Bacterial cement and the Tomb of Jesus

Source: PhysOrg Iran has recently completed a successful launch of a spacecraft. The launch is part of a drive to place their own private and commercial satellites into orbit without having to rely on other countries. In particular, they want to place more communications satellites into orbit so that they can expand the number of land and mobile telephone lines, and internet users, in the next five years.

Source: UC Davis News & Information Researchers have proposed that certain types of bacteria could be used to turn deep, sandy soil into something more like cement. Bacillus pasteurii generates calcite that bond to soil, turning it into a cement-like material. By injecting these bacteria into the soil and feeding them properly, soil that would formerly collapse during an earthquake remains rigid.

Source: SlashDot An interesting article by Eric Flint which postulates that the current structure of DRM actually sets up a situation that encourages piracy. Like SlashDot, I'll simply quote a part here: "Electronic copyright infringement is something that can only become an 'economic epidemic' under certain conditions. Any one of the following: 1) The products they want... are hard to find, and thus valuable. 2) The products they want are high-priced, so there's a fair amount of money to be saved by stealing them. 3) The legal products come with so many added-on nuisances that the illegal version is better to begin with. Those are the three conditions that will create widespread electronic copyright infringement, especially in combination. Why? Because they're the same three general conditions that create all large-scale smuggling enterprises. And... Guess what? It's precisely those three conditions that DRM creates in the first place. So far from being an impediment to so-called 'online piracy,' it's DRM itself that keeps fueling it and driving it forward."

Source: PhysicsWeb Researchers at Jerusalem University have developed a way to create 3D structures by chemically folding flat paper discs. The discs are treated with a monomer solution which is then heated, causing the paper disc to curl up in accordance with the pattern formed by the monomer solution. Regions of higher concentration shrink more than those of lower concentration so by varying the concentration over the surface of the disc, the final structure can be precisely controlled.

Source: Globe and Mail A film crew claims to have identified the location of Jesus's ossuary, and has completed DNA analysis of it and its companion. The other ossuaries apparently contained the remains of Mariamne (Mary Magdelene), Matthew, and Yose (Jesus' brother). DNA testing showed that Yeshua (Jesus) and Mariamne were not related, indicating that they may, instead, have been married. The original bones were, apparently buried in unmarked graves long ago in accordance with Jewish custom. The ossuaries have been proven by archaeologists to be authentic and from the same time period, but there is no way to confirm that this is the same Yeshua on which the Christian Bible is based. Odds of it NOT being the same have been estimated at between 1 in 600 to 1 in 42 million. The documentary will air on the Discovery channel on March 4.