Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

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Football: Madrid slump at Betis as title hopes suffer

MADRID: Real Madrid suffered a major setback to their Spanish title hopes when they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Real Betis on Saturday, handing Barcelona the opportunity to open an 11-point gap over their bitter rivals on Sunday.

Jose Mourinho's side remain eight points behind leaders Barcelona and five off city rivals Atletico who they host in the Madrid derby next Saturday.

Betis midfielder Benat Etxebarria's third goal of the season decided the game on Saturday.

All of his goals have been hit from outside the area, and he proved once again why Vicente del Bosque has been including him in recent Spain squads.

For Betis, the result comes on the back of a disappointing 5-1 defeat to their local rivals Sevilla last Sunday and puts them four points behind Madrid in fifth.

"I try to be fair when my team lose and not look for excuses but it's obvious that the side that plays Wednesday (in the Champions League) should not play on Saturday," said Mourinho.

"It's true that other sides have a control over the calendar that we do not have, but I congratulate Betis who played a great game from start to finish."

Cristiano Ronaldo fired in two shots in the opening exchanges.

However, neither side had taken charge of the game when Benat hit what was to be the winner on 17 minutes.

Betis had played the ball into the corner only for Angel Di Maria to badly hook a clearance that the little midfielder controlled before evading the challenge of Sami Khedira to fire a drive past Iker Casillas.

Madrid continued to enjoy more of the possession and Di Maria twice went close to making amends for his mistake.

When Ronaldo crossed from the left the Argentinian was inches from levelling the game and moments later a Chechu Dorado block looped his goal bound shot over the bar.

Mourinho made two changes at half-time, as he has done on a number of occasions this season.

Luka Modric and Kaka replaced Khedira and Mesut Ozil as the Portuguese coach searched for more urgency going forward.

They started brightly with more purpose and Ronaldo and Kaka forced good saves from Adrian in the Betis goal.

At the other end Juan Carlos hit a venomous free-kick just over the bar.

Then Mourinho made an early last throw of the dice, replacing Di Maria with Jose Callejon on 62 minutes.

Madrid pressed in search of an equaliser leaving spaces that Betis were clever enough to expose and Salva Sevilla and Ruben Castro went close for the home side.

Adrian stood firm again to tip over a whipped free-kick from Ronaldo as Madrid's challenge uncharacteristically fizzled out on a night to forget for Mourinho's side.

Malaga thrashed rivals Valencia 4-0 to move behind Madrid into fourth, level on 22 points with Betis.

Francisco Portillo fired the Costa del Sol side into an early lead on eight minutes and Javier Saviola should have doubled the lead before half-time when put through on goal only to slice his shot wide.

The Argentine made up for that miss by doubling the lead on 75 minutes. Roque Santa Cruz hit a third 10 minutes from time before Isco rounded off a brilliant Malaga performance with a crisply struck shot.

Both teams qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League in midweek, but this win puts Malaga four points ahead of Valencia in the fight to qualify for next season's competition.

Also on Saturday there were home wins for Rayo Vallecano and Valladolid over Mallorca and Granada respectively.

Brazilian striker Leo Baptistao was the star for Rayo breaking the deadlock with a low drive on 87 minutes before turning provider two minutes later for Andrija Delibasic.

Former Manchester United striker Manucho powered home his fourth goal of the season with a second-half winner for Valladolid, making it four league goals for the Angolan this season.

On Sunday, Barcelona travel to Levante while Atletico Madrid welcome Sevilla.

-AFP/ac

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Apple targets Galaxy Note 2, S3 Mini in latest court request

Apple and Samsung continue to hurl gadgets at each other in their seemingly never-ending patent battle.

Midweek, Samsung filed a request that the
iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch be included in a California case set to go to trial in 2014. Not to be outdone, Apple responded last night by asking that several more Samsung devices, including the
Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy S3 with
Android 4.1, and the Galaxy S3 Mini, be covered by the case.

The last round of tit-for-tat additions to the list of gadgets covered by the case included Apple's iPhone 5, Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in conjunction with Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. The U.S. model of the Galaxy S3 -- which was not yet running Android 4.1 -- was also part of the earlier back-and-forth.

Back in August, Apple won an earlier California case, which focused on exterior design issues and not just on what Apple said were similarities to patented software features. This case deals more with software and user interface patents, raising the question of whether Android-maker Google might somehow get pulled directly into the fray.

The case is being overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in a federal court in San Jose, Calif.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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Sandy-Hit Stores Seek Small Business Saturday Boost

Nov 24, 2012 3:35pm

                                                                                      (Image Credit: Associated Press)

Superstorm Sandy delivered a one-two punch on small businesses, creating millions of dollars in damage and in turn, delivering a debilitating blow to their revenue.

But on Small Business Saturday, when  shoppers are encouraged to support local businesses,  those mom-and-pop stores are hoping for a rebound.

Donna Scofield and her family have sold toys at their Manhattan shop, called Stationery & Toy World, for the past 25 years. Although the store is located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where the storm did little damage, $500,000 of Scofield’s inventory, which she kept in her home and three Staten Island warehouses, was destroyed.

“Some days are easier than others,” she told ABC New York station WABC-TV last week. “We’re taking each day at a time.”

PHOTOS: Superstorm Sandy’s Wide Swath of Destruction

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that more than $45 million in loans, grants and financial assistance would be made available to businesses like Scofield’s that were hurt by the storm.

“Getting New York City small businesses back on their feet is key to helping our economy recover from Sandy,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “The capital provided through this program will help businesses purchase supplies, make repairs, and get back up and running.”

Small Business Saturday, which is going on its third year, is being celebrated nationwide.

Andrea Evans, the owner of Pink Boutique in Phoenix, said stores like hers don’t stand a chance with shoppers on Black Friday.

“Everyone’s up so early, and they’re going more for, you know, appliances and TVs and stuff like that, and I think by the time noon hits, they’re done,” she told ABC News Radio.

Over the past two decades, small and new businesses have created two out of every three net new jobs in the United States, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

It is estimated that half of all working Americans either own a small business or are employed by one.

SHOWS: World News

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