Tour Lamborghini's Museum in Italy from your computer - Gizmag

Lamborghini invites car fans to tour its museum on their computers

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Those interested in doing an intimate tour of the Museo Lamborghini car museum would have traditionally had to trot to Lamborghini's headquarters in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy. Now, they no longer have to worry about the high costs of travel. Leveraging Google Street View technology, Lamborghini has launched a 360-degree tour of the two-story museum. Computer and mobile device users can now experience 50 years of Lamborghini from the comfort of home.

Lamborghini says that it is the first Italian luxury auto brand to offer an indoor view of its museum. Using their web browsers, virtual visitors can cozy up to the Miuras, Countaches, Diablos, Jalpas, LM002s, etc. on display in the museum. The software even allows them to "step inside" certain models, getting a better look at and feel for what it's like to ride the Bull. Other points of interest include styling models, photos, engines, and ultra-limited editions and one-offs, like the Reventon, Estoque and Sesto Elemento.

The Lamborghini virtual tour is available via web browser and the Google Map App (Android and iOS). You can access the feature by using the "See Inside" option at http://lam.bo/peeic. Be sure to click on the cars to be transported into the cockpits. Our only complaint is that we couldn't seem to zoom in to make the information displays legible. We'd love to see all the specs and details for each model – a key element of any car museum experience.

Source: Lamborghini

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Ten states to tackle gay marriage next

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Army Capt. Michael Potoczniak, center left, and Todd Saunders, of El Cerrito, Calif., are married by deputy marriage commissioner John Loschmann, center, as witnesses Bill Hershon, left, and Sean Boileau watch at City Hall in San Francisco, Saturday, June 29, 2013.

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Energized by two big victories at the Supreme Court, advocates of gay marriage are turning their attention to a handful of states that they believe are most likely to allow it next.

One of those two wins made California the 13th state where gay couples can now legally get married. Counting the District of Columbia, gay marriage is legal in places covering about 30 percent of the U.S. population.

National gay rights groups say they now hope to persuade either the Supreme Court or Congress to legalize gay marriage across the country ? in a matter of years, not decades.

?The answer is to win more states, win a critical mass of states, and a critical mass of public support, which creates a climate that encourages the court to do its job,? said Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry, a pro-gay-marriage group.

Here are the states that advocates say will be the next battlegrounds.

COULD HAPPEN THIS YEAR

Illinois: Gay marriage almost passed the Legislature this spring, but a Democratic state representative tearfully told his colleagues that he didn?t have the votes and would give them time to talk it over with constituents.

Advocates say the next try will probably come in late October, when lawmakers gather for a short session. They believe the Supreme Court rulings, particularly one extending federal benefits to gay spouses, could make the difference.

?It?s one thing to be against the marriage bill ideologically,? said Randy Hannig, director of public policy at the pro-gay-marriage group Equality Illinois. ?It?s another thing to stand in the way of people receiving benefits.?

New Jersey: Gov. Chris Christie, a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2016, vetoed a gay-marriage bill last year. He said last week that he?d do it again, and that the state should ?let the people decide.?

Democrats in the Legislature are considering whether to try to override the veto. The Legislature could also put gay marriage on the ballot this fall. A Rutgers University poll two weeks ago suggested it would pass easily.

There?s also a path through the courts. New Jersey has civil unions, but seven gay couples are arguing that those don?t comply with a 2006 state Supreme Court ruling that gay and straight couples should have equal rights. A hearing is expected in August.

Hawaii: Fear that the Aloha State would become the first to allow gay marriage led Republicans to write the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed by President Bill Clinton and stood from 1996 until the Supreme Court struck it down last week.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, supports gay marriage, and bills to authorize it have been introduced in the state House and Senate. Hawaii has had civil unions since January 2012.

Advocates for gay marriage are pushing in Hawaii federal court, too. But Marty Rouse, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, said he wouldn?t be surprised to see lawmakers act first ? ?much sooner than later.?

2014 AND BEYOND

Oregon: It?s one of 29 states with a constitutional ban on gay marriage, and it could be the first state where voters repeal such a ban. Advocates are eying the November 2014 election and need 116,000 signatures to get on the ballot.

Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio: Voters could be asked as early as November 2014 to overturn the constitutional ban, but advocates must decide whether to wait for 2016, a presidential election year, when turnout will be higher.

Nevada: The earliest gay marriage could get on the ballot is 2016, Rouse said, because of a quirk in a state law requiring two votes in the Legislature with a general election sandwiched in between.

New Mexico: It?s complicated. A court case could be decided as early as next year. The Legislature could act, too, but bills both to enact and prohibit gay marriage have gone nowhere so far, and Gov. Susana Martinez opposes it.

This story was originally published on Mon Jul 1, 2013 3:31 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2e0660bf/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C0A10C191923730Eten0Estates0Eto0Etackle0Egay0Emarriage0Enext0Dlite/story01.htm

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Selfloops bridges sport gadget divide on Android with combo ANT+ adapter and battery pack

If you take your smartphone-assisted exercise seriously, you'll probably want both ANT+ sensor support and a power pack to offset the increased battery drain that follows. It's a good thing that Selfloops is tackling both needs at once with its new Android ANT+ Accessory, then. The USB add-on isn't tiny, but it can grab data like cadence and heart rate from a nearby ANT+ device while keeping a phone topped up through its 2,000mAh battery. The peripheral is also one of the few to bring ANT+ to Android 2.3 -- if you're still using an older handset, you've found an ideal fitness companion. Just be prepared to wait for it. While Selfloops is currently taking pre-orders for the $115 Android ANT+ Accessory, it's not starting shipments until October.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/02/selfloops-android-ant-accessory/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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'Terminator' Will Be Back For Brand-New Trilogy

Reboot will hit theaters in June 2015 and may star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709751/terminator-trilogy-reboot-arnold-schwarzenegger.jhtml

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Brooks, Coulson lose bid to have hacking charges dropped

LONDON (Reuters) - Two former editors of a British tabloid newspaper shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch over a phone-hacking scandal lost a legal battle on Friday to have criminal charges against them dropped.

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both former News of the World editors and close associates of Prime Minister David Cameron, have pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to intercept people's voicemail messages in pursuit of stories.

Their lawyers had argued that once a message had been heard by its intended recipient it was no longer "in the course of transmission" as defined by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act under which the charges were brought.

The hacking scandal prompted Murdoch to shut down the mass-selling Sunday tabloid in July 2011 and led to a huge police investigation and to a public inquiry that revealed embarrassingly cosy ties between the media and politicians.

The judge in charge of the hacking case had rejected the defence arguments advanced by lawyers for Brooks, Coulson and three other former News of the World staff in May, but this could not be reported at the time for legal reasons.

The defendants appealed, but the Court of Appeal upheld the earlier judgment on Friday and allowed it to be reported.

"There is no good reason why the first receipt of the communication should be considered as bringing the transmission to an end," the Court of Appeal judges wrote.

The ruling means that Brooks, Coulson and others will stand trial as planned in September on hacking and other charges.

Brooks and Coulson both deny charges of involvement in the bribery of public officials for stories, and Brooks also denies perverting the course of justice.

Brooks, who after leaving the News of the World went on to edit its sister paper the Sun, Britain's highest-selling newspaper, later became the boss of Murdoch's entire British newspaper arm until the hacking scandal forced her out.

In her heyday, she enjoyed close friendships with senior politicians including Cameron.

After leaving the News of the World, Coulson went on to work as Cameron's chief of communications. He was forced out of that job in January 2011 as the hacking scandal gathered pace.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brooks-coulson-lose-bid-hacking-charges-dropped-141930593.html

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Violence hits China's west ahead of anniversary

BEIJING (AP) ? Violent attacks have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China, state media reported Saturday, just days before the anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.

China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents ? including one which left 35 people dead ? as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that they be promptly dealt with to safeguard overall social stability, state media reported.

The latest violent incidents were reported in southern Xinjiang's Hotan area. In one, more than 100 knife-wielding people mounted motorbikes in an attempt to storm the police station for Karakax county, the state-run Global Times reported.

Another was an attack mob in the township of Hanairike on Friday afternoon, according to the news portal of the Xinjiang regional government. It said the mob was armed, but did not say with what sort of weapons.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported a "violent attack" Friday afternoon on a pedestrian street in downtown Hotan city. No casualties were reported for any of the incidents, which state media say were quickly brought under control. The government's news portal, Tianshan Net, said there was no civilian casualty in Hanairike.

It has not been possible to independently verify the reports because of tight controls over information in the region.

The incidents on Friday in Xinjiang came after what the government described as attacks on police and other government buildings on Wednesday in eastern Xinjiang's Turpan prefecture's Lukqun township killed 35 people.

That was one of the bloodiest incidents since the July 5, 2009, unrest in the region's capital city, Urumqi, killed nearly 200.

Xinjiang (shihn-jeeahng) is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) in a region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years.

Critics often attribute the violence in Xinjiang to what they say is Beijing's oppressive and discriminatory ethnicity policies. Many Uighurs complain that authorities impose tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life.

The Chinese government says that it has invested billions of dollars in modernizing the oil- and gas-rich region and that it treats all ethnic groups equally.

Calls to local government agencies were either unanswered or returned with the answer that they were unauthorized to speak.

State-run media reported that the incident Wednesday started when knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site ? all symbols of Han authority in the region.

Photos released in state media show scorched police cars and government buildings and victims lying on the ground, presumably dead.

An exiled Uighur activist has disputed that account, saying the violence started when police raided homes. It was impossible to independently confirm the conflicting accounts.

Xinhua said 11 assailants were shot dead, and that two police officers were among the 24 people they killed.

"This is a terrorist attack, there's no question about that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday at a regular news briefing. "As to who masterminded it, local people are still investigating."

State news reports did not identify the ethnicity of the attackers, nor say what may have caused the conflict in the Turkic-speaking region. The reports said police captured four injured assailants.

The Global Times newspaper said Saturday that police had stepped up security measures, deploying more forces to public areas, governmental institutes and compounds for police and military police. It said a suspect was captured Friday afternoon in Urumqi.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, questioned Beijing's account of the event, saying local residents had told him police had forcefully raided homes at night, triggering the deadly conflicts.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-29-China-Xinjiang%20Riot/id-3a292d271d7d4e3a9ce66b5df7f01706

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NASA's Voyager 1 explores final frontier of our 'solar bubble'

June 27, 2013 ? Data from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, suggest the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.

Research using Voyager 1 data and published in the journal Science today provides new detail on the last region the spacecraft will cross before it leaves the heliosphere, or the bubble around our sun, and enters interstellar space. Three papers describe how Voyager 1's entry into a region called the magnetic highway resulted in simultaneous observations of the highest rate so far of charged particles from outside heliosphere and the disappearance of charged particles from inside the heliosphere.

Scientists have seen two of the three signs of interstellar arrival they expected to see: charged particles disappearing as they zoom out along the solar magnetic field, and cosmic rays from far outside zooming in. Scientists have not yet seen the third sign, an abrupt change in the direction of the magnetic field, which would indicate the presence of the interstellar magnetic field.

"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space, but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun's magnetic field."

Scientists do not know exactly how far Voyager 1 has to go to reach interstellar space. They estimate it could take several more months, or even years, to get there. The heliosphere extends at least 8 billion miles (13 billion kilometers) beyond all the planets in our solar system. It is dominated by the sun's magnetic field and an ionized wind expanding outward from the sun. Outside the heliosphere, interstellar space is filled with matter from other stars and the magnetic field present in the nearby region of the Milky Way.

Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. They toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before embarking on their interstellar mission in 1990. They now aim to leave the heliosphere. Measuring the size of the heliosphere is part of the Voyagers' mission.

The Science papers focus on observations made from May to September 2012 by Voyager 1's cosmic ray, low-energy charged particle and magnetometer instruments, with some additional charged particle data obtained through April of this year.

Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun and still inside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun Aug. 25 when it reached the magnetic highway, also known as the depletion region, and a connection to interstellar space. This region allows charged particles to travel into and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line, instead of bouncing around in all directions as if trapped on local roads. For the first time in this region, scientists could detect low-energy cosmic rays that originate from dying stars.

"We saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles. They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."

Other charged particle behavior observed by Voyager 1 also indicates the spacecraft still is in a region of transition to the interstellar medium. While crossing into the new region, the charged particles originating from the heliosphere that decreased most quickly were those shooting straightest along solar magnetic field lines. Particles moving perpendicular to the magnetic field did not decrease as quickly. However, cosmic rays moving along the field lines in the magnetic highway region were somewhat more populous than those moving perpendicular to the field. In interstellar space, the direction of the moving charged particles is not expected to matter.

In the span of about 24 hours, the magnetic field originating from the sun also began piling up, like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp. But scientists were able to quantify that the magnetic field barely changed direction -- by no more than 2 degrees.

"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said Leonard Burlaga, the lead author of one of the papers, and based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/RSctGZatbW0/130627140803.htm

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Wall St. rises 1 percent after Dudley comments

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose 1 percent on Thursday, rallying in a volatile session in the wake of comments from William Dudley, head of the New York Federal Reserve.

Dudley said the Fed's asset purchases would be more aggressive than the timeline Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined last week if U.S. economic growth and the labor market turn out weaker than expected.

Equities initially pared their gains after the comments before climbing again.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 157.15 points, or 1.05 percent, at 15,067.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 16.34 points, or 1.02 percent, at 1,619.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 35.84 points, or 1.06 percent, at 3,412.07.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-point-third-day-gains-ahead-data-111732699.html

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Exotic alloys for potential energy applications

June 27, 2013 ? The search for thermoelectrics, exotic materials that convert heat directly into electricity, has received a boost from researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, who have found the best way to identify them.

In the new open-access journal APL Materials, the team shows that a relatively simple technique called the "rigid band approximation" can predict a material's properties more accurately than a competing, more complicated method.

"The rigid band approach still supplies the simple, predictive engineering concepts we need for discovering fruitful thermoelectric material compositions," says G. Jeffrey Snyder, a Caltech faculty associate in materials science, who led the research.

Thermoelectrics have been used since the 1950s to power spacecraft by converting the heat from radioactive decay into electricity. Their unusual properties arise from complex interactions between the many electrons associated with the atoms in alloys of heavy metals such as lead, bismuth, tellurium and antimony.

With no moving parts, thermoelectric generators are quiet and extremely reliable, requiring minimal maintenance. However, the generators are relatively inefficient (typically less than 10 percent) and the materials needed to build them are expensive -- factors that have prevented their widespread use and limited thermoelectrics to niche applications such as spacecraft or wine refrigerators.

In recent years, however, the need for increased energy efficiency and non-carbon-based power generation has sparked renewed interest in thermoelectrics. With improvements, researchers believe the materials could generate cheap electricity from otherwise wasted heat produced by engines and factory furnaces.

"If we could double their efficiency, then thermoelectric modules incorporated into an automobile engine's exhaust system could generate enough power to replace the alternator, which would increase the car's gas mileage," said Snyder.

The challenge for scientists is to choose alloy compositions, crystal sizes and additives, (also called dopants), which would yield high thermoelectric efficiency. With an exhaustive number of possible combinations to choose from, scientists use theoretical calculations to guide their search for promising materials. The materials' extreme complexity, however, requires theorists to make various assumptions that have each led to different approaches.

The most common approach is the "rigid band" approximation, which provides a relatively simple model of a material's electronic structure, and the more complex "supercell" approach, which gives a detailed picture of its ideal atomic arrangement. Some scientists have said the rigid band approach is too simple and inaccurate to be useful.

Snyder's team reported exactly the opposite result. Their calculations showed that the rigid band approach was actually more accurate than the supercell method in predicting the observed properties of a popular thermoelectric -- lead telluride -- doped with a small amount of sodium, potassium or thallium.

"Supercell approaches are accurate for very specific dopant cases, but they do not take into account the various defects present in real materials," Snyder said. By using the simpler rigid band model, he added, scientists should be able to more quickly identify promising new and more-efficient thermoelectric compositions.

The article, "Validity of rigid band approximation of PbTe thermoelectric materials" is authored by Yoshiki Takagiwa, Yanzhong Pei, Gregory Pomrehn and G. Jeffrey Snyder. The paper is among the first to appear in the new journal APL Materials, which is produced by AIP Publishing.

Authors of this study are affiliated with the University of Tokyo, and the California Institute of Technology.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/u8eE_Vk9ZRg/130627130955.htm

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Console gaming will survive! Xbox One remembers its roots | Digital ...

I used to have this giant garbage bag filled with Atari 2600 cartridges. My dad left it behind when he moved out. The first video game I ever played -?Pole Position ? was in there, along with tons of others. My first stumbling steps toward becoming a gamer started with this bag. I played every game in there (including E.T.!), and I also swapped every one of them over time with a neighbor around the corner for games I didn?t have. It was a magical time, a period of interactive plenty.

The culture of console gaming isn?t quite ready to die. Or evolve. Or whatever the next phase is for a medium that extends back as far as the early years of Atari and its competitors. Gamers want to keep passing around or selling off their physical media, and they want to do it without the pesky eye of the Internet always watching.

I sat and watched with great interest yesterday as Microsoft pulled an about-face on the controversial Xbox One policies that were laid out in the days after the console?s announcement. It was inevitable, really. From the moment Sony?s Jack Tretton took the stage at the tail end of the company?s E3 2013 press conference and ?dropped the mic? on Sony?s rival, the decision was made. In order to keep up, in order to?compete, the Xbox One would need to stick to the old ways.

Don?t think that the route to this policy shift was quite as direct as ?consumers hate new policies, Microsoft changes tune.? If that were the case, the new arrangement would have been revealed prior to E3, when the wave of discontent first started to crash. If Sony had fallen in line behind Microsoft at the trade show ? as many expected it would, particularly in light of 2012?s rumored always-online requirements and used game blockage for the PlayStation 4 ? things would have been different. That?s not what happened though.

Maybe the rumors were a bit of corporate subterfuge, a sly attempt on Sony?s part to lure its competitor into embracing an unpopular set of policies. Or maybe the ?digital future? Microsoft had mapped out really was the plan all along. It doesn?t matter now. We live in a digital world, but console gamers still want an analog solution.

Can you blame us? We?ve grown up swapping cartridges and discs. It?s one of the advantages that console gaming has over mobile or PC: there?s a culture, a community, that?s built itself around sharing freely. The Xbox One?s now-defunct family sharing feature would have kept that alive to some extent, but people aren?t quite ready to give up the familiar act of handing off a piece of physical media to a friend. I?m certainly not, as much as I might recognize that attitude as antiquated thinking.

So we?re still chained to keeping a disc in our drive when we play, or carrying a plastic case along to a friend?s home to game there. Same as it ever was.?The challenge of ushering gaming into the digital future that Microsoft envisioned is ensuring that the heart of what makes console gaming special isn?t lost, and the company?s Xbox One policies threatened that in a couple of ways.

Online checks were the big one. Steam gets along just fine, allowing offline play for up to 30 days before requiring gamers to ?check in? using an Internet connection. If you can?t get your machine to an Internet in the space of a month then you?re playing games in the wrong generation.

Microsoft?s 24-hour requirement was needlessly restrictive, and without any demonstrable reason. The need for damage control overruled any possibility of the company extending that window instead of dropping it all together. Still, I?ll always wonder what the industry landscape would have looked like today if Microsoft had come out from moment one with a 30-day window for online checks.

The used games situation wasn?t nearly as dire. If you read through the original license transfer guidelines for Xbox One closely, they weren?t such a huge shift away from what we know. Family sharing was actually a popular feature, and one that I hope to see Microsoft implement in the future. You were still going to be able to sell off old games, or gift them to friends. Sharing discs would have been a no-no for first-party titles, but with both that and license transfers for used games, much of the power was going to be left in the hands of the third-parties.

The Activisions and Electronic Arts of the world want to make money, sure, but the people running these companies aren?t stupid. The status quo says that new games (for the most part) cost $60 and used games cost $55 or less. Retailers like GameStop earn a sizable profit off of secondhand sales ? almost double what?s typically paid out to you, the gamer ? and none of that goes back to the publishers. Those profits likely would have been cut back, at least for Xbox One re-sales, but the price tags you see on the racks wouldn?t have changed.?

The other big problem was really one of messaging. The policies originally laid out for the Xbox One are completely foreign in the console space, and the big challenge that Microsoft faced was bringing the changes across in a positive way. Facts remained unclear after the hardware reveal thanks to conflicting interview responses from company executives. Then there was the big, impersonal policy dump on Xbox.com immediately before E3. Just words on a website, with little explanation. That?s not how ?you guide a loyal customer through unfamiliar and potentially scary territory.

It would have been so easy to address the changes in a more informative way. Not just clarifying the confusing fine points but also highlighting the benefits that these changes bring to the games. Developers have an enormous amount of potential now in being able to work with Microsoft?s existing network infrastructure as a tool to power their creations. It?s the promise of the cloud that we?ve heard so much talk about.

That doesn?t go anywhere with Microsoft?s policy shift. The cloud lives on and developers can still harness it. As we move deeper into the generation, we?ll see console games that, like the PC-only?SimCity, actively require online access because crucial bits of processing are handled remotely. At that point, it?s the publisher requiring an Internet connection and the publisher that then needs to justify the reasons for that requirement. It will always come back to the games though: if the cloud improves the player?s experience, who?s going to complain?

Microsoft made a smart move here, both in stepping back from its controversial policies and in acting quickly to do so. It was the only play left, given the events of the past few weeks. That said, I sincerely hope that we do one day see a move toward the digital future envisioned for the Xbox One. If it happens, it will come with the benefit of hindsight.

No one?s going to take away your right to play games offline when Internet isn?t a requirement, certainly not in this hardware generation. Similarly, the act of passing a disc to your friend isn?t going anywhere. These are deeply ingrained ideas in the culture of console gaming. The trick then, for both Microsoft and for Sony, will be in figuring out how to evolve those ideas in a more purely digital space.

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-one-policy-shift-resuscitates-the-ailing-culture-of-console-gaming/

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Carbon nanotube harpoon catches individual brain-cell signals

June 19, 2013 ? Neuroscientists may soon be modern-day harpooners, snaring individual brain-cell signals instead of whales with tiny spears made of carbon nanotubes.

The new brain cell spear is a millimeter long, only a few nanometers wide and harnesses the superior electromechanical properties of carbon nanotubes to capture electrical signals from individual neurons.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time scientists have used carbon nanotubes to record signals from individual neurons, what we call intracellular recordings, in brain slices or intact brains of vertebrates," said Bruce Donald, a professor of computer science and biochemistry at Duke University who helped developed the probe.

He and his collaborators describe the carbon nanotube probes June 19 in PLOS ONE.

"The results are a good proof of principle that carbon nanotubes could be used for studying signals from individual nerve cells," said Duke neurobiologist Richard Mooney, a study co-author. "If the technology continues to develop, it could be quite helpful for studying the brain."

Scientists want to study signals from individual neurons and their interactions with other brain cells to better understand the computational complexity of the brain.

Currently, they use two main types of electrodes, metal and glass, to record signals from brain cells. Metal electrodes record spikes from a population of brain cells and work well in live animals. Glass electrodes also measure spikes, as well as the computations individual cells perform, but are delicate and break easily.

"The new carbon nanotubes combine the best features of both metal and glass electrodes. They record well both inside and outside brain cells, and they are quite flexible. Because they won't shatter, scientists could use them to record signals from individual brain cells of live animals," said Duke neurobiologist Michael Platt, who was not involved in the study.

In the past, other scientists have experimented with carbon nanotube probes. But the electrodes were thick, causing tissue damage, or they were short, limiting how far they could penetrate into brain tissue. They could not probe inside individual neurons.

To change this, Donald began working on a harpoon-like carbon-nanotube probe with Duke neurobiologist Richard Mooney five years ago. The two met during their first year at Yale in the 1976, kept in touch throughout graduate school and began meeting to talk about their research after they both came to Duke.

Mooney told Donald about his work recording brain signals from live zebra finches and mice. The work was challenging, he said, because the probes and machinery to do the studies were large and bulky on the small head of a mouse or bird.

With Donald's expertise in nanotechnology and robotics and Mooney's in neurobiology, the two thought they could work together to shrink the machinery and improve the probes with nano-materials.

To make the probe, graduate student Inho Yoon and Duke physicist Gleb Finkelstein used the tip of an electrochemically sharpened tungsten wire as the base and extended it with self-entangled multi-wall carbon nanotubes to create a millimeter-long rod. The scientists then sharpened the nanotubes into a tiny harpoon using a focused ion beam at North Carolina State University.

Yoon then took the nano-harpoon to Mooney's lab and jabbed it into slices of mouse brain tissue and then into the brains of anesthetized mice. The results show that the probe transmits brain signals as well as, and sometimes better than, conventional glass electrodes and is less likely to break off in the tissue. The new probe also penetrates individual neurons, recording the signals of a single cell rather than the nearest population of them.

Based on the results, the team has applied for a patent on the nano-harpoon. Platt said scientists might use the probes in a range of applications, from basic science to human brain-computer interfaces and brain prostheses.

Donald said the new probe makes advances in those directions, but the insulation layers, electrical recording abilities and geometry of the device still need improvement.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/7OztY2ISM84/130619195129.htm

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Report: Slowdown in health care costs to continue

WASHINGTON (AP) ? There's good news for most companies that provide health benefits for their employees: America's slowdown in medical costs may be turning into a trend, rather than a mere pause.

A report Tuesday from accounting and consulting giant PwC projects lower overall growth in medical costs for next year, even as the economy gains strength and millions of uninsured people receive coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law.

If the calculations are correct, cost spikes because of the new health care law should be contained within a relatively narrow market segment. That would come as a relief for Democrats in an election year during which Republicans plan to use criticism of "Obamacare" as one of their main political weapons.

"There are some underlying changes to the system that are having an impact, and we can expect lower increases as we come out of the recession," said Mike Thompson of PwC's Health Research Institute, which produced the study. Cost "is still going up, but not as much as it used to."

The report comes with a caveat that sounds counterintuitive at first: Self-employed people and others who buy coverage individually could well see an increase in premiums in 2014.

The reasons have to do with requirements in the health care law. For example, starting next year insurers must accept patients with pre-existing medical problems, who cost more to cover. Also, new policies have to provide a basic level of benefits more generous in some cases than what's currently offered to individual consumers.

About 160 million workers and family members now have job-based coverage and are less likely to be affected. The individual market is much smaller, fewer than 20 million people. Still, it's expected to grow significantly over the next few years as a result of the health care law, which will also provide tax credits to help many people afford their premiums.

The U.S. spends more than $2.7 trillion a year on health care, well above any other developed country. But quality is uneven, there's widespread waste and fraud, and the system still leaves about 45 million people uninsured.

For years U.S. health care spending has grown much faster than the overall economy and workers' wages, but since the recession those annual increases have slowed dramatically. The debate now is whether that's a continuing trend. The answer will be vitally important, not only for companies and their employees, but for taxpayers who foot the bill for government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Obama's coverage expansion.

PwC's report forecasts that direct medical care costs will increase by 6.5 percent next year, one percentage point lower than its previous projection. The cost of care is the biggest component of premiums, followed by administrative expenses and overhead.

Cost-shifting to workers and efficiency measures from employers got most of the credit for slowing growth. PwC also said the health care law's push for hospitals and doctors to be more accountable may be starting to have an impact.

Four big factors were seen as pushing costs down next year:

?Patients seeking more affordable routine services in settings like clinics springing up in retail stores, as opposed to a doctor's office or the emergency room.

?Major employers contracting directly with hospital systems that have a proven record for complicated procedures such as heart surgery and certain back operations.

?The government ramping up penalties on hospitals that have too many patients coming back with problems soon after being discharged.

?Employers' ongoing effort to shift more costs to workers through higher annual deductibles, the amount people must pay each year before insurance picks up.

By using such shifting, PwC estimates that employers may be able to drive their share of next year's cost increase even lower than 6.5 percent.

On the other hand, two big factors will push costs upward:

?The high price of new "specialty" drugs to treat serious chronic illnesses such as autoimmune diseases and some types of cancer.

?Industry consolidation, with big hospitals buying up smaller ones, as well as medical practices and rehab centers. The downside of the demand for greater efficiency by employers and government is that it may be fostering new health care monopolies.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-06-18-Health%20Care%20Costs/id-0f648f132b384932b48b0ef61a714013

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Cuban dissident: Repression forced family to flee

MIAMI (AP) ? One of several Cuban dissidents recently allowed to visit Europe and the U.S. after Cuba changed its travel laws said Tuesday she decided to seek refuge in Miami after facing continued repression on the island.

Rosa Maria Paya said she and her family have been the subject of threats, harassment and increased vigilance since her father's death last year and following her return to Cuba in April.

"We wanted to rest a bit from the persecution we faced in Cuba," Paya said, "and continue working on the opposition's proposals for change and transition to democracy."

Paya, 24, is the daughter of the late Oswaldo Paya, the lead organizer of the Varela Project, a signature-gathering drive regarded as the largest nonviolent campaign to change the system Fidel Castro established in 1959. The petition asked authorities for a referendum on guaranteeing rights such as freedom of speech and assembly in Cuba.

In July 2012, Paya and youth activist Harold Cepero died in a car crash in Bayamo, Cuba. The two men and another passenger were in a car driven by Spaniard Angel Carromero, who lost control and struck a tree, according to government authorities. Carromero was convicted of vehicular homicide and sent to Spain to serve a four-year sentence.

Paya's daughter, wife and others have insisted the crash was not an accident. They assert that witness accounts, text messages and statements made after the crash raise questions about the Cuban government's account. Rosa Maria Paya spoke with government officials in the U.S. and Europe to press for an international investigation.

Rosa Maria Paya was allowed to leave in April after Cuba eliminated the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. She was one of several prominent Cuban dissidents to visit the U.S. and appears to be the first to have returned to Cuba and then sought status as a political refugee in the U.S.

She said that when she returned to Cuba, immigration officials at the airport told her, "Welcome."

But the threats, vigilance and oppression against her family and others involved in the movement her father started intensified, she said.

The decision of the Paya family ? six members in all ? to leave the island is likely to be seen as a black eye to the Cuban government, which has been trying to portray itself as a more open society since enacting a slate of social and economic reforms in recent years, said Jaime Suchlicki, a professor at the University of Miami.

"It makes it look like the Cuban government is oppressive, which it is," Suchlicki said. On the other hand, with one less dissident on the island, "I don't think the Cuban government is going to be too upset."

Ofelia Acevedo, Oswaldo Paya's wife and Rosa Maria's mother, said she and other family members are residing in the U.S. as political refugees, not exiles, and do not plan to ask for political asylum. Under the Cuban migratory changes enacted in January, Cubans can stay abroad for two years before forfeiting full citizenship rights.

The U.S. State Department declined to provide any specific information about the family's case.

Acevedo said her family's stay in Miami was of a "temporary nature." But she also declined to provide any specifics on when they would return.

"We will continue fighting until real change is a reality in Cuba," Acevedo said. "The amount of time it will take, we don't know. When we are going to return we don't know either."

The family vowed to continue the work of Oswaldo Paya from Miami in conjunction with activists on the island. But Suchlicki said their departure was a setback for the Christian Liberation movement Paya started.

"They're going to continue, but it's one of many groups in exile," Suchlicki said. "It's a limited impact that they will have in Miami. Internally they would have more impact."

_

Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-18-Cuban%20Dissident's%20Daughter/id-33f8faa0e83c444387e948e86af748b0

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Nintendo 3DS update adds save backups, new StreetPass game store

If the madness of E3 (and the promise of some big titles) has recently pulled you back to Nintendo's handheld, you might be greeted with a firmware update next time you open up that well-worn 3DS. Aside from improved stability and bug fixes, there's new save data backup feature which will hold on to save files for your downloaded 3DS titles as well as Virtual Console games. Appearing already in Europe, version 6.0.0-11 also bundles in a new shop for the Mii Plaza, with StreetPass Squad, StreetPass Garden, StreetPass Battle, StreetPass Mansion all priced at 5 euros, or 15 euros for the whole set. No word on yet on when the update will arrive on the other side of the Atlantic, but given past form, we'd expect it to arrive some time this month.

Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo

Comments

Source: Nintendo Life, VG247

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/nintendo-3ds-update-backup/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Rett Syndrome protein surrenders some of its secrets

June 17, 2013 ? Discovery of a mutant gene responsible for a disease is a milestone, but for most conditions, it may be only a first step towards a treatment or cure. Understanding Rett Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, is further complicated by the fact that the implicated gene controls a suite of other genes. Two papers, published in today's Nature Neuroscience and Nature, reveal key steps in how mutations in the gene for methyl CpG-binding protein (MECP2) cause the condition. The Rett Syndrome Research Trust (RSRT) funded this work with generous support from partners Rett Syndrome Research Trust UK and Rett Syndrome Research & Treatment Foundation.

Rett Syndrome is a single-gene neurological disorder that affects girls. Development slows during the first year of life, then regresses, as toddlers lose speech, mobility, and hand use. Many girls have seizures, orthopedic and severe digestive problems, as well as breathing and other autonomic impairments. Most live into adulthood and require total, round-the-clock care. Rett Syndrome affects about 1 in 10,000 girls born each year.

The papers result from a collaboration between the labs of Adrian Bird, Ph.D., Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, and Michael Greenberg, Ph.D., Department Chair and Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

The Bird and Greenberg labs have been working together since 2011 as members of the MECP2 Consortium along with Gail Mandel, a Howard Hughes Investigator at Oregon Health and Sciences University. The Consortium, launched by RSRT with a $1 million lead gift by RSRT Trustee Tony Schoener and his wife Kathy, fosters novel alliances among leading scientists to interrogate the molecules at the root of the syndrome.

Professor Bird discovered the MeCP2 protein in 1992. In 2007, he showed that affected brain cells in a mouse model of Rett Syndrome can regain function, even in late stages of the disease, suggesting that the disorder is curable. Despite this unexpected breakthrough the function of the Rett protein remains elusive.

In search of the function, the Bird lab set out to identify the key domains of the protein. Mutations found in individuals suffering from Rett led them to their answer. By focusing only on "missense" mutations, which alter a single amino acid, the researchers were able to hone in on two key domains where the mutations aggregated. The first was the well-known methyl binding domain (MBD) which is the site where MeCP2 binds to methylated DNA, thereby modulating the expression of downstream genes. The second key domain is where MeCP2 binds to a molecule called NCoR/SMRT, a large multi-protein machine that shuts down genes. The Bird lab coined this domain the NCoR/SMRT Interaction Domain (NID).

"Further proof of the importance of the MBD and the NID came from mining the genomes of 6503 healthy people. The result was the exact mirror image of the situation seen in Rett. All along the MECP2 gene normal people have non-disease causing alterations, known as polymorphisms. However, no alterations of any kind could be found in the MBD and the NID, indicating that these domains are prized real estate that cannot be tampered with," said Matthew Lyst, postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the Nature Neuroscience paper.

The most frequent Rett mutation in the NID is at amino acid # 306. When the researchers recapitulated the mutation in mice, the animals suffered symptoms similar to girls with Rett. At fault: loss of the interaction between the MeCP2 and NCoR/SMRT proteins and further evidence of the importance of the NID.

"We knew that MeCP2 binds to the genome at methylated sites, but nothing more than that. We now know that its function depends on the ability to bring NCoR/SMRT co-repressors to the DNA," Prof. Bird summed up.

The Nature paper continues the story through another amino acid location, 308, which is very near the 306 mutation in the human version of the gene. Sensory input leads to the addition of a phosphate group at the 308 site and this alters the ability of the MeCP2 protein to interact with the NCoR/SMRT co-repressor, thereby affecting the expression of downstream proteins. The Greenberg lab created mice with a mutation at 308 that are unable to attach a phosphate group. As a result, genes that MeCP2 normally controls are mis-regulated.

"The MeCP2 308 mice have reduced brain weight, motor system abnormalities, and lower seizure thresholds that correspond to the deceleration of head growth, motor system impairments and seizure disorders found in Rett. This suggests that the modification of 308 is critical for the normal function of MeCP2 and its disruption might contribute to Rett," said Daniel Ebert, postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the Nature paper.

Whether the phosphates are added to MeCP2 depends on activity of the neuron. The Greenberg lab has found that in early life, sensory input leads to modification of MeCP2 at multiple sites, including 308. These changes appear to be critical for proper brain development, and their absence in Rett Syndrome may begin to explain what goes wrong in the brains of girls with this devastating disorder.

Each step deciphered in the genetic choreography behind Rett Syndrome is a step towards treatment. "To design an effective small molecule therapy, one needs to understand the underlying mechanisms of how MeCP2 functions and how mutations in MeCP2 lead to disease. Both papers published today make significant progress by providing compelling evidence for dysregulation of the MeCP2-NCoR interaction underlying key aspects of Rett Syndrome," said Prof. Greenberg.

What still isn't known is which genes the co-repressors target. And that will be the next leap in traveling the road from a mutant gene to a little girl who wrings her hands, has seizures and can't talk or walk. Discovering the other molecular events might reveal intersecting or redundant genetic pathways that drug developers can tweak in the search for treatments.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ohn4IuWHhU8/130617122506.htm

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President Obama: NSA Spying Keeps America Safe, So Get Over It

President Obama will be on Charlie Rose tonight to chat about all the NSA spying that came to light last week. But ahead of the broadcast, PBS has released a portion of the transcript to Buzzfeed. Below is a portion of said transcript:

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5pP5STtD3r8/president-obama-nsa-spying-keeps-america-safe-so-get-513894610

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After Closing $3 Million Series A, Qwaya Wants To Help SMEs Get Down With Facebook Ads

It's often said that if you're not on Facebook you don't exist, so dominant in our social lives has the uber-social network become. Therefore, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that businesses -- big and small -- may feel the same way. Hoping to cash in on the rise of Facebook advertising is Stockholm-based Qwaya, which offers a cloud-based tool for SMEs to create, publish and measure the effectiveness of Facebook ad campaigns.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3TbMWLx_rhg/

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Source's employer: Reports of NSA leak 'shocking'

A sign stands outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, June 6, 2013. The Obama administration on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats." (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A sign stands outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, June 6, 2013. The Obama administration on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats." (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The employer of a 29-year-old man who says he is behind the leaks of sensitive National Security Agency programs is calling the disclosure "shocking" and is pledging to work with authorities.

Consulting giant Booz Allen on Sunday confirmed Edward Snowden is an employee assigned to a team in Hawaii. The firm says Snowden has been working there less than three months.

The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence programs after he asked the newspaper to do so. The Washington Post also identified Snowden as a source for its reporting.

The Guardian says Snowden is a former CIA covert employee and has been an NSA contract employee for four years.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-09-NSA-Phone%20Records-Employer/id-3a349c4261124213bbff03cf522981bb

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Experts find epigenetic changes moderate reality distortion in schizophrenia patients

Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alana Podolsky
alana.podolsky@oup.com
212-726-6033
Oxford University Press

A study in Schizophrenia Bulletin is among the first to indicate epigenetic changes related to immune function in schizophrenia. DNA methylation, a process involving the addition of a methyl group to the DNA without changing its sequence, can alter gene expression. Led by Dr. Jingyu Liu, the nine researchers analyzed and verified changes in DNA methylation patterns in people with and without schizophrenia and found significant changes in seven genes that moderate immune responses.

In the current study, the researchers found that the seven genes that were up or down regulated protect against the delusion and hallucination symptoms in schizophrenia patients. This finding suggests that methylation changes related to immune function may be one of the pathways to moderate symptoms in schizophrenia patients.

###

The paper "Methylation Patterns in Whole Blood Correlate With Symptoms in Schizophrenia Patients" can be accessed here: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/5147/6

Media queries and interview requests should be directed to:

Alana Podolsky | Publicity | alana.podolsky@oup.com | 212-726-6033

Schizophrenia Bulletin, published by Oxford University Press, seeks to review recent developments and empirically based hypotheses regarding the etiology and treatment of schizophrenia.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alana Podolsky
alana.podolsky@oup.com
212-726-6033
Oxford University Press

A study in Schizophrenia Bulletin is among the first to indicate epigenetic changes related to immune function in schizophrenia. DNA methylation, a process involving the addition of a methyl group to the DNA without changing its sequence, can alter gene expression. Led by Dr. Jingyu Liu, the nine researchers analyzed and verified changes in DNA methylation patterns in people with and without schizophrenia and found significant changes in seven genes that moderate immune responses.

In the current study, the researchers found that the seven genes that were up or down regulated protect against the delusion and hallucination symptoms in schizophrenia patients. This finding suggests that methylation changes related to immune function may be one of the pathways to moderate symptoms in schizophrenia patients.

###

The paper "Methylation Patterns in Whole Blood Correlate With Symptoms in Schizophrenia Patients" can be accessed here: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/5147/6

Media queries and interview requests should be directed to:

Alana Podolsky | Publicity | alana.podolsky@oup.com | 212-726-6033

Schizophrenia Bulletin, published by Oxford University Press, seeks to review recent developments and empirically based hypotheses regarding the etiology and treatment of schizophrenia.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/oup-efe061013.php

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Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin of life, astrobiologists find

June 10, 2013 ? Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa NASA Astrobiology Institute (UHNAI) have discovered high concentrations of boron in a Martian meteorite. When present in its oxidized form (borate), boron may have played a key role in the formation of RNA, one of the building blocks for life.

The work was published on June 6 in PLOS ONE.

The Antarctic Search for Meteorites team found the Martian meteorite used in this study in Antarctica during its 2009-2010 field season. The minerals it contains, as well as its chemical composition, clearly show that it is of Martian origin.

Using the ion microprobe in the W. M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory at UH, the team was able to analyze veins of Martian clay in the meteorite. After ruling out contamination from Earth, they determined boron abundances in these clays are over ten times higher than in any previously measured meteorite.

"Borates may have been important for the origin of life on Earth because they can stabilize ribose, a crucial component of RNA. In early life RNA is thought to have been the informational precursor to DNA," said James Stephenson, a UHNAI postdoctoral fellow.

RNA may have been the first molecule to store information and pass it on to the next generation, a mechanism crucial for evolution. Although life has now evolved a sophisticated mechanism to synthesize RNA, the first RNA molecules must have been made without such help. One of the most difficult steps in making RNA nonbiologically is the formation of the RNA sugar component, ribose. Previous laboratory tests have shown that without borate the chemicals available on the early Earth fail to build ribose. However, in the presence of borate, ribose is spontaneously produced and stabilized.

This work was born from the uniquely interdisciplinary environment of UHNAI. The lead authors on the paper, Stephenson, an evolutionary biologist, and Lydia Hallis, a cosmochemist who is also a UHNAI postdoctoral fellow, first came up with the idea over an after-work beer. "Given that boron has been implicated in the emergence of life, I had assumed that it was well characterized in meteorites," said Stephenson. "Discussing this with Dr. Hallis, I found out that it was barely studied. I was shocked and excited. She then informed me that both the samples and the specialized machinery needed to analyze them were available at UH."

On our planet, borate-enriched salt, sediment and clay deposits are relatively common, but such deposits had never previously been found on an extraterrestrial body. This new research suggests that when life was getting started on Earth, borate could also have been concentrated in deposits on Mars.

The significance goes beyond an interest in the red planet, as Hallis explains: "Earth and Mars used to have much more in common than they do today. Over time, Mars has lost a lot of its atmosphere and surface water, but ancient meteorites preserve delicate clays from wetter periods in Mars' history. The Martian clay we studied is thought to be up to 700 million years old. The recycling of the Earth's crust via plate tectonics has left no evidence of clays this old on our planet; hence Martian clays could provide essential information regarding environmental conditions on the early Earth."

The presence of ancient borate-enriched clays on Mars implies that these clays may also have been present on the early Earth. Borate-enriched clays such as the ones studied here may have represented chemical havens in which one of life's key molecular building blocks could form.

UHNAI is a research center that links the biological, chemical, geological, and astronomical sciences to better understand the origin, history, distribution, and role of water as it relates to life in the universe.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Hus74qjPe3I/130610220132.htm

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