JERUSALEM (AP).- Scientists in Israel are drilling into the murky depths of the Dead Sea in hopes of unearthing scientific treasures hidden in 500,000 years worth of mud and sediment. The unique setting of the Dead Sea — the lowest place on earth at 1,385 feet (422 meters) below sea level — should present researchers with distinctly stratified sedimentation that may answer scientific questions in fields ranging from geology to archaeology and could lead to new insight into climate change. Researchers say the core that will be pulled out from 1,640 feet (500 meters) below the seabed could open the door to years of research as every stratum could inspire a new hypothesis. “It’s like reading a book,” said Ulrich Harms, a German scientist who heads the International Continental Drilling Program, a major funder of the project. “It’s a perfect archive of droughts and floods, of changing climate over a long time span.” The project is the brainchild of two Israeli scientists