Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking: Time Travel

Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking is an epic new kind of cosmology series, a Planet Earth of the heavens. It takes the world's most famous scientific mind and sets it free, powered by the limitless possibilities of computer animation. Hawking gives us the ultimate guide to the universe, a ripping yarn based on real science, spanning the whole of space and time -- from the nature of the universe itself, to the chances of alien life, and the real possibility of time travel.

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Coast To Coast: Ancient and Suppressed Discoveries

Coast to Coast AM 06-17-2010

Explorer and archaeologist Jonathan Gray discussed discoveries that demonstrate advanced ancient technology. Because such artifacts don't match current academic beliefs they are often suppressed, with evidence destroyed or hidden, he said, citing the Smithsonian Institution, and countries such as Peru, America, Israel, New Zealand, France, and Australia as being involved in covering-up evidence.

Some of the suppressed ancient discoveries he highlighted:

•A kind of glassware in Egypt and Peru that can be bent like plastic.
•Screen projectors used in Egyptian temples, with movement and sound simulation.
•Artifacts and buildings left on the moon-- Chinese records speak of trips to the moon.
•The 'Black Knight' satellite-- ancient races talked about putting up satellites.
•An ancient underground complex discovered in Southern California that included star charts on aluminum sheets.
•Micro-techology found in Russia, with some objects as small as 1/1000th of an inch.
•Maps of the ancient world that showed Antarctica as free of ice and populated.
Gray also spoke about his challenge to the work of Zecharia Sitchin, who contends that an ET race, the Annunaki, visited Earth from the planet Nibiru. Sitchin's translations of Sumerian cuneiform does not match the accepted dictionary meanings, he commented.
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Human race 'will be extinct within 100 years', claims leading scientist

Professor Frank Fenner has warned that the human race can not survive

As the scientist who helped eradicate smallpox he certainly know a thing or two about extinction.
And now Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years.
He has claimed that the human race will be unable to survive a population explosion and 'unbridled consumption.’
Fenner told The Australian newspaper that 'homo sapiens will become extinct, perhaps within 100 years.'
'A lot of other animals will, too,' he added.
'It's an irreversible situation. I think it's too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off.'
Since humans entered an unofficial scientific period known as the Anthropocene - the time since industrialisation - we have had an effect on the planet that rivals any ice age or comet impact, he said.
Fenner, 95, has won awards for his work in helping eradicate the variola virus that causes smallpox and has written or co-written 22 books.
He announced the eradication of the disease to the World Health Assembly in 1980 and it is still regarded as one of the World Health Organisation's greatest achievements.
He was also heavily involved in helping to control Australia's myxomatosis problem in rabbits.

Last year official UN figures estimated that the world’s population is currently 6.8 billion. It is predicted to exceed seven billion by the end of 2011.
Fenner blames the onset of climate change for the human race’s imminent demise.
He said: 'We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island.
'Climate change is just at the very beginning. But we're seeing remarkable changes in the weather already.'
'The Aborigines showed that without science and the production of carbon dioxide and global warming, they could survive for 40,000 or 50,000 years.
‘But the world can't. The human species is likely to go the same way as many of the species that we've seen disappear.'

A map of the world from an atlas which concentrates on population rather than
land mass released last year. The Earth's population is due to hit 7bn by next year

Retired professor Stephen Boyden, a colleague of Professor Fenner, said that while there was deep pessimism among some ecologists, others had a more optimistic view.
'Frank may well be right, but some of us still harbour the hope that there will come about an awareness of the situation and, as a result the revolutionary changes necessary to achieve ecological sustainability.'
Simon Ross, the vice-chairman of the Optimum Population Trust, said: 'Mankind is facing real challenges including climate change, loss of bio-diversity and unprecedented growth in population.'
Professor Fenner's chilling prediction echoes recent comments by Prince Charles who last week warned of ‘monumental problems’ if the world’s population continues to grow at such a rapid pace.
And it comes after Professor Nicholas Boyle of Cambridge University said that a 'Doomsday' moment will take place in 2014 - and will determine whether the 21st century is full of violence and poverty or will be peaceful and prosperous.
in the last 500 years there has been a cataclysmic 'Great Event' of international significance at the start of each century, he claimed.
In 2006 another esteemed academic, Professor James Lovelock, warned that the world's population may sink as low as 500 million over the next century due to global warming.
He claimed that any attempts to tackle climate change will not be able to solve the problem, merely buy us time.

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Ancient Aliens: The Series (2010)

A look at possible alien contact events during the 20th century, such as the Battle of Los Angeles in 1942 and the Roswell UFO Incident in 1947; the recent attempts by man to make contact with extraterrestrial life through the CETI project; and what would happen if aliens answered back, what protocols exist to determine who would speak on behalf of mankind and how we would communicate.

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Ancient Aliens: The Series - The Visitors (2010)

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Ancient Aliens: The Series - The Evidence (2010)

According to ancient alien theorists, extraterrestrials with superior knowledge of science and engineering landed on Earth thousands of years ago, sharing their expertise with early civilizations and forever changing the course of human history. But how did this concept develop, and is there any evidence to support it?

Ancient alien theory grew out of the centuries-old idea that life exists on other planets, and that humans and extraterrestrials have crossed paths before. The theme of human-alien interaction was thrust into the spotlight in the 1960s, driven by a wave of UFO sightings and popular films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The space program played no small part in this as well: If mankind could travel to other planets, why couldn’t extraterrestrials visit Earth?

In 1968, the Swiss author Erich von Däniken published Chariots of the Gods?, which became an immediate bestseller. In it, he put forth his hypothesis that, thousands of years ago, space travelers from other planets visited Earth, where they taught humans about technology and influenced ancient religions. He is regarded by many as the father of ancient alien theory, also known as the ancient astronaut theory.

Most ancient alien theorists, including von Däniken, point to two types of evidence to support their ideas. The first is ancient religious texts in which humans witness and interact with gods or other heavenly beings who descend from the sky—sometimes in vehicles resembling spaceships—and possess spectacular powers. The second is physical specimens such as artwork depicting alien-like figures and ancient architectural marvels like Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.

If aliens visited Earth in the past, could they make an appearance in the future? For ancient alien theorists, the answer is a resounding yes. They believe that, by sharing their views with the world, they can help prepare future generations for the inevitable encounter that awaits them.

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New Theory for Life's First Energy Source

An obscure compound known as pyrophosphite could have been a source of energy that allowed the first life on Earth to form, scientists now say.

From the tiniest bacteria to the complex human body, all living beings require an energy-transporting molecule called ATP to survive. Often likened to a "rechargeable battery," ATP stores chemical energy in a form that can be used by organic matter.
"You need enzymes to make ATP, and you need ATP to make enzymes," said researcher Terence Kee of the University of Leeds in England. "The question is: Where did energy come from before either of these two things existed? We think that the answer may lie in simple molecules, such as pyrophosphate, which is chemically very similar to ATP, but has the potential to transfer energy without enzymes."
Obscure but important
Prior theories for how life emerged from mere chemistry have considered that a similar but separate compound known as pyrophosphate was the predecessor to the more complex yet more efficient ATP.

Phosphate has 4 oxygen atoms bound to a central phosphorus atom, and is present in all living cells. When two phosphates combine and lose a water molecule, they form pyrophosphate.
Pyrophosphite, on the other hand, is rarely encountered, chemist Robert Shapiro at New York University told Livescience. "Even in my Google search for it, I got the query: 'Don't you mean pyrophosphate?'"
The presence of "one or two thorny little problems" with its rival molecule [pyrophosphate] had left some unanswered questions, Kee said in a telephone interview.
The two main problems were that pyrophosphate didn't seem to be available in significant amounts in the geological mineral record, and it doesn't react well without catalysts (which weren't around then), according to Kee.
On the other hand, Kee's team has found that pyrophosphite would be "relatively straightforward to prepare from minerals that are known to exist in iron meteorites." The routes to the production of this molecule are simpler than those proposed for pyrophosphate, Kee said.
Though similarly produced through dehydration, and similar in composition except that it has some oxygen atoms replaced by hydrogen, pyrophosphite is rare. Only three pyrophosphite minerals exist, compared with "many phosphate minerals," Kee said.
The chemical's obscurity on Earth is not a sign of its irrelevance. It's highly unstable in today's oxygen-rich environment (meaning it breaks down into other molecules rapidly) but is a superior catalyst (jump-starter) for certain chemical reactions, Kee said, citing as-yet-unpublished evidence.
Lateral thinking
Kee called the altered theory "more a lateral thought process" than a "new concept."
"It is as little strange that pyrophosphite and its ability to act as a phosphorus-transfer agent have been known for some time but it has not been proposed previously as being of any pre-biotic significance," he said. "I suspect because noone had considered the need for it or that it may have been accessible pre-biotically."
Interestingly, machines that manufacture artificial DNA for experiments regularly use pyrophophite in their assembly process, Shapiro said.
The researchers detail their theory on pyrophosphate as life's first energy source in a recent issue of the journal Chemical Communications.

• Top 10 Greatest Mysteries in Science
• 101 Amazing Earth Facts
• 10 Unexplained Phenomena
• Original Story: New Theory for Life's First Energy Source

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