See "The Door to Hell"
	It looks like a crater with a volcanic lava lake, but it is not. It is said that the hell is located underground. In this case, "The Door to Hell" is this site in Uzbekistan, located close to the small town of Darvaz. This phenomenon started during the Soviet times, 35 years ago. Geologists and miners were drilling inside a mine. At a point, the gas buildup impeded any further activity. Employing the normal mindset ... [read more >>]
	08 April 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Gold of the Pharaohs
	How much gold did the ancient Egyptian goldsmith process? The historian Hecateus of Miletus (4th century BC) said the extracted gold would raise to 32 million Greek mines (the 'mine' was the ancient Greek unit of mass; the amount in discussion represents about 10,000 tonnes!), a highly exaggerated number. The study of the hieroglyphs carved on the walls of the temple of Karnak, representing the annals of Tutmosis III, from the 18 ... [read more >>]
	20 March 2008, 11:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Things You Did Not Know About Mining and Mines
	1.Mining started in the Neolithic (New Stone Age), 12,000 years ago, when people gathered grit from the surface of the ground, and later from subterranean deposits. At first, grit mines were made of vertical wells, up to 2 m (6.6 ft) wide and 10 m (33 ft) deep. Tunnels were excavated at the bottom of the well, until grit deposits were found. The tools used for digging were deer antlers and shovels made of the shoulder blade of large animal ... [read more >>]
	28 January 2008, 06:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Bat Ultrasounds Against Cancer and Underwater Mines
	Humans see with their eyes, dogs are said to "smell" things and bats literally see with their ears. The little flying mammals have a complex sonar, employing ultrasounds (sounds with a frequency over 20 kHz, which cannot be heard by the human ear). Bats employ the sonar especially when hunting and flying through caves: they send out the sonic pulses and listen to the reflected echoes, which offer them details of the sur ... [read more >>]
	12 November 2007, 03:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Causes the Modern Gold Rush
	The modern gold rush is as wild and disorganized as it was in the 19th century, and represents a threat the most beautiful national parks in the US, due to the increase in the metal prices. "Areas surrounding iconic locations in the western US such as Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon risk being intensively mined in coming years," warned the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit research organizat ... [read more >>]
	20 August 2007, 07:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to Destroy Underwater Mines
	If the Japanese are sometimes hilariously straining to humanize the robots making them sing, dance or even make love, the Americans seem to have always a more pragmatic approach. The last "American" robot, a prototype, was conceived to destroy underwater mines which could kill Marines and Navy SEALs as they come on shore. A sort of suicidal robot that we might compare to a kamikaze. The device is 3-foot-long and c ... [read more >>]
	10 August 2007, 11:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to Listen for Unexploded Landmines with $65 Microphones
	There are an estimated one hundred million unexploded land mines around the world. Placing and arming them is relatively inexpensive and simple, the process of detecting and removing them is typically expensive, slow and dangerous. Small size antipersonnel mines are the most dangerous, because they are very small, made almost entirely of non-metallic materials (specifically to avoid detection from metal detectors), are located in large ... [read more >>]
	30 July 2007, 09:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Rats and Cats, Trained to Detect Landmines
	Playing cat and mouse can have a different outcome from what we see in some cartoons. Tom and Jerry can be even very good friends when solving some very special tasks. In the past years, a special Colombian police unit has been training rats and cats put in the same cages as part of a project to teach the rodents to sniff out the over 100,000 landmines planted especially by leftist rebels across Columbia. The standard met ... [read more >>]
	26 July 2007, 04:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Elephants' Mysterious Ability to Detect Land Mines
	Elephants amaze us with their abilities, from their infrasound communication to the perception of seismic waves. Now they appear to have a mysterious ability of detecting land mines. This was observed in elephants moving to war-ravaged southern Angola from neighboring countries, especially Botswana. "The elephants are returning in growing numbers to southeast Angola, where thousands of the animals were massacred during the country ... [read more >>]
	17 July 2007, 03:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Dolphins and Sea Lions, Still the Best Solution Against Underwater Terrorists
	Even with the current advanced technology in high-tech sensors and underwater robotics, dolphins and sea lions keep on being the U.S. Navy's best defense against scuba diving terrorists. “They are better than anything we have ever made,'' said Mike Rothe, head of science for the Navy's marine mammal program, which trains marine mammals to guard military installations. The program trains about 75 dolphins a ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2007, 03:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Unmanned Mine-Cleaning Submarine
	This week, at the Ocean Business Conference in Southampton, a revolutionary unmanned submarine which can locate and destroy underwater mines is due to be unveiled. Since World War II, 14 U.S. ships have been sunk or damaged by mines, while only two have been sunk by enemy fire and many more commercial ships belonging to various countries have suffered sever damage from unexpected encounters with underwater mines. Sitting underwater ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2007, 06:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia