Get cirrus in the fight against climate change

FEATHERY cirrus clouds are beautiful, but when it comes to climate change, they are the enemy. Found at high-altitude and made of small ice crystals, they trap heat - so more cirrus means a warmer world. Now it seems that, by destroying cirrus, we could reverse all the warming Earth has experienced so far. ...

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Germany has 'everlasting responsibility' for Nazi crimes: Merkel

  BERLIN: Germany has "an everlasting responsibility" for the crimes committed by the Nazis, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday, just days ahead of the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's takeover of power."Naturally, we have an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of national-socialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust," Merkel said in a...

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Eating your own, Microsoft style

Microsoft is getting more aggressive with its Surface sales strategy.(Credit:Microsoft)Eat your own, or somebody else will. That's the new mantra in the device world. Here's what Apple said this week on that topic. In terms of cannibalization and how we think about this, I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity for us. One, our base philosophy is to never fear cannibalization. If we do, somebody...

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty ImagesIf you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders. Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns...

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Newtown Families March for Gun Control in DC

Jan 26, 2013 4:59pm (YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)WASHINGTON, D.C. — Near-freezing temperatures didn’t stop several thousand gun-control activists from bearing their pickets today, carrying signs emblazoned with “Ban Assault Weapons Now” and the names of gun violence victims in a demonstration organized as a response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. last month.Walking...

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Today on New Scientist: 25 January 2013

Hagfish gulped up in first video of deep-sea seal hunt Watch the first sighting of a seal's underwater eating habits spotted by a teenager watching a live video feedWorld's oldest portrait reveals the ice-age mind A 26,000-year-old carved ivory head of a woman is not just an archaeological find - a new exhibition in London wants us to see works like this as artDung beetles navigate using the...

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Obama praises 'extraordinary' Clinton in joint interview

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama Friday heaped praise on outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a rare joint interview set to renew speculation that she will run for president in 2016.The joint sit-down interview with CBS television, which was filmed at the White House, was apparently Obama's idea."I just wanted to have a chance to publicly say thank you, because I think Hillary...

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Orbiting robot gas station gets closer to reality

Dextre is also handy for transferring cargo from spaceships such as the Kounotori2, above.(Credit:Canadian Space Agency)It's a bummer running out of gas, especially when the nearest station is 22,000 miles away. But a project to set up a gas station on the International Space Station made a big leap forward this week with the successful refueling of a mock satellite by a robot. Dextre, a twin-armed...

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty ImagesIf you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders. Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns...

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'Hot' Guns Fueling Crime, US Study Says

Christmas is the one day of the year that Wal-Mart is closed, but for a group of four New Mexico burglars, it was the perfect time to stop in for some firearms.Video surveillance cameras caught the masked burglars red-handed, stealing rifle after rifle. Police arrested the four men, and were able to recover the guns. But all too often, stolen weapons end up in the hands of criminals.The...

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Shrinking proton puzzle persists in new measurement

A puzzle at the heart of the atom refuses to go away. The most precise measurement yet of the proton's radius confirms that it sometimes seems smaller than the laws of physics demand – an issue that has been hotly debated for two years. The latest finding...

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Japan's inflation slips in 2012

TOKYO: Japan's inflation rate slipped 0.1 per cent in 2012, data showed Friday just days after the Bank of Japan set a new target to beat the deflation that has haunted the world's third-largest economy for years.The figures marked the fourth straight annual price decline. The core index, which excludes volatile prices of fresh food, slipped 0.2 per cent in December alone, meeting the...

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Vine users unable to search for Facebook friends

Vine's not yet a day old and Facebook is already shutting its virtual doors to Twitter's newly-acquired video-sharing service.Vine users are suddenly blocked from using the app's friend-finding feature to look up Facebook friends. Instead of searching for your Facebook buddies, the Vine app responds with the message, "Vine is not authorized to make this Facebook request." It looks like Facebook has...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

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Will Women Register for Selective Service?

Jan 24, 2013 5:53pm Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today lifted the ban on women serving in combat positions, opening the door to more than 200,000  new military posts and raising a number of important questions, including: Will women eventually be eligible for the draft?By law, all male U.S. citizens and permanent residents must register with the Selective...

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Wallace: Wonders of nature have been solace of my life

Alfred Russel Wallace discovered natural selection independently of Charles Darwin. Through his letters, available online for the first time, he tells us of his research, expeditions and enduring fascination for nature's mysteries. You are famously joint author, with Darwin, of the first paper describing...

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Assange hits out at WikiLeaks movie

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hit out on Wednesday at a Hollywood film about his secret-spilling website, calling the movie "a massive propaganda attack".Speaking to students at Britain's prestigious Oxford University by videolink from the Ecuadoran embassy in London, Assange revealed that he had acquired a copy of the script for "The Fifth Estate", due to be released in November."It...

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VP Biden to Hangout, talk gun control on Google+

Jumpin' Joe will be getting his G+ on this week.(Credit:Whitehouse.gov)President Obama's "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit drew more than 5 million views, and now Vice President Joe Biden is going to try his hand at a different newfangled social-media real-time electronic telegraph technology.In an event dubbed a "Fireside Hangout," the vice president will be hanging out in Google+ starting at 10:45 a.m....

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10 Ways Obama Could Fight Climate Change

One of the biggest surprises of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Monday was how much he focused on fighting climate change, spending more time on that issue than any other."We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said.The President pointed out that recent severe weather supplied...

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Clinton on Benghazi: Afghanistan Diverted Resources

House Republicans slammed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today for her lack of awareness of State Department cables warning of security threats in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the Sept. 11 attack that killed four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens.In the second congressional hearing of the day reviewing a report by the Accountability Review Board on the State Department's...

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MIT website hacked in tribute to Aaron Swartz

Hal Hodson, technology reporterA tribute to internet activist Aaron Swartz replaced the homepage for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today, in an apparent act of protest over the university's role in the legal case that led up to Swartz's suicide on 11 Jan.For a short time, visitors to the MIT.edu home page found a message that read: "R.I.P. Aaron Swartz. Hacked by grand wizard of Lulzsec,...

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Marines beat a retreat in Beyonce lip-sync flap

WASHINGTON: The US Marine Corps beat a hasty retreat Tuesday from a furore over whether Beyonce lip-synched "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's public inauguration ceremony.First, the New York Times quoted a US Marine Band spokeswoman as saying that, just before Beyonce took the stage Monday, the musicians learned a version of the national anthem it had pre-recorded...

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How Korea's other phonemaker sells good, cheap phones

Pantech Discover, AT&T's higher-end 'budget' AndroidOne of my favorite smartphones on today's market also happens to be one of the least expensive around. It costs just $50, runs Android, boasts a rapid-fire processor and 12.6-megapixel camera, and offers up some ergonomic design elements you won't see anywhere else. Who makes this humble wonder device? I'll give you a hint: the Korean phone-maker...

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Asteroid Mining Metal Abundance

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