Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012

Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatmentsApple's patents under fire at US patent office The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against SamsungHimalayan dam-building threatens endemic species The world's highest mountains...

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New diagnostic kit allows testing for ricin poisoning

SINGAPORE: A new diagnostic kit developed by Singapore's DSO National Laboratories and the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia will allow for the testing of a potent toxin, known as ricin, in humans.Ricin is found in the common castor bean plant and oil produced from the plant is widely used industrially.A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult...

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Browsers: Top 5 events from 2012

For a while there, the browser was winning the war.New startups launched online services rather than packaged software. Browser makers raced to transform the Web from a place to publish documents into a general-purpose programming platform. People spent more and more time using the Web instead of software that ran natively on devices.Then the era of modern smartphones andtablets began. And in 2012,...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur

They were the biggest animals ever to walk the Earth – now a new fossil suggests the largest sauropod dinosaurs were even bigger than we thought. Sauropods were enormous plant-eating beasts with long necks and tails. The biggest are aptly named titanosaurs, and could...

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Nesting turtle numbers fall in South Asia: experts

KOLKATA: Conservationists have expressed alarm over the low number of turtles arriving on the coast of east India and Bangladesh for the nesting season, blaming overfishing and climate change for the decline.Between November and March, several species of sea turtle, including the Olive Ridley, travel thousands of miles to nest on the sandy shores of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove...

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Hulu chief asks bosses for $200 million in funding -- report

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has asked his corporate overlords for twice as much cash as last year to fund the company's growth strategy, a new report claims.Kilar has petitioned Hulu owners Walt Disney, Comcast, and News Corp. for $200 million for 2013 to be used for acquiring more programming and expanding the company's reach around the world, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing people who...

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Winter Solstice 2012: Facts on the Shortest Day of the Year

Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's all due to Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21.Some predicted that today would also mark Earth's doomsday, thanks to a longstanding rumor that the Maya calendar ends on December 21, 2012. But earlier this year, National Geographic grantee William...

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NRA to Speak on Stopping Newtown Repeat

For the past week, leadership at the National Rifle Association has largely stayed away from the media, but this morning the group may weigh in on how to keep a deadly shooting massacre like last week's at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school from happening again.The NRA will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., just before 11 a.m.Its leadership has held off on interviews...

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Laser cookery makes your food more fun

YOUR toast pops up with a strange pattern burned into it. Pointing your phone's camera at the pattern pulls up a website showing the day's traffic news for your commute. Later, as you're wondering how to make a spring roll, you notice the instructions are etched into the rice paper itself. ...

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China economic growth likely to pick up: analysts

SHANGHAI: China's economic growth may pick up to above 8 per cent in 2013, as economists expect the government to launch policies to boost recovery.The country is expected to report 7.5 per cent this year, the slowest pace in recent years. Economists say investment will remain as the pillar of growth the Chinese economy in the short term, despite the government's push for consumption....

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Galaxy S3 Premium Suite upgrade starts U.K. rollout

Samsung's Galaxy S3 owners in the U.K. arey getting the Premium Suite upgrade the company has been teasing this month.Samsung announced today that the U.K. rollout of its Premium Suite upgrade kicks off today. The company failed to provide details on where else the software will be rolled out in the coming weeks.The Premium Suite upgrade for the Galaxy S3 was announced earlier this month. The update...

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.Bats are a major reservoir...

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Virginia Tech Survivor Fights Back Against Guns

Colin Goddard knows what it's like to be in a classroom when an armed man bursts through the door and starts randomly shooting people. Goddard was a student at Virginia Tech when a gunman shot him and killed 32 people in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history."It was the most terrifying nine minutes of my life," Goddard told Terry Moran of "Nightline" Wednesday. "One moment...

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Cassini captures spectacle in Saturn's shadow

Flora Graham, deputy editor, newscientist.com(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)Like a Christmas bauble hanging in the night, this view ofa backlit Saturn shines in the darkness. The image was taken during a rare chancefor NASA'sCassini spacecraft to observe the planet's rings while in Saturn's shadow. Conveniently,Saturn blocks the sun and the rings are illuminated from behind. As well as providing...

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Moon concedes S. Korea presidential election

SEOUL: Liberal candidate Moon Jae-In conceded victory Wednesday in South Korea's presidential election to conservative Park Geun-Hye, saying he "humbly" accepted the decision of the voters."Everyone did their best but I lacked the ability," Moon told reporters outside his Seoul residence. "I humbly accept the outcome of the election."- AFP/ck !-- Zone Tag : Channel News Asia In Text...

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Get a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $19.99 shipped

Get 32GB of USB 3.0-powered flash storage for under $20.(Credit:Ice Monkey)Regular readers know that flash-drive prices have plummeted in the past year. But you know what all those dirt-cheap drives have had in common? A USB 2.0 interface.What is this, 2001? USB 2.0 is over, man. It's the digital equivalent of the horse and buggy. And yet it's still pretty rare to find flash drives that support the...

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Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice

A hundred years ago, two teams of explorers set out to be the first people ever to reach the South Pole. The race between Roald Amundsen of Norway and Robert Falcon Scott of Britain became the stuff of triumph, tragedy, and legend. (See rare pictures of Scott's expedition.)Today, another Antarctic drama is underway that has a similar daring and intensity—but very different stakes.Three...

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How an ancient Egyptian code unmasked a cannibal star

* Required fields * First name * Last name * Country * Email address * Password Password must contain only letters and numbers, and be at least 8 characters * Confirm password...

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MOM can and will do more for foreign workers: Tan Chuan-Jin

SINGAPORE: Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin has said his ministry can and will do more for foreign workers.He said this in response to various criticisms about the ministry's management of migrant worker matters.Mr Tan said the ministry's various systems, including those dealing with employment issues for workers, can be improved, and the ministry will continue to work on them.He...

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Google+ iOS app adds support for Google+ Communities

Apple iOS users can now do even more with Google+ on their mobile devices.Released yesterday, version 4.1 of Google+ for iOS lets you browse, search for, and join communities. You can find communities devoted to your own interests, read posts from fellow members, and post your own comments.You can now subscribe to any circle from your iPhone oriPad and receive notifications of updates and other items....

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.Although the mountain...

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Siblings of Sandy Hook Victims Face Survivor's Guilt

Six-year-old Arielle Pozner was in a classroom at Sandy Hook school when Adam Lanza burst into the school with his rifle and handguns. Her twin brother, Noah, was in a classroom down the hall.Noah Pozner was killed by Lanza, along with 19 other children at the school, and six adults. Arielle and other students' siblings survived."That's going to be incredibly difficult to cope...

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Megacity China: the ultimate in urban migration

Joanna Carver, reporter(Image: Wu Hong/EPA/Corbis)NO, YOU haven't slipped into a dream within a dream within a dream. This megacity, which you'd be forgiven for thinking is the dream-limbo city featured in the movie Inception, is Qingdao. It won the accolade of being China's most liveable city in 2009 and 2011. It is home to 8.7 million people. One of the main criteria for the prize is that the...

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New private home sales in November fall to lowest level in 2012

SINGAPORE: The number of new private homes sold in November fell to the lowest level in 2012.Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), 1,087 units were sold in November -- 44.2 percent less than in October.It is also the second straight month of decline.October saw 25.7 percent less homes moved in at 1,948 units.Analysts attribute the decline to fewer property launches last month.Savills'...

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Dueling analysts differ on Apple's prospects ahead

Apple's recent stock slide has elicited different opinions from two analysts on the near-term prospects for the company.In an investors note released yesterday, Citi analyst Glen Yeung lowered his rating on Apple stock to Neutral from Buy. Citi initiated coverage of Apple last month, issuing a Buy rating based on an expected recovery from the stock's then "near-term trough."But with the share price...

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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Newtown Victims: 'Hero' Teacher, Principal, 20 Kids

Twenty bright first graders with their entire lives ahead of them were gunned down on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Along with the students, the lives of six school staffers, including a devoted teacher and a proud principal, were lost. Click through to see the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Noah Pozner and his twin sister celebrated their sixth...

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