The ancient city of Gordion -- located in modern-day Turkey -- was once ruled by the legendary King Midas, and Alexander the Great had some famous moments there, but new research reveals that it was also the home of European Celts. The same culture gave rise to the Gauls of Roman times as well as England's Bretons. A few classical texts had mentioned Celtic civilization in Gordion, but the new discoveries should dispel any lingering doubt, pinpointing their time of arrival as the early third century B.C.

The remains also suggest that the new arrivals were not bent on conquering the city, but instead they brought along their wives and children and revived the city, creating a thriving society. Part of the evidence consists of the grisly remains of a long-ago ceremony, with clusters of broken-necked skeletons and decapitated heads. "Such (sacrificial) practices are well known from Celtic sites in Europe and are now documented for Anatolian Celts as well," wrote Mary M. Voigt of the College of William and Mary, in the magazine Archaeology. "That certainly has the Celtic look," said Ronald Hicks, an archaeologist and specialist in Celtic prehistory at Ball State University. "One of the Roman complaints about the Celts was that they still practiced human sacrifice. They said the Gauls were known for lopping off heads of men in battle, tying them to their belts and bringing them back to display for all their friends at home."

WASHINGTON DC SUBWAY TO INSTALL CHEMICAL SENSORS

The Washington D.C. subway system is about to be the first such facility to have sensors that can detect the presence of toxic chemicals, according to a report in the Washington Post. The (NYSE:WPO) system has been in the planning stage for two years, but the events of September 11 caused officials to rush the development. Similar sensors are being installed at an unnamed and may be installed at the Statue of Liberty in New York. Aside from recent events, there is good precedent for the precaution -- in 1995, terrorists released the nerve gas sarin in the Tokyo subway system, killing seven people. The shoe-box sized sensors suck in air and analyze it, sounding an alarm when they detect a target molecule. they can not detect biological agents. Congress has budgeted $15 million to install the sensors, two of which will be installed next month, to be followed by sensors at ten more subway stations. The technology may find future use in airports, shopping centers and other large enclosed public spaces.

RAIN-SHYNESS MAY BE PLAGUING ENGLAND'S DORMICE

The English dormouse is a staple of fairy tales and folktales, but its peculiar habits may put it in danger of extinction, according to a BBC report. It turns out that the animal dislikes getting wet, and has become so used to indoor weather that it won't venture out even when it is hungry and there is ample food available. Dormice sleep for eight months of the year, and there may be as many as 10,000 of them in southern England, where they survive despite habitat loss. The researchers, led by Fiona Sanderson and Paul Bright of Royal Holloway College, University of London, found that both weather and habitat influence the survival rate of the mice. "Our work shows that dormouse populations are strongly affected by the weather, and are affected in different ways at different sites. For dormice living in woodland dominated by honeysuckle and hawthorn, which flower in spring and early summer, populations increase following a warm summer. Dormice living in woods where hazelnuts and blackberries are their major food supply, however, are badly affected after a warm and wet autumn." The trouble may simply be that they do not like to forage in the wet weather, the researchers say. Regardless of the explanation, the popular animals may be a good monitor for the changing climate in England. "We think climatic variation, coupled with the fragmentation of woodland, is an important feature in its decline," said Tony Mitchell-Jones of English Nature.

NANOCIRCUITS TABBED 'BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR'

The journal Science has named Nanocircuits as its top breakthrough for the year 2001. This year's choice was "an especially difficult task," said Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy. Another consideration for the award was the publication of the fruit-fly genome, which he said "led to a rich array of successor projects, not least the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome." But last year's awards were peppered with genomic projects, which may explain why the journal went in a different direction for its top honor. This year's Breakthrough recognizes advances in the field of nanotechnology, which incorporates molecular-scale computers, self-assembling micromachines and the fabrication of carbon nanotubes and nanowires. "The breakthrough is not for the devices themselves, although the work that has produced them deserves high praise," Kennedy said in an editorial appearing in Friday's year-end issue. "It is for the extraordinary accomplishment of arranging them into circuits that can actually perform logical operations: amplify signals, invert current flows and even perform simple computing tasks." Some of the outgrowths being worked on include diagnostic nanomachines to monitor blood chemistry, ultrasmall circuitry that could boost computer power, and and molecular-scale quantum computers.