Today on New Scientist: 9 December 2012

Climate talks stumbling towards a deal As the Qatar climate summit looks set to run into the weekend, we look at some key issues, such as compensation for poor countries harmed by climate changeTwin spacecraft map the mass of the man in the moon Two satellites called Ebb and Flow have revealed the fine variations in the moon's surface with the most detailed gravity map everJust cut down on...

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Royal hoax DJs taken off air amid anger over death

SYDNEY: Two Australian radio presenters who made a hoax call to the hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine were taken off the air on Saturday after the nurse who took the call was found dead in a suspected suicide.Jacintha Saldanha answered the phone when presenters from Sydney's 2Day FM called, pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II and William's father Prince Charles,...

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Apple and Google making joint bid for Kodak patents, report says

Apple and Google might be opponents competing for smartphone andtablet customers, but according to a Bloomberg report they have joined forces to acquire Eastman Kodak's 1,000 imaging patents for more than $500 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possible alliance in August. Previously, the Journal reported that Apple and Google were each leading separate consortiums...

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't...

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Federal Agencies Brace for Deep Cuts Post-'Cliff'

Dec 7, 2012 4:22pm Toby Jorrin/AFP/Getty ImagesWith the “fiscal cliff” quickly approaching, federal agencies are stepping up preparations for deep automatic budget cuts that will kick in Jan. 2 unless the White House and Congress can reach a deal.The Office of Management and Budget told ABC News that a memo went out to federal agencies earlier this week seeking “additional...

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Captured: the moment photosynthesis changed the world

BILLIONS of years ago, a tiny cyanobacterium cracked open a water molecule - and let loose a poison that wrought death and destruction on an epic scale. The microbe had just perfected photosynthesis, a process that freed the oxygen trapped inside water and killed early Earth's anaerobic inhabitants. ...

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Fans to get third "A Slice of Life" book

SINGAPORE: "A Slice of Life Volume 3", the third collection of scripts for the popular "A Slice of Life" self-improvement radio programme on Singapore radio station 938LIVE, will be launched on Sunday, 2pm at the &Made by Bruno Menard bistro.Written by 938LIVE deejay Eugene Loh, "A Slice of Life Volume 3" contains the uplifting anecdotes about life, love and work, which Loh shares...

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My Best Tech Gift Ever: A 133MHz IBM PC 350

A 14-year-old Christopher MacManus (seated) hunches over his beloved computer in 1998. A long-forgotten chum looks on.(Credit:Christopher MacManus)Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor is recalling a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read past stories by Eric Mack, Jeff Sparkman, Jay Greene, and Dan Ackerman, and look for another installment tomorrow at midnight PT.On...

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Space Pictures This Week: Lunar Gravity, Venusian Volcano

Cassiopeia’s BubbleImage courtesy T.A. Rector, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSFA new camera called the One Degree Imager, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, is responsible...

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John McAfee Out of Hospital, Back in Cell

Software millionaire John McAfee has been returned to an immigration detention cell in Guatemala after being rushed to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance.McAfee, 67 -- who soon may be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly found prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive.He was...

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Celebrities turn to encryption to keep phones private

CELLPHONE hacking sparked the inquiry that led Lord Justice Leveson to conclude that the press "wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people" in his long-awaited report to the British government last week. But those in the public eye aren't counting on heavier press regulation to stop future hackers. Instead,...

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Companies urged to tap on educated, economically inactive women

SINGAPORE: Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu has urged companies to employ highly-educated women who are economically inactive to meet the current shortages in the labour market.Speaking at a dialogue on developing an alternative workforce this morning, Ms Fu said this group is an important source of untapped talent.Currently, there are about 60,000 female university graduates...

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My Best Tech Gift Ever: Beatles catalog on a USB key

This USB key brimming with Beatles songs made CNET editor Dan Ackerman very happy.(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor will recall a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read past stories by Eric Mack, Jeff Sparkman, and Jay Greene, and look for another installment tomorrow at midnight PT.Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by this stuff every day,...

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A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?

NASA is so delighted with Curiosity's Mars mission that the agency wants to do it all again in 2020, with the possibility of identifying and storing some rocks for a future sample return to Earth.The formal announcement, made at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting, represents a triumph for the NASA Mars program, which had fallen on hard times due to steep budget cuts....

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Guatemala Could Deport McAfee to Belize

Software anti virus pioneer John McAfee is in the process of being deported to Belize after he was arrested in Guatemala for entering the country illegally, his attorney told ABC News early Thursday.ABC News has learned that John McAfee is scheduled to be deported to Belize later this morning. But a judge could stay the ruling if it is determined McAfee's life is threatened...

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When is a baby too premature to save?

It was never easy, but trying to decide whether to save extremely premature babies just got harder. A study called EPICure compared the fates of babies born 22 to 26 weeks into pregnancy in the UK in 1995 with similar babies born in 2006. In...

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Woman arrested over 160 dogs living in own waste

TOKYO: A woman who kept 160 starving dogs in her house among tonnes of their own waste has been arrested by Japanese police, an official said Wednesday.Ten tonnes of animal waste and other rubbish were removed from Noriko Ishii's house after the dogs were taken away, he said.One Bernese Mountain Dog kept by Ishii, 43, weighed just seven kilograms (15 pounds) -- a sixth of what it should...

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My Best Tech Gift Ever: Garmin's Edge 500 bike computer

Jay Greene, with his Garmin Edge 500 below his handlebars, at the top of Cayuse Pass on the east side of Mt. Rainier, 104 miles into Ramrod in July. His smile was entirely forced.(Credit:Jay Greene)Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor will recall a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read past stories by Eric Mack and Jeff Sparkman, and look for another installment tomorrow...

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Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker...

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Subway Push Murder Suspect Implicated Self: Police

A suspect believed to be responsible for throwing a man into the path of an oncoming New York City subway train who was taken into custody today has made statements implicating himself, police said.According to Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne, the suspect has been questioned by police since at least early afternoon and while the suspect is in police custody,...

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Green shoots are growing in oil-rich Texas

Continue reading page |1 |2 Texas has a reputation as the fossil fuel and climate change denial capital of the US, but things are quietly changing CHRISTINA ESCOBAR cast a nervous eye at the spiral of smoke on the horizon as she set off to buy groceries. By the time she returned an hour later the police...

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