Research Communicator
from AlphaGalileo — February 2012

Hits Parade — AlphaGalileo Top 5

Our hit parade compiles the press releases with bigger number of visits in January 2012.

1. New primate species discovered on Madagascar — Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover (TiHo) — 07/01/2012

A Malagasy-German research team has discovered a new primate species in the Sahafina Forest in eastern Madagascar, a forest that has not been studied before. The name of the new species is Gerp’s mouse lemur (Microcebus gerpi), chosen to honour the Malagasy research group GERP (Groupe d’Étude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar).

A Malagasy-German research team has discovered a new primate species in eastern Madagascar. Photo: B. Randrianambinina

2. Scientists Confirm Tobacco Use by Ancient Mayans — Wiley-Blackwell — 10/01/2012

Archaeologists examining late period Mayan containers have identified nicotine traces from a codex-style flask, revealing the first physical evidence of tobacco use by ancient Mayans. The study reveals the flask is marked with Mayan hieroglyphics reading, “y-otoot ’u-may,” (“the home of its/his/her tobacco,”) making it only the second case to confirm that the text on the exterior of a Mayan vessel corresponds to its ancient use.

MayanFlask

3. Neanderthals and their contemporaries engineered stone tools — University of Kent — 24/01/2012

New published research from anthropologists at the University of Kent has scientifically supported for the first time the long held theory that early human ancestors across Africa, Western Asia and Europe engineered their stone tools.

4. Our problems cannot be solved — Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt | Graz | Wien — 23/01/2012

Over the past several years, the financial crisis, nuclear accidents, and daily fire-fighting efforts to save the Euro have dominated public reporting. They are regarded as important — both by the media and by society. The main premise claimed by the founders of the Berlin-based “Bureau for Working on Intractable Problems and Measures Decreed by Higher Authorities”, is that this overwhelming significance is based, to no small extent, on the intractable nature of these problems.

5. Moral imagination as a key to overcoming work related stigmas — Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - Oficina de Información Científica — 23/01/2012

Moral imagination is an essential faculty for workers who must overcome the stigmas of ethical conflicts and social rejection associated with certain types of jobs, according to a study carried out at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M).

Staff Pick — The fermented cereal beverage of the Sumerians may not have been beer
— Max-Planck-Gesellschaft — 17 January 2012

4,000-year-old cuneiform writings from Mesopotamia tell us little about the brewing techniques used at the time.

Archaeological finds from cuneiform tablets and remnants of different vessels from over 4,000 years ago show that even around the dawn of civilisation, fermented cereal juice was highly enjoyed by Mesopotamia’s inhabitants.

However, besides the two basic ingredients, barley and emmer (a species of wheat) the brew produced in the clay jars of the Sumerians is shrouded in mystery. Despite an abundance of finds and scribal traditions which point to an early love of fermented cereal beverages, reconstructing ancient brewing methods is very difficult, according to the historian of science and cuneiform writing scholar Peter Damerow of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

A scholarly paper by Damerow, who passed away at the end of November 2011 in Berlin, carefully examines the beer brewing technologies of the Sumerians. However, the author also expresses great doubts as to whether the popular brew in ancient times was even beer.

Archaic writing tablet from Mesopotamia (approx. 3000 B.C.): The tablet which contains proto-cuneiform writing, belongs to the most ancient group of written records on earth. It contains calculations of basic ingredients required for the production of cereal products, for example, different types of beer. Credit: M. Nissen, 1990.

Read the full story here

Image of the Month

“Hot plasmas: from the universe to the energy of tomorrow” — European Fusion Development Agreement — 20 January 2012

Visitors of the Fusion Expo

The Savvy User's Corner – Uploading Attachments Addendum

In our Research Communicators from March and November last year, we told you all about attachments. You can upload up to five of them (PDF, video, audio, pictures, etc.) with your postings. Attachments are very useful additions to your published items and much appreciated by journalists. Due to a software update at the start of the New Year, the upload procedure now has a slightly different look to it, so we thought it might be a good idea to go over it quickly once more:

• Upload: To upload attachments to your item, go to the field “Upload Additional Files”. First use the left-hand field to choose the type of attachment you would like to upload, and then browse your attachment. You will now see an orange upload bar which indicates the process of your upload. Please be patient: the bar can take a couple of moments to finish loading. Your attachment will appear as soon as the upload is complete and you can then add a caption or description of your document in the small field to the right. Please note that the caption field is compulsory. There is no need to save your attachment again. Simply click “submit” to send your finished press release to our team for approval.
• Upload more than one attachment: When uploading several attachments to the same release, be aware that you can only upload them one at a time. Once you have uploaded your first image, PDF or other file, simply repeat the process outlined above. Take care that you do not upload any attachments into the “Additional Logo” field as this will cause them to appear at the top of your release rather than at the bottom. If, of course, you do wish to upload an additional logo, you can do so in the relevant field.
• Restrict attachments: If you wish only journalists to download your files and not the general public you can restrict attachments. Restricted attachments are available to journalists only. You can restrict your attachments by ticking “Restrict to journalists” on the right hand side of your attachment below the caption field. Many contributors make use of this option when attaching a scientific paper or a copyrighted image. The restriction of an attachment does not restrict the entire release.
• Check the number of your asset hits: If you are interested in finding out about the number of downloads your attached files have got (asset hits) you can do so by logging in and clicking on “My Content” and then on "My submitted content". The number of asset hits appears next to the title of your press release on the far right.

If you have any questions about this or any other feature please do not hesitate to contact our team at alphagalileo@alphagalileo.org

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