Reuters - An 85 million-year-old dinosaur skull has been found in southwestern Japan, one of the oldest discoveries of its kind in the country, the Kyodo news agency said on Saturday. Read more…
AFP - The price of New York oil smashed through 85 dollars per barrel for the first ever time here on Monday. Read more…
Reuters - Monsanto Co said on Monday that it had increased its investment in Mendel Biotechnology Inc in a deal that will boost the privately held company's work in cellulosic biofuels like grasses and food crop waste. Read more…
Shortly following the rapture of the church, (a future event when God will take all the Christians away to heaven prior to the great tribulation), while people are still confused, frightened, and otherwise freaked out, Earth will be ripe for a massive satanic invasion, because the church, which has been holding back the emergence of the Antichrist, will be removed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8). What will happen next? Read more…
Throughout the ages there have been numerous sightings of Con Rit, and one such encounter was in 1899 when the crew of the HMS Narcissus spotted a giant creature near Cape Falcon in Algeria: The sailors reported sighting a sea monster that possessed an immense number of fins, and measured about 45 metres (150 feet) in length. The creature propelled itself forward with its fins with enough speed to keep pace with the ship. In all the sailors were able to observe it for about half an hour. Read more…
STATUS REPORT Date Released: Friday, October 12, 2007 Source: Glenn Research Center NASA GRC Solicitation: Liquid Oxygen Liquid Methane Lunar Ascent Main Engine Technology Development Synopsis - Oct 12, 2007 General Information Solicitation Number: NNC08ZCH001R Posted Date: Oct 12, 2007... Read more…
AFP - Malaysia, whose first astronaut is at the International Space Station, will send a second citizen into space in the next two years, the science minister said according to reports Saturday. Read more…
SPACE.com - For Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, and Yuri Malenchenko, her Expedition 16 crewmate, today's arrival at the orbiting outpost was something of a homecoming. Read more…
SPACE.com - New images of Pluto and its moons are among the sharpest ever made, astronomers announced today. Read more…
Reuters - A Russian capsule carrying a new crew for the International Space Station and Malaysia's first astronaut slipped into a berthing port at the orbital outpost on Friday as the space ships sailed 220 miles Read more…
SPACE.com - The first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) arrived at the orbital laboratory Friday alongside a veteran cosmonaut and Malaysia's first astronaut to complete a two-day chase aboard their Russian spacecraft. Read more…
AFP - China is offering 2,000 tickets to view the launch of the country's first lunar mission, the Chang'e 1 probe satellite, a company said Friday. Read more…
AFP - A Soyuz space craft carrying a Malaysian, a Russian and a US astronaut docked Friday with the International Space Station (ISS), an official at ground control outside Moscow said. Read more…
Researchers have discovered a hearing mechanism that fundamentally changes the current understanding of inner ear function. This new mechanism could help explain the ear's remarkable ability to sense and discriminate sounds. Its discovery could eventually lead to improved systems for restoring hearing. The tectorial membrane, a gelatinous structure inside the cochlea of the ear, is much more important to hearing than previously thought. It can selectively pick up and transmit energy to different parts of the cochlea via a kind of wave that is different from that commonly associated with hearing. Read more…
An immune system protein could act as an early warning system for lung cancer, reveals new research. Lung cancer kills around 900,000 people every year, and can take 20 years or more to develop fully. But it is usually only picked up at an advanced stage, when the chances of successful treatment are slim. Read more…
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. Read more…
While biometric equipment is gaining popularity in a variety of applications, such as ensuring secure access to buildings, industries are finding that many users believe the devices are unsanitary and a potential source of germs that could cause illness. But a new study has found that while the platen glass surfaces of devices that scan fingerprints or hand geometry may look more unsanitary due to visible dirt and prints, they in fact harbor about the same amount of bacteria as a typical doorknob. Read more…
A protein known to repress gene transcription at the molecular level in a variety of processes also blocks embryonic neural stem cells from differentiating into neurons, according to a new study. Read more…
Researchers have found that professional welders who work in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation may be at risk for loss of sense of smell. Although underappreciated, loss of smell function significantly alters quality of life, noted researchers. Read more…
One year after completing the first large-scale report sequencing breast and colon cancer genes, scientists have now studied the vast majority of protein-coding genes which now suggest a landscape dominated by genes that each are mutated in relatively few cancers. Read more…
The ability to tactually recognize fine spatial details, such as the raised dots used in braille, is especially important to those who are blind. With that in mind, a team of researchers has identified the neural circuitry that facilitates spatial discrimination through touch. Understanding this circuitry may lead to the creation of sensory-substitution devices, such as tactile maps for the visually impaired. Read more…
A few came. They ran. They left. As a result of their recent visit the US Marine Corp begins training in 2008 in new running suits chosen after tests of competing products in an environmental chamber. Read more…
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a severe cardiovascular malformation that is difficult to treat and often lethal, is caused primarily by genetic factors, according to a new study. Families having children with HLHS carry a significant recurrence risk of HLHS or related heart defects. Read more…
Researchers will spend the next two years testing their theories about just how an AIDS-like virus in cats is able to resist the powerful medicines that are thrown against it. It's one of the latest efforts at understanding one of the leading problem areas in medicine today -- antimicrobial drug resistance. When bacteria or viruses become resistant to drugs, they become more difficult, or even impossible, to treat. Read more…
Scientists have discovered how a microscopic organism has benefited from nearly 80 million years without sex. Bdelloid rotifers are asexual organisms, meaning that they reproduce without males. Without sex, these animals lack many of the ways in which sexual animals adapt over generations to survive in their natural environment. Read more…