Roman Gladiator's Gravestone Describes Fatal Foul

LiveScience.com – Mon Jun 20, 8:05 am ET

An enigmatic message on a Roman gladiator's 1,800-year-old tombstone has finally been decoded, telling a treacherous tale.

The epitaph and art on the tombstone suggest the gladiator, named Diodorus, lost the battle (and his life) due to a referee's error, according to Michael Carter, a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada. Carter studies gladiator contests and other spectacles in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

He examined the stone, which was discovered a century ago in Turkey, trying to determine what the drawing and inscription meant. [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead]

His results will be published in the most recently released issue of the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik(Journal for Papyrology and Ancient Epigraphics).

Tombstones talk

The tombstone was donated to the Musee du Cinquanternaire in Brussels, Belgium, shortly before World War I. It shows an image of a gladiator holding what appear to be two swords, standing above his opponent who is signalling his surrender. The inscription says that the stone marks the spot where a man named Diodorus is buried.

"After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately," reads the epitaph. "Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

The summa rudis is a referee, who may have had past experience as a gladiator.

The inscription also indicates Diodorus was born in and fought in Amisus, on the south coast of the Black Sea in Turkey.

Though Carter has examined hundreds of gladiator tombstones, this "epitaph is completely different from anything else; it's telling a story," he told LiveScience.

The final fight

The story the tombstone tells took place about 1,800 years ago when the empire was at its height, its borders stretching from Hadrian's Wall in England to the Euphrates River in Syria.

Gladiator games were popular spectacles, many of them pitting two men against each other. Although deaths from wounds were common, the battles were not the no-holds-barred fights to the death depicted by Hollywood, said Carter.

"I believe that there are a number of very detailed rules involved in regulating gladiatorial combat," Carter said.

Though the exact rules are not well understood, some information can be gleaned from references in surviving texts and art.

For starters, most, if not all, of the fights were overseen by the summa rudis.

Among the rules he enforced was one in which a defeated gladiator could request submission, and if submission was approved by the munerarius (the wealthy individual paying for the show), the contestant could leave the arena without further harm.

Another rule that appears to have been in place was that a gladiator who fell by accident (without the help of his opponent) would be allowed to get back up, pick up his equipment and resume combat.

Death of Diodorus

It's this last rule that appears to have done in Diodorus. Carter interprets the picture of the gladiator holding two swords to be a moment in his final fight, when Demetrius had been knocked down and Diodorus had grabbed a hold of his sword.

"Demetrius signals surrender, Diodorus doesn't kill him; he backs off expecting that he's going to win the fight," Carter said.

The battle appears to be over. However the summa rudis — perhaps interpreting Demetrius' fall as accidental, or perhaps with some ulterior motive — thought otherwise, Carter said.

"What the summa rudis has obviously done is stepped in, stopped the fight, allowed Demetrius to get back up again, take back his shield, take back his sword, and then resume the fight."

This time Diodorus was in trouble, and either he died in the arena or Demetrius inflicted a wound that led to his death shortly thereafter.

This event would have happened before a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of people in a theater or in part of an athletic stadium converted into a sort of mini- Colosseum.

After Diodorus was dead, the people who created his tombstone (probably family or friends) were so upset, Carter suggests, that they decided to include some final words on the epitaph:

"Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

The Mystery and Beauty of Noctilucent Clouds : Photos

Noctilucent Cloud
This is the time of year to look out for stunning "night-shining clouds," but their origins still baffle scientists.

Frothy Magnetic-Bubble Sea Found at Solar System's Edge

The edge of the solar system may be a frothy sea of giant magnetic "bubbles," a new NASA study says.

The new findings may mean that our system's magnetic barrier—once thought to be a smooth shield—may be letting in more harmful cosmic rays and energetic particles than previously thought.

The new "foam zone" theory is based on a computer model created using data from NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, both launched in 1977 and currently about 10 billion miles (16 billion kilometers) from Earth.

In 2007 Voyager 1 recorded dramatic dips and rises in the amount of electrons it encountered as the craft traveled through the heliosphere—the "force field" that surrounds the entire solar system and is created by the sun's magnetic field. Voyager 2 made similar observations of these charged particles in 2008.

A NASA computer model suggests the electron readings make sense if it's assumed the spacecraft were entering and exiting magnetic bubbles lining the edges of the heliosphere.

These magnetobubbles should act as electron traps, so the spacecraft would experience higher than normal electron bombardment.

Cosmic Jacuzzi Filled With Magnetic Bubbles?

According to the new model, the bubbles are large—about 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) wide—and shaped "like long sausages," said Merav Opher, an astronomer at Boston University, at a NASA press conference today.

The bubbles might be created by the rotation of the sun, the scientists said.

Like Earth, our sun has a magnetic field with a north pole and a south pole. As the sun spins, this magnetic field—which extends all the way to the edge of the solar system—should get twisted and wrinkled, like a ballerina's skirt.

"Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are now, the folds of the skirt get bunched up," Opher said in a statement.

These "folds" can get broken up into numerous magnetic bubbles, creating a "foam zone" along the edge of the heliosphere.

"It's very bubbly as far as we can tell," Jim Drake, a University of Maryland physicist, said at the press conference. "This entire thing is like the most bubbly part of your Jacuzzi."

Unlike a hot tub's roiling surface, however, the foam zone should be relatively calm, Opher said.

"Inside this sea of bubbles, there are oscillations. ... They are not huge but they are measurable," he said. "I would say it's a quiet turbulence."

Softer Magnetic Shield No Threat to Earth

One implication of the new finding is that the edge of the heliosphere is more like a membrane than a shield against cosmic rays.

Galactic cosmic rays can become temporarily trapped in the foam zone, but they will eventually wander into our system and then zip along the solar magnetic field lines toward the sun and Earth, the researchers say.

"We're living on Earth, so we don't have to worry about, it because we're shielded by a thick atmosphere," Opher explained.

"But if you're an astronaut heading to Mars, you really have to care about the radiation environment in the heliosphere." Cosmic radiation can, among other things, compromise the body's immune system.

The new findings could also affect astronomers' understanding about the environments around other stars.

"What we know abut the heliosphere serves as a model for other stars," Opher said. "So the fact that we're revisiting what we know about the [heliosphere] will mean we will probably have to revisit what we know about other astrosheaths as well."

The research will be detailed in the June 9 issue of Astrophysical Journal.

Nanotechnology Circuits for Wireless Devices: First Wafer-Scale Graphene Integrated Circuit Smaller Than a Pinhead

IBM Research scientists have announced that they have achieved a milestone in creating a building block for the future of wireless devices. In a paper published in the journal Science, IBM researchers announced the first integrated circuit fabricated from wafer-size graphene, and demonstrated a broadband frequency mixer operating at frequencies up to 10 gigahertz (10 billion cycles/second).

Designed for wireless communications, this graphene-based analog integrated circuit could improve today's wireless devices and points to the potential for a new set of appli-cations. At today's conventional frequencies, cell phone and transceiver signals could be improved, potentially allowing phones to work where they can't today while, at much higher frequencies, military and medical personnel could see concealed weapons or conduct medical imaging without the same radiation dangers of X-rays.

Graphene, the thinnest electronic material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms packed in a honeycomb structure, possesses outstanding electrical, optical, mechanical and thermal properties that could make it less expensive and use less energy inside portable electronics like smart phones.

Despite significant scientific progress in the understanding of this novel material and the demonstration of high-performance graphene-based devices, the challenge of integrat-ing graphene transistors with other components on a single chip had not been realized until now, mostly due to poor adhesion of graphene with metals and oxides and the lack of reliable fabrication schemes to yield reproducible devices and circuits.

This new integrated circuit, consisting of a graphene transistor and a pair of inductors compactly integrated on a silicon carbide (SiC) wafer, overcomes these design hurdles by developing wafer-scale fabrication procedures that maintain the quality of graphene and, at the same time, allow for its integration to other components in a complex cir-cuitry.

"Just a few days before IBM commemorates its 100th anniversary, our scientists have achieved a nanotechnology milestone which continues the company's century-long pur-suit of innovation and technology leadership," said T.C. Chen, vice president, Science and Technology, IBM Research. "This research breakthrough has the potential to in-crease the performance of communication devices that enable people to interact with greater efficiency." The breakthrough is also a major milestone for the Carbon Electronics for RF Applica-tions (CERA) program, funded by DARPA.

How it Works

In this demonstration, graphene is synthesized by thermal annealing of SiC wafers to form uniform graphene layers on the surface of SiC. The fabrication of graphene circuits involves four layers of metal and two layers of oxide to form top-gated graphene transis-tor, on-chip inductors and interconnects.

The circuit operates as a broadband frequency mixer, which produces output signals with mixed frequencies (sum and difference) of the input signals. Mixers are fundamental components of many electronic communication systems. Frequency mixing up to 10 GHz and excellent thermal stability up to 125°C has been demonstrated with the graphene integrated circuit.

The fabrication scheme developed can also be applied to other types of graphene mate-rials, including chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene films synthesized on metal films, and are also compatible with optical lithography for reduced cost and throughput.

Previously, the team has demonstrated standalone graphene transistors with a cut-off frequency as high as 100 GHz and 155 GHz for epitaxial and CVD graphene, for a gate length of 240 and 40 nm, respectively.

IBM and Nanotechnology Leadership

In the company's 100 year history, IBM has invested in scientific research to shape the future of computing. This announcement is a demonstration of the results garnered by IBM's world-leading scientists and the company's continual investment in and focus on exploratory research.

Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that is expected to spark advances in various fields. These include advanced functional materials, sensing, tools, healthcare, bio-analytics, water purification, energy technology, and more. IBM scientists apply their nanoscience expertise to problems outside of nanoelectronics and help tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as more efficient use of solar energy, and new ways of purifying or desalinating water.

IBM also recently opened the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center -- a facility for world-class nanoscale research recently opened on the campus of IBM Research -- Zu-rich. The building is the centerpiece of a 10-year strategic partnership in nanoscience between IBM and ETH Zurich, one of Europe's premier technical universities, where sci-entists will research novel nanoscale structures and devices to advance energy and in-formation technologies.

Cops Arrest Three Anonymous Members Allegedly Involved in Sony Hack

Spanish authorities announced Friday they have arrested three members of the hacking group Anonymous in connection to attacks against Sony’s online Playstation network and other sites.

The police said the three, whose identities were not disclosed, carried out the attacks from a server based in one of the suspect’s houses in northern Spain, Reuters said.

Anonymous, a loose-knit collective of online griefers, has denied that it participated in the Sony hack, but has publicly taken credit for attacks against PayPal, Visa and others because those institutions declined to transmit donations to the whistleblower site, WikiLeaks.

The hack against Sony’s Playstation site forced the company to shutter its online gaming service for more than a month. Sony Chairman Howard Stringer said Anonymous had attacked the websites of several Sony divisions.

Anonymous recently declared Sony a target to protest the company’s lawsuit against PlayStation 3 tinkerer George Hotz. Sony claimed an Anonymous calling card was found on one of the compromised servers.

But Anonymous said last month that “online thieves” have framed the group insofar as the attacks on Sony were concerned.

The Spanish police said that Anonymous was responsible for hacks of government sites in Algeria, Iran, Egypt and Libya, in addition to two Spanish banks and an Italian energy concern.

Authorities in the United States are also probing the group.

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Approaches Protoplanet Vesta

ScienceDaily (June 10, 2011) — NASA's Dawn mission to the doughnut-shaped asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which launched in September 2007, is now approaching Vesta, a protoplanet that is currently some 143 million miles from Earth. Many surprises are likely awaiting the spacecraft.

"We often refer to Vesta as the smallest terrestrial planet," said Christopher T. Russell, a UCLA professor of geophysics and space physics and the mission's principal investigator. "It has planetary features and basically the same structure as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. But because it is so small, it does not have enough gravity to retain an atmosphere, or at least not to retain an atmosphere for very long.

"There are many mysteries about Vesta," Russell said. "One of them is why Vesta is so bright. Earth reflects a lot of sunlight -- about 40 percent -- because it has clouds and snow on the surface, while the moon reflects only about 10 percent of the light from the sun back. Vesta is more like Earth. Why? What on its surface is causing all that sunlight to be reflected? We'll find out."

Dawn will map Vesta's surface, which Russell says may be similar to the moon's. He says he expects that the body's interior is layered, with a crust, a mantle and an iron core. He is eager to learn about this interior and how large the iron core is.

Named for the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth, Vesta has been bombarded by meteorites for 4.5 billion years.

"We expect to see a lot of craters," Russell said. "We know there is an enormous crater at the south pole that we can see with the Hubble Space Telescope. That crater, some 280 miles across, has released material into the asteroid belt. Small bits of Vesta are floating around and make their way all the way to the orbit of Earth and fall in our atmosphere. About one in every 20 meteorites that falls on the surface of Earth comes from Vesta. That has enabled us to learn a lot about Vesta before we even get there."

Dawn will arrive at Vesta in July. Beginning in September, the spacecraft will orbit Vesta some 400 miles from its surface. It will then move closer, to about 125 miles from the surface, starting in November. By January of 2012, Russell expects high-resolution images and other data about surface composition. Dawn is arriving ahead of schedule and is expected to orbit Vesta for a year.

"It's been a long trip," said Russell, who started planning the journey back in 1992. "Finally, the moment of truth is about to arrive."

Vesta, which orbits the sun every 3.6 terrestrial years, has an oval, pumpkin-like shape and an average diameter of approximately 330 miles. Studies of meteorites found on Earth that are believed to have come from Vesta suggest that Vesta formed from galactic dust during the solar system's first 3 million to 10 million years.

Dawn's cameras should be able to see individual lava flows and craters tens of feet across on Vesta's surface.

"We will scurry around when the data come in, trying to make maps of the surface and learning its exact shape and size," Russell said.

Dawn has a high-quality camera, along with a back-up; a visible and near-infrared spectrometer that will identify minerals on the surface; and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer that will reveal the abundance of elements such as iron and hydrogen, possibly from water, in the soil. Dawn will also probe Vesta's gravity with radio signals.

The study of Vesta, however, is only half of Dawn's mission. The spacecraft will also conduct a detailed study of the structure and composition of the "dwarf planet" Ceres. Vesta and Ceres are the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn's goals include determining the shape, size, composition, internal structure, and the tectonic and thermal evolution of both objects, and the mission is expected to reveal the conditions under which each of them formed.

Dawn, only the second scientific mission to be powered by an advanced NASA technology known as ion propulsion, is also the first NASA mission to orbit two major objects.

"Twice the bang for the buck on this mission," said Russell, who added that without ion propulsion, Dawn would have cost three times as much.

Unlike chemical rocket engines, ion engines accelerate their fuel nearly continuously, giving each ion a tremendous burst of speed. The fuel used by an ion engine is xenon, a gas that is also used in photo-flash units and which is more than four times heavier than air. Xenon ions shoot out the back of the engine at a speed of 90,000 miles per hour.

UCLA graduate and postdoctoral students work with Russell on the mission. Now is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to join the project and help analyze the data, said Russell, who teaches planetary science to UCLA undergraduates and solar and space physics to undergraduates and graduate students.

After orbiting Vesta, Dawn will leave for its three-year journey to Ceres, which could harbor substantial water or ice beneath its rock crust -- and possibly life. On the way to Ceres, Dawn may visit another object. The spacecraft will rendezvous with Ceres and begin orbiting in 2015, conducting studies and observations for at least five months.

Russell believes that Ceres and Vesta, formed almost 4.6 billion years ago, have preserved their early record, which was frozen into their ancient surfaces.

"We're going back in time to the early solar system," he said.

The Dawn mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Team members include scientists from JPL, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Planetary Science Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions.

Scientific partners include the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg, Germany; the DLR Institute for Planetary Research in Berlin; the Freie Universitaet in Berlin; the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome;http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and the Italian Space Agency.

Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

UCLA is in charge of Dawn's science and public outreach. Russell leads the science team; he and his colleagues make science decisions through the science center at UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. His science team has the lead role in analyzing and interpreting the data from Dawn.

Dawn is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., in which scientists find innovative ways to unlock the mysteries of our solar system by answering some of humanity's oldest questions.

For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/dawn

Nearby Galaxy Boasts Two Monster Black Holes, Both Active

A study using NASA's Swift satellite and the Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a second supersized black hole at the heart of an unusual nearby galaxy already known to be sporting one.
The galaxy, which is known as Markarian 739 or NGC 3758, lies 425 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Only about 11,000 light-years separate the two cores, each of which contains a black hole gorging on infalling gas.

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"At the hearts of most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, lies a supermassive black hole weighing millions of times the sun's mass," said Michael Koss, the study's lead author at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland in College Park (UMCP). "Some of them radiate billions of times as much energy as the sun."

Astronomers refer to galaxy centers exhibiting such intense emission as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Yet as common as monster black holes are, only about one percent of them are currently powerful AGN. Binary AGN are rarer still: Markarian 739 is only the second identified within half a billion light-years.

Many scientists think that disruptive events like galaxy collisions trigger AGN to switch on by sending large amounts of gas toward the black hole. As the gas spirals inward, it becomes extremely hot and radiates huge amounts of energy.

Since 2004, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) aboard Swift has been mapping high-energy X-ray sources all around the sky. The survey is sensitive to AGN up to 650 million light-years away and has uncovered dozens of previously unrecognized systems. Follow-up studies by Koss and colleagues published in 2010 reveal that about a quarter of the Swift BAT AGN were either interacting or in close pairs, with perhaps 60 percent of them poised to merge in another billion years.

"If two galaxies collide and each possesses a supermassive black hole, there should be times when both black holes switch on as AGN," said coauthor Richard Mushotzky, professor of astronomy at UMCP. "We weren't seeing many double AGN, so we turned to Chandra for help."

Swift's BAT instrument is scanning one-tenth of the sky at any given moment, its X-ray survey growing more sensitive every year as its exposure increases. Where Swift's BAT provided a wide-angle view, the X-ray telescope aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory acted like a zoom lens and resolved details a hundred times smaller.

For decades, astronomers have known that the eastern nucleus of Markarian 739 contains a black hole that is actively accreting matter and generating prodigious energy. The Chandra study shows that its western neighbor is too. This makes the galaxy one of the nearest and clearest cases of a binary AGN.

The distance separating the two black holes is about a third of the distance separating the solar system from the center of our own galaxy. The dual AGN of Markarian 739 is the second-closest known, both in terms of distance from one another and distance from Earth. However, another galaxy known as NGC 6240 holds both records.

How did the second AGN remain hidden for so long? "Markarian 739 West shows no evidence of being an AGN in visible, ultraviolet and radio observations," said coauthor Sylvain Veilleux, a professor of astronomy at UMCP. "This highlights the critical importance of high-resolution observations at high X-ray energies in locating binary AGN."

The research team also includes Ezequiel Treister and David Sanders at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Kevin Schawinski at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and Ranjan Vasudevan, Neal Miller and Margaret Trippe at the University of Maryland, College Park.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Swift, launched in November 2004, is managed by Goddard. It was built and is being operated in collaboration with Penn State University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and General Dynamics in Falls Church, Va.; the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in the United Kingdom; Brera Observatory and the Italian Space Agency in Italy; plus additional partners in Germany and Japan.

The Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

For more information, images and video, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/monster-black-holes.html

DNA Computer Gets Scaled Up

Researchers built a transistor network made up of 74 DNA molecules.
Each circuit takes 30 to 60 minutes to complete a calculation.
The hope is to one day build motors and transistors at a molecular level to help fight disease.

Scientists linked 74 DNA molecules together to perform a square-root computation.

Scientists have long wanted to build motors, transistors and switches at the molecular level with hopes of one day being able to help fight diseases or do amazing mini-feats of engineering.

A group of California researchers say they've made a big step toward that effort in an experiment that linked 74 DNA molecules together to perform a square-root computation.

It's the largest biochemical circuit ever made, and could lead to new ways of building tiny diagnostic tests and new biosensors, according to Erik Winfree, co-author and professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology.

"When the first transistor was built, they could do one," Winfree said. "Then they hooked together 10 into a circuit, now we are at millions. Some information technologies have this scaling property. That's what we are looking for at the biochemical level."


To build these biochemical circuits, Winfree and postdoctoral student Lulu Qian used strands of DNA to make a series of "see-saw gates" that produce on or off signals when responding to contact with another molecule. In a computer, these gates are made with electronic transistors, which are wired together to form circuits on a silicon chip. Winfree and Qian built their biochemical transistor in a test tube. Their work is being published in today's edition of the journal Science.
.

"Our seesaw reaction using DNA is somewhat analogous to a transistor, except here the signals are concentrations of molecules," Winfree said.

The strands of DNA formed a circuit that can compute the square root of a number up to 15, and round it to the nearest integer. Even though the molecular calculator worked, it took a long time. Because different kinds of chemical molecules interfered with the DNA "seesaw gates," each individual bio-circuit took 30 to 60 minutes to complete, and the whole operation took more than 10 hours.

Winfree says the goal isn't speed but accuracy, and developing the right kind of structure so different kinds of biochemical circuits can follow.

Winfree and his colleagues first built this kind of circuit back in 2006. But he was able to figure out a way to make a simpler connection so the whole process could be expanded successfully. Other experts in the field praised the experiment and said it has given them a roadmap for their work.

"(Winfree) and others have created a field that has enormous potential," said Andy Ellington, professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas.

Ellington's lab is developing a diagnostic test for malaria so that doctors will be able to identify patients in the jungle rather than bringing samples back to a hospital. The test uses a similar chain of biochemical transistors to perform a blood analysis for the malaria parasite. Ellington said Winfree's experiment is good news for the field of DNA computation.

"Seeing that it is possible is important," Ellington said. "It provides design principles for others like myself."

‘Devil Worm’ Takes Animal Life to New Depths

It came from the deep, a mile below the Earth’s surface, in a place where only bacteria were thought to exist.

It’s Halicephalobus mephisto, a new species of roundworm that radically extends the possibilities of animal life on this planet and perhaps on others.

“Our results expand the known metazoan biosphere and demonstrate that deep ecosystems are more complex than previously accepted,” wrote researchers led by biologist Gaetan Borgonie of Belgium’s Ghent University in a June 1 Nature paper. “The ability of multicellular organisms to survive in the subsurface should be considered in the evolution of eukaryotes and the search for life on Mars.”

It’s only been two decades since scientists recognized that any life whatsoever could live hundreds or thousands of feet beneath Earth’s surface, a region of extreme pressure, high temperatures and few nutrients. Now it’s thought that up to one-half of all biological matter exists there, though this newly conventional wisdom holds that subsurface life is strictly the domain of single-celled organisms, not complex animals.

‘If life arose on Mars and it is still there deep underground, then it may have continued to evolve into something more complex than we are willing to entertain today.’

For the last 20 years, Borgonie has studied roundworms, developing what he calls “a healthy respect for their ability to withstand stress.” Various members of the ubiquitous, 28,000-species-strong phylum can live almost without oxygen, in extremely acidic environments, and despite prolonged starvation. When space shuttle Columbia tragically disintegrated upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere in 2003, roundworms in a canister on its wings survived.

Five years ago, Borgonie started to wonder whether roundworms might live in Earth’s subsurface. Comparing their known physiological limits to subsurface conditions, he reasoned that roundworms should be able to survive there. Few people agreed.

“Everyone thought I was insane risking a career hunting something everybody said they knew could not be,” said Borgonie. But even as grantmakers denied him funding, he met Tullis Onstott, a Princeton University biologist who also suspected that roundworms could live deep.

Borgonie took a sabbatical in 2008, and the pair used money from their savings to travel to South Africa, home to some of the world’s deepest mines. Water recovered from their depths had already revealed such extremophile marvels as the world’s first single-organism ecosystem. Borgonie and Onstott’s team found the world’s first subsurface animals.

The most striking creature was a previously undescribed, 0.05-cm-long roundworm of the Halicephalobus genus, which Borgonie and Onstott dubbed H. mephisto in honor of the German lord of the underworld. Also present were a known roundworm, Plectus aquiatilis, and an as-yet-unidentified specimen. Subsequent tests found they ate subsurface bacteria, thus sealing any question of their origin.
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While their specimens were all found at depths of one mile, water from two miles down returned a “DNA signal,” or genes that belonged to some still-unidentified roundworm. Asked what else could be there, Borgognie said, “My guess is more than we think. If nematodes are there, then some other small invertebrates might be there too.”

As to how H. mephisto and other animals might influence flows of energy and chemicals beneath Earth’s surface, that isn’t yet known, said Borgonie. It’s not even known whether and how life’s subsurface cycles affect life above, though it makes sense that some connection exists. “We’re only scratching the surface,” said Borgonie. “What is sure is that the nematodes we found do eat bacteria. As such they will affect the turnover of the microbial community, and that is completely new.”

According to Borgonie, subsurface roundworms should be found all over the world, including far below the ocean floor, where some scientists think Earth’s life originated. The implications may even extend to other worlds, where researchers generally assume that conditions will be so extreme as to preclude all but single-celled life.

“Harsh conditions do not automatically preclude complexity,” said Borgognie. “If life arose on Mars and it is still there deep underground, then it may have continued to evolve into something more complex than we are willing to entertain today.”

Image: Halicephalobus mephisto. (Ghent University).

Quantum Knowledge Cools Computers: New Understanding of Entropy

From a laptop warming a knee to a supercomputer heating a room, the idea that computers generate heat is familiar to everyone. But theoretical physicists have discovered something astonishing: not only do computational processes sometimes generate no heat, under certain conditions they can even have a cooling effect. Behind this finding are fundamental considerations relating to knowledge and a lack of knowledge. The researchers publish their findings in the journal Nature.

When computers compute, the energy they consume eventually ends up as heat. This isn't all due to the engineering of the computer -- physics has something to say about the fundamental energy cost of processing information.

Recent research by a team of physicists reveals a surprise at this fundamental level. ETH-Professor Renato Renner, and Vlatko Vedral of the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore and the University of Oxford, UK, and their colleagues describe in the scientific journal Nature how the deletion of data, under certain conditions, can create a cooling effect instead of generating heat. The cooling effect appears when the strange quantum phenomenon of entanglement is invoked. Ultimately, it may be possible to harness this effect to cool supercomputers that have their performance held back by heat generation. "Achieving the control at the quantum level that would be required to implement this in supercomputers is a huge technological challenge, but it may not be impossible. We have seen enormous progress is quantum technologies over the past 20 years," says Vedral. With the technology in quantum physics labs today, it should be possible to do a proof of principle experiment on a few bits of data.

Landauer's principle is given a quantum twist

The physicist Rolf Landauer calculated back in 1961 that during the deletion of data, some release of energy in the form of heat is unavoidable. Landauer's principle implies that when a certain number of arithmetical operations per second have been exceeded, the computer will produce so much heat that the heat is impossible to dissipate. In supercomputers today other sources of heat are more significant, but Renner thinks that the critical threshold where Landauer's erasure heat becomes important may be reached within the next 10 to 20 years. The heat emission from the deletion of a ten terabyte hard-drive amounts in principle to less than a millionth of a joule. However, if such a deletion process were repeated many times per second then the heat would accumulate correspondingly.

The new study revisits Landauer's principle for cases when the values of the bits to be deleted may be known. When the memory content is known, it should be possible to delete the bits in such a manner that it is theoretically possible to re-create them. It has previously been shown that such reversible deletion would generate no heat. In the new paper, the researchers go a step further. They show that when the bits to be deleted are quantum-mechanically entangled with the state of an observer, then the observer could even withdraw heat from the system while deleting the bits. Entanglement links the observer's state to that of the computer in such a way that they know more about the memory than is possible in classical physics.

Similar formulas -- two disciplines

In order to reach this result, the scientists combined ideas from information theory and thermodynamics about a concept known as entropy. Entropy appears differently in these two disciplines, which are, to a large extent, independent of each other. In information theory, entropy is a measurement of the information density. It describes, for instance, how much memory capacity a given set of data would take up when compressed optimally. In thermodynamics, on the other hand, entropy relates to the disorder in systems, for example to the arrangement of molecules in a gas. In thermodynamics, adding entropy to a system is usually equivalent to adding energy as heat.

The ETH physicist Renner says "We have now shown that in both cases, the term entropy is actually describing the same thing even in the quantum mechanical regime." As the formulas for the two entropies look the same, it had already been assumed that there was a connection between them. "Our study shows that in both cases, entropy is considered to be a type of lack of knowledge," says Renner. The new paper in Nature builds on work published earlier in the New Journal of Physics.

In measuring entropy, one should bear in mind that an object does not have a certain amount of entropy per se, instead an object's entropy is always dependent on the observer. Applied to the example of deleting data, this means that if two individuals delete data in a memory and one has more knowledge of this data, she perceives the memory to have lower entropy and can then delete the memory using less energy. Entropy in quantum physics has the unusual property of sometimes being negative when calculated from the information theory point of view. Perfect classical knowledge of a system means the observer perceives it to have zero entropy. This corresponds to the memory of the observer and that of the system being perfectly correlated, as much as allowed in classical physics. Entanglement gives the observer „more than complete knowledge" because quantum correlations are stronger than classical correlations. This leads to an entropy less than zero. Until now, theoretical physicists had used this negative entropy in calculations without understanding what it might mean in thermodynamic terms or experimentally.

No heat, even a cooling effect

In the case of perfect classical knowledge of a computer memory (zero entropy), deletion of the data requires in theory no energy at all. The researchers prove that "more than complete knowledge" from quantum entanglement with the memory (negative entropy) leads to deletion of the data being accompanied by removal of heat from the computer and its release as usable energy. This is the physical meaning of negative entropy.

Renner emphasizes, however, "This doesn't mean that we can develop a perpetual motion machine." The data can only be deleted once, so there is no possibility to continue to generate energy. The process also destroys the entanglement, and it would take an input of energy to reset the system to its starting state. The equations are consistent with what's known as the second law of thermodynamics: the idea that the entropy of the universe can never decrease. Vedral says "We're working on the edge of the second law. If you go any further, you will break it."

Fundamental findings

The scientists' new findings relating to entropy in thermodynamics and information theory may have usefulness beyond calculating the heat production of computers. For example, methods developed within information theory to handle entropy could lead to innovations in thermodynamics. The connection made between the two concepts of entropy is fundamental.

'Dead' Galaxies Aren't So Dead After All

University of Michigan astronomers examined old galaxies and were surprised to discover that they are still making new stars. The results provide insights into how galaxies evolve with time. U-M research fellow Alyson Ford and astronomy professor Joel Bregman presented their findings May 31 at a meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society in London, Ontario.

Using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope, they saw individual young stars and star clusters in four galaxies that are about 40 million light years away. One light year is about 5.9 trillion miles.

"Scientists thought these were dead galaxies that had finished making stars a long time ago," Ford said. "But we've shown that they are still alive and are forming stars at a fairly low level."

Galaxies generally come in two types: spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, and elliptical galaxies. The stars in spiral galaxies lie in a disk that also contains cold, dense gas, from which new stars are regularly formed at a rate of about one sun per year.

Stars in elliptical galaxies, on the other hand, are nearly all billions of years old. These galaxies contain stars that orbit every which way, like bees around a beehive. Ellipticals have little, if any, cold gas, and no star formation was known.

"Astronomers previously studied star formation by looking at all of the light from an elliptical galaxy at once, because we usually can't see individual stars," Ford said. "Our trick is to make sensitive ultraviolet images with the Hubble Space Telescope, which allows us to see individual stars."

The technique enabled the astronomers to observe star formation, even if it is as little as one sun every 100,000 years.

Ford and Bregman are working to understand the stellar birth rate and likelihood of stars forming in groups within ellipticals. In the Milky Way, stars usually form in associations containing from tens to 100,000 stars. In elliptical galaxies, conditions are different because there is no disk of cold material to form stars.

"We were confused by some of the colors of objects in our images until we realized that they must be star clusters, so most of the star formation happens in associations," Ford said.

The team's breakthrough came when they observed Messier 105, a normal elliptical galaxy that is 34 million light years away, in the constellation Leo. Though there had been no previous indication of star formation in Messier 105, Ford and Bregman saw a few bright, very blue stars, resembling a single star 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun.

They also saw objects that aren't blue enough to be single stars, but instead are clusters of many stars. When accounting for these clusters, stars are forming in Messier 105 at an average rate of one sun every 10,000 years, Ford and Bregman concluded. "This is not just a burst of star formation but a continuous process," Ford said.

These findings raise new mysteries, such as the origin of the gas that forms the stars.

"We're at the beginning of a new line of research, which is very exciting, but at times confusing," Bregman said. "We hope to follow up this discovery with new observations that will really give us insight into the process of star formation in these 'dead' galaxies."

Microscopic Worms Could Help Open Up Travel Into Deep Space

A space flight by millions of microscopic worms could help us overcome the numerous threats posed to human health by space travel. The Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) have also given experts an insight into how to block muscle degradation in the sick and elderly.
The worms -- from The University of Nottingham -- were flown into space onboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. They spent 11 days in orbit onboard the International Space Station more than 200 miles above Earth.

Many of C. elegans' 20,000 genes perform the same functions as those in humans. Experts in human physiology from the School of Graduate Entry Medicine wanted to study the effectiveness of RNA interference (RNAi), a tried and tested technique which regulates gene expression in diseased tissue, and whether this technique could be employed to reduce or control the dramatic muscle loss experienced by astronauts during spaceflight.

The results of this research, published June 1, 2011 in the journal PLoS ONE, have shown that RNAi, which is already the subject of more than a dozen clinical trials to target illnesses ranging from cancer to asthma, functions normally in space flight and could be used as a viable option to treat and control muscle degradation in spaceflight. Their discovery will not only be of interest to astronauts but will also help people who suffer from muscle wasting caused by illness and old age.

Dr Nathaniel Szewczyk from the Division of Clinical Physiology said: "It was really a quite straightforward experiment. Once the worms were in space the scientists onboard the International Space Station treated them with RNAi and then returned them to us for post flight analysis. These results are very exciting as they provide a valuable experimental tool for spaceflight research and clearly demonstrate that RNAi can be used effectively to block proteins which are needed for muscle to shrink."

During the flight a series of experiments were carried out by Japanese scientists onboard the International Space Station. When the flight samples were returned to Nottingham the results were analysed by Dr Timothy Etheridge, in the Division of Clinical Physiology.

Timothy Etheridge said: "We were very pleased that, given the numerous problems associated with conducting research in space, our experiments went as planned and allowed us to demonstrate that this form of gene therapy works effectively during spaceflight. The unexpected finding that RNAi can effectively block protein degradation in muscle in space was also a very welcome surprise."

The experiment was part of the Japanese CERISE payload and funded as parts of a $1m (£0.6m) United States National Institute of Health grant to investigate the genetic basis of muscle atrophy and a £0.5m Medical Research Council grant to investigate how physical forces prevent muscle wasting. The recently installed Kibo lab is being used for the study of biomedicine and material sciences making use of the weightless conditions experienced in orbit.

Biological experiments in space need life support -- oxygen, temperature control and pressure -- so competition for space on manned flights is fierce and in short supply.

The origins of Dr Szewczyk's worms can be traced back to a rubbish dump in Bristol. C. elegans often feed on bacteria that develop on decaying vegetable matter.

The Elite of Planet Earth

In the Kali Yuga the Darkside rules and the Light is veiled, hidden, submerged. Blinded by greed, the actions of the ignorant, the deluded, and the foolish bring about the inevitable dissolution of the world - so that the next four cycles of time may begin. The existence of a polarity universe requires light and darkness, good and evil, truth and falsehood. The Darkside is playing its part. You might say it is their job, their dharma. Some do it very well - and here is the story of one…


The Prince of Darkness Meets His World Elite

Appropriating Planet Earth

Hovering over the city, the Prince of Darkness sat in his black helicopter. He glanced at his Italian shoes and noticing a scuffmark, summoned one of his servant girls. A beautiful Oriental child approached him on her knees and, her eyes cast down, began to polish the rich dark leather on his $1000 shoes. He looked out the helicopter window, thinking how he enjoyed these yearly meetings with the elite technocrat managers he had created. These men were the top executives in their fields. For him, the term executive had a particularly delicious connotation, meaning he allowed them to execute his will.

These men all had the same characteristics in common: they each were consumed by personal ambition and their intelligence was infected with an imbalance that could be skewed to his demands. Each of these disposable corporate giants was trained to focus on implementing efficient managerial solutions that did not reflect simple human needs. Individualism, imagination, and creativity were sacrificed at the altar of profit, statistics, and the oh-so-holy bottom line. Each of these harbored deep insecurities that allowed them to ignore any pesky nagging conscience. Their fears of insignificance left them dysfunctional and easily manipulated. Genetic alteration had left the human species vulnerable to mind control and the Prince of Darkness was most certainly a master of mind control.

The helicopter landed on the top of a skyscraper and he was escorted to a private elevator that took him to a meeting room where his technocrats awaited him. The room was mahogany and glass with views of the vast polluted city spreading out beneath them.

Democracy is slipping away

The people on planet Earth had not experienced true liberty in a long time. The last remnants of their beloved democracy were slipping away from them, just as planned.

A servant offered him the central chair and the attending executive technocrats sat down in their respective places. In their everyday lives these men controlled vast empires of industry, communications, finance, and world trade. But in his presence, they became the clay every tyrant is made of. They became vulnerable dysfunctional children, and their weaknesses amused him.

Each powerful executive wore the almost identical dark suit, the tailoring of which gave the appearance of extreme wealth, but the uniform-like similarity of all the suits robbed a man of his individuality. There was no freedom of expression; even their ties were similar. Each face had the same look of aggression, power, and emptiness. The men were not loved; in fact, they had come to prefer fear to love and prostitutes to their wives.

The "Mix": mixing truth with lies

The Prince of Darkness first addressed the head of propaganda, as this was truly his favorite endeavor. The infamous "Mix", the process of mixing truth with lies, or even more challenging, simply passing total boldface lies off as truth was endlessly titillating to him. The gullible humans generally were easy to fool especially after the invention of television and mass communications. Television had the added convenience of being hypnotic by the very nature of its technology requiring only the addition of endless repetition to make even the most intelligent and curious human being passive, numb, and unconscious. In a state of perpetual trance, the willing audiences had even taken to calling themselves couch potatoes, a term he enjoyed.



The bewildered herd

"Stewart," he addressed his propaganda minister, "how are things going in the domain of engineering consent?"

"Oh, Sir!" Stewart Bernays replied, "We are moving forward in a most efficient manner. There are now thousands of lawyers and lobbyists living in the Washington D.C. area manipulating elected officials to pass laws in favor of corporations and the One World Order. These men and women consider themselves to be the elite of the world and their narcissism of superiority leaves them pliable to our will. They enjoy the arts influence peddling, making sure the will of the common people has been silenced.

"The bewildered herd of individual voters is convinced that participation in their democratic elections is virtually useless. Thanks to our massive and pervasive lobbying techniques, they are correct in considering themselves rendered ineffective. We have succeeded in accessing taxpayer dollars to fund our lobbying along with the corporate profits that also come from consumers and lucrative corporate tax benefits. Corporations pay a fraction of all the taxes in the country!"

They do not think for themselves

"Excellent! And are the public relations firms succeeding?" The Prince of Darkness asked.

"Splendidly, Sir! We are moving into a 96% influence range. The population at large imagines that the programming they watch on their televisions is independent reporting, when in fact most of what they see is totally produced by our public relations firms to teach them how to think. Of course they cannot think for themselves. There have been a few pathetic attempts by the maverick fringe to educate the viewer that they are being manipulated; but as usual, the masses are so passively hypnotized that they ignore any warnings."

"Excellent," said the evil prince. "And you, Atherton Spleek, how goes it with you?"



The tentacles of the conglomerates

"Sir, everything is going quite well." Atherton was terrified of his master. His voice began to tremble and he mumbled, "There are now very few major corporate conglomerates controlling almost all the major information services on the planet. The small independent newspapers and book publishers are being squeezed out of existence and their voices go unheard. Journalistic integrity has been reduced to profit. Sensible common sense queries into the nature of life and political dialogues have been replaced by talk-show propagandists, who broadcast sensationalistic scandals and trials, that dull the mind and the basic need to engage in questioning and doubt.

"Practically no one reads anymore and if they do, they do not read literature or history. With no knowledge of the past, they have no memory with which to compare their current state. The dream of individual freedoms and of all men being created equal will soon die. Many young people do not know any past history or even the names of their elected officials."

The Prince of Darkness was pleased and turned to the minister of chemical engineering and food production, A.D. Lowland.



Short-term memory loss

"So A.D., how goes it with your administration?"

"Our plans are moving forward in a timely and effective manner, Sir," A.D. Lowland replied. "The food now contains massive amounts of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics. We believe that we are succeeding in aggravating short-term memory loss, which will make the humans ever more accepting of control. Some of the chemicals are affecting the endocrine system and will help curtail the burgeoning population within this generation. Their water is slowly poisoning them and their homes are made with building materials that continually weaken their immune systems.

"Around the world all countries are rushing to duplicate the toxic follies of the West. Even if the protests in Europe and America were listened to, they could not stop China, Indonesia, and others.

"Further more we have been successful in altering the molecules of banned chemicals so that we may continue selling a similar variety of pesticides and fertilizers which had been banned as toxic. This is very cost effective. We also shipped banned chemicals to other countries; they apply them to the fruits and vegetables they grow, and ship them back into the USA. Our armies of lawyers, propagandists, paid-for-scientists, and public relations geniuses are masterfully convincing the public that the environmentalists are totally wrong and that global warming is unscientific foolishness.



Who gets planet Earth after ‘the winds’?

"No one will realize until it is too late that the Earth is in an uncontrollable spiral toward destruction. No one will realize until ‘the winds’ begin their destruction in earnest, that they have exchanged their lives in a delicate ecosystem for consumer goods and shopping malls. No one will know that they have given the Inter-Galactic Council all the evidence it needs to prove once and for all that the human race is incapable of the guardianship of the small green planet Earth."

The Prince of Darkness took a deep breath of satisfaction and turned to his financial and economic engineer, Milton Galbraith. "And how are the mergers proceeding?" he asked.



Individual thinkers becoming extinct

Milton had a large pile of papers in front of him covered with systems analyses statistics which, however viewed, could be shown to prove that his economic engineering technologies and managerial skills were consummately productive. He fervently desired to go over all the relevant statistics with his master - but noting the already bored glare coming toward him, Milton Galbraith wisely chose a shorter reply.

"Sir, a massive network of corporate tentacles encircles the globe. Individual thinkers are becoming extinct. Local governments cannot compete with corporate agendas and can barely control their own lands or destiny. In the One World Order they will not exist. The world is ours!

"There is an ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor. The middle class, with its habits of democracy, is being destroyed. Tension between the classes is increasing daily. The rich are so consumed with their right to enjoy the profits of their greed, they refuse to believe that more and more people, even children, are becoming homeless, destitute, and hungry.

"The banks are being merged worldwide. International loans, financial trading frenzies, and the inter-dependencies of corporate hierarchies have inextricably woven the planet together. The stage is set for a world economic crash that will allow us to create the One World Order we desire, to eliminate all currencies and initiate the world debit card. Nations will be replaced by feudalistic corporate states. No individual private enterprise will be allowed to exist. Everyone will be enslaved to corporate employment and will be paid digitally. Ever increasing taxes will be automatically taken from their salaries.



Mind Altering Drugs for Slaves of the Corporatist States

"Those who have trouble adjusting to the One World Order of the Corporatist States will be given mind-shaping drugs, or be subjected to the other forms of mind control we have successfully developed that render such losers permanently passive. They will accept what we - the social engineers, managers, and statisticians - have proven in our flow charts to be what is best for them. The world is ours!"

Milton Galbraith's hands began to tremble as the thought of so much power coursed through his flabby gray body. Sweat formed on his cruelly thin upper lip and a strange smile worked its way over his face enhancing his beady eyes. Shuffling the papers in front of him in a meaningless way, he began to laugh uncontrollably.

"Shut up, you imbecilic fool!" the Prince of Darkness coldly commanded. "Now all of you, place your hands upon the table."

On the table in front of each executive technocrat was placed a strange metallic plate that all of the men were painfully familiar with. Each squirmed in his chair apprehensive of the inevitable excruciating agonizing jolt they would willingly submit to. It was true however that some of these men had grown to enjoy such pain.

"Place your fingers on the plates!" their master shrieked.

They did so and a burning, piercing, unbearable amount of electrical voltage passed through their bodies shocking them into obedience and forgetfulness. Thus they were programmed in fear and pain, and rewarded in power and wealth, the age-old recipe for tyranny.

America's Best Affordable Places, 2011

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately in real estate, value is a trade-off. Someone in Manhattan is willing to pay $2,200 per month to rent a studio apartment so as to be near jobs and cultural amenities, sacrificing square footage. For someone in Las Vegas, where housing is inexpensive—the city's median home value is about $115,000, according to real estate site Zillow.com—and the labor market is tough, the reverse is true. What if you could have both proximity to work and quality of life at an affordable cost?

While this may sound too good to be true, it's the status quo in some places.

In an exclusive ranking for Businessweek.com, Bloomberg Rankings analyzed government-gathered data on more than 3,000 counties across the U.S. to select the best affordable place in each state. We then scored each county by state. Next we tallied the top-ranked county in each state to arrive at a national ranking. Factors that were most heavily weighted include housing cost, crime, unemployment, and educational attainment in the county, in addition to such other metrics as family income, poverty, commute time, air quality, diversity, and share of families with children.

The Midwest made out well in the ranking. No. 1 on Bloomberg's list: North Dakota's Cass County, home to Fargo and West Fargo. Other areas with high scores include Brown County, S.D., Cleveland County, Okla. (in the West South Central region), Story County, Iowa, and Olmsted County, Minn.

Coastal states with high unemployment such as California, Florida, and Rhode Island ranked lower, as did states with a generally high cost of living, such as Hawaii.

Job Opportunities a Big Lure

Housing is a major factor in making a place affordable—and attractive. According to recently released results from the Census Bureau's 2010 Current Population Survey, housing is the main reason people relocate: Of people who moved in 2010, 43.7 percent did so for such housing-related reasons as finding a new or better home, cheaper housing, or a neighborhood with less crime.

That's just part of the picture. "People follow jobs and not low-cost housing," says Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice-president of research at the National Association of Realtors. "North Dakota has been doing well because of job growth while Las Vegas and Cleveland continue to struggle—all [are] very affordable markets," he says.

About 16.4 percent of people in the U.S. who moved in 2010 did so for employment-related reasons, says the Census Bureau's survey.

Even in these best affordable places, it's wise not to expect Utopia. In Cass County, for example, flooding is common in the Red River Valley. This year, the river crested in the Fargo area at 38.75 feet in April, according to the National Weather Service, making it the fourth- highest flood on record. It has since declined slowly.

Still, when it's not flood season, Cass County can be an attractive place to live. Unlike many places with nice homes, clean air, low crime, and a strong job market, it's accessible to the average income earner, too.

Here are the 10 American best affordable places to live:

No. 10 - Cumberland County, ME.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 10: Cumberland County, Maine
Population: 276,529
Median family income: $68,707
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 37.3 percent
Unemployment: 6.4 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 38.3 percent
Major cities: Portland, South Portland, Yarmouth

Luxury homes can be found in Cumberland County areas such as Freeport, Falmouth, and Yarmouth, shows a search on luxuryportfolio.com, but Zillow.com estimates the median list price in the area is about $250,000. The Portland area is the state's main economic hub and provides high-quality, affordable housing and excellent school systems, according to Maine Medical Center. It also has a low violent crime rate—not to mention great shopping: Freeport is home to L.L. Bean and numerous outlet stores.

No. 9 - Lafayette Parish, LA.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 9: Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Population: 212,684
Median family income: $59,910
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 25.4 percent
Unemployment: 6.6 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 27.7 percent
Major cities: Lafayette, Scott

The population of Lafayette Parish has expanded quickly, growing by 16.3 percent from 2000 to 2010, above its 15.6 percent growth rate from 1990 to 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The area has several communities that have been recognized for quality of life, including Youngsville, Lafayette, and Broussard.

No. 8 - Pulaski County, AR.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 8: Pulaski County, Arkansas
Population: 383,347
Median family income: $57,324
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 26.2 percent
Unemployment: 7.3 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 31 percent
Major cities: Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville

The Arkansas River runs through Pulaski County, providing opportunities for boating, fishing, and hiking. U.S. Census data show that the health-care and retail sectors are major employers in the area, which is located in the geographic center of Arkansas. According to the county website, medical facilities and practices employ more than 34,000 people in Pulaski County. Little Rock is home to such major health facilities as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Baptist Medical Center, John McClelland Veteran's Affairs Hospital, St. Vincent Infirmary Center, and the Arkansas Heart Hospital.

No. 7 - Yellowstone County, MT.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 7: Yellowstone County, Montana
Population: 146,576
Median family income: $60,630
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 28.6 percent
Unemployment: 6.3 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 27.7 percent
Major city: Billings

Home to Montana's largest city, Billings, Yellowstone County was named for the Yellowstone River that runs through it. The area has many natural park areas, including Pompeys Pillar National Monument, a sandstone rock formation, and Nez Perce National Historical Park, which spreads into Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Billings is known for its quiet neighborhoods and business districts, the city website states.

No. 6 - Onondaga County, NY.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 6: Onondaga County, New York
Population: 455,912
Median family income: $65,458
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 26.4 percent
Unemployment: 8.2 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 31.5 percent
Major cities: Syracuse, Salina, Clay

With a cost of living about 18 percent below the U.S. average, according to Sperling's BestPlaces, Syracuse is an affordable city. While its population shrank slightly in the past 10 years, according to 2010 U.S. Census data, other areas in the county have grown, including Pompey, Cicero, and Lysander. Upstate University Health System and Syracuse University are among the area's major employers, according to the county website.

No. 5 - Olmstead County, MN.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 5: Olmsted County, Minnesota
Population: 145,269
Median family income: $79,458
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 25.6 percent
Unemployment: 5.9 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 39.3 percent
Major cities: Rochester, Marion

The largest city in Olmsted County is Rochester, home to the Mayo Clinic, earning the area the title, Med City. According to greatschools.org, Century Senior High School, Washington Elementary School, and Friedell Middle School are among the city's most highly ranked. The median home list price in Rochester was $145,900 in April, according to Zillow.com.


No. 4 - Story County, IA.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 4: Story County, Iowa
Population: 87,699
Median family income: $73,702
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 21.1 percent
Unemployment: 5 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 45.4 percent
Major cities: Ames, Nevada

Story County, north of Des Moines, is home to Iowa State University in Ames. Education, health care, and government are the largest employers in the county, show U.S. Census data. Ames also has several highly ranked public schools, according to greatschools.org, including Ames High School, Ames Middle School, and Fellow Elementary School.

No. 3 - Cleveland County, OK.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 3: Cleveland County, Oklahoma
Population: 248,408
Median family income: $64,350
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 23.3 percent
Unemployment: 5.7 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 30.1 percent
Major cities: Norman, Moore

Cleveland County is Oklahoma's third-largest in population and second-fastest-growing county, according to the Greater Oklahoma City Partnership. Farming, oil production, and horse breeding are important area industries, according to the county. The cost of living in Norman, the area's largest city and home to the University of Oklahoma, is 15 percent below the U.S. average and the district has several good schools, according to greatschools.org.

No. 2 - Brown County, SD.
Photo: Getty Images

No. 2: Brown County, South Dakota
Population: 35,779
Median family income: $57,264
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 23.4 percent
Unemployment: 4.2 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 24.1 percent
Major city: Aberdeen

Brown County, in northern South Dakota, has a very low unemployment rate and the cost of living is among the country's lowest, at 23 percent below average, according to Sperling's BestPlaces. Hunting, fishing, camping, boating, cross-country skiing, bird-watching, biking, and snowmobiling are popular outdoor activities in Aberdeen, the county's largest city.

No. 1: Cass County, North Dakota
Population: 145,303
Median family income: $67,120
Households spending more than 30 percent income on housing: 23.6 percent
Unemployment: 4.2 percent
Adult population with bachelor's degrees: 34.7 percent
Major cities: Fargo, West Fargo

Cass County is No. 1 in this year's ranking of best places. The cost of living in the area is about 12 percent lower than the U.S. average, according to Sperling's BestPlaces, the crime rate is low, and the job market is strong. The Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp. states on its website: "North Dakota boasts the lowest overall crime rate and the lowest violent crime rate in the nation. The air and water are clean, it's easy to navigate, housing is plentiful and affordable, and schools and medical facilities are outstanding." ACT scores in Fargo public schools are consistently higher than state and national averages, according to Fargo School District No. 1.

New photos of spy plane launch Area 51 intrigue

New photos of spy plane launch Area 51 intrigue
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By Mike Krumboltz

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2\

Few things capture the public's curiosity like Area 51. The top-secret military base (which doesn't officially exist) has been the subject of conspiracy theories for decades. What actually went on there? Something tells us we'll never know for sure. However, a recently revealed series of photographs provides some tantalizing new clues.

The photos, which were published by National Geographic, show a titanium A-12 spy plane. In one image, the satisfyingly sci-fi-looking plane hangs upside down while it is prepared for radar testing. In another shot, a group of officials with heavy equipment "remove all traces of the A-12 spy plane" after it went down in the Utah desert in 1963.

Roadrunners Internationale via Pangloss Films

See more Area 51 photos at National Geographic

Of course, the photos don't prove that alien life exists--but they do go a long way toward proving the government wasn't exactly forthcoming with what was going on at Area 51..