Hobbits seem to be found!!

Flores, Indonesia. September, 2003. a group of anthropologist (and scientists alike) founded what it seemed to be a tiny specie of hominid.  The study of the bones showed that they where similar to australopitecus and chimpanzees, but very different to actual human bones.

Despite morphological comparation might be usefull talking about close relationed species, DNA tests are necessary, but really hard to get in this case due to the tropical climate of the island. Actually, the bones have to be dried while they lay right where they were found, before being taken to the lab, becouse they have the consistency of “wet blotting paper”. Can you imagine?. Soil contamination is also another problem for the exams to be taken and show correct ressults.

How did those pygmies arrived to the island is a mistery, dough there are a couple theories like that they came by water vessel and even being average human sized. And they shrinked in size due to limited resources and a extreme tropical weather.

Due to the difficulties of prooving the DNA structure of this spiece, we might never know the origin of “the Hobbit”, but nobody can doubt that it is one of the greates discoveries on the anthropological fiel of our times.

Laser-air mapping the Amazon?? Awesome!!!

Scientist form the  department of Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science, based at Stanford University, developed a technology able to map from five thousand meters above the Amazonian forest.  This technology works bouncing laser beams 400,000 times per second, over the forest.

The procedure is the next: The machine known as Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), kept at a temperature of -131°C, bounces laser beams 400,000 times per second from a plane at five thousand meters above the forest, on a scanning speed of 360 sq km each hour, creating three-dimentional images. 

But why is it important?, what can we use it for?.  Well, this helps us mesure the biodiversity of the forest in a really short period of time, instead of parcelling (like we, the foresters, say) the whole forest, on foot. We can keep trak of how the forest is responding to droughs and monitores deforestation and degradation, etc… In other words: Critical information for the conservation of one of the most important ecosistems in the world!

The REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative, the mos important founds resource for tropical conservation proyects, would totally use this kind of information:

            "Redd cannot exist without scientifically monitored data on carbon stock," said Asner, who may have invented the most efficient way of measuring it to date.

Hope you liked it.

Bye!

Japan: pure magic

Ahá! Travelling. I’d love to do that really often. In or out of Chile, Close or really far away. I hope a have the chance to travel a lot. So far I haven’t, really. Ninth region, Mendoza, Viña and the counting stops!. Though I’m going to Miami on winter vacation (ours of course), I’ve always wanted to travel to Japan: the total opposite.  Can you imagine it!?. I know that it’s outstandingly expensive, but I always thought that getting lost in the mountains would be the greatest experience of my life…

It would all start when, just for fun and the love for adventure takes me to the mountains. Those magical forests full of new animals and plants to discover and also full of myths, legends, and magic.

Truth be told, the main reason for me to go there, it’s ridiculously childish: I want to find a “ninja village”.  I know it sounds stupid for most people, but it hides the most pure desire of self improvement. Mental and physical development. Just awesome…