It makes sense that massive black holes lurking in galactic nuclei and weighing millions of Suns can disrupt stars that come too close. Astrophysicists say that the black hole’s gravity pulls harder on the nearest part of the star, an imbalance that pulls the star apart over a period of hours, once it gets inside the so-called "tidal radius."

Two astrophysicists from Paris Observatory say the fate of stars that venture too close to massive black holes could be even more violent than previously believed. Not only are they crushed by the black hole’s huge gravity, but the process can also trigger a nuclear explosion that tears the star apart from within. In addition, shock waves in the pancake star carry a brief and very high peak of temperature outwards, that could give rise to a new type of X-ray or gamma-ray bursts.

Yes, it's galactic flambé.

Yes, witness that we are promoting an old media company (Wiley-Blackwell) but only because they aren't charging anyone ridiculous subscription fees and convincing you your career is over if they're not in your citation list when your review comes up.

They have added yet another name to their 1400-title long publication list. But this one is free. We couldn't agree more with free.

A new journal called Evolutionary Applications publishes articles that use evolution to address pressing issues such as climate change, endangered species, food safety, infectious diseases, and invasive species. In other words, someone besides us finally figured out that showing the practical uses of evolution, and how evolutionary biology is absolutely necessary to understanding the biological world, would be a good thing.

EDMONTON, Canada, May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- QSV Biologics, Ltd (QSV), a North American based biologics CMO located in Edmonton, Canada, has been awarded a cGMP manufacturing contract for a recombinant protein under development by Pfizer, Inc. The protein will be manufactured at QSV's Edmonton facility and is intended for clinical trials. Work on the project is to begin immediately, and will include technology transfer, scale-up and cGMP manufacturing.

TORONTO, Canada, May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A biosimilar protein that can be used to treat neutropenia (a side effect of cancer chemotherapy) is to be developed by Apotex Inc. of Canada in collaboration with Intas Biopharmaceuticals Limited (IBPL) of India. Neukine(R), a recombinant granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is already manufactured and marketed in India and other countries by IBPL. Kwizda Pharma of Austria had been working with IBPL to develop G-CSF for the European market for some time. Effective immediately, Kwizda Pharma has transferred all of its rights in IBPL's G-CSF to Apotex. Apotex and IBPL have concurrently agreed to extend the collaboration to development of G-CSF for North America (US and Canada)

It seems rumors of the greater dwarf cloud rat's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, he stayed low key for the last 112 years but he really never left his natural habitat.

Seeing the little guy once and then declaring him extinct was likely premature.

Carpomys melanurus, the greater dwarf cloud rat, has dense, soft reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair. An adult weighs about 185 grams.

"This beautiful little animal was seen by biologists only once previously - by a British researcher in 1896 who was given several specimens by local people, so he knew almost nothing about the ecology of the species," said Lawrence Heaney, Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum and Project Leader. "Since then, the species has been a mystery, in part because there is virtually no forest left on Mt. Data, where it was first found."

WESTLAKE, Ohio, May 1 /PRNewswire/ --

Dage Precision Industries, a Nordson company (Nasdaq: NDSN) and the industry leader in x-ray inspection technology, is pleased to announce that it was recently awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Vertical Market Penetration Leadership Award in the AXI (Automated X-ray Inspection) Market. The "Industrial Technologies Awards Ceremony" was held on 25th April 2008 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

A new model of inner Earth constructed by Arizona State University researchers pulls past information and hypotheses into a coherent story to clarify mantle motion.

“The past maybe two or three years there have been a lot of papers in Science and Nature about the deep mantle from seismologists and mineral physicists and it’s getting really confusing because there are contradictions amongst the different papers,” says Ed Garnero, seismologist and an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.

“But we’ve discovered that there is a single framework that is compatible with all these different findings,” he adds.

Garnero partnered with geodynamicist and assistant professor Allen McNamara, also in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to synthesize the information for their paper to be published in the May 2 issue of Science.

TULSA, Oklahoma, May 1 /PRNewswire/ --

PennWell Corporation, a diversified global media and information company, announced today that it has acquired Avionics Expo Limited, a U.K. company which owns and produces Avionics (http://www.avionics-event.com), the leading global conference and exhibition for civil and military aerospace electronics. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

REDMOND, Washington, May 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pro Photo Tools and Expression Media 2 address digital photo organisation issues through geotagging.

Microsoft Corp today introduced two new products to help photographers manage their digital photos in a new way using location data, a process known as geotagging. Geotagging is an exciting new way to organise your digital photos that was previously available only to those with technical expertise.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

Researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) have performed the world’s first totally automated administration of an anesthetic.

Nicknamed “McSleepy,” the new system developed by the researchers administers drugs for general anesthesia and monitors their separate effects completely automatically, with no manual intervention.

The anesthetic technique was used on a patient who underwent a partial nephrectomy, a procedure that removes a kidney tumor while leaving the non-cancerous part of the kidney intact, over a period of 3 hours and 30 minutes. To manipulate the various components of general anesthesia, the automated system measures three separate parameters displayed on a new Integrated monitor of anesthesia (IMATM): depth of hypnosis via EEG analysis, pain via a new pain score, called AnalgoscoreTM, and muscle relaxation via phonomyographyTM, all developed by ITAG. The system then administers the appropriate drugs using conventional infusion pumps, controlled by a laptop computer on which “McSleepy” is installed.