Leaf like car that can absorb co2 and emits oxygen.

Chinese automaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation has developed a new concept car that could take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

SAIC, which has a partnership wtih General Motors in China, showed designs for the photosynthesizing YeZ Concept Car recently at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

YeZ (pronounced "yea-zi") is Mandarin Chinese for "leaf," and it is the apt title for the open buggy-like vehicle, which has a roof shaped like a leaf only, reports Discovery News.

Leaf like car that can absorb co2 and emits oxygen.

New Quantum way to send messages.

In what could eliminate the risk of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands, scientists have discovered a new way to send secure messages which can only be read by someone at an agreed location.

An international team has developed a new "quantum communication" process that delivers unprecedented security — in fact, it ensures that even if an encryption password falls into the wrong hands, a secure message can only be seen by a recipient at the right location.

Team leader Prof. Robert Malaney at the University of New South Wales said: "This takes communications security to a level that hasn't previously been available. With this process you can send data to a person at a particular location. "If they are not at that location the process would detect that and you can stop the communication.

New Quantum way to send messages.

Scientists discover frog with inflating nose.

Scientists have discovered a "treasure trove of new species" including a frog with a "Pinocchio-like" nose in a remote section of Indonesian rainforest in Southeast Asia.

The male tree frog, whose pointed nose was seen to inflate when calling, was one of dozens of new species found on an expedition to the Foja Mountains in the Papua province of Indonesia in New Guinea Island, organized by Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program (RAP).

Leanne Alonso, director of RAP, told CNN: "It's a frog which goes up trees and lays its eggs on undersides of leaves. Its nose is probably inflating to call females. Usually frogs inflate under the throat when they call."

The frog, along with new species of mammals, insects, a reptile and birds were discovered on a 2008 expedition but have only recently been verified.

Scientists discover frog with inflating nose.

Indians among creators of 'artificial life'

Scientists announced a bold step on Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by man-made DNA.

The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life - changing one simple type of bacterium into another - than a built-from-scratch kind.

But Maryland genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team's project paves the way for the ultimate, much harder goal: designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses. Already he's working with ExxonMobil in hopes of turning algae into fuel.

Indians among creators of 'artificial life'

Cow may help to run small computing center at a bank.

Google's and Microsoft's data centers can be now powered by Cows manure. This might be strange to hear but it might be possible,  says Hewlett-Packard engineers.

With the right skills, a dairy farmer could rent out land and power to technology companies and recoup an investment in the waste-to-fuel systems within two years, Hewlett-Packard engineers say in a research paper to be made public on Wednesday.

Cow may help to run small computing center at a bank.

MIT-designed plane to use 70 % less fuel.

A 'green airplane' designed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-led research team is likely to use 70 per cent less fuel than existing ones while slashing noise and emission of nitrogen oxides.

The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), presented to the Nasa last month as part of a $2.1 million research contract.

MIT was the only university to lead one of the six US teams that won contracts from Nasa in October 2008. Ed Greitzer, professor of aeronautics and astronautics was the principal investigator of the project.

MIT-designed plane to use 70 % less fuel.

Men developed thicker foreheads and jaws due to fighting over women

Article appeared on telegraph.co.uk

Winning a mate used to depend only on physical prowess and men with the strongest jawline and thickest skulls were better able to survive onslaughts from love rivals.

That meant that over time all men developed thicker bones in the jaws, around the eyes and on the forehead than women.

They also developed a greater proportion of muscle to fat than women and became taller than women, said the study,

Men developed thicker foreheads and jaws due to fighting over women

Bionic arm, Robot arm controlled by mind.

Experts at the medical technology company, Otto Bock Healthcare, which developed the first mind-controlled arm which is success and the first person to take full advantage of this bionic arm is Christian Kandlbauer. Christian was the "guinea pig" for the four-year research project.

Four years ago Christian lost both his arms after being electrocuted by 20,000 volts. Now he is able to control all of the joints in his left prosthetic arm by merely thinking about what he wants his arm to do.

Experts at the medical technology company, Otto Bock Healthcare, which developed the mind-controlled arm, say it is the first project of its kind in Europe.

Bionic arm, Robot arm controlled by mind.

Quantum mechanics reveals new details of deep earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have used quantum mechanics to reveal that the most common mineral on Earth is relatively uncommon deep within the planet.

Using several of the largest supercomputers in the nation, a team of physicists led by Ohio State University has been able to simulate the behavior of silica in a high-temperature, high-pressure form that is particularly difficult to study firsthand in the lab.

The resulting discovery -- reported in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- could eventually benefit science and industry alike.

Quantum mechanics reveals new details of deep earth

Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days

Article appeared on nytimes.com

For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy.

Even the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not “see” through the trees.

Then, in the dry spring season a year ago, the husband-and-wife team of Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase tried a new approach using airborne laser signals that penetrate the jungle cover and are reflected from the ground below. They yielded 3-D images of the site of ancient Caracol, in Belize, one of the great cities of the Maya lowlands.

Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days

Magnets can help ease depression

Article appeared on deccanchronicle.com

Magnets may cure depression in people who have not responded earlier to drugs, a new study has said.

A research team from Medical University of South Carolina, US, has revealed that people who had magnets attached to their heads to activate certain parts of the brain were more likely to report relief from depression than those treated with a similar device without a magnet.

The study involved 190 people, of which just under half were randomly assigned to receive the transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy. These people had to wear a helmet like device that applied a magnetic current to the front section of their brain for around 37 minutes a day for three weeks.

Magnets can help ease depression

New method to save eyesight loss

London, (ANI): A scientist duo has found a way to boost the nutritional value of corn-a feat that could reduce the number of children in developing countries who lose their eyesight, become ill or die each year because of vitamin A deficiencies.

Corn contains carotenoids, some of which the body can convert to vitamin A.

Beta-carotene is the best vitamin A precursor, but only a very small percentage of corn varieties have naturally high beta-carotene levels.

In Africa and other developing regions, corn is a major staple and hundreds of thousands of children become blind, develop weakened immune systems and die because of diets based largely on corn that lacks sufficient beta-carotene.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists Marilyn Warburton and Edward Buckler identified genetic sequences linked to higher beta-carotene levels in corn and demonstrating an inexpensive and fast way to identify corn plants that will produce even higher levels.

The study is considered a breakthrough in nutritional plant breeding, reports Nature.

In the study, the researchers surveyed the genetic sequences of corn from around the world through association mapping, a method made possible by recent breakthroughs that accelerate the genetic profiling of crops.

New method to save eyesight loss

Women 'better navigators' than men

London (ANI): Men might be good at reading maps, but when it comes to recalling routes, it's the ladies who walk away with crown, according to a new study.

According to the research, women can be better navigators than men if they have visited a place before.

And according to researchers, it all goes back to the Pleistocene epoch - which began more than 2.5m years ago - when humans' route finding skills were honed differently for the distinct tasks of hunters and gatherers.

To test their hypothesis, the scientists used the population of a Mexican village.

Boffins "fitted with GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems and heart-rate monitors followed villagers to see how many mushrooms they gathered and how long it took. The GPS system mapped all the routes taken, and the heart-rate monitors detailed the energy expended."

Women 'better navigators' than men

Black man living in medieval Britain found

London,(ANI): The discovery of a skeleton in a friary's ruins is the first physical evidence of a black person living in medieval Britain.

The man's skeleton, uncovered in the friary in Ipswich, Suffolk, which was destroyed by Henry VIII, is said to date back to the 13th century, reports The Times.

The discovery is the first physical indication that black people lived in Britain in the 1,000-year period between the departure of the Romans, who had African slaves, and the beginnings of the age of discovery in the 15th century.

The skull demonstrates African characteristics, and an isotopic analysis of the man's teeth and thigh bone proved he had African roots.

Black man living in medieval Britain found

Human growth hormone 'makes worst athlete the best'

Article appeared on telegraph.co.uk

Human growth hormone is powerful enough to make the worst athlete in an Olympic race finish first, a study has shown.

The trial, published today, is the first to show that HGH positively affects physical performance.

Scientists discovered that injections of the drug enhanced the sprint capacity of athletes considerably.

Tests found that HGH could lead to a 0.4 second improvement over 10 seconds in a 100 metre sprint.

The results would correlate for professional athletes, reserachers claimed.

Human growth hormone 'makes worst athlete the best'

Fisherman have to work 17 times harder to catch fish than they did in the 19th century

Article appeared on telegraph.co.uk

Marine scientists have discovered that despite modern trawlers being 50 times more effective than their sailing equivalents in the 19th century, they only catch a third more fish.

Stocks of some varieties of fish such as halibut are so decimated that it takes 500 times as much effort to pull them from the sea as it did in 1889.

Britain's fleet of trawlers – mostly powered by sail – netted 300,000 tons a year in the 1880s compared with 150,000 tons now.

The fishing fleet in England and Wales was much larger then but each vessel still netted 80 tons of fish a year. This compares with 110 tons on average per boat now despite advances in technology and far more powerful boats.

The "dramatic" and "worrying" drop is due to extreme and aggressive overfishing and researchers from York University said the problem is "far more profound" then previously thought.

Fisherman have to work 17 times harder to catch fish than they did in the 19th century

Aliens have been visiting Earth for decades: Canadian expert

Toronto(IANS) Accusing world famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking of spreading misinformation about threats from aliens, former Canadian defence minister Paul Hellyer claimed Sunday that extraterrestrials have actually been visiting earth for decades.

Rather than harm mankind, he said, their (aliens') spaceships have provided us information for triggering today's microchip and IT revolution on our planet.

Hawking has recently warned humanity against contacting aliens. 'If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans,'' the British astrophysicist has said.

Aliens have been visiting Earth for decades: Canadian expert

African rocks record ancient magnetic field

Article appeared on news.bbc.co.uk

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Vienna

Scientists have managed to push back the date for the earliest known presence of a magnetic field on Earth by about 250 million years.

The evidence is seen in tiny iron minerals that are aligned inside ancient dacite rocks from the Barberton mountains in South Africa.

Analysis of the 3.45-billion-year-old minerals indicates the strength the field was much weaker than today.

Earth's magnetic field protects all life on the planet.

It forms a shield that deflects harmful particles from the Sun around our world, and limits the ability of this "solar wind" to erode our atmosphere.

African rocks record ancient magnetic field

Laughter may boost appetite

Article appeared on guardian.co.uk

• The discovery that laughing may have the same effect on appetite as exercise could lead to 'laughter treatment' for patients who have lost their interest in food.
• Laughter, which is already claimed to lower blood pressure and boost immunity, may also give you a healthy appetite.

A hearty laugh can unleash some of the same changes in the body's chemistry as a quick bout of physical exercise, scientists claim.

Laughter may boost appetite

Chimps' emotional response to death caught on film

Chimpanzee Pansy the morning after she died. Photograph: Nicola McCleery/Blair Drummond Safari Park

A video of the reaction of chimps to the death of an elderly group mate challenges procedures for dealing with terminally ill animals in captivity.

Article appeared on guardian.co.uk

In the final hour, they huddled around, studied her face and shook her gently as if to revive her. And when the others had drifted away, one stayed behind to hold her hand.

Chimps' emotional response to death caught on film