LBG J2135-0102 (also known as the "Cosmic Eye" due to its morphological similarity to the Egyptian "Eye of Horus") was discovered from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image in an effort to survey high redshift galaxy clusters. This galaxy is a typical star-forming galaxy at z=3 (seen when the Universe was only two billion years old) which has been gravitationally lensed by a factor 28x by a foreground galaxy cluster. The discovery paper can be found in Smail et al. (2007) ApJL 654 33 , whilst the detailed lens modelling used to correct for the lensing distortion is available in Dye et al. (2007) MNRAS 379 308.

This Cosmic Eye has given scientists a unique insight into galaxy formation in the very early Universe.

The rapidity of ejaculation in men is genetically determined, according to research by Utrecht University Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Marcel Waldinger and Pharmacological Researcher Paddy Janssen.

The participants in the study by Waldinger and Janssen were 89 Dutch men who suffer from the primary form of premature ejaculation, in other words, men who always had this problem. A control group of 92 men was also studied. For a month the female partners used a stopwatch at home to measure the time until ejaculation each time they had intercourse.

LONDON, October 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Fiat and AKQA have developed eco:Drive. A motor and technology first for linking drivers with in-car telemetry - improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.

eco:Drive is the very latest in digital integrated technology. It is an easy-to-use computer application that connects your car to your PC. Using cutting-edge analytic software, eco:Drive dissects and evaluates your driving style and shows you ways to cut down on fuel consumption, reducing your CO2 emissions and saving you money. In fact, with consistent use of the application, you can expect to reduce your CO2 emissions by up to 15 per cent.

LONDON, October 10 /PRNewswire/ --

Platts -- The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 32.47 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in September, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed today. This is down 330,000 barrels per day from August and reflects output declines in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Angola.

Excluding Iraq, the 12 members bound by production agreements produced an average 30.18 million b/d, the survey showed. This is 230,000 b/d less than the August output of 30.41 million b/d and exceeds the so-called OPEC-12 output target of 29.673 million b/d by 507,000 b/d.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to three scientists responsible for transforming a green-glowing jellyfish protein into a ubiquitous tool in molecular biology. Green fluorescent protein (or GFP in lab jargon) and its various colored relatives have made many previously impossible experiments cheap and easy, and you would be hard-pressed to find any molecular or cell biologists who have never used some variant of GFP. There is no denying the influence of GFP, but was its discovery Nobel-caliber?

San Diego Beach Scene, Fluorescent E. coli on agar, Nathan Shaner, photography by Paul Steinbach, created in the lab of Nobel Prize winner Roger Tsien, posted under the GNU Free Documentation License

DALLAS, October 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- Recent Expansion Follows US$20 M Intel Capital Funding

Despite the turmoil surrounding the nation's economy, Telligent today announced the opening of a new office in London, England. Along with the new international headquarters comes the announcement of domestic expansion.

Telligent, an innovative social software and solutions company headquartered in Dallas, recently received US$20 million in funding from Intel Capital and has started growing its sales team and global reach.

“Fluoridation of drinking water is scientifically untenable, and should not be part of a public health initiative or program,” says the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) in a new published statement. CAPE is Canada’s leading voice on environmental health issues.

As promised in my previous post, I would like to bring to people’s attention one of the best reviews of scientific investigations of religion as a social phenomenon, a paper published in Science (3 October 2008) by Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff of the University of British Columbia. The article is chock full of fascinating, empirically based, insights into the relationship between religion and prosocial behavior, and is a must read for anyone seriously interested in this topic. Here, I will point to some of the highlights that will hopefully stimulate discussion and direct reading of Norenzayan and Shariff’s paper.

LONDON, October 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenstar UK, the fast-growing recycling-led waste management company, is to build one of the capital's largest materials recycling facilities (MRFs) which will process nearly 10% of north London's waste. It has acquired the 192,000 ft squared Atlas warehouse building, purpose-built on a nine acre site next to the Edmonton refuse incinerator.

Adjacent to major transport links such as the North Circular and the M25, the site will be fitted out with the most modern technology for the high quality processing of recyclable materials. It will also be a depot for up to 60 recycling vehicles which will collect commercial recyclables.

SANTA CLARA, California, October 10 /PRNewswire/ --

Finesse Solutions, LLC, Santa Clara, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for life science process applications, announced the release of version 3.4 of its TruBio bioreactor control software. TruBio 3.4 software can automate bioreactors across a wide variety of applications, ranging from 1L bench top R&D glass to 1000L cGMP production single-use vessels. TruBio 3.4 software is optimized for DeltaV version 9.3 from Emerson Process Management in order to bring ease of use and reliability to the user.