Meteor impact may have started Ice Ages

(123rf)A huge meteor striking Earth 2.5 million years ago may have generated a massive tsunami and plunged the world into the Ice Ages, Australian researchers suggest.Scientists at the University of New South Wales say because the meteor -- more than a mile across - crashed into deep water in the southern Pacific Ocean, most researchers have discounted its potential for catastrophic impacts on coa

Sept. 20, 2012

SK Hynix develops smaller, faster graphics chip

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest chipmaker, said it has developed the industry’s first 4-gigabite DDR3 DRAM chip for graphics using a 20 nanometer-class processing technology.The double data rate, type-three synchronous dynamic random access memory chip can process 3.6 gigabytes of data per second via 16 lines of data channels at an operating speed of 1.8 Gbps.The company also noted that, when operating at 1.35 volts, the graphics chip consumes 30 percent less power than its 30 nanometer-cla

Sept. 19, 2012

‘Facebook powerful ad platform’

New media platforms have introduced new ways for companies to advertise their brands and products in this digital age of consumerism.Facebook looks to be the most “powerful” platform for effectively communicating and interacting with millions of users worldwide, said George Foo, chief operating officer of ihub Media Group, a social networking marketing agency based in Singapore. The company, which operates in eight countries, develops content applications such as games, characters and contests f

Sept. 19, 2012

Hanwha seeks global expansion in biosimilars

CEO envisions spin-off to create biotech firmIn June 2011, Hanwha Chemical, a listed Korean chemical company, made its first landmark deal to license its newly developed biosimilar compound to Merck, a global pharmaceutical giant.Merck will be further developing the “HD203” compound by Hanwha into a drug for joint pain.Hanwha attributed this overseas deal to Paul Coleman, CEO of the chemical company’s bio business unit, whose primary responsibility includes identifying global pharmaceutical comp

Sept. 19, 2012

Sesame Street’s next chapter: Elmo talks back

Elmo, Big Bird and the rest of the ``Sesame Street'' crew have always talked to kids. Now, they'll try to have a two-way conversation with their pint-sized audience using Kinect, the motion and voice-sensing controller created by Microsoft.``Kinect Sesame Street TV,'' out Tuesday, is not exactly a video game, though it runs on the Xbox 360 video game system. There are no winners and losers, no rea

Sept. 19, 2012

Sleep in Saturday, harder to awake Monday

People who sleep in on Saturday do not catch up on sleep lost during the week -- it makes them sleepier Monday morning, a U.S. researcher says.Dr. Gregory Carter, a sleep medicine specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said the daily, or circadian, cycles guide the body‘s internal clock.People can delay their circadian clock by up to 1 hour by sleeping in 1 hour or more over the weekend, but the problem is that after sleeping in on weekends, the brain’s circ

Sept. 19, 2012

Black hole ‘sounds’ reveal their history

British astronomers say the death “sounds” of black holes could reveal the cosmic crash that created them in the first place.In black holes gravity is so strong not even light can escape, making them truly dark objects that don‘t emit any form of radiation.However, scientists at Cardiff University say black holes that become deformed through collisions with other black holes or stars are known to emit a form of radiation called gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein nearly a hundred years ag

Sept. 18, 2012

Camera sees light from 8 billion years ago

Zoomed-in image from the Dark Energy Camera of the center of the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae, which lies about 17,000 light years from Earth. (Dark Energy Survey Collaboration-UPI)The most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created has captured and recorded light from 8 billion years ago, U.S. researchers say.After eight years of planning and construction by scientists, engineers, and technici

Sept. 18, 2012

Scientists develop high stability, sensitivity disease probe

A local team of scientists have developed a new method for detecting particles specific to particular conditions, opening new possibilities for early diagnosis.With many chronic conditions, early detection is crucial for effective treatment. Even with incurable conditions such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, entering a treatment regime early on can extend the patient’s life expectancy for as much as several decades.  As different conditions can have similar effects on the body i

Sept. 16, 2012

When you eat may make all the difference

JERUSALEM, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- When you eat, not what you eat may make all the difference for those who want to watch their weight, researchers in Israel say. Professor Oren Froy, Professor Zecharia Madar, research student Yoni Genzer and research fellow Dr. Hadas Sherman with the Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem showed a carefully scheduled high-fat diet can lead to a reduction in body weight. For 18 weeks, the researchers fed a group of

Sept. 16, 2012

Mars rover finds strange spheres on ground

Small spherical objects fill the field in this mosaic combining four images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA`s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The view covers an area about 6 centimeters across, at an outcrop called "Kirkwood" in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College)NASA says researchers are struggling to

Sept. 16, 2012