Hong Kong, April 30 : A team of scientists has refuted claims made by a research group that the puzzling symbols that were found on Indus Valley seals are proof of a written script of a language from an ancient civilization, and therefore a literate culture.

According to a report in Asia Times Online, the claims have been challenged by historian Steve Farmer and Harvard University Indologist Michael Witzel.

Washington, Apr 30 : Duke University bioengineers and surgeons have developed a new animal model for the painful nerve condition, known as sciatica, which could offer insights to help researchers diagnose and treat it.

Sciatica is characterised by numbness or pain from the lower back to the feet, radiating leg pain or difficulty in controlling the leg.

It is often caused by compression, or pinching, of any of the five nerve roots that combine to make up the sciatic nerve. These roots are the parts of the nerve that pass through openings in the spine to the spinal cord.

Washington, Apr 30 : A new research has revealed how tiny mites living on the surface of cockroaches may prove to be advantageous to humans with allergies.

Mites, who thrive on the surface of Madagascar hissing cockroaches help decrease the presence of a variety of moulds on the cockroaches'' bodies, which in turn reduces allergic responses among humans who handle the popular insects.

Washington, April 30 : Archaeologists have found an ancient temple in Turkey, filled with broken metal, ivory carvings, and stone slabs engraved with a dead language, which would cast new light on the “dark age” that was thought to have engulfed the region from 1200 to 900 B. C.

Written sources from the era, including the Old Testament of the Bible, Greek Homeric epics, and texts from Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III, record the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age as a turbulent period of cultural collapse, famine, and violence.

London, Apr 30 : A new research has confirmed what many parents long suspected: Second-born kids are more likely to be rebellious in later life than their more conservative older siblings.

According to scientists, who published their study in the journal Child Development, firstborn children are likely to conform while younger siblings are prone to more independent personalities, reports The Telegraph.

Washington, April 29 : Researchers at Saint Louis University have found that a topical cream when used together with surgery may help treat melanoma, potentially helping doctors cut less.

Researchers examined two cases of the most common type of melanoma of the head and neck, lentigo maligna (LM), a type of "melanoma-in- situ", the earliest stage of melanoma.