Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes â€" tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. UCLA molecular biologist James A. Lake reports important new insights about prokaryotes and the evolution of life in the Aug. 20 advance online edition of the journal Nature.
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Posted in: on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at at 8:26 AM 0 comments
(AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to allow it to keep selling Word software as it fights an unfavorable patent ruling.
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One day, spacecraft may use inflatable shields, rather than heavy, solid ones, to protect themselves as they plunge into the atmosphere
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Posted in: on Saturday, September 5, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
HONG KONG, Aug. 19, 2009 (Reuters) -- Researchers in Japan have identified two genes that make rice plants grow longer stems and survive floods, and hope this will enable farmers to grow high-yielding rice species in flood-prone areas. ... > read full story
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Google has developed a formula to predict hot online search topics in what promises to be a boon for businesses eager to target ads that accompany Internet search results.
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There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient's own bone marrow, can be found ― and literally seen ― in laboratories at Tel Aviv University.
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AFP - The space shuttle Discovery will blast off next Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station, NASA said, clearing the launch after days of debate over safety issues.
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In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, scientists today report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death. Speaking here at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they said a profile of the chemicals released from decomposing bodies could also lead to a valuable new addition to the forensic toolkit: An electronic device that could determine the time elapsed since death quickly, accurately and onsite.
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Posted in: on Monday, August 31, 2009 at at 8:26 AM 0 comments
SPACE.com - NASA has finished building the first of its new Ares I rockets slated to replace the aging space shuttle fleet and return astronauts to the moon - a gleaming white booster due to blast off this fall.
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Posted in: on Saturday, August 29, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
Satellite images of artificial lighting could help provide more accurate measurements of economic growth for developing countries
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Members of 'sexual minorities' are around twice as likely as heterosexuals to seek help for mental health issues or substance abuse treatment. A model of treatment-seeking behavior, described in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry supports the idea that lesbian, gay and bisexual people may have specific treatment needs.
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Posted in: on Friday, August 28, 2009 at at 4:26 AM 0 comments
Researchers have found another reason to eat well: a healthy diet helps prevent kidney stones. Loading up on fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, while limiting salt, red and processed meats, and sweetened beverages is an effective way to ward off kidney stones, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). Because kidney stones are linked to higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, increased body weight, and other risk factors for heart disease, the findings have considerable health implications.
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Posted in: on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at at 4:26 PM 0 comments
In what might be an unprecedented act of banditry in European waters, a cargo ship disappears shortly after passing through the English Channel. An international search is underway for the Russian-crewed Arctic Sea, which was carrying timber.
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The man who killed three people before taking his own life at a Pennsylvania gym was stopped by authorities a week before the attack. Police questioned George Sodini because he had fit the description of someone who appeared to be handling a grenade on a bus. He was let go because officials couldn't verify it was him at the time.
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Posted in: on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at at 12:26 AM 0 comments
Heavy thunderstorms fed floods in Kentucky and Indiana on Tuesday, shutting down a university campus in Louisville, closing highways and cutting power to thousands of people.
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Posted in: on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at at 12:26 PM 0 comments
(AP) -- Federal regulators on Tuesday added stronger warnings to a group of best-selling drugs used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, saying they can increase the risk of cancer in children and adolescents.
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Posted in: on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at at 7:26 AM 0 comments
Despite major costs to taxpayers in the U.S. and Canada, government programs that offer rebates to hybrid vehicle buyers are failing to produce environmental benefits, a new UBC study says.
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SPACE.com - An American astronaut has brought social networking to new heights aboard the International Space Station, where he is "tweeting" about the ups and downs of life onboard a $100 billion laboratory that flies 220 miles above Earth.
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Posted in: on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at at 11:26 PM 0 comments
The Atlantic hurricane season could not be off to a slower start with zero named storms through July. However, as the Miami Herald points out in this article it is not unusual. We are only just now heading into the most active part of the season. "Yes, it seems slow compared to the last couple of years, but this is nothing out of the ordinary," said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County.
Many a hurricane season has started slowly, only to accelerate right about now. In 2004, for instance, the first named storm didn't pop up until the last day of July.
"That was the same year that had Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne," Feltgen said. "We ended up with 15 named storms."
Think back to 1992, when the first tropical storm formed Aug. 17. In a week's time, it morphed into Hurricane Andrew and steamrolled across South Miami-Dade as the last Category 5 storm to hit the United States. Even with the slow start it would not be unlikely to have seven storms by the end of October. That in fact is the average. The seasonal averages of named storms per month for the upcoming months - according to Wikipedia - are 2.2 for August, 3.0 for September and 1.8 for October. The chart below from NOAA shows that the bulk of tropical storms occur in August, September and October.
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2009 (Reuters) -- Researchers said on Monday they had found primitive bladder cancer cells that cloak themselves with a "don't eat me" signal that scares off immune system cells, allowing them to mature into tumors later on. ... > read full story
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Statisticians at the University of Vermont analyzed song lyrics, blogs and speeches to try to determine the national state of well-being.
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The bar-headed goose’s muscle cells have evolved to make more efficient use of low oxygen levels at high altitudes.
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Four-thousand years ago, an urban civilization lived and traded on what is now the border between Pakistan and India. During the past century, thousands of artifacts bearing hieroglyphics left by this prehistoric people have been discovered. Today, a team of Indian and American researchers are using mathematics and computer science to try to piece together information about the still-unknown script.
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A longstanding and fruitful collaboration between researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, together with contributions from colleagues in Munich and the US, has produced another first: the successful manipulation of a crop plant to emit a signal that attracts beneficial organisms.
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Posted in: on Monday, August 10, 2009 at at 4:26 PM 0 comments
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the state attorney's office believes there were two motives in the home invasion murder of Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings -- robbery and a contracted hit.
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(AP) -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt is resigning from Apple's board of directors as the Internet search leader increasingly develops products that compete with Apple's core businesses, including the popular iPhone.
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Off the coast of Japan, scientists are using a powerful drilling method underwater for the first time to better understand what causes earthquakes
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Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, is normally an insulating gas, but at high pressures it may turn into a superconductor. Now, scientists at the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C., US, have discovered a hydrogen-based compound that could be helpful in the search for metallic and superconducting forms of hydrogen. The results are reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted in the August 3rd issue of APS's on-line journal Physics (physics.aps.org).
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Posted in: on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
Scientists at Leeds and Bradford have discovered a unique 'DNA signature' in human sperm, which may act as a key that unlocks an egg's fertility and triggers new life.
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Plain cigarette packets could become mandatory, after companies were found to be using subtle cues to promote some brands as less harmful than others
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A black Harvard scholar says he's been able to joke about his arrest by a white police officer that led to a national debate on race. But Henry Louis Gates Jr. also said he's received death threats and bomb threats.
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Bowing to the fiscal realities surrounding health care reform and budget deficits, two of President Barack Obama's top economic officials -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers -- indicate middle-class taxes might have to go up in order to finance the administration's agenda.
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AP - Yukon River smokehouses should be filled this summer with oil-rich strips of king salmon — long used by Alaska Natives as a high-energy food to get through the long Alaska winters. But they're mostly empty.
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(AP) -- Coming soon to your TV: More advertising, in places you might not expect. The ads are showing up where people used to enjoy a break from advertising, such as video on demand and on-screen channel guides. Even TiVo, which became popular for its technology that lets people skip TV commercials, is developing new ways to show ads.
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Posted in: on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
Robots that can cook, dance to Michael Jackson songs or guide the blind are among the gadgets aimed at helping humans cope with illnesses on display in Spain at one of the world's biggest annual gatherings of new technology enthusiasts.
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Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76.
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The Endeavour brought back the first Japanese astronaut to have engaged in long-duration orbit.
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(AP) -- EBay Inc. is developing software it might use to continue running the online telecommunications service Skype if it cannot resolve a legal dispute with a separate company run by the ...
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Physicists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago have used a supercomputer to model the extreme physics of a supernova explosion
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Posted in: on Friday, August 7, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
The U.S. State Department said Friday it was investigating reports that three American tourists have been detained by Iranians while hiking near the border in the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
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A presidential space panel on Thursday challenged NASA's vision of establishing a base on the moon and instead weighed other ambitious options that include free-ranging spaceships that could visit destinations throughout the inner solar system.
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(AP) -- The race to build a "smarter" electrical grid could have a dark side. Security experts are starting to show the dangers of equipping homes and businesses with new meters that enable two-way communication with utilities.
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New research involving scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) highlights the potential utility of iron isotopes for addressing important questions in ocean science. The findings are published in the August edition of the journal Geology.
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Posted in: on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at at 8:26 PM 0 comments
SPACE.com - HOUSTON - Space shuttle Endeavour touched down in Florida on Friday morning, bringing to an end a successful 16-day mission to complete Japan's Kibo science laboratory at the International Space Station (ISS).
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AFP - President Dmitry Medvedev Friday opened a major Russian-owned hydroelectric plant in Tajikistan and headed to a regional summit as Moscow seeks to firm its influence in the region.
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A couple people in Louisiana chased a waterspout and caught it on tape. Take a look:
(via @toriblaseCNN)
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Bonnie, an orangutan at the National Zoo, has learned how to whistle. She is the first orangutan ever to be documented making the sound. You can read more about Bonnie here.
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Transcripts and audio files of a leaked phone conversation between the secretive CEO of Texas-based eeStore, Dick Weir, and an as yet undisclosed source have been doing the rounds online for ...
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If you have ever felt fear when stuck in a crowded lift or on an aircraft flying through turbulence, you might have been responding to other people's fear pheromones
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Posted in: on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at at 4:26 PM 0 comments
