American Stonehenge

Stonehenge remains a great mystery, with experts divided over why the prehistoric monument was built. Somehow, prehistoric mankind managed to create this structure, which seems to defy the engineering capabilities of the time.

It has been discovered that a similar enigmatic stone structure exists beneath the waters of Lake Michigan in the US. Furthermore, this underwater creation is believed to be 5,000 years older than its British counterpart.

The site was discovered in 2007 by a team of archaeologists conducting a survey of the lakebed. Just off the coast of Traverse City, MI, they chanced upon a series of large stones arranged in a circular pattern. At a depth of about 40 feet (12.1 m), the team was initially unsure what they’d found.

The pattern is of 2 circles, one inside the other, with the inner circle 20 feet in diameter and the outer circle 40 feet. Some of the stones weigh up to 3,000 lbs (1,360 kg), but analysis suggests that the stones had been deliberately arranged by humans.

The stones are all granite, which is found in the area. The formation is estimated to be around 10,000 years old, one of the oldest formations ever discovered in North America.

While the Lake Michigan stones are similar in size and shape to the monoliths of Stonehenge, they aren’t stacked or connected in the same way.

There is evidence that prehistoric tribes roamed the Great Lake area for thousands of years, very little is known about them.

The Anishinaabe were among the first to inhabit the region. This tribe’s prehistoric, hunter-gatherer forefathers settled in the area following the last Ice Age, and their descendants believe they placed the stones there for a sacred purpose.

The area was not underwater 10,000 years ago, and people had settled on the exact spot where the stones were laid. However, 5,000 years later, the water levels rose, flooding the Lake Michigan basin.

Thanks to advanced technology, scientists were able to stitch together photographs of the rocks to create accurate 3D pictures, which they could then analyze in detail. This revealed carvings and engravings on some stones, including an image of a Mastodon.

Mastodons were ancestors to elephants and woolly mammoths. They were up to 10 feet tall (3.1 m), weighed upwards of six tons (5,440 kg), and lived from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. The carvings suggest that the humans at this site had some knowledge of these mammals, possibly even hunted them.

The formation’s configuration–which includes a long line of rocks leading directly to it–suggests it could have been an ancient hunting structure known as a drive lane. Humans have used drive lanes for thousands of years to herd groups of animals along a path toward a kill zone, where hunters lie in wait. In this case, the site challenges the belief that early humans weren’t capable of creating such sophisticated structures.

Nevertheless, the precise purpose of the structure and the identity of its architects remain a mystery. Like its younger cousin over in Salisbury.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/strange-stonehenge-discovered-in-us-lake-that-s-5-000-years-older-than-the-british-landmark/ar-BB1pGifA?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=c9c98088d1de48bf9e371e0d06f68d37&ei=80

Homestead on the Moon

Hooray! There are homes for the taking on the moon!

Don’t start packing. They aren’t exactly built yet. It’s more like they’ve found empty lots where homes could be built. If you like living in caves.

Scientists have convincing evidence of a cave where astronauts could work and live in relative comfort. They suspect there may be hundreds of caves on the moon and want to use radar to find others.

Plans to build a permanent lunar base have been stymied over the conditions found on the moon’s surface. During the moon’s day, the temperature can reach 250 degrees F, and during the night, it dips to -200 degrees F. Solar and cosmic radiation is also a hazard that must be prepared for. Some plans for a lunar base called for the base to be built, and then buried in at least 2.5 feet of moon dirt.

But caves can mean less work to build a lunar base, because you wouldn’t need to move all that moon dirt around.

The data about this first cave discovered indicates the cave is approximately 150 feet wide and possibly 260 feet long, slightly smaller than an American football field. This cave sits in a deep pit which likely formed when a lava tube collapsed. There are no active volcanoes on the moon now, but billions of years ago, lava flowed through valleys, creating tubes across the lunar surface.

Over the ages, some of those tubes collapsed, creating pits. The scientists don’t have a clear idea what the cave looks like inside, but lava tubes like those in Hawaii have been studied. NASA has identified over 200 of these pits on the moon, suggesting the presence of hundreds of caves also.

The cave’s thick rock ceiling is ideal to protect people and infrastructure from the extreme hazards of the moon’s surface. In a cave such as this, computer simulations suggest that the cave’s temperature would remain at around 63 degrees F. Sounds like the place to build, right?

However, reaching these caves could be another matter. The Mare Tranquilitatis cave is located over 400 feet from the surface, near the bottom of a steep slope of loose debris. Traversing that slope would require technological ingenuity. That could be jet packs to fly people in and out, a lunar elevator, or something else.

There’s also a chance that moon cave could harbor water, in the form of ice. It’s long been known that there’s frozen water on the moon, particularly in its permanently shadowed craters. Since caves are shielded from the merciless radiation of the sun, they also could have ice.

Such water would be a crucial resource for any future moon bases. It wouldn’t just be a beverage, it could also be broken down to its elements–oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Thus an abundance of water on the moon could help launch astronauts to Mars.

But in the meantime, let’s all put on our thinking caps and start designing lunar cave bungalows, shall we?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-discover-an-underground-cave-on-the-moon-where-astronauts-could-live-and-suspect-hundreds-more/ar-BB1q6Hzp?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=d181ab3114dd46d7ae8dcdf13bc73e29&ei=57

Prehistoric Human Brains Baffle Scientists

The most delicate organ in the human body is the brain, which is why it’s protected by a thick-boned skull. What’s baffling is that this squishy mass, out of all the organs, can survive the most time without decay.

Researchers have cataloged over 4,000 naturally preserved human brains, some as old as 12,000 years. This archive includes Inca sacrificial victims, prehistoric people, and North Pole explorers. And yet, the discovery of a preserved brain is perceived to be a very rare incident.

Human soft tissue, including the brain, can be preserved by some well-understood processes such as dehydration, freezing, and tanning. These methods can be the result of human actions or natural factors. It’s not unusual for brains to survive when other internal organs are well-preserved, such as in dried-out remains of desert burials, frozen bodies from mountain passes, and tanned bodies from bogs.

However, preserved brains have been found without other soft tissues, such as floating alongside bones in sunken shipwrecks, or sitting alongside ancient bones from a swampy pond.

Until now, there has been no systemic study to determine why brains last longer than other soft tissues.

This new archive allowed researchers to determine the prevalence of intact brains, to study how they persisted, and the diversity of their preservation conditions. They also mapped their distribution worldwide across time. Finally, the researchers studied the brains to understand ancient diseases and genetics.

About a quarter of the brains were discovered in bodies lacking any other preserved soft tissue. Known processes that preserve all types of tissue can’t explain why these brains endured.

The reason why these brains were preserved is a mystery, but it might be because of the brain’s chemical composition. The brain has a 1-to-1 ratio of proteins to lipids, while other soft tissues have different ratios. This ratio could mean that if metals like iron are introduced, it could cause the proteins and lipids to bind together and last longer. Many preserved brains were found to contain iron oxide (rust).

The team is employing new techniques to study the molecular interactions leading to the preservation of brains. The brains could also offer an opportunity to study neurological diseases in ancient humans.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/thousand-year-old-intact-human-brains-baffle-scientists-and-there-are-thousands-of-them/ar-BB1knvV8?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=e61c919954d04db49bab96e09d0a1bfa&ei=54