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Science News
for 02/06/2010

(last updated 7:30am EST 02/06/2010)

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• Windows 7 stability fix breaks stability... Windows 7 stability fix breaks stability, puzzles Microsoft
02/05/2010
Last week , Microsoft posted a slew of non-security updates for Windows 7, one of which was titled as follows: "An update is available to improve the stability and the reliability of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2." Unfortunately, according to a thread on Microsoft TechNet , the update ( KB977074 ) is actually breaking the stability and reliability of the operating system. "I [j]ust installed this update and my system hangs/freeze[s] at the windows bootup screen," the thread starter wrote. Another user went a little more in-depth: "At shutdown the PC often hangs with a message that a program is still running. Forcing program end does not work. The PC hangs for minutes until I press the PC’s power button. During one startup, a message came up indicating I needed to validate Windows 7. Therefore the PC lost the validation information. The revalidate succeeded. Shutdown problems consistently occur after running media center. Also have problems with recorded TV programs. Intermittently can't burn a recorded TV program to disc. After this failure occurs, a subsequent shutdown produces a hang 100% of the time." (16 h ago)

• Poll Technica: thoughts on the upcoming ... Poll Technica: thoughts on the upcoming 2010 Macworld Expo?
02/05/2010
The Apple press has been all about iPads since January 27 —and how can you blame them? There's a lot to talk about before the device gets into our grubby little hands. But there are other things going on in the Apple space in the meantime. One such thing is the new, improved, and Apple-free 2010 Macworld Expo which is taking place next week. Did you forget about Macworld? Some did, while others (largely on Twitter) have been ramping up the chatter about what to expect without Apple there. You may remember that, in late 2008, Apple announced that it would no longer be attending the Expo after 2009, throwing the conference world into an uproar and eventually leading to the 2010 Expo's dates being moved from January to February of this year. And now, it's only a few days away: the conference begins next Tuesday, February 9 and runs through Saturday, the 13th. (17 h ago)

• Nano-patterning gives polymer solar cell... Nano-patterning gives polymer solar cells a big boost
02/05/2010
Polymer solar cells are still in their infancy compared to their silicon-based counterparts, but thanks to their low cost and rapidly advancing efficiency, the outlook is encouraging for cheap end-user power generation. Researchers have developed a new nano-patterned array production technique that showed a roughly seven-fold increase in efficiency when compared to the traditional sandwich-style construction. The important bits of the physics that go into generating energy in a solar cell only happen at the interface of the electron donor and acceptor layers, which is a few nanometers thick, so optimizing this interface is an important area of study. In a new study, researchers used a piece of aluminum oxide to pattern the polymer comprising the electron donor part of the solar cell, P3HT. The P3HT was drawn into a honeycomb-like array of nanometer pores using vacuum and capillary forces—the resultant structure was a 30nm thick film of P3HT with a nano-forest of pillars roughly 150nm tall and 75nm thick. Backfilling the P3HT array with the electron acceptor, C60, created a complete heterojunction that could then be used in a solar cell, with an interface area 2.6 times greater than if it were flat. Thanks to the use of aluminum oxide as a patterning material, the P3HT polymer chains would align themselves in a stacked array, which greatly increased the conductivity of the pillar. The conductivity increase, coupled with the higher interfacial area yielded a an efficiency 6.6 times greater than a planar configuration of the same donor and receptor polymers. While the absolute efficiency of the new array—just 1.12 percent—is not cutting edge, the patterning technique is cheap and can be done on a large scale, and is unlikely to be limited to just this material system. Other recent polymer cells have claimed efficiencies of 5.5 percent , for example, and the micro- and nano-pillar approach works with traditional photovoltaic materials, too. There is still much work to be done in the optimization of the processing conditions, but this is yet another piece of the puzzle that may make polymer solar cells a viable option for power generation. Advanced Functional Materials , 2010. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200901760 (17 h ago)

• 16- and 48-core monster chips on tap at ... 16- and 48-core monster chips on tap at next week's ISSCC
02/05/2010
Intel, IBM, Sun, AMD, and other chipmakers are set to unveil the details of a host of present and future processor designs at this year's International Solid State Circuits Conference. Let's take a look at each company's sessions, which cover processors that range from single-core to 48 cores, in turn. (18 h ago)

• Nuanti brings HTML5 and Ogg Theora video... Nuanti brings HTML5 and Ogg Theora video to Silverlight
02/05/2010
Nuanti, a company that develops Web browsing technologies, has produced a high-performance Ogg Theora decoder for Microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin. Nuanti's Highgate Media Suite will enable support for standards-based HTML5 video streaming with Theora in browsers that have Silverlight. It works entirely without requiring the users to install any additional software. According to Nuanti developer Alp Toker, the company plans to open the source code in order to enable broader adoption of open and unencumbered video technology on the Web. He revealed some details about the project in a recent blog post . "We'll be releasing a high-performance decoder for Theora video/Ogg Vorbis audio streams that plugs into the Silverlight 3 streaming media abstraction, as well as a reference front-end player interface and JavaScript bridge layer providing basic compatibility with standard HTML5 media tags, adding support for the standard to Internet Explorer and extending the capabilities of WebKit-based browsers like Safari and Epiphany," he wrote. "We're going open source with this! Over the last few years we found that our main business of developing mobile/custom web browser technology is getting more difficult with the demand for proprietary and patent-encumbered formats on the web which we simply can't support. Perhaps a quarter of our developer time last year was spent trying to hack around bugs in the Adobe Flash player product, for example. So part of the strategy has been to encourage open formats, which means getting it in the hands of as many people as possible." Although browser vendors, including Microsoft, have acknowledged the value of the HTML5 video tag, they have not been able to build a consensus around any individual codec. Opera and Mozilla have backed Ogg Theora, a codec that is thought to be unencumbered by patents, but Apple and Google have backed the h264 codec, which cannot be used royalty-free. Microsoft has not yet implemented support for the video tag in Internet Explorer. Nuanti's framework could help boost Theora adoption and will enable Internet Explorer users to consumer HTML5 video content. (19 h ago)

• DOJ: Google book settlement better, but ... DOJ: Google book settlement better, but not yet good
02/05/2010
Google's competitors aren't the only ones who think that the revisions to the Google book settlement are insufficient —the US Department of Justice has reached the same conclusion. The DOJ has filed a statement of interest with the judge handling the case in which it argues that although the revisions to the initial settlement are substantial, they fall well short of eliminating the antitrust and copyright concerns that it had raised previously. As a result, the DOJ argues, the best solution is to send the parties back to the negotiating table to try again. As with its previous filing , the DOJ recognizes that the settlement might ultimately provide a public good. "Realities make it difficult if not impossible to engage in lawful large-scale book digitization projects, thereby denying the public the full corpus of 20th century books and, perhaps, unknown benefits of future creativity and economic innovation," the statement reads. "The parties to the ASA [Amended Settlement Agreement] should be commended for their efforts to find a solution to these challenges." (19 h ago)

• Apple tells devs that location-based adv... Apple tells devs that location-based advertising is a no-no
02/05/2010
In a recent post to its iPhone Developers news site, Apple warned developers not to use location data to serve location-specific ads in their apps. The move comes shortly after Apple acquired its own mobile advertising firm , Quattro Wireless. Apple wants developers to use CoreLocation, the API that allows developers to find your location based on GPS coordinates and other data, to give users "beneficial information." This concept is at work when Yelp shows you nearby restaurants, or when RunKeeper tracks your jogging progress on a map. However, the company warns, "[i]f your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store." Apple doesn't appear to be opposed to location-based targeted advertising in principle. It has filed patents for location-based targeted advertising, especially in relation to offering currently playing songs or videos at a particular location for purchase via iTunes . It may be that Apple merely wants to avoid giving out iPhone user's location data to third parties, especially without permission, with no guarantee about how the data is used. But it also stands to reason that Apple may be planning its own location-based advertising service based on its recent acquisition of Quattro Wireless. It would be unfair of Apple to keep that data all to itself, however. The company did not respond to our request for comment this morning. (20 h ago)

• Publishers continue pummeling Amazon ove... Publishers continue pummeling Amazon over e-book prices
02/05/2010
Amazon's $9.99 e-book price point may be a rarity as more book publishers declare that they'll set their own prices for books, with the seller taking a standard 30 percent cut. Another major publisher has decided to move to what's referred to as the "agency model" while others are hinting that they, too, are about to force the new model on Amazon. Hachette has become the latest publisher to announce that it was done with what it calls the artificially depressed e-book prices imposed by Amazon. In an e-mail to its employees, CEO David Young extolled the virtues of the agency model, noting that it "allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors' works," according to an excerpt posted by Media Bistro . "Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer." (20 h ago)

• Microsoft drops Zune HD prices without e... Microsoft drops Zune HD prices without explanation
02/05/2010
Microsoft this week slashed $20 off both versions of the Zune HD, as first spotted by Gdgt . It seems this is the source of a mini price war that customers have been noticing over the past couple of days. When the device first debuted, the 16GB version sold for $220 and the 32GB version went for $290. A few retailers have taken Microsoft's $20 price cut as an opportunity to cut the price down even lower. Here are the prices from a few online retailers: 16GB 32GB Microsoft $200 $270 Best Buy $200 $270 Circuit City $190 $250 Newegg $190 $250 Amazon $190 $250 Buy.com $189 $254 Speculation is rampant on why Microsoft chose this week for the price cuts (as opposed to, say, a few weeks before the 2009 holiday shopping season). It's possible that Microsoft has adjusted the prices in anticipation of a 64GB version, which has been rumored to be coming for many months , even before the Zune HD launched. The even-more-expensive-by-comparison iPod Touch has had a 64GB version for five months so Microsoft really has no excuse for releasing one and undercutting Apple again. Another possibility to consider is that Microsoft has a new Zune product up its sleeves, or up someone else's sleeves, that is coming sooner than previously expected . In two weeks, Microsoft is set to unveil Windows Mobile 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We know that Zune will play a role in Windows Mobile's big day, but nobody is sure to what extent. Rumors range from a Zune phone completely designed and developed by Microsoft (think Zune HD plus phone capabilities, iPhone style), to multiple Windows phones with Zune media services preloaded. In either case, we would not be surprised if the device(s) sell(s) for just above the new prices for the Zune HD. (21 h ago)

• Symbian Foundation opens platform, still... Symbian Foundation opens platform, still has work to do
02/05/2010
The Symbian Foundation announced this week that the source code for the platform is now entirely open source software. It is distributed under the terms of the permissive Eclipse Public License and can be modified and redistributed at no cost. Symbian's path to openness began in 2008 when Nokia, which already owned half of the company, acquired the rest of the shares. In a partnership with other Symbian stakeholders, Nokia launched the independent Symbian Foundation with the aim of building a vendor-neutral ecosystem to advance the platform and facilitate its transition into an open source software project. (22 h ago)

• Sen. Franken to Comcast, NBC execs: merg... Sen. Franken to Comcast, NBC execs: merger no laughing matter
02/05/2010
Comcast and NBC Universal didn't get a whole lot of love at Thursday's emotional Senate and House hearings on their proposed merger . But company representatives did get plenty of questions. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl cracked no smiles as he ran through four "principal areas of concern" about the deal: potential programming price hikes, loss of free over-the-air TV content, hobbling independent programmers, and weakening Internet TV. "It is essential that you explain to us and the American public how the creation of this media conglomerate will serve the interests of the American people, not just the interests of your companies," Kohl grimly demanded of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBCU President Jeff Zucker as they prepared to make their case. (23 h ago)

• Sling: We didn't 'work' with AT&T for 3G... Sling: We didn't 'work' with AT&T for 3G streaming to iPhone (Updated)
02/05/2010
AT&T made headlines Thursday by announcing that it had decided to allow SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to stream video from a Slingbox over its 3G network . AT&T's CEO claimed in the announcement that Sling Media modified the app to be more efficient on its network, but Sling has responded, saying it didn't have to change much of anything. "Sling Media was willing to work with us to revise the app to make it more bandwidth sensitive," AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement early on Thursday morning. "They made important changes to more efficiently use 3G network bandwidth and conserve wireless spectrum so that we were able to support the app on our 3G mobile broadband network." AT&T said that it plans to "provide developers with wireless network optimization requirements for video and other applications by the end of the first quarter." AT&T wouldn't comment on what those requirements were, but a spokesperson for Sling Media contacted Ars this afternoon to clarify what the company had changed in the software. Sling Media's John Santoro told Ars that no fundamental changes were required. "AT&T never discussed any specific requirements with us." Santoro explained that SlingPlayer Mobile has always contained code to adapt the stream quality to the given network conditions. AT&T has been in discussions with Sling since the app was first released last year, but AT&T never asked the company to make any specific modifications. However, the code has been continually improved, and Sling was able to successfully demonstrate that SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone would not have a negative impact on other wireless customers. AT&T may have merely been concerned that if SlingPlayer Mobile became popular that it could tax its network—already a problem that customers often complain about. de la Vega recently blamed the problem on a very small percentage of "heavy" users, mostly iPhone users with an appetite for video, audio, and other media. But that hasn't stopped the company from adding numerous data hungry devices, like e-book readers, Android-based smartphones, and even the iPad. Nor has it stopped other apps that stream video over 3G, such as Ustream, from being rejected. The company has announced a number of network upgrades intended to increase overall capacity, so it may have less concerns about SlingPlayer Mobile specifically. "Whatever the reason, we're just glad AT&T has approved it," Santoro told Ars. "We're just waiting for Apple's OK, now." The revised app has been submitted, but has not yet been approved for the App Store. UPDATE: Sling Media general manager John Gilmore contacted Ars to clarify the working relationship between Sling and AT&T. "We actually have been working very intensively with AT&T to get the 3G streaming approved," Gilmore told Ars. "Over the course of the last couple of months, they have been testing the app in their labs." Gilmore said that AT&T was able to determine that SlingPlayer Mobile wouldn't significantly impact network performance after extensive testing. "We always felt comfortable that that wasn't the case," he told Ars. "As we built our relationship with AT&T, we were able to prove to them that our app wouldn't cause a negative customer impact. We always felt that our app was a 'good network citizen.'" When asked what code changes AT&T wanted, if any, Gilmore verified that no specific changes were made at AT&T's request. He did say, however, that the 3G streaming code has had some improvements over the course of the last several months due to general code optimization. "We want to make sure that we constantly improve how our app uses network resources." (1 d ago)

• Black Duck patents OSS software license ... Black Duck patents OSS software license conflict analysis
02/05/2010
Bradley Kuhn, the technology director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) expressed dismay this week after learning that Black Duck Software was granted a patent that covers software methods for detecting and resolving open source software licensing conflicts. Kuhn, who plays a major role in the SFLC's GPL enforcement efforts, contends that Black Duck's patent is far from novel and describes techniques that he has been using for licensing compliance analysis for over a decade. Black Duck was founded in 2002 with the aim of providing automated solutions for tracking the provenance of source code in applications. The company's first product, called Protex, reached the market at a time when the software industry was being confronted by emerging legislation and high-profile litigation that raised concerns about software licensing practices. At the time, the ill-fated SCO trial was just starting to heat up and there were still unanswered questions about whether the newly-passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act would require more rigorous internal audits of software licensing. Black Duck turned the industry's fear over these issues into a marketing tool and became one of the leading vendors in the compliance management market. (1 d ago)

• Microsoft Patch Tuesday for February 201... Microsoft Patch Tuesday for February 2010: 13 bulletins
02/05/2010
According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue 13 Security Bulletins addressing 26 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, and it will host a webcast to address customer questions about the bulletins the following day (February 10 at 11:00am PST, if you're interested). Five of the vulnerabilities are rated "Critical," seven are marked as "Important," and the last one is classified as "Moderate." All of the Critical vulnerabilities earned their rating through a remote code execution impact, meaning a hacker could potentially gain control of an infected machine. At least 10 of the 13 patches will require a restart. The list of affected operating systems includes Windows 2000, Windows XP (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64), Windows Vista (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64), Windows 7 (x86 and x64), and Windows Server 2008 R2 (x86 and x64). In terms of the Microsoft Office suites, only older versions are affected: Office XP, Office 2003, and Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. Compared to last month's quiet Patch Tuesday , this one is quite a whopper. The exact breakdown of the bulletins is as follows: Bulletin 1: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 2: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 3: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 4: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 5: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 6: Important (Remote Code Execution), Office Bulletin 7: Important (Remote Code Execution), Office Bulletin 8: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 9: Important (Denial of Service), Windows Bulletin 10: Important (Elevation of Privilege), Windows Bulletin 11: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows Bulletin 12: Important (Denial of Service), Windows Bulletin 13: Moderate (Elevation of Privilege), Windows If you're wondering, the 17-year-old Windows hole we reported on last month is indeed being plugged next week. As for the Internet Explorer flaw disclosed this week , Microsoft understandably isn't ready to patch it yet. What is worrying, however, is that Redmond says it is still working on a patch for the SMB flaw that can be used crash Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 remotely. That was disclosed three months ago , so the company is lagging quite a bit with that one. Along with these patches, Microsoft is also planning to release the following on Patch Tuesday: One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Windows Update (WU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and WSUS An updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, and the Microsoft Download Center This information is subject to change by Patch Tuesday; Microsoft has been known to rush patches as well as pull them if it deems it necessary. (1 d ago)

• Fighting malaria by engineering flies to... Fighting malaria by engineering flies to smell like mosquitos
02/05/2010
Mosquitos are still a leading cause of the spread of malaria and other diseases in many parts of the world. While we know that mosquitos find humans through smell, the details of their olfactory abilities hadn't been worked out. A new study in Nature describes how researchers isolated the olfactory genes of mosquitos and expressed them in fruit flies to see how each responds to certain smells. They found that mosquitos are attracted to certain chemicals in human breath and sweat, even in small amounts—knowledge they could use to build better repellents and traps. The type of mosquito tested, A. gambiae , is the biggest spreader of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that mosquitos detect humans through smell is well-known, but the molecular basis of their ability to sniff us out is not, even though the mosquito genome was sequenced several years ago. (1 d ago)

• Missing funny bone leads to DMCA for Awk... Missing funny bone leads to DMCA for Awkward Stock Photos
02/04/2010
One of the most recent Internet meme trends has been to launch a site of ridiculous, funny, or awkward photos of things and people that are otherwise found in everyday life. You're probably familiar with some of them: People of Walmart , LATFH , Awkward Family Photos , Regretsy , and so on. Usually these sites become so virally popular that they end up getting book deals, but that's not the case for one such site. Awkward Stock Photos , a site that featured some of the more questionable pictures found in stock photo databases, received a DMCA notice for the contents of its entire site, despite the fact that it removed no watermarks, linked back to the original stock photo page, and made no money off the venture. Awkward Stock Photos (ASP) was originally born on Facebook as a give-and-take between Mark Hauge and his friends, who encouraged him to start a blog. Once he finally bit the bullet and signed up with Tumblr, ASP became an immediate hit, and Hauge started receiving hundreds of submissions from readers. An Ars reader and graphic designer himself, Hauge was familiar with how finicky some companies can be, so he made sure to try and cover his bases. Or so he thought: "I made sure to only use watermarked photos that I downloaded and re-uploaded to Tumblr (so I wasn't hotlinking) and then linked them back to their original source," he told Ars. (1 d ago)

• Apple may be paying to get flawed iMacs ... Apple may be paying to get flawed iMacs back in the UK
02/04/2010
Apple is reportedly offering UK iMac owners full refunds plus 15 percent of the original purchase price for 27" iMacs suffering any of the maladies that have plagued the model since its release in October of 2009. According to an Apple Authorized shop speaking to Gizmodo , Apple has already completed the transaction with two of the shop's customers. Apple seems to be brokering the deals due to a shortage in parts needed to repair the units, as well as a repair backlog of over 200 machines. The 27" iMacs have had problems from the get-go with some users reporting issues with discolored displays and others reporting flickering screens. Most recently , there were reports of an internal support document telling technicians to explain that slight screen variations are normal, but if the customer continued to complain, to say that the machine could be repaired in "approximately three weeks." If that wasn't enough, they were told to offer a refund, but not a replacement. When Ars called an official Apple Store in the US to inquire about refunds, they were of little help and recommended we make an appointment with a "Genius" or call the AppleCare support number. Likewise, when we called two Apple Certified dealers, we received very similar responses. One tech did direct us to the recently released firmware update, but was unable to tell us anything regarding refunds or part lead times. The reports are based on a small number of cases, but Gizmodo's source seemed quite confident that these were not isolated results. Nonetheless, we remain skeptical of Apple offering refunds—let alone refunds plus 15 percent—until more reports come in. That being said, if you are at your wit's end with your iMac, it can't hurt to ask. Maybe with the extra cash you can upgrade to a Mac Pro. (1 d ago)

• Mozilla Weave 1.0: take your tabs and bo... Mozilla Weave 1.0: take your tabs and bookmarks everywhere
02/04/2010
Mozilla Labs recently announced the official release of Weave Sync 1.0, an add-on for Firefox that can automatically synchronize browser settings and metadata between multiple computers over the Internet. Mozilla launched the Weave project in 2007 with the goal of cloud-enabling the Firefox Web browser. Weave consists of a Web-based service that is hosted by Mozilla and client-side add-on that integrates with the browser. The user's browser data, including bookmarks, passwords, preferences, page history, and active tabs, are encrypted by the add-on and transmitted to Mozilla's servers in the cloud. The data can then be relayed to other instances of Firefox that are authorized by the user. (1 d ago)

• Cisco's wiretapping system open to explo... Cisco's wiretapping system open to exploit, says researcher
02/04/2010
To meet the needs of law enforcement, most telecommunications equipment includes hardware and software that allow for the monitoring of traffic originating with the targets of investigations. The precise capabilities are often dictated by formalized standards, which allow any hardware maker to implement a compliant system. Unfortunately, these standards often leave the hardware wide open to various attacks that leave regular users vulnerable, and provide savvy surveillance targets the opportunity to evade the snooping. An IBM researcher has put Cisco's system under the microscope at a Black Hat Conference, and found it comes up short. Although the standard was designed to put Cisco hardware in compliance with EU directives, it has apparently been adopted by a number of other hardware makers. The presentation, described in detail by Dark Reading, describes how its reliance on SNMPv3, creates a variety of options for attack. For example, the protocol was initially vulnerable to a brute force attacks on its authentication system; although Cisco has patched that flaw, there's no way to determine how many unpatched machines remain in the wild. SNMP also defaults to operating over UDP, and it's relatively easy to spoof things like the source address and port for that protocol. It's possible to use TCP instead, and even limit the addresses that can access the hardware, but the protocol doesn't specify either of these. Communications aren't encrypted by default, and the system won't notify administrators when a trace is activated or disabled, meaning that hackers could potentially set up or eliminate surveillance without anyone being aware of it. The IBM researcher, Tom Cross, notified Cisco of the issues back in December, and recommends revisions to the standard that will ensure that it is more secure by default. That might be helpful, but it still wouldn't deal with the problems posed by unpatched systems—Cross himself apparently recognizes that network administrators can be hesitant to risk the disruption of service that may come with updating major pieces of equipment. (1 d ago)

• Buy Office 2007, get 2010 free? Microsof... Buy Office 2007, get 2010 free? Microsoft posts, pulls deal
02/04/2010
Microsoft has accidentally posted details about a promotion it will be running for those who buy Office 2007 a few months before and after the release of Office 2010 in June 2010 . It is called the "Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program," though Redmond is not yet ready to announce it. "Microsoft has not disclosed an Office 2010 Technology Guarantee," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "We have no further comment at this time." According to a cached copy of a post on " In The Know - Charles Van Heusen's Weblog ," which is part of the Microsoft US Partner Community website, Customers who purchase a copy of Office 2007, with or without a new PC, from an authorized reseller between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010 qualify for the promotion. They must install and activate Office 2007 by September 30, 2010 and request their free Office 2010 product by October 31, 2010 using an activated Office 2007 Product Key and a dated sales receipt. Office 2010 will be available for a free download for those that qualify, though discs will be orderable for a fee (Microsoft usually charges for shipping and handling when sending out copies of discs for software it is giving away via download). One Office 2010 product is allowed per qualifying Office 2007 purchase, though there is a limit of 25 per person. (1 d ago)

• Secrets to superb malting barleys explor... Secrets to superb malting barleys explored
02/06/2010
Agricultural scientists are discovering more about what goes on inside malting barley grains as they germinate, or sprout, in the malt house. (1 h ago)

• Moms' depression in pregnancy tied to an... Moms' depression in pregnancy tied to antisocial behavior in teens
02/06/2010
Researchers studying 120 British youth from inner-city areas found that mothers who became depressed when pregnant were four times as likely to have children who were violent at 16. This was true for both boys and girls. The mothers' depression, in turn, was predicted by their own aggressive and disruptive behavior as teens. (1 h ago)

• How the butterflies got their spots How the butterflies got their spots
02/06/2010
How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing color and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin's day. Now, scientists have found "hot spots" in the butterflies' genes that they believe will explain one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world. (1 h ago)

• How progesterone prevents preterm birth How progesterone prevents preterm birth
02/06/2010
Researchers believe they may have discovered how the hormone progesterone acts to prevent preterm birth. (1 h ago)

• Toward safer plastics that lock in poten... Toward safer plastics that lock in potentially harmful plasticizers
02/06/2010
Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers -- the source of long-standing human health concerns -- from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics. (1 h ago)

• New malaria vaccine is safe and protecti... New malaria vaccine is safe and protective in children, scientists find
02/06/2010
A new vaccine to prevent the deadly malaria infection has shown promise to protect the most vulnerable patients -- young children -- against the disease, according to an international team of researchers. The vaccine seems to replicate in children the natural protective immunity that adults develop after years of intense exposure to malaria. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, according to the WHO. (1 h ago)

• Sweet! Sugar plays key role in cell divi... Sweet! Sugar plays key role in cell division
02/06/2010
Using an elaborate sleuthing system they developed to probe how cells manage their own division, scientists have discovered that common but hard-to-see sugar switches are partly in control. (1 h ago)

• Length of time in institutional care may... Length of time in institutional care may influence children's learning
02/06/2010
A new study shows that children adopted early from foster care didn't differ from children who were raised in their birth families but that children adopted from institutional care performed worse than those raised in families on tests measuring visual memory and attention, learning visual information, and impulse control. Findings suggest that children make tremendous advances in cognitive functioning once they reach their adoptive families but the impact of early deprivation is difficult to reverse completely. (1 h ago)

• Blacks with MS have more severe symptoms... Blacks with MS have more severe symptoms, decline faster than whites, new study shows
02/06/2010
Fewer African Americans than Caucasians develop multiple sclerosis, statistics show, but their disease progresses more rapidly, and they don't respond as well to therapies, a new study by neurology researchers has found. (1 h ago)

• Leaves whisper their properties through ... Leaves whisper their properties through ultrasound
02/06/2010
The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. Researchers in Spain have presented an innovative technique that enables plant leaves to be studied using ultrasound in a quick, simple and noninvasive fashion. (1 h ago)

• Quantum computing leap forward: altering... Quantum computing leap forward: altering a lone electron without disturbing its neighbors
02/06/2010
A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits." Now, a physicist has discovered how to do just that -- demonstrating a method that alters the properties of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. The feat is essential to the development of future varieties of superfast computers with near-limitless capacities for data. (1 h ago)

• World's first in-depth study of the mala... World's first in-depth study of the malaria parasite genome
02/06/2010
Groundbreaking research could lead to the development of more potent drugs or a vaccine for malaria. Scientists have scored a world first in successfully using transcriptional profiling to uncover hitherto unknown gene expression (activity) patterns in malaria. (1 h ago)

• Super material will make lighting cheape... Super material will make lighting cheaper and fully recyclable
02/06/2010
With the use of the new super material graphene, Swedish and American researchers have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component. It is inexpensive to produce and can be fully recycled. (5 h ago)

• Youth who self-identify as gay, lesbian ... Youth who self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual at higher suicide risk, say researchers
02/06/2010
Mental health professionals have long-known that gay, lesbian and bisexual teens face significantly elevated risks of mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts. However, a group of researchers has now come to the conclusion that self-identity is the crucial risk-factor, rather than actual sexual behaviors. (5 h ago)

• Screening for short cervix could improve... Screening for short cervix could improve pregnancy outcomes and reduce preterm birth
02/06/2010
Using ultrasound to screen all pregnant women for signs of a shortening cervix improves pregnancy outcomes and is a cost-effective way to reduce preterm birth, researchers report in a new study. (5 h ago)

• Craters young and old in southern highla... Craters young and old in southern highlands of Mars
02/06/2010
The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in a new view of the southern highlands of Mars. (5 h ago)

• HPV vaccines may reduce a wide range of ... HPV vaccines may reduce a wide range of genital diseases
02/06/2010
High-coverage human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations among adolescents and young women may result in a rapid reduction of genital warts, cervical cell abnormalities, and diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, researchers report in a new study. Some of these genital abnormalities are precursors of cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers. (5 h ago)

• Where did today's spiral galaxies come f... Where did today's spiral galaxies come from?
02/06/2010
Using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created a demographic census of galaxy types and shapes from a time before the Earth and the sun existed, to the present day. The results show that more than half of the present-day spiral galaxies had peculiar shapes only six billion years ago, which, if confirmed, highlights the importance of collisions and mergers in the recent past of many galaxies. It also provides clues for the unique status of our own galaxy. (5 h ago)

• Prion leaves lasting mark on memory Prion leaves lasting mark on memory
02/05/2010
Prions are a special class of proteins best known as the source for mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases. Despite this negative reputation, a prion may also have important and very positive roles in brain function. The researchers suggest that a prion-like protein may participate in memory in higher eukaryotes, from sea slugs on up. (14 h ago)

• 'Zen' bats hit their target by not aimin... 'Zen' bats hit their target by not aiming at it
02/05/2010
New research shows Egyptian fruit bats find a target by NOT aiming their guiding sonar directly at it. Instead, they alternately point the sound beam to either side of the target. The new findings suggest that this strategy optimizes the bats' ability to pinpoint the location of a target, but also makes it harder for them to detect a target in the first place. (14 h ago)

• Cosmic Log: Scientific Super Bowl predic... Cosmic Log: Scientific Super Bowl prediction
02/05/2010
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Who’ll win the Super Bowl? There’s a market for that. The Oscars? There’s a market for that. How well will Apple’s iPad do? Yep, there’s a market for that, too. Prediction markets, which started out as a political phenomenon, are becoming routine. Apple - Super Bowl - Alan Boyle - Academy Award - Editing (14 h ago)

• Century-old whisky recovered in Antarcti... Century-old whisky recovered in Antarctica
02/05/2010
Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ernest Shackleton - Scotch whisky - Antarctic - Whyte & Mackay - Whisky (19 h ago)

• U.S.-born pandas arrive in China U.S.-born pandas arrive in China
02/05/2010
Hundreds of people came to a welcome ceremony outside the airport in Chengdu, China. And officials from the U.S. zoos hand over the pandas' files to Chinese officials. Giant Panda - Endangered species - China - Tai Shan - Atlanta (21 h ago)

• Ancient dialect extinct after last speak... Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies
02/05/2010
PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters Life!) - One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island. India - Dialect - Reuters - Extinction - Asia (22 h ago)

• Scientists to exhume remains of astronom... Scientists to exhume remains of astronomer
02/05/2010
Prague City Hall says it has approved a request by Danish scientists to exhume the remains of famed Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe - Astronomer - Astronomy - History - People (23 h ago)

• Animals have their own tools of the trad... Animals have their own tools of the trade
02/04/2010
The fact that we humans use such tools is considered a hallmark of our intelligence and a trait that we once thought was uniquely our own. But animals, great and small, also use tools. Animal - Human - Tools - Recreation - Holidays (1 d ago)

• 7 terrific toad survival tactics 7 terrific toad survival tactics
02/04/2010
They're everywhere! Toads have been able to populate most of the world's continents in the relative blink of an eye. Now scientists have figured out seven factors responsible for the toads' success. Health - Medicine - Ophthalmology - Medical Specialties - Recreation (1 d ago)

• Windsurfing insects have real direction Windsurfing insects have real direction
02/04/2010
More than 1,500 years before Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed to the New World, Native Americans had already domesticated turkeys twice: first in south-central Mexico at around 800 B.C. and again in what is now the southwestern U.S. at about 200 B.C., according to a new study. Christopher Columbus - United States - New World - Mexico - Native Americans in the United States (1 d ago)

• Declined: Pika won't be protected specie... Declined: Pika won't be protected species
02/04/2010
Federal officials decide not to provide endangered species protections to the American pika, a tiny, mountain-dwelling animal thought to be struggling because of climate change. Climate change - Endangered species - United States - Environment - Animal (1 d ago)

• Bees see your face as a strange flower Bees see your face as a strange flower
02/04/2010
Bees can learn to recognize human faces, or at least face-like patterns, a new study suggests. Rather than specifically recognizing people, these nectar-feeding creatures view us as "strange flowers," the researchers say. Bee - Flower - Nectar - Human - Biology (1 d ago)

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02/04/2010
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• Ancient dinosaur had stripes, researcher... Ancient dinosaur had stripes, researchers say
02/04/2010
Some dinosaurs had russet-colored feathers and one jazzy specimen had a Mohawk crest and stripes, researchers say in the first reports to confidently assign colors to dinosaurs. Dinosaur - Feather - Paleontology - Earth Science - earth (1 d ago)

• Cosmic Log: 10 history-makers in science Cosmic Log: 10 history-makers in science
02/03/2010
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Black History Month is not only an occasion for celebrating past achievements by African-Americans, but also for anticipating future discoveries. Black History Month - African American - Alan Boyle - Ethnicity - African (2 d ago)

• Ancient giant snakes devoured crocodiles Ancient giant snakes devoured crocodiles
02/03/2010
The largest snake the world has ever known likely had a diet that included crocodile, or at least an ancient relative of the reptile. Snake - Reptile - Crocodile - Biology - Reptiles and Amphibians (2 d ago)

• Shuttle Endeavour a ‘go’ for Sunday laun... Shuttle Endeavour a ‘go’ for Sunday launch
02/05/2010
With many still in shock over this week's space exploration shake-up, NASA managers insist the launch team is focused on safely launching Endeavour on Sunday. NASA - Space Shuttle Endeavour - Space - Space exploration - Space Shuttle (17 h ago)

• Night shuttle launch may be seen on East... Night shuttle launch may be seen on East Coast
02/05/2010
Sunday's liftoff will bring the shuttle's path nearly parallel to the U.S. East Coast, and the glow of the shuttle's engines will be visible along much of the Eastern Seaboard. East Coast of the United States - Technology - Space - Space Shuttle - United States (20 h ago)

• NASA webcam airs ‘reality show’ from spa... NASA webcam airs ‘reality show’ from space
02/05/2010
Like reality shows, but tired of commercials? Now you can use the Internet to see how astronauts live and work each day on the International Space Station. International Space Station - NASA - Space - Technology - Education (21 h ago)

• Nice view! Space station gets a bay wind... Nice view! Space station gets a bay window
02/04/2010
Life has never been so good off the planet, and it's about to get better. Space station - Space - Technology - Bay window - Missions (1 d ago)

• New pictures of Pluto raise new question... New pictures of Pluto raise new questions
02/04/2010
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Pluto hasn't been getting much respect lately, but the Hubble Space Telescope's team has just unveiled a fresh look at the dwarf planet that's just a foretaste of the extreme close-up to come. Hubble Space Telescope - Dwarf planet - Pluto - Solar System - Astronomy (1 d ago)

• Video: Amateur video shows Challenger ex... Video: Amateur video shows Challenger explosion
02/04/2010
Never-before-seen amateur video surfaces showing the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports. (msnbc.com) Space Shuttle Challenger - Dara Brown - Msnbc.com - Space Shuttle - Space (1 d ago)

• Who owns this tennis-ball-sized space ro... Who owns this tennis-ball-sized space rock?
02/03/2010
An out-of-this world rock has become the center of a down-to-earth dispute over who its rightful owner should be. Tennis - sport - Shopping - Instruction - Training (2 d ago)

• Iran sends mouse, two turtles into space Iran sends mouse, two turtles into space
02/03/2010
Iran launches a research rocket carrying several animals into space and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country can defeat the West in the battle of technology. Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Middle East - Technology - West (2 d ago)

• A star is born in nearby cosmic nursery A star is born in nearby cosmic nursery
02/03/2010
A near view offers astronomers a relatively local test bed for studying intense star formation processes that are usually hard to observe in detail because of their great distance from us. Star formation - Astronomy - Star - Milky Way - Star cluster (2 d ago)

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On May 27, 2010 Obama gave a speech stating he wan...
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Last night 01/19/2009 there was a lot of movement ...
Ned Flanders :: 01/20/2009

• etc: Many sites are running "20 year li... etc: Many sites are running "20 year lithium battery" stories. Unfortunately, the English version of the product web page clearly states they're capacitors, which are already known to last far longer than batteries.
02/05/2010
Many sites are running "20 year lithium battery" stories. Unfortunately, the English version of the product web page clearly states they're capacitors, which are already known to last far longer than batteries. Read More: An example , the product page in Japanese , the English version. (18 h ago)

• etc: Feathered, pigmented dinosaurs app... etc: Feathered, pigmented dinosaurs appear to be everywhere these days. This week, they're in Science, along with a picture that shows just how fuzzy the bird/dinosaur border is.
02/04/2010
Feathered, pigmented dinosaurs appear to be everywhere these days. This week, they're in Science , along with a picture that shows just how fuzzy the bird/dinosaur border is. Read More: The paper , Some coverage. (1 d ago)

• Graphene transistors promise 100GHz spee... Graphene transistors promise 100GHz speeds
02/04/2010
Researchers are running into the physical limits of speed and scaling in silicon transistor technology, forcing them to look elsewhere for next-generation devices. The leading candidate to replace silicon being pursued by, well, pretty much everyone, is graphene. Graphene, single sheets of graphitic carbon, is exciting because it is a single atom thick and has remarkably high electron mobilities (100 times greater than silicon), making it ideally suited to atomic-scale, high-speed operation. Also, graphene's electrical properties can be controlled, switching it among conducting, semiconducting and electrically insulating forms. That means graphene-only (or, more likely, graphene-mostly) devices are, in principle, possible. In this week's Science , researchers from IBM demonstrate graphene-based field effect transistors (FETs) that may operate at much higher speeds (100GHz) than Si FETs. Graphene layers were thermally grown on two-inch SiC wafers and the FETs were formed using standard Si fabrication techniques with HfO 2 as the gate oxide. That's a rather significant point—the researchers actually created an entire wafer of these devices. (1 d ago)

• Pound for pound, bats can drink you unde... Pound for pound, bats can drink you under the table
02/03/2010
One of the very nice things about fruit is that it will often ferment all on its own. And a few animal species take advantage of this, deliberately seeking out fermented fruit with the objective of painting the jungle red and waking up in the natural equivalent of a ditch at the side of the road. This works well if you happen to be fairly safe from predators, but not many animals have this luxury. Fruit and nectar eating bats certainly don't fall under the heading of "immune from predation," so researchers wondered what happened to fruit bats that ate from the fermented fruit. Considering body weight and the amount of energy required to keep a fruit bat going, the researchers figured that even the low alcohol content of fruit should still be enough to mean that a night's feeding involved a substantial amount of imbibing. (2 d ago)

• No formal charges from first climate e-m... No formal charges from first climate e-mail investigations
02/03/2010
There seemed to be no end of armchair scholars willing to evaluate the legal, scientific, and policy implications of the e-mail archive stolen from climate researchers at the University of East Anglia. But the actual relevant authorities are beginning to weigh in and, so far, the decisions are quite nuanced. In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office was tasked with investigating whether the e-mails constituted evidence of violations of that nation's Freedom of Information Act. The ICO has decided that, although information requests were "not dealt with as they should have been," prosecutions need to be started within six months of the violation. Since any actual violations occurred in 2008, there's no point in launching a full investigation, although the ICO is now considering whether a change in the law is justified. Some of the e-mails in the archive were exchanged with Michael Mann, a climate researcher at Penn State most closely identified with the "hockey stick" profile of modern temperatures. The university began receiving calls and e-mails filled with complaints about Mann once the CRU e-mails went public. "Given the sheer volume of the communications to Penn State," the university's investigation states, "the similarity of their content and their sources, which included University alumni, federal and state politicians, and others, many of whom had had no relationship with Penn State, it was concluded that the matter required examination by the cognizant University official." Despite the huge volume of material, nobody ever formally lodged any charges of research misconduct, so the investigative committee essentially had to make up its own by distilling the essence of the various complaints. After having examined the relevant e-mails, other e-mail provided by Mann, and interviewing Mann himself, the committee determined that there was no evidence that Mann destroyed, suppressed, or falsified data, or misused any confidential or privileged information obtained during peer review or from embargoed papers. But the committee did not give Mann a complete exoneration, as the university's research policy contains the following: "Public trust in the integrity and ethical behavior of scholars is essential if research and other scholarly activities are to play their proper role in the University and in society." The committee has felt that an investigation was warranted into whether the obvious lack of public trust in Mann among some communities may be the product of some of his past actions, even though his scientific work has been cleared via an investigation by the National Academies of Science. That issue has the potential to be quite interesting. For a variety of reasons, the entire scientific community has lost the trust of some segments of society, who are literally accusing its members of engaging in fraud and political conspiracies. Mann himself is also unusual in terms of his public engagement, given that he's a contributor to the Real Climate blog. To a certain extent, the investigators will have to consider the role of a scholar in light of the Internet, which both enables direct public engagement and rampaging conspiracy theories. (2 d ago)

• LHC gears up for a long run at half powe... LHC gears up for a long run at half power before long pause
02/03/2010
Last week, the people in charge of CERN, the European physics lab that is responsible for the highest energy particle collider on the planet, met to decide a course of action for the coming years. Faced with the reality that equipment upgrades would be necessary before the Large Hadron Collider could reach its full, 14TeV energy levels, the managers decided to plan for a long run at half the rated maximum before shutting it down for extensive work. According to the CERN news page , 7.0TeV collisions (meaning each of the collider's proton beams running at 3.5TeV) are within the current operational bounds of the machine. But the superconducting hardware that distributes power to the the magnets that control the beams haven't been fully updated. This hardware was responsible for the failure that shut the LHC down after its short initial run, so its limitations should be fairly clear to the CERN staff. Replacing this equipment requires that the LHC be warmed up from its normal operating temperatures, which are near absolute zero. That, in turn, requires major downtime. So, run a machine at the highest energies yet achieved, or shut it down for a long time in order to go even higher? The decision was to perform an initial run at 7TeV until a specific data target was reached, which should take 18 months to two years. At that point, the LHC would be shut down for upgrades that could take a year or more. Science is reporting that the delay has caused Fermilab administrators to reevaluate plans to shut the Tevatron down. The initial run of the machine allowed researchers to calibrate their instruments on known particles—a scientist who works on the ATLAS detector told Ars that the initial data was "absolutely beautiful." Dealing with extended operational data should give the grid computing system that analyzes the results a full workout, and may even turn up some predicted particles that lie outside of the reach of the Tevatron's energies. Next week, we'll be taking a tour of Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider that will include a teleconference with scientists at CERN, so expect more from the world of particle physics soon. (2 d ago)

• The Lancet retracts paper linking MMR va... The Lancet retracts paper linking MMR vaccines and autism
02/03/2010
This week, after receiving the conclusions of a multiyear ethics investigation of UK doctor Andrew Wakefield performed by the General Medical Counsel (GMC), the editors of British medical journal The Lancet formally retracted a study which purported to find a link between the childhood MMR vaccine, gastrointestinal disease, and autism. It was published in 1998 and has been a source of controversy ever since. When I started at Nobel Intent, I found that there were five topics that were guaranteed to cause a flame-fest to erupt in the comments: evolution, circumcision, climate change, dark matter/energy, and vaccine-autism links. While people have issues with the scientific consensus for any number of reasons, much of the problems with the final topic can be traced to Wakefield's study. (2 d ago)

• Astronomers spot aftermath of ... Astronomers spot aftermath of asteroid collision
02/06/2010
An object trailing debris was originally thought to be a comet, but images taken by Hubble indicate that two asteroids apparently collided head-on. Researchers have never seen anything like it. An object imaged last week by the Hubble Space Telescope looks at first glance to be a comet, but a closer examination indicates that it is something researchers have never seen before -- the aftermath of two asteroids colliding. (7 h ago)

• Swine flu still spreading, tho... Swine flu still spreading, though at a reduced rate
02/06/2010
U.S. health officials say the number of H1N1 cases has not swelled dramatically, but the virus hasn't gone away, either, as would be expected in a normal influenza outbreak. The odds of a third wave of pandemic H1N1 influenza hitting this spring seem to be declining, but authorities are concerned that the virus is still spreading, though at a reduced rate from its peak, and is not disappearing as would be expected in a normal influenza outbreak, federal officials said Friday. (7 h ago)

• Brown pelicans struggling to s... Brown pelicans struggling to survive
02/05/2010
Shelters in Oregon and California are filling up as the formerly endangered seabirds starve and die at a high rate. The cause is unclear. All along the Oregon coast over the last month, hundreds of brown pelicans have turned up dead, starving or begging for food. (1 d ago)

• Pluto images show a dynamic wo... Pluto images show a dynamic world
02/04/2010
The dwarf planet looks icy and dark molasses-colored, and it shows dramatic seasonal atmospheric changes, astronomers say. Newly computer-processed images of Pluto taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show that it is not simply a ball of ice and rock, but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes produced by its seasons, NASA said Thursday. (1 d ago)

• Proposed NASA budget plots ent... Proposed NASA budget plots entrepreneur-friendly course
02/04/2010
President Obama's plan to abandon a return mission to the moon and rely more on private start-ups would be a blow to big contractors like Northrop and Boeing while encouraging smaller rivals. Big defense firms are reeling from President Obama's call to reshape NASA and scrap plans for sending astronauts back to the moon, an ambitious endeavor that would have meant billions of dollars in spending to develop new rockets and spacecraft. (2 d ago)

• Penn State panel partially cle... Penn State panel partially clears professor in climate e-mail inquiry
02/04/2010
Exonerated of three allegations, a full investigation is launched into whether Michael E. Mann violated academic standards in researching global warming. A Penn State University panel on Wednesday cleared a climate professor of falsifying data, concealing information and misusing confidential information, but ordered a full investigation into whether he violated academic standards in researching global warming. (2 d ago)

• Brains of vegetative patients ... Brains of vegetative patients show life
02/04/2010
Five of 54 unresponsive subjects in a new study demonstrate brain activity indicating awareness, with one able to respond to simple questions. In a study certain to rekindle debate over life-sustaining care for those with grievous brain injuries, researchers report that five patients thought to be in a persistent vegetative state showed brain activity indicating awareness, intent and, in at least one case, a wish to communicate. (2 d ago)

• Turkeys domesticated not once,... Turkeys domesticated not once, but twice
02/03/2010
New research indicates that the birds were tamed in Mesoamerica and what is now the southwestern United States, with the poultry we eat today descending from the former region. Turkeys, the only domesticated animals from the New World that are now used globally, were actually domesticated twice -- once in Mesoamerica as was previously believed and once in what is now the southwestern United States. (2 d ago)

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