The Wallace Line is called such because when Alfred Russel Wallace made his way to the East Indies to tackle the secrets of biology, he found there was a 'line' in the Malay Archipelago that divides Indonesia into two parts and west of it the species were Asian while to the east they were more Australian.

Since the distance is short in places, Bali and Lombok are only about 35 km apart, it was a prime example of species distinction and biogeography and he wrote on it in The Malay Archipelago.

The abrupt switch in the kinds of mammals found along the Malay Peninsula, from mainland species to island species, in the absence of any daunting geographical barrier has fascinated scientists since then.

The snow-laden region of Rupes Tenuis on the martian north pole got some images courtesy of ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. The images are centred around 81° north and 297° east and have a ground resolution of 41 m/pixel. They cover an area of about 44 000 km2, almost as large as the Netherlands.

Rupes Tenuis is located at the southern edge of the martian north polar cap, approximately 5500 km northeast of the Tharsis volcanic region.

At present, polar caps contain the largest water reservoir on the Red Planet. Recent data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) on board Mars Express has revealed that both polar ice caps are 3.5 km thick.

Artemisinin is the most powerful anti-malaria drug in use today and it commonly obtained by extracting the drug from Artemsisia annua, the sweet wormwood tree.    

When threatened, many animals release chemicals as a warning signal to members of their own species, who in turn react to the signals and take action. Research by Rice University psychologist Denise Chen suggests a similar phenomenon occurs in humans. Given that more than one sense is typically involved when humans perceive information, Chen studied whether the smell of fear facilitates humans' other stronger senses.

Chen and graduate student Wen Zhou collected "fearful sweat" samples from male volunteers. The volunteers kept gauze pads in their armpits while they were shown films that dealt with topics known to inspire fear. 

The Kepler spacecraft and its Delta II rocket have been cleared to launch into space at 10:49 p.m. EST Friday night.   Its mission;  watch a patch of space (see image below) for the next 3.5 years and look for signs of Earth-sized planets moving around stars similar to the sun. The area that Kepler will watch contains around 100,000 stars like the sun and Kepler will look for slight dimming in the stars as planets pass between the star and Kepler. Unlike observatories like Hubble, Kepler will be able to watch the same stars constantly throughout its mission.

Here are 5 quick facts, courtesy of JPL:

SANTA CLARA, California, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

Finesse Solutions, LLC, Santa Clara, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for bioprocess applications, and Nova Biomedical, Waltham, MA, a world leader in biotechnology process monitoring announced the release of a TruBio(TM) plug-in for OPC connectivity between TruBio control software and Nova FLEX(TM) analyzers. OPC is the de facto standard for data exchange between process control systems and different hardware platforms.

IRVINE, California, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

VTI Instruments Corporation introduced today its new scalable EX1200 series, the highest density switch/measure and control subsystem on the market.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090305/LA79733)

Modular and flexible, the EX1200 features LXI Class A technology and can measure up to 576 channels of voltage or temperature in a single rack U mainframe. Additional plug-in modules provide DC-RF switching, isolated analog outputs, digital I/O, and edge detection. An optional 6.5 digit DMM is also available.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

As market penetration rates for mobile services continue to soar in emerging markets, advertisers are expected to dramatically increase their spending on third-screen ad campaigns targeted specifically to users of mobile data services, providing a potentially huge new revenue stream for operators of mobile networks, according to the latest report by Pyramid Research (www.pyr.com), the telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lightreading.com).

According to researchers at University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, they have progressed the way that we can treat cancerous tumors using advanced proton therapy.

By developing a new way in which protons are delivered, physicians may be able to treat more deeply rooted tumors, larger tumors and tumors located close to vital internal organs. All of these placements have posed serious problems to tumor treatments in the past, as current treatments pose a significant risk to the surrounding body tissue as well as the intruding tumor.

DETROIT, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

Business publisher Crain Communications Inc has begun the process of moving production for Automotive News Europe and Business Insurance Europe into their U.S.-based primary titles, Automotive News and Business Insurance. The two standalone European publications based in Munich and London will close. Both parent publications will now serve European readers with news, special issues, events and digital coverage through their global network.