7 Ways To Raise Your Risk Of Stroke

From Live Science:

Stroke is the number three killer in the United States, affecting almost 800,000 people each year, according to the National Stroke Association. These "brain attacks" occur when blood flow to the brain is interrupted (an ischemic stroke) or when a blood vessel in the brain leaks or bursts (a hemorrhagic stroke). For 144,000 people each year, the result is death. Hundreds of thousands of others are left with long-term disabilities.

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Sudan's Forgotten Pyramids

An archaelogical site 300 kms north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The pyramids form one of the most spectacular sights in Sudan with about fifty small ruinous pyramids – the tombs of the rulers of Kush from about 250 BC to 350 AD. The pyramids lie on the tops of two rocky ridges blanketed by sand dunes about three miles east of the Nile. Credit: AFP

From Cosmos/AFP:

Archaeologists say the pyramids, cemeteries and ancient palaces of the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan hold mysteries to rival ancient Egypt.

There is not a tourist in sight as the Sun sets over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, in northern Sudan.

"There is a magic beauty about these sites that is heightened by the privilege of being able to admire them alone, with the pyramids, the dunes and the sun," says Guillemette Andreu, head of antiquities at Paris' Louvre museum.

"It really sets them apart from the Egyptian pyramids, whose beauty is slightly overshadowed by the tourist crowds."

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Evidence For Life On Mars May Be Staring Us In The Face

Sulphur in silence (Image: NASA/SPL)

From New Scientist:

THE footprint of life on Mars may have been plain to see all along in the sulphurous minerals that litter the planet's surface. What's more, the next Mars lander should be able to detect the evidence.

No mission to Mars has ever found complex carbon-based molecules, from which life as we know it is built. But sulphur is everywhere on Mars - it is more abundant there than on Earth - and it could contain one of the signatures of life. On Earth, the activity of some microbes converts one class of sulphur-containing compounds, the sulphates, into another, the sulphides. The microbes prefer to work with the lighter sulphur-32 isotope, so the sulphides they produce are relatively deficient in the heavier isotope, sulphur-34. Planetary scientists have long wondered whether we could use this pattern to discern signs of life on Mars. Now the prospects for this technique look better than ever.

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Fingertip Bacteria: A Promising Forensic Tool

Credit: Technology Review

From Technology Review:

The genetic makeup of microbes on a person's skin could provide crime scene evidence.

It's not just our genomes that make us unique. The genomic profile of bacteria that rub off our fingertips and onto objects we touch--a computer keyboard, for instance--also provides a "fingerprint" that could be used for forensic purposes, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Noah Fierer, Rob Knight, and colleagues recovered bacteria from keyboards of three individuals and sequenced large numbers of bacterial genomes at once.

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Latest SpaceX Falcon 9 Engine Test A Success (With Video!)

From Popular Mechanics:

This weekend’s Falcon 9 engine test could pave the way for a test flight in early April.

This weekend, the launch company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) ignited all nine Merlin rocket engines in a static fire test that marks a milestone in private space industry. The 3.5-second test occurred at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. "The test validated the launchpad propellant and pneumatic systems, as well as the ground and flight-control software that controls pad and launch vehicle configurations," the company announced. The success was a relief after a setback last Tuesday when launch technicians aborted the test with just 2 seconds to ignition.

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Tested: A Reboot For The Immune System

Reset Immune System iStock

From Popular Science:

The ability to reprogram the immune system is one of the most sought-after goals in medicine. Now researchers are closer than ever to pulling it off in patients with Type 1 diabetes, one of whom happens to be our correspondent.

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NASA Aims For April 5 Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

The space shuttle Discovery sitting on launch pad 39-A on August 27, 2009 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images

From USA Today:

NASA will run tests later this week to determine whether its safe to fly shuttle Discovery despite valve trouble that cropped up over the weekend during a critical propellant-loading operation at Kennedy Space Center.

The tests, if successful, could provide managers with the data required to prove Discovery could launch as scheduled on April 5 and still fly its International Space Station outfitting mission safely.

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Search On For Death Star That Throws Out Deadly Comets

This diagram shows a brown dwarf in relation to Earth, Jupiter, a low-mass star and the sun.
Photo: NASA

From The Telegraph:

Nasa scientists are searching for an invisible 'Death Star' that circles the Sun, which catapults potentially catastrophic comets at the Earth.

The star, also known as Nemesis, is five times the size of Jupiter and could be to blame for the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The bombardment of icy missiles is being blamed by some scientists for mass extinctions of life that they say happen every 26 million years.

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Replica Of Big Skull From 28,000 Years Ago Suggests Human Brains Have Started To Shrink

Old big head: A 3D image replica of the skull shows it was 20% larger than ours

From The Daily Mail:

Our brains are shrinking, according to scientists who have recreated a 28,000-year-old skull from remains found in France.

The French team, which claims to have produced one of the best replicas yet of an early modern human’s cranium, says it is up to 20 per cent bigger than ours.

No one is suggesting this means our ancestors were more intelligent as studies have found there is only a minor link between brain size and IQ.

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Scientists Identify Driving Forces In Human Cell Division

Metaphase in a human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell. Chromosomes (red), microtubules (green). (Credit: Jason Swedlow, University of Dundee)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 14, 2010) — If you can imagine identical twin sisters at rest, their breath drawing them subtly together and apart, who somehow latch onto ropes that pull them to opposite sides of the bed -- you can imagine what happens to a chromosome in the dividing cell.

Understanding the forces that drive chromosome segregation -- a crucial aspect of human development and some diseases, including cancer -- is the goal of an international group of researchers who collaborate each summer at the MBL.

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What Does The Achilles Tendon Do?

The Achilles tendon, pictured here, connects the calf muscle to the heel bone. Credit: NIH

From Live Science:

The injury sustained to soccer star David Beckham's left foot has fans worried the athlete will miss the World Cup, but injuries to the Achilles tendon are no stranger to athletes and the less-conditioned "weekend warriors" alike.

The Achilles tendon is a band of fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscle to the heel bone, according to the Mayo Clinic. You use this tendon in practically every activity that involves moving your foot, from walking and running to jumping and standing on tip-toe. It's also the largest tendon in your body, and can withstand more than 1,000 pounds of force, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS).

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Electronics 'Missing Link' Brings Neural Computing Closer

Coming soon to a CPU near you (Image: Patrick Landmann/SPL)

From New Scientist:

WHEN the "missing link of electronics" was finally built in 2008, it was the vindication of a 30-year-old prediction. Now it seems the so-called memristor can behave uncannily like the junctions between neurons in the brain.

A memristor is a device that, like a resistor, opposes the passage of current. But memristors also have a memory. The resistance of a memristor at any moment depends on the last voltage it experienced, so its behaviour can be used to recall past voltages.

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The iPad Developer's Challenge

Griffin's iTalk app for iPhone
(Credit: Griffin)

From CNET News:

iPhone and iPod Touch owners could breathe a sigh of relief when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad.

Apple's highly anticipated tablet computer would not, after all, require purchasing all new applications. Instead, everything in the App Store would automatically work on the iPad. As Jobs explained, tapping one button on the iPad screen transforms apps made for the 3.1-inch iPhone/iPod Touch screen to a snugger fit on the 9.7-inch iPad.

Simple, right? For the iPad owner, sure. But the iPad means bigger changes for the people who create these apps. Though the iPad has been dismissed by some as an oversized iPod Touch, it's definitely not, as those who attempt to make iPad apps or re-create iPhone apps for it will find out fast.

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SpaceX Fires Up

From Discovery News:

In case you've been wondering, that's what a fully lit Falcon 9 rocket looks like at ignition, which occurred, by the way, for the first time this weekend at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where SpaceX is preparing for the rocket's debut flight next month.

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Weymouth Ridgeway Skeletons 'Scandinavian Vikings'

From The BBC:

Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say.

Mystery has surrounded the identity of the group since they were discovered at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, in June.

Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's.

Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030.

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Cyberguards To Protect Children

Image: Demand for digital monitors from concerned parents is expected to grow. (Alamy)

From The Independent:

Technology that allows parents to monitor and even block a child’s online and mobile activity is coming to Britain soon.

Do you know what your teenager is doing on the computer in their bedroom? What websites they are visiting and who they are poking on Facebook? American parents do. A raft of new technology designed to enable mums and dads to keep tabs on their children in cyberspace is hitting the market across the Atlantic.

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Babies Are Born To Dance To The Beat

From The Telegraph:

Babies are born to dance and find the rhythm and tempo of music more engaging than speech, research has shown.

A study of infants aged from five months to two years suggests that babies are preprogrammed to move rhythmically in response to music.

Psychologist Marcel Zentner, who led the University of York team, said: "Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants.

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Hitwise: Facebook Tops Weekly Ranking, Surpassing Google

From Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Inc. edged past Google Inc. (GOOG) to become the most visited U.S. Web site for the week ended March 13, the first time the Internet giant has been topped since 2007, according to Hitwise.

The data provider said the privately held social-networking site's share was 7.07% for the week, compared with Google's 7.03%. The market share of visits to Facebook nearly tripled from a year earlier for the week, while visits to Google grew 9%.

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Twitter Astronaut Is First To Post Stunning YouTube Videos Direct From Space

From The Daily Mail:

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi has already made his name as a prolific Twitterer, who delights his 125,000 followers with live pictures from the International Space Station.

Now the Japanese engineer has gone one better, posting stunning footage of Earth and the Moon on his own YouTube channel.

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U.S. Army Worried About Wikileaks In Secret Report

From CNET News:

A leaked U.S. Army intelligence report, classified as secret, says the Wikileaks Web site poses a significant "operational security and information security" threat to military operations.

Classified U.S. military information appearing on Wikileaks could "influence operations against the U.S. Army by a variety of domestic and foreign actors," says the report, prepared in 2008 by the Army Counterintelligence Center and apparently disclosed in its entirety on Monday.

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