"The text is Homer's "Iliad," and Homer -- if there was such a person -- probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found. The "Iliad" tells the story of the Trojan War -- if there was such a war -- with Greeks battling Trojans."
"Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes," Pagel said. "It is directly analogous. We tried to document the regularities in linguistic evolution and study Homer's vocabulary as a way of seeing if language evolves the way we think it does. If so, then we should be able to find a date for Homer."
"They took the language of the Hittites, a people that existed during the time the war may have been fought, and modern Greek, and traced the changes in the words from Hittite to Homeric to modern. It is precisely how they measure the genetic history of humans, going back and seeing how and when genes alter over time."
Source: http://www.insidescience.org/content/geneticists-estimate-publication-date-iliad/946
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Coffee car grinds out world speed record
The British-made Bean Machine hit 65.5mph on Tuesday to become the fastest vehicle to run on caffeine.
"Coffee chaf pellets, which are produced from the waste in coffee production, are heated in a charcoal fire, where they break down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen."The gas is then cooled and filtered before hydrogen is combusted to drive the engine.
"Any car can run on gasification,’ he added. ‘In fact, during the World War II, there were over 100,000 vehicles in the K that ran on gasification, including cars, buses and delivery vehicles.
"At the beginning of the 20th century, there were over 90,000 vehicles running on gasifiers across the world.’Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/20/the-bean-machine-coffee-car-grinds-out-world-speed-record-3505281/
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