New device to help deaf people read lips better

Researchers in MIT's Sensory Communication Group are trying to develop a new generation of tactile devices, which will translate sound waves into vibrations so that deaf people may feel them by their skin, and read lips more accurately.

This work attains significance considering the fact that lip-reading has a drawback: Certain consonants (for example, p and b) can be nearly impossible to distinguish by sight alone.

Once developed, the researchers say, the devices they are working on will particularly prove an important tool for deaf people who rely on lip reading, and can't use or afford cochlear implants.

"Most deaf people will not have access to that technology in our lifetime. Tactile devices can be several orders of magnitude cheaper than cochlear implants," said Ted Moallem, a graduate student working on the project.

In collaboration with Charlotte Reed, senior research scientist in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics, Moallem is developing a software programme that can be compatible with current smart phones, allowing such devices to be transformed into unobtrusive tactile aids for the deaf.

"Anyone who has a smart phone already has much of what they would need to run the programme," including a microphone, digital signal-processing capability, and a rudimentary vibration system, says Moallem.

The MIT researchers are testing devices that have at least two vibration ranges, one for high-frequency sounds and one for low-frequency sounds.

Moallem is of the opinion that such handheld devices may make it easier for deaf people to follow conversations than with lip reading alone, which requires a great deal of concentration.

"It's hard to have a casual conversation in a situation where you have to be paying attention like that," he says.

Current prototypes can be held in the user's hand or worn around the back of the neck, but once the acoustic processing software is developed, it could be easily incorporated into existing smart phones, according to the researchers.

With an eye on realising such applications, the research team are investigating the best way to transform sound waves into vibrations.

The MIT researchers hope to improve existing tactile aids, which have been in use for decades, by refining the acoustic signal processing systems to provide tactile cues that are tailored to boost lip-reading performance.

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Carthage, Tunisia

Carthage (ancient city) (Latin Carthago) great city of antiquity, on the northern coast of Africa, near modern Tunis, Tunisia. Dido was the legendary founder and queen of Carthage; the city was probably established as a trading post toward the end of the 9th century BC by Phoenicians. The earliest artifacts unearthed by archaeologists at the site date from 800 BC. The city was known to its Punic or Phoenician inhabitants as the “new city,” probably to distinguish it from Utica, the “old city.” Built on a peninsula jutting into the Gulf of Tunis, Carthage had two splendid harbors, connected by a canal. Above the harbors on a hill was the Byrsa, a walled fortress.

By the subjugation of the Libyan tribes and by the annexation of older Phoenician colonies, Carthage in the 6th century BC controlled the entire North African coast from the Atlantic Ocean to the western border of Egypt, as well as Sardinia, Malta, the Balearic Islands, and part of Sicily. A Carthaginian admiral, Hanno, made a voyage along the Atlantic coast of North Africa.

The maritime power of the Carthaginians enabled them to extend their settlements and conquests, forming a scattered empire devoted to commerce. Among the commercial enterprises were the mining of silver and lead; the manufacture of beds and bedding; a lumber industry in the Atlas Mountains; the production of simple, cheap pottery, jewelry, and glassware for trade; and the export of wild animals from African jungles, of fruits and nuts, and of ivory and gold.

Carthage produced little art. Most of the work of the Carthaginians was imitative of Egyptian, Greek, and Phoenician originals. In literature only a few technical works appeared. Thus, little is known of the everyday life of Carthage, its government, or its language. Religion in Carthage involved human sacrifice to the principal gods, Baal and Tanit, the equivalent of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. The Greek gods Demeter and Persephone and the Roman goddess Juno were adapted to later religious patterns of the Carthaginians.

Carthage engaged in war almost continually with Greece and with Rome for 150 years. Wars with Greece, beginning in 409 BC, concerned the control of Sicily, which lay only about 160 km (about 100 mi) from Carthage and formed a natural bridge between North Africa and Italy. Carthage first en armies under the command of the Syracusan tyrants Dionysius the Younger, Dionysius the Elder, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. After their final defeat in 276 BC, the Carthaginians contincountered defeat in Sicily in 480 BC, when the Carthaginian general Hamilcar (flourished 5th century BC) commanded a force that hoped to expand Carthaginian influence throughout Sicily, but was defeated by Gelon, the tyrant (ruler) of Syracuse. Further Carthaginian attempts to conquer Sicily were thwarted byued to hold territory in Sicily; 12 years later the first of the Punic Wars against Rome began.

The First Punic War (264-241 BC) brought to the fore the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca. Defeated in Sicily, Hamilcar invaded Spain. His conquests in southern Spain were completed by his son-in-law Hasdrubal and by his son Hannibal. Carthage ceded its holdings in Sicily to Rome after the final Roman victory at the Aegates Islands. During the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), Hannibal marched eastward along the northern shore of the Mediterranean from Spain and finally crossed the Alps into Italy.

Hannibal's final defeat, however, resulted in the loss of Spain and various island possessions of Carthage. In the Third Punic War (149-146 BC), the Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus destroyed the city of Carthage. In a final gesture of contempt, the Romans spread salt over the ruins. The victors thus fulfilled the wish of the Roman statesman Cato the Elder.

Occupancy of the site was forbidden for 25 years. In 122 BC a new city, Colonia Junonia, was founded; it lasted only 30 years. In 46 BC Julius Caesar visited the site and proclaimed that a city should be built there. His wishes were fulfilled by the Roman emperor Augustus, in 29 BC, when a city called Colonia Julia Carthago was founded. This new city flourished until, according to some historians, it was second only to Rome in prosperity and administrative importance. Roman Carthage also became a center of Christianity, being the seat of a bishop from late in the 2nd century. St. Cyprian was bishop there in 248; Tertullian, a Christian ecclesiastical writer, lived and worked in Carthage in the 3rd century; and St. Augustine was bishop of nearby Hippo in the early 5th century.

Carthage was fortified against barbarian attack in 425. In 439 the Vandal king Gaiseric subjugated the city. It remained the Vandal capital until 533, when the Byzantine general Belisarius captured the city, renaming it Colonia Justiniana Carthago in honor of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Between 697 and 705 the city was captured by the Arabs. In 698 it was again destroyed. A great deal of archaeological activity was carried on at the site, particularly in the late 19th century, uncovering early Punic artifacts and Roman, Byzantine, and Vandal buildings. Today Carthage is a wealthy suburb of Tunis.

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Plastic waste can be used for constructing

Researchers at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) claim to have found a new way for disposing of plastic waste, mainly polythene bags, by using them for construction of long-lasting, water-proof roads.

"In our research we observed that polythene bags could immensely enhance the durability of roads," Ram Adhar Singh, a professor with BHU's chemistry department who led the research, said.

Buoyed by the new technique of managing polythene waste, the researchers now plan to get it patented.

"In our research, we used polythene bags after giving them a specific mechanised heat treatment along with coal-tar, pieces of stones and other materials required for constructing roads and got favourable results," said Singh, who is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur.

According to the researchers, roads of coal-tar and stones lose their strength due to water-logging. Coal-tar, which is organic in nature, cannot gel effectively with stones that have inorganic properties, resulting in cracks and potholes when water-logged.

"But when polythene, which is organic in nature, is used after the heat treatment, it forms a layer on the stones. As the inorganic stones get the organic covering they effectively bind with coal-tar," explained Singh, who has been teaching chemistry for over 25 years.

According to researchers, polythene, coal-tar and small stone pieces are used in a specific proportion. And at a temperature between 120 and 130 degrees Celsius, polythene forms a layer over pieces of stones and prevents the roads from wear and tear in case of water-logging.

The widespread use of polythene is posing a major environmental hazard as it is not bio-degradable. This method now provides a new window of opportunity for proper management of polythene.

Following the unique method, residents of Ashok Puram in Varanasi where Singh lives, have started collecting polythene for making roads in their colony.

The residents have approached Singh to get the road built for them by using the new technique.

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Solar power cells printed like money

In a previously untested method, solar power cells have been produced by printing presses normally used to make Australian dollar bills.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the giant machines arranged and stamped flexible solar panels onto plastic film, in a trial near Melbourne last week.

The cells were only 3 percent efficient, meaning they could convert only a small amount of solar energy into electricity.

But, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) project leader Gerry Wilson told Australian ABC News that he expects the output to more than double by next year and top 10 percent after that.

He said that he hoped the solar cells would be ready for mass production in five years.

"The main advantage is that the cells can now be produced in vast sheets or rolls, making the cells ideal for windows or large-scale, rooftop applications," Wilson said.

The printers could turn out 62 miles (100 kilometers) of solar sheeting every day, according to CSIRO.

The polymer used in the solar cells is the product of a 7.7-million-US -dollar research consortium that includes energy company BP Solar and construction material company BlueScope Steel.

"The involvement of construction companies was critical in creating the technology," said Attilio Pigneri, associate director of the Centre of Energy Research at Massey University in New Zealand, who was not involved in the project.

"The capability to develop materials ready for the housing market-where the photovoltaic (solar power) cells are already integrated in the construction material-is going to have significant impacts in bringing down (energy) costs," he added.

He said that printing flexible cells solves the biggest problem associated with traditional solar panels: the need for extra structures to support them.

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Scientists identify ‘happiness’ gene

If life looks joyful in spite of recession, job insecurity and expanding waistline, then you should consider thanking your “Brightside” gene.

A gene that affects if we're cheery or gloomy has been tracked down by British researchers.

The groundbreaking study claims that individuals who carry the gene don't pay much attention to negative things happening in their lives and, instead, focus on the happier aspects of life. In the process, they end up becoming more sociable and are generally in better shape psychologically.

Elaine Fox, head of psychology at Essex University, said: "We've shown for the first time that a genetic variation is linked with a tendency to look on the bright side of life. This is a key mechanism underlying resilience to general life stress."

To reach the conclusion, the research team checked how long it took people to react to good and bad images that flashed up on a computer screen.

The study involved more than 100 volunteers.

The positive snaps were that of a couple hugging and someone sailing along in a boat. The negative images included a photo of someone being mugged.

Volunteers' genetic tests revealed that a tendency to ignore negative images and dwell on the positive ones was strongly linked to a variation in a gene that controls serotonin, which also branded as the brain's main "feel-good" chemical.

Every individual inherits two versions of the gene, either two short ones, two long ones, or one of each. People who had two longs versions were most likely to focus on the positives, according to the study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Alp-sized peaks in Antarctic ice

Jagged mountains the size of the Alps have been found entombed in Antarctica's ice, giving new clues about the vast ice sheet that will raise world sea levels if even a fraction of it melts, scientists said on Tuesday.

Using radar and gravity sensors, the experts made the first detailed maps of the Gamburtsev subglacial mountains, originally detected by Russian scientists 50 years ago at the heart of the East Antarctic ice sheet.

"The surprising thing was that not only is this mountain range the size of the Alps, but it looks quite similar to the (European) Alps, with high peaks and valleys," said Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey who took part in the research.

He said that the mountains would probably have been ground down almost flat if the ice sheet had formed slowly. But the presence of jagged peaks might mean the ice formed quickly, burying a landscape under up to 4 km (2.5 miles) of ice.

Ferraccioli said the maps were "the first page of a new book" of understanding how ice sheets behave, which in turn could help predict how the ice will react to global warming.

Antarctica, bigger than the United States, has been swathed in ice for about 35 million years, and contains enough of it to raise world sea levels by about 57 metres (187 feet) if it ever all melted. So even a fractional melt would affect coasts around the globe.

"Unless we have a basic understanding of how ice sheets work, any sort of predictive model won't match reality," Ferraccioli said.

The UN panel on climate change says that greenhouse gases, mainly emitted by burning fossil fuels, will bring more heatwaves, floods and droughts, and raise sea levels.

The team of experts from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, Japan and the United States also found water below the ice, using survey aircraft that flew 120,000 km (75,000 miles).

"The temperatures at our camps hovered around minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), but 3 km (2 miles) beneath us at the bottom of the ice sheet we saw liquid water in the valleys," Robin Bell, of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, said in a statement.

Many sub-glacial lakes have been found in Antarctica in recent years.

Geologists say that mountain ranges such as the Alps or the Himalayas form in collisions between continents. The last time Antarctica was exposed to such forces was 500 million years ago.

"The mystery here is that the Alps are only 50 to 60 million years old, while here we have a mountain range that may perhaps be as old as 500 million years," Ferraccioli said.

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Identified gene responsible for weight gain

Scientists have finally solved what they claim is the "fat gene" mystery, a key finding that sheds light on why some people can eat but never put on weight while others struggle to shed flab.

Earlier studies suspected that genetic differences were responsible for weight gain and singled out the FTO gene as the main culprit.

Now, a team, led by Düsseldorf University in Germany, has found concrete evidence that the gene may control the rate of the metabolism, making its carriers leaner than those without it.

The scientists reached the conclusion after carrying out experiments on mice. Those with the FTO gene entirely were found to remain lean. The animals remained thin despite eating large amounts of food and being inactive, the 'Nature' journal reported in its latest edition.

According to the scientists, the breakthrough could herald a raft of new treatments for obesity.

"This finding will promote research into the development of drugs that modulate FTO activity. We strongly suspect that, in man, FTO might have more complex effects on both food intake and energy expenditure than has been so far suggested and that it is still not clear what the overall effect of inhibiting FTO in humans would be," lead scientist Ulrich Ruther was quoted by 'The Daily Telegraph' as saying.

Experts have welcomed the research. Professor Stephen O'Rahilly, a metabolism expert from Cambridge University, said: "Genetic variation close to the FTO gene is definitely associated with obesity in humans, but, until now, it was not clear whether this genetic variation was likely to influence obesity by altering the expression or function of the FTO gene itself or some neighbouring gene.

"This is a bit puzzling as several recent studies have suggested that the variant in the human FTO gene that increases the risk of obesity has effects on appetite and food intake but does not seem to have any effect on how quickly energy is burned off.

"So, this work provides a crucial piece of evidence supporting the notion that the FTO gene itself is likely to be involved in the effects of common human genetic variants on body fat."

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Tatoo of the year

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How does the brain make sense out of a jumble of words?

How does the brain turn seemingly random sounds and letters into sentences with clear meaning?

Psychologist Jos JA Van Berkum from the Max Planck Institute in The Netherlands described recent experiments using brain waves to understand how we are able to make sense of sentences.

In these experiments, Van Berkum and his colleagues examined event related potentials (or ERPs) as people read or heard critical sentences as part of a longer text, or placed in some other type of context.

ERPs are changes in brain activity that occur when we hear a certain stimulus, such as a tone or a word. Due to their speed, ERPs are useful for detecting the incredibly fast processes involved in understanding language.

Analysis of the ERPs has consistently indicated just how quickly the brain is able to relate unfolding sentences to earlier ones. For example, Van Berkum and colleagues have shown that listeners only need a fraction of a second to determine that a word is out of place, given what the wider story is about.

As soon as listeners hear an unexpected word, their brain generates a specific ERP, the N400 effect (so named because it is a negative deflection peaking around 400 milliseconds). And even more interesting, this ERP will usually occur before the word is even finished being spoken.

Besides the words themselves, the person speaking them is a crucial component in understanding what is being said. Van Berkum also saw an N400 effect occurring very rapidly when the content of a statement being spoken did not match with the voice of the speaker, for example "I have a large tattoo on my back" in an upper-class accent or "I like olives" in a young child's voice.

These findings suggest that the brain very quickly classifies someone based on what their voice sounds like and also makes use of social stereotypes to interpret the meaning of what is being said, according to a Max Planck release.

But how does the language part of the brain act so fast? Recent findings suggest that as we read or have a conversation, our brains are continuously trying to predict upcoming information.

These findings were published in Current Directions in Psychological Science.
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Indiana Woman Said "I Do" 23 Times

68-year-old Guinness world record holder would get married again

Because of her multiple marriages, the fictional character Erica Kane on ABC's soap opera "All My Children" has the longest name for a television character: Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Roy Roy Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery. But one real-life Indiana woman would have her beat by a long shot.

She was born Linda Lou Taylor, but the 68-year-old Anderson, Ind., woman has had many names over the past 50+ years. That's because she's been hitched 23 times, making her the most married woman in history.

Linda can't remember her husbands in order, but she remembers the first one vividly. She and George Scott married in 1957, when she was just 16 and he was 31. They stayed together for seven years, making the marriage her longest.

Her shortest marriage? Thirty-six hours to Fred Chadwick.

Linda now goes by the surname Wolfe. She and husband Glynn "Scotty" Wolfe did not marry for love, however. The two wed in Arizona in 1996 as part of a publicity stunt. Scotty was the most married man in the world, and Linda was his 29th bride. Scotty died just a few days before their one-year anniversary.

If you think your ex-spouse story is bad, imagine having 23 of them.

Linda has been married to a convict, a preacher, a musician, bartenders, homeless men, electricians, and even two gay men. One husband beat her. More than one deserted her.

But this hasn't discouraged her from walking down the aisle again.

"I would get married again," Linda told, "because, you know, it gets lonely."

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Funny commercials with animals

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One-fifth of world's fossil fuel emitted CO2 being absorbed by trees

A research has shown that tropical trees in undisturbed forest are absorbing nearly a fifth of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released by burning fossil fuels in the world.

The researchers show that remaining tropical forests remove a massive 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year.

This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.

The 40-year study of African tropical forests, which constitute one third of the world's total tropical forests, shows that for at least the last few decades, each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon per year.

The scientists then analyzed the new African data together with South American and Asian findings to assess the total sink in tropical forests.

Analysis of these 250,000 tree records reveals that, on average, remaining undisturbed forests are trapping carbon, showing that they are a globally significant carbon sink.

"We are receiving a free subsidy from nature," said Dr Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Leeds, and the lead author of the research paper.

"Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18 per cent of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change," he added.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that globally human activity emits 32 billion tonnes of CO2 each year, but only 15 billion tonnes actually stays in the atmosphere adding to climate change.

The new research shows exactly where some of the 'missing' 17 billion tonnes per year is going.

"It's well known that about half of the 'missing' carbon is being dissolved in to the oceans, and that the other half is going somewhere on land in vegetation and soils, but we were not sure precisely where. According to our study about half the total carbon 'land sink' is in tropical forest trees," explained Dr Lewis.

The reason why the trees are getting bigger and mopping up carbon is unclear. A leading suspect is the extra CO2 in the atmosphere itself, which may be acting like a fertilizer.

However, according to Dr Lewis, "Whatever the cause, we cannot rely on this sink forever. Even if we preserve all remaining tropical forest, these trees will not continue getting bigger indefinitely."

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A new self-sanitising plaster

Scientists are developing and testing new self-sanitising plaster with more powerful antibacterial effects than penicillin. The material could be used in wall coatings, paints, art works and other products.

Liang-jie Yuan of Wuhan University in China and colleagues have developed the new, first-of-its kind plaster - formed from different ingredients from traditional gypsum plaster - that retains plaster's mechanical properties while having added antibacterial effects.

Lab tests showed that the so-called "supramolecular" plaster has a "very broad" antibacterial spectrum, killing five types of disease-causing bacteria.

When compared with penicillin, the plaster was more effective at controlling growth of four kinds of bacteria, including dangerous Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

"It can be expected that the supramolecular plaster can be used for building, painting, coating and carving, and the coat, brick, or art ware constructed by the plaster do not need additive antiseptic or sterilisation," the study authors said, according to a Wuhan release.

These results were published in the current issue of American Chemcial Society's Crystal Growth & Design, a bi-monthly journal.

Plaster has been used for centuries as building material and surfaces for great works of art, including Michelangelo's famed Sistine Chapel ceiling in Vatican City.

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Solar-powered mobile phones

Chinese group ZTE was set on Wednesday to unveil the world's first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone targeted at the two billion people who have no or limited access to electricity, a spokeswoman said. The first solar phone was put on display by South Korean rival Samsung earlier this week here at Mobile World Congress, the industry's biggest trade show, creating a buzz around the alternative energy source.

Samsung's phone, called Blue Earth, has mini solar panels on its back and is to go on sale later this year. The handset will be expensive, however, and targeted at "green"-conscious consumers in developed countries. A spokeswoman for ZTE said the company's version, to be unmasked at a press conference later, would be the first ultra-low-cost solar handset pitched at the poor. It is expected to have a screen and buttons on one side and solar panels on the other.

South Korean manufacturer LG has also put a prototype solar-powered phone on display here, but it has not been named and it not yet ready for market. Gavin Byrne, an analyst at telecom research group Informa, said there would be demand for a solar-powered device in countries where electricity is scarce.

He pointed to the existence of "charging booths" in some African countries where people pay to plug their phones in for a few hours because they have no electricity at home. "There is an opportunity for solar-powered phones in emerging markets," he said. "That there are businesses charging up mobiles shows there is a latent demand for a charging device where there isn't a regular supply of power."

Analysts say the key to success for a solar-powered phone is the recharge time required to fill the battery. A salesman for Samsung claimed 10-14 hours in the sun would give a user four hours of talk time on the Blue Earth, which can also be plugged in.

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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxies

Web users across the world are all set to write a real version of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxies”, by working together to spot galaxies at par with professional astronomers.

The new initiative is a follow-up to the highly successful Galaxy Zoo project that enabled members of the public to take part in astronomy research online.

But whereas the original site only asked members of the public to say whether a galaxy was spiral or elliptical, and which way it was rotating, Galaxy Zoo 2 asks them to delve deeper into 250,000 of the brightest and best galaxies to search for the strange and unusual.

“The first Galaxy Zoo provided us with a Rough Guide to the sky and now we want our users to fill in all the details and create a real Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxies,” said Dr Chris Lintott of Oxford University, one of the founders of Galaxy Zoo.

Astronomers came up with the idea of getting online volunteers involved because the human brain is still better at doing pattern recognition tasks than a computer.

What they had not expected was the huge enthusiasm for the project.

In the last 18 months, more than 150,000 armchair astronomers from all over the world submitted 80 million classifications of galaxies on one million objects at www.galaxyzoo.org.

According to Dr Kevin Schawinski of Yale University, another of Galaxy Zoo’s founders, “The response from the public was absolutely overwhelming and, with their help, we’ve been able to learn a lot about how galaxies evolve and how they relate to their environment. With the detail from Zoo 2, we’ll be able to discover even more about how galaxies work.”

“Galaxy Zoo has given everyone with a computer an opportunity to contribute to real scientific research. We want people to feel truly involved in the project and keep them up to date with what we’re doing and with the results they’re generating,” said Dr Steven Bamford of the University of Nottingham.

As with the original site, people are free to look at and describe as many galaxies as they like. Even five minutes’ work will provide a valuable contribution.

According to Professor Bob Nichol of the University of Portsmouth, a member of the original Galaxy Zoo team, “No single professional astronomer has ever looked at all these images and sometimes astronomers miss the wonder of what they are. I think the public get this better than us.”

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Sea level has risen by 20 mm from 1955-2008

In a new research, a scientist has determined that the observed ocean warming has contributed approximately 20 mm to global average sea level for the time period 1955-2008.

Based on a detailed analysis of ocean vertical temperature profiles for the 1955-2008 period, Sydney Levitus, lead author of the research paper, talks about the change of global average sea level induced by the observed warming of the world ocean during the past 53 years.

The warming of the world ocean is consistent with the amount of warming expected as a result of the observed increase in greenhouse gases in earth’s atmosphere.

The observed ocean warming has contributed approximately 20 mm to global average sea level during this time period.

This is simply the phenomenon of salt water expanding when it is warmed. This expansion effect (or contraction if cooling occurs) is known as the “thermosteric component of sea level change.”

This estimate is similar to previous estimates even after recently identified instrumentals errors are corrected for and additional historical data has been added to the scientists’ database.

The thermosteric component of sea level change is only one of several phenomena affecting sea level.

Others include the melting of glaciers, the transfer of liquid water between the continents and oceans, and the impoundment of water by dams.

In the research paper, Levitus will also describe the changes in global sea level, resulting from changes in the distribution of temperature and freshwater in the world ocean during the same 1955 – 2008 time scale.

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Giant Weta - The heaviest insect on planet

Giant wetas are species of weta in the genus Deinacrida of the family Anostostomatidae. Giant wetas are endemic to New Zealand.

There are 11 species of giant weta, most of which are significantly larger than other weta, despite already being large by insect standards. They are heavy insects with a body length of up to 10 cm (4 in) not inclusive of its lengthy legs and antennae, and weigh more than 71 g (2.5 oz), making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world and heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant weta is the Little Barrier Island giant weta also known as the wetapunga. Giant weta tend to be less social and more passive than other weta. Their genus name, Deinacrida, is Greek for terrible grasshopper. They are found primarily on New Zealand offshore islands, having been almost exterminated on the mainland islands by introduced mammalian pests.

Not all Giant Weta are giant. They are 'Giant Weta' by species but not necessarily by size. For example, the Nelson Alpine Weta weighs around 7 grams on average, and the Kaikoura Weta can weigh up to 15 grams. The smaller species of Giant Weta have an advantage over the bigger Giant Weta because they find it easier to hide from predators.

Giant Weta facts:

The Little Barrier Island Weta, or 'Wetapunga' as it was known to the Maori, is one of the largest and heaviest insects in the world,

The largest weta recorded was a female and it weighed around THREE TIMES heavier than a mouse! (71 grams),

The Maori named the Little Barrier Island Giant Weta, ‘Wetapunga’, which means ‘god of ugly things’,

The gentle giant of the insect world, the Giant weta prefers a vegetarian diet,

The Giant weta often lives under rocks and bush floor debris,

The Giant weta is so heavy that it cannot jump,

The weta is sometimes known as the dinosaur of the insect world,

The weta has changed very little in the past 100 MILLION YEARS!,

At around two years old the female will lay 100-300 eggs. The parents will die before the weta eggs hatch 3-5 months later.

Source: KCC

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Monkeys have 'a sense of morality'

Morality is not a uniquely human quality - even monkeys have a sense of it and the rudimentary ability to differentiate between right and wrong, a new study has suggested.

Scientists have carried out the study and found that both monkeys and apes can make judgements about fairness, offer altruistic help and empathise when a fellow animal is ill or in difficulties.

What's more interesting is that the study found that monkeys have consciences as well as the rudimentary ability to remember obligations.

"There is enough evidence for the following of social rules to agree that some of the stepping stones towards human morality can be found in other animals," lead researcher Prof Frans de Waal of Emory University in Georgia said.

The researchers came to the conclusion after carrying out experiments on monkeys and apes to see if they understood the idea of fairness. The animals were asked to perform a set of simple tasks and then rewarded with food or affection.

The study found that the animals had an acute sense of fairness and objected strongly when others were rewarded more than themselves for the same task, often sulking and refusing to take part any further, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

Another experiment looked at altruism in chimps -- it found they were often willing to help others even when there was no obvious reward. "Chimpanzees spontaneously help both humans and each other in carefully controlled tests," he said.

"Everything else being equal, they prefer to reward a companion together with themselves rather than just themselves - the research suggests that giving is self-rewarding for monkeys," De Waal said.

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A crocodile with huge tusks

Imagine meeting a crocodile with huge tusks like those of a wild boar.

Paleontologist Paul Sereno did meet one, or at least the remains of the ancient creature, and he gave a crowd of excited youngsters a first public glimpse yesterday.

Sereno calls it boar-croc for its looks, since he hasn't yet published an article on it with a scientific name in the official literature.

The University of Chicago researcher found the skull in the Sahara Desert, which many thousands of years ago was moist and supported all sorts of animals, crocodiles and even in the distant past dinosaurs.

Boar-croc doesn't fit in any known order. It has a crocodile-like snout, but adds horns and three sets of canine teeth like those of a wild pig adapted for eating meat, he explained.

So why does a world-renowned paleontologist trot out his latest find before an official publication?

Yesterday was family day at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Sereno couldn't resist the chance to try and interest youngsters in his line of work.

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Nanotechnology could make better food

Foods produced by nanotechnology are healthy and absorbed in the human body more efficiently, a Dutch scientist has said.

"The problem I always face is that people do not understand what we are doing with nanotechnology and food," said Frans Kampers, one of the panelists gathered here for the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting on Saturday.

"Everyone has this vision of nanotechnology being nanoparticles and nanoparticles being risky, so they are very afraid that nanoparticles in food will have an adverse effect on health," he said.

The promise of nanotechnology, the Dutch scientist said, is that it could allow re-engineering ingredients to bring healthy nutrients more efficiently to the body while allowing less-desirable components to pass through.

"We are basically creating nanostructures in food that are designed to fall apart in your body because of digestion so in the end there will be no nanoparticles," Kampers said.

He added that European food scientists already used nanotechnology to create structures in foods that can deliver nutrients to specific locations in the body for the most beneficial effects.

"These are also controversial applications of nanotechnology," Kampers said.

He said use of metal, usually silver, and nanoparticles in packaging to slow spoilage could move from the packaging material into the food itself.

"More research is necessary to understand the kinetics and dynamics of these particles before large-scale applications in food are developed. At the moment, these types of nanoparticles are rarely used in food products," he said.

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Cotton candy may help create blood vessels

The traditional cotton candies have been an attraction to kids for many years, and US researchers have now found a new role for the candy floss -it can help create small and intricate blood vessels.

The study led by Jason Spector of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Leon Bellan of Cornell University has shown that cotton candies can be used as a template to grow artificial vascular networks inside engineered tissue, needed especially during transplants.

During the study, the researchers placed some candy in a non-stick mould, and poured over a polymer-resin mix that set hard after a day.

They then dissolved away the sugar using water and alcohol to leave a solid cube shot through with a network of channels.

The researchers found that the channels were similar in dimensions to real networks of capillaries, reports New Scientist magazine.

To demonstrate that blood could flow easily through the material, the researchers pumped rat blood with fluorescent labeling through the network.

The researchers are now working on creating casts using a biodegradable resin mixed with cells of a particular tissue, and coating the cast''s channels with blood vessel cells.

As the cells grow, the biodegradable resin should gradually disappear to leave an artificial tissue sample with its own blood vessel network.

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How mosquitoes survive deadly viruses that kills humans

A new study from Colorado State University sheds light on how mosquitoes, which transmit deadly viruses such as dengue, can survive the infection that kills humans.

The researchers have found that Aedes mosquitoes avoid becoming ill by triggering an immediate, potent immune response.

However, since their immune system does not eliminate the virus, the mosquitoes are able to pass it on to a new victim.

With the new discovery, the researchers now aim to determine how the virus evades the mosquito's defence because that may help to fight disease by interrupting the growth of dengue virus within the mosquito before it can be transmitted.

The researchers showed that RNA interference - the mosquito immune response -is initiated immediately after they ingest blood containing dengue virus, but the virus multiplies in the mosquitoes nevertheless.

They said that genetic manipulation of RNA interference could be a significant weapon in stopping dengue virus transmission by Aedes Aegypti.

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Graveyard of Olive Ridley sea turtles

The tranquil Satabhaya coast along Orissa's Gahirmatha marine sanctuary has turned into a graveyard of Olive Ridley sea turtles, days ahead of the 'arribada' or mass laying of eggs.

The lifeless bodies of the unique aquatic species lined a kilometre-long stretch of the sandy beach presenting a tragic sight and more bodies piled up with each passing day.

Official sources said around 1900 bodies were counted till date within the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, but Sashmita Rout, the sarpanch of the Satabhaya grampanchayat, claimed that as per a conservative estimate, the latest toll should not be less than 5000.

Rout said the beach wore a ghastly look with bloated and decomposed bodies being dissected by stray dogs. There were deep marks of injury on some of the bodies.

Last year too hundreds of turtles were found dead on the same spot - victims of illegal poaching by mechanised fishing trawlers - raising animal lovers' concern.

Thousands of Olive Ridleys get killed along the Orissa coast every year by getting entangled in the nets of the trawlers that operate illegally in the prohibited zones when lakhs of these endangered species congregate for mating.

Rout said the count would go up in the next few days and fears that the decomposed bodies of these turtles may trigger health problems.

"Pungent odour emanating from the beach has made the lives miserable for residents of nearby Satabhaya village. We are apprehensive that the heaps of decomposed bodies might trigger health hazards," Rout said.

"We have asked the Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division officials to take stock of the situation," the chief conservator of forest, S A Srivastava, said.

As a large number of carcasses are yet to be buried, stray dogs have acted as scavenging agents eating up the bodies, he said.

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Two satellites collide over Siberia

Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of two intact spacecraft in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station.

NASA said it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the crash, which occurred nearly 500 miles (805 kilometers) over Siberia on Tuesday.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually," said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA believes any risk to the space station and its three astronauts should be low. It orbits about 270 miles (435 kilometers) below the collision course. There also should be no danger to the space shuttle set to launch with seven astronauts on Feb 22, officials said, but that will be re-evaluated in the coming days.

The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be non-functioning. The Russian satellite was out of control, Matney said.

The Iridium craft weighed 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms), and the Russian craft nearly a ton.

No one has any idea yet how many pieces were generated or how big they might be.

"Right now, they're definitely counting dozens," Matney said. "I would suspect that they'll be counting hundreds when the counting is done."

As for pieces the size of micrometers, the count will likely be in the thousands, he added.

There have been four other cases in which space objects have collided accidentally in orbit, NASA said. But those were considered minor and involved parts of spent rockets or small satellites.

As of Wednesday, there were 9,831 pieces of manmade debris - not counting anything from Tuesday's collision -orbiting Earth. The items, at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) in size, are being tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network, which is operated by the military. The network detected the two debris clouds created Tuesday.

Litter in orbit has increased in recent years, in part because of the deliberate breakups of old satellites. It's gotten so bad that orbital debris is now the biggest threat to a space shuttle in flight, surpassing the dangers of liftoff and return to Earth. NASA is in regular touch with the Space Surveillance Network, to keep the space station a safe distance from any encroaching objects, and shuttles, too, when they're flying.

"The collisions are going to be becoming more and more important in the coming decades," Matney said.

Iridium Holdings LLC has a system of 65 active satellites which relay calls from portable phones that are about twice the size of a regular mobile phone. It has more than 300,000 subscribers. The US Department of Defence is one of its largest customers.

The company has spare satellites, and it is unclear whether the collision caused an outage. An Iridium spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Initially launched by Motorola Inc. in the 1990s, Iridium plunged into bankruptcy in 1999. Private investors relaunched service in 2001.

Iridium satellites are unusual because their orbit is so low and they move so fast. Most communications satellites are in much higher orbits and don't move relative to each other, which means collisions are rare.

Iridium Holdings LLC, is owned by New York-based investment firm Greenhill & Co. through a subsidiary, GHL Acquisition Corp., which is listed on the American Stock Exchange. The shares closed Wednesday down 3 cents at USD 9.28.

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How to Spot Comet Lulin

On February 24th, sky gazers will be treated to the spectacle of a rare green comet, as it would make its closest approach to Earth that day.

According to a report in Discovery News, the comet, found by Quanzhi Ye, a meteorology undergraduate student at China’s Sun Yat-Sen University in July 2007, has vivid green hues.

The color is caused by gases spewing off the comet nucleus as it heats up during its trip toward the sun. The gases glow green in sunlight.

Quanzhi Ye made the find in July 2007 while studying a picture taken by a Taiwanese astronomer working at the Lulin Observatory, for which the comet was named.

It became visible this month.

“The orbit of the comet indicates that it is coming from the outermost edge of the solar system, the so-called Ort Cloud, which is about 100,000 times more distant from the sun than the Earth,” said Donald Yeomans, a senior research scientist who oversees NASA’s Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Comet Lulin’s visit to the inner part of the solar system is likely its first, he added.

“It takes millions of years to get here,” he told Discovery News.

“This one was probably born near Pluto, so if you wish to study the chemical mix that this region formed from, this one is a good one to look at,” Yeomans said.

“It’s a fairly bright comet, and it is a new comet, so the usual gang of astronomers will be jumping all over this - and not just in the visible light, but also in infrared and radio,” he added.

Comet Lulin will rise a few hours before the sun and will be about one-third of way up in the southern sky before dawn.

On Feb. 16, you can use the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo as a guidepost to spot the cosmic object, as the comet will pass right by it.

The morning of its closest approach, Comet Lulin will be a few degrees away from Saturn in the constellation Leo. See also Comet Lulin

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Dog found after being missing for 6 months

A golden retriever named Buck that darted from his owners last summer after being spooked by a train whistle and went missing for six months is back home in Washington state, thanks to several residents of rural north-central Montana.

The 7-year-old dog survived despite apparently spending most of the winter exposed to heavy snow and temperatures well below zero before he was found taking refuge under a collapsed building.

"I've never had a miracle happen to me, so I don't really know what to think," said Kim Halter of Bonney Lake, Wash.

Halter said she, her husband and two of their sons were on a family trip to Montana in August when they stopped at a rest stop along U.S. Highway 2 in the small town of Chester.

"The dog was normally never on a leash. Big mistake," Halter said Thursday. "But he was always next to my son. He never left his side, so we never really had a problem.

"We were under the trestle when the horn blew. When Buck heard the whistle, he took off like a shot. None of us even saw him."

Halter said Maxine Woods, who lives across the highway, was waving her arms and trying to tell them that their dog ran away.

"He just basically disappeared," Woods said Friday. "He was just going faster than any dog I've seen run."

Woods joined the search for the dog.

"She got in her car and then she started calling people and before you knew it everybody around there was looking for our dog," Halter said. After two days of unsuccessful searching, the Halters, brokenhearted, resumed their travels.

"We went to the library and the librarian in Chester made us posters and wouldn't charge us a dime for them," Halter said. The family put up posters in banks and post offices in the small towns around the area.

"That was about all we could do," she said.

After a few false sightings, the family didn't hear anything for six months.

As fall turned into winter, heavy snow fell in the Chester area and temperatures occasionally fell into the 20-below-zero range.

"Every time we'd hear about the weather we would just cringe," Halter said. "I would just cry even harder, thinking 'Where is my Buck?' And of course I couldn't let my son (17-year-old Jason) know. I never let him see me cry because he kept the faith and kept the hope.

"He would tell me all the time that Buck's coming home," she said of her son, who had had the dog since it was a puppy. "He actually thought he was going to walk home like in (the movie) 'Homeward Bound.'"

It was about 27 degrees below zero early on Jan. 25, the day Jason Wanken spotted a stray dog on his family farm just north of Chester.

"We spotted this dog out here on the farm, just on and off, going through the creek and whatnot," Wanken said. "We just never had a prime opportunity to go over and get him."

Later in the week, Wanken used a snowmobile to bring some food to the dog, which had taken up residence under a collapsed building.

Wanken's mother had remembered the name of the golden retriever that had gone missing last summer and told Wanken to see if the dog would answer to the name Buck.

"The next day, I took the boys out with me and I had a full bag of food with me and I just rattled that bag," he said. "I started to feed it and could actually pet it then."

Wanken and his wife were able to use food to lure the dog into a kennel and took the dog to Wood's house.

"I thought it couldn't be this dog, though, it's been too long," Wanken said.

Woods called Halter on Saturday, Jan. 31.

"She e-mailed me three pictures and when I was on the phone with her I received the pictures, and we both started crying and I said that was him," Halter said.

Confirmation that the dog had an underbite sent the Halters on a 750-mile trip. "We drove all night," she said, arriving in Chester Sunday afternoon.

"When we got to the Wankens, he ran right up to us and it was absolutely without a doubt him," Halter said. "It was a miracle. He looked at us and we looked at him and we were all crying. It was beyond amazing."

No one seems to know where Buck had been between Aug. 13 and Jan. 25.

"From the time he left us until the time Jason Wanken found him, there is no clue where he's been or what he's done," Halter said. "Only he knows. I almost feel like taking him to a pet psychic to see if they could tell me. Only he knows his secret and he's keeping it to himself.

"I tell ya one thing, he hasn't stopped smiling since he got home and neither have we."

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Human Fish

The habitat of Proteus anguinus ("human fish") is very limited. It lives in the subterranean fresh waters of the Dinaric Alps, along the Adriatic Sea, from Venetia to Herzegovina (Istria, Slovenia, Dalmatia, Croatia). It prefers underground water systems in Karst formations, with calm, well oxygenated water and a constant low water temperature. Proteus anguinus was first discovered and described in Slovenian Karst, and most researches were made on animals found in the Slovenian territory as well.


Proteus anguinus is completely adapted to eternal subterranean darkness as it hides in the depths of underground caves for its whole life. Therefore, the pale skin contains no protective pigment and it is whitish with a pink hue due to the skin capillaries (similar colour to that of Caucasian human beings-hence the creature's name). The tiny eyes can be seen only at the foetal stage, later they are grown over with skin. The head is elongated with a rounded snout. The front legs bear 3, the rear legs 2 toes. The flattened tail used for swimming is markedly shorter than the body. The animal stays in water its entire life and breathes with gills, even though it has rudimentary lungs. Proteus anguinus is approximately 25-30cm long, which makes it the biggest cave animal in the world. At the same time, it is also the only cave adapted vertebrate in Europe.

Proteus anguinus parkelj ("black human fish") has well developed eyes and pigment, which gives it black color due to regular sun exposure as it often comes from the underground for food. It is found only in Bela Krajina, south east Slovenia.


During 19th and in the beginning of 20th century the human fish instantly won the sympathies of the entire scientific world and, it seems, everybody wanted to see and study this rare creature. Consequently, the trade with animals grown into profitable "business".

The survival of Proteus anguinus also depends on large aquatic cave systems and the conservation of sylvan and pastoral land above. Tourism, economic changes and industrial pollution are the main threats to this endangered species. The decline of the known populations in Gorizia (Italy) and Postojna (Slovenia) is well established. Possible reasons for the decline are: general habitat alteration and loss; local and long-distance pesticides, fertilisers, toxins, and other pollutants; intentional mortality due to over-harvesting pet trade or collecting.

Apart from its unique cave morphology, the image and the recognition of the Postojna cave is, in the big part, build on "human fish". Even more, Postojna Cave is the cradle of speleobiology, the branch of biological science, which studies the living world underground. It was in Postojna Cave that the first specimens of most groups of cave fauna were found. In terms of variety and number of species of cave fauna, the Postojna-Planina cave system is the richest cave system in the world.


In the 1922, Slovenia protected Proteus anguinus and all cave animals, while in 1982 Proteus anguinus was put on the list of rare and endangered wild animals, which prohibits their trade. Very early on, the possibilities of scientific and educational tourism were recognised. Therefore, the tourist offer of Postojna cave also includes the Proteus Postojna Speleobiological station, a museum that features Proteus along with other invertebrate cave fauna. New Proteus complex offers multimedia presentation of the Karst and life in the underworld, a presentation of the morphology (form and history) of the cave, and a vivarium containing live specimens of cave fauna from Postojna Cave. Special attention is paid to the "human fish". The cave also features a speleobiological laboratory.

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