Monthly Archives: April, 2009
Same-sex marriage bill passed in N.H. Senate
The New Hampshire Senate have voted to allow same-sex couples to marry, setting the state in motion to become the fifth in the country to legalize same-sex marriage.
New Hampshire’s House of Representatives has already approved the bill, but the Senate amended the language slightly before passing it on a 13-to-11 vote, meaning the House must [...]
Swine Flu: A new Killer Virus
Swine flu emerged in Mexico months earlier than previously thought, the country’s health minister has said, giving possible clues about the origins of the killer virus. Officials had previously said that the first recorded case of the H1N1 virus in Mexico was from a woman who died in the southern state of Oaxaca on April [...]
Artificial Blood Vessels Prove Effective
Scientists report today that artificial blood vessels made using a person’s own skin cells work well in patients receiving kidney dialysis. The new blood vessels mark the first vascular grafts to be derived entirely from a patient’s own tissues, which lowers the odds of a harmful immune reaction.
To speed the procedure of renal dialysis doctors [...]
Allergies Abound Due to Freedom From Lice
A University of Nottingham study is holding freedom from louse infestation responsible for increased allergic reactions. The finding means that the epidemic of allergic disorders in modern, urban people might be due to our having rid ourselves of lice and worms.
As per “hygiene hypothesis” humans’ immune systems evolved to compensate for continual infections with parasitic [...]
Antioxidant in Berries Stops Wrinkles
New research presented at the Experimental Biology 2009 meeting being held in New Orleans that a specific type of antioxidant phytochemical called ellagic acid holds the promise of enhancing our bodies on the outside. In fact, it may hold the key to successfully slowing down or even stopping skin aging.
Researchers in the laboratory of Dr. [...]
Woman attacked by 200-pound wild hog
St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue reported that a 26-year-old woman was told there was a pig in her back yard on Monday afternoon. When she went outside to investigate, the 200-pound animal charged her, cutting the back of her left leg. Officials said a wild hog attacked a woman in the back yard of her [...]
Bluetooth 3.0 Launched Officially
As reported by PC Magazine, the latest revision to the Bluetooth Core Specification was officially unveiled earlier this week – and it brings some nice new features to the party.
Building on the existing Bluetooth technology, Bluetooth 3.0 increases the speed of data transfer dramatically by piggybacking on available 802.11 wireless network connections – borrowing a [...]
Scientist discover an Earth-like planet
In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, [...]
Hackers didn’t steal critical data about the latest fighter jet
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin, the lead defense contractor for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, suggested yesterday that cyber-attacks had not caused any serious security breaches in the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program.
Still, defense and corporate officials said attacks on the Pentagon as well as the F-35 program are constant and former defense officials [...]
British Treasury Chief to unveil recession budget
British Treasury chief Alistair Darling presents the government’s budget on Wednesday, with his options constricted after pumping billions into stabilizing a foundering economy.
Some tax breaks intended to stimulate spending may be introduced or continued, but the government’s mounting debt has sown caution about any further big gestures — and some sort of tax increases appear [...]
Study Finds Pattern of Severe Droughts in Africa
For at least 3,000 years, a drumbeat of potent droughts, far longer and more severe than any experienced recently, have seared a belt of sub-Saharan Africa that is now home to tens of millions of the world’s poorest people, climate researchers report in a new study.
The last such drought, persisting more than three centuries, ended [...]
Earth’s forests at risk of moving to CO2 source
A report to be presented at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) on April 20 will canvas the possibility that the world’s forests may move from being important carbon “sinks” to a net source of CO2.
The study: ‘Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change – A Global Assessment’ was put together by the [...]
Ancient frozen ecosystem produces blood-red ice flows
A microbial ecosystem has been trapped under an Antarctic glacier for over a million years. Researchers have now figured out what fuels these bacteria thanks to a shift that has brought bright red, iron-rich ice to the surface.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are considered one of the least hospitable places on Earth; NASA has [...]
