Finding may have legal implications in criminal cases
People who view pictures of someone they hate display activity in distinct areas of the brain that, together, may be thought of as a ‘hate circuit’, according to new research by scientists at UCL. The ‘hate circuit’ includes structures in the cortex and in the sub-cortex and has components that are important in generating aggressive behaviour, and translating this into action through motor planning, as if the brain becomes mobilised to take some action. It also involves a part of the frontal cortex that has been considered critical in predicting the actions of others, probably an important feature when one is confronted by a hated person... [more] & [more]
Source : PLoS ONE & University College London
Brain’s ‘hate circuit’ identified
Bees are capable of counting up to four
Insect world royalty shows they really count
Research has demonstrated honey bees are capable of routinely counting up to four. Professor Mandyam Srinivasan and a colleague from Sweden discovered a new insight into honey bee cognition after developing a series of experiments based on sugar-water incentives... [more]
Source : University of Queensland
Wearing red attracts men to women boosts attraction
The aphrodisiacal effect of red
A groundbreaking study by two University of Rochester psychologists adds color—literally and figuratively—to the age-old question of what attracts men to women. Through five psychological experiments, Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology, and Daniela Niesta, post-doctoral researcher, demonstrate that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction... [more]
Source : University of Rochester
Epsilon Eridani Mr. Spock's Home Planet Is An Earth Like Planet
Earth-like planet may be on our doorstep
New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicate that the nearest planetary system to our own has two asteroid belts. Our own solar system has just one. The star at the center of the nearby system, called Epsilon Eridani, is a younger, slightly cooler and fainter version of the sun. Previously, astronomers had uncovered evidence for two possible planets in the system, and for a broad, outer ring of icy comets similar to our own Kuiper Belt. "This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth," said Dana Backman, an astronomer at the SETI Institute. It was borrowed by the creators of the TV series Star Trek as the location of Vulcan, the planet that gave us the super-logical science officer Mr. Spock... [more] & [more]
Source : Spitzer Space Telescope & USA Today
The Carmat heart first fully artificial heart that beats like the real thing
EADS Unveils Innovative Artificial Heart
For more than 15 years, European Aeronautics Defence & Space—better known as EADS, the parent company of passenger jet maker Airbus—has been working on a secret project that was "more difficult than putting a man on the moon," according to its instigator, renowned French heart surgeon Alain Carpentier... [more] & [more] & [more]
Source : Business Week & ABC News & Medical News Today
Atlas of hidden water may avert future conflict
The hidden groundwater resources
They are one of the world's greatest and most precious natural resources, yet are entirely hidden. Now, for the first time, a high-resolution map shows where underground aquifers store vast amounts of water. What the UNESCO map reveals is just how many aquifers cross international borders. So far, the organisation has identified 273 trans-boundary aquifers: 68 in the Americas, 38 in Africa, 155 in Eastern and Western Europe and 12 in Asia... [more]
Source : News Scientist
Kickbacks, bribes and secret payoffs in Hugo Chávez, socialist Venezuela
Court Case in Miami Casts Light on Corruption in Venezuela
The Miami trial of a Venezuelan entrepreneur who grew rich doing business with President Hugo Chávez's populist administration has exposed how some top government officials have profited from a corrosive web of corruption in the oil-rich country. Kickbacks, bribes and secret payoffs have become a feature in the socialist administration, which had claimed a break from the past but instead has seen several officials implicated in multimillion-dollar corruption schemes, according to testimony and conversations taped by the FBI. The trial has also revealed the Chávez government's determination to funnel state funds to its allies in Latin America and the lengths it will go to to keep the aid secret... [more]
Source : Washington Post
Tran Trong Duyet Hanoi Hilton Director 'John McCain was never tortured in my jail'
Former jail director says that John McCain received good medical care and never tortured
Tran Trong Duyet, the former prison director who now surrounds himself with caged birds in a house in Hai Phong, first met Mr McCain a year after he had been shot down. He recalls a defiant rule-breaker, the patriotic son of an admiral and a fervent believer in the war. What he does not recall, however, is a victim of torture or violence. “I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff,” says Mr Duyet in contradiction of Mr McCain’s account and those of other prisoners... [more]
Source : Timesonline
The Gamburtsev Mountain Range Should Not Be There
The mysterious Antarctic mountain range
An Antarctic mountain range that rivals the Alps in elevation will be probed this month by an expedition of scientists using airborne radar and other Information Age tools to virtually "peel away" more than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of ice covering the peaks. One of the mysteries of the mountain range is that current evidence suggests that it "shouldn't be there" at all... [more]
Source: Live Science
India's $64 billion outsourcing industry the call centers
Call Centers Are Fodder For India's Pop Culture
In a training session at a suburban call center, groups of fresh-faced Indian recruits jettison their Indian names and thick accents and practice speaking English just like the Americans do. They have hesitant conversations with imaginary American customers who complain angrily about their broken appliance or computer glitch. The instructor writes "35 = 10" on the board, as though he is gifting the recruits with a magic mantra. "A 35-year-old American's brain and IQ is the same as a 10-year-old Indian's," he explains, and urges the agents to be patient with the callers... [more]
Source : Washington Post
Financial crisis suicide rate in Japan expected to soar
Japanese recession-related suicides soaring
Japan is already home to one of the highest rates of suicide in the industrialised world, with an estimated 30,000 killing themselves every year. Amid deepening fears of a global recession, the rate is expected to surge even higher, fuelled by the growing prospect of job losses, decreased financial security and a rise in social dissatisfaction. In past years the suicide rate peaked each time the country’s economy fell into recession.it is not hard to find instructions for how to make lethal poison gas from household cleaning products. Hundreds of people have used this method to kill themselves in Japan this year… [more] & [more]
Source : Thenewspointer.blogdns.com
Black and white TV generation have monochrome dreams
Do you dream in black and white?
If so, the chances are you are over 55 and were brought up watching a monochrome television set. New research suggests that the type of television you watched as a child has a profound effect on the colour of your dreams. While almost all under 25s dream in colour, thousands of over 55s, all of whom were brought up with black and white sets, often dream in monochrome - even now... [more]
Source : Telegraph
When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help
Plants a lot smarter than thought
Researchers have discovered that when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue. The finding quashes the misperception that plants are “sitting ducks”--at the mercy of passing pathogens--and sheds new light on a sophisticated signaling system inside plants that rivals the nervous system in humans and animals... [more]
Source : University of Delaware
Bee Gee's 'Stayin' Alive' Could Save Life to help jump-start a stopped heart
'Stayin' Alive' has near-perfect rhythm to help jump-start heart
"Stayin' Alive" might be more true to its name than the Bee Gees ever could have guessed: At 103 beats per minute, the old disco song has almost the perfect rhythm to help jump-start a stopped heart. The song has 103 beats per minute, and doctors recommend compressing the chest 100 times per minute in order to perform CPR, a resuscitation technique that can increase a patient's chances for survival by up to 300 percent -- but only if the chest compressions are done at the proper rate... [more] & [more]
Source : CNN & Wired
Cuba may have 20 bn barrels of oil offshore
Cuba claims massive oil reserves
The state-owned Cuban oil company says the country may have more than 20bn barrels of oil in its offshore fields - more than double the previous estimate. Cubapetroleo's estimates are based on comparisons to known oil reserves found within similar geological structures off the coasts of the US and Mexico... [more]
Source : BBC
A computer programme to translate alien languages in outer space
Scientist develops programme to understand alien languages
A computer programme which could help identify and even translate messages from beings in outer space has been developed by a scientist from Leeds Met. Dr John Elliott believes he has come up with software which at least will decipher the structure of their language - and be the first step in understanding what they are saying. Dr Elliott's programme would compare an alien language to a database of 60 different languages in the world to search see if it has a similar structure. He believes that even an alien language far removed from any on Earth is likely to have recognisable patterns that could help reveal how intelligent the life forms are... [more] & [more]
Source : Telegraph & Leeds Metropolitan University
The oldest 325,000 years old human footprints
'Devils' Trails' Are World's Oldest Human Footprints
It's official: the oldest human footprints ever found are 345,000 years old, give or take 6000. Known as the "devils' trails", they have been preserved in volcanic ash atop the Roccamonfina volcano in Italy. The prints are anywhere between 385,000 and 325,000 years old, based on when the volcano was thought to have last erupted... [more]
Source : ABC News
Beautification Engine Software That Digitally Optimizes Physical Beauty
The sum of your facial parts
The software program, developed by computer scientists in Israel, is based on the responses of 68 men and women, age 25 to 40, from Israel and Germany, who viewed photographs of white male and female faces and picked the most attractive ones. Scientists took the data and applied an algorithm involving 234 measurements between facial features, including the distances between lips and chin, the forehead and the eyes, or between the eyes. For most faces, the software made subtle changes, with the person’s essence and character largely intact… [more] & [more] & [more]
Source : IHT & Seattle Post-Intelligencer & American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Mysterious snippets of DNA withstand eons of evolution
'Junk' DNA looks like powerful regulator
Small stretches of seemingly useless DNA harbor a big secret, say researchers. There’s one problem: We don’t know what it is. Although individual laboratory animals appear to live happily when these genetic ciphers are deleted, these snippets have been highly conserved throughout evolution. The true function of these regions remains a mystery, but it’s clear that the genome really does need and use them... [more]
Source : Stanford University Medical Center
Beekeeping in cities French bees find a haven in Paris
Success of French program to encourage beekeeping in cities
There are more than 300 known colonies in the French capital, up from about 250 five years ago, according to the National Beekeepers' Association. Hives have appeared on the roof of the Opéra Garnier, on balconies and in parks. Bees are thriving in cities because flowers and plants are changed constantly and there aren't pesticides... [more]
Source : IHT
Pachyrhinosaur lakustai the new horned dinosaur
A new dinosaur species
The dinosaur kingdom just got a little big bigger. A new dinosaur species, Pachyrhinosaur lakustai, has been unveiled from Pipestone Creek, about 30 kilometres southwest of Grande Prairie. The fossils revealed a herd of dinosaurs that perished in a catastrophic event 72.5 million years ago. The animals are characterized by a bony frill on the back of the skull ornamented with smaller horns. They also had large bony structures above their nose and eyes, which lends them their name, Pachyrhinosaurus, or thick-nosed lizard. Researchers believe these structures probably supported horns made of keratin… [more]
Source : Thenewspointer.blogdns.com
Musicians use both sides of their brains more frequently than average people
Musicians more effectively use divergent thinking
Supporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person. One possible explanation the researchers offer for the musicians’ elevated use of both brain hemispheres is that many musicians must be able to use both hands independently to play their instruments... [more]
Source : Vanderbilt University
