Fossil sirenians give scientists new look at ancient climate

What tales they tell of their former lives, these old bones of sirenians, relatives of today's dugongs and manatees. And now, geologists have found, they tell of the waters in which they swam. While researching the evolutionary ecology of ancient sirenians--commonly known as sea cows--scientist Mark Clementz and colleagues unexpectedly stumbled across data that could change the view of climate during the Eocene Epoch, some 50 million years ago. Clementz, from the University of Wyoming, published the results in a paper in this week's issue of the journal Science. He and co-author Jacob Sewall of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania used their...

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Starting a new metabolic path

Efforts to engineer new metabolic pathways into microbes for the inexpensive production of valuable chemical products, such as biofuels or therapeutic drugs, should get a significant boost in a new development from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Researchers there have successfully demonstrated a technique they call "targeted proteomics" that speeds up and improves the ability to identify and quantify specific proteins within a cell or microorganism. "Metabolic engineers and synthetic biologists can use our directed proteomic technique to get useful information about protein levels in their organisms,...

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Standing up for athletes at risk

When a high school athlete drops dead, the rare but fatal condition called "sudden death syndrome" dominates the headlines. For reasons that remain a mystery to scientists, some young athletes — especially young males — begin to experience an unusual heart arrhythmia. With over-exertion, their hearts stop pumping, leading to sudden death. Until now, screening for the hard-to-detect syndrome has been prohibitively expensive. But cardiologist Dr. Sami Viskin of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has developed a new test that's already being used by doctors in America –– and may have already saved lives. The "Viskin Test" is based...

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Small doses of cancer treatment information 'more effective'

When information about cancer treatment options is given in small doses, the patient is more likely to make a sensible decision, research has suggested. A study from the University of Michigan investigated the cancer treatment choices of women with breast cancer, and found that those who were presented with the information in small doses, rather than all at once, made smarter choices. Brian Zikmund-Fisher said: "What that tells me is that it doesn't take very much information to be too much, especially with patients who have trouble with numbers. "When we try to provide patients with full and complete information, we often end up overwhelming...

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Time to spring clean... your mind? Scientists say memory lapses can be blamed on too much irrelevant information

If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand. Scientists say the problem is that you know too much – and you need to declutter, or spring-clean your mind. Experiments show that the memory lapses that come with age are not simply due to brain slowing down. Instead, they can be blamed on the well-used brain finding it more and more difficult to stop irrelevant information interfering with the task in hand. The first step in the study was to compare the working memory of the young and old. Working memory involves holding information in mind while manipulating it mentally. Examples in everyday life include retain plots of films and books to understand or predict what will happen next and following the thread of a conversation...

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Iron rich salt to fight malnutrition

With high prevalence of anaemia in the country, the government has decided to promote iron fortified iodised salt as a measure to deal with malnutrition. The decision was taken at a meeting held in the Prime Minister's Office on promoting consumption of iron fortified iodised salt. The meeting attended by various ministries called for the urgent measures to tackle anaemia in India's population, particularly among adolescent girls, women and children. Anaemia is caused by inadequate intake and poor absorption of iron. It can be prevented and cured by promoting consumption of iron rich foods and iron supplements. The National Institute of Nutrition...

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Breaking – Ford Focus sedan caught on test in Chennai

Two Indian Autos Blog readers have reported sightings of the Ford Focus testing near the Saidapet area in Chennai. The vehicle had one person on board and was driven quickly. It featured multi-spoke alloys, black interiors and silver body paint (roughly like what you see above). The badges were covered using black duct tape. Both readers could not get pictures as the in one case the vehicle zoomed past in the opposite direction and the person wasn’t carrying a camera in the other. Having said this, it is only a matter of time before eagle-eyed petrolheads get hold of snaps that confirm this development. During the unveiling of the new Fiesta at a mall in Delhi last week, top Ford officials opened up on the possibility of the Focus arriving to India. They said the C-Platform, which the Focus...

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Sony Ericsson launches first Android Walkman phone W8

As we reported earlier, Sony Ericsson today made first Android powered Walkman series phone official on its website. Dubbed as W8, it looks like an extended version of Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, and bears similar specifications. Sony Ericsson W8 features a three inch display with 320 x 480 pixels resolution,  600 MHz processor,  128 MB internal memory with microSD card support upto 16GB and 3.2 MP camera.  Features and pretty basic as per the industry standard nowadays, so we would expect an aggressive pricing from the company. This phone is targeted towards music lovers, so company hasn’t bothered it with the latest version of...

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ISRO's dead end in space

Just like some of its rockets, India’s space agency is losing direction. By being more open, it can begin to stop the slide. April is the cruellest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land, a poem noted for its rich metaphors and allusions that describe a soul’s struggle in the post World War I moral decay. In the next few weeks, India’s space agency will experience that firsthand as the unforgiving gaze of public scrutiny turns towards it. Two high-stake launches — that of a polar orbiting rocket and a communication satellite — are scheduled for this month and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) cannot afford to go wrong with them. The unqualified admiration it elicited from the public for its success with the moon mission in 2009 seems like a distant memory now. A year of glitches...

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Apple pressured to respond to iPhone tracking

Apple faced pressure Thursday to respond to claims that its iPhone 4 records sensitive location data, which is transferred and stored on a user's computer in an unprotected and unencrypted format. At a technology conference on Wednesday, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, two British researchers, said a program on the smartphone records location information and a time stamp, which are then uploaded to a user's hard drive. The news prompted several U.S. politicians to send queries to Apple asking for clarification, including Edward Markey, a Republican congressman from Massachusetts. "I am concerned about this report and the consequences of this...

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Facebook fury: Kate Middletons locked out of network

It's not easy being Kate Middleton. The woman who will marry Prince William on April 29 at Westminster Abbey has a face and name known around the world - which is creating some hilarity and a host of problems for the hundreds, if not thousands, of women who share her name. It's a global goof: Some colleagues bow when they pass Catherine Middleton in the hallway of the school where she works in Sydney. When people in Pepper Pike, Ohio say they've heard she is about to marry a prince, Catherine Argentieri Middleton replies "I already did." One Kate Middleton in Birmingham, England, says she does not want to talk about her royal name since...

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Flops Motivate To Do Better: Abhishek Bachchan

He has suffered a series of flops in the recent past but actor Abhishek Bachchan is not ready to give up and is looking forward to doing better in the future. "It feels sad (film flopping at box office), but it motivates to do better in future," he told reporters. His latest releases Game, Khelein Hum Jee Jan Se and Raavan have failed to make an impact at the box office. Commenting upon a magazine describing him as "zero number one", the junior Bachchan said, "Every five years the media picks up an actor and portrays him as unsuccessful first and then later on he is projected as a success." On being pressed whether this had happened previously with any one, Abhishek said, "Yes, with Hrithik Roshan." "Every person does not like each thing in a movie... but if film flops it shakes the confidence...

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Delhi HC Clears Deck For Dum Maaro Dum Release

Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu-starer Dum Maaro Dum secured the Delhi High Court's green signal for its release after the film's makers assured that it would blur some scenes against an air hostess training institute. Accepting producer and director Ramesh Sippy's assurance that the movie will have blurred scenes of the air hostess institute and its logo, Justice Manmohan Singh allowed the film to be released from Friday. Dum Maaro Dum's release was objected to by Frankfinn Airhostess Training Institute which had sought damages worth Rs 35 lakhs from Sippy for allegedly depicting it in a negative manner in the movie. In a civil suit to...

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Muthoot Finance to outpace industry growth: P Lilladher

Country's largest gold financing company Muthoot Finance's (MFL) initial public offering opened for subscription. Prabhudas Lilladher has recommended subscribing the issue, citing valuations remain reasonable, according to its research report. The issue, which closes on April 21, has been subscribed 10 times so far, as per data available on NSE. Reserved portion of qualified institutional bidders, which closes today, has subscribed more than 23 times. The non-banking finance company engaged in gold loan business plans to raise Rs 901 crore via an initial public offer of 5.15 crore equity shares at the higher end of price band of Rs 160-175 a share. The report says, "MFL is well poised to tap the strong growth opportunities in the rapidly growing gold loan market, given its robust distribution...

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TCS meets street expectations, net jumps 31.1%

India’s largest information technology (IT) services provider Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS’) fourth quarter and annual results have met street expectations. With the discretionary spend and all-round growth across verticals and geographies, the company’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2011, touched Rs 2,623 crore, up 31.1 per cent from Rs 2,001 crore in the corresponding quarter last financial year. Despite a weak quarter, TCS added 39 clients. It’s revenue for the quarter grew 31.3 per cent to Rs 10,157 crore from Rs 7,738 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. In US dollar terms, TCS net profit was up 2.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) at $531 million and revenues at $2.24 billion grew 4.7 per cent y-o-y sequentially; much better than its close competitor Infosys...

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RIL Q4 topline beats street; misses bottomline, GRM target

Mukesh Ambani flagship company Reliance Industries came out with mixed set of numbers for quarter-ended March 2011. The company's Q4 net profit was up 14% at Rs 5376 crore versus Rs 4710 crore, year-on-year (YoY). While its Q4 net sales were up 26.23% Rs 72,674 crore versus Rs 57,570 crore, YoY. According to CNBC-TV18 estimates, its was likely to report 16.8% growth in its fourth quarter net profit of Rs 5,500 crore while sales were likely to go up by 19% to Rs 68,500 crore. Here are the key highlights of Q4:     * Its Q4 EPS stood at Rs 16.4.     * Its quarter-on-quarter basis GRM stood at USD 9.2 versus USD 9 per barrel.     * Its EBITDA margins were at 13.54% versus 15.86% YoY.     * Its other income was up at Rs 917 crore...

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16 Killed, 40 Injured In Gambling Den Blast In Karachi

Karachi : At least 16 people were killed and around 40 injured in Pakistan’s commercial capital, when armed men raided a gambling club and threw hand grenades in one of the city’s old areas, Ghas Mandi. Police chief, Fayyaz Leghari said the club was operating upfront as a bridge club but the owners ran a illegal rummy club that was frequented by some very influential people. Leghari told reporters that 16 people had been killed in the incident in which armed men raided the club and threw hand grenades and other explosive material causing extensive damage and causalities. “The condition of 15 of the injured is pretty precarious,” a doctor at the Jinnah hospital said.  “In the past infact last September police raided the club but the owners went to the court and got relief,” Leghari...

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Pak Army Chief Angry Over 'Negative' Propaganda

Islamabad : Hours after a top American military official said that ISI's continued links with the militant Haqqani network are at the core of the strained US-Pak ties, Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has strongly rejected the notion calling it "negative propaganda". Kayani, in a statement, contended that Pakistan Army's "ongoing operations (against militants) are a testimony of our national resolve to defeat terrorism". He "strongly rejected negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough" against militants and his force's "lack of clarity on the way forward". Kayani's statement came after Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff who was on a visit to Pakistan yesterday, referred to the military-run ISI's links to the Taliban faction led by...

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Cardiologist Panda Takes A Swipe At Obama

Mumbai : Eminent cardiologist Dr Ramakant Panda today said that the notion that India delivers cheap health care is not to be encouraged and asserted that it was a huge misconception. Reacting to the remarks made by US President Barack Obama yesterday, the CEO of Asian Heart Institute said it is a misconception in 21st century that India represents cheap health care. "Our doctors, in various fields, compete with the best in the world and India as a country today represents high quality health care and not cheap health care," Panda who operated upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a couple of years of back, said. "The number of patients coming...

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Railway Waiter Held For Molesting Girl On Rajdhani Express

New Delhi : The government railway police at Hazrat Nizamuddin has arrested Mohit, a waiter working for IRCTC on the Thiruvananthapuram-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express on charge of allegedly molesting a girl passenger. According to police, the girl who was travelling with her parents was asleep on her berth, when the waiter came and allegedly molested her. She narrated her ordeal to her parents who informed the GRP on arrival at Nizamuddin station The waiter Mohit has been arrested. India n...

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I Don't Know The Bhushans Well At All, Says Anna Hazare

Ralegan Siddhi : Gandhian Anna Hazare has said that it wasn't he  who got Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan on the joint drafting committee for Lok Pal Bill. “I don’t know the Bhushans well at all. I met them only in Delhi. I did not get them onto the Lokpal committee on my own, their names were suggested by other members and I agreed. I do not want to say anything more on them or the issue of their land (farmhouse plots allotted in Noida) because I don’t know anything about it,” he told The Indian Express. While the Bhushans’ colleagues on the committee, Arvind Kejriwal and Santosh Hegde, have come out in support, Hazare has maintained a silence on the subject. “Why is everyone asking me about them? Ask them (the Bhushans), they are the best people to talk on the issue,”...

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Five Top Corporate Honchos Slept On Tihar Jail Cell Floor

New Delhi : Five top honchos of telecom firms, who were sent to Tihar jail yesterday in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, spent their night like others prisoner as they were not provided any special treatment. In contrast to their lavish lifestyle, all the five spent their night in a 90 square feet Tihar prison cell. Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair were sent to the jail last evening. "They had the usual prison food -- dal, roti, sabzi and chawal -- and after that...

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