From The BBC:
Researchers have come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kyu Oh)
From Technology Review:
Neil Armstrong/Keystone/Getty Images
LEADER Regina Dugan of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Michael Temchine for The New York Times
A currently ongoing ransomware campaign is using a novel approach to extort money from end users whose PCs have been locked down.
By pretending to be the fake ICPP Foundation (icpp-online.com), the ransomware locks down the user’s desktop issuing a “Copyright violation: copyrighted content detected” message, which lists torrent files found on the infected PC, and forces the user to pay $400 for the copyright holder’s fine, emphasizing on the fact that “the maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
More details on the campaign:
From CNET:
Comparative sizes of four dwarf planets, which may be joined by up to 50 more objects. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope
PUSHING IT: Stress is linked indirectly to the immune system's anti-tumor defenses, but it can also affect anoikis--a type of cell death that cancer cells bypass. iStockphoto
Exoplanets, discovered by WASP together with ESO telescopes, that unexpectedly have been found to have retrograde orbits are shown here. In all cases the star is shown to scale, with its rotation axis pointing up and with realistic colours. The exoplanets are shown during the transit of their parent star, just before mid-transit. The last object at the lower right is for comparison and has a “normal” orbital direction. The size of each image is three solar diameters. (Credit: ESO/A. C. Cameron)
From Live Science:
From USA Today:
Photo: Cyber warrior: Vladislav Sherstuyuk, a retired four-star Russian general who leads the Institute of Information Security Issues at Moscow State University, announced a new cyber security research collaboration on Monday. Credit: Veni Markovski 
Photosynthesis is probably the most critical chemical process on earth. It mostly takes place in tiny structures called chloroplasts found inside the cells of a plant's leaves. Alamy
A mother spanks her daughter. Peter Dazeley / Photographer's Choice / Getty Images
Rodney Reed Caverly, 37, was a member of the bank’s IT staff when he installed the malware, which instructed the machines to dispense free cash without creating a record of the transaction. The Charlotte, North Carolina, man made fraudulent withdrawals over a seven-month period ending in October 2009, according to prosecutors, who’ve charged him with one count of computer fraud.
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The International Space Station's six-member crew participates in a Cosmonautics Day call from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev early Monday. Back row, left to right: Timothy Creamer, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Soichi Noguchi. Front row, left to right: Alexander Skvortsov, commander Oleg Kotov and Mikhail Kornienko. (Credit: NASA TV)
In the future you could be reminded about your experiences with people and places just by looking at them. Credit: iStockphot
Image: Rivers that flow near U.S. cities, as the Delaware River, shown here, are warming at the fastest rate. Getty Images
Large gorgonian observed at 650 m off the North Coast of Moloka i, dubbed "Cousin It." (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Hawaii at Manoa)
The Tell Zeidan site is about 48 feet high at its tallest point and covers about 30 acres. It sits in an area of irrigated fields at the junction of the Euphrates and Balikh Rivers in what is now northern Syria. Credit: Gil Stein, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
From Times Online:
One of the species has been named Spinoloricus Cinzia, after Dr Danovaro's wife
Towards the light: People who have out-of-body experiences on the operating table may have high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood
Making the pilgrimage to ground zero (Image: Joe Raedle/Getty)
Robotic Suit Aids Farmers A postgraduate student at the Tokyo Agriculture and Technology University models a motorized exoskeleton developed to help aging farmers endure the strain of hard labor. AFP 
Image: 17 memristors captured by an atomic force microscope
A sudden plunge of global temperatures 12,900 years ago may have been caused by a comet impact, a British researcher argues. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
From Slate:
JOIDES Resolution departing from Yokohama, Japan, on the Shatsky Rise expedition. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
The cranium of the newly identified species, Australopithecus sediba, was found at the Malapa site, South Africa. Credit: Photo by Brett Eloff courtesy of Lee Berger and the University of the Witwatersrand.
Pythagoras, from a 1920s textbook. Photograph: © Blue Lantern Studio/Corbis
Julian Assange
Hubble Telescope
From The Daily Mail:
From The BBC:
Army Biometrics U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Jerrod McClure, foreground, and Aaron McFarland, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, input Iraqi's data into a biometrics system Dec. 15, 2008, in Nimrud, Iraq, as part of the application process for Iraqis applying to work on a road repair project in the city. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano 
The nervous system has 10,000 different types of neuron (Image: Jean Livet)
Bats emit high-pitched sounds to locate obstacles and prey as they fly Photo: CORBIS 
Man's best friend? Scientists believe toads have a sixth sense
(Click Image To Enlarge)Everyone grumbles when prices at the pump rise, but some drivers pay more depending on where they live. A new study shows how gas price spikes hurt the wallets of drivers in some states more than in others.
On average, Mississippi drivers spent more than 6 percent of their annual income on gas in 2009, compared to drivers in Connecticut and New York who spent just 2.5 percent of their income on gas. But a price spike similar to the one in July 2008 would have worsened the imbalance — Mississippi drivers would have seen driving costs shoot up to 11 percent as opposed to just 4.3 percent for Connecticut and New York. [See gas prices in your state.]
Read more ....Finding the so-called black boxes is key to understanding what happened to the airplane.
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From The BBC:
Navy Aircraft Could nuclear-powered carriers use their reactors and seawater to provide jet fuel for their aircraft? U.S. Navy/Stephen Rowe 
There's a sub below (Image: Brooke Ocean Technology)
From The Telegraph:
Coneyl Jay / Corbis
