One of the world's oldest breweries reconstructed

Over 5.5 thousand years old brewing installation discovered by Polish archaeological mission at Tell el-Farcha in Egypt has been reconstructed in 3D by Karolina Rosińska-Balik, PhD student at the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology.

"The presented reconstruction is a hypothetical assumption based on preserved structures of similar analogous buildings at both Tell el-Farcha and other brewing centres in Upper Egypt" - reserved the archaeologist.

The installation consists of three vat pits and measures about 3.4 by 4 m. The entire structure, with plan reminiscent of a three-leaf clover, was surrounded by a wall with a height of up to 60 cm. Vat pits were also separated from each other with low, narrow walls.

In order to stabilize the vessels used for brewing beer, base was used in the form of a solid clay, which was surrounded by a clay ring with a clear break.

"The purpose of this solution was probably better air circulation, which in turn would allow better control of constant temperature. Such base was usually surrounded with two concentric rows of bricks with D-shaped cross-section, designed to sustain the vessel" - explained Karolina Rosińska-Balik.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of the brewery was carried out in several stages. The first step was the preparation of linear drawings allowing to capture the actual condition of the structure immediately after the discovery. This phase consisted of the introduction of the original drawing into the computer space. Computer drawing in an appropriate scale was used as a base to create a three-dimensional copy of the brewery. The next step in the virtual reconstruction was to recreate the basic building blocks used to erect the complex. According to the researcher, this material were three types of bricks made of mud mixed with chaff and burned.

"Thus prepared three-dimensional bricks made it possible to start the next stage of reconstruction. The work leading to the creation of the virtual model was a tedious process of laying bricks one by one, almost like at a real construction site. For greater clarity and transparency of the structure, I decided to only partially erect the maximum dimensions of the walls, and only one completely reconstructed vessel" - said the PhD student.

The remaining pits are shown at various stages, allowing to show all the details of their design. In the next phase, the resulting model was combined with specially prepared representations of materials, giving the reconstruction a more realistic feel. The last step to obtain a three-dimensional visualization of the brewery was taking the appropriate shots - from several points of view.

"For centuries, beer was primary and major food product for Egyptians. The oldest record that mentions beer is a list of grave goods found on the stele in the tomb of the third dynasty belonging to Sekherhabau - almost five thousand years old, and thanks to our excavations, we know that the tradition goes back even further into the history of Egypt" - added Rosińska-Balik.

The oldest previously found brewery is also located in Egypt, at the site Hieraconpolis, and it is connected to the Nagada culture. Breweries discovered by Polish archaeologists had been used by the local population, called by archaeologists the Lower Egyptian culture. This is the first brewing structures found to belong to this community.

The site of Tell el-Farcha has been studied for fifteen years by the Polish expedition to the Eastern Nile Delta, led by Prof. Krzysztof Ciałowicz of the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, and Dr. Marek Chłodnicki of the Archaeological Museum in Poznań. The settlement functioned in this place for nearly 1000 years (ca. 3700 - 2700 BC). First it was a strong centre of local Lower Egyptian culture, then an important centre of power during the formation of unified Egyptian state. The most valuable finds of Polish archaeologists include golden statues of a ruler and his son, temple deposit of high quality human figures made of ivory, cylindrical seals, items made of bone, stone, flint, copper and gold.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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What does your handwriting say about you?

• 
  
• - People who write letters close together are intrusive and crowd others
• - Illegible signatures mean a person is private and difficult to understand
• - Words or sentences that vary to the rest of the text suggest it is a lie
• - Schizophrenia and high blood pressure can also be identified from writing

By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON

Are you an outgoing, sceptical people pleaser? Or an arrogant, practical person who has a tendency to lie? 

According to research from the National Pen Company in the U.S., your handwriting can give away clues about 5,000 different personality traits based on the way you space your letters, how you sign your name, and even how you connect the letter 'o' and 's' to other letters in a word.

It can even be used to identify potential health problems including schizophrenia, high blood pressure as well as how much energy you have.

full infographic - DailyMail

Photo of the Week - Atom´s electron orbital

What you’re looking at is the first direct observation of an atom’s electron orbital — an atom's actual wave function! To capture the image, researchers utilized a new quantum microscope — an incredible new device that literally allows scientists to gaze into the quantum realm.

An orbital structure is the space in an atom that’s occupied by an electron. But when describing these super-microscopic properties of matter, scientists have had to rely on wave functions — a mathematical way of describing the fuzzy quantum states of particles, namely how they behave in both space and time.

Typically, quantum physicists use formulas like the Schrödinger equation to describe these states, often coming up with complex numbers and fancy graphs. Up until this point, scientists have never been able to actually observe the wave function. Trying to catch a glimpse of an atom’s exact position or the momentum of its lone electron has been like trying to catch a swarm of flies with one hand; direct observations have this nasty way of disrupting quantum coherence.

What’s been required to capture a full quantum state is a tool that can statistically average many measurements over time. But how to magnify the microscopic states of a quantum particle? The answer, according to a team of international researchers, is the quantum microscope — a device that uses photoionization microscopy to visualize atomic structures directly.

io9.com

The Great Debate: THE STORYTELLING OF SCIENCE (OFFICIAL)

Science superstars! 

"The Origins Project at ASU presents the final night in the Origins Stories weekend, focusing on the science of storytelling and the storytelling of science. The Storytelling of Science features a panel of esteemed scientists, public intellectuals, and award-winning writers including well-known science educator Bill Nye, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, theoretical physicist Brian Greene, Science Friday's Ira Flatow, popular science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, executive director of the World Science Festival Tracy Day, and Origins Project director Lawrence Krauss as they discuss the stories behind cutting edge science from the origin of the universe to a discussion of exciting technologies that will change our future. They demonstrate how to convey the excitement of science and the importance helping promote a public understanding of science."

Video by Black Chalk Productions

This is a picture of the lightest substance on Earth (io9)

"Scientists have just unveiled the lightest human-made substance on Earth. How light are we talking? Let's put it this way: it's less dense than helium.

The battle for rights to the title of world's lightest material (technically world's lowest density material) has played out like a brutally rapid series of monarchal overthrows. For years, NASA's aerogel (density 1 milligram per cubic centimeter) held the title of lightest material on Earth. In November 2011, it was dethroned by a gorgeous, ultralight metallic microlattice (density 0.9 mg/cm3). Months later, a substance called "Aerographite" with a density of just 0.2 mg/cm3 blew both of these ultralight materials out of the water. Now, a new material has assumed the throne."

more - here (io9.com)

Could you drink beer instead of water and still survive? (io9)

Beer. 

"It is one of the most awesome things in life. This leads to a couple of important questions. One: how long can you survive on beer alone? Two: to what extent is beer a suitable replacement for water? 

A couple years ago, Slate's Jeremy Singer-Vine had a go at the first question. His answer? You'd live long enough to develop scurvy, but probably not much longer: 

"Not more than a few months, probably. That's when the worst effects of scurvy [resulting from vitamin c deficiency] and protein deficiency would kick in... If you kept to a strict beer diet—and swore off plain water altogether—you'd likely die of dehydration in a matter of days or weeks, depending on the strength and volume of beer consumed. There's plenty of water in beer, of course, but the alcohol's diuretic effect makes it a net negative in terms of hydration under most conditions." 

One experiment, in particular, lends credence to the first half of Singer-Vine's hypothesis: in the 1920s, researchers fed two Rhesus macaque monkeys with 200 milliliters of India pale ale per day, and some other foods lacking in vitamin C — within 2 months the monkeys were exhibiting symptoms of scurvy. But what about the second half? The part about dying of dehydration?"

Full story and conclusion - io9.com