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For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Amber Jones Contents of this News Tip:
Humanity's First Oyster Bar: Stone Tools Push Back Date of Earliest Use of Marine ResourcesAn international research team supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has unearthed ancient stone tools from a marine setting in Africa. The finding pushes back by 10,000 years the date for the earliest evidence of human consumption of shellfish, marking the onset of a new type of feeding strategy in human evolution. The tools may contribute to knowledge of the geographic origins and adaptations of modern humans. The researchers found Paleolithic-era hand axes and obsidian flakes and bladestools in a fossil reef terrace on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea, north of Ethiopia. The finding suggests that early humans were adapted to coastal marine environments and ate seafood, including clams, crabs, scallops and oysters, as early as 125,000 years ago. The reef terrace, near the village of Abdur on the Gulf of Zula, is about 10 kilometers long and about 6-14 meters above current sea level. This is the oldest documentation in the world of the use of seafoods--clams, crabs and oysters found in the Eritrean reef--as a food source by early humans. "We're calling this humanity's 'first oyster bar,'" says Richard Buffler of the University of Texas. The discovery, researchers believe, adds credence to the idea that early Homo sapiens originated in Africa and migrated from there to Europe and Asia. [Cheryl Dybas] Promising Young Astronomers Earn NSF-Funded ScholarshipsThree high school students who unveiled sophisticated astronomy projects at a May science fair took home scholarships funded by NSF. The winners were among more than 1,500 young scientists competing for $2 million in prizes at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Detroit, Mich. Francis Boulva of Mt. Royal, Quebec, Canada, earned a $5,000 NSF-funded scholarship for discovering hydrogen shells around massive B-type stars. These stars are hotter and several times larger than the sun. The hydrogen, pushed outward by stellar winds, can be detected with ground-based radio telescopes. Daniel Perley, of Socorro, N. Mex., received a $3,000 scholarship for modeling the tidal interaction between galaxies. Perley applied the principles of Newtonian physics to simulate the gravitational forces that galaxies exert on each other and the resulting distortions in their shapes. His results agree closely with data from NSF's Very Large Array, a radio telescope in New Mexico. Susannah Lazar, a home-schooled student from Baton Rouge, La., received a $3,000 scholarship for using measurements of the light from asteroids to determine their rotational periods. Lazar used data from a Louisiana State University observatory. NSF provided an additional $1,000 for the science department of each student's high school. The American Astronomical Society administers the scholarships on behalf of three astronomy organizations. [Amber Jones] Scientists Confirm Active Underwater VolcanoNSF-funded marine geologists have confirmed the existence of an active underwater volcano east of Samoa in the South Pacific. The volcano, recently named Vailulu’u, is about 28 miles east of Ta’u Island and rises more than 16,400 feet from the seafloor to within 2,000 feet of the ocean's surface. The volcano was mapped and sampled for the first time in 1999 during an NSF-funded cruise. Stanley Hart of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and Hubert Staudigel and Dave Willoughby of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California returned in March 2000, again supported by NSF, to search for evidence that the volcano is actively erupting. By towing an instrument behind a ship that measures the turbidity or particulate matter in the water column, the researchers were able to show that the summit crater of the volcano is filled with billowing "smoggy" water. This "smog" extends out from the top of the volcano, in the form of a halo, for more than five miles. The volcanic activity appears to be located in Vailulu'u's circular summit crater, which is 400 meters (1,300 feet) deep and 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) wide. Earth scientists have long debated the origin of the Samoan island chain. Some argue that the islands have followed a classic hot spot track, like the Hawaiian Islands. Others say the origin is related to rifting or crustal plate activity associated with the northern point of the Tonga Trench. Hart says the discovery of Vailulu’u, well to the east of the Tonga Trench, supports a hot spot model for the Samoan chain. "Just as Loihi is the newest volcano in the Hawaiian chain," he notes, "Vailulu’u is the Samoan equivalent of Loihi." [Cheryl Dybas]
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