There are ten key questions we have to answer this century, says a new report by the National Research Council. The questions represent where earth science stands, how it arrived at this point, and where it may be headed.

"With all the advancements over the last 20 years, we can now get a better picture of Earth by looking at it from micro- to macro-perspectives, such as discerning individual atoms in minerals or watching continents drift and mountains grow," said Donald J. DePaolo, professor of geochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "To keep the field moving forward, we have to look to the past and ask deeper fundamental questions, about the origins of the Earth and life, the structure and dynamics of planets, and the connections between life and climate, for example."

MILPITAS, California, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

JDSU today announced that its service assurance test solutions have been selected by Deutsche Telekom to support delivery of its IPTV service.

JDSU's NetComplete service assurance system and associated IP test probes will be deployed in Deutsche Telekom's network. The NetComplete solution also includes software that enables monitoring of service quality from central network operations centers, increasing efficiency and reducing the need to deploy technicians to the field. It ensures early recognition of changes in the quality of the streaming video signals, including any decrease in signal strength, prioritizes issues based on alarm levels, identifies the cause of service quality problems and provides reporting tools.

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Osaka's Shizuo Akira Ranks Among The Hottest for Fourth Year; Once Again, United States Accounts for More Than Half of the Top Researchers

Thomson Scientific today announced the results of its annual roundup of the "hottest" researchers and research papers. In the March/April issue of Science Watch (www.sciencewatch.com), Thomson Scientific identifies the top 10 authors who fielded the highest number of Hot Papers in 2006-2007. The annual Science Watch roundup also lists the scientific reports published during 2007 (aside from reviews) that were most cited by year's end.

LONDON, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- 20-a-Day Habit to Cost GBP2077 a Year

Smokers with a 20-a-day habit will be paying over GBP2077 a year for their habit after the latest Budget tax rise. Chancellor Alistair Darling's announcement of a 11p per pack rise coincides with the 25th annual No Smoking Day, which takes place today (12 March).

To mark the event, the No Smoking Day charity has released new research showing almost one in five smokers plan to stop today(1). Research indicates the rising cost of smoking is proving a key factor in triggering quit attempts.

ZWOLLE, the Netherlands, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital ID, specialist in marketing operations management, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the 1Q08 Marketing Resource Management Magic Quadrant report(1).

The report says: "Although still immature compared with other, more-established CRM markets -- for example, contact centers, sales force automation (SFA) and campaign management -- MRM is gaining substantial interest among midsize and large companies. During 2007, most vendors continued to grow MRM revenue, win new customers and cross-sell into their installed bases. Vendors increased their investments for product development, marketing and sales distribution."

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Dry ice cannot be found in nature. It is just not cold enough here on earth. In outer space, on the planet Mars for example, carbon dioxide hardens and turns into ice. But who is going to fly to Mars just to get dry ice? In entertaining weekly episodes our Chemical Reporter answers questions of our Podcast listeners on Chemistry in our everyday life.

Direct subscription via RSS-Feed or iTunes (search for "basf"): http://corporate.basf.com/en/podcast/reporter.xml

Podcast The Chemical Reporter, English edition: http://www.basf.com/podcast

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Podcast Chemistry of Innovations: http://www.basf.com/podcast

HAIFA, Israel, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Conference Call Scheduled for March 20, 2008 at 8:30am EDT

Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE: ORL) (the "Company"), Israel's largest oil refiner, announced today that it will be releasing its fourth quarter and full year 2007 financial results on Thursday, March 20, 2008.

The Company will be hosting a conference call the same day, Thursday, March 20, at 8:30 am EDT. On the call management will review and discuss the fourth quarter and full year 2007 results and will be available to answer questions.

NEW YORK, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Digital distribution industry leader finetunes and Qtrax, the world's first free and legal peer-to-peer (P2P) music service, today announce that they have signed a digital licensing agreement.

For more than four years, finetunes has been a pioneer in creating opportunities for independent labels in the digital music markets. Initially focused on providing digital solutions for the German independent labels, the Hamburg-based company now represents more than 1,000 record labels from around the world.

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- In this Podcast you will learn about how plant biotechnology can help to make crops more tolerant against climate stress.

Wild sex is a staple of nature films, but there is one sex scene David Attenborough has never narrated: the mating ritual of yeast. That's right: yeast. Sex isn't just limited to lions, birds of paradise, and aphids; single-celled fungi do it too. Although most people don't like to hear the words 'fungus' and 'sex' used in the same sentence, yeast mating is a remarkable phenomenon and worth a closer look.

You can see this amazing scene, played out billions of times every day in wine vats and under oak trees, captured on film. As is the case with most wild mating rituals, filming yeast sex requires great patience - yeast are slow to commit and even when they do, they don't rush things. The beginning of foreplay itself takes several hours, as you can see below: