The Dead Sea Scrolls are coming back to life with the restoration project being commenced by Israel's Antiquities Authority. Using high-tech cameras, they will photograph each fragment of the scrolls, and the best part is it will be made available for public viewing over the Internet.

It seems Galilee used to hide things other than a young Jesus Christ. A recent excavation at Galilee in Israel uncovered some Roman temple ruins from the 2nd century A.D. Learn more after the jump!

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a 2,000-year old mansion belonging to the royal clan that ruled Adiabene, a region in current day northern Iraq.

The remains of the building was found just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, hidden under the asphalt of a small parking lot in the eastern part of the city. This discovery was by far the largest and most elaborate one discovered in the City of David area.

There are many ways to detect the presence of a bomb, but most of them require expensive equipment and even more expensive training. However, through the ingenious use of a few chemicals and old-fashioned science wizardry, chemists have invented a new and easily available way on not only to suss out explosives, but also to find out just who's been in contact with them.

How is this done, you ask? The answer is a bit more convenient than you think, one that comes in the shape and form of a spray-on material that turns red when it comes in contact with a common improvised explosive.

While this in itself can pinpoint traces of explosive in a room, it can be taken one step further by spraying it directly onto the hands or fingers of individuals suspected to have been doing naughty stuff with explosives. A simple squirt here and there, and there you go - a rough and ready way to detect who's been toying with improvised bombs or not.

Neat, isn't it? And this nifty little idea came from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where scientists such as Joseph Almog work hard to create bomb-detecting chemicals. The one we just mentioned is specifically designed to detect Urea Nitrate, a common improvised explosive that has claimed hundreds of lives in Israel.

But what about the other types of bombs, and even firearms? Not to worry - it's just one of the many chemicals that Joseph and his colleagues are working on to provide authorities all over the world with rough and ready ways to detect contraband. Another spray, called FerroTrace, turns dark violet when it comes in contact with hands that have recently held firearms or grenades.

Certainly good that there are dedicated individuals hard at work to make our lives just a little bit safer. You can check out the complicated process of coming up with such a chemical at the Read link we've provided below.

61-year-old Israeli pediatrician Igal Kushnir and his company Deep Breeze has developed a new technology called Vibration Response Imaging (VRI). What it does is measure energy generated in the lungs, analyze it, and then display an image of the person's lungs in one go.

This new technology has been found to accurately diagnose lung conditions such as asthma, pneumonia, and lung tumors.
 
What makes this method so amazing is the fact that it uses no radiation. It works by analyzing acoustic vibrations resonating or sounds from a person's lungs, much like a stethoscope. The lung vibrations are then fed to a computer, where it's displayed as images.

Deep Breeze was given approval by the US Food and Drug Administration last July 23 to begin marketing a VRI device in the U.S. Other countries such as Israel, the European Union, and South Korea have also cleared the product for distribution.

While the technology is still expensive at an average price of US$ 40,000 to US$ 50,000 per unit. Deep Breeze is working to create cheaper versions of it which will go for as low as US$ 10,000 per machine. This is big news in the medical community as this device will undoubtedly save a lot of lives by removing a lot of the guesswork usually experienced in using the common stethoscope.

Palestinian workmen surveying a suburb which will be laid with a light rail have stumbled upon a little surprise: An entire city buried 2,000 years ago was underneath the settlement all along.

The city is yet to be properly identified, but archaeologists say that there's a fat chance that it's the ancient city of Noh where ancient Israel's King Saul was chosen by priests in hiding.

Archaeologist Rachel Bar Nathan says "no one knew of a city of this importance just a few kilometres (miles) north of Jerusalem, and its name remains unknown." Using spades and brushes, the 50-member work team explored the ancient city and excavated some interesting finds.

Among the items recovered were jars hidden within building walls containing coins. A gold piece depicting emperor Trajan suggests that the city was visited by Roman forces in the year 98 to 117. Evidence that the city was ransacked, burned and abandoned suggested how the city came to be buried.

Regardless of the discovery, the Palestinian authorities will still pursue the light rail project and will take appropriate measures to preserve the integrity of the site in the process. Their solution? Bury the city all over again after exploration and proceed with the construction.

The city is one of the best of its age when it comes to waterworks as the city has extensive ducts and canals which supplied fresh water to bath houses that used thermal techniques introduced by the Romans.

Studies have recently shown that computer workout programs are better than classic computer games at fighting off mental decline due to aging. This study was funded by Cognifit Ltd. and conducted by researchers in Israel. They compared how one brain-training program, MindFit, fared versus a workout of classic computer games, such as the puzzle game Tetris.

121 volunteers of individuals over 50 joined one of two groups: the MindFit training program or a sampling of computer games. They were not told whether they were playing the brain workout program or a dummy program. Both groups benefited from the study although the group using the MindFit program showed a significant improvement in spatial short-term memory, spatial learning and focused attention.

Dr. Nir Giladi, a neurologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel had this to say about the areas of improvement: "These areas would be especially helpful with things like driving or preventing falls, a major source of injury in the elderly." The doctor later added in an interview, "It looks like at least some cognitive domains are improved significantly even after a relatively short period of practice."

The findings of this study were presented on Friday at an Alzheimer's conference in Salzburg, Austria. The results of this case turned out similar to one done at the University of California last year further reinforcing the fact that gaming can be healthy.

There's a great deal of hype surrounding the upcoming James Cameron documentary which airs on the Discovery Channel. And why not? The date may mark your last day as a believer.

The documentary titled "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" seeks to establish that ossuaries excavated in Jerusalem belonged to a married Jesus, Mary Magdalene and quite possibly their "son", Judah. Some experts, however, are not convinced, calling the film "nonsense."

The Oscar-winning filmmaker Cameron and Canadian-Israeli journalist Simcha Jacobovici are the main forces behind the upcoming presentation. The documentary carries the same hype as "The Da Vinci Code" and both men are confident that their evidences will prove some points come March 4.

The excavation, contrary to popular assumptions, are not newly excavated. They were unearthed a decade ago in Jerusalem by Israeli archaeologist Amos Klooner and were discovered by Jacobovici only three years ago. Being the investigative reporter that he is, Jacobovici was captivated by the find and set out to do a deeper study.

The tomb allegedly contained bodies in ossuaries where the names "Jesus, Son of Joseph," Mary and "Judah son of Jesus" were inscribed. Jacobovici consulted a panel of experts to have some questions answered. He got DNA tests, statisticians, archaeologists and scholars on ancient texts to do the job. He came up with the following findings, which Cameron in turn described as "compelling."

1. DNA Tests - According to DNA experts consulted by Jacobovici, the bodies in the tomb of Jesus and Mary were not related by blood, eliminating the possibility that the Mary there is the mother of Jesus and leading to the notion that the two must have been married. There was no mention of findings on the tomb of Judah.
2. Ancient texts - the name "Mariamene" is inscribed in the ossuary of the woman, and according to the fifth-century script called "acts of Philip" the name was used interchangeably for Mary Magdalene.
3. Statistics- experts in the University of Toronto have calculated the possibility of the name combinations to coincide in the same grave. the result was 600:1.

All of these, claimed the journalist, are facts and said that the world needs to see this and called for a "scientific, academic, theological debate" to commence.

And commence it does over at Full Article. Head over there to see what the naysayers have to say in rebuttal.

In a recent study made out of 33 surgeons from the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York, it was found out that the nine doctors who had at some point actually held a controller in hand and played a video game at least three hours a week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills than the 15 surgeons who had never played video games before. This, we guess, gives us a new meaning to the phrase "playing like a life depended on it."

The study, published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, correlates video gaming skills and a surgeon's capabilities to perform laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopy is surgery where the surgeon makes a small incision in the patient's body and performs the surgery by manipulating instruments guided by actual video images of the victim's insides watched through a TV screen.

According to the study, the capacity of a surgeon to perform better at laparoscopy is more related to their videogaming skills than the length of their training or how many laparoscopic surgeries they've performed in the past. This, the study said, further proves past findings that playing videogames gives a person finer motor skills, better hand-eye coordination skills, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency.

But take note, kids - this finding can't be used as an excuse to play computer games all day. Surgeons may benefit from casual gaming, but staying in front of the TV and the gaming console for a considerably long period of time will not get you to medical school. Hitting the books and doing your homework is still the best way to go.

The people of the world may be starving, going without clean water, decent air and proper health care, and the planet's climate may be changing in ways that will make it ultimately uninhabitable - but you can always count on the world's governments and their private corporate masters to use technology in profitable - if destructive - ways.  After all, what's human life compared to a defense contractor's bottom line?

The latest toy (over which U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his British counterpart in the Ministry of Defence, Des Browne are already giddy about) is an "armed remote-controlled robot" manufactured by the Foster-Miller corporation of Waltham, Massachusetts. The machine-gun-equipped robot, called "Sword," was certified safe for use by the US forces last summer.

Robots have previously been used to detonating improvised bombs in the UK, Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest version has been developed from an earlier machine from the same company, called "Talon."  This one had a manipulator arm which has been replaced by a rotating machine gun carrier. According to Foster-Miller general manager Bob Quinn, "It's for urban combat and perimeter security and it's fully controlled by the soldier." Indeed, none of the robots currently under development will operate autonomously, except for a "return home" function pre-programmed into them.

Since the bellicose Bush is handing out defense contracts like the Easter Bunny throwing candy to eager little children, defense contractors are busily designing the next generation of "battlebots" that they believe will be "smart" enough to tell friend from foe.  There has been some outcry about this from the AI community, fortunately. "It is ethically problematic to use software that may work in lab conditions but not under a whole range of extreme conditions, such as when you suspect someone might be a suicide bomber," says Kirsten Dautenhahn, an AI expert at the University of Hertfordshire.

Lucy Suchman, a researcher at the University of Lancaster whose work involves studying interactions between humans and computers adds, "This plan is just ridiculous. It involves the worst kind of simplistic profiling. It's a fantasy on the part of technology enthusiasts within the Pentagon."

Since there is so much profit at stake, Bob Quinn - predictably - disagrees. "Recognition technology is progressing fast. I think it will separate the wheat from the chaff," he says, pointing out that the Pentagon's Office of Naval Research - through which the funding is being channeled - is "not known for wasting research dollars." By the way, anyone out there wanna buy a bridge in Tacoma...?