limitada, la evidencia preliminar sugiere que los reales de a ocho recuperados del barco
fueron acuñadas en 1803 en la entonces colonia española del Perú. "Las monedas muestran que el barco había
abandonado recientemente el puerto de El Callao, en Lima. De eso no hay duda", dijo. Los documentos históricos
que España ha presentado hoy muestran que el Mercedes salió de El Callao, en abril de 1804.
También muestran que aproximadamente 200 marineros y miembros de sus familias que murieron en la
explosión. "Podemos considerar el sitio de un cementerio bajo el agua", dijo José Jiménez, director de Bellas
Artes para el Ministerio de Cultura. "Contiene los restos humanos de nuestros marineros". Los restos ahora mira a
desempeñar un papel importante en la estrategia legal de España, según el caso se prolonga en el tribunal de
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Tampa. Uno de los argumentos de Odyssey es que España había abandonado el lugar del accidente - una
justificación que otro rescatador, Mel Fisher, que se utiliza con éxito para reclamar un par de barcos españoles
hundidos en las costas de Florida. Sin embargo, al argumentar que el naufragio constituye un "cementerio",
España puede decir que no ha perturbado el sitio por respeto a sus propios muertos.
La pintura también hace una buena P.R. "La gente tiene la idea de buscadores de tesoros como glamorosa", dice
Goold. "Pero si se trata de bajar a la tumba, y teniendo el anillo de bodas de alguien, es un tipo diferente de
cosas."
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