The discovery that opens new perspectives on exploring the Red Planet: Martian soil containing 2% water!

  

Mars soil contains about 2% water, and this discovery opens new perspectives for future exploration missions "red planet" manned on board, according to a survey on a sample of American rover Curiosity, according to AFP.

"One of the most spectacular results of the study conducted on the first sample analyzed by Curiosity refers to the high percentage of water in the Martian soil , which is about 2 %," said Laurie Leshin , researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the U.S. state of New York , co-author of the study published in the American journal Science.
The sample - which has been heated to a temperature of 835 ° C - a significant percentage of released carbon dioxide (CO2 ) , oxygen and sulfur compounds , however, the water gas was the most abundant element , said U.S. researcher .
Future astronauts could extract approximately one liter of water in a volume of 0.03 cubic meters of sand that Martian , and " that means a lot ," says Laurie Leshin .
"Until now , Mars was seen - outside its polar regions - like a desert , and although this is a considerably smaller proportion of water than that found in a terrestrial soil sample is a substantial amount and is an important resource " for future explorers " red planet , " she explained.
" This water is found almost everywhere on Mars soil surface under your feet if you were an astronaut . 's Enough to warm the soil than to get water," American researcher dezvăuit .
" Mars is covered with a layer of sand as a mixture and moving all over the planet in the frequent dust storms , and , therefore , a sample of the soil contains a collection of all rock microscopic and non Mars helps to make a good idea of ​​the Martian surface as a whole , "he said.
Water is abundant on Mars in the form of ice in the polar regions . In 2003, the European probe Mars Express orbiting the planet , confirmed the presence of water ice in the south polar cap . Shortly thereafter, the same probe revealed the presence of a layer of permafrost around the north pole , which extends over an area of ​​several hundred square kilometers.
In addition to analysis of Martian soil gas , the other four tests performed with other instruments onboard Curiosity robot were published Thursday in the journal Science. These results help scientists better understand the nature and structure of Martian soil and water role .
Arrived in the equatorial region of Mars Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 , Curiosity , the most sophisticated robot explorer , six -wheeled people ever sent to another planet , has already shown that " red planet " was favorable to microbial life her distant past , this being the main objective of his mission .
A study published last week but it worked like a cold shower for scientists hope to find life forms present on Mars rover Curiosity has since found no trace of methane in the Martian atmosphere .
In recent weeks, the rover resumed its journey to Mount Sharp , at a distance of eight kilometers , the main target of exploration of its mission which will last two years. His journey will take several months , especially with how Curiosity will stop on his way to analyze many interesting formations geologically .
Base Mount Sharp presents great interest to scientists because of its different sedimentary layers , which could help the scientists at NASA to date the periods during which Mars was a habitable planet .

BBC News reports that, for the first time in history, a fusion reaction produced more energy than it consumed.

BBC News reports that , for the first time in history, a fusion reaction produced mAtunci when our descendants will look to the past for 2013, it is possible that the events that took place at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the U.S. to be the remaining recorded in history.Researchers in the laboratory located in California have achieved unprecedented success in the history of nuclear fusion , passing a crucial milestone . BBC News reports that , for the first time in history, a fusion reaction produced more energy than it consumed .

Using fusion - the process that powers the sun - to get electricity could offer mankind an unlimited and inexpensive energy source . To achieve this, however, requires that power plants based on fusion to produce more energy than it consumes , which was difficult.Scientists at the National Ignition Facility ( NIF) in the U.S. have used 192 bundles of the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a tiny hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions occur .
BBC has learned that in an experiment that took place at the end of September, the amount of energy released by the fusion reaction has exceeded the amount of energy absorbed by the fuel - is the first time this is managed in a dedicated laboratory fusion .

Not achieve success laboratory, that of "fire" in which nuclear fusion generates as much energy as it provides lasers. This datoreaază "inefficiency" over different parts of the system, the inefficiencies that are not all the energy generated by the laser to reach the hydrogen fuel
In 2009, NIF officials announced plans to demonstrate that fusion can produce more energy by 30 September 2012. However, due to unexpected technical problems, the deadline has been exceeded and the energy generated by the merger was less than half than what the mathematical models predicted.

Shortly after the failure, lab worth $ 3.5 billion shifted, reducing the time dedicated merger and increasing time spent on nuclear weapons research, another objective of the institution americane.Totuşi, the latest experiments confirm mathematical models and will be a stimulating research on nuclear fusion.
NIF, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is one of the projects dedicated merger. Another project worth several billion is ITER, which is currently under construction in Cadarache, France.

ITER will address other than NIF fusion using lasers instead of magnetic fields to control fuel for fusion.

Farewell Big Bang? Scientists have a new theory about creation of Universe .

 

It might be time to say "goodbye" Big Bang Theory. A team of cosmologists speculate that the universe was formed from debris ejected when a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole. This new scenario postulated by researchers would explain why the cosmos seems to be so uniform in all directions.

 Standard Big Bang model states that the Universe exploded from an infinitely dense singularity known. However, no one knows what would have caused this explosion: the known laws of physics can not tell us what happened in that time."From the point of view of current knowledge of physics, they fly and dragons singularity" comments Niayesh Afshordi, an astrophysicist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.


The current model is difficult to explain such a violent Big Bang managed to leave behind a universe that is almost completely uniform temperature, because there seems to have been long enough to "cosmic birth" to reach the point the balance of the temperature.

For most cosmologists, the most plausible explanation for this uniformity would be that after the beginning of time, an unknown form of energy made ​​the universe young to "swell" at a speed greater than the speed of light. In this way, a small piece about the same temperature would be stretched, making vast cosmos we see today. However, Ashford points out that "Big Bang was so chaotic that it is not clear where they could be found a small piece and allowing the onset of homogeneous inflation process."


 In a new study published on arXiv, Ashford and his colleagues are studying a proposal made in 2000 by a team where he was and Gia Dvali, a physicist working today at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. In the 2000 proposal, our Universe three-dimensional (3D) is a membrane that floats through a "bulk universe" which has four spatial dimensions.

Researchers led by Ashford realized that if the universe would contain its own star bulk 4D (four-dimensional), some could collapse, forming 4D black holes as massive stars in our Universe: exploding as supernovae, hurling force the outer layers and inner layers colapsând into a black hole.

 In our universe, a black hole is bounded by a spherical surface called the "event horizon". If ordinary three-dimensional space requires a two-dimensional object (a surface) to create a "border" into the black hole, the "universe bulk" event horizon of a black hole 4D as a 3D object - a form that hipersferă called. When researchers led by Ashford death of a star shaped 4D, they found that the ejected material would form a membrane that surrounds the event horizon 3D 3D and extends slowly.
 

The authors postulate that the 3D universe in which we live could be just such a membrane - and that we detect membrane development as cosmic expansion. "Astronomers have measured the expansion and extrapolated from it that the universe began with a Big Bang - but that's just a mirage," said Afshordi.

 Model devised by Afshordi naturally explains the uniformity of our universe . Since the bulk 4D universe could have been infinite time period would have been enough time different parts of the universe 4D to achieve a balance , which is inherited from our 3D universe .
Afshordi 's model has some problems , though. Earlier this year, the Planck space observatory has released data that cartographers small temperature fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation - radiation ancient prints bearing the first moments of the universe. Fluctuations confirmed classical Big Bang model predictions of inflation theory , but Afshordi proposed model deviates from the Planck observations by about 4% . Hoping to resolve discrepancies , Afshordi states that are working on refining the model.
Despite this mismatch , Dvali praise ingenious way in which researchers were able to quit Big Bang model . " Singularity is the fundamental problem of cosmology , and these researchers rewrite history so that there is no singularity ," says physicist . Although Planck observatory results ' show that inflation theory is correct " , they do not provide an answer to the question " how inflation took place , "says Dvali . This study may help to demonstrate that inflation was activated by the movement of the universe through another reality with more dimensions , Dvali concludes .

 

Sonda Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer ( LADEE ) reached lunar orbit

 

A lunar probe launched by NASA on September 6, managed to place in orbit around the Earth's natural satellite, despite the smooth functioning of operations and missions launched by U.S. space agency is seriously affected by the federal budget in the country.

According to Reuters, the probe Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Boxes) was launched on September 6, with a small rocket, placed it on a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth.
Having made ​​three revolutions around the Earth , Lade was Sunday in the ideal position to start the engine and propulsion reversed , with which managed to reach an area where gravity could be attracted to the Moon and then placed in lunar orbit .
Synchronization operations was not ideal . Budget crisis that partially blocked the functioning of the U.S. government made ​​about 97 % of the total staff of about 18,000 employees whom NASA has not worked in this zile.Însă among the 3% who could still have been working Boxes and mission controllers who monitored the difficult maneuver to place the probe in lunar orbit , said the mission coordinator , Greg Delory , a researcher at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field , California.
Over the next two weeks, the boxes will adjust the orbit to position themselves at a distance of 155 miles ( 249.4 km ) of the lunar surface , considered an ideal distance to study gases surrounding the Earth's natural satellite and dust electric charge on the lunar surface .
U.S. government budget crisis should not prevent a review of laser communication system that is endowed probe boxes planned for later this month , said Greg Delory .


Last week, NASA returned to work teams prepare a new and probe the Martian, whose launch is scheduled for November 18.

Meanwhile, teams from NASA that still works these days oversees communication satellites and scientific space probes.
Sursa: Mediafax

Science approaching a firm answer to the question "do people have soul?" Here is the answer of science

 

Francis Crick , Nobel Prize winner for discovering the molecular structure of DNA, made ​​waves in 1994 with the publication of his book "The Astonishing Hypothesis " , in which she argued that the soul is an illusion perpetuated only by our faith in it. The scientist gave a hard news reader from the first line : "' You ,' your joys and sorrows , your memories and your ambitions , sense of personal identity and free will - all these are nothing more than the behavior of a huge number of nerve cells and their associated molecules . "
In the two decades elapsed since the publication of this book , science has made many advances in the fields of neuroscience that allow the evaluation of evidence proving the existence of disputes or soul philosopher Stephen Cave concept which states that it is "the most important idea in the history of mankind.
Cave writes in the book " Immortality " soul hypothesis that has always relied on evidence . "If people who believed in the resurrection was based solely on faith in God's ability to commit an act of miraculous faith in the soul always relied on reason . Ancient Greek philosophers accept the idea of the soul because I think that is the best explanation for a number of empirical phenomena , "said the philosopher .
What are the items that were based philosophies that have adopted the idea of ​​the soul? Cave identifies three . First , the difference between living things and who are not live . For the wise men of many cultures, including those of ancient Greece , it is clear that living things had an additional component which gave them vitality absent in rocks or water . This " animating principle " was assimilated soul. The second element was the conscience - that some living beings are not only capable of movement and development, but also to think, to imagine and believe in different things. Since there is a huge difference between the material things are measurable and visible, and the realm of ideas that exist only in our minds, wise minds felt different from other things that exist and that requires special explanation - the soul . The third element is something esoteric : that some children in India have memories of " past lives " is considered by many a proof that the soul moves from one incarnation to another , while others believe that " ghosts " and other appearances unexplained is evidence of the spirit and its survival after death of the body .
These three arguments are as compelling today as they were now 2,000 , 200 or even 20 years . Regarding the first sentence - that of " animating principle " - science has shown not need it to explain the existence of life . Scientific discoveries about how life works , from organisms to the organs , cells and DNA identified by Francis Crick admits of no spiritual substance . So the first argument for the existence of ancient soul can be ranked .
The third argument , based on the ghosts and other unexplained appearance , it is also worth to be put aside . Those who have tried to investigate these events have always been disappointed. Rarely these events continue to be valid after a thorough analysis , and in cases where it is not fraud or pure invention , other explanations for events are usually at least as plausible as the existence of a spiritual world version . Society for psychical Research Organization , founded in London in 1882 to study paranormal phenomena , failed to find in over 100 research no compelling evidence to prove the existence of any supernatural happenings 

(Foto: Shutterstock.com)

However, it is worth mentioning a source of alleged " supernatural evidence " for the soul : the so- called " body experiences ." A typical case of a body experiences is , for example, when a patient 's heart stops for a moment , and this charge as it leaves the body and how the above or have the feeling that through a tunnel of light . These remarkable experiences disturbs his people , leading them to strengthen their religious beliefs .
However, scientific experiments have shown that experiences can be induced by certain drugs and brain stimulating electrodes . The researchers also sought to test whether people really see his body outside by placing signs in operating rooms that could be perceived only from a point above the patient , but so far there were no evidence for hypothesis that people leave their bodily limits .
To conclude that the existence of souls is truly the best explanation for extracorporeal experiences , we would need first to have a plausible definition of what is really soul and how he manages to survive the body. Given the evidence unclear without a strong theory of the soul we prefer a naturalistic explanation . Thus , we come to the second argument: soul mind.
Although many people believe that contemporary soul there , when asked what is this , many offer vague descriptions . If the soul is, however , the vehicle can give people immortality , then it must contain a fundamental essence - the true "I" - as if it survives the death of the body to know that we continue to exist . In the West, the " real me" is assimilated to mind - that is, the conscious part that thinks, feels , remembers and dreams . When hovering over our dead body or when we get to heaven , we expect to perceive these experiences consciously and benefit from our memories and beliefs intact.
In other words , the essence of the arguments that advocates a " immortal soul " is based on the idea that the mind is independent of body and dependent on a spiritual essence that can survive bodily death . Conversely, if the mind is entirely dependent on the body , then we can conclude that the mind goes when we die , and in this case there is nothing left of us worthy of the name " soul" . So the key question regarding the existence of the soul is where the mind ( or consciousness ) can continue to exist without the body or as a friend said skeptical of Socrates , or it ceases to exist after the disappearance of the body as the music of harps stop destroying the harp .
What evidence say ?

(Foto: Shutterstock.com)

Soul doctrine dates from a period before the discoveries of science , the philosophers believed that the brain is only a cooling mechanism of the blood. The human body was seen as an unreliable structure , a building made ​​of clay hastily gods, so it seemed hard to believe that this matter could be responsible for memory treasures for creative thinking and deep mystery of religious feelings . Therefore, the sages of that time believed that it is more reasonable that the glory of the human mind is the assigning of the soul, the divine spark , not that strange organ of our skulls .
However, even some ancient thinkers were skeptical about the fact that the mind would survive the body. As science and medicine have progressed , have increased the evidence for a close link between mind and brain. Voltaire said that you can not stop laughing when you hear someone saying that a person's mental faculties can survive brain assertion is not very popular in France in 1730 years . In a text published after his death, Voltaire wrote that " as God has linked the ability to have ideas part of the brain , he can keep this faculty only preserving this part of the brain , to preserve this faculty without the brain is laughter as impossible as preserving a man or a bird or bird after the man's death . "

Voltaire    (Foto: Shutterstock.com)

Initially, the most compelling evidence proving reliance mind brain were provided by people who have suffered brain injuries . Probably the best known case is that of Phineas Gage , a foreman on a construction crew in Vermont you dig the rock route for future railway lines . A large chunk of the front of his brain , left frontal lobe was destroyed in 1848 when a rod of iron by his cheek after an explosion and went out through the top of the skull , landing 25 meters away. By staggering , Gage survived and recovered from the accident . Doctors at the time were surprised to discover, after it has healed, that Phineas suffered a remarkable change of personality. If before the accident he was a responsible and respected worker , he later became " moody ", " moody " and unable to keep a job . So a localized brain injury a shift in the moral character of Gage , part of the personality of many consider it a part of the soul .
Even if there are not enough details about Gage 's case to draw a firm conclusion , we are forced to use only this event . In years passed since the freak accident medicine progressed , increasing the survival rate of people with brain injuries , and science has become more efficient in studying these cases. Data accumulated over time show how different regions of the brain injury leads to removal or radical change of some key aspects of the mind. Today , the literature documenting how different brain damage can destroy a person's emotional ability , memory , creativity , language , ability to process different senses or , as happened to Gage , respect for social norms and decision-making . All these examples are qualities that were previously attributed to the soul. Therefore, those who believe in the soul were part of a challenge if they think that the soul can preserve these skills after the destruction of the brain , after death, they must explain why they can preserve the soul is destroyed only when portion of the brain.
To clarify this contradiction we can take the example of sight . Thus, if the optic nerves in the brain are injured seriously , we can not see . This shows that sight is dependent on optic nerve function. However, when people imagine that their soul leaves the body , they imagine that they will be able to see further , for example, imagines that his body watching their own funeral . In other words , they believe that their soul is immaterial faculty of sight . But if the soul can see when the brain and body have stopped working , you just can not see where the optic nerves have stopped working ? In other words, if people have a blind soul who can see you are blind ?

Putem vedea Raiul dacă nu avem nervi optici?    (Foto: Shutterstock.com)

There is no satisfactory answer to this question , and some scholars (such as St. Thomas Aquinas ) accepted that a disembodied soul can not see , because sight is a property of a body and a brain with eyes and optic nerve function. But now science has shown that as optic nerve injury destroys the sense of sight , damage to other parts of the brain leads to the destruction of faculties such as memory and reasoning . Increasingly more evidence suggests that all aspects of the human mind and personality are dependent on some level of the brain. Thus, just as if blind , we can ask about a person with certain brain injuries that can not think rationally or feel emotions : if it has a rational soul can think and feel emotions , you can do these things? What stands in the way of harm partial destruction of the entire brain and soul if the human body can not it stop ?

(Foto: Shutterstock.com)

For a long time , those who wanted to study the brain were limited to rare cases like that of Phineas Gage . In recent decades, however , advances in technology led to the development of new devices that have revolutionized neuroscience : devices that can produce images of the human brain during operation. Neuroimaging techniques , as they are called , allow researchers to study the correlations between thinking (apparently immeasurable ) and measurable aspects of physical matter that makes up the brain . In laboratories around the world can see live how different parts of the brain become active when deployed usual mental activities such as mother's face to remember or to imagine it playing football.
The results of these experiments show that every mental process is accompanied by a cerebral process . More worrying for the soul hypothesis is that these studies show that the brain processes begins even before the conscious mind to perceive . In other words, a scientist who monitors your brain activity may find that you have taken a decision (left or right , tea or coffee , etc. . ) Prior to acknowledge . If " true self " as a conscious soul , it would not make sense . Conversely, if the mind is the product of a physical brain , then this is perfectly normal.
In fact , we all are aware of the close connection between brain and mind: alcohol , for example , we get drunk , so we affecting risk attitudes , social norms and changing to us other aspects of personality . However, the alcohol is a natural substance , if our minds heart depends on a non- material, which may be so changed by a certain molecule of carbon , hydrogen and oxygen ? We also know that a cup of coffee (not to mention drugs like heroin or cocaine ) changes our mental states . Moreover, even the water in the body can affect personality . Neuroscience and biology offer more explanation for these intimate connection between mind , body and brain.
Antonio Damasio , one of the most renowned specialists in neuroscience in the world, offering the example illustrates this connection hunger. " A few hours after a meal, blood sugar drops and neurons in the hypothalamus detects this change , the activation pattern in this case is relevant brain to alter body condition so as to change the situation . You feel hungry and work to stop hunger , "writes researcher . Some of the actions we will take to stop hunger may be unconscious like that reach out as a pretzel . Others may be aware of , such as that decide to choose something from the menu of a restaurant or cook a recipe. These mental processes are , however, only one element of a wider loops biochemical activity that began with a glucose decrease .
Besides, what happens when our blood sugar drops and clearly illustrates the link between mental and physical : first, we start to feel anxious and become irritable and concentration ability decreases. As you know very well diabetes if blood sugar drops and more, become belligerents , the emotionally unstable and confused . If hunger is greatly extended in a moment become apathetic and depressed . All these are significant changes in personality - the part of the " self " that is supposed to keep the soul - caused by chemical changes that occur in the brain and body. Thus, under the careful analysis of modern science, ancient distinction between mental and physical disappears, and our thoughts and emotions shown rooted in biology.
The progress of modern science allows us to appreciate the true splendor of the human brain. Every man has his skull about 100 billion neurons , and each of them has on average 7,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. So it is not surprising that we can not imagine how the brain produces the mind , because such complexity is beyond human imagination . Specialists in neuroscience AFIM that is not an exaggeration when we say that the human brain is the most complex thing in the universe discovered so far . If this extremely complicated system that includes trillions of connections, do not produce the mind, then we can ask what role does .

(Foto: Shutterstock.com)

So , the idea that human personality could survive death of the body seems impossible to believe. This does not mean that researchers have managed to decipher the mysteries of mind and brain ; far . Neuroscience is still in its infancy , and the mind and the brain holds many mysteries still undeciphered . It is even possible that people do not ever discover how the brain creates the mind, but all the evidence accumulated so far shows that the mind is entirely dependent on the brain. The situation is summarized excellent psychologist Jesse Bering : "The mind is what the brain occurs , the brain ceases to function when we die therefore subjective feeling that the mind survives death is a psychological illusion operating in the brains of living."
As we learn more about us , the less surprising that we do not have souls. We humans have evolved over billions of years from simple creatures that had no mental life - and before this time the elements which were not even creatures . Each of us arises from physical contact of a sperm and an egg cell and the cell is growing . Mental life is constantly appears closely linked to body condition . Moreover, the best modern theories about consciousness argue that the mind is just a physical representation of an organization makes about itself and its environment to help them survive in a complex world full of physical hazards . The evidence accumulated so far scientists tell us , however, that this complex brain that produces everything - emotions , art, thought, religion - it is more stunning than the simple soul posited by Plato and theologians .

(Foto: Shutterstock.com)

King Mansa Musa: the richest man who ever lived

Who would believe that the richest man in history (much richer than Bill Gates or Carlos Slim ) lived over 600 years ago ? Moreover , it was a black man and he reigned in Black Africa without ever knew that in his lifetime became the man in the planet. It's about the First Mansa Musa , ruler of Mali and ruler who had more gold than any contemporary European kings with him.

 Forgotten Africa
 Remained under the dust of history for centuries, sub-Saharan Africa was formed into a special world, highly diversified and advanced in many ways unexpected . Unlike in Europe , North Africa and Asia , sub- Saharan Africa has never been united under one or more monotheistic religions state or a huge empire .

 Some human societies African features not present a unitary state , but rather coalesced around a prince or ruling families , who still exercised central authority over their subjects. The very act of rule over such companies do not behave the goals and obligations of a European monarch .
 African tribes and tribal confederations had large armies or ambitious construction projects and large-scale political organization . In this world there were not even proper conditions of organized long-distance trade with people in other parts of the world . As we know, the Silk Road has avoided tropical Africa and the vastness of the Sahara for centuries off the African contact with Europe and Asia.
    Traditional Map of Africa

  

However, not all African human populations at that time were at a level of strict tribal organization . Some of them have established empires with nothing less than their contemporary .
 From an economic perspective, North Continenutului Black was already integrated Mediterranean trade and the Arab world . Instead, the Africa below the Sahara was could not be more different. The savings here were some of subsistence, and sometimes just local , regional .

 Most African populations had the same animistic belief system . It was their religious universe . People believed in a world controlled by spirits and gods. Ancestor worship was also very important .
 With the spread of Islam in North Africa remained still some pockets of Christianity in the area. After all , Christianity penetrated here long before Islam. Egypt , Nubia and Ethiopia ( then known as the Aksum ) had strong Christian communities had important links with Byzantium .
 
 Surrounded by Muslim and animist , Christian communities were isolated itself in the Ethiopian highlands where they successfully survived over time and created a culture of its own , mainly characterized by fabulous churches carved into the rock .

Golden age of African kingdoms

South of the Sahara occurred so called African kingdoms gold. The largest and most powerful kingdoms of Mali and Ghana were, who had the same boundaries as modern states bearing the same names, but some with much larger.

Trans-Saharan trade was revolutionized between 3-5 centuries AD, Pein the Berber tribes who introduced dromedary camel in the region. Later, traders in Ghana and Mali have created a path between salt resources of northern continent and huge deposits of gold in the sub-Saharan Africa. Link to the integrated sphere of influence of the Mediterranean world.

Supervision by Ghanaian and Malin quickly catapulted into the role of regional great powers who quickly managed to have powerful armies and build settlements impressive.

    Mosque of Djenne

  

After the 7th century, northern partners of Africans were Muslims. At the beginning Islam was a religion tolerated in the region, to the beginning of the 11th century, almost all the kings of Ghana and Mali had converted to the religion of Prophet Muhammad. However, Islam rejects the general population, although the kings understood the economic benefits of tolerating Islam, given that this put them ideal relations with trading partners in the North.

Ghana royal dynasty of the golden period, came from Soninke clan, whose power depended on centuries of huge quantities of gold in their possession.

 Ancient manuscripts from Timbuktu

 

By royal decree , Soninke kings of the house had the right of possession of any gold nuggets discovered , while the population was allowed to keep her gold dust .  

This unique form of taxation of the population has consolidated his power for centuries.The situation was to change around 1200 , when the Malinke clan leader defied the authority of the Soninke families .

 The famous king Sundiata Keita ( Prince Leo ) Malinke , Soninke defeated and conquered kingdom with Mali Empire .The story , is currently the largest West African fiction , some commentators considered it a real King Arthur of Africa .

 King Sundiata was to be the grandfather's brother who became , as all historians and statisticians richest man who has lived on this planet , King Mansa Musa !
 King of the world's gold

 Mansa Musa , meaning King of Kings , the local dialects, came to power in 1312 over the Mali Empire , which stretched then Mali 's territory , Ghana , Senegal, Sudan and Nigeria today. When Musa took power , Mali Empire already control the trade routes linking northern and southern high in salt rich in gold deposits .
 
 Conqueror skillful , Mansa Musa managed to occupy the territories crossed by the River Niger , including in his empire and important orşe Timbuktu and Gao . He led armies north to the city rich in salt Taghaza and east beyond city limits Gao to its territory Hausa tribes .
   Home of the famous Catalan Atlas of 1375 , representing King Mansa Musa with a gold nugget in  hand.

  

Brilliant strategist , he has occupied a part of Sudan and managed to impose his whole empire within a highly effective legal system which provided very harsh punishment for any act of violence and theft. The system was so effective that the famous Muslim traveler Ibn Batuta , who crossed the Mali Empire to twelve years after the death of Musa , was stunned by that rule there everywhere.

 Making King had a strong commercial success that led to unprecedented prosperity for the empire . Like all the kings who preceded him Musa was a Muslim , although it proved to be an extremely tolerant in a historical period in which religious tolerance was rare. The vast majority of his subjects were faithful religious pantheon of Mandinka tribes , which did not prevent the richest man in the world to support their religion just as claimed and Islam .
  His pilgrimage to Mecca made ​​history with unprecedented pomp and opulence . Its halt Cairo was one fabulous. Soon , news of the king black gold throw people without caring about their rank , spanned the Muslim area .

 When his caravan arrived in Egypt , King Mansa Musa gave much gold lot of people that caused the fall in the price of gold in the region. In Mecca and Medina , his gifts have destabilized the local economy. The influx of gold brought by Musa in the heart of Islam led to the depreciation of gold in the coming decades . Fire particularly generous , Musa offered to buy some of the gold gifted to balance local currencies . For the first time in history, one man had unwittingly control the price of gold throughout the Mediterranean .
 
 The chroniclers described by all as the most powerful weather , luck, wealth and feared African leader , enjoys deserved this status based on its înţeleptelor choices in establishing trade and diplomatic relaţiilro and because of huge gold deposits in the region at that time .
 Trade in gold , salt , ivory and kola nuts brought an unprecedented flowering ever in any African kingdom .Mali Empire was no longer a local authority but a regional one . Under King Mansa Musa of Mali ambassadors were sent to Morocco , Egypt , Syria, and Byzantium .

 Traditional writing the name of Allah in Arabic

  

He also ordered the construction of many mosques, and is due to start lifting his brick houses in sub-Saharan Africa.
After his death, which occurred in 1331, Mali Empire gradually collapsed under numerous civil wars and external attacks.

According to recent studies by historians and economists, Mansa Musa has a fortune of over $ 400 billion, which propels him on their first among the richest men in history. To realize how rich was this man, you should know that occupants second place, only less famous Rothschild family, managed to accumulate from 1740 to the present, the amount of 350 billion dollars.

It was Mansa Musa and his remarkable works. As African gold king, it disappeared long before his fame to reach the courts of Europe.