Solar cells are constructed of layers that absorb sunlight and convert it to electrical current. Thinner solar cells can yield both cheaper and more plentiful electricity than today's cells, if their capacity to absorb sunlight is optimized.

Electricity-generating solar cells are one of the most attractive alternatives for creating a long-term sustainable energy system, but thus far solar cells have not been able to compete economically with fossil fuels. Researchers are now looking at how nanotechnology can contribute in bringing down the cost.

Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden say the electrons in nanoparticles of noble metal oscillate together apace with the frequency of the light. This phenomenon can be exploited to produce better and cheaper solar cells.

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge. The excruciating and disabling nature of depression highlights the urgency of developing treatments that act more rapidly.

Ketamine, a drug used in general medicine as an anesthetic, has recently been shown to produce improvements in depressed patients within hours of administration. A new study being published in the February 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry provides some new insight into the mechanisms by which ketamine exerts its effects.

The downside? It's in the same class of drugs as PCP (phencyclidine).

University of Sussex astronomers predict that the Earth will be swallowed up by the Sun unless the Earth’s orbit can be altered - but we have about 7.6 billion years to do it.

Dr Robert Smith, Emeritus Reader in Astronomy, said his team previously calculated that the Earth would escape ultimate destruction, although be battered and burnt to a cinder, but they did not take into account the effect of the drag caused by the outer atmosphere of the dying Sun.

He says: "We showed previously that, as the Sun expanded, it would lose mass in the form of a strong wind, much more powerful than the current solar wind. This would reduce the gravitational pull of the Sun on the Earth, allowing the Earth's orbit to move outwards, ahead of the expanding Sun.

An exaflop is a thousand times faster than a petaflop, itself a thousand times faster than a teraflop. Teraflop computers —the first was developed 10 years ago at Sandia — currently are the state of the art. They do trillions of calculations a second. Exaflop computers would perform a million trillion calculations per second.

Ten years ago, people worldwide were astounded at the emergence of a teraflop supercomputer, Sandia’s ASCI Red, able in one second to perform a trillion mathematical operations. More recently, bloggers seem stunned that a machine capable of petaflop computing — a thousand times faster than a teraflop — could soon break the next barrier of a thousand trillion mathematical operations a second.

STAINES, England, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Treatment Option Contributes to Fight Against Healthcare Associated Infections

Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd(i) announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) issued a positive opinion by consensus, recommending a marketing authorisation for Mycamine(R), a treatment for systemic fungal infections, which are very serious, life-threatening conditions.

The CHMP's positive recommendation is a critical step in the approval process, and Astellas expects to obtain the European Commission decision in May.

AMSTERDAM, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

- FDA Approves IND Application for Reviroc(TM)

Biopharmaceutical Company Kiadis Pharma announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Kiadis Pharma's investigational new drug ("IND") application to allow the start of a clinical phase III study for its product Reviroc(TM) in the United States. Reviroc(TM) is under development for the elimination of cancer cells from an autologous graft in bone marrow transplantations for end-stage blood cancer patients.

ORLANDO, Florida, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

- Liberty Alliance Launches Public Special Interest Group to Enable an Internationally Interoperable Healthcare Identity Management and Information Exchange System

LONDON and NEW YORK, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

LinkShare, a leading pay-per-action marketing network, unveiled today a new publisher dashboard that enables publishers to more easily and effectively manage their affiliate marketing programs. Publishers who participate in LinkShare's global network will have quicker access to programs, links, and commission reports than ever before.

LONDON, February 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Global DataCenter Management (GDCM) today announced the appointment of Daniel Tautges to President of its Operations-Express business unit, in a move to accelerate its investment in the US market.

Michael Evans, CEO of GDCM, said: "We are delighted that Daniel Tautges has joined us as we enter a new chapter for GDCM. Daniel brings with him a wealth of experience in high growth organisations, the data center space, and the enterprise management software market."

SANTA CLARA, California, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

Finesse Solutions, LLC, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for life sciences process applications, announced the appointment of John O'Connell as its Vice-President of Sales and Business Development. Mr. O'Connell is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in the automation industry. John was most recently at OSIsoft where he successfully initiated partner programs for strategic customers in the life sciences and power industries. Prior to joining OSIsoft, Mr. O'Connell was a partner at Technology 2 Market a sales and marketing consulting firm, and held executive positions at Krohne Inc. a leading manufacturer of flow and level measurement systems.