Cosmological model rivals Big Bang theory
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. physicists have constructed a cosmological model that suggests the universe can endlessly expand and contract.
That cyclic model -- developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by Professor Paul Frampton and graduate student Lauris Baum -- has four key parts: expansion, turnaround, contraction and bounce.
During expansion, dark energy -- the force causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate -- pushes until all matter fragments into patches so far apart nothing can bridge the gaps. Everything from black holes to atoms disintegrates. That, a fraction of a second before the end of time, is the turnaround.
At the turnaround, each fragmented patch collapses and contracts individually instead of pulling back together in a reversal of the Big Bang. The patches become an infinite number of independent universes, contracting and then bouncing outward again, reinflating in a manner similar to the Big Bang. One patch becomes our universe.
"This cycle happens an infinite number of times, thus eliminating any start or end of time," Frampton said. "There is no Big Bang."
An article describing the model is to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
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Prehistoric village found near Stonehenge
SHEFFIELD, England, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- British archeologists say they have discovered the ruins of a prehistoric village that might have been home to the builders of Stonehenge.
The archeologists, led by Mike Pearson of Sheffield University, discovered the village 1 1/4 miles from the famous stone circle, National Geographic News reported. The village consisted of eight wooden houses dated to approximately 2500 B.C.
The remains include the outlines of floors, beds, and cupboards, tools, jewelry, pottery, and human and animal bones.
Pearson told National Geographic News the excavated houses formed part of a much bigger settlement dating to the Late Stone Age.
"We could have many hundreds of houses here," Pearson added. "Our dates for the building of Stonehenge are identical to the dates for this very large settlement."
NASA names STS-123 crew members
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- NASA has named the crew for space shuttle STS-123, which will deliver Japanese and Canadian experimental systems to the International Space Station.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said U.S. Navy Capt. Dominic Gorie will command space shuttle Endeavour when it launches in December. U.S. Air Force Col. Gregory Johnson will serve as shuttle pilot. Astronauts assigned to the mission are Richard Linnehan, Air Force Maj. Robert Behnken, Navy Capt. Michael Foreman and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takao Doi.
Foreman had been assigned to the STS-120 shuttle mission, but was reassigned to STS-123. Astronaut Stephanie Wilson, who flew on last year's STS-121 mission, will replace Foreman on STS-120, scheduled for launch in September.
STS-123 will be the first in a series of flights that will deliver components to complete Japan's Kibo laboratory. The mission also will deliver the Canadian Space Agency's Dextre robotic system, a smaller manipulator designed to work with Canadarm2 to perform finer maintenance tasks that normally would be accomplished with spacewalks.
STS-123 will include four spacewalks to install the new hardware.
Scientist says 'Hobbit' is new species
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A prominent U.S. paleoneurologist claims the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old "Hobbit"-sized human is that of a new species.
When the tiny skeletal remains were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought the specimen was that of a human with an abnormally small skull.
But Dean Falk, chairwoman of Florida State University's anthropology department, says she is now convinced the remains are that of a newly discovered species, separate but closely related to Home sapiens.
Falk and an international team of experts created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase, concluding the specimen cataloged as LB1, Homo floresiensis, is definitely not of a human born with microcephalia -- a pathological condition characterized by a small head and accompanied by some mental retardation.
The term "Hobbit" was the creation of novelist J.R.R. Tolkien. The name first appeared in a story published in 1937 and referred to a race of human-like people about half the size of modern man.
Falk's team's findings appear in the Jan. 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
