Spanish Train Driver Francisco Garzon Charged With 79 Counts Of Homicide

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain,
July 28 (Reuters) - The driver of a
Spanish high-speed train that
derailed and killed 79 people was
released pending trial on charges of
reckless homicide, a judge ruled on
Sunday night.

Francisco Garzon, 52, had been
under arrest since Thursday. He is
suspected of driving the train too
fast through a tight curve on the
outskirts of the northwestern
Spanish city of Santiago de
Compostela.
Examining Magistrate Luis Alaez
formally charged Garzon with "79
counts of homicide and numerous
offences of bodily harm, all of them
committed through professional
recklessness," the court said in a
statement.

In a closed-door hearing before
Judge Alaez, Garzon admitted
taking the curve too fast, blaming it
on a momentary lapse, according to
media reports.
Alaez set the following conditions of
release: Garzon must check in
regularly with the court, surrender
his passport and not drive trains.
None of the parties in the case,
which include state train operator
Renfe, state railway firm Adif and
two insurance companies, had
asked for Garzon to be jailed
pending trial, and he was not seen
as a flight risk, the court statement
said.

At 8:41 p.m. on Wednesday the
eight-carriage, high-speed train
slammed into a concrete wall,
crumpled, and some of the cars
caught fire. The impact was so
strong that one of the carriages was
thrown several metres high over an
embankment.
The death toll from Spain's worst
train disaster in decades rose to 79
after one injured person - a woman
from the United States - died on
Sunday.
Seventy people remain hospitalised
with injuries from the crash, 22 are
in critical condition.
Garzon has worked for Renfe for 30
years, 10 as a driver. His father also
worked on the rails and he grew up
in Renfe-owned housing in the
northwestern town of Monforte de
Lemos and went to school with
other train-workers' children.
After the accident he was
hospitalised with a head injury. On
Saturday he was released from the
hospital but remained in police
custody until he was taken to the
hearing at Santiago de Compostela's
main courthouse.
Neither lawyers nor members of
Garzon's family could be reached
for comment.

Alaez has been assigned to
investigate the case and will also
look at whether the train, the tracks
or the security system that slows
down the trains were at fault.

UP TO THE DRIVER
The Alvia train involved in the
accident, one of three types of high-
speed train services that run in
Spain, received a full maintenance
check on the morning of the
journey, the head of Renfe said, and
security systems were in good
shape.
"As far as we know, the train was in
perfect condition when it set off on
its journey," Renfe President Julio
Gomez-Pomar told newspaper ABC.

The Alvia trains run both on
traditional tracks, where drivers
must heed warning systems to
reduce speed, and on high-speed
tracks where a more sophisticated
security system will automatically
slow down trains that are going too
fast.
At the section of the track where
the accident happened, it was up to
the driver to respond to prompts to
slow down.
Gomez-Pomar rejected criticism
that the safety system was
insufficient, saying the debate "does
not make much sense".

CELEBRATIONS CANCELLED
The city of Santiago was meant to
be celebrating the yearly festival of
St. James on July 25, with thousands
of Christian pilgrims arriving after
walking the famous Camino de
Santiago ancient pilgrimage trail.
A week of concerts and other
cultural events were cancelled
after the train crash on the eve of
the festival. On Sunday, black
ribbons of mourning hung on the
empty stages that had been set up.
Pilgrims, many of them fresh off the
trail and carrying backpacks,
crammed into a standing-room-
only Mass in Santiago's centuries-
old cathedral where they were
asked to remember the victims of
the accident.
At the cathedral gates, along with
flowers and candles
commemorating the dead, some
people left walking sticks from
their journeys and others placed
shells, the symbol of St. James and
badge of honour for the pilgrims
who complete the journey.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who
visited the crash site after the
tragedy, is due to return on
Monday to Santiago, the city where
he was born, for an official funeral
ceremony for the victims.
Dolores Mato, 57, a shopkeeper who
works close to the ancient
cathedral, expressed sympathy and
grief for the victims and their
families, but also for Garzon, who
she said had been "crucified" in the
media. (Writing by Elisabeth
O'Leary; Editing by Fiona Ortiz,
Peter Graff, Sonya Hepinstall and
Stacey Joyce)

Meskerem Legesse Dead: Pregnant Former Olympian Dies, Baby Saved In Connecticut

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A former
Olympic and professional runner
from Ethiopia who was due to give
birth in three weeks collapsed at a
restaurant and died, but doctors
saved her baby, her friends said
Wednesday.

Meskerem Legesse, 26, who lived in
Westport, was with her 2-year-old
son when she collapsed at a Chinese
restaurant in Hamden on Monday,
said her friend Fatima Sene. She
was transported to a hospital,
where she died and the baby was
saved, Sene said.The cause of death
was unclear. Sene said Legesse had
suffered heart problems in the
past.

"It is very sad. She was a very good
person," Sene said. "She would do
anything for anybody. And she
loved that little boy she left
behind."
Legesse ran in the 1,500-meter
competition at the Athens Olympics
in 2004. She finished 12th in a first-
round heat with a time of 4:18:03
and didn't advance to the medal
race. She moved on to a
professional running career in the
U.S., competing in events including
the Boston Indoor Games, Fifth
Avenue Mile in Manhattan and the
Millrose Games in New York. She
apparently hadn't raced within the
past few years.

Legesse's children are now with
their father, and arrangements are
being made to take Legesse's body
to Ethiopia, Sene said. Legesse was
planning to get married to the
children's father, she said.
Legesse's death was first reported
by Hartford-area CBS affiliate
WFSB-TV, which obtained
surveillance video from the
restaurant showing Legesse
entering with her son, sitting down
in a chair and collapsing to the floor
within seconds. Legesse had
ordered takeout and was picking it
up, said Sene's sister, Fatima Cisse,
another friend of Legesse.
Legesse knew the two sisters from a
hair salon down the street from the
Chinese restaurant, they said.
Hamden firefighters and
paramedics with American Medical
Response were called to the
restaurant at about 2 p.m. Monday
and performed CPR on a pregnant
woman who collapsed, according to
fire and police officials who did not
release the woman's name.
Doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital
were able to save the baby because
of the CPR efforts both in the
restaurant and in the ambulance on
the way to the hospital, Hamden
Fire Chief David Berardesca said.

A spokeswoman for the state
medical examiner's office said the
agency declined to perform an
autopsy, citing Legesse's past health
problems. She declined to
elaborate.
A Yale-New Haven Hospital
spokesman on Wednesday said he
had no information about Legesse
being brought there Monday.

Meskerem Legesse Dead: Pregnant Former Olympian Dies, Baby Saved In Connecticut

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A former
Olympic and professional runner
from Ethiopia who was due to give
birth in three weeks collapsed at a
restaurant and died, but doctors
saved her baby, her friends said
Wednesday.

Meskerem Legesse, 26, who lived in
Westport, was with her 2-year-old
son when she collapsed at a Chinese
restaurant in Hamden on Monday,
said her friend Fatima Sene. She
was transported to a hospital,
where she died and the baby was
saved, Sene said.The cause of death
was unclear. Sene said Legesse had
suffered heart problems in the
past.

"It is very sad. She was a very good
person," Sene said. "She would do
anything for anybody. And she
loved that little boy she left
behind."
Legesse ran in the 1,500-meter
competition at the Athens Olympics
in 2004. She finished 12th in a first-
round heat with a time of 4:18:03
and didn't advance to the medal
race. She moved on to a
professional running career in the
U.S., competing in events including
the Boston Indoor Games, Fifth
Avenue Mile in Manhattan and the
Millrose Games in New York. She
apparently hadn't raced within the
past few years.

Legesse's children are now with
their father, and arrangements are
being made to take Legesse's body
to Ethiopia, Sene said. Legesse was
planning to get married to the
children's father, she said.
Legesse's death was first reported
by Hartford-area CBS affiliate
WFSB-TV, which obtained
surveillance video from the
restaurant showing Legesse
entering with her son, sitting down
in a chair and collapsing to the floor
within seconds. Legesse had
ordered takeout and was picking it
up, said Sene's sister, Fatima Cisse,
another friend of Legesse.
Legesse knew the two sisters from a
hair salon down the street from the
Chinese restaurant, they said.
Hamden firefighters and
paramedics with American Medical
Response were called to the
restaurant at about 2 p.m. Monday
and performed CPR on a pregnant
woman who collapsed, according to
fire and police officials who did not
release the woman's name.
Doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital
were able to save the baby because
of the CPR efforts both in the
restaurant and in the ambulance on
the way to the hospital, Hamden
Fire Chief David Berardesca said.

A spokeswoman for the state
medical examiner's office said the
agency declined to perform an
autopsy, citing Legesse's past health
problems. She declined to
elaborate.
A Yale-New Haven Hospital
spokesman on Wednesday said he
had no information about Legesse
being brought there Monday.

Bob Filner Apologizes Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations: 'I Have Failed'

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner
apologized Thursday as allegations
that he sexually harassed women
continued to stir controversy.
"I begin today by apologizing to
you. I have diminished the office to
which you elected me. I have
reached into my heart and soul and
realize I must and will change my
behavior," he said in a statement,
according to NBC San Diego.

"As someone who has spent a
lifetime fighting for equality for all
people, I am embarrassed to admit
that I have failed to fully respect
the women who work for me and
with me, and that at times I have
intimidated them," Filner said in
the statement. "I am also humbled
to admit that I need help. I have
begun to work with professionals to
make changes in my behavior and
approach. In addition, my staff and
I will participate in sexual
harassment training provided by
the city. Please know that I fully
understand that only I am the one
who can make these changes."
Filner had refused to respond to
allegations earlier, even when
several high-profile San Diego
figures and former allies of the
mayor called for him to step down
over the controversy.

The AP reported earlier:
A letter to Filner from
former Councilwoman
Donna Frye obtained by
station KPBS said she
recently received "credible
evidence" that the mayor
harassed more than one
woman. She asked that the
City Council schedule a
special election to replace
him.
Frye didn't immediately
respond to a phone
message from The
Associated Press, but
was scheduled to
appear at a news
conference Thursday.
Frye's urging came two
days after Filner's
fiance, Bronwyn
Ingram, announced in
an email to her team of
volunteers that she was
breaking their
engagement.

"I am extremely
disappointed and
heartbroken, both for
what Team First Lady
could have
accomplished, and for
me, personally;
however, this is the only
action I can take given
the devolvement of our
personal relationship,"
Ingram wrote.

Bob Filner Apologizes Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations: 'I Have Failed'

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner
apologized Thursday as allegations
that he sexually harassed women
continued to stir controversy.
"I begin today by apologizing to
you. I have diminished the office to
which you elected me. I have
reached into my heart and soul and
realize I must and will change my
behavior," he said in a statement,
according to NBC San Diego.

"As someone who has spent a
lifetime fighting for equality for all
people, I am embarrassed to admit
that I have failed to fully respect
the women who work for me and
with me, and that at times I have
intimidated them," Filner said in
the statement. "I am also humbled
to admit that I need help. I have
begun to work with professionals to
make changes in my behavior and
approach. In addition, my staff and
I will participate in sexual
harassment training provided by
the city. Please know that I fully
understand that only I am the one
who can make these changes."
Filner had refused to respond to
allegations earlier, even when
several high-profile San Diego
figures and former allies of the
mayor called for him to step down
over the controversy.

The AP reported earlier:
A letter to Filner from
former Councilwoman
Donna Frye obtained by
station KPBS said she
recently received "credible
evidence" that the mayor
harassed more than one
woman. She asked that the
City Council schedule a
special election to replace
him.
Frye didn't immediately
respond to a phone
message from The
Associated Press, but
was scheduled to
appear at a news
conference Thursday.
Frye's urging came two
days after Filner's
fiance, Bronwyn
Ingram, announced in
an email to her team of
volunteers that she was
breaking their
engagement.

"I am extremely
disappointed and
heartbroken, both for
what Team First Lady
could have
accomplished, and for
me, personally;
however, this is the only
action I can take given
the devolvement of our
personal relationship,"
Ingram wrote.

BERLUSCONI SUPPORTERS STAGE WAR; We are all whores

Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of sex
with an underaged prostitute on
Monday, and while many Italians
celebrated the news, some of his most
fervent supporters are not taking the
decision lying down -- or are they?

The Guardian reports that following
the announcement of the former
prime minister's seven-year prison
sentence and lifetime ban from public
office, a group of pro-Berlusconi
demonstrators rallied in central Rome
on Tuesday under the banner, "Siamo
tutti puttane," or "We are all whores."

According to Italian news agency AKI,
the protesters were led by Giuliano
Ferrara, editor of conservative
newspaper Il Foglio, who denounced
what he perceives as the "puritanical
injustice" of the courts.
"This is a shameful sentence that hurts
Italian justice and lowers it to the level
of that in Afghanistan or Iran," Ferrara
wrote in a front-page editorial in Il
Foglio, according to a translation by
AKI.

The
spectacle included Ferrara applying
lipstick on stage, presumably to
demonstrate his whoredom, and the
on-the-nose song choice of the Rolling
Stone classic, Ruby Tuesday -- a nod to
Karima el-Mahroug, the woman at the
center of the controversy.
In recent months, some of Berlusconi's
supporters have dismissed the
prostitution and coverup case as
merely part of an agenda by his left-
leaning political opponents. Last
month, thousands turned out to an
"Everyone for Silvio" rally in which
Berlusconi condemned the "politicized
magistrates blinded by prejudice and
hatred," the Associated Press reported
at the time.

Berlusconi's critics, however, don't
need to look too far for additional
ammunition against the disgraced
politician. Since entering public office
in 1994, Berlusconi has been sentenced
to 18 years in prison as a result of
different trials, and is currently
embroiled in five additional cases
pending judicial review.

BERLUSCONI SUPPORTERS STAGE WAR; We are all whores

Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of sex
with an underaged prostitute on
Monday, and while many Italians
celebrated the news, some of his most
fervent supporters are not taking the
decision lying down -- or are they?

The Guardian reports that following
the announcement of the former
prime minister's seven-year prison
sentence and lifetime ban from public
office, a group of pro-Berlusconi
demonstrators rallied in central Rome
on Tuesday under the banner, "Siamo
tutti puttane," or "We are all whores."

According to Italian news agency AKI,
the protesters were led by Giuliano
Ferrara, editor of conservative
newspaper Il Foglio, who denounced
what he perceives as the "puritanical
injustice" of the courts.
"This is a shameful sentence that hurts
Italian justice and lowers it to the level
of that in Afghanistan or Iran," Ferrara
wrote in a front-page editorial in Il
Foglio, according to a translation by
AKI.

The
spectacle included Ferrara applying
lipstick on stage, presumably to
demonstrate his whoredom, and the
on-the-nose song choice of the Rolling
Stone classic, Ruby Tuesday -- a nod to
Karima el-Mahroug, the woman at the
center of the controversy.
In recent months, some of Berlusconi's
supporters have dismissed the
prostitution and coverup case as
merely part of an agenda by his left-
leaning political opponents. Last
month, thousands turned out to an
"Everyone for Silvio" rally in which
Berlusconi condemned the "politicized
magistrates blinded by prejudice and
hatred," the Associated Press reported
at the time.

Berlusconi's critics, however, don't
need to look too far for additional
ammunition against the disgraced
politician. Since entering public office
in 1994, Berlusconi has been sentenced
to 18 years in prison as a result of
different trials, and is currently
embroiled in five additional cases
pending judicial review.

SCIENTISTS INVENT 3D BRAIN

Researchers from Germany and Canada,
who collaborated on the ultra-high
resolution brain model, present their
work in the 21 June issue of the journal
Science.

"The authors pushed the limits of current
technology," said Science's senior editor
Peter Stern about the international
scientific effort. "Such spatial resolution
exceeds that of presently available
reference brains by a factor of 50 in each
of the three spatial dimensions."

The sophisticated modern image
processing methods reveal an
unprecedented look at the very fine
details of the human brain's
microstructure, or cellular level. The
anatomical tool will allow for three-
dimensional cytoarchitectonic mapping of
the human brain and serve as an atlas for
small cellular circuit data, or single layers
or sublayers of the cerebral cortex,
explained the researchers.

Until recently, reference brains did not
probe further than the macroscopic, or
visible, components of the brain. Now,
the BigBrain provides a resolution much
finer than the typical 1 mm resolution
from MRI studies.

The project "has been a tour-de-force to
assemble images of over 7,400 individual
histological sections, each with its own
distortions, rips and tears, into a coherent
3-D volume," said senior author Dr. Alan
Evans, a professor at the Montreal
Neurological Institute at McGill University
in Montreal, Canada. "This dataset allows
for the first time a 3-D exploration of
human cytoarchitectural anatomy."

Thin sections of a 65-year-old human
female brain, which was embedded in
paraffin wax, were cut with a special
large-scale tool called a microtome. Then,
the 20-micrometer thick histological
sections were mounted on slides, stained
to detect cell structures and finally
digitized with a high-resolution flatbed
scanner so researchers could reconstruct
the high-resolution 3-D brain model. It
took approximately 1,000 hours to collect
the data. The resulting images reveal
differences in the laminar pattern
between brain areas.

The new reference brain, which is part of
the European Human Brain Project, serves
as a powerful tool to facilitate
neuroscience research and "redefines
traditional maps from the beginning of
the 20th century," explained lead author
Dr. Katrin Amunts from the Research
Centre Jülich and director of the Cecile
and Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain
Research at the Heinrich Heine University
Düsseldorf in Germany. "The famous
cytoarchitectural atlases of the early
1900's were simplified drawings of a brain
and were based on pure visual analysis of
cellular organization patterns," added Dr.
Amunts.
Because of the sheer volume of this
dataset, the researchers say that there
will be a push by those who want to use
it to develop new and valuable tools for
visualization, data management and
analysis.

"We plan to repeat this process in a
sample of brains so that we can quantify
cytoarchitectural variability," said Dr.
Evans. "We will also integrate this dataset
with high-resolution maps of white
matter connectivity in post-mortem
brains. This will allow us to explore the
relationship between cortical
microanatomy and fiber connectivity,"
said Dr. Amunts.
"We are planning to integrate our
receptor data of the human brain in the
reference frame provided by the
BigBrain," continued senior co-author Dr.
Karl Zilles, who is senior professor of the
Jülich Aachen Research Alliance and
former director of the Cecile and Oskar
Vogt Institute for Brain Research at the
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in
Germany. "We will also transfer high-
resolution maps of quantitative data on
the regional and laminar distribution of
native receptor complexes to the
BigBrain. This will allow us to explore the
relationship between cortical
microanatomy and key molecules of
neurotransmission."
The fine-grained anatomical resolution
will allow scientists to gain insights into
the neurobiological basis of cognition,
language, emotions and other processes,
according to the study. The researchers
also stated that they plan to extract
measurements of cortical thickness to
gain insights into understanding aging and
neurodegenerative disorders; create
cortical thickness maps to compare data
from in vivo imaging; integrate gene
expression data from the Allen Institute;
and generate a brain model with a
resolution of 1 micron to capture details
of single cell morphology.
Public access of the BigBrain dataset will
be provided through the CBRAIN Portal
with free registration, stated the
researchers.

WEIRD! A SHEEP EATING PLANT FOUND IN U.K

An exotic "sheep-eating" plant, so-
called because it kills and "eats" sheep,
has bloomed for the first time at the
Royal Horticultural Society's Garden
Wisley in the U.K.

The plant, known formally as Puya
chilensis, has been at the garden for
15 years. In that time, it has reached a
height of 10 feet and grown its
signature base of razor-sharp, hook-
shaped spines.

A BBC report, in its native habitat
of Chile, the plant uses the spines to
ensnare sheep and other small
animals. After they starve to death
and decompose, the animals nourish
the plant through the soil, acting as a
gruesome fertilizer.

Speaking of the plant's first-ever
flower, Cara Smith, a horticulturist at
the Garden Wisley attributed the
success to keeping the plant nourished
on a liquid fertilizer. "[F]eeding it on
its natural diet might prove a bit
problematic," she admitted.

Smith added, "Parents coming along
with small children [to see the flower]
don’t need to worry about the plant
devouring their little ones. It’s growing
in the arid section of our Glasshouse
with its deadly spines well out of reach
of both children and sheep alike.”

Puttin Responds to Accusation he Stole a Super Bowl Ring

A spokesman for Vladimir Putin has
emphatically denied that the Russian
president ever stole a Super Bowl ring
from New England Patriots owner
Robert Kraft, days after Kraft
originally made the extraordinary
allegation.

Putin does currently possess the
championship ring made for Kraft
when his Patriots defeated the
Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl
XXXIX. Kraft said in 2005 that he gifted
the ring to Putin when the two met
during a function in St. Petersburg.

"I
decided to give him the ring as a
symbol of the respect and admiration
that I have for the Russian people and
the leadership of President Putin," he
said in a statement.

However, Kraft changed his tune at
Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence
Gala in New York on Thursday night,
recounting his interaction with Putin
as such: “I took out the ring and
showed it to [Putin]... he put it on and
he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this
ring." When Kraft tried to retrieve the
ring, he continued, the Russian
president "put it in his pocket," and
exited the room with a coterie of "KGB
guys."

The George W. Bush White House
dissuaded Kraft from trying to retrieve
the ring, fearing a diplomatic debacle,
Kraft reportedly said.
"What Mr. Kraft is saying now is
weird," said Putin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov. "I was standing 20 centimeters
away from him and Mr. Putin and saw
and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring
as a gift."

The ring, which is reportedly worth
upwards of $25,000, was one of three
Kraft has earned with the Patriots to
date.

Google Internet Balloons Offer Remote Areas Web Access

Google is launching Internet-beaming
antennas into the stratosphere aboard
giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons with
the lofty goal of getting the entire
planet online.

Eighteen months in the works, the top-
secret project was announced
Saturday in New Zealand, where up to
50 volunteer households are already
beginning to receive the Internet
briefly on their home computers via
translucent helium balloons that sail
by on the wind 12 miles above Earth.

While the project is still in the very
early testing stages, Google hopes
eventually to launch thousands of the
thin, polyethylene-film inflatables and
bring the Internet to some of the more
remote parts of the globe, narrowing
the digital divide between the 2.2
billion people who are online and the
4.8 billion who aren't.
If successful, the technology might
allow countries to leapfrog the
expense of installing fiber-optic cable,
dramatically increasing Internet usage
in places such as Africa and Southeast
Asia.

"It's a huge moonshot, a really big goal
to go after," said project leader Mike
Cassidy. "The power of the Internet is
probably one of the most
transformative technologies of our
time."
The so-called Project Loon was
developed in the clandestine Google X
lab that also came up with a driverless
car and Google's Web-surfing
eyeglasses.

Google would not say how much it is
investing in the project or how much
customers will be charged when it is
up and running.
The first person to get Google Balloon
Internet access this week was Charles
Nimmo, a farmer and entrepreneur in
the small town of Leeston who signed
up for the experiment. Technicians
attached a bright red, basketball-size
receiver resembling a giant Google
map pin to the outside of his home.
In a successful preliminary test,
Nimmo received the Internet for about
15 minutes before the 49-foot-wide
transmitting balloon he was relying on
floated out of range. The first thing he
did was check the weather forecast
because he wanted to find out if it was
a good time for "crutching" his sheep,
or removing the wool around their
rear ends.
Nimmo is among the many rural folk,
even in developed countries, who can't
get broadband access. After ditching
his dial-up four years ago in favor of
satellite Internet service, he has gotten
stuck with bills that sometimes exceed
$1,000 a month.
"It's been weird," Nimmo said of the
Google Balloon Internet experience.
"But it's been exciting to be part of
something new."
In recent years, military and
aeronautical researchers have used
tethered balloons to beam Internet
signals back to bases on Earth.

Google's balloons would be untethered
and out of sight, strung out in a line
around the globe. They would ride the
winds around the world while Google
ground controllers adjusted their
altitude to keep them moving along the
desired route.
Ground stations about 60 miles apart
would bounce Internet signals up to
the balloons. The signals would hop
backward from one balloon to the next
to keep people continuously
connected. Solar panels attached to
the inflatables would generate
electricity to power the Internet circuit
boards, radios and antennas, as well as
the onboard flight-control equipment.

Each balloon would provide Internet
service for an area twice the size of
New York City, or about 780 square
miles, and because of their high
altitude, rugged terrain is not a
problem. The balloons could even
beam the Internet into Afghanistan's
steep and winding Khyber Pass.
"Whole segments of the population
would reap enormous benefits, from
social inclusion to educational and
economic opportunities," said DePauw
University media studies professor
Kevin Howley.
Once in place, the light but durable
balloons wouldn't interfere with
aviation because they fly twice as high
as airplanes and well below satellites,
said Richard DeVaul, an MIT-trained
scientist who founded Project Loon
and helped develop Google Glass,
eyeglasses with a tiny, voice controlled
computer display.

In the U.S., however, Google would
have to notify the Federal Aviation
Administration when the balloons are
on their way up or down. The
company is talking with regulators in
other countries about meeting their
requirements.
The Internet signals travel in the
unlicensed spectrum, which means
Google doesn't have to go through the
onerous regulatory processes required
for Internet providers using wireless
communications networks or satellites.
At this stage, the company is putting a
few dozen balloons up over New
Zealand and then bringing them down
after a short period. Later this year,
Google hopes to have as many as 300
of them circling the globe continuously
along the 40th parallel, on a path that
takes them over New Zealand,
Australia, Chile and Argentina.
Covering the whole world would
require thousands of the balloons. No
timetable has been set for that.

Google chose New Zealand in part
because of its remoteness. Some
Christchurch residents were cut off
from the Internet for weeks after a
2011 earthquake that killed 185
people. Google said balloon access
could help places suffering natural
disasters get back online quickly.
"The potential of a system that can
restore connectivity within hours of a
crisis hitting is tremendously exciting,"
said Imogen Wall at the U.N. Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, although she warned that the
service must be robust. "If the service
fails in a crisis, then lives are lost."
Temple University communications
professor Patrick Murphy warned of
mixed consequences, pointing to China
and Brazil as places where Internet
service promoted democratic
principles but also contributed to a
surge in consumerism that has
resulted in environmental and health
problems.
"The nutritional and medical
information, farming techniques,
democratic principles those are the
wonderful parts of it," he said. "But
you also have everyone wanting to
drive a car, eat a steak, drink a Coke."
Already the world's largest advertising
network, Google stands to expand its
own empire by bringing the Internet
to more corners of the Earth. More
users means more potential Google
searchers, which in turn translates
into more chances for the company to
display ads.
Richard Bennett, a fellow with the
nonprofit Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation, was skeptical
of the project, noting that smartphones
are increasingly being used in
developing countries.
"I'm really glad that Google is doing
this kind of speculative research," he
said. "But it remains to be seen how
practical any of these things are."
Before heading to New Zealand,
Google spent a few months secretly
launching two to five flights a week in
California's Central Valley.
"People were calling in reports about
UFOs," DeVaul said.
___

Earn Cash, Get Free Referrals, Website Traffic and increase your online social presence!

Earn Cash, Get Free Referrals, Website Traffic and increase your online social presence!

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TO MEET QUEEN

—Prime Minister Stephen
Harper will meet next week with
Queen Elizabeth II and the leaders of
Britain, France and Ireland but
probably won’t be able to use his trip
to Europe to ink Canada’s long-sought
trade deal with the European Union.

Besides an audience with the Queen,
Harper’s June 11-18 trip will be
highlighted by a rare opportunity to
address the British Parliament next
Thursday while in London. Harper is
expected to talk about the close ties
and shared challenges of Canada and
Britain.

The trip includes high-level meetings
in London, Paris and Dublin — capped
by the Group of Eight summit in Lough
Erne, Northern Ireland.
Harper had hoped the trip would
provide an opportunity to sign the
Canada-EU free-trade agreement. But
after four years of talks, negotiators
are still haggling over how to open up
agricultural trade, government
procurement and investment dealings.
As a result, it is unlikely that Harper
can announce an agreement during
the visit.
“We’re not there yet,” Andrew
MacDougall, the prime minister’s
spokesperson, said in a briefing Friday
for reporters in advance of Harper’s
trip.

MacDougall said Canada won’t
sign the free-trade pact until it
achieves a good deal for Canadians.
But he said Harper will probably use
his upcoming discussions to press
European leaders to reach a deal,
which is crucial to the Conservatives’
export-expansion strategy.
One of the focuses of the G8 summit
hosted by British Prime Minister David
Cameron will be what governments
can do to fight tax evasion and
promote greater corporate and
government transparency.
MacDougall said Harper’s contribution
to the discussion of government
transparency will not be hampered by
the tumult in Ottawa over former
Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber’s
decision to quit the Tory caucus.
Rathgeber quit Thursday because of
the Conservative party’s efforts to
water down Rathgeber’s legislation to
make federal officials’ salaries public.
“I don’t think that will be an issue at
all” at the G8 meeting, MacDougall told
reporters.

Besides trade, Harper’s talks with
other leaders are expected to focus on
the economy.
Leaders at the G8 are also expected to
discuss what to do about the
deteriorating situation in Syria,
terrorism, instability in Mali and
responses to Iran and North Korea,
which are both widely believed to be
building nuclear weapons.
In addition to Canada, the G8 includes
France, Britain, Germany, the United
States, Italy, Japan and Russia.
In Paris, Harper will meet with French
President Francois Hollande and Prime
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. In Dublin,
Harper sits down with Irish Taoiseach
Enda Kenny and president Michael
Higgins.
Besides talks with Cameron in London,
Harper will deliver a speech to the
British Parliament, the first Canadian
leader to do so since former prime
minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
in 1944.

Federal government officials briefing
reporters said Harper’s visit is not
expected to be disrupted by work
stoppages by Canadian diplomats in
Europe —part of a global action over
pay scales by members of the
Professional Association of Foreign
Service Officers.

OBAMA MOTORCADE ACCIDENT

Two Miami police
officers were injured Wednesday while
participating in President Barack
Obama's motorcade in Florida, police
said.

Neither of the injuries was life-
threatening.
The Miami Police Department said Sgt.
Rufus Devane III, 42, and Sgt. Santiago
Cruz, 49, were traveling on Interstate
95 when they were involved in a crash
while approaching an onramp. A
preliminary investigation indicated an
abandoned vehicle on the shoulder of
the road may have contributed to the
crash, though the investigation is not
complete, police said.The two officers
were brought to a local hospital, where
tests were under way to determine the
severity of their injuries, police said.
Both officers have been with the
department for about two decades.

Obama's motorcade was returning to
Miami's international airport after two
Democratic fundraisers the president
held Wednesday evening in Miami
Beach, Fla. Obama's itinerary wasn't
affected. Obama left Miami on a
return flight to Washington ahead of
schedule.

The White House and U.S. Secret
Service had no immediate comment.
This isn't the first time Obama's
motorcade has been involved in an
accident in Florida. In September
2012, Bruce St. Laurent of the Jupiter,
Fla. police department was struck and
killed by a pickup truck in West Palm
Beach, Fla., where Obama was
traveling for a campaign stop.

Warren Buffett Welcomes Hillary Clinton To Twitter, Pressures Her To Run In 2016

The Oracle of Omaha doesn’t just
welcome anybody to Twitter. Then
again, Hillary Clinton is not your
average tweeter.

Hours after the former Secretary of
State joined Twitter, Warren Buffett
sent a tweet welcoming her to the
social media site, complete with his
usual charm:
For the curious, “#45” is very likely a
subtle suggestion that Clinton run for
president in 2016. (Winning would
make her the country’s forty-fifth
president.) This was only Buffett's
third tweet.

Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
and one of the richest people in the
world, previously expressed his hope
that Clinton would run for president in
an interview with CNN last November.
"I hope it's Hillary Clinton," Buffett
said at the time. "I like what she
believes in. I think she's
extraordinarily able and energetic for
that matter in pushing those beliefs. I
don't see how you could have anybody
better qualified."

As of late May, Clinton would easily
beat both former Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush (R) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) if
she ran for president, according to a
poll by Quinnipiac University.
By the way, Clinton's first tweet was
pretty good:

MANDELA STILL SUFFERING FROM RECURRING LUNG INFECTION

Former South African
President Nelson Mandela was receiving
medical treatment for a lung infection on
Sunday after spending a second night in a
hospital.

There was no official update on 94-year-
old Mandela's condition, described in a
government statement on Saturday as
"serious but stable."
The office of President Jacob Zuma had
said that Mandela was taken to a Pretoria
hospital after his condition deteriorated
at around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. It
described the lung infection as recurring.

The anti-apartheid leader has now been
taken to a hospital four times since
December, with the last discharge coming
on April 6 after doctors diagnosed him
with pneumonia and drained fluid from
his lung area.
Worshippers at a Sunday church service in
the Johannesburg township of Soweto
prayed for the recovery of Mandela, who
was freed in 1990 after 27 years as a
prisoner of white racist rule and won
election to the presidency in all-race
elections in 1994.
At the Regina Mundi church in Soweto,
Father Sebastian Rousso said Mandela,
seen by many as a symbol of
reconciliation, played a key role "not only
for ourselves as South Africans, but for
the world."

Welcome Tempa, a construction worker,
said he prayed daily for Mandela, who
retired from public life years ago and had
been receiving medical care at his
Johannesburg home until his latest
transfer to a hospital.
"When I was still a kid, we used to pray
for him," said Tempa, who is 63 years old.

On April 29, state television broadcast
footage of a visit by Zuma and other
leaders of the ruling African National
Congress to Mandela's home. Zuma said
at the time that Mandela was in good
shape, but the footage - the first public
images of Mandela in nearly a year
showed him silent and unresponsive,
even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been
particularly vulnerable to respiratory
problems since contracting tuberculosis
during his long imprisonment. The bulk of
that period was spent on Robben Island,
an outpost off the coast of Cape Town
where Mandela and other prisoners spent
part of the time toiling in a stone quarry

Artificial magnetic monopoles discovered

Artificial magnetic monopoles discovered

HIV STRUCTURE CRACKED USING GPU-BASED STIMULUS

This week, a new paper described
how researchers pieced together
the entire molecular structure of the
protein shell of the HIV virus using
GPU-based simulations. This
remarkable achievement not only
paves the way for new therapeutic
approaches to AIDs, but establishes
GPUs as franchise players in
molecular simulation.

In order to photograph really small
things, like viruses, they need to be
imaged with electrons rather than
light. Even electron microscopy (EM)
has its limits though, and to see the
structure of the proteins that make
up a virus, X-rays are the probe of
choice. While X-ray crystallography
allows researchers to understand
the configuration of an individual
protein, the way those proteins are
assembled to build the virus is still
largely invisible to us. The only way
to get a picture of what might be
going on in this gray area in the
middle is to feed massive computer
simulations with data from both
ends of the process.

To determine the structure of the
HIV protein coat (also know as the
capsid), the researchers ran
simulations at the petascale level
using the Blue Waters
supercomputer at the University of
Illinois. This machine has some 237
Cray XE6 cabinets, and 32 Cray XK7
cabinets utilizing Nvidia Tesla Kepler
GPU computing capability.
At a quadrillion operations per
second, 100 nanoseconds of detailed
molecular motion could be
performed on the 1300 identical
proteins that make up the capsid.
Data was used from an EM imaging
technique known as “cryoelectron
tomography” to determine the
structure of the HIV core. At eight
angstrom resolution, a rough layout
of the overlying capsid shell could
be obtained.

It was already known that the
capsid proteins tend to form
hexamers and pentamers (much like
exterior of a soccer ball or
buckyball). By contrast, the HIV
virion was known to have an
asymmetrical form, and it has also
been established that many viruses
have some variance in the stable
structures they can assume. The
researchers were able to simulate
64 million atoms and determine that
the capsid structure contains 216
hexamers and 12 pentamers.
Molecular dynamics simulations
apply the laws of motions to
individual atoms. They include the
attractive and repulsive
electromagnetic forces which act on
the particle to create their complex
motion. To run the model, space
and time are discretized — split up
into small digital intervals — and the
forces are recalculated each time
the simulation proceeds through the
next iteration.

The researchers adapted an open-
source dynamics package known as
NAMD (Not just Another Molecular
Dynamics program) to run on the
GPU cluster. The code was written
using the Charm++ parallel
programming language known for its
efficiency in simulating millions of
particles together.
The main job of the capsid coat is to
protect the virus when it is between
cell hosts. Once inside a cell, it
needs to be able to flex open to
release the genetic assault
machinery of the virus. Anti-capsid
drugs have been developed for
other viruses but as of yet, none
exist for HIV. Understanding how
the HIV capsid is assembled will
make it easier to develop new drugs
which cause premature opening of
the capsid, or perhaps block its
opening altogether.

RATS HAVE A DOUBLE VIEW OF THE WORLD

Scientists from the Max
Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
in Tübingen, using miniaturised high-
speed cameras and high-speed
behavioural tracking, discovered that rats
move their eyes in opposite directions in
both the horizontal and the vertical plane
when running around. Each eye moves in
a different direction, depending on the
change in the animal's head position.

An
analysis of both eyes' field of view found
that the eye movements exclude the
possibility that rats fuse the visual
information into a single image like
humans do. Instead, the eyes move in
such a way that enables the space above
them to be permanently in view --
presumably an adaptation to help them
deal with the major threat from
predatory birds that rodents face in their
natural environment.

Like many mammals, rats have their eyes
on the sides of their heads. This gives
them a very wide visual field, useful for
detection of predators. However, three-
dimensional vision requires overlap of the
visual fields of the two eyes. Thus, the
visual system of these animals needs to
meet two conflicting demands at the
same time; on the one hand maximum
surveillance and on the other hand
detailed binocular vision.

The research team from the Max Planck
Institute for Biological Cybernetics have
now, for the first time, observed and
characterised the eye movements of
freely moving rats. They fitted minuscule
cameras weighing only about one gram to
the animals' heads, which could record
the lightning-fast eye movements with
great precision.

The scientists also used
another new method to measure the
position and direction of the head,
enabling them to reconstruct the rats'
exact line of view at any given time.

The Max Planck scientists' findings came
as a complete surprise. Although rats
process visual information from their eyes
through very similar brain pathways to
other mammals, their eyes evidently
move in a totally different way. "Humans
move their eyes in a very stereotypical
way for both counteracting head
movements and searching around. Both
our eyes move together and always
follow the same object. In rats, on the
other hand, the eyes generally move in
opposite directions," explains Jason Kerr
from the Max Planck Institute for
Biological Cybernetics.

In a series of behavioural experiments,
the neurobiologists also discovered that
the eye movements largely depend on
the position of the animal's head. "When
the head points downward, the eyes
move back, away from the tip of the
nose. When the rat lifts its head, the
eyes look forward: cross-eyed, so to
speak. If the animal puts its head on one
side, the eye on the lower side moves up
and the other eye moves down." says
Jason Kerr.

In humans, the direction in which the
eyes look must be precisely aligned,
otherwise an object cannot be fixated. A
deviation measuring less than a single
degree of the field of view is enough to
cause double vision. In rats, the opposing
eye movements between left and right
eye mean that the line of vision varies by
as much as 40 degrees in the horizontal
plane and up to 60 degrees in the vertical
plane. The consequence of these unusual
eye movements is that irrespective of
vigorous head movements in all planes,
the eyes movements always move in such
a way to ensure that the area above the
animal is always in view simultaneously
by both eyes -something that does not
occur in any other region of the rat's
visual field.

These unusual eye movements that rats
possess appear to be the visual system's
way of adapting to the animals' living
conditions, given that they are preyed
upon by numerous species of birds.
Although the observed eye movements
prevent the fusion of the two visual
fields, the scientists postulate that
permanent visibility in the direction of
potential airborne attackers dramatically
increases the animals' chances of survival.

COCKROACHES QUICKLY LOOSE SWEET TOOTH TO SURVIVE

How sweet it isn't: Some cockroaches
evolve to avoid poison in just 5
years

NEW YORK (AP) — People have been
getting rid of cockroaches for decades
by setting out bait mixed with poison.
But in the late 1980s, in an apartment
test kitchen in Florida, something went
very wrong.

A killer product stopped working.
Cockroach populations there kept
rising. Mystified researchers tested
and discarded theory after theory
until they finally hit on the
explanation: In a remarkably rapid
display of evolution at work, many of
the cockroaches had lost their sweet
tooth, rejecting the corn syrup meant
to attract them.

In as little as five years, the sugar-
rejecting trait had become so
widespread that the bait had been
rendered useless.

"Cockroaches are highly adaptive, and
they're doing pretty well in the arms
race with us," said North Carolina
State University entomologist Jules
Silverman, discoverer of the glucose
aversion in that Florida kitchen during
a bait test.
The findings illustrate the evolutionary
prowess that has helped make
cockroaches so hard to stamp out that
it is jokingly suggested they could
survive nuclear war.

In a study published Thursday in the
journal Science, Silverman and other
researchers explain the workings of
the genetic mutation that gave some
roaches a competitive advantage that
enabled them to survive and multiply.
The key is certain neurons that signal
the brain about foods.
In normal cockroaches, glucose excites
neurons that tell the brain "Sweet!" In
the mutant insects, glucose activates
neurons that say "Sweet!" and ones
that say "Yuck!" The "Yuck!" neurons
dampen the signal from the others, so
the brain gets the message the taste is
awful. This unusual nerve activity
appeared in glucose-hating
cockroaches collected from Puerto
Rico as well as descendants of the
Florida insects.

The research focused on the German
cockroach, a small kind that can hitch
a ride into your home in a grocery bag,
not that big lunk known as the
American cockroach. Such finicky
eating habits have also been seen in
these smaller roaches in Southern
California, Cincinnati, Indiana, South
Korea and Russia.

Scientists are now
looking to see if other kinds of
cockroaches show aversion to glucose.
The new work is nifty science. But does
it explain why you can't get rid of the
little buggers in your kitchen?
Probably not, said Coby Schal, another
study author at North Carolina State.

Tests show that the glucose-hating
cockroaches are happy to eat most
types of bait these days, suggesting
that manufacturers have removed the
glucose or masked it, he said. (Bait
ingredients are a trade secret.) What's
more, the researchers found glucose-
hating cockroaches in only seven of 19
populations they sampled from
various locations.
Frankly, if the bait you put out isn't
working, it's probably because you're
using it incorrectly, suggested Schal,
who said he consults to the pesticide
industry free of charge.
Still, he said, the new work has
potential to help many consumers. By
studying how cockroaches evolve to
evade our poisons, scientists may find
clues to designing bait that the pests
cannot resist.

It's not clear when the Florida
cockroaches first encountered bait
with glucose or how quickly they
ditched their taste for the sugar, he
said. But he said it's reasonable to
estimate that it took maybe only five
years for that glucose aversion to
spread to so many cockroaches that
the bait was no longer effective. That's
about 25 generations of German
cockroaches, which can reproduce
about one to three months after
they're born, Schal said.
The glucose aversion may have arisen
in an individual cockroach in response
to bait. Or it may have already been
present in just a few individuals when
the arrival of the bait suddenly gave
them an advantage for surviving and
reproducing. Their offspring would
inherit the trait and increasingly
replace other cockroaches.
Michael Scharf, an entomologist at
Purdue University who studies urban
pests but wasn't involved in the new
work, noted that since the 1950s,
cockroaches have shown they can also
evolve resistance to insecticides. He
agreed the latest results should help
scientists develop better products to
control roaches.

                                     Science Daily

BAYERN VICTORIOUS AT LAST

After so many trials without success, Bayern Munich finally got the golden crown of the UEFA Champions League yesterday, beating their Leagu rival Borrussia Dortmund. Thanks to the late minute goal by Robben

The Dutchman produced an assist and a
dramatic, late deciding goal as Bayern
defeated German rivals Borussia
Dortmund 2-1 at Wembley on Saturday
night.

And having missed a penalty in last
season's final defeat by Chelsea at
Bayern's own Allianz Arena after also
losing the 2010 final to Inter Milan, the
match-winning contribution was
redemption for Robben.
After an enthralling game, he told Sky
Sports: "There are so many emotions,
especially where we came from last year
and such a disappointment.
"The last four years, Bayern have been in
the final three times. It needed to
happen but you still have to do it."
He added: "It is a special feeling. You
cannot describe it. Everything is going
through your mind. It is hard to say but
you do not want to be a loser."

Bayern could now complete an
unprecedented Treble for a German club
if they win their domestic cup final next
weekend.
And Robben has been understandably
impressed by a season in which they blew
away Italian and Spanish champions
Juventus and Barcelona en route to
conquering Europe.

He said of the campaign: "It is already
going into the history books. But also
because of the way we did it. We beat
Juventus twice 2-0 and then Barcelona
4-0 and 3-0."

HARVARD CREATES BEAUTIFUL, SELF+ASSEMBLED MANOFLOWES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND NATURE

Harvard creates beautiful,

The beautiful flowers that you see
above, and dotted throughout the
rest of this story, are around 25
micrometers tall and 10
micrometers wide.  

A strand of
human hair, in comparison, is around
100 micrometers thick. Even more
impressively, these flowers self-
assembled from three normal
chemical compounds. Rather than
just an exercise in aesthetics,
though, scientists hope these
nanoflowers can improve our
scientific understanding of how
immensely complex structures in
nature, such as human embryos,
self-assemble.

To create the flowers, scientists at
Harvard start by dissolving barium
chloride and sodium silicate into a
beaker of water. At the bottom of
the beaker, there’s a glass slide or
metal blade. Then, without any kind
of input from the scientists, carbon
dioxide from the air starts to
dissolve in the clear solution,
starting a reaction that creates
white barium carbonate crystals. As
part of this chemical reaction, an
acid is released into the area
immediately surrounding the barium
carbonate, lowering the local pH and
preventing the creation of more
barium carbonate. The dissolved
sodium silicate, triggered by the
acidic environment, jumps into
action, coating the barium carbonate
with a layer of silica and using up
the acid. The process then starts
again from the beginning.
Now, what the scientists have
discovered, is that the self-assembly
process can be very finely controlled
by varying the concentration of
carbon dioxide, pH of the solution,
and temperature. Increasing the
amount of carbon dioxide, for
example, creates broad-leafed
structures.

By exactly controlling the
environment for a few hours, it’s
possible to build nanoflowers — or
indeed, probably many other shapes
as well. We should probably note at
this point that these pictures are
false-color scanning electron
microscope images; in reality, the
flowers are white. (Though,
considering they’re smaller than the
eye can see, the color probably
doesn’t matter.)

As for why these flowers are
actually an important scientific
breakthrough, you need only look at
nature, where self-assembly rules
supreme. It is due to local chemical
gradients — differences in pH, or
signaling molecules emitted from
living cells — that incredibly
complex structures arise. This
knowledge might allow us to meddle
with existing self-assembled
systems, to create weird and
wonderful Frankensteins, but the
more likely scenario is that we will
use it to inspire our own, human-
made, biomimetic self-assembled
materials. After all, when you’re
working on chips or materials that
have nanometer-scale features, self-
assembly is really the only viable
route towards commercial scale
production.

JUSTIN BIEBER BOOED AT AWARD NIGHT

Justin Bieber was booed at the
Billboard Music Awards, despite
winning two awards and performing
twice.

The "Beauty and the Beat" singer was
accepting the Milestone Award when
the crowd seemed to erupt in boos.
Looking a bit confused, Bieber went on
to assert that he thinks only the "craft"
and his music should be considered,
arguing that "none of the other bull"
mattered. While it's unclear what
Bieber was referencing, he has had a
number of bad public relations
moments as of late, having lost his
temper with the paparazzi in London
and being caught smoking marijuana.

"This is not a gimmick," Bieber said.
"I’m an artist and I should be taken
seriously.”
Bieber beat out a number of other
artists , including Bruno Mars and
Taylor Swift for the award. The
Milestone Award was actually Bieber’s
second trophy of the night. He also
took home “Top Male Artist.”
It's unfortunately not the first time
Bieber has been booed.

He's
previously encountered a similar
reaction at a Canadian Football Game,
a New York Knicks basketball game
and at one of his own concerts , where
he arrived hours late.

Other wild moments from the evening
included Miguel coming up short on a
jump move and landing on an
audience member's neck , Nicki Minaj
giving Lil Wayne a lapdance and
Prince closing out the show with a
killer performance.

             Culled from huffington post

IRON IN EARTH'S INNER CORE BECOMES WEAKER

Researchers have used a
diamond anvil cell to squeeze iron at
pressures as high as 3 million times that
felt at sea level to recreate conditions at
the center of Earth.

The findings could
refine theories of how the planet and its
core evolved.
Through laboratory experiments,
postdoctoral researcher Arianna Gleason,
left, and Wendy Mao, an assistant
professor of geological and environmental
sciences and of photon science,
determined that the iron in Earth's inner
core is about 40 percent as strong as
previously believed.
The massive ball of iron sitting at the
center of Earth is not quite as "rock-solid"
as has been thought, say two Stanford
mineral physicists. By conducting
experiments that simulate the immense
pressures deep in the planet's interior,
the researchers determined that iron in
Earth's inner core is only about 40
percent as strong as previous studies
estimated.

This is the first time scientists have been
able to experimentally measure the
effect of such intense pressure -- as high
as 3 million times the pressure Earth's
atmosphere exerts at sea level -- in a
laboratory. A paper presenting the
results of their study is available online in
Nature Geoscience.
"The strength of iron under these
extreme pressures is startlingly weak,"
said Arianna Gleason, a postdoctoral
researcher in the department of
Geological and Environmental Sciences,
and lead author of the paper. Wendy
Mao, an assistant professor in the
department, is the co-author.
"This strength measurement can help us
understand how the core deforms over
long time scales, which influences how we
think about Earth's evolution and
planetary evolution in general," Gleason
said.
Until now, almost all of what is known
about Earth's inner core came from
studies tracking seismic waves as they
travel from the surface of the planet
through the interior. Those studies have
shown that the travel time through the
inner core isn't the same in every
direction, indicating that the inner core
itself is not uniform. Over time and
subjected to great pressure, the core has
developed a sort of fabric as grains of iron
elongate and align lengthwise in parallel
formations.

The ease and speed with which iron grains
in the inner core can deform and align
would have influenced the evolution of
the early Earth and development of the
geomagnetic field. The field is generated
by the circulation of liquid iron in the
outer core around the solid inner core
and shields Earth from the full intensity of
solar radiation. Without the geomagnetic
field, life -- at least as we know it -- would
not be possible on Earth.
"The development of the inner core
would certainly have some effect on the
geomagnetic field, but just what effect
and the magnitude of the effect, we can't
say," said Mao. "That is very speculative."

Gleason and Mao conducted their
experiments using a diamond anvil cell --
a device that can exert immense pressure
on tiny samples clenched between two
diamonds. They subjected minute
amounts of pure iron to pressures
between 200 and 300 gigapascals
(equivalent to the pressure of 2 million to
3 million Earth atmospheres). Previous
experimental studies were conducted in
the range of only 10 gigapascals.
"We really pushed the limit here in terms
of experimental conditions," Gleason said.
"Pioneering advancements in pressure-
generation techniques and improvements
in detector sensitivity, for example, used
at large X-ray synchrotron facilities, such
as Argonne National Lab, have allowed us
to make these new measurements."
In addition to intense pressures, the
inner core also has extreme
temperatures. The boundary between the
inner and outer core has temperatures
comparable to the surface of the sun.

Simultaneously simulating both the
pressure and temperature at the inner
core isn't yet possible in the laboratory,
though Gleason and Mao are working on
that for future studies. (For this study,
Gleason mathematically extrapolated
from their pressure data to factor in the
effect of temperature.)
Gleason and Mao expect their findings
will help other researchers set more
realistic variables for conducting their own
experiments.
"People modeling the inner core haven't
had many experimental constraints,
because it's so difficult to make
measurements under those conditions,"
Mao said. "There really weren't
constraints on how strong the core was,
so this is really a fundamental new
constraint."

                        Source: Science daily

Women's immune systems remain younger for longer

Women's immune systems remain younger for longer

DIABETES IN MICE REVERSED IN 10 DAYS

Georgia Tech engineers and Emory
University clinicians have successfully
engrafted insulin-producing cells into a
diabetic mouse model, reversing diabetic
symptoms in the animal in as little as 10
days.

The research team engineered a
biomaterial to protect the cluster of
insulin-producing cells -- donor pancreatic
islets -- during injection. The material also
contains proteins to foster blood vessel
formation that allow the cells to
successfully graft, survive and function
within the body.
"It's very promising," said Andrés Garcia,
Georgia Tech professor of mechanical
engineering. "There is a lot of excitement
because not only can we get the islets to
survive and function, but we can also cure
diabetes with fewer islets than are
normally needed."

The research article -- a partnership with
Emory's Dr. Robert Taylor and Dr. Peter
Thule that was funded in part by the
JDRF, the leading global organization
funding Type 1 diabetes research -- will
be published in the June issue of the
journal Biomaterials.
Organizations such as JDRF are dedicated
to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes, a
chronic disease that occurs when the
pancreas produces little or no insulin, a
hormone that allows the transport of
sugar and other nutrients into tissues
where they are converted to energy
needed for daily life.
Pancreatic islet transplantation re-
emerged as a promising therapy in the
late 1990s. Patients with diabetes
typically find it difficult to comply with
multiple daily insulin injections, which
only partially improve long-term
outcomes. Successful islet transplantation
would remove the need for patients to
administer insulin. While islet
transplantation trials have had some
success, and control of glucose levels is
often improved, diabetic symptoms have
returned in most patients and they have
had to revert to using some insulin.
Unsuccessful transplants can be attributed
to several factors, researchers say. The
current technique of injecting islets
directly into the blood vessels in the liver
causes approximately half of the cells to
die due to exposure to blood clotting
reactions. Also, the islets -- metabolically
active cells that require significant blood
flow -- have problems hooking up to blood
vessels once in the body and die off over
time.

Georgia Tech and Emory researchers
engineered a hydrogel, a material
compatible with biological tissues that is a
promising therapeutic delivery vehicle.
This water-swollen, cross-linked polymer
surrounds the insulin-producing cells and
protects them during injection. The
hydrogel containing the islets was
delivered to a new injection site on the
outside of the small intestine, thus
avoiding direct injection into the blood
stream.
Once in the body, the hydrogel degrades
in a controlled fashion to release a growth
factor protein that promotes blood vessel
formation and connection of the
transplanted islets to these new vessels.
In the study, the blood vessels effectively
grew into the biomaterial and successfully
connected to the insulin-producing cells.
Four weeks after the transplantation,
diabetic mice treated with the hydrogel
had normal glucose levels, and the
delivered islets were alive and
vascularized to the same extent as islets
in a healthy mouse pancreas. The
technique also required fewer islets than
previous transplantation attempts, which
may allow doctors to treat more patients
with limited donor samples.

Currently,
donor cells from two to three cadavers
are needed for one patient.
While the new biomaterial and injection
technique is promising, the study used
genetically identical mice and therefore
did not address immune rejection issues
common to human applications. The
research team has funding from JDRF to
study whether an immune barrier they
created will allow the cells to be accepted
in genetically different mice models. If
successful, the trials could move to larger
animals.
"We broke up our strategy into two
steps," said Garcia, a member of Georgia
Tech's Petit Institute for Bioengineering
and Bioscience. "We have shown that
when delivered in the material we
engineered, the islets will survive and
graft. Now we must address immune
acceptance issues."
Most people with Type 1 diabetes
currently manage their blood glucose
levels with multiple daily insulin injections
or by using an insulin pump. But insulin
therapy has limitations. It requires
careful measurement of blood glucose
levels, accurate dosage calculations and
regular compliance to be effective.

This work was also funded by the
Regenerative Engineering and Medicine
Center at Georgia Tech and Emory, and
the Atlanta Clinical and Translation
Science Institute under PHS grant UL
RR025008 from the Clinical and
Translational Science Award Program.
The Center for Pediatric Healthcare
Technology Innovation at Georgia Tech,
the Department of Veterans Affairs Merit
Review Program and the National
Institutes of Health's National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases (Grant R01 DK076801-01)
helped fund the project as well.
For details, click here

WORLD'S FINEST BEARD

Contestants in this year's International
German Beard and Mustache
Championship make Bert Reynold's
iconic 'lip warmer' look like puberty
gone wrong.

On April 27, nearly 100 competitors
went chin-to-chin in the German town
of Pforzheim to showcase some of the
world's finest facial hair for their
annual beard and moustache contest.
The fur-ocious participants competed
in 18 categories, including "Dali-style,"
"Imperial" and "Freestyle." This year's
event marked the 26th year of
competition.
But this tiny German town isn't the
only hub for the hirsute-inclined. In
recent years the trend of 'bearding'
has caught on around the world with
pageant-like championships that
include the European Beard And
Mustache Championship and America's
own East Coast Beard and Mustache
Championship. Details here

WHY FEMALE FLIES EAT UP SPERM

In an odd twist on the dinner date,
some female flies eat sperm—and now
scientists know why.
Female Ulidiid flies (Euxesta bilimeki)
expel and eat ejaculate because it allows
them to decide who will be the best
father of their offspring, a new study says.

Just as lovers, partners, and spouses
frequently exchange gifts and share
meals during courtship and beyond, so do
many animal species.

Usually, the male builds a nest or
provides a food gift for the female, in
order to help convince her that his genes
are high quality and that he would make a
good father. In these cases, the female is
directly choosing her mate, and the
offspring benefit both from the good
genes of the parents and from the food or
housing provided by the male.
But for some species of mammals, birds,
and insects—in which fertilization is
internal—the effects of female choice are
less obvious to the male. In a process
called cryptic female choice, a female can
exert control over her baby daddy by
expelling a male’s sperm after copulation.
This method is especially effective in
species like E. bilimeki, in which the
female can store the male’s sperm before
using it to fertilize her eggs, according to
the study authors.
The Mating Game

Researchers knew that female E.
bilimeki would expel and eat sperm, but
didn’t know why.
To find out, Christian Luis Rodriguez-
Enriquez and colleagues at the Institute
for Ecology in Vera Cruz, Mexico, watched
74 pairs of E. bilimeki court and mate.
They found that all of the females
expelled and ate at least some of the
ejaculate that they’d stored in specialized
sperm-storage organs.

When the team looked closer, they found
that one-quarter of the females purged all
of the ejaculate from their bodies. This
meant that the males with whom they
recently mated would have no chance of
fathering their offspring, according to the
study, published recently in the journal
Behavioral Ecology and Sociology .
Since females mate multiple times, the
amount of ejaculate she expels can help
increase or decrease the likelihood that a
male will be the father of her offspring.
The more sperm she expels, the less
likely the male will pass on his genes.
So what makes an undesirable suitor? A
male fly that’s too aggressive, the study
found: The longer a male pursued a
female before mating made the female
more likely to expel and consume the
ejaculate.

Rodriguez-Enriquez and colleagues
hypothesize that this may be because the
female grows tired of evading the male
and copulates simply to avoid his
amorous pursuits. Expelling the sperm
means that she doesn’t have to worry
about making babies with males who
don’t know the meaning of “back off!”
Plus, she just might get some nutritious
liquid in exchange for her hassle.
Sperm: It’s Not What’s For Dinner

Ulidiid flies live in the deserts of Mexico
and the U.S. Southwest, where water and
food are scarce. That made researchers
initially suspect that the female flies
might be eating the ejaculate for
sustenance.

To test this theory, the team raised
females on one of several different diets:
a very high-quality diet containing
protein, sugar, and water; a high-quality
diet containing sugar and water; water
only; and neither water nor food.
The females that were given no food or
water for two days did live longer if they
consumed expelled sperm after mating,
but this consumption had no effect on the
survival or longevity of the well-fed flies.
But the starved and thirsty flies were no
more likely than the well-fed flies to
consume the ejaculate—showing that
they don’t eat it for food.
Although mysteries remain about the
sperm-eating flies, the results show that
females continue to play a crucial role in
selecting the father of their offspring—
even after mating.

THE FUTURE OF CARS IS AUTO PILOT, NOT SELF DRIVEN

Much ado has been made recently
about Google’s focus on developing
consumer-friendly self-driving cars in
the next five years. Now, Elon Musk
has confirmed that he is interested
in the potential of bringing this
same kind of technology to the
electric cars made by Tesla Motors.

The race is on to see who can bring
self-driving cars to market first.
In a report today from Bloomberg,
Musk says that he has been
discussing the self-driving car
technology with Google, but he has
different opinions about
implementation. Google’s system
relies on expensive LIDAR sensors
to help make steering and braking
decisions, but Musk contends that
using optical cameras is the best
way forward. Either way, it all comes
down to developing extremely
reliable software to parse the data
quickly, and keep the passengers
safe. If Musk and his team can
deliver the goods cheaper and faster
than Google, Tesla could ride this
technology into mainstream
acceptance.

It’s not just the sensors that Musk
doesn’t like; he doesn’t much care
for the phrase “ self-driving car”
either. Instead, he seems to prefer
“autopilot.” While it might seem like
trivial semantics, it does make it
clear that this technology is
intended as a tool for drivers — not
a replacement for drivers. For safety
and liability purposes, a human will
still need to be paying attention
when these cars hit the market.
Don’t expect to be able to play
Draw Something on your phone, or
take a nap on the way to work.
Governments all over the globe are
now tasked with figuring out how
this technology works logistically and
legally, and even big car companies
like Audi and Toyota are getting in
on the land rush .

As it stands now,
Google’s self-driving tests can only
be carried out in three US states,
and there are still mountains of red
tape that needs to be dealt with
before we see self-driving cars
available for the masses. As
enthusiastic as people like Elon
Musk and Google’s Sebastian Thrun
are, this tech is still years, maybe
even decades, away from taking off.
To be clear, Tesla hasn’t announced
anything official quite yet. After the
Bloomberg interview, Musk took to
Twitter to explain himself: “Am a
fan of Larry, Sergey & Google in
general, but self-driving cars
comments to Bloomberg were just
off-the-cuff. No big announcement
here.” Even so, it’s clear that a
company as progressive as Tesla will
want to be on the cutting edge with
self-driving cars. Since Google is
targeting five years, it wouldn’t be a
bit surprising if Tesla is internally
targeting four. That kind of chutzpah
is exactly what we’ve all come to
expect from Elon Musk in all of his
endeavors.

THE TSARNEVS PLANNED A SUICIDE BOMBING ON JULY 4TH.

The surviving brother of the Boston
bombing suspects told interrogators
that the pair considered suicide
attacks and an assault on July 4th , a
law enforcement official told The New
York Times.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who is
currently in custody and has been
interrogated by the FBI, reportedly
said he and his brother, 26-year-old
Tamerlan, opted for pressure cooker
bombs that they eventually used in the
twin Boston Marathon bombings on
April 15, the official said.
NBC News reports that the bombs
were built inside Tamerlan's house in
Cambridge, Mass., and that since they
were finished faster than anticipated,
the brothers decided to move up the
attack date.

Dzhokhar reportedly admitted to the
newly revealed plots on April 21, two
days after he was captured in
Watertown. He also told interrogators
that he and Tamerlan had watched
sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki online.
The Times reports that there's no
indication the two had been in contact
with Awlaki.
The body of Tamerlan, who was killed
several days after the bombing during
a shootout with police, was claimed by
his family on Thursday .

For details, click here

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP RAT WITH HUMAN BRAIN

To build or repair a car, you
generally need to know a fair bit
more than just how it works. Yet
today we seek to repair brains
ravaged by disease in the absence of any real knowledge about how they work, and only a sparse knowledge of how they are built.

Transplantation of stem cells or
tissues alone is not sufficient to
restore function in diseases or
injury. New neural components —
wetware or hardware — must be
integrated in a way that augments
existing function, and permits them
to successfully compete for resource and control.
What we do know is that the
population of the developing cortex
by its cellular inhabitants is a mass-
migratory event that proceeds with
the utmost of precision.

A recent publication in Cell uncovered a few of the molecular players in this game. The paper sought to reveal how developments ultimately shape
the unique structure of the cortex
through the manipulation of tractile
and tensile forces. In probing these
components, researchers stumbled
upon one that makes a mouse brain turn out decidedly more human in appearance.
Highly convoluted and richly
textured, the exterior surface of the
human brain is instantly
recognizable. Nothing says “what a
marvelous structure” like a deeply-
fissured glob of goo. There are
individual differences, but the basic plan reliably emerges in
development, day in and day out.
With the advent of MRI scanning, we have discovered that, occasionally, people are born with a smooth cortex as a result of certain genetic mutations. For them, severe neurological impairment and early
death are inevitable.

Back in 2003, it was discovered that
the normally smooth cortex of the
mouse could be made to develop
rudimentary folds reminiscent of the brains of larger mammals. These brains did not actually have the deep grooves (known as sulci and gyri) which would be representative of the true folds of a mammalian cortex. The gene that was manipulated to do this is one that regulates cell proliferation. By engineering changes in this gene in mice, the researchers were able to create a thinner cortex of greater surface area, which necessarily kinked throughout its upper surface within its bony confines.

The new research reported in Cell,
builds on the earlier thesis work of
Ron Stahl, who previously
demonstrated that the protein
product of a gene known as TRNP1
programs cells either for continued
multiplication, or to turn into a
mature cell which is done dividing.
Working together with Magdalena
Götz in Munich, they now show how
TRNP1 is involved in the
specification of radial and tangential
expansion of discrete regions of
growing cortex.
They also show that one of the main regulatory points is controlling the number of scaffold cells called radial glial cells. These cells are the among
the first to populate the cortex,
creating, in effect, a rough blueprint for the brain. These cells normally set up an elaborate trusswork upon which neural cells migrate, much like the support lattices frequently installed for growing tomato plants.

To demonstrate these effects, the
researchers used a process called
“electroporation” to introduce
specially-designed RNA into localized
areas of the developing mouse
cortex. Electroporation creates
transient pores into cell membranes
which allow small molecules to
enter. Once inside, the RNA probe
interferes with the production of the
TRNP1 protein. The end result of
this is an increase in the number of
radial glial cells. That leads to more
neuronal migration, and a thicker
cortex which necessarily bulges to
form gyri.
Intriguingly, another effect of the
TRNP1 manipulation was a clear
shift in the number of precursor
cells observed to divide with their
cleavage axis oriented horizontally
to the plane of the cortex. Control
of cleavage axis is a well established
mechanism for cortical specification
which gives the daughter cells a
head start not only in migration
direction, but in selective adherence
to the guiding scaffold.
The researchers also obtained
human tissue samples from
preserved brains dating to weeks
12, 18, and 21, the period of time
during pregnancy when the cells of
the cortex are rapidly dividing.
Consistent with the mouse
experiments, they found that TRNP1
was present at levels that correlated
locally with presence of folds. It is
worth reiterating that there are vast
differences in scale between human
and mouse brains.
Some features of the cortex, like
thickness, are roughly similar at
around 3mm, while others such as
surface area, differ a thousand-fold.

Indeed a single gyrus in a human
brain is comparable in size to the
entire cortex of a mouse. It is
therefore quite remarkable that
similar molecular mechanisms are at play in the development of both.
New functionality has apparently
been introduced to older pathways
that, at least in smooth brains,
formerly had nothing to do with
folding. Much of the phenomena involved in folding are physical. Axons, for example, tug more tightly on regions of the cortex that are the first to mature. The forces that lead to buckling of the cortex are set up by differentially-controlled proliferation and migration of cells which ultimately take orders from molecular cues.

Development in brains eventually
reaches a steady state as many of its programs wind down. Yet, when
viewed under a microscope, the
brain can still be observed to be in a state of constant flux which
recapitulates many of these
developmental processes. As
researchers continue to lay bear the elements that shape this growth, integration of new cells and tissues to augment the brain will proceed much more smoothly.

Developments like this one may
seem out there, and unrelated to
the some of the more practical goals we have for brain research today, but each marks a notable step in understanding how the mammalian brain develops and, ultimately, functions. More specifically, because
we are doing so many studies that
involve putting human cells into
mice for testing, it's important that
we know how the mouse brain
normally develops.

In addition to
shedding light on some new
mechanisms of brain development,
this research also demonstrates how old genes are involved in building new structure in more evolved mammalian brains.

www.extremetech.com

TWINS BORN 87 DAYS APART COULD BREAK GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS

The story of a set of twins born 87 days apart may now be heading for the record books.

Today, Amy and Katie are adorable
and healthy babies living in Waterford, Ireland, with mother Maria Jones-Elliot, father Chris Elliot and siblings Olivia and Jack, according to the Daily Mirror.

But there was a period when Jones-
Elliot said she wasn't sure of either of her twin daughters would make it.
“The doctors told me there was very
little hope of them surviving as they
were so premature," she told the
Mirror, explaining that her water
broke a mere 23 weeks into her
pregnancy.

Dr. Eddie O'Donnell works at
Waterford Regional Hospital, where
the twins were born, and helped on
their delivery team. "Most people haven't heard of this," O'Donnell told the Belfast Telegraph.
"You can end up losing a twin, it could be stillborn," he said.
Despite the odds, Amy was born on
June 1, 2012. Four months premature, she weighed a little more than one pound.
"Amy was fighting for her life in an
incubator and Katie was struggling to survive in my womb," Jones Elliott told the Mirror. "After hours, Chris and I said, 'Enough is enough. Let nature take its course.' It was the hardest three months of our lives."
Doctors induced Jones-Elliot a second time on Aug. 27, during her 36th week of pregnancy, the Mirror reports.

After about an hour, Katie emerged. "For a baby delivered at 23 weeks to survive, is a huge achievement from everyone’s point of view," Dr. Sam Coulter Smith, chief of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital and an expert in obstetrics and gynecology, told the Irish Times. "For a 23-week twin to survive is even bigger because twins
often behave more prematurely than singleton babies. That really is right at the absolute border of viability."
Smith added that the doctors who
worked with the family should be
commended for their critical thinking in an unfamiliar situation.

If their claim of 87 days between the birth of their twins is substantiated then they will break the Guinness World Record title for Longest interval between birth of twins. We currently await their evidence."

It would be recalled that the  current record holder is Peggy
Lynn of Huntingdon, Penn. Lynn gave birth to daughter
Hanna and son Eric 84 days apart
between 1995 and 1996.