Ultrafast, light-sensitive video cameras are needed for observing high-speed events such as shockwaves, communication between living cells and a Usain Bolt sprint. To catch such elusive moments, a camera must be able to capture millions or billions of images continuously with a very high frame rate. Conventional cameras have not been up to the task but researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science say they have developed a novel, continuously running camera that captures images roughly a thousand times faster than any existing conventional camera.
 

Quantum cryptography, a completely secure means of communication, is much closer to being used practically as researchers from Toshiba and Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory have now developed high speed detectors capable of receiving information with much higher key rates, thereby able to receive more information faster.

Published as part of IOP Publishing's New Journal of Physics' Focus Issue on 'Quantum Cryptography: Theory and Practice', the journal paper, 'Practical gigahertz quantum key distribution based on avalanche photodiodes', details how quantum communication can be made possible without having to use cryogenic cooling and/or complicated optical setups, making it much more likely to become commercially viable soon.

For over three decades, globes of Mercury were blank on one side. Though Mariner 10 explored the small planet in three flybys in 1974 and 1975, no more than half was ever seen.   Of the four terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - we knew the least about Mercury.

On Oct. 6, 2008, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, better known as MESSENGER, made its second close-approach flyby of Mercury. 30 years after man's first look, MESSENGER has revealed Mercury in its entirety - well, mostly.

Do you like being stereotyped?   Maybe not, though everyone does it to some extent (and some have more than stereotypes than others; being a white, male,southern, Catholic, Republican is 5 way open season for ridicule by people who otherwise claim to be loving and tolerant - editor) but it's usually okay if the stereotype makes you feel better about yourself.

American regard Mexicans as more outgoing, talkative, sociable and extroverted - actual Mexicans think they are less.   Turns out stereotypes are right more often that not once again - that's probably how they became stereotypes.

An ancient protein dating back 80 million years to the Cretaceous period has been preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues of a hadrosaur - a duck-billed dinosaur - according to a study in the May 1 issue of Science.  The new findings support earlier results from analyses suggesting that collagen protein survived in the bones of a well preserved Tyrannosaurus rex, and offer new evidence supporting previous conclusions that birds and dinosaurs are directly related.

African, American, and European researchers working in collaboration over a 10-year period have released the largest-ever study of African genetic data—more than four million genotypes—providing a library of new information on the continent which is thought to be the source of the oldest settlements of modern humans.

The study demonstrates startling diversity on the continent, shared ancestry among geographically diverse groups and traces the origins of Africans and African Americans. It is published in the April 30 issue of the journal Science Express.

A team of scientists from Canada, Spain and the United States has identified a key gene that allows plants to defend themselves against environmental stresses like drought, freezing and heat. 

"Plants have stress hormones that they produce naturally and that signal adverse conditions and help them adapt," says team member Peter McCourt, a professor of cell and systems biology at the University of Toronto. "If we can control these hormones we should be able to protect crops from adverse environmental conditions which is very important in this day and age of global climate change."

Who among us hasn't been tempted to take the easy way out? Hopefully we choose to do the right thing, but this isn't always the case. It's bad enough when your actions just affect you. But when they affect the rest of the world? And mislead people working toward collective knowledge? That puts you on the ranks of the scales of depravity.

Part 1 dealt with the Rock of Love; part 2 examined anything with "real" in the title. Part 3 lists a few of the frauds, fakers and other cheaters in the realm of science.

HONG KONG, April 30 /PRNewswire/ --

TC Interconnect Holdings Limited (515.HK) (the Group / http://www.tatchun.com ), one of the top 10 Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturers in Hong Kong and the PRC and listed on the Main Board of Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, announced that it shifted its focus from single-sided and double-sided PCBs to multi-layered PCBs and turnover from multi-layered products achieved a remarkable growth of 109.6% to approximately HK$329,932,000 in 2008.

Consumer electronics, computers and computer peripherals, and communications equipment were the three main applications of its products, accounting for over 90% of its total turnover.

SEATTLE and GENEVA, April 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Primary Endpoint met With a Significant Reduction in Relapse Rate - Secondary Endpoints met Including MRI Measures, Proportion of Patients Relapse-Free and Disability Progression - Submission for Registration of Cladribine Tablets Planned for mid-2009