It is sometimes claimed that changes in radiation from space, so-called galactic cosmic rays, can be one of the causes of global warming. A new study, investigating the effect of cosmic rays on clouds, says that the likelihood of this is very small. 

The study "Cosmic rays, cloud condensation nuclei and clouds – a reassessment using MODIS data" was recently published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. A group of researchers from the University of Oslo, Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), CICERO Center for Climate and Environmental Research, and the University of Iceland, are behind the study. 

A group of French research students is launching an online register to flag up scientific papers that have been tainted by fraud and other types of scientific misconduct.

Claire Ribrault, a PhD student in neurobiology at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, unveiled the Scientific Red Cards project last month at a workshop on research integrity sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF). The idea is to identify papers that have been shown to be fraudulent but are still in circulation.

If you're a Spider-Man reader, you are certainly aware of “noblesse oblige” - the idea that with great power comes great responsibilities.   And you may believe that if you had great power you would use it compassionately - but it's unlikely you think anyone else wielding great power will act in a compassionate way.

The term was created because it is often perceived that increased power makes people - that is, other, less noble people - less likely to use compassion.   Psychologist Gerben A. van Kleef (University of Amsterdam) and his colleagues from University of California, Berkeley, examined how power influences emotional reactions to the suffering of others.

All spiritual experiences are based in the brain. That statement is truer than ever before, according to a University of Missouri neuropsychologist. An MU study has data to support a neuropsychological model that proposes spiritual experiences associated with selflessness are related to decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of the brain. The study is one of the first to use individuals with traumatic brain injury to determine this connection. Researchers say the implication of this connection means people in many disciplines, including peace studies, health care or religion can learn different ways to attain selflessness, to experience transcendence, and to help themselves and others.

LOS ANGELES, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --

* Governments and the private sector can now build public infrastructure with 100-year durability, at lower cost and with up to a 40 percent reduction in a project's carbon footprint.

* Developed in North America, iCrete Global 100 mixes are immediately available in the Gulf region where work is already underway on the world's tallest 'superscraper' buildings and green megacities in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

* iCrete creates the first truly global concrete, an infrastructure solution that dramatically reduces costs and can meet all building code standards anywhere in the world, featuring the highest strengths achievable.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh say they have shown that tiny crystals found inside bacteria provide a magnetic compass to help them navigate through sediment to find the best food and it provides fresh clues to explain biomagnetism – a phenomenon in which some birds, insects and marine life navigate using the magnetic field that encompasses the Earth.

Researchers say their study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, focuses on magnetotactic bacteria, which contain chains of magnetic crystals, called magnetosomes. They exist all over the globe, living in lake and pond sediments and in ocean coastal regions. 

LAKE WORTH, Florida, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Graphic Security Systems Corporation (GSSC) in the USA has filed suit against Nautilus Security of the UK over security technology sold in the Brand Protection and Document Security market. GSSC alleges that Nautilus is marketing products that infringe GSSC's intellectual property.

The suit was filed late Tuesday, December 16th in Greenville, South Carolina federal court.

GSSC has provided its patented security technology to government-authorized security printing firms and major corporations for more than twenty-five years.

In 1997, GSSC first introduced one of its digital encoding technologies on US postage stamps with its licensee, the United States Postal Service.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- AVG's LinkScanner Technology Keeps Users Safe as Microsoft Determines How and When to Fix Flaw

Security software from AVG effectively blocks attempts by cyber criminals seeking to capitalize on the recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. The vulnerability enables unauthorized third parties to take control of users' PCs by tricking them into visiting poisoned web pages.

HAIFA, Israel, December 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE: ORL.TA) (the Company or ORL), Israel's largest oil refiner, announced today that it has received the following two announcements from Carmel Olefins Ltd. (CAOL, a 50%-held private company in which ORL has entered into an agreement to purchase the balance its shares as outlined in the Press Release of June 25, 2008).

1. The announcement of Midroog Ltd. regarding the downgrading of CAOL's debenture credit rating (Series A) from Aa2 with a Negative Outlook to A1 with a Stable Outlook, together with the main reasons for the rating.