Society for Interdisciplinary Studies

This story has already featured on Eric's email thread so we are a bit late coming to the party. This version can be found at www.livescience.com/28567-ancient-structure-under-sea-of-galilee.html ... and describes the structure as cone like in shape, made from unhewn stones and cobbles. It is some 10m in height and has a diameter of roughly 70m. This is much larger than Stonehenge, but then again, Stonehenge is not particular big as far as the circle is concerned.

At www.geneticarchaeology.com/research/Environmental_change_triggers_rapid_... ... is a University of Leeds study published in the journal, Ecology Letters, and provides evidence of rapid evolution as a result of environmental changes. Rapid, as in not gradual or slow, and not in the real context of the word.

At www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/04/saturns-ring-system-rains-water-in... ... a 'rain' of charged water particles falls over large areas of Saturn according to NASA funded research at the University of Leicester. The 'ring rain' quenches the ionosphere of Saturn and reduced electron densities where it falls ... and so on.

In the latest issue of the New Concepts in Global Tectonics journal which can be accessed at www.ncgt.org and the articles are well worth browsing. In the letters section Vidyadhar Raiverman describes the treatment his two books have received from mainstream. These are about Himalayan mountain building processes. They have largely been ignored as his ideas do not fit into the consensus view. One editor in the US openly admitted four specialists refused to review the books as they did not want to upset the Plate Tectonics applecart.

At http://phys.org/print284724127.html .... research in Belize at a smaller Mayan community has provided evidence on how they conserved water during the rainy season to sustain their crops and their thirsts during the dry weather. Depressions were lined with clay and kept clear with water lilies and oxygenating plants.

Prior to 3000BC the Sahara was a verdant landscape, a rich grassland with a typical African fauna - see http://phys.org/print284364895.html ... and went back through the early Holocene to the end of the Younger Dryas event.

The Djehuty Project (Spanish) has said it has discovered, near Luxor, four burials from dynasty 17 - see http://phys.org/print284379880.html

See also www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/snrc-dpd040513.php

Akhenaton (Egypt) and Muwatalis (Hittite), not too distant from each other, appear to have inaugurated religious reforms - why? See www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/6d%20The%20failed%20reforms.pdf

At http://phys.org/print284290227.html ... researchers from the University of Leeds think they may have solved how objects from space gave rise to life on Earth. Some of the important ingredients may have been in meteorites and cometary dust but it is how they were then transformed into building blocks that has concentrated minds. In a paper in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (March 15th), the key, it is suggested, is chemiosmosis, where one chemical is broken down to reform so as to release energy, and possibly, metabolism.

Excitement about the release of an 1800 year old ice core from the Peruvian Andes, which will be used to compare with other ice cores around the world. Lonnie Thompson, who notorious for not sharing his data, which has caused some to view his work with suspicion, and Ohio State University, are involved - see http://phys.org/print284300318.html

Keeping our feet on the ground and trying not to get hyped up by the cold weather this Easter, and snow in April, it is always good to have a read of Weather Eye in the Times, but we may also have a look at that blog with the catchy name, too - see http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/philip-eden-on-e... ... which is a blinder, and some proper perspective.