Ancient Water System

Archaeologists have uncovered a Roman water system during excavations in Stabiae, located near Pompeii in the Province of Naples, Italy.

Stabiae was largely buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which released a deadly cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), molten rock, pumice, and hot ash at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second. The resulting pyroclastic surges and heavy ashfall enveloped Pompeii and Herculanium, with large parts of Stabiae being buried in thick tephra and ash.

The Roman author, Pliny the Elder, records that Stabiae had several miles of luxury coastal villas along the edge of the headland, with notable figures such as Julius Caesar, the emperors Augustus and Tiberius, and the statesman-philosopher Cicero all owning properties there.

Excavations in a small peristyle (colonnaded garden) at the Villa Arianna have uncovered parts of an ancient water system during archaeological cleaning, revealing a decorated lead tank which was part of a water distribution system within the villa complex.  READ MORE...

Rumors of Rumors

Speaking at Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples, Italy, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that not too long from today, people will wonder how they led a life without augmented reality, stressing the "profound" impact it will have on the not so distant future.

At the university, Cook was awarded an Honorary Degree in Innovation and International Management and also sat down for a Q&A session with students. Responding to a question from a student on what future technologies excite him the most, Cook pointed to artificial intelligence, calling it a "fundamental, horizontal technology that will touch everything in our lives," ranging from innovations in the Apple Watch to "many other things" Apple is working on.

Cook, more importantly, stressed his excitement for augmented reality. Cook suggested that augmented reality's impact on the world will be as profound as the internet itself, saying people will wonder how they led a life without it. As he was speaking on augmented reality, the live stream of the Q&A session abruptly cut, so Cook's full comment on the subject is not publicly known.  READ MORE...

Shared Jumping Genes

According to a new study, the neural and cognitive complexity of the octopus could originate 

from a molecular analogy with the human brain.

New research has identified an important molecular analogy that could explain the remarkable intelligence of these fascinating invertebrates.

An exceptional organism with an extremely complex brain and cognitive abilities makes the octopus very unique among invertebrates. So much so that it resembles vertebrates more than invertebrates in several aspects. 

The neural and cognitive complexity of these animals could originate from a molecular analogy with the human brain, as discovered by a research paper that was recently published in BMC Biology and coordinated by Remo Sanges from Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) of Trieste and by Graziano Fiorito from Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples.


This research shows that the same ‘jumping genes’ are active both in the human brain and in the brain of two species, Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus, and Octopus bimaculoides, the Californian octopus. 

A discovery that could help us understand the secret of the intelligence of these remarkable organisms.

Sequencing the human genome revealed as early as 2001 that over 45% of it is composed of sequences called transposons, so-called ‘jumping genes’ that, through molecular copy-and-paste or cut-and-paste mechanisms, can ‘move’ from one point to another of an individual’s genome, shuffling or duplicating.

In most cases, these mobile elements remain silent: they have no visible effects and have lost their ability to move. Some are inactive because they have, over generations, accumulated mutations; others are intact, but blocked by cellular defense mechanisms. 

From an evolutionary point of view even these fragments and broken copies of transposons can still be useful, as ‘raw matter’ that evolution can sculpt.  READ MORE...

Tourist Site Rewrites History

(CNN) — It's world-famous for the Roman ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E., but the latest tourist attraction in Naples shows a very different side of the city.

Opening in June, the Ipogeo dei Cristallini -- Hypogeum of Cristallini Street -- is part of an ancient cemetery, located just outside the walls of Neapolis, as the city was called 2,300 years ago.

Not only is the cemetery more than 400 years older than the ruins of Pompeii and the other Roman towns along the Bay of Naples, but it isn't Roman at all. In fact, it was built by the ancient Greeks, who founded Naples in the eight century B.C.E., and kept it a fully Greek city, even when it came under Roman control centuries later.

It's a game-changing opening, according to archaeologists, that promises to change how we think of Naples, the Mediterranean in ancient times, and even Greek artistry. It also, those involved with the project believe, has the potential to protect Naples from a tourism boom that, if it continues, could bring overtourism to the city.

In the bowels of the city

Forty feet below the garden of a 19th-century palazzo, in what's now the Sanità area of the city, a steep staircase burrowing underground leads to four tombs. Each with their own grand entrance -- one even has Ionic columns sculpted on its façade -- they open on to what is thought to have been the original pathway that mourners would have taken.  READ MORE...

Pompeii Slave Room

Image Credit : Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Archaeologists conducting excavations at Pompeii’s Civita Giuliana have identified a room used by slaves.

Pompeii was a Roman city, located in the modern commune of Pompeii near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum, and many villas in the surrounding area was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

The villa of Civita Giuliana has been studied since 2017, with previous excavations unearthing several rooms, a servant’s quarters, and a ceremonial chariot and stable with harnessed horses.

In the latest series of excavations by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, alongside the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Torre Annunziata, archaeologists found a room near to where the chariot was discovered, that is believed to be the humble lodgings of the slaves who carried out the everyday work in the Roman villa, including the maintenance and preparation of the chariot.  READ MORE...