Particle tracks of protons collided in CERN's Large Hadron Collider Photo: AP 
Industry experts believe the 'iSlate' - a cross between an iPhone and a laptop - could signal the end of the keyboard and mouse system
The calorie-free version fails to activate a reward area of the brain
A malaria-carrying Anopheles gambiae mosquito. About 40% of the world's population is at risk of malaria, a potentially deadly disease. (CDC / December 26, 2009)
From The BBC:
In the US, Amazon says its Kindle e-book reader is its most gifted product.
Location of the hippocampus in the human brain. Modified from a scan of a plate of "Posterior and inferior cornua of left lateral ventricle exposed from the side" in Gray's Anatomy. (Credit: Courtesy of Wikipedia)
From Mercury News:
From PC World:
From New York Times:
That failed terrorist attack Friday might make international flights a whole lot less enjoyable. Passengers are reporting that new restrictions are in place, and their severity varies flight to flight. Among the reports: No electronics allowed.
Update: According to a tweet from industry analyst Charlene Li, here's the situation:
Lightning Mother Nature has it. DARPA wants it. 
From The Raw Feed:
From The Guardian:Apple is expected to start the new year with the launch of its latest gadget: a tablet computer that will allow users to surf the web, watch TV shows and read the next generation in online magazines and newspapers.
Speculation is rife that the Californian technology group will unveil the device, which has no keyboard and resembles a large iPhone, at an event on January 26 in San Francisco. Some technology bloggers have already christened the touchscreen device the iSlate after it emerged that Apple has registered the iSlate.com internet domain name.
Read more ....
Scientists are reporting new clues to understanding morphine addiction.
From CBS News:
Blue lines show Earth's northern magnetic field and the magnetic north pole in an artist's rendering. Picture courtesy Stefan Maus, NOAA NGDC 
From CNET News:I've been enjoying all of the end-of-decade lists that have suddenly cropped up. I like knowing what I was intimately aware of and what I completely missed.
This week, the Associated Press came out with its list of "50 things that changed our lives in the aughts." First off, the reference to the "aughts" made me chuckle. Back in late 1999, I was concerned about two things: Y2K and what the heck we were going to call the first decade. Neither of those concerns turned out to be much of a problem in the end. "Aughts" certainly never caught on.
1968: The crew of Apollo 8 delivers a live, televised Christmas Eve broadcast after becoming the first humans to orbit another space body.
Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders made their now-celebrated broadcast after entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, which might help explain the heavy religious content of the message. After announcing the arrival of lunar sunrise, each astronaut read from the Book of Genesis.
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Panasonic's Lithium-Ion Storage Battery Panasonic 
Real snowflakes clinging to a car window. Phoney flakes lack the characteristic six-fold, hexagonal symmetry. Photograph: M Scott Moon/APThe fragile truce between science and art came under strain today when common depictions of snowflakes threatened to divide the two cultures over the festive season.
In the latest salvo between the warring factions, Christmas card manufacturers, advertising agencies and children's book publishers are accused of corrupting nature with "incorrect designer versions" of snowflakes that defy the laws of physics.
Read more ....
Artwork: Chip Taylor
Looking along the peak ridgeline of the Pinnacle National Monument. These jagged spires are the result of an ancient volcano, erosion and tectonic uplift along the San Andreas Fault. The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground, suggesting that the rock 15 miles below is lubricated with highly pressurized water that allows the rock to slip with little effort. (Credit: iStockphoto/Michael Almond)
From CNET:
From The Telegraph:
A Nasa TV grab shows the Expedition 22 crew getting into the
Image: Glass power: Equipment at Applied Materials’s R&D center in Xi’an, China, processes glass panels 5.7 square meters to make solar cells. Credit: Applied Materials 
Mapping the internet as it goes truly global (Image: Matthew Hurst/SPL) 
A first glimpse at the data coming down from Europe's Goce satellite
This is a neuron. (Credit: Sourav Banerjee)
From Live Science:
Travellers board a high-speed train which heads to Guangzhou
Cloud crowd: Some 4,000 servers hum at IBM’s cloud computing center in San Jose, CA. 
On the lookout for intelligent signals from the stars (Image: Louie Psihoyos/Corbis) 
A combination photo shows (top) a view of the damage near Baiturrahman mosque December 27, 2004, the day after a tsunami hit the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, and (bottom) an Acehnese man collecting grass for his goat in the same area, December 4, 2009. (Reuters)
Image: Tim Tadder / Corbis
From The BBC:
Amazon's second-generation Kindle
Glucose molecular model. (Credit: iStockphoto/Martin McCarthy)
Terry Tickhill (light hat) and Eileen McSaveney (red headband) use a hand augur to drill Lake Vanda, Wright Valley, Antarctica during the 1969-1970 field season. Water collected during this effort was used to date the lake. The green tent in the background was of the same type as the field crew used for housing during their work in Wright Valley. Credit: Lois Jones
A monitor at Tradeworx’s offices keeps track of the net trading operations during the day. It generally ticks up. Credit: Steve Moors 
In a recent study, a third of subjects claimed to feel real pain in the same
