Queue the 'life on other planets' media buzz.  NASA's Kepler Mission has discovered the first super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of a star similar to our Sun.

Research on muscle fatigue has largely been confined to the muscle itself. That makes sense, where there is burn, there is fire.  But motivation and will power turns out to have a greater impact on muscle fatigue than previously believed, according to a joint research project between the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich has shifted the focus to brain research.

The researchers discovered neuronal processes for the first time that are responsible for reducing muscle activity during muscle-fatiguing exercise. The third and final part of this series of experiments, which was conducted by Lea Hilty as part of her doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich, has now been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.

Kinect for Xbox 360 has an update coming today that brings voice control to living room entertainment. 

 They are launching an all-new Xbox 360 experience including the first group of new, custom applications from world leading TV and entertainment content providers on Xbox LIVE. 

 You Say It, Xbox Finds It 

How long does it take you to search and find your favorite movie or TV show? Do you find yourself searching hundreds of channels and multiple services and TV inputs? What if the entertainment you craved was simple, discoverable and exactly what you wanted at that particular moment?

Susskind and other usual suspects try hard to convince the world that they are the ones who finally understood 'Many Worlds' and that such is a success of string theory and all that. A media spectacle is going on right now, see here at the New Scientist’s “Ultimate Guide to the Multiverse”, Brian Greene chipping in with the Multiverse episode of the “Fabric of the Cosmos” series on PBS, and many others.

Today's squid news comprises four journalistic angles on the same story. See if you can figure out what it is:

The controversy over whether or not violent video games are potentially harmful to players has been debated for many years, even making it to the Supreme Court in 2010. There has been little scientific evidence demonstrating that the games have a prolonged negative neurological effect but sustained changes in the region of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control were found in young adult men after one week of playing violent video games, according to study results presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

The debate over the actual benefit of antioxidants may be ongoing but the studies keep coming in. Regardless of cardiovascular disease medical history, Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes, shows the results of a new survey.

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of cell-damaging free radicals and the body's ability to neutralize them. It leads to inflammation, blood vessel damage and stiffening.

Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenoids and flavonoids can inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation by scavenging the free radicals. Antioxidants, especially flavonoids, may also help improve endothelial function and reduce blood clotting, blood pressure and inflammation.

Researchers using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite have confirmed major reductions in the levels of sulfur dioxide, a key pollutant generated by coal power plants which contributes to the formation of acid rain, in the eastern United States. 

The text below was graciously written for this blog by Alejandro Rivero (below),  a friend who has contributed to this blog other times in the past. His theoretical ideas are off the mainstream, but in a way which makes them interesting to me. I hope some of you will appreciate reading about the whole thing in summary here - Alejandro has a few papers out which you may want to read if you are specifically interested in the matter.

For most of human history, technology changed very little during a person’s lifetime. Certainty, their life was not constant with the hard agricultural life being interrupted by war, disease, and famine. However, very few new technologies would come into their life. In contrast, my grandparents saw tremendous change throughout the 20th century as planes, cars, electricity, radio, and computers enter during their lives. Politically, the U.S. grew from a minor player to a world leader. Socially, many rights were obtained. In my life, I have also experienced rapid change, but it seems a bit different than my grandparents’.

For example, the biggest change is the way computers have grown to dominate many products and processes. But why do I have a computer now?