Welcome to RobertQuaranta.com

Youngest sailor circumnavigates the globe single-handed

2012-01-23T14:56:00.000Z

Laura Dekker, a 16-year-old Dutch sailor who has become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe single-handed, has threatened never to return to the Netherlands because of the government's resistance to her adventures.

Dekker arrived on the Caribbean island of St Maarten on Saturday aboard her 38ft boat, Guppy, and admitted she sometimes wondered what she was doing during her voyage. She also described her battles with the Dutch authorities, who wanted to prevent her setting sail, as a frightening and traumatic experience and said she was discussing with her parents the possibility of moving abroad, most likely to New Zealand.

When Dekker sailed into harbour at the St Maarten yacht club late on Saturday night, aged 16 years and 123 days, she was met by crowds of wellwishers and stepped on to the dock accompanied by her mother, Babs Muller, her father, Dick Dekker, and her sister and grandparents.

"There were moments where I was like, 'What the hell am I doing out here?' but I never wanted to stop," she told reporters after struggling against high seas and heavy winds on the final 41-day leg from Cape Town, South Africa. "It's a dream, and I wanted to do it."

Courts in the Netherlands originally refused to allow Dekker to embark on the voyage when she was 14, and she was put under the guardianship of Dutch protection agencies on the grounds that she was too young to look after herself at sea. She finally won her battle with the courts in July 2010 and set sail from St Maarten on 20 January last year.

Dekker was born to parents living on a boat near the coast of New Zealand and first sailed solo at six years old, around which time her parents divorced and she went to live with her father. Friends have described her as intelligent, independent and disciplined. She has said her dream of crossing the globe began at the age of 10.

She celebrated her 16th birthday during the trip, eating doughnuts for breakfast after spending time at port with her father and friends in Darwin, Australia.

The journey included stops in the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galápagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora and Australia. She told how her boat was drenched by a whale in South Africa and a flying fish slapped into her head in the Caribbean.

"I became good friends with my boat," she said. "I learned a lot about myself."

"Her story is just amazing," said one of Dekker's fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut who was in St Maarten to witness her arrival. "I can't imagine someone her age going out on the sea all by herself."

"My daughter and I have been following Laura's story, and we think it's amazing and inspiring," added Deena Merlen, Jody's mother.

Dekker set sail two months after Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old US sailor, was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean during a similar attempt. Jessica Watson of Australia completed a 210-day solo voyage at 16, a few months older than Dekker.

"The Dutch government was not kind to me," Dekker wrote on her blog last week. "It was never my intention to be the centre of world news. From the moment my plans became public, Youth Care and other government organisations tried to stop me. During the first court case, in August 2009, they asked the judge to take me away from my father and to lock me up in a secure clinic.

"Now, after sailing around the world, with difficult port approaches, storms, dangerous reefs, and the full responsibility of keeping myself and Guppy safe, I feel that the nightmares the Dutch government organisations put me through were totally unfair. I am seriously thinking about not returning to the Netherlands. Of course I will discuss this with my parents."

In contrast with her discomfort at the interventions of the authorities, she said that at sea she felt at rest. "I especially enjoy the long passages over the Indian and Atlantic," she said.

Her entry on Christmas Day explained her love of solitude: "This way I don't have to go visit the family and be so kind to everyone, I don't have to eat dinner, even a good one, if I don't feel like it just to be polite, and what about all that talking, talking … Here Guppy is a very good listener and she never contradicts me."

"Laura has tremendous willpower and ambition," said lawyer Peter de Lange, who advised Laura and her father during the runup to the trip, in an interview with the Volkskrant newspaper. "Her wish to do this was something that came from her heart and soul and no one was going to stop her."

Nasa discovers first earth-size planets beyond our solar system

2011-12-22T18:52:00.001Z

Nasa's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.

The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is a bit larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

Kepler-20e orbits its parent star every 6.1 days and Kepler-20f every 19.6 days. These short orbital periods mean very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-20f, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, is similar to an average day on the planet Mercury. The surface temperature of Kepler-20e, at more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, would melt glass.

“The primary goal of the Kepler mission is to find Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone," said Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., lead author of a new study published in the journal Nature. "This discovery demonstrates for the first time that Earth-size planets exist around other stars, and that we are able to detect them.”

The Kepler-20 system includes three other planets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. Kepler-20b, the closest planet, Kepler-20c, the third planet, and Kepler-20d, the fifth planet, orbit their star every 3.7, 10.9 and 77.6 days. All five planets have orbits lying roughly within Mercury's orbit in our solar system. The host star belongs to the same G-type class as our sun, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

The system has an unexpected arrangement. In our solar system, small, rocky worlds orbit close to the sun and large, gaseous worlds orbit farther out. In comparison, the planets of Kepler-20 are organized in alternating size: large, small, large, small and large.

"The Kepler data are showing us some planetary systems have arrangements of planets very different from that seen in our solar system," said Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist and Kepler science team member at Nasa's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The analysis of Kepler data continues to reveal new insights about the diversity of planets and planetary systems within our galaxy."

Scientists are not certain how the system evolved but they do not think the planets formed in their existing locations. They theorize the planets formed farther from their star and then migrated inward, likely through interactions with the disk of material from which they originated. This allowed the worlds to maintain their regular spacing despite alternating sizes.

The Kepler space telescope detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets crossing in front, or transiting, their stars. The Kepler science team requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can be seen only from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated as planets.

To validate Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, astronomers used a computer program called Blender, which runs simulations to help rule out other astrophysical phenomena masquerading as a planet.

On Dec. 5 the team announced the discovery of Kepler-22b in the habitable zone of its parent star. It is likely to be too large to have a rocky surface. While Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f are Earth-size, they are too close to their parent star to have liquid water on the surface.

"In the cosmic game of hide and seek, finding planets with just the right size and just the right temperature seems only a matter of time," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead and professor of astronomy and physics at San Jose State University. "We are on the edge of our seats knowing that Kepler's most anticipated discoveries are still to come."

The King's Speech takes Oscar crown

2011-03-03T15:47:00.000Z

The film about George VI's battle to overcome a crippling stammer dominated the Academy Awards, winning best picture, best actor for Colin Firth, best director for Tom Hooper and best original screenplay.

Joan Lane, a theatrical agent, read the script in 2007 and was convinced that she had a hit play on her hands. She sent it to stage producers around the country but no-one was interested. Undeterred, she staged a reading at a north London theatre.

Two of the guests were Richard and Meredith Hooper. "My husband played golf with Richard," Lane explained. Mrs Hooper enjoyed the reading so much that she rang her son, Tom, and told him it would make a great film.

He dedicated the best director Oscar to her. "The moral of the story is: listen to your mother," he said.

David Seidler, who wrote the screenplay, had the night's best line. "My father always said I'd be a late bloomer," he quipped, accepting his first Oscar aged 73.

Self-deprecating as ever, Firth accepted his award with the words: "I have a feeling my career has just peaked."

Asked backstage if his success playing King George VI would lay to rest the ghost of Mr Darcy, the Pride and Prejudice role that earned him heart-throb status back in 1995, Firth said he hoped not.

"I don't see that happening any time soon and actually I'd be rather sad to see him go. There's a bit of a misperception that I'm disgruntled about the Darcy thing, and I'm not remotely bothered by it. I would hate to see that tag leave me."

His next film will be a comedy. "I think gravitas is hugely over-rated. I think it's time to continue my long tradition of making a fool of myself."

A US journalist asked Firth if he was on the guest list for the Royal wedding, as the Queen is reportedly a fan of the film. No, he said, but the invitation was "almost definitely lost in the post".

The success was bittersweet for the soon-to-be defunct UK Film Council, which backed the film to the tune of £1 million. A spokesman said the Oscar wins represented "a magnificent final chapter" for the organisation, which was scrapped by the Government. Firth criticised the decision as "short-sighted".

The King's Speech triumphed over The Social Network, the Facebook film that was considered a best picture frontrunner until a few weeks ago. Timothy Gray, editor of trade magazine Variety, said The King's Speech struck a chord with audiences young and old.

"For Hollywood, and for audiences around the globe, the film came just at the right time," he said. "In the past few years, the best picture Oscar has gone to dark and bloody films like The Departed and No Country For Old Men. Even last year's winner, The Hurt Locker, was dazzling but troubling.

"The King's Speech won because it has intelligence and heart. People feel a personal connection to the film. I know people in their 70s who loved it, I know an eight-year-old who loved it, and people in virtually every other age and income bracket. It's a reaction that a lot of film-makers aim for, but few achieve."

In addition, he said, Americans "have a fascination with royalty and all things British which I think dates back to colonial times". The last British-set film to win best picture was Shakespeare In Love in 1999, another mixture of history and monarchy (plus a fair bit of fiction).

Gray said: "I think the best news for the British film industry is not just the Oscar wins, but the financial success of The King's Speech. It cost $14 millon (£8.6 million) to make and so far has earned more than $200 millon (£123 million) worldwide, with more to come. So that's a reminder to Hollywood executives that they can get great craftsmanship, both in front of and behind the cameras, at a reasonable price at a time when studios are trying desperately to cut costs."

First shutdown of the Internet in history

2011-01-29T13:02:00.007Z

3D map of the World Wide Web

The scale of Egypt's crackdown on the Internet and mobile phones amid deadly protests against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak is unprecedented in the history of the web, experts said. US President Barack Obama, social networking sites and rights groups around the world all condemned the moves by Egyptian authorities to stop activists using cellphones and cybertechnology to organise rallies.

"It's a first in the history of the Internet," Rik Ferguson, an expert for Trend Micro, the world's third biggest computer security firm, told AFP.

Julien Coulon, co-founder of Cedexis, a French Internet performance monitoring and traffic management system, added: "In 24 hours we have lost 97 per cent of Egyptian Internet traffic.

According to Renesys, a US Internet monitoring company, Egypt's four main Internet service providers cut off international access to their customers in a near simultaneous move at 2234 GMT on Thursday.

Around 23 million Egyptians have either regular or occasional access to the Internet, according to official figures, more than a quarter of the population.

"In an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet," James Cowie of Renesys said in a blog post.

Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr were all off air but Cowie said one exception was the Noor Group, which still has 83 live routes to its Egyptian customers.

He said it was not clear why the Noor Group was apparently unaffected "but we observe that the Egyptian Stock Exchange (www.egyptse.com) is still alive at a Noor address."

Mobile telephone networks were also severely disrupted in the country on Friday. Phone signals were patchy and text messages inoperative.

British-based Vodafone said all mobile operators in Egypt had been "instructed" Friday to suspend services in some areas amid spiralling unrest, adding that under Egyptian law it was "obliged" to comply with the order.

Egyptian operator ECMS, linked to France's Telecom-Orange, said the authorities had ordered them to shut them off late Thursday.

"We had no warning, it was quite sudden," a spokesman for Telecom-Orange told AFP in France.

The shutdown in Egypt is the most comprehensive official electronic blackout of its kind, experts said.

Links to the web were were cut for only a few days during a wave of protests against Myanmar's ruling military junta in 2007, while demonstrations against the re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 specifically targeted Twitter and Facebook.

Egypt -- like Tunisia where mass popular unrest drove out Zine El Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month -- is on a list of 13 countries classed as "enemies of the Internet" by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"So far there has been no systematic filtering by Egyptian authorities -- they have completely controlled the whole Internet," said Soazig Dollet, the Middle East and North Africa specialist for RSF.

Condemnation of Egypt's Internet crackdown has been widespread.

Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Cairo to restore the Internet and social networking sites.

Facebook, the world's largest social network with nearly 600 million members, and Twitter also weighed in.

"Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community," said Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman.

Twitter, which has more than 175 million registered users, said of efforts to block the service in Egypt: "We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies & helps govts better connect w/ their people."

US digital rights groups also criticised the Egyptian government.

"This action is inconsistent with all international human rights norms, and is unprecedented in Internet history," said Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology in the United States.

First Pandas come to Britain in 17 years

2011-01-11T05:53:00.001Z

The rare animals are highly sought after and it has taken more than five years of political negotiations at the highest level to persuade the Chinese that the young pandas will be well looked after.

The two seven-year-old pandas will be housed in the old gorilla enclosure and fed bamboo grown in Scotland.

Despite the cold weather, the Scottish climate is actually quite similar to the Wolong Panda Breeding Centre in Sichuan Province where the pandas currently live.

Tian Tian, meaning sweet, the female and Yangguang, the male, meaning sunlight, will be kept in separate enclosures, because pandas are solitary creatures, except during the mating season.

The pandas are considered a diplomatic gift but Edinburgh Zoo has already made substantial donations to Chinese conservation projects and will be expected to continue giving money.

There are only about 150 pandas kept in captivity and there are only three other zoos in Europe that have been given the animals from China, in Vienna, Madrid and Berlin.

It is considered a great honour to be given the animals and it will boost visitor numbers to both Edinburgh and the Zoo.

Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, said it was a sign of the “strong relationship” between the UK and China.

"The kind gift of a loan of a breeding pair of giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yuangguang, is a sign that we can co-operate closely on a broad range of environmental and cultural issues, as well as commerce,” he said.

Liu Xiaoming, Chinese Ambassador to the UK, said it will unite the UK and China.

“Pandas are a Chinese national treasure. This historical agreement is a gift to the people of the UK from China.

"It will represent an important symbol of our friendship and will bring our two people closer together."

David Windmill, chief executive officer of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs Edinburgh Zoo, hoped the pandas will breed in the UK enabling more research into conservation of the rare animals.

"It represents the beginning of a programme of research, education and partnership and the project has huge benefit for the UK and Scotland, both in supporting giant panda conservation and in enhancing our programmes in education, science and conservation."

The last giant panda was Ming Ming, who was lent to London Zoo on a breeding programme in 1991. However after unsuccessful breeding attempts with Berlin's Zoo giant panda Bao Bao it was decided to return her to China, leaving the UK without a giant panda since the end of October 1994.

A date has not yet been set for the arrival of the pandas but it is expected to be later this year.

The pandas will eat up to 80lbs of bamboo every day and could live up to 40 years.

Britain's most famous giant panda, Chi Chi, arrived at London Zoo in 1958. Although originally destined for an American zoo, Washington had ceased all trade with communist China and so Chi Chi was refused entry to the United States. As the only giant panda in the west she was the star attraction for many years. In July 1972, Chi Chi died and was publicly mourned. She is stuffed and displayed in the Natural History Museum.

England win the Ashes in Sydney

2011-01-08T22:54:00.001Z

Man for man, England outperformed their Australian counterparts, starting at the top.But there was no wallowing or gloating by Flower, no self-congratulation, just praise where he felt it was due. For instance he was “really proud” of the batsmen for putting up four totals above 500 in seven innings, and for “making daddy hundreds as Graham Gooch calls them”.

More than a year ago Flower had determined, after Andrew Flintoff’s retirement, that England would play four bowlers, and his design worked so brilliantly that England took 90 out of 100 Australian wickets. It was the wettest year on record in Queensland, the third wettest in Victoria, making conditions that were almost English for his three seamers: but no luck in cricket was more earned.

Flower’s clarity of vision makes some contrast with his counterpart’s. On Friday, Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen spoke just after Australia’s chairman of selectors had announced their team for the two Twenty20 internationals against England later this week, and said: “I’m not privy to the thinking behind the Twenty20 squad.” Imagine Flower saying that! One Australian hand does not know what the other one is doing.

Nobody in the Australian set-up has accepted any responsibility for their defeat, but two parties were notably at fault: firstly the Australian board for arranging four limited-overs games against Sri Lanka just before the Ashes (it does not take much money to pay off or postpone Sri Lanka); secondly, the coach for failing to organise specific practices against tall pace bowlers, opening the way for Stuart Broad, Steve Finn and most of all Chris Tremlett.

England’s other twin architect, Andrew Strauss, left Sydney on Saturday for a week’s break with his in-laws near Ballarat in Victoria, but he cannot be allowed to get away with saying self-effacingly that a captain is simply as good as his players. A good captain makes his players into a team that is better than the sum of its parts. England do not have great players, but Strauss, along with Flower, has fashioned a team that deserves to be called great.

Take the way Strauss has dealt with Kevin Pietersen. The first run of the Sydney Test came from a wild throw from Pietersen at gully to Matt Prior. Later that morning, Pietersen threw in so wildly from deepish cover that the ball completely missed the keeper and Strauss, backing up, had to stop it. Most of England’s modern captains would have done a teapot — and you could see that Strauss was tempted, because Pietersen was breaking the grip England had on the game.

But no: public disapproval by the captain would have threatened the team unity built up in the post-Flintoff era and the invincible image England had created from the tour’s start. To an extent, Pietersen self-policed: thereafter, slightly chastened, he underarmed to Prior from gully. But it is not in his nature to be constantly disciplined and self-controlled. It is in Strauss’s, and he understood that it was up to him not to jeopardise team unity by losing his temper with Pietersen in public.

The greatest fruit of team unity is fielding. England took 66 catches in the series: of all the statistics generated in the last two months, this has to be the most remarkable and illustrative. In England’s last series here they took 57 wickets — in total. In the 2002-3 series they took 63 wickets — in total.

So they exceeded those numbers simply with wickets taken by catches: then throw in the four run-outs (to Australia’s none) to make 70 wickets in all taken by England’s fielders. There was only one regulation catch dropped, by Graeme Swann — when he was out of his normal position, at extra-cover — in Perth.

The best Test fielding I have ever seen was in the Sydney Test four years ago, when Pietersen kept crashing his drives through the offside — and could not score a run. Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke made a pact that day not to let a ball through, and they didn’t.

But England’s fielding coach, Richard Halsall, has outperformed his Australian counterpart, the baseball coach Mike Young, just as much as everyone else down the line. For the first two hours of the second day of the Sydney Test England’s fielding touched the same heights. The synchronisation was nothing less than beautiful to behold: all the parts working in harmony to stop Hussey — on the receiving end this time — and Steve Smith scoring from their attacking shots. In the scorebook the two batsmen went down as caught or bowled, but in effect they were suffocated out.

Strauss then made one of his two significant mistakes on this tour, by spreading the field before Mitchell Johnson had got his eye in. It was crucial to stop Johnson scoring runs, both for the obvious reason and for the fact Johnson always bowls better with runs behind him. But spreading the field is a tactic that should only be used in extreme circumstances, when a batsmen is well set; not least, the line of communication breaks down between the captain, especially if he is at slip, and the bowler, who may be able to deduce from his novelty field which side of the wicket he has to bowl but not the length.

The other significant mistake was when Strauss did not try Swann from the Gloucester Park end soon after tea on the first day in Perth when the Fremantle Doctor sprung up. Australia, sent in justifiably, had lurched from 69 for five to 201 for eight. Strauss tried to blast out the tail with his quicker bowlers, instead of coupling Swann with the wind that would have enabled him to go past the tail-enders’ outside as well as inside edges. Australia got up to 268 — too far ahead once Johnson had bowled his all-time great spell of fast inswing.

But two significant tactical mistakes — decisions one disagreed with at the time, not with the wisdom of hindsight — have to be seen in the context of the hundreds of decisions which an England captain has to make every day in the field and which Strauss got right. He is not Ray Illingworth: not least because Strauss readily admits he is still learning after only two years in the job, while hoping to do a couple more.

But for his strategy, man-management and maximising of the resources of his whole squad, no other post-war England captain can be rated more highly, not even Mike Brearley, especially if we bear in mind the context that almost every one of them has been criticised for being too defensive.

After the final wicket had fallen, and Australia had recorded their third innings defeat in a series for the first time, the hugs between Strauss and every member of the party — from players in the XI, to the reserves, to the retiring physiotherapist Kirk Russell and so on — were eloquent testimony. This England team achieved the most emphatic Ashes win in Australia because, under their twin architects, they were the most united in their common goal of winning.

First look at epic turtle migrations

2011-01-05T12:15:00.001Z

The leatherback turtle is the colossus of the turtle world. They can grow up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and weigh in at 1,190 pounds (540 kilograms). Yet despite their heft, these giant reptiles are elusive.

Leatherbacks spend years at sea, and, although populations in the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans have been tracked, the ocean whereabouts of the world's largest population of leatherbacks in other ocean basins has remained a mystery.

"Nobody really had any idea of where they were going in the South Atlantic," said Matthew Witt, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter in England.

Now, with the help of satellites, Witt has provided researchers with the first glimpse of the critically endangered turtles' epic migrations in the region.

Night time searches

Even with the high-tech space tools, tracking the gigantic turtles was a hands-on business for Witt.The turtles had to be tagged with transmitters before they could be tracked.

Witt spent several weeks a year walking deserted beaches in Gabon, on Africa's central Atlantic coast, searching through the dead of night for his large quarry — nesting female leatherbacks.

Gabon's coast is home to more than 40,000 leatherbacks, according to some estimates, yet finding females to tag with a satellite transmitter wasn't easy. Witt would typically walk 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) a night, finding his way by starlight and moonlight — artificial lights disturb the turtles, Witt said — in search of disturbances in the sand, a telltale sign a female was nearby.

"They're huge, great things," Witt told OurAmazingPlanet. "Even at a few hundred meters you can see their tracks coming out of the sea and onto the beach."

Sending sand flying, and accompanied by a fair amount of noise — they grunt a lot, Witt said — the turtles dig nests about 3 feet (1 meter) down into the sand, chambers that typically contain about 100 eggs.

While a turtle is actually laying its eggs, it goes very quiet and still, Witt said, providing 20 or 25 minutes in which to attach a transmitter to a female's leathery back.

During a reproductive season, female leatherbacks lay about 1,000 eggs in about 90 days, an energy-intensive process.

Once finished, the females return to the high seas, where they must spend three or four years feeding and building up strength before they again return to land, for another exhausting round of nest-digging and egg-laying.

Three routes

Over the course of his five-year study, Witt tracked 25 females along three distinct routes in the Atlantic. Witt said he hopes that the new findings on where these massive turtles spend their time will be used to better focus conservation efforts.

Although some Atlantic populations appear to be doing well, the Pacific leatherback population has dropped a staggering 98 percent since the 1980s.

Much of the decline is due to human interference — egg collection is a problem, and the turtles are also snared in fishery lines.

Tracking the turtles with satellite transmitters is key for researchers, Witt said, but also creates a sort of dilemma.

"You need to collect this information, because you need it to help manage and conserve them," Witt said, "but you don't want to be too invasive, because there are such a limited number of them."

Marathon man's global odyssey

2010-12-30T16:44:00.008Z

Miller runs the Great Wall marathon in China as part of his epic journey

There was little for Australians to be excited about at the MCG on Monday, but a couple of kilometres away a Melbourne man became the first person to complete 52 marathons in 52 weeks.

Tristan Miller received a hero's welcome from supporters and entered the record books when he crossed the finish line at Albert Park Lake at about lunchtime.

The 33-year-old former Melbourne High School student sold virtually everything he owned to fund his $120,000, 42-country, globe-trotting marathon, which included all seven continents.

Just over a week ago, he was running with 35 other competitors in Antarctica's "Ice Marathon".

He racked up a personal best of 3.03 hours in Berlin and came second in a 100-kilometre ultra marathon in Mongolia.

So what prompted such an ambitious and courageous - or is it insane - odyssey?

He started running six years ago following a divorce, but the catalyst came last year when he lost his sales job after his employer, Google, closed its Melbourne office during the global financial crisis.

"I thought, I don't have any attachments, I want to go and see the world ... so it was going into the unknown," he told us on Monday.

"Can you possibly do it in this manner? Maybe you can, maybe you can't, what would be really good is just to go and try."

The physical challenge was immense - most people couldn't do one marathon, let alone one a week for a year - but Miller insists the logistics were more demanding.

During the year he arrived in Costa Rica and discovered the race he was due to compete in had been cancelled.

He appealed for help on Facebook and an Argentinian man told him there was a race on in Mexico, and within a day he had flown there and was getting a lift to the event from another competitor.

"My philosophy all year was to break it down into the most simple terms: I just had to make sure I was there and then worry about the race when I get there," he said.

"I did two in two daysa few times because I needed the space to get to the Antarctic marathon and the Mongolian marathon too.

It will take time for his achievement to sink in.

The year's highlights included finding a girlfriend and meeting people from around the world, many whom said he had inspired them.

"It had so many variables and so many issues attached to it and yet, the world kind of finds a way and makes it OK," he said.

"Even if you don't get what you want you kind of get what you need - very, very Rolling Stones - the things that come out of it might not be what you planned for, but they're usually pretty bloody good stories instead."

And his favourite marathon?

New York, he said, where some of his Australian friends joined him and ran.

"New York City is just a city on steroids, the marathon itself is out of control, there's two million people out there yelling at you just to make you keep running," he said.

Miller raised about $15,000 for UNICEF and Facing Africa.

Swine flu - The perfect storm

2010-12-29T16:14:00.003Z

A ‘perfect storm’ of winter illness will batter Britain’s health services today.

Hospitals will be pushed to breaking point by a post-Christmas deluge of patients suffering from flu and the winter vomiting bug.

Accident and emergency departments are bracing themselves for a surge of referrals as GP practices open for the first time after the extended bank holiday weekend.

They are also expecting high numbers of elderly patients to be brought in as they are visited by care workers for the first time in four days.

Soaring levels of both seasonal and swine flu will heap extra strain on hospitals already dealing with cases of the sickness bug norovirus, which usually peak at this time of year.

It is feared many potentially seriously ill patients will have waited until after the four-day weekend to see their doctor, pushing services to the limit.

The swine flu outbreak sparked a furious war of words last night as Health Minister Simon Burns accused Labour of exploiting the virus for political ends.

He rejected claims by Shadow Health Secretary John Healey that the Government had ‘cancelled’ a flu jab plan for under-fives to save money.

Mr Burns insisted that ministers ruled out a blanket vaccination programme for youngsters on medical grounds.

But as the virus continued to sweep the country yesterday, an expert warned that Britain is on the ‘cusp’ of an epidemic.

Virologist professor John Oxford, from the University of London, said that because two-thirds of the population did not get swine flu during the last two outbreaks, they risk falling victim now.

Dr Jim Wardrope, former president of the College of Emergency Medicine, who works at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, warned today would be one of the busiest of the year for hospitals.

‘There is usually a peak after bank holiday weekends and this one has lasted four days,’ he said. ‘There is definitely extra pressure at the moment.

‘We have a perfect storm of flu and norovirus and the last few days have been extremely busy. It’s the same for departments across the country.’

He explained that hospitals normally experience a peak in referrals from GPs following a bank holiday weekend as many patients are reluctant to use out-of-hours services and would rather wait for a routine appointment.

The influx comes as the head of the Royal College of GPs urged vulnerable patients to get the vaccine amid fears that Britain is on the brink of an epidemic.

Dr Clare Gerada said stocks of the jab arrived in most surgeries on Christmas Eve so there were currently enough supplies, and manufacturers were able to fill more orders.

Professor John Oxford said that huge numbers of people travelling to see family and friends over Christmas and New Year were carrying flu infections to different areas.

He added that it was possible children going back to school would also trigger a surge in flu cases.

This year’s seasonal flu vaccine contains protection against H1N1 and two other strains of flu virus, but uptake has been lower than expected in ‘at risk’ groups.

Around 45 per cent of those with underlying medical conditions have had the jab.

But only one in four pregnant women have done so – despite being four times more likely to develop potentially deadly breathing problems caused by swine flu.

The man who beats weather experts predicts a mini ice age

2010-12-22T14:53:00.009Z

Footprints remain after people walked on the snow-covered beach at Weston-Super-Mare, England. Photo: Getty Images

Piers Corbyn not only predicted the current weather, but he believes things are going to get much worse, says Boris Johnson, London's mayor:

Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.

Almost the entire Tube system was running on Sunday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London's 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

We have kept the Transport for London road network open throughout all this. We have about 90,000 tons of grit in stock, and the gritters were out all night to deal with this morning's rush. And yet we have to face the reality of the position across the country.

It is no use my saying that London Underground and bus networks are performing relatively well - touch wood - when Heathrow, our major international airport, is still effectively closed two days after the last heavy snowfall; when substantial parts of our national rail network are still struggling; when there are abandoned cars to be seen on hard shoulders all over the country; and when yet more snow is expected today, especially in the north.

In a few brief hours, we are told, the snowy superfortresses will be above us again, bomb bays bulging with blizzard. It may be that in the next hours and days we have to step up our de-icing, our gritting and our shovelling. So let me seize this brief gap in the aerial bombardment to pose a question that is bugging me. Why did the Met Office forecast a "mild winter"?

Do you remember? They said it would be mild and damp, and between one degree and one and a half degrees warmer than average. Well, I am now 46 and that means I have seen more winters than most people on this planet, and I can tell you that this one is a corker.

Never mind the record low attained in Northern Ireland this weekend. I can't remember a time when so much snow has lain so thickly on the ground, and we haven't even reached Christmas. And this is the third tough winter in a row. Is it really true that no one saw this coming?

Actually, they did. Allow me to introduce readers to Piers Corbyn, meteorologist and brother of my old chum, bearded leftie MP Jeremy. Piers Corbyn works in an undistinguished office in Borough High Street. He has no telescope or supercomputer. Armed only with a laptop, huge quantities of publicly available data and a first-class degree in astrophysics, he gets it right again and again.

Back in November, when the Met Office was still doing its "mild winter" schtick, Corbyn said it would be the coldest for 100 years. Indeed, it was back in May that he first predicted a snowy December, and he put his own money on a white Christmas about a month before the Met Office made any such forecast. He said that the Met Office would be wrong about last year's mythical "barbecue summer", and he was vindicated. He was closer to the truth about last winter, too.

He seems to get it right about 85 per cent of the time and serious business people - notably in farming - are starting to invest in his forecasts. In the eyes of many punters, he puts the taxpayer-funded Met Office to shame. How on earth does he do it? He studies the Sun.

He looks at the flow of particles from the Sun, and how they interact with the upper atmosphere, especially air currents such as the jet stream, and he looks at how the Moon and other factors influence those streaming particles.

He takes a snapshot of what the Sun is doing at any given moment, and then he looks back at the record to see when it last did something similar. Then he checks what the weather was like on Earth at the time - and he makes a prophecy.

I have not a clue whether his methods are sound or not. But when so many of his forecasts seem to come true, and when he seems to be so consistently ahead of the Met Office, I feel I want to know more. Piers Corbyn believes that the last three winters could be the harbinger of a mini ice age that could be upon us by 2035, and that it could start to be colder than at any time in the last 200 years. He goes on to speculate that a genuine ice age might then settle in, since an ice age is now cyclically overdue.

Is he barmy? Of course he may be just a fluke-artist. It may be just luck that he has apparently predicted recent weather patterns more accurately than government-sponsored scientists. Nothing he says, to my mind, disproves the view of the overwhelming majority of scientists, that our species is putting so much extra CO? into the atmosphere that we must expect global warming.

The question is whether anthropogenic global warming is the exclusive or dominant fact that determines our climate, or whether Corbyn is also right to insist on the role of the Sun. Is it possible that everything we do is dwarfed by the moods of the star that gives life to the world? The Sun is incomparably vaster and more powerful than any work of man. We are forged from a few clods of solar dust. The Sun powers every plant and form of life, and one day the Sun will turn into a red giant and engulf us all. Then it will burn out. Then it will get very nippy indeed.

Julian Assange - Reader's choice for Time Person of the Year

2010-12-14T15:17:00.014Z

The man behind WikiLeaks has won the most votes in this year's Person of the Year poll.

Readers voted a total of 1,249,425 times, and the favorite was clear. Julian Assange raked in 382,020 votes, giving him an easy first place. He was 148,383 votes over the silver medalist, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey.

But Assange wasn't the winner in all aspects -- Lady Gaga trounced him on Facebook, receiving 65,417 "likes" on Facebook to Assange's 45,643. See the top 10 readers' choices below.

1. Julian Assange
2. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
3. Lady Gaga
4. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
5. Glenn Beck
6. Barack Obama
7. Steve Jobs
8. The Chilean Miners
9. The Unemployed American
10. Mark Zuckerberg

Will Assange be named Person of the Year? The editors of Time will unveil their choice on the Today show, Wednesday morning on NBC.

Stem cell transplant has cured HIV infection

2010-12-14T15:11:00.000Z

Doctors who carried out a stem cell transplant on an HIV-infected man with leukaemia in 2007 say they now believe the man to have been cured of HIV infection as a result of the treatment, which introduced stem cells which happened to be resistant to HIV infection.

The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells. The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection.

The case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, and Berlin doctors subsequently published a detailed case history in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2009.

They have now published a follow-up report in the journal Blood, arguing that based on the results of extensive tests, “It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient.”

If a cure has been achieved in this patient, it points the way towards attempts to develop a cure for HIV infection through genetically engineered stem cells.

The German researchers and San Francisco-based immunologist Professor Jay Levy believe that the findings point to the importance of suppressing the production of CCR5-bearing cells, either through transplants or gene therapy.

Scientists were sufficiently intrigued by the Berlin patient that they met in Berlin in 2009 to discuss how they could coordinate efforts to identify CCR5-delta32 homozygous donors and expand the supply of stem cells from these donors, for example through sampling blood cells from the umbilical cord of babies born to mothers who are homozygous for CCR5-delta32, in order to eventually facilitate stem-cell therapy.

Gene therapy techniques which can transform stem cells – and all their descendents – into cells resistant to HIV entry may be a more practical option than looking for matching donors.

Several US research groups announced in October 2009 that they had received funding to explore techniques for engineering and introducing CCR5-deficient stem cells.

If these approaches prove successful they will be expensive, so in the early stages it is likely that they would be reserved for people with no remaining treatment options or a cancer requiring bone marrow or stem cell transfer.

As Timothy Brown’s experience shows, curing HIV infection through ablative chemotherapy, immunosuppressive drugs and stem cell transfer is not a course of treatment for the faint-hearted. It has required courage, determination and a lot of support to become the first person to be pronounced `cured` of HIV infection.

First man walks length of the Amazon river

2010-08-10T10:53:00.000+01:00

After an incredible 859 days and 6,000 miles British explorer Ed Stafford has become the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon.

The former Army captain reached the Atlantic in Brazil – two and a half years after he started his epic adventure in the jungles of Peru.

The final leg proved one of the most challenging, with Mr Stafford collapsing at the side of the road a few hours before reaching his final destination.

But he made it to the Maruda beach on Brazil’s northern coast, accompanied by Peruvian forestry worker Gadiel ‘Cho’ Sanchez Rivera, 31, who joined him five months into his journey.

The ex-soldier wrote on Twitter: ‘Job done. 28 months and Cho and I have finished walking the Amazon. I always knew it was possible.’

Mr Stafford, 33, from Hallaton, Leicestershire, who suffered an estimated 50,000 mosquito bites, said: ‘It’s been an incredible journey with some amazing highs, but also some pretty horrendous lows as well. But I just couldn’t consider giving up.’

Although the Amazon measures 4,000 miles, he estimates he had to walk an extra 2,000 miles up and down mountains and through jungle to conquer it.

He began on April 2, 2008, with walking partner Luke Collyer, 37, an outdoor activities instructor. But less than three months in, the pair fell out over an iPod and Mr Collyer returned to the UK. Mr Stafford advertised for a new walking partner and was joined by Mr Sanchez Rivera.

Living off pirhana and rice, the pair made their way through Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

At one point, in Peru, local tribesmen imprisoned Mr Stafford and his partner on suspicion of murder. They were released after 48 hours.

But then the sponsors pulled out due to the recession, their GPS system failed and their medical insurance lapsed.

Mr Stafford said on Monday: ‘All I want now is a portion of fish and chips and a nice cold beer.’

Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, the world’s leading explorer, said of Stafford’s achievement: ‘One of the most impressive aspects of his performance throughout this expedition is Ed's absolute determination to succeed.’

‘On an almost daily basis, he must have faced obstacles which would put most people off. His is a truly magnificent demonstration of the stubborn grit which you need to succeed in such difficult and dangerous terrain.’

‘Such stories draw much needed attention to the very real problems which exist in the Amazon basin and beyond.’

The world's only immortal animal?

2010-03-19T11:38:00.008Z

(Photo: Peter Schuchert)

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.

The MTV 'Hope for Haiti' Telethon Concert

2010-01-21T10:14:00.002Z

Beyonce, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Wyclef Jean, Bono, The Edge and Jay-Z will lead the all-star lineup of performers for Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" telethon. More than 100 stars have signed on to help raise funds for the MTV Networks-sponsored show, which will benefit the victims of last week's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake on the impoverished island.

Several one-of-a-kind collaborations will highlight the event, including a hookup between U2's Bono and The Edge with Jay-Z and Rihanna in London and a jam featuring Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; like all the night's performances, the collabos will be available for download on iTunes for 99 cents the next day.

Also appearing in New York with Wyclef and Springsteen will be Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting, while the Los Angeles show will feature performances from Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Timberlake, Stevie Wonder and Taylor Swift.

Jean, a native of Haiti, George Clooney and CNN's Anderson Cooper will appear on the show, which will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti and feature more than 100 of the biggest names in film, television and music providing testimonials and answering phones. The two-hour program will air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT on Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The special will also air on PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green, as well as Canada's CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic. It will also air internationally on BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, available in 640 million homes worldwide. "Hope for Haiti" will be the first U.S.-based telethon airing on MTV in China. Facebook and Twitter are the official social media partners who will help to drive donations and tune-in to the telethon.

All donations will directly benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef's Yele Haiti Foundation. Facebook and MySpace have signed on as official social-media partners to help steer viewers to the telethon and drive donations.

Additionally, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme have joined the list of relief organizations that will benefit from the show, with proceeds to be split evenly among each organization's individual Haiti relief funds. "Hope For Haiti Now" will be the most widely distributed telethon in history, internationally and across media platforms, including live streaming globally on sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, MTV.com, and Rhapsody and on mobile via Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and FloTV.

On the red carpet at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards, George Clooney revealed how the global fundraiser came together. "You guys started it," the actor said. "The first call I made was to Judy [McGrath, MTV Networks' chief executive]. She said, 'Yes, everybody will do it, everybody's in' and that they were thinking of doing it too. They got the ball rolling and we got every single network after that. So congratulations to you!"

Before the telethon airs, Clooney wanted to remind young people that there are many ways to help the people of Haiti.

"I would say, 'Get involved, whatever you do,' " the Oscar-winner said. "This is about compassion. There are times in our lives when people are really without help and in real danger, and this is one of those times. So whatever they can do -- give money to one of the organizations that they like the best."

Why your DNA isn't necessarily your destiny

2010-01-12T16:57:00.002Z

The remote, snow-swept expanses of northern Sweden are an unlikely place to begin a story about cutting-edge genetic science. The kingdom's northernmost county, Norrbotten, is nearly free of human life; an average of just six people live in each square mile. And yet this tiny population can reveal a lot about how genes work in our everyday lives.

Norrbotten is so isolated that in the 19th century, if the harvest was bad, people starved. The starving years were all the crueler for their unpredictability. For instance, 1800, 1812, 1821, 1836 and 1856 were years of total crop failure and extreme suffering. But in 1801, 1822, 1828, 1844 and 1863, the land spilled forth such abundance that the same people who had gone hungry in previous winters were able to gorge themselves for months.

In the 1980s, Dr. Lars Olov Bygren, a preventive-health specialist who is now at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, began to wonder what long-term effects the feast and famine years might have had on children growing up in Norrbotten in the 19th century — and not just on them but on their kids and grandkids as well. So he drew a random sample of 99 individuals born in the Overkalix parish of Norrbotten in 1905 and used historical records to trace their parents and grandparents back to birth. By analyzing meticulous agricultural records, Bygren and two colleagues determined how much food had been available to the parents and grandparents when they were young.

Around the time he started collecting the data, Bygren had become fascinated with research showing that conditions in the womb could affect your health not only when you were a fetus but well into adulthood. In 1986, for example, the Lancet published the first of two groundbreaking papers showing that if a pregnant woman ate poorly, her child would be at significantly higher than average risk for cardiovascular disease as an adult. Bygren wondered whether that effect could start even before pregnancy: Could parents' experiences early in their lives somehow change the traits they passed to their offspring?

It was a heretical idea. After all, we have had a long-standing deal with biology: whatever choices we make during our lives might ruin our short-term memory or make us fat or hasten death, but they won't change our genes — our actual DNA. Which meant that when we had kids of our own, the genetic slate would be wiped clean.

What's more, any such effects of nurture (environment) on a species' nature (genes) were not supposed to happen so quickly. Charles Darwin, whose On the Origin of Species celebrated its 150th anniversary in November, taught us that evolutionary changes take place over many generations and through millions of years of natural selection. But Bygren and other scientists have now amassed historical evidence suggesting that powerful environmental conditions (near death from starvation, for instance) can somehow leave an imprint on the genetic material in eggs and sperm. These genetic imprints can short-circuit evolution and pass along new traits in a single generation.

For instance, Bygren's research showed that in Overkalix, boys who enjoyed those rare overabundant winters — kids who went from normal eating to gluttony in a single season — produced sons and grandsons who lived shorter lives. Far shorter: in the first paper Bygren wrote about Norrbotten, which was published in 2001 in the Dutch journal Acta Biotheoretica, he showed that the grandsons of Overkalix boys who had overeaten died an average of six years earlier than the grandsons of those who had endured a poor harvest. Once Bygren and his team controlled for certain socioeconomic variations, the difference in longevity jumped to an astonishing 32 years. Later papers using different Norrbotten cohorts also found significant drops in life span and discovered that they applied along the female line as well, meaning that the daughters and granddaughters of girls who had gone from normal to gluttonous diets also lived shorter lives. To put it simply, the data suggested that a single winter of overeating as a youngster could initiate a biological chain of events that would lead one's grandchildren to die decades earlier than their peers did. How could this be possible?

Meet the Epigenome
The answer lies beyond both nature and nurture. Bygren's data — along with those of many other scientists working separately over the past 20 years — have given birth to a new science called epigenetics. At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material — the epigenome — that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic "marks" that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next.

Green Sea Slug is now part animal and part plant

2010-01-12T16:31:00.000Z

It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant.

Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body, says Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight, Pierce reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Pierce used a radioactive tracer to show that the slugs were making the pigment, called chlorophyll a, themselves and not simply relying on chlorophyll reserves stolen from the algae the slugs dine on.

“This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” said invertebrate zoologist John Zardus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

Microbes swap genes readily, but Zardus said he couldn’t think of another natural example of genes flowing between multicellular kingdoms.

Pierce emphasized that this green slug goes far beyond animals such as corals that host live-in microbes that share the bounties of their photosynthesis. Most of those hosts tuck in the partner cells whole in crevices or pockets among host cells. Pierce’s slug, however, takes just parts of cells, the little green photosynthetic organelles called chloroplasts, from the algae it eats. The slug’s highly branched gut network engulfs these stolen bits and holds them inside slug cells.

Some related slugs also engulf chloroplasts but E. chlorotica alone preserves the organelles in working order for a whole slug lifetime of nearly a year. The slug readily sucks the innards out of algal filaments whenever they’re available, but in good light, multiple meals aren’t essential. Scientists have shown that once a young slug has slurped its first chloroplast meal from one of its few favored species of Vaucheria algae, the slug does not have to eat again for the rest of its life. All it has to do is sunbathe.

But the chloroplasts need a continuous supply of chlorophyll and other compounds that get used up during photosynthesis. Back in their native algal cells, chloroplasts depended on algal cell nuclei for the fresh supplies. To function so long in exile, “chloroplasts might have taken a go-cup with them when they left the algae,” Pierce said.

There have been previous hints, however, that the chloroplasts in the slug don’t run on stored-up supplies alone. Starting in 2007, Pierce and his colleagues, as well as another team, found several photosynthesis-related genes in the slugs apparently lifted directly from the algae. Even unhatched sea slugs, which have never encountered algae, carry “algal” photosynthetic genes.

At the meeting, Pierce described finding more borrowed algal genes in the slug genome for enzymes in a chlorophyll-synthesizing pathway. Assembling the whole compound requires some 16 enzymes and the cooperation of multiple cell components. To see whether the slug could actually make new chlorophyll a to resupply the chloroplasts, Pierce and his colleagues turned to slugs that hadn’t fed for at least five months and had stopped releasing any digestive waste. The slugs still contained chloroplasts stripped from the algae, but any other part of the hairy algal mats should have been long digested, he said.

After giving the slugs an amino acid labeled with radioactive carbon, Pierce and his colleagues identified a radioactive product as chlorophyll a. The radioactively tagged compound appeared after a session of slug sunbathing but not after letting slugs sit in the dark. A paper with details of the work is scheduled to appear in the journal Symbiosis.

Zardus, who says that he tries to maintain healthy skepticism as a matter of principle, would like to hear more about how the team controlled for algal contamination. The possibilities for the borrowed photosynthesis are intriguing though, he says. Mixing the genomes of algae and animals could certainly complicate tracing out evolutionary history. In the tree of life, he said, the green sea slug “raises the possibility of branch tips touching.”

“Bizarre,” said Gary Martin, a crustacean biologist at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Steps in evolution can be more creative than I ever imagined.”

Could we be in for 30 years of global cooling?

2010-01-12T09:01:00.007Z

Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday.

The world has entered a 'cold mode' which is likely to bring a global dip in temperatures which will last for 20 to 30 years, they say.

Summers and winters will all be cooler than in recent years, and the changes will mean that global warming will be 'paused' or even reversed, it was claimed.

The predictions are based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

They are the work of respected climate scientists and not those routinely dismissed by environmentalists as 'global warming deniers'.

Some experts believe these cycles - and not human pollution - can explain all the major changes in world temperatures in the 20th century.

If true, the research challenges the science behind climate change theories, and calls into question the political measures to halt global warming.

According to some scientists, the warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases.

It occurred because the world was in a 'warm mode', and would have happened regardless of mankind's rising carbon dioxide production.

And now oceanic cycles have switched to a 'cold mode', where data shows that the amount of Arctic summer sea ice has increased by more than a quarter since 2007.

The research has been carried out by eminent climate scientists, including Professor Mojib Latif. He is a leading member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He and his colleagues predicted the cooling trend in a 2008 paper, and warned of it again at an IPCC conference in Geneva in September.

Working at the prestigious Leibniz Institute in Kiel University in Germany, he has developed methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft under the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start.

For Europe, the crucial factor is the temperature in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. He said such ocean cycles - known as multi-decadal oscillations or MDOs - could account for up to half of the rise in global warming in recent years.

Professor Latif said: 'A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th century was due to these cycles - as much as 50 per cent'.

'They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. All this may well last two decades or longer. The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt. For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling'.

Many meteorologists have blamed the current freeze on 'Arctic oscillation' - a weather pattern in which areas of high pressure have pushed the warming jetstream away from Britain. They have insisted this temporary change will have no effect on long-term warming patterns.

But another expert, Professor Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group, said MDOs will continue to determine global temperatures.

He said: 'They amount to massive rearrangements in the dominant patterns of the weather, and their shifts explain all the major changes in world temperatures during the 20th and 21st centuries. We have such a change now'.

Oldest Land-Walker Tracks Found - Pushes Back Evolution

2010-01-07T14:31:00.009Z

The first vertebrates to walk the Earth emerged from the sea almost 20 million years earlier than previously thought, say scientists who have discovered footprints from an 8-foot-long (2.4-meter-long) prehistoric creature.

Dozens of the 395-million-year-old fossil footprints were recently discovered on a former marine tidal flat or lagoon in southeastern Poland.

The prints were made by tetrapods—animals with backbones and four limbs—and could rewrite the history of when, where, and why fish evolved limbs and first walked onto land, the study says.

Because they are thought to have evolved from such creatures, reptiles, birds, and mammals—including humans—are today classified as tetrapods.

"These are the oldest tetrapod tracks and also the oldest evidence of true tetrapods," study co-author Grzegorz Niedƃwiedzki, a paleontologist at Warsaw University, commented via e-mail.

The tracks were made by several individuals of a four-limbed species that had digits, or toes, on each foot, according to the research.

"We are dealing with creatures that were walking," said Marek Narkiewicz, a geologist at the Polish Geological Institut and co-author of the study, to be published tomorrow in the journal Nature.

The footprints vary in size, some as wide as 10 inches (26 centimeters). The track sizes and shapes indicate flat-bodied, lizard-like creatures up to 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) long with stout legs, the researchers said.

Oldest Tetrapod Tracks
Discovered in an abandoned mountain quarry, the tracks suggest that tetrapods were traipsing the planet 18 million years earlier than previously indicated by the fossil record.

The tracks are also ten million years older than the oldest known fossils of lobe-finned fishes called elpistostegids, which are widely considered to be transitional forms between fish and tetrapods.

The age of the newfound tracks suggest that "these transitional fish continued to exist alongside the tetrapods for quite some period of time," said Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the new research.

It's not so strange for one type of animal to live alongside its evolutionary successors, Ahlberg noted. Several feathered dinosaurs, for example, "continued to exist alongside the birds for millions of years."

Marine Environment
The finding also suggests the fins-to-limbs evolution occurred in an intertidal or lagoon environment rather than a seasonally flooded forest, as indicated by earlier finds.

The tidal "scenario has considerable explanatory power," the researchers write in Nature.

Due to the regular coming and going of the tides, marine ancestors of tetrapods, for example, would have had easy access twice a day to marine animals stranded at low tide.

This reliable smorgasbord would have helped tetrapod ancestors find their legs, so to speak.

"If you're picking off dead and moribund animals in the strand land—those things left behind by the receding tide—well then you don't need to be terribly good at moving around," Ahlberg noted.
"You just need to be able to haul your way out, eat what you want to eat, and then haul your way back into the water again."

More Tetrapod Footprints Fossils Needed
The new tetrapod finding "could lead to significant shifts in our knowledge of the timing and ecological setting of early tetrapod evolution," said paleontologist Ted Daeschler via email.

Daeschler studies fish-to-tetrapod evolution at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but was not involved in the Nature study.

Daeschler notes, however, that tracks and trackways are notoriously difficult to interpret "with full confidence," and he's awaiting more evidence before abandoning existing explanations for the transition.

"No doubt that I will keep an open mind and keen eye on future developments," he said.

Protests Grow Over Digital Economy Bill

2009-11-24T08:57:00.016Z

The Digital Economy Bill has sparked a wave of protest among consumers and rights groups.

Soon after the bill began its journey through Parliament on 19 November, many expressed worries about parts of it.

The bill suggests the use of technical measures to tackle illegal file-sharing that could involve suspending the accounts of persistent pirates.

Critics fear this and other powers the bill reserves could damage the UK's growing digital economy.

The Digital Economy Bill is the end result of the consultation and research that went into the creation of the Digital Britain Report that was published in June 2009.

As well as trying to tackle illegal file-sharing, the wide-ranging legislation also proposes a shake-up of the radio spectrum and a classification system for video games.

Left out is the proposal for a broadband tax to fund next-generation broadband that will be handled in the Finance Bill due in early 2010.

The proposals on file-sharing have garnered most criticism.

One of the first responses was the creation of a petition on the Number10.gov.uk website calling for the abolition of the proposal to disconnect illegal filesharers.

By late on 23 November, the petition had gathered almost 11,000 signatures.

The number of signatures got a boost from Stephen Fry who used micro-blogging site Twitter to direct people to it.

Wrote Mr Fry: "Dear Mandy, splendid fellow in many ways, but he is SO WRONG about copyright. Please sign and RT".

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns on digital issues, said: "It's quite a shocking bill. We're extremely worried about it."

Mr Killock said Section 17 of the Bill was worrying because it gave the Secretary of State "reserve powers" to draft fresh laws to tackle net-based copyright infringement without needing parliamentary approval.

"It could destabilise business and destabilise innovation," said Mr Killock. "It means entirely trusting to bureaucrats and politicians to get it right."

Mr Killock said membership of the Open Rights Group had jumped by 20% in the run-up to the publication of the Bill. He said protests were being co-ordinated in many places such as Facebook and other social media sites.

He predicted that the protests would soon lead to some form of civil unrest, be that lobbying, a protest march or public meetings.

US digital rights group The Electronic Frontier Foundation declared that giving the Secretary of State such powers amounted to the creation of a "pirate finder general" that could enact "draconian" copyright enforcement controls.

The Bill envisages that any proposed change to copyright law should be opened up to public comment before it is made.

In a bid to defuse some of the criticisms, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills created a webpage entitled: "Filesharing: some accusations and some answers".

It pointed out that some of the criticisms levelled at the Bill were unfounded. It said it had not been drafted at the behest of the music industries.

It added that "technical measures" to slow down or suspend net connections would not be imposed without those accused going through a tribunal system that assesses their case.

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) also issued a statement saying that it "strongly opposes" the measures introduced to tackle file-sharing.

Said ISPA: "Rather than focusing blindly on enforcement, the government should be asking rights holders to reform the licensing framework so that legal content can be distributed online to consumers in a way that they are clearly demanding."

Law firm Eversheds said the copyright plans seem "hurriedly put together and not clearly thought-through" and warned that they could have "unforeseen effects."

It added: "Critics... may have taken some comfort from the fact that the proposals have yet to wend their way through an already congested legislative timetable before the next election, meaning it is questionable whether they will ever become law."

Dan Bull's musical open letter to Lord Mandelson on the subject can be viewed here.

Vanished Persian Army Said Found In Desert

2009-11-11T09:04:00.006Z

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology's biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

"We have found the first archaeological evidence of a story reported by the Greek historian Herodotus," said Dario Del Bufalo, a member of the expedition from the University of Lecce.

According to Herodotus (484-425 B.C.), Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun after the priests there refused to legitimize his claim to Egypt.

After walking for seven days in the desert, the army got to an "oasis," which historians believe was El-Kharga. After they left, they were never seen again.

"A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear," wrote Herodotus.

A century after Herodotus wrote his account, Alexander the Great made his own pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun, and in 332 B.C. he won the oracle's confirmation that he was the divine son of Zeus, the Greek god equated with Amun.

The legend of Cambyses' lost army, however, faded into antiquity. As no trace of the hapless warriors was ever found, scholars began to dismiss the story as a fanciful tale.

Now, two top Italian archaeologists claim to have found striking evidence that the Persian army was indeed swallowed in a sandstorm. Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are already famous for their discovery 20 years ago of the ancient Egyptian "city of gold" Berenike Panchrysos.

Presented recently at the archaeological film festival of Rovereto, the discovery is the result of 13 years of research and five expeditions to the desert.

FlashForward

2009-10-03T15:30:00.016+01:00

What if you saw your future 6 months from now? A glimpse of where you will be and who you will be with. Would you look forward to what was coming...or would you try to stop it?

A mysterious global event causes everyone to black out simultaneously for two minutes and seventeen seconds, and each person sees a glimpse of their lives six months from now. When they wake up, everyone is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen.

Los Angeles FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) is desperate to uncover why this happened and who or what is behind it. And he's not the only one. Before long, everyone starts asking, "What did you see?" As Mark and his team struggle to figure out what caused this bizarre event, they begin to piece together the future by creating a huge database of people's flash forwards from all over the world - The Mosaic Collective. No one knows what these flash forwards mean or exactly what the future really holds. But it is clear that across the globe people who've never met will somehow be intimately connected and will have an impact on each other's lives in the next six months. Some will fear what's coming, others excited; but not a single person will be unaffected.

Adapting award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer's revolutionary novel, executive producers David S. Goyer (co-writer of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight), Brannon Braga (24, Star Trek: Enterprise), Marc Guggenheim (Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone), Jessika Borszicky (Revelations) and producer Mark H. Ovitz (October Road) invite you to embark on a journey to answer the question, "if you knew what your future held, what would you do?"

Should you have inadvertently missed any episodes, you can catch up with them for free here.

Media granted family court access

2009-04-28T11:10:00.003+01:00

Family courts across England and Wales are being opened up to journalists as part of a government bid to boost public confidence in the system.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the move was a step towards a new culture of "greater openness" in all courts.

But news organisations have complained that many cases will remain unreported, because judges still have wide powers to restrict reporting and media access.

Ministers say they will legislate to relax reporting restrictions in time.

Family courts make far-reaching decisions, such as whether children should be taken into care or put up for adoption, or given contact with parents who are divorcing.

They also decide on custody and how finances should be split.

Until now, with some exceptions, neither the public nor the media have been allowed in, to protect families - particularly children - from intrusion into their privacy.

But there have been claims that the secrecy of the hearings has led to injustices, with some children taken wrongly into care.

From Monday morning, accredited journalists in England and Wales will now be allowed into many more family hearings, to witness what is being said and done.

Judges will also have the power to relax reporting restrictions in individual cases or limit what can be reported to protect the welfare of children and families.

Mr Straw said: "Family courts play a crucial role in our society. It is vital that these courts command the confidence of the public. If justice in these courts is seen to be done, they will be trusted by the public.

"Existing reporting restrictions for the newly attending media will of course still apply to protect children and families, but I want to ensure a change in the culture and practice of all courts towards greater openness, and this is an important step towards that goal."

Last December, Mr Straw told MPs that journalists attending family courts would be governed by reporting restrictions similar to those applying to youth courts.

Under youth court rules, it is unlawful to publish anything that would identify a juvenile involved in a case, but it is possible to identify adults such as social workers and doctors.

However, changes to allow the identification of such adults have not yet been made and journalists argue the opening up of the courts has therefore been pointless.

The Newspaper Society and the Society of Editors, supported by the BBC, ITN and the Press Association, have written to Mr Straw, saying the effect "will be to nullify... the government's stated aim of openness and accountability".

The letter continued: "The great majority of the very cases in which public concern is most acute are those which involve children, and particularly state intervention in children's care and upbringing."

Under current rules "these proceedings would not be reportable and effectively there would be no change at all", it added.

The Ministry of Justice said it would be legislating to revise reporting restrictions "as soon as Parliamentary time allows".

Until legislation revising reporting restrictions is in place, reporters will be able to report sufficient outlines of cases to allow readers to understand "the gist of proceedings without identifying those involved", a spokesman said.

Beware surfers: cyberspace is filling up

2009-04-27T11:48:00.003+01:00

Internet users face regular “brownouts” that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.

Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 per cent a year, will start to exceed supply from as early as next year because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry websites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC’s iPlayer.

It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an “unreliable toy”.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the world wide web in 1989, the internet appeared to be a limitless resource. However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.

“With more people working or looking for work from home, or using their PCs more for cheap entertainment, demand could double in 2009,” said Ted Ritter, a Nemertes analyst. “At best, we see the [economic] slowdown delaying the fractures for maybe a year.”

In America, telecoms companies are spending £40 billion a year upgrading cables and supercomputers to increase capacity, while in Britain proposals to replace copper cabling across part of the network with fibreoptic wires would cost at least £5 billion.

Yet sites such as YouTube, the video-sharing service launched in 2005, which has exploded in popularity, can throw the most ambitious plans into disarray.

The amount of traffic generated each month by YouTube is now equivalent to the amount of traffic generated across the entire internet in all of 2000.

The extent of its popularity is indicated by the 100 million people who have logged on to the site to see the talent show contestant Susan Boyle in the past three weeks.

Another so-called “net bomb” being studied by Nemertes is BBC iPlayer, which allows viewers to watch high-definition television on their computers. In February there were more than 35 million requests for shows and iPlayer now accounts for 5 per cent of all UK internet traffic.

Analysts express such traffic in exabytes – a quintillion (or a million trillion) bytes or units of computer data. One exabyte is equivalent to 50,000 years’ worth of DVD-quality data.

Monthly traffic across the internet is running at about eight exabytes. A recent study by the University of Minnesota estimated that traffic was growing by at least 60 per cent a year, although that did not take into account plans for greater internet access in China and India.

While the net itself will ultimately survive, Ritter said that waves of disruption would begin to emerge next year, when computers would jitter and freeze. This would be followed by “brownouts” – a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed.

Ritter’s report will warn that an unreliable internet is merely a toy. “For business purposes, such as delivering medical records between hospitals in real time, it’s useless,” he said.

“Today people know how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games, but by 2012 that traffic jam could last all day long.”

Engineers are already preparing for the worst. While some are planning a lightning-fast parallel network called “the grid”, others are building “caches”, private computer stations where popular entertainments are stored on local PCs rather than sent through the global backbone.

Telephone companies want to recoup escalating costs by increasing prices for “net hogs” who use more than their share of capacity.

Government's shameful treatment of the Gurkhas

2009-04-27T11:36:00.008+01:00

The government's treatment of the Gurkhas is beyond shameful.

The new rules, which will decide whether a former member of the regiment who served before 1997 is allowed to settle in the UK, are a nonsense. Essentially, the message is - "Only War Heroes Need Apply".

For an ex-Gurkha to settle in Britain he must effectively be the holder of a Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order or Military Cross - or have sustained a long term injury as a result of military service. I have no idea how many ex-Gurkhas meet this criteria but you probably wouldn't need the fingers of both hands to count them.

In the two decades prior to 1997 - the approximate length of a soldier's career in the British Army - the military was only involved in a few major operations: Northern Ireland, the Falklands War, the first Gulf War and the Balkans. The Gurkhas were excluded from serving in Ulster, by the time they arrived in the Falklands much of the war fighting was over, the first Gulf War lasted 90 hours and the Balkans, although dangerous, was largely peace-keeping. Thus in the 1980s and 1990s the opportunity to win gongs was extremely limited.

The government's decision is both spiteful and deceitful because it suggests that some Ghurkhas are more deserving of special treatment than others. As a former soldier and a defence journalist, I have met many Gurkhas and have always been impressed with their bravery, loyalty and love of the British Army. I know of no soldier of any rank - both serving and veteran - who supports the government's position.

Lawyers get more than victims in NHS compensation scandal

2009-03-23T12:16:00.003Z

Taxpayers are shelling out tens of millions of pounds on claims. A “no-win, no-fee” lawyer can charge the National Health Service up to £750 an hour in successful claims for patient compensation over medical negligence and errors.

These bills, of course, ultimately fall on taxpayers, who last year spent £400m on NHS-related legal claims. The potential liability on outstanding negligence claims could be as much as £12 billion of which, at prevailing rates, £6 billion could go on legal fees.

It is not surprising that the NHSLA is worried. Under its main scheme – the clinical negligence scheme for trusts – about 50p in every £1 is already being spent on legal costs. It paid damages of £264m in 2007-8 and legal costs for the defence team and claimants of about £134m.

According to the authority’s latest figures, the NHS’s potential liabilities in outstanding clinical negligence claims is nearly £12 billion. Even if only half these claims are successful, it would mean potential legal fees of up to £3 billion.

No-win, no-fee arrangements were introduced in 1995. They were designed to improve access to the justice system for claimants who were not entitled to legal aid – but who also could not afford the often prohibitive costs of a court case.

The new arrangements were aggressively marketed by “ambulance-chasing” claims firms with leaflets circulated in hospitals bearing unauthorised NHS logos. New laws were implemented to regulate the claims companies, but there has been mounting concern about the bonanza it has produced for lawyers.

Privacy warning from founder of the internet

2009-03-16T15:27:00.007Z

The creator of the world-wide web has warned against the collection of users’ data by commercial organisations. Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that third parties, including companies and governments, should not be allowed to snoop on the public's browsing of the internet.

He told a meeting at Westminster “We use the internet without a thought that a third party would know what we have clicked on. But the URLs people use reveal a huge amount about their lives, loves, hates and fears. This is extremely sensitive information."

He said that people would consider using the web at a moment of crisis in a different light if users knew that they were being monitored and the data would be shared with a third party such as an advertising agency. “This information is very sensitive. I feel it should not be collected,” he added.

Sir Tim said that businesses would initially insist that information was being collected only for a limited purpose but he said that they would be under enormous pressure to release it. “Once it exists, it can be used by the company or by an insider.”

Speaking at a meeting in Westminster to discuss the commercial use of data on the internet, he concluded “It should not be collected in the first place.”

There have already been trials monitoring the internet use of about 30,000 people to send adverts tailored to each users’ search interests. However this development of advertising based on consumers’ internet usage is alarming privacy campaigners.

Dame Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at Southampton University, appealed to Parliament to protect internet users’ privacy. “There are lots of good reasons why companies and government want access to our data but there are huge downsides to that,” she said. “This debate is about our digital lives. It is about who we are, what we are interested in and what is private to us.”

Lawyers march for democracy in Pakistan

2009-03-13T13:43:00.005Z

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Pakistan yesterday as authorities extended their clampdown on demonstrators seeking to march to the capital.

In a move that highlighted the government's determination to prevent thousands of lawyers and political opponents from gathering in Islamabad, police in Karachi detained a number of senior figures. Having initially allowed several hundred lawyers to begin their march from the centre of the city, they then prevented them from entering the main highway.

Earlier, outside the city's high court, police clashed with lawyers and members of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, which has backed the campaign. Police and paramilitaries used batons to break up a crowd of protesters.

The lawyers are determined to force the reinstatement of the country's former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was ousted in 2007 by the then president Pervez Musharraf. But the dispute over the march is increasingly becoming a conflict between the new government, headed by the President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the rival Pakistan Muslim League-N, (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif.

In the aftermath of elections last year, the parties of Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari joined forces to create a coalition government. But Mr Sharif, a former prime minister, resigned after Mr Zardari appeared to renege on an undertaking to reinstate Mr Chaudhry. Mr Sharif has since been banned from standing for elected office by the Supreme Court, while his brother, Shahbaz, was forced to stand down as chief minister of the country's largest province, Punjab.

Yesterday, as foreign diplomats and the leaders of other parties shuttled between meetings with the PPP and PML-N, it was reported that Mr Zardari was considering offering some sort of compromise to Mr Sharif. Among those said to be in contact with the president was the Obama administration's regional envoy, Richard Holbrooke.

Climate scientists warn that world is heading for war of the resources

2009-03-09T14:27:00.003Z

There is a 50-50 chance of temperature rises reaching dangerous levels over the next century, climate scientists have warned.

Even with heavy cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 3 per cent a year from 2015, the chance of preventing the temperature rise from exceeding 2C by 2050 is no more than half. And every decade's delay in reducing emissions will cause temperatures to go up by half a degree.

European leaders have made a commitment to limiting rises to 2C because anything above that is expected to damage people's lives and the environment. A 2C increase would in itself cause more heat waves and droughts, many of which could be worse than the 2003 heat wave, which killed thousands of people across Europe.

The warning by researchers at the Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, will be made this week at a conference in Copenhagen, which is being held in preparation for a United Nations summit in the city in December, when world leaders will try to agree how to cut gas emissions enough to control climate change.

Scientists fear that temperature rises above 2C would lead to wars over key resources, including water supplies, falls in crop yields in southern Europe and the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Almost a third of animal and plant species could become extinct. Warm-water corals are among the species most at risk; animals that will struggle to survive include polar bears and emperor penguins.

Fringe

2009-03-04T15:25:00.012Z

From J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new series that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between the possible and the impossible.

When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport with no signs of life, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is called in to investigate as part of an inter-agency task force. After her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), our generation's Einstein. There's only one catch: he's been institutionalized for the last 17 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson) in to help.

When Olivia's investigation leads to multi-billion dollar corporation Massive Dynamic and its manipulative corporate executive, Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), our unlikely trio, along with Department of Homeland Security Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) and FBI Agents Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole), will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

The Fringe pilot is directed by Emmy Award-winning Alex Graves ("The West Wing"), and the series is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Bad Robot Productions. J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk serve as executive producers.

Australian mass whale beaching inquiry

2009-03-03T21:58:00.006Z

Conservationists are demanding an immediate and thorough inquiry into what they say is the suspicious stranding of 200 whales and dolphins. Fears that the mass stranding on an Australian beach on Sunday was caused by human disturbance were raised because two species of cetacean came ashore simultaneously.

Most of the animals were pilot whales, but a number of bottlenose dolphins were also among the pod. Residents joined wildlife workers to spend hours keeping the surviving animals wet and cool before they could be lifted, pushed and hauled back into the water.

The rescue operation succeeded in saving 54 pilot whales and five dolphins on Naracoopa Beach on King Island, Tasmania. Most of the beached animals were dead by the time anyone could reach them.

Mark Simmonds, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and an expert on cetacean strandings, said that two species coming ashore together was enough to arouse suspicions of a human factor, including the use of sonar by the military.

Another prime suspect among the possible causes is climate change, which scientists fear may be causing whales and dolphins to get close to unfamiliar coastlines.

What if a stranger could read your mind?

2009-03-02T10:57:00.006Z

It sounds like science fiction, but politicians, lawyers and advertisers are falling over themselves to buy into the latest scientific discovery: brainjacking. Soon our secret desires and not so innocent thoughts could become public knowledge.

It’s a neat party trick, but it is also a Pandora’s box: across the world, scientists are using this kind of technology to prise open our minds, to fathom our voting preferences, our guilty thoughts, our shopping desires, even the words we are thinking. Already their activities are stealthily changing our world.

Amid all the scientific gadgetry and research, sceptics argue that brain-reading systems are not yet sufficiently developed to be of real use in any field. But in fact, that doesn’t matter: the prospects are far too tantalising. Companies are already marketing the technology as a way to penetrate the last frontier of exploration – the space between our ears. Lawyers, military chiefs, advertisers and politicians are eagerly buying. Welcome to the world of brainjacking, where science fiction is happening now.

But most commercial attention is fixed on the premise that brain-scanning can divine truth from falsehood. Dr Steven Laken, the founder of Cephos, a company using fMRI-based lie detection, says more than 300 people have already been tested in the company’s scanner at Framingham, Massachusetts. Laken believes that American judges are on the verge of making scanning tests admissible – despite questions over their accuracy. “We tell people that the test is not 100 per cent. Studies have shown that we are between 78 and 97 per cent accurate. So long as you tell a jury that, it still can be considered as evidence.”

Too far and too fast - the laws that make everyone a suspect

2009-02-28T11:41:00.003Z

Laws that allow officials to monitor the behaviour of millions of Britons risk “hardwiring surveillance” into the British way of life, the country's privacy watchdog has warned.

The Information Commissioner warned that proposals to allow widespread data sharing between Whitehall and the private sector were too far-reaching and that plans to create a giant database of every telephone call, e-mail and text message risked turning everyone into a suspect. “In the last 10 or 15 years a great deal of surveillance in public and private places has been extended without sufficient thought to the risks and consequences,” said Mr Thomas, 59. “Our society is based on liberty and democracy. I do not want to see excessive surveillance hardwired into British society.”

He criticised proposals going through Parliament to allow mass data sharing between government departments and the private sector. Campaigners have claimed that Section 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill would enable the transfer of health and tax records to private companies such as insurance firms and medical researchers.

His concern about the erosion of the right to privacy extends to social networking sites. People did not realise that information put on sites such as Facebook and MySpace could come “back to haunt them”, he said.

The Information Commissioner also added his voice to criticism of ContactPoint, a computer database containing details on every child in the country, car numberplate recording for up to five years and the DNA collective.

Atlantic sharks face extinction

2009-02-28T11:10:00.005Z

More than 25 per cent of sharks in the north-east Atlantic are at risk of extinction, a new study warns. Another 20 per cent have been put in the near-threatened category, according to research for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

And the figures may be an underestimate as there is insufficient data to assess more than a quarter – 27 per cent – of species. The IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG) who drew up the report said it should serve as a dire warning that more needs to be done to protect sharks.

Most of the damage is inflicted by overfishing and by sharks caught as a by-product either in nets or on long-lines. But sharks are being increasingly targeted by commercial fishermen for their fins which can fetch as much as £400 per kilo on the Asian food market.

Because sharks are long-lived and slow to mature they are not prolific breeders which makes them even more vulnerable to over-exploitation. Furthermore, due to their position at the top of the food chain they have a critical role in maintaining the balance of ocean ecosystems.

Major fault hits Nasa's first CO2 satellite on launch

2009-02-25T20:48:00.005Z

The first climate change monitoring satellite fired into orbit by Nasa this morning has suffered a major fault during its launch. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory was supposed to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide and study how that distribution changes over time. It is not yet known whether the issue will scupper the mission entirely.

A few minutes into its flight after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Taurus XL rocket, which was carrying the satellite, suffered the fault. The payload fairing, a protective shield designed to shelter the spacecraft from the intense heat and pressure generated during a space launch, failed to separate after it left the Earth’s atmosphere. Typically the payload fairing detaches from the launcher at a height of 120km.

It is Nasa’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide. In January, Japan launched a satellite on a similar mission. Carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving climate change.

Nasa launch commentator George Diller said the launch team has enacted its procedures to assess the situation and find out its cause. "We are still evaluating the status of the location and the exact state” of the spacecraft, he said.“We have not had a successful launch."

Cache of Ice Age fossils found in Los Angeles

2009-02-24T14:27:00.011Z

Scientists are studying a huge cache of Ice Age fossil deposits recovered near the famous La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of the nation's second-largest city.

Among the finds is a near-intact mammoth skeleton, a skull of an American lion and bones of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, bison, horses, ground sloths and other mammals.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer. The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks, were in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.

"It's like a paleontological Christmas," research team member Andie Thomer wrote in a blog post in July.

Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned?

2009-02-24T13:37:00.004Z

Is it possible to cultivate genius? Could we somehow structure our educational and social life to produce more Einsteins and Mozarts — or, more urgently these days, another Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes?

How to produce genius is a very old question, one that has occupied philosophers since antiquity. In the modern era, Immanuel Kant and Darwin's cousin Francis Galton wrote extensively about how genius occurs.

The latest, and possibly most comprehensive, entry into this genre is Dean Keith Simonton's new book Genius 101: Creators, Leaders, and Prodigies. Simonton, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, is one of the world's leading authorities on the intellectually eminent, whom he has studied since his Harvard grad-school days in the 1970s.

For most of its history, the debate over what leads to genius has been dominated by a bitter, binary argument: is it nature or is it nurture — is genius genetically inherited, or are geniuses the products of stimulating and supportive homes?

Personality traits also matter. Simonton writes that geniuses tend to be "open to experience, introverted, hostile, driven, and ambitious." These traits too are inherited — but only partly. They're also shaped by environment.

Too often, writers don't nail down exactly what they mean by genius. Simonton tries, with this thorough, slightly ponderous, definition: Geniuses are those who "have the intelligence, enthusiasm, and endurance to acquire the needed expertise in a broadly valued domain of achievement" and who then make contributions to that field that are considered by peers to be both "original and highly exemplary."

Scientists expect to create life in next 10 years

2009-02-24T13:21:00.003Z

This photo shows vesicles, artificial membranes for cells, made from scratch. Teams around the world are trying to create synthetic life in a lab.

“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it,” said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. “We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”

One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months, scientists will report evidence that the first steps of "wet artificial life" are possible.

Several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

30 Rock

2009-02-23T00:19:00.005Z

30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that currently airs on NBC. The series takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy series depicted as airing on NBC; the name "30 Rock" refers to the GE Building where NBC Studios is located and which has the address "30 Rockefeller Plaza". The series has an ensemble cast that currently consists of 10 regular cast members, including Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander and Alec Baldwin.

30 Rock has been a critical success, winning several major awards including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series both in 2007 and 2008, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series, the Producers Guild of America Award for Producer of the Year in Episodic Comedy Series, and a Peabody Award, as well as achieving the top ranking on myriad critics' year-end best of 2006 and 2007 lists. On January 15, 2009, NBC renewed 30 Rock for the 2009–2010 season.

Solitary Endeavour on the Southern Ocean

2009-02-22T17:23:00.006Z

In 2006, Andrew McAuley left his job to dedicate himself to becoming the first person to get from Australia to New Zealand by kayak. This documentary resists painting its subject as a hero, as he embarks on his first attempt, the footage of his wife, Vicki, weeping and his son yelling "Bye, Daddy" becomes not so much poignant as infuriating. "I've got a boy who needs a father and a wife who needs a husband, and I'm wondering what I'm doing." And the viewer can only agree. His wife, however, bears him no resentment: "He made it. Anyone who says otherwise can get stuffed. He made it."

After a month at sea, and only one day away from success, he sent a distress signal. His empty kayak was found only 30 miles from shore. His body was not recovered, but the tapes from his cameras were. This film examines the mystery surrounding the exact circumstances of Andrew's disappearance.

Hooray for Pancake Day!

2009-02-20T12:39:00.007Z

When it comes down to it, what exactly is a pancake? I know what kind we’ll be eating on Tuesday. I’ll get out my trusty Delia recipe and will beat up 275ml milk, 110g flour and two large eggs (before panicking and doubling the recipe, because you have to allow for gluttony on Shrove Tuesday). Then I’ll cook it into lacy crêpes (discarding the first one) and we’ll all have a feast – with Nutella for my daughter, jam for my son and lemon and sugar for the grown-ups.

Instead of worrying about how to define pancakes, maybe we should just seize the day and make some. As the poet Christina Rossetti once wrote, 'Mix a pancake, / Stir a pancake, / Pop it in the pan; / Fry the pancake; / Toss the pancake, / Catch it if you can.’

Dee Caffari sticks to task and sets record

2009-02-17T12:22:00.005Z

Dee Caffari limped across the finish line of the Vendée Globe in Les Sables d’Olonne with the mainsail on Aviva held together with glue yesterday to become the first woman to sail solo, nonstop around the world in both directions.

The former PE teacher from Hertfordshire, who in 2006 became the first woman to sail single-handed nonstop around the world the “wrong” way – against the prevailing winds and currents – crossed the line in sixth place after 99 gruelling days at sea.

“My goal was to set the double world first and Aviva and I have done it" Caffari said.

Damages - Season 2

2009-02-16T12:49:00.005Z

The series follows the turbulent lives of Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the nation's most revered and reviled high-stakes litigator and her bright, ambitious young protégé Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne).

After her unprecedented victory over billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), Patty Hewes has the legal world at her feet. Just as she's pondering her next move, Daniel Purcell (William Hurt), a man from Patty's mysterious past, storms back into her life, catapulting Patty into a new legal challenge. What starts as a domestic murder case, escalates into the highest reaches of government as Patty unearths a vast conspiracy.

At the same time, Ellen is on a mission to take down Patty. She's agreed to act as an informant for the FBI, assisting them in their criminal investigation of Patty and the firm. As Patty unravels the mystery surrounding Daniel Purcell, she must also negotiate the perilous minefield both inside and outside her office.

DAMAGES was created by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman who also serve as executive producers, writers and showrunners. The series is produced by KZK Productions, FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

Discovery Channel: Planet In Peril

2009-02-16T12:44:00.004Z

You've heard the dire warnings and seen the detailed slide shows, and you've even bought that energy efficient light bulb. You wonder, though, how can small, individual measures like switching to compact flourescent lightbulbs and using canvas shopping bags in lieu of plastic be enough to save the planet? Tune in to Ways to Save the Planet and watch as some of the world's leading scientists put the most ambitious geo-engineering ideas to the test in order to tackle global climate change.

Working with the uncompromising visionaries whose large-scale experiments will be featured on the programme is the Ways to Save the Planet task force. Members of the task force include Jennifer Languell, an eco-house-building engineer for whom no task is too daunting; Basil Singer, a scientific boy wonder who, at 29, has a doctorate in astrophysics and builds robots for a living; and finally, Kevin O'Leary, a billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist who can fund the impossible.

See what happens when "what if?" meets "why not?" Ways To Save The Planet re-engineers the planet's possibilities and literally spans the globe, pinpointing areas of both concern and opportunity in confronting climate change. Here are brief descriptions of the experiments that will be highlighted by the series.

First 3D image of exploding star

2009-02-16T11:20:00.003Z

The remains of an exploding star have been reconstructed in a 3D image for the first time, say scientists. Astronomers, including one at Cardiff University, used medical imaging techniques to help create the hologram of Cassiopeia A.

Dr Haley Gomez, from the university's physics and astronomy school, said it provided "an amazing insight into the original explosion of the star". The image shows disc-shaped jets came out from the star as it exploded.

Astronomers knew that plumes and jets emerged from stars but the broad, disc-like structure is a new discovery. The international team used x-ray images and infrared data to create the visualisation and get a more complete understanding of the explosion.

Cassiopeia A is a supernova remnant, the debris from a star that blew itself apart some 11,000 light-years from Earth. The light from the explosion is thought to have first arrived at Earth about 330 years ago.

Channel 4 - The Sunday Night Project

2009-02-13T19:17:00.011Z

The entertainment series, which in its previous Friday Night incarnation won the Rose D'Or for the best variety programme in 2006, returns for another Sunday run with presenters Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr at the helm.

In tonight's repeated show Lily Allen joins Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr for the final programme in the current series. Harry Enfield - who is Lily's stepfather - and Celebrity Big Brother's Coolio join the boys for the 'Who Knows the Most About the Guest Host' quiz.

The best bits from whole series are available via free catch-up on the Channel 4 website.

Satellite collision highlights growing threat

2009-02-13T12:01:00.006Z

The collision between a US and Russian satellite in space highlights the growing importance of monitoring objects in orbit. It also shows that there are still significant capability gaps in current systems set up for this task.

There are about 17,000 man-made objects above 10cm in size that orbit Earth, 217,000 larger than 1cm, with tens of millions under 1cm - and the tally is constantly increasing. This in turn raises the risk of collisions between objects. Nevertheless, some say the incident was extremely unusual.

Although there have been some near-misses and a few minor collisions, this is the first time two intact satellites have crashed into each other. However 28,000 satellites have been sent into space since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, with 9000 remaining in orbit, and only 6% still functioning. Another ecological disaster waiting to happen?

Egypt Discovers 2,600 Year-old Mummy at Saqqara Burial Site

2009-02-13T11:11:00.006Z

Egyptian archaeologists discovered a fully preserved mummy in the ancient burial site of Saqqara 30 kilometers south of Cairo after opening a 2,600 year-old Pharaohnic limestone sarcophagus. The mummy, dating from the 26th dynasty of ancient Egypt, is believed to contain gold amulets, Zahi Hawass, the country’s chief archaeologist, said in a statement.

The find was made in a burial chamber 11 meters under the ground and contained another 30 mummies, wooden coffins and limestone sarcophagi, Hawass said. Among the remains was a mummified dog that was probably placed by its owner to accompany him to the afterlife.

Egyptian archaeologists think only 30 percent of ancient monuments in Saqqara have been discovered, according to the statement. The main step-pyramid at Saqqara of King Djoser is almost fully intact and is often visited by tourists along with the pyramids of Giza nearby.

See the BBC filming here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7883914.stm

BBC: Quite Interesting (QI)

2009-02-12T12:40:00.005Z

Quite Interesting - or 'QI' to its friends - could loosely be described as a comedy panel quiz.

However, none of the stellar line-up of comedians is expected to be able to answer any questions, and if anyone ends up with a positive score, they can be very happy with their performance.

Points are awarded for being interesting or funny (and, very occasionally, right) but points are deducted for answers which merely repeat common misconceptions and urban myth. (Alan Davies has turned this aspect of the game into somewhat of an artform.) It's okay to be wrong - but don't be obviously, boringly wrong. In this way, QI tries to rid the world of the flotsam of nonsense and old wives' tales that can build up in your mind.

QI is hosted by Supreme Fiendish Question Master, 33rd Degree, Stephen Fry who wields autocratic power over the scores. Stephen's task is to gently encourage his guests to search for answers, avoid urban myths and reach deep into their comedic pockets to entertain us.

'If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people in the world?' Stephen Fry.

FX Signals New Era With Sketch Show

2009-02-12T09:32:00.003Z

FoxInsider reports: Boy, isn’t FX breaking out of the box at the moment? Not content with showing quality first run US dramas but now they are making top shows as well! There’s a new British satirical sketch show coming your way, in 2009, called 'No Signal' and it’s gonna be a stonker.

Nothing will be safe as it will poke fun at all things TV from documentaries to the news channels and of course reality TV. There's skits like America’s Next Serial Killer, where 14 crazies compete to win the title; and a Pimp My Wife one with DJ Spoony that will have you in hysterics. With stand- up comic Pete Cain putting ink to paper, this show is gonna be the balls. You heard it here first!

Check out some Pete Cain here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sMG6Tq7BqpY

Plight of the humble bee

2009-02-11T13:56:00.007Z

Native British bees are dying out — and we may have less than a decade to save them and avert catastrophe. So why is nothing being done?

And that is the thin end of the long-term catastrophe that now stares us in the face. You take one brick out of the ecological wall, others crumble around it. Then more crumble, on and on until the edifice collapses. Ecologists call it an extinction vortex. You lose bees, you lose plants. Then the birds and animals that depend on them and on each other, all the way up the food chain. But never mind animals — if you stretch the process far enough, you’re talking about humans.

Anyone keen to help the bumblebee should visit the Trust website (www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk ), telephone on 01786 467818 or write to BBCT, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA.

NME Awards 2009

2009-02-10T23:32:00.003Z

Get the latest news, pictures, videos and blogs from the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 - the music awards voted by you.

The Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 nominees have been announced. Your votes have been counted and the shortlists now need your vote to decide the winners.

The Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 will take place at London's Brixton Academy on February 25 followed by the incredible Big Gig at the O2 Arena on February 26, headlined by our Godlike Genius award winners The Cure.

The Mysterious Underwater Ruins of the Lost World in Yonaguni

2009-02-10T11:38:00.006Z

The real attraction of these islands is the submerged ruins that you find off the southern coast of Yonaguni. A superb 100×50x25 meter man-made artifact made of solid rock slabs stands erect at right angles. Its age is estimated to be around 8000 years old, which is remarkably early for the kind of technology that has been used for carving it. Different theories exist about the possible identities of this structure.

While some opine that these ruins are the remnants of the missing Continent of Mu, other archeologists attribute them to be the outcome of unexplained geological processes. Although when you see the finely designed hallways and staircases, this ‘natural phenomenon’ idea appears misplaced. Closer observation reveals inscriptions upon the walls and a series of holes that may be the handiwork of extra-terrestrials.

IBM Readies Monster Supercomputer

2009-02-10T11:22:00.008Z

The machine, dubbed 'Sequoia' should also have peacetime applications, namely weather forecasting or oil exploration. And the ability to conduct multi-scale science simulations would also allow, say, the pharmaceutical industry to simulate the effect of drugs on the human body, or by Wall Street to simulate the impact of events on the stock market.

IBM has a rich history in the supercomputer sector, and has been building supercomputers for more than 50 years now. It dominates the Top 500 supercomputer rankings, and Big Blue believes that the 20-petaflop computing power of Sequoia will be so powerful, it will exceed the combined systems of every machine on the Top 500.

The Sequoia machine is slated for delivery sometime in 2011. IBM did not reveal what it would cost, although one can safely assume that if you need to know the price, you almost certainly couldn't afford it.

Three New Species Discovered On Deep-sea Voyage

2009-02-10T10:35:00.006Z

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an international team of collaborators have returned from a month-long deep-sea voyage to a marine reserve near Tasmania, Australia, that not only netted coral-reef samples likely to provide insight into the impact of climate change on the world's oceans, but also brought to light at least three never-before-seen species of sea life.

Up until now, the area of the reef the scientists were exploring--called the Tasman Fracture Zone--had only been explored to a depth of 1,800 meters (more than 5,900 feet). Using Jason - a remotely operated submersible, the researchers on this trip were able to reach as far down as 4,000 meters (well over 13,000 feet).

"We set out to search for life deeper than any previous voyage in Australian waters," notes scientist Ron Thresher from CSIRO's Climate Adaptation and Wealth from Oceans Flagships.

The cruise's lead scientist, Caltech's Jess Adkins explains "It was truly one of those transcendent moments,"... "In one sense, the deep ocean is less explored than Mars," he adds. "So every time you go to look down there you see new things, magical things."

Channel 4: Dispatches - Too old to work?

2009-02-09T15:42:00.003Z

With the number of unemployed people in the UK nudging two million, Dispatches reveals the ageism rife amongst employers and recruitment agencies. Is the job market a level playing field for job seekers of all ages?

The investigation reveals that being "older" - even just over 45-years-old - is a risk in the workplace. Older workers are more likely to lose their jobs and fail to secure another position. Dispatches looks at the challenges facing older job seekers and how the mandatory retirement age, introduced in 2006, has forced tens of thousands out of their positions, against their will. The film also features the results of two exclusive YouGov surveys on attitudes towards older workers and the effects forced retirement can have on those still wanting to work.

The Brit Awards 2009

2009-02-09T12:16:00.005Z

The voting for the British Single has now re-opened. Round 1 is now over and each day this week up until to Friday 13 February 2009 you can vote to save your favourite single.

During this period one single will be eliminated from the list each day until there are 5 remaining singles, which will then be entered into Round Seven. For full voting instructions and dates and times of each round go to the Brit Awards website 'vote' section.

The 51st GRAMMY Awards 2009

2009-02-06T23:40:00.012Z

Celebrating music through the Grammy Awards for more than 50 years, on February 8th The Recording Academy continues its rich legacy and ongoing growth, as the premier outlet for honoring achievements in the recording arts and supporting the music community.

The Grammys are the only peer-presented award to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.

Catch the live Grammy week action on CBS, the Grammy website or via their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

200 years on, Darwin's legacy is in the tech we use daily

2009-02-06T15:33:00.004Z

With the 12th of February marking 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin, much is rightly being written about his profound impact on biology.

Less appreciated has been his impact on the world of digital technology, particularly computing and robotics. Here are five ways Darwin's influence extends into tech: Genetic algorithms, Video games design, Robotics, Engineering, Aerospace.

UKTV: The Eden Channel

2009-02-06T14:39:00.003Z

One amazing world. One amazing channel. Discover more about the world you live in with their quizzes, photo galleries and fact files. For the very best in all things natural history, you will find your favourite programmes here, from Blue Planet to Edge of Existence, presented by amongst others David Attenborough, Ray Mears, Donal MacIntyre and Bruce Parry.

BBC Watchdog: Know your rights, have your say!

2009-02-06T14:14:00.008Z

It's a lively interactive multi-platform offering that investigates consumer issues on behalf of viewers, highlights consumers' rights, exposes scams and bad industry practice. The weekly 30-minute consumer-led television programme on BBC One is presented by Nicky Campbell, Julia Bradbury and Paul Heiney. Content is generated by some viewers via their website, text, phone and letters.

Driverless, Electric Taxis Set for UAE Debut

2009-02-06T12:01:00.003Z

When you think United Arab Emirates, chances are you think oil, especially in the wake of last year's overwhelming gas prices. But, the area is trying to change its image by creating a gasoline-free town called Masdar City that will be a futuristic and environmentally-friendly destination. City planners recently unveiled plans for a new way for people to get where they're going: electric taxis that will lack drivers.

The streets of Masdar City are said to be entirely free of traditional cars, so these podcars will be the only way of getting around short of taking a train, riding a bike, or just walking. These cars, and the other means of transportation, will actually be situated below ground, and while they will have batteries, they'll run on a grid that will restrict the places they can travel somewhat. The idea is you'd swipe an access card, be greeted by name, and then be silently whisked away to your destination -- or close to it, at least. Total Recall springs to mind!

Unnatural selection: Robots start to evolve

2009-02-06T11:08:00.004Z

Living creatures took millions of years to evolve from amphibians to four-legged mammals - with larger, more complex brains to match. Now an evolving robot has performed a similar trick in hours, thanks to a software "brain" that automatically grows in size and complexity as its physical body develops.

Existing robots cannot usually cope with physical changes - the addition of a sensor or new type of limb, say - without a complete redesign of their control software, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

So artificial intelligence engineer Christopher MacLeod and his colleagues at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, created a robot that adapts to such changes by mimicking biological evolution. Terminator 5 here we come?

NASA: Green Comet Approaches Earth

2009-02-05T11:35:00.008Z

The comet makes its closest approach to Earth (0.41 AU) on Feb. 24, 2009. Current estimates peg the maximum brightness at 4th or 5th magnitude, which means dark country skies would be required to see it. No one can say for sure, however, because this appears to be Lulin's first visit to the inner solar system and its first exposure to intense sunlight. So surprises are possible.

Lulin's green color comes from the gases that make up its Jupiter-sized atmosphere. Jets spewing from the comet's nucleus contain cyanogen (a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon. Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space. So no Kryptonite to worry Superman here then!

Extinct Ibex Resurrected by Cloning… then Goes Extinct Again

2009-02-05T11:29:00.004Z

Scientists succeeded for the first time in achieving the holy grail of conservation: bringing to life an extinct animal through cloning. For seven minutes.

The success, albeit brief, is spurring scientists and conservationists alike to imagine some wild possibilities. Can extinct species–say, the dodo or even the woolly mammoth–be brought back into their natural habitats through cloning and if so should they. Remind you of Jurassic Park?

TED Conference 2009

2009-02-04T12:24:00.003Z

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and re-posted.

The History of Valentine's Day

2009-02-04T10:20:00.003Z

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.

However did you know its international and regional origins of leaving sweets and presents for children, remembering your friends or being the first sign of spring?

The British Academy Film Awards 2009

2009-02-03T23:49:00.006Z

The Orange British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 8 February 2009 at the Royal Opera House in London to celebrate the very best in film.

Catch the nominations, films and video clips of the ceremony on the BAFTA website.

Comic Relief 2009

2009-02-03T21:32:00.005Z

Since 1985, Comic Relief has inspired the nation to have a laugh while raising cash to help change lives. Their vision is a just world, free from poverty.

The money you raise gets spent by Comic relief to help poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people turn their lives around across Africa, throughout the world's poorest countries and closer to home here in the UK.

Click on the title or graphic to get involved and donate via their website!

Britain hit by worst snow in 20 years

2009-02-02T13:15:00.002Z

The most widespread snowfall for almost 20 years has brought widespread disruption across Britain today with up to 10 inches falling even in the South East. Business leaders are braced for a wave of absenteeism which they fear could cost the economy £600 million a day.

Blizzards have closed roads and forced some train companies to cancel all services. In London no buses are running and some tube lines are closed. Stansted airport has had to shut its runway. Forecasters are warning that the weather will get worse this afternoon, with further snowfall overnight. Temperatures will drop to 21F (-6C).

What Will Replace The Internet?

2009-02-02T12:27:00.004Z

First it will become wireless and ubiquitous, crawling into the woodwork and perhaps even under our skin. Eventually, it will disappear.

The Internet seems to have just arrived, so how can we possibly imagine what will replace it? In truth, early versions of the Net have been around since the 1960s and '70s, but only after the mid-1990s did it begin to have a serious public impact. Since 1994, the population of users has grown from about 13 million to more than 300 million around the world. About half are in North America, and most--despite significant progress in rolling out high-speed access--still reach the Internet by way of the public telephone network.

Global Health at a Discount

2009-02-02T11:20:00.005Z

Seven so-called neglected diseases just became a little less neglected. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has just announced a new $34 million grant in support of a global network that aims to slash rates of easily treatable infectious diseases that affect as many as 1.4 billion poor people.

Google Ocean: mysteries of the seafloor are mapped for the first time

2009-02-02T09:53:00.002Z

Since Google Earth launched in 2006 millions of people have used its virtual globe to "travel" around the planet without leaving home, climbing a digital version of Mount Everest and even flying into space thanks to the website.

Now the internet company plans to take on one of the last bastions of the unknown: the depths of the ocean. At a high-profile event in San Francisco, Google is expected to announce the addition of vast amounts of underwater imagery and seabed maps to the Google Earth project. The move will take Google Earth closer to its aim of creating a complete digital representation of the planet.

Financial jargon? We're all none the wiser

2009-01-30T11:35:00.005Z

So-called financial experts have been found wanting, but do any of us know what all those money terms actually mean?

The Times Online provides a very humorous look at people's understanding of these mystical terms. Why not add your comments to their debate!

World Economic Forum 2009

2009-01-29T17:11:00.009Z

Political and financial leaders from around the world have gathered in the Swiss Alps for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. This year's overall theme is called 'Shaping the post-crisis world'.

The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, took centre stage on the first day of the conference. Other interesting attendees include Kofi Annan, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Clinton.

Let us hope their motto of 'entrepreneurship in the global public interest' pays off. In any case, catch up on or join the live debate via YouTube or indeed Twitter.

The South Bank Show Awards 2009

2009-01-28T22:45:00.005Z

Melvyn Bragg hosts the South Bank Show Awards in front of a star studded audience at The Dorchester Hotel, London.

Now in its 13th year, the annual awards show is the only awards show in the world to reflect the strength of British talent and achievement across the spectrum of the arts including, Classical Music, Comedy, Dance, Film, Literature, Opera, Pop, Theatre, TV Drama and Visual Arts.

Bremner, Bird And Fortune: Silly Money

2009-01-28T22:09:00.005Z

Rory Bremner joins the two Johns - Bird and Fortune - to crank up the satirical joke machine and pour scorn on The Establishment. Razor sharp political satire that bites the hands that bleed.

Series 15 sees Bremner, Bird and Fortune's final satirical look at the global financial system in all its astonishing sophistication and stupidity.

Good news everyone!

2009-01-28T16:18:00.018Z

I've invented a device which makes you read this in your head, in my voice.

Zimbabwe: Over 2000+ Dead But No Mainstream Media Coverage

2009-01-28T15:47:00.004Z

It's easily the worst humanitarian crisis right now: 5 million people (almost half the population) need food aid. More than 2200 people have died in a cholera outbreak. Unemployment at more than 80%. Central bank introduced Z$100tr note. Remind you of the Gaza Appeal?

YouTube users caught in Warner Music spat

2009-01-28T15:03:00.004Z

On YouTube, Vidal posted a humorous video tribute to John Williams, the man who scored the soundtracks for such blockbuster films as Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. In his clip he included some of Williams' music. By now, everybody knows that YouTube removes videos that violate copyright law. What's different about Vidal's work getting pulled is that when he posted it in October, he was permitted to use Warner's music.

Until last month, YouTube had an agreement with Warner Music--one of the four largest recording companies--that allowed video creators to include the label's content in their clips. Last month, talks to renew the deal broke down and that means YouTube and its users no longer have access to Warner's library. For this reason, the case is much different than YouTube's high-profile fight with Viacom or run-of-the-mill piracy that once flourished on the site.

Best of Sundance 2009

2009-01-28T11:19:00.004Z

"Push: Based on a novel by Sapphire"

Exactly the kind of discovery that film festivals are made for, this powerful tale of a 16-year-old girl (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) struggling under the harshest conditions features incredible performances from a completely unexpected cast—Paula Patton (pictured), Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and a seriously Oscar-worthy Mo'Nique (who won a special fest prize for her performance).

A deserving winner of both Sundance's dramatic competition jury prize and audience award.

Global Warming Is Irreversible, Study Says

2009-01-28T11:08:00.004Z

Climate change is essentially irreversible, according to a sobering new scientific study.

As carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, the world will experience more and more long-term environmental disruption. The damage will persist even when, and if, emissions are brought under control, says study author Susan Solomon, who is among the world's top climate scientists.

It's snowing on Mars

2009-01-27T13:26:00.003Z

Or at least in the sky above it. This is just one extraordinary piece of information being sent back to us by the landers, probes and rovers scanning the planet. Home to the largest mountain in the solar system and a canyon as long as the US is wide, it is a world as fantastic as any imagined by JG Ballard.

High in the sky above Mars, it is snowing right now. Very gently snowing. The snow does not settle on the rubble-strewn land below - not these days, anyway - but instead vaporises into the thin atmosphere long before it reaches the ground.

The Top 10 Everything of 2008 - Time.com

2009-01-26T15:39:00.007Z

Top 10 Political Lines... Top 10 Scientific Discoveries... Top 10 Religion Stories...Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs... Top 10 Green Ideas...Top 10 Crime Stories... And much more!

RIAA Fears 'Manipulation' of Courtroom Web Broadcast

2009-01-26T14:36:00.002Z

The Recording Industry Association of America is objecting to the webcasting of pretrial arguments in an upcoming file-sharing trial.

The RIAA claims that the re-runs "will be readily subject to editing and manipulation by any reasonably tech-savvy individual."

That is among the arguments the RIAA is making in urging a federal appeals court to reverse a Massachusetts federal judge's order that would allow the pretrial broadcast this Thursday. The broadcast, assuming it goes forward, will include a Boston University student and his attorney challenging the RIAA's copyright infringement case. It is believed to be the first time a U.S. federal trial court has allowed a live internet stream from the courtroom.

ComScore: Internet Population Passes One Billion; Top 15 Countries

2009-01-26T13:59:00.004Z

The number of people on the Internet surpassed one billion in December, according to comScore. The actual number is probably higher than that (Internet World Stats counted nearly 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide as of June 30, 2008). In any case, only between 15 and 22 percent of the world’s population is on the Internet. We have a long way to go.

2009 Oscar Nominations

2009-01-26T12:47:00.006Z

The Oscar Gods have spoken and the nominations for 2009 Academy Awards have officially been announced. There are quite a few faces that we expected to see on the list as well as a few surprises.

Obama to launch Recovery.gov

2009-01-26T11:25:00.005Z

Obama continues his web outreach, announcing in his YouTube address that he will soon launch Recovery.gov, a site for tracking “how and where we spend taxpayer dollars”. Is this a new form of web-enabled transparency?

1929: The Great Crash

2009-01-24T16:07:00.004Z

A documentary exploring the causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, shares crashed by a third on the New York Stock Exchange. More than 25 billion dollars in individual wealth was lost. Later, three thousand banks failed, taking people's savings with them. Surviving eyewitnesses describe the biggest financial catastrophe in history.

Ross TV return is watched by 5.1m

2009-01-24T16:04:00.006Z

More than five million viewers tuned in to watch Jonathan Ross's return to TV following his three-month suspension by the BBC, early figures show.

At its peak, 5.1m people saw the star interview Hollywood actor Tom Cruise on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Ross's last chat show in October before his suspension was watched by 3.74m.

Panorama: What Now, Mr President?

2009-01-23T13:11:00.007Z

Barack Obama takes over as US President with a promise to dramatically change America and make it a fairer place. He is inheriting the worst economic crisis in almost a century, and a country so unequal that 23,000 people die every year because they cannot afford basic healthcare.

To close the gap between rich and poor Obama will have to take on the might of the corporate world, which wields enormous influence in Washington. Can he change the world's most powerful country, and should he?

Question Time: The Financial Crisis

2009-01-23T13:08:00.004Z

In the years since it was first broadcast on 25 September 1979, Question Time has become something of a national institution, offering British voters a unique opportunity to quiz top decision-makers on the events of the day.

David Dimbleby is the current host of the programme, building on the authority and approachability of his predecessors, Sir Robin Day and Peter Sissons.

Each year, some 30,000 members of the public apply to join the debate by being in the studio audience!

Obama: His Story

2009-01-20T19:41:00.017Z

BBC correspondent Clive Myrie traces the life story of America's first black president.

From Obama's broken home childhood in Hawaii, through his political awakening in the rough neighbourhoods of Chicago, to his arrival in Washington, Myrie follows the extraordinary journey that transformed the son of a Kenyan student into the most powerful man in the world!

650 Million Years in 1:20 Min

2009-01-19T14:57:00.007Z

This is a truly amazing Youtube video with complimentary soundtrack, which just goes to show how more things than we imagine go round in a circle!

BBC News - This Week

2009-01-16T13:25:00.010Z

For the hottest political gossip on TV, kick back and enjoy the late night vibe of BBC One's award-winning This Week. Punchy, irreverent, satirical: This Week brings you the big political stories of the week with a twist!

Letterman's Top 10 George Bush moments

2009-01-16T12:13:00.011Z

An amusing Youtube video of George W. Bush's best or is it worst bits, courtesy of The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Out with the old and in with the new eh!