DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Watching a cannibal galaxy dine

2009-11-27T08:13:00.001-08:00

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the nearest giant, elliptical galaxy, at a
distance of about 11 million light-years. One of the most studied objects in
the southern sky, by 1847 the unique appearance of this galaxy had already
caught the attention of the famous British astronomer John Herschel, who
catalogued the southern skies and made a comprehensive list of nebulae.
Herschel could not know, however, that this beautiful and spectacular
appearance is due to an opaque dust lane that covers the central part of the
galaxy. This dust is thought to be the remains of a cosmic merger between a
giant elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy full of dust.

Between 200 and 700 million years ago, this galaxy is indeed believed to
have consumed a smaller spiral, gas-rich galaxy — the contents of which
appear to be churning inside Centaurus A's core, likely triggering new
generations of stars.

First glimpses of the "leftovers" of this meal were obtained thanks to
observations with the ESA Infrared Space Observatory , which revealed a 16
500 light-year-wide structure, very similar to that of a small barred
galaxy. More recently, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope resolved this
structure into a parallelogram, which can be explained as the remnant of a
gas-rich spiral galaxy falling into an elliptical galaxy and becoming
twisted and warped in the process. Galaxy merging is the most common
mechanism to explain the formation of such giant elliptical galaxies.

The new SOFI images, obtained with the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope
at ESO's La Silla Observatory, allow astronomers to get an even sharper view
of the structure of this galaxy, completely free of obscuring dust. The
original images, obtained by observing in the near-infrared through three
different filters (J, H, K) were combined using a new technique that removes
the dark, screening effect of the dust, providing a clear view of the centre
of this galaxy.

What the astronomers found was surprising: "There is a clear ring of stars
and clusters hidden behind the dust lanes, and our images provide an
unprecedentedly detailed view toward it," says Jouni Kainulainen, lead
author of the paper reporting these results. "Further analysis of this
structure will provide important clues on how the merging process occurred
and what has been the role of star formation during it."

The research team is excited about the possibilities this new technique
opens: "These are the first steps in the development of a new technique that
has the potential to trace giant clouds of gas in other galaxies at high
resolution and in a cost-effective way," explains co-author João Alves.
"Knowing how these giant clouds form and evolve is to understand how stars
form in galaxies."

Looking forward to the new, planned telescopes, both on the ground and in
space, "this technique is very complementary to the radio data ALMA will
collect on nearby galaxies, and at the same time it poses interesting
avenues of research for extragalactic stellar populations with the future
European Extremely Large Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, as
dust is omnipresent in galaxies," says co-author Yuri Beletsky.

Previous observations done with ISAAC on the VLT (ESO 04/01) have revealed
that a supermassive black hole lurks inside Centaurus A. Its mass is about
200 million times the mass of our Sun, or 50 times more massive than the one
that lies at the centre of our Milky Way. In contrast to our own galaxy, the
supermassive black hole in Centaurus A is continuously fed by material
falling onto into it, making the giant galaxy a very active one. Centaurus A
is in fact one of the brightest radio sources in the sky (hence the "A" in
its name). Jets of high energy particles from the centre are also observed
in radio and X-ray images.

The new image of Centaurus A is a wonderful example of how frontier science
can be combined with aesthetic aspects. Fine images of Centaurus A have been
obtained in the past with ESO's Very Large Telescope (ESO PR Photo 05b/00)
and with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La
Silla.

First experiment in solar plane

2009-11-20T22:12:00.000-08:00

The prototype of a solar-powered plane destined for a record round-the-world journey has made its first trip across a runway. On Thursday, the plane covered at least 2 km at speeds of up to five knots on the landing strip in Switzerland. This week saw the Solar Impulse plane outside its hangar for the first time, with tests of its engines and computer. As wide as a jumbo jet but weighing just 1 ,500 kg, it will be piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard. The plane's maiden flight is scheduled for February, and a final version will attempt to cross the Atlantic in 2012. Thursday's "taxiing" test was carried out with a security trolley device under the cockpit to protect the craft in case the landing gears broke. But Friday's test will be carried out without this device. The team will also try to double the speed to 10 knots. A spokesperson for Solar Impulse said the first runway test went just as planned. "It was just fantastic today. We are very excited about it," she told BBC News. Today's activities are designed to give the test pilot a feel for how the plane moves on the ground. If the tests are successful, the next step will be a short flight, or "flea hop" in about two weeks' time. Solar Impulse chief executive Andre Borschberg told BBC News: "We'll take off at the beginning of the runway, fly a few metres above it - a little bit like the Wright brothers did in 1903 - and then land again, to see how it behaves at the beginning of the flight. "If this is satisfactory, we will dismantle it and transport it [to Payerne air force base in western Switzerland] where we will do the real first flight of about two hours, in February." But each step will be a careful one, Mr Borschberg stressed. "This is truly a new design - an airplane the size of an Airbus and the weight of a mid-sized car - so we're not taking risks by not understanding something."

YouTube gets automatic subtitle

2009-11-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

YouTube's parent company Google has announced on its blog that automatic captions are to begin to roll out across the site. The machine-generated captions will initially be generated in English. At first they will only be found on 13 channels. These include National Geographic, Columbia, as well as most Google and YouTube channels. The software engineer behind the technology, Ken Harrenstien, is deaf. Currently YouTube offers a manual captioning service but video makers tend not to use it. "The majority of user-generated video content online is still inaccessible to people like me," Mr Harrenstien wrote in the Google blog. His solution combines automatic speech recognition with the current caption system. The translation is not always perfect (in a demonstration the phrase "sim card" becomes " salmon" in text), but Mr Harrenstien says that the technology "will continue to improve with time". Alternatively users can upload a transcript of their video and auto-timing algorithms will match the text to the words as they are spoken. Vint Cerf, vice president at Google, is widely recognised as a founding father of the internet. He is also hard of hearing and has worn a hearing aid since the age of 13. "One of the big challenges of the video medium is whether it can be made accessible to everyone," he told news agency AFP. Earlier in the week YouTube announced the launch of YouTube Direct, a feed of uploaded amateur videos of newsworthy events such as protests and extreme weather conditions. It is aimed at the media industry, and editors who subscribe will be able to request the phone numbers of contributors. So far it has been trialled by a select group of radio stations, newspapers and websites in the US.

Facebook has threatened by a legal action

2009-11-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

Facebook has threatened legal action against a service that sells friends on the social networking site. It said it would take the action against marketing firm USocial unless it stopped violating Facebook's rights. It also wanted USocial to stop helping members break the site's terms and conditions, specifically letting people profit from their profile. In response, USocial agreed to a change in its practices but would not shut down its service. Facebook sent Cease and Desist letters to USocial claiming that the way the marketing firm operates violates its rights by sending spam, using web tools to harvest pages, getting login names and by accessing accounts that did not belong to the marketing firm. Customers of USocial use it to boost follower and friend numbers on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. On micro-blogging site Twitter, followers can be bought in blocks starting at £53 for 1 ,000. The biggest block USocial is selling is 100 ,000 people. USocial defended itself against Facebook's claims, saying that it did not spam users or use web tools to gather information about profiles. However, in response to the legal letters, USocial said it would delete the login information it had collected and broadly stop offering to sell Facebook friends. It also put a notice on its site saying it was not affiliated with Facebook. However, it said, there was "possibility" that it would resell the service in the future. If it was to re-start the service it said it would let Facebook know beforehand.

Google preview operating system

2009-11-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

Internet search giant Google has lifted the lid on its operating system, known as Chrome OS. The free and open source system is initially aimed at low-cost netbooks and does away with many of the features of a traditional program. All applications are designed to run in a web browser and all the user's data is stored on Google's servers. Engineers from the firm said the first computers running the system would be available before the end of 2010. "We are trying to offer a choice for users," said Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, during an event at the firm's headquarters in California. "This model of computing is fundamentally different." The event follows the recent launch of Microsoft' s Windows 7 and Apple's operating system upgrade, Snow Leopard. Speed test Google first announced its intention to build an operating system in July this year. The firm has designed the system around its Chrome browser. The program was released 14 months ago and already has 40 m regular users, the firm said. " We want Google Chrome OS to be blazingly fast " Sundar Pichai, Google "It's very familiar and intuitive to users - most people know how to use the browser," said Mr Pichai. All programs or applications - such as word processing and e-mail - run in different tabs in the browser. "There are no conventional desktop applications, " said Mr Pichai. "That means you don't have to install or update software. "It's just a browser; a browser with a few modifications." Mr Pichai said the system was based around speed, simplicity and security. He showed it booting up in seven seconds. "We're working very, very, very hard to make that time shorter," he said. "We want Google Chrome OS to be blazingly fast." He said they wanted it to be like a television, where a computer could be switched on and instantly running and connected to the web. Google has been able to boost the speed of the system by designing it for specific hardware. The firm said that it would only run on computers using "solid state drives" instead of traditional hard drives. In addition, the firm has been talking to hardware manufacturers to specify which components to include on finished machines. This means that the company could "optimise" the code to run as quickly as possible, said Mr Pichai. Memory games He used the demonstration to show the machine doing many common tasks such as playing games and music, as well as reading books and writing text. Any documents and files created on the computer were automatically synced and saved on Google' s servers, said Matthew Papakipos, an engineer working on the system. As a result, he added, anybody who lost their computer would be able to buy a new machine and easily recover all their data. "In a matter of seconds, all the data syncs back to the machine." Although the firm envisages most tasks will be done online, it will also offer the capability to use some programs when there is no connection. It already offers a similar feature for programs such as Gmail and Google Docs using its Gears program. Initially, the firm envisages people will use the operating system on a second, portable machine. Memory intensive tasks, such as video editing, would require a more powerful machine. Open offer The demonstration could dramatically change the market for operating systems, especially for Microsoft, the biggest player with about 90 % share of the market. When it was first announced, Rob Enderle, industry watcher and president of the Enderle Group, described it as "the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft". The fact that it is free could encourage many users to try the system. Currently, Mr Pichai said the company did not have a business plan but admitted that encouraging people to use the web and Google services "benefits us as a company". Google derives most of its revenue from selling advertising around search and its other online products. Most consumers will have to wait until 2010 to get their hands on a device running the system. However, the firm used the event to release an early version of the code for developers. "You can get Chrome OS up and running today," said Mr Pichai. They said they had chosen to release the code and the designs for the system because it was based on other open source projects including the Linux operating system and the Ubuntu distribution of it. Open source systems allow people to tinker and use the underlying code to build and customize applications. It is normal to publish any modifications to allow other people to take advantage of the changes. "We're looking forward to feedback from the open source community," said Mr Pinchai.

Social networking and some problems

2009-11-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Technology reporter, BBC News Newspapers should become "radically open" if they want to make money in the online world, the co-founder of social networking site Twitter has said. Biz Stone said that he would "love to see what happens" if newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch went ahead with plans to block Google from his websites. "The future is in openness not [being] closed," he told the BBC. Mr Murdoch recently said that search engines could not legally use material such as headlines in search results. Earlier this year, he said his News Corp business would start charging customers for access to its websites. News Corp owns the Times and Sun newspapers in the UK and the New York Post and Wall Street Journal in the US. Mr Stone said he should be allowed to "fail fast" with the proposal. "They should be looking at this as an opportunity to try something radically different and find out a way to make a ton of money from being radically open rather than some money from being ridiculously closed," he told an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) in London. Aiming high Twitter itself is a so-called "open platform". From its inception, Twitter allowed other software developers to build their own apps and services for the site. These include search tools and services that allow people to add video and pictures to messages, known as tweets. This openness has allowed Twitter to grow at a phenomenal rate. Between February 2008 and February 2009 the number of users grew by 1 ,382 % - from 475 ,000 to seven million - according to Nielsen Online. " Twitter will always be free to everyone but you will be able to pay for an additional layer of access to learn more about your Twitter account " Biz Stone Recent figures suggest this period of growth has flattened off, particularly in North America. Mr Stone would not give exact figures but said that the firm was "continuing to grow very fast from an international and a mobile perspective". Measurements of Twitter traffic are notoriously difficult as many users do not interact with the service through the website. Instead, they use desktop software and mobile phones. Mobile growth A report in June suggested that more than 50 % of all updates were published using these tools. "We're unique from an internet perspective in that our DNA is in mobile," Mr Stone told BBC News. "We started out in texting and then we brought the service to the web." Mr Stone said that the company saw most of its growth on mobiles. "We see over four billion mobile phones active around the world as opposed to the 1.65 billion active web accounts, so when you look at this together you see a very broad potential for growth for Twitter," he said. A memo leaked from the company earlier this year suggested that the firm wanted to reach a billion users by 2013. Despite this growth, critics of the firm have questioned its ability to make money. Earlier this year it secured $100 m (£62 m), which would value the firm at $1 bn. However, it is still to make a profit. 'Better experience' To address this, Mr Stone said that Twitter would begin to offer commercial services this year. "One of the first things we are going to do explicitly is commercial accounts," he said. "Twitter will always be free to everyone but you will be able to pay for an additional layer of access to learn more about your Twitter account - get some feedback, some analytics, become a better 'Twitterer'." The firm said that it was also considering " licensing and syndication possibilities". "We can give away this real-time feed of data to other companies such as Google and Bing to give them a better experience for searching Twitter," he said. However, Mr Stone admitted that Twitter was still finding its way. "We are coming out of a very rapid growth over the last two years," he said. "We have a lot of work to do."

Researchers invented a tiny silicon chip for diagnose diseases

2009-11-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

Researchers have demonstrated a tiny chip based on silicon that could be used to diagnose dozens of diseases. A tiny drop of blood is drawn through the chip, where disease markers are caught and show up under light. The device uses the tendency of a fluid to travel through small channels under its own force, instead of using pumps. The design is simpler, requires less blood be taken, and works more quickly than existing "lab on a chip" designs, the team report in Lab on a Chip. It has a flexible design so that it could be used for a wide range of diagnostics. Much research in recent years has focused on the chemical and medical possibilities of so-called microfluidic devices at the heart of lab-on-a-chip designs. These microfluidics contain between dozens and thousands of tiny channels through which fluids can flow, and as micro-manufacturing methods have advanced, so has the potential complexity of microfluidics. Now, scientists at IBM's research labs in Zurich have developed a cheap lab-on-a-chip that has the potential to diagnose dozens of diseases. Bind and shine The device relies on an array of antibody molecules that are designed to latch on to the protein-based molecular markers of disease in blood. The antibodies are chemically connected to molecules that emit light of a specific colour when illuminated - but only when they have bound to the disease markers. "There are devices that have been developed in microfluidics to do analysis of proteins, but most of them use active pumping and electrical components," said Luc Gervais, a co-author on the study. "They're very complex systems; this makes them less easy to use by non-trained personnel - and it makes them a lot more expensive to manufacture," Dr Gervais told BBC News. Instead, the new device exploits capillary action, the tendency of fluids to climb through narrow channels - the same phenomenon that drives water into a sponge placed on a wet surface. The speed with which blood is drawn through the chip can be controlled by the design of the micro- channels on the device. Those channels can be designed with incredible precision on a silicon chip - something with which IBM has significant experience. The microchannel-patterned chip is then sealed with a special polymer called polydimethylsiloxane, to which the "detector" antibodies easily bond. Different antibodies can be placed in a number of distinct channels, making it possible to diagnose a range of different diseases simultaneously. Such wide-ranging studies can be done in large analysers, found in the central laboratories of hospitals. "Typically you'll take a couple of millilitres of blood, send it to the central lab and it can take up to an hour or even more to get the results," Dr Gervais said. "In our case you can get a quantitative analysis of the patient's blood within just a few minutes at the bedside of the patient." What is more, it can be done with just a few microlitres of blood - a thousand times less - an amount that could be collected with a prick of a finger instead of a syringe. While the approach will make diagnosis cheaper, co-author Emmanuel Delamarche said the key aspect of the approach is its speed. "We are giving back precious minutes to doctors so they can make informed and accurate decisions right at the time they need them most to save lives."

Big Bang experiment is restarted

2009-11-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

The Large Hadron Collider experiment has re- started after a 14- month hiatus while the machine was being repaired. Engineers have made two stable proton beams circulate in opposite directions around the machine, which is in a tunnel beneath the French-Swiss border. The team may try to increase the £6 bn ($10 bn) collider's energy to record-breaking levels this weekend. The LHC is being used to smash together beams of protons in a bid to shed light on the nature of the Universe. It is the world's largest machine and is housed in a 27 km-long circular tunnel. During the experiment, scientists will search for signs of the Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is crucial to our current understanding of physics. Although it is predicted to exist, scientists have never found it. " It happened faster than anyone could have dreamed of, everything went very smoothly " James Gillies Cern Dozens of giant superconducting magnets that accelerate the particles at the speed of light have had to be replaced after faults developed just days after the collider was inaugurated last year. Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the LHC will create similar conditions to those which were present moments after the Big Bang. The BBC's Pallab Ghosh in Geneva says the restart of the collider was the moment the scientists had been waiting for. It means they can once again go in search of the new discoveries they believe will roll back the frontiers of understanding our universe, says our correspondent. "It's great to see beams circulating in the LHC again," said Cern's director-general Rolf Heuer. "We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way." Engineers sent their first beam all the way round the LHC's circumference 100 m underground after 1930 GMT on Friday. Record attempt The beams themselves are made up of "packets" - each about a metre long - containing billions of protons. But they would disperse if left to their own devices. Electrical forces had to be used to "capture" the protons. This keeps them tightly huddled in packets, for a stable, circulating beam. Engineers had not been expected to try for a circulating beam before 0600 GMT on Saturday. James Gillies, Cern's director of communications, told BBC News: "It happened faster than anyone could have dreamed of." "Everything went very smoothly." Dr Gillies said that if everything continued to go well, Cern might try to reach a record-breaking beam energy of 1.2 trillion electron volts this weekend. Only the Tevatron particle accelerator in Chicago, US, has approached this energy, operating at just under one trillion electron volts. But other team members want to keep the beam circulating at low energy and try for the machine's first proton beam collisions. "The LHC is a far better understood machine than it was a year ago," said Steve Myers, Cern's director for accelerators. "We've learned from our experience, and engineered the technology that allows us to move on. That's how progress is made." 1 - 14 quadrupole magnets replaced 2 - 39 dipole magnets replaced 3 - More than 200 electrical connections repaired 4 - Over 4 km of beam pipe cleaned 5 - New restraining system installed for some magnets 6 - Hundreds of new helium ports being installed around machine 7 - Thousands of detectors added to early warning system There are some 1 ,200 superconducting magnets which form the LHC's main "ring". These magnets bend proton beams in opposite directions around the tunnel at close to the speed of light. At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another with enormous energy. Large "detector" machines located at the crossing points will scour the wreckage of these collisions for discoveries that should extend our knowledge of physics. Engineers first circulated a beam all the way around the LHC on 10 September 2008. But just nine days later, an electrical fault in one of the connections between superconducting magnets caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into the tunnel. Liquid helium is used to cool the LHC to its operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271 C; - 456 F). The machine has been shut down ever since the accident, to allow repairs to take place. Professor Norman McCubbin, from the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, added: "I'm sure every particle physicist has been feeling just a little bit impatient as the 're-start' of the LHC has drawn nearer. It's great to see beams circulating again." The damage caused to the collider meant 53 superconducting magnets had to be replaced and about 200 electrical connections repaired. Engineers have also been installing a new early warning system which could prevent incidents of the kind which shut down the experiment. Cern has spent some 40 m Swiss Francs (£24 m) on repairs to the collider.

Mammoth dung has given historic informatiom

2009-11-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

Mammoth dung has proved to be a source of prehistoric information, helping scientists unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. An examination of a fungus that is found in the ancient dung and preserved in lake sediments has helped build a picture of what happened to the beasts. The study sheds light on the ecological consequences of the extinction and the role that humans may have played in it. Researchers describe this development in the journal Science. The study was led by Jacquelyn Gill from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the US. She and her colleagues studied the Sporormiella fungal spores contained in the sediment deep within the bed of Appleman Lake in Indiana. Many very large mammals including mammoths, mastodons and ground sloths inhabited forests in this area of North America about 20 ,000 years ago. Sporormiella produces spores in the dung of large herbivores. These are then preserved in the layers of mud and can provide an index of the number of these great animals, or megafauna, that roamed the environment at a particular time. "Sediment cores are much like ice cores, except with lake mud," explained Ms Gill. "The spores [ and other materials] settle out into the lake mud and get buried over time." She and her team simply counted the pollen, charcoal and Sporormiella in these layers of mud, tracking the timescale of ancient environmental changes. Their results showed a slow decline in megafauna that began about 15 ,000 years ago and appeared to last for about 1 ,000 years. This discovery rules out one idea that the extinction might have been caused by an extraterrestrial object striking Earth 13 ,000 years ago. The scientists also spotted signals of major environmental changes around the time of the extinction. "This study is exciting because we're getting some solid data about the ecological consequences of the removal of these animals," said Ms Gill. "After their decline we see an increase in the more warm-adapted deciduous trees, and an increase in charcoal [which means there was] an increase in the number of forest fires. "So we can see that the forest is reassembling following the extinction." Human or environment The study also shows that the decline began about 1 ,000 years before the Clovis period - when the archaeological record shows that humans were making stone tools designed specifically to hunt large animals. Prior to this discovery, some scientists believed that Clovis people hunted the animals to extinction. But Professor Christopher Johnson from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, said the study still supports the hypothesis that humans were primarily responsible for the mammals' decline. Professor Johnson was not involved in the study but wrote an accompanying article in the same issue of Science, outlining its significance. He wrote: "If people were responsible... they must have been pre-Clovis settlers. "The existence of such people has been controversial, but archaeological evidence is slowly coming to light." Ms Gill commented: "We can't resolve the climate versus humans debate but we have eliminated one of the main hypotheses for each camp." She added that there were "modern conservation implications" to the study. "We know the large herbivores on the landscape today are some of the most threatened," she said. "And we're starting to learn that they're ecological keystones. They're not just charismatic, they might also be ecologically significant." Professor Johnson told BBC News: "If we want to understand the history of ecosystems across the planet we really need to understand the effects of megafaunal extinction."

Expart invented a new skin for burn victim

2009-11-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

French researchers say they have found a way of using human embryonic stem cells to create new skin which could help serious burns victims. They say the stem cells grew into fully formed human skin 12 weeks after being grafted on to mice. The researchers, writing in the Lancet journal, say the skin could solve the problems of rejection that burns patients currently face. One stem cell expert said they had made an important advance. Burns techniques For more than 20 years, patients with serious burns have benefited from a technique which grows new skin in the laboratory using their own skin cells. " This report takes research into regenerative skin stem cells to the next level " Holger Schluter, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre But the technique takes three weeks, putting the patients at risk of dehydration and infection. Skin from cadavers is used during this period to cover the wounds but its availability is limited and it is often rejected by the patient's immune system. Artificial nets which cells can grow on have also been tried. But they do not work on large burns, where they increase the risk of rejection and disease transmission because they can contain material from cows and other humans. Skin formation The researchers duplicated the biological steps that lead to skin formation during embryonic development. They placed the calls on an artificial net which helped the cells to form a layer of skin. This was grafted on to five mice and 12 weeks later, the skin had a structure consistent with human skin. Dr Christine Baldeschi, from the Institute for Stem Cell Therapy and Exploration of Monogenic Diseases in Evry, France, who led the research, said the results were promising. She said the technique could lead to "an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting grafts of their own skin". Researchers are now planning a human trial of the new technique. An accompanying editorial by Holger Schluter of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, said the research represented an important advance. He said: "This report takes research into regenerative skin stem cells to the next level. "This finding suggests that skin derived from embryonic stem cells could be transplanted onto burnt patients awaiting skin grafts, with a reduced risk of rejection."

New Light On Nature Of Broca's Area: Rare Procedure Documents How Human Brain Computes Language

2009-10-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports a significant breakthrough in explaining gaps in scientists' understanding of human brain function. The study – which provides a picture of language processing in the brain with unprecedented clarity – will
be published in the October 16 issue of the journal Science.

"Two central mysteries of human brain function are addressed in this study: one, the way in which higher cognitive processes such as language are implemented in the brain and, two, the nature of what is perhaps the best-known region of the cerebral cortex, called Broca's area," said first author Ned T. Sahin, PhD, post-doctoral fellow in the UCSD Department of Radiology and Harvard University Department of Psychology.

The study demonstrates that a small piece of the brain can compute three different things at different times – within a quarter of a second – and shows that Broca's area doesn't just do one thing when processing language. The discoveries came through the researchers' use of a rare procedure in which electrodes were placed in the brains of patients. The technique allowed surgeons to know which small region of the brain to remove to alleviate their seizures, while sparing the healthy regions necessary for language. Recordings for research purposes were then made while the patients were awake and responsive. The procedure, called Intra-Cranial Electrophysiology (ICE), read more........

Latest News of NASA technology

2009-10-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky Way galaxy. The new view will change the way researchers view and study the interaction between our galaxy and sun. The sky map was produced with data that two detectors on the spacecraft collected during six months of observations. The detectors measured and counted particles scientists refer to as energetic neutral atoms. The energetic neutral atoms are created in an area of our solar system known as the interstellar boundary region. This region is where charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, flow outward far beyond the orbits of the planets and collide with material between stars. The energetic neutral atoms travel inward toward the sun from interstellar space at velocities ranging from 100 ,000 mph to more than 2.4 million mph. This interstellar boundary emits no light that can be collected by conventional telescopes. The new map reveals the region that separates the nearest reaches of our galaxy, called the local interstellar medium, from our heliosphere - - a protective bubble that shields and protects our solar system from most of the dangerous cosmic radiation traveling through space. "For the first time, we're sticking our heads out of the sun's atmosphere and beginning to really understand our place in the galaxy," said David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "The IBEX results are truly remarkable, with a narrow ribbon of bright details or emissions not resembling any of the current theoretical models of this region." NASA released the sky map image Oct. 15 in conjunction with publication of the findings in the journal Science. The IBEX data were complemented and extended by information collected using an imaging instrument sensor on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Cassini has been observing Saturn, its moons and rings since the spacecraft entered the planet's orbit in 2004. The IBEX sky maps also put observations from NASA's Voyager spacecraft into context. The twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 , traveled to the outer solar system to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In 2007 , Voyager 2 followed Voyager 1 into the interstellar boundary. Both spacecraft are now in the midst of this region where the energetic neutral atoms originate. However, the IBEX results show a ribbon of bright emissions undetected by the two Voyagers. "The Voyagers are providing ground truth, but they're missing the most exciting region," said Eric Christian, the IBEX deputy mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's like having two weather stations that miss the big storm that runs between them." The IBEX spacecraft was launched in October 2008. Its science objective was to discover the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium at the edge of our solar system. The Southwest Research Institute developed and leads the mission with a team of national and international partners. The spacecraft is the latest in NASA's series of low- cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers Program. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA and the European and Italian Space Agencies. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., provides overall management for Cassini and the Voyagers for the Science Mission Directorate.

how can create a breast cancer to women

2009-10-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

cancer should be given high doses of vitamin D because a majority of them are likely to have low levels of vitamin D, which could contribute to decreased bone mass and greater risk of fractures, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.cancer should be given high doses of vitamin D because a majority of them are likely to have low levels of vitamin D, which could contribute to decreased bone mass and greater risk of fractures, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

In a study of 166 women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, nearly 70 percent had low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to a study being presented Thursday, Oct. 8, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco. The analysis showed women with late-stage disease and non-Caucasian women had even lower levels.
"Vitamin D is essential to maintaining bone health, and women with breast cancer have accelerated bone loss due to the nature of hormone therapy and chemotherapy. It's important for women and their doctors to work together to boost their vitamin D intake," said Luke Peppone, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, at Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. He is a member of the National Cancer Institute's Community Clinical Oncology Program research base in Rochester.
Scientists funded by the NCI analyzed vitamin D levels in each woman, and the average level was 27 nanograms per milliliter; more than two-thirds of the women had vitamin deficiency. Weekly supplementation with high doses of vitamin D -- 50,000 international units or more -- improved the levels, according to Peppone's study.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine suggests that blood levels nearing 32 nanograms per milliliter are adequate.
This problem is not unexpected, Peppone said, because previous studies have shown that nearly half of all men and women are deficient in the nutrient, with vitamin D levels below 32 nanograms per milliliter. Vitamin D, obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, is well known to play an essential role in cell growth, in boosting the body's immune system and in strengthening bones.
Symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency include muscle pain, weak bones/fractures, low energy and fatigue, lowered immunity, symptoms of depression and mood swings, and sleep irregularities, many of which are common for women undergoing breast cancer treatment.

BRAND NEW NOKIA HANDSET

2009-10-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

Nokia announced Friday it will be porting the Qt framework to its Maemo 5 operating system, and this could lead to a boon of new enterprise and consumer applications for upcoming devices such as the N900

Qt is an application and user framework based on C++ that can be used to build apps for desktop computers, mobile phones, and other computing devices. GOOGLE Earth, Skype, and Last.fm are a few examples of apps that have been built using Qt.

One of the advantages of the framework is that it can be used for cross-platform apps. Nokia said it will be soon be compatible with Symbian, Maemo, and even competing WINDOWS Mobile devices.

"With this announcement and our upcoming PORT of Qt to the Symbian platform, we will quickly see Qt established as a leading framework for mobile application development," said Sebastian Nystrom, Nokia's VP of application services, in a statement. "Developers will be able to use Qt as a framework to create powerful native applications and with Qt's Webkit integration, it also provides them with a PLATFORM for creating Web applications and services."

NEW microsofw office 2010 have better service

2009-10-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Microsoft announced today that it will abandon its decades-old Works entry-level suite, and will instead offer a stripped-down, advertising-supported version of Office 2010 on new PCs next year.

Dubbed Office Starter 2010, the new edition will include only Word 2010 and Excel 2010, dropping PowerPoint 2010 and OneNote 2010 -- the other applications that will be bundled with the lowest-priced package, Home & Student -- as well as Outlook 2010, which is part of the next-level-up Home & Business edition.

Office Starter 2010 will not be a trial edition that times out, said a Microsoft manager today.

Intel IT Network can save your PC

2009-10-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Want to be your own IT? Small business owners may not want to outsource their PC management or buy an expensive management package--but they still need to keep track of what's happening with the PCs in their network. Intel's IT Director (free) allows you to monitor stats for each PC, such as the amount of disk space used, whether or not the Windows firewall is enabled, and whether or not antivirus software is installed.