M.J. Rose

It’s so fascinating to imagine the lost world of our ancestors. A world where human beings were not the only intelligent hominid species roaming the earth. A world where we had contemporaries such as the Neanderthals…

These days, it’s a little lonely to be us. Perhaps that’s why we’ve conjured up so many myths of other “people” to share our world — fairies, elves, Bigfoot…the list goes on. We have even spent billions of science dollars seeking life on other planets to keep us company.

So, it’s no surprise that the mystery of what became of our most recent lost contemporary, the Neanderthal, continues to burn. Did we cause our own vast loneliness by driving our brothers into extinction? Did we breed them out? In the meantime, new science has concluded that the neanderthals were a distinct species and not simply a subspecies of modern humans. No doubt, there is much much more to learn about our old departed friends…

Were Neanderthals a sub-species of modern humans? New research says no

(Science Daily)

“Researchers have identified new evidence supporting the growing belief that Neanderthals were a distinct species separate from modern humans (Homo sapiens), and not a subspecies of modern humans.

In an extensive, multi-institution study led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center, researchers have identified new evidence supporting the growing belief that Neanderthals were a distinct species separate from modern humans (Homo sapiens), and not a subspecies of modern humans…”

For the rest, click here.

In other news, the science world is actually wondering, should we clone a Neanderthal? Here.

These gorgeous mosaics from the Ancient Greek city of Zeugma, are seeing the light for the first time in eons….

Mosaics Revealed at Ancient Greek City of Zeugma in Turkey –

“Archaeologists discovered three unique mosaics at the Ancient Greek city of Zeugma, in south Turkey, near the borders of Syria.

The ancient city of Zeugma was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 BC. The population of the city at its peak was approximately 80,000 inhabitants.

Zeugma is 80 percent underwater, after it was flooded with the waters of a nearby artificial lake. The mosaics, which were recovered in excellent condition, belong to the 2nd century B.C….”

See more here. (Incredible high resolution photographs…)

As it turns out, time travel may be possible. But it will require going really really REALLY fast through outer space…How fast? And how possible? The article below from Gizmodo explains…

Yes, Time Travel Is Possible; Here’s How

(Adam Clark Estes, Gizmodo)

“Time travel’s been one of man’s wildest fantasies for centuries. It’s long been a popular trend in movies and fiction, inspiring everything from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine to the Charlton Heston shrine that is The Planet of the Apes. And with the opening of Interstellar today—n0t to spoil anything—we’re about to fantasize about it even more.

The most fantastic thing? It’s probably possible.

What’s almost impossible –

Let’s start with the bad news. We probably can’t travel back in time and watch the Egyptians build the pyramids. In the last century scientists came up with a number of theories that suggested it is indeed plausible to take a leap into the future; going back in time, unfortunately, is much more complicated. But it’s not necessarily impossible.

Albert Einstein laid the groundwork for much of the theoretical science that governs most time travel research today. Of course, scientists like Galileo and Poincaré that came before him helped, but Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity dramatically changed our understanding of time and space. And it’s because of these well-tested theories that we believe time travel is possible.

One option for would be a wormhole, also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge. Along with physicist Nathan Rosen, Einstein suggested the existence of wormholes in 1935, and although we’ve yet to discover one, many scientists have contributed their own theories about how wormholes might work. Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne are probably the most well known. Thorne, a theoretical physicist at CalTech, even helped Christopher Nolan with the science behind Interstellar.

So let’s just assume that wormholes do exist. In the late 1980s, Thorne said that a wormhole could be made into a time machine. According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a wormhole could act like a bridge though space-time by connecting two distant points with a shortcut. Certain types of wormholes, it’s theorized, could allow for time travel in either direction, if we could accelerate one mouth of the wormhole to near-light speed and then reverse it back to its original position. Meanwhile, the other mouth would remain stationary. The result would be that the moving mouth would age less slowly than the stationary mouth thanks to the effect of time dilation—more on this in a second…”

To find out what’s possible, click here.