A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short.

The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand. In this image, the lowest energy X-rays that Chandra detects are red, the medium range is green, and the most energetic ones are colored blue. Astronomers think that B1509 is about 1,700 years old and is located about 17,000 light years away.

Remember when Bugs Bunny dressed as Brunhilda to mess with opera viking Elmer Fudd? If the What's Opera, Doc? ended with Bugs biting off half of Elmer Fudd’s head to keep him hanging around as an immobile food source, then the "Kill The Wabbit" cartoon would essentially tell the story of the Spotted Predatory Katydid. This bug-of-prey lures lovesick male cicadas by decoding the complex cicada mating duet and imitating a lusty cicada female. As soon as the male cicada gets in grabbing range, the duet becomes a lot less romantic.

SAN JOSE, California, April 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- Doug Conn awarded US$15,000 for envisioning the 'home of the future' through The Smart Pill.

At the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Silicon Valley 2009 yesterday, Microsoft Corp. announced Doug Conn as the winner of the Microsoft Windows Embedded SPARKs Will Fly developer contest, a global competition designed to foster creativity and innovation among the embedded hobbyist and academic communities. The theme of the contest, home of the future, encouraged more than 140 contestants globally to demonstrate fresh thinking around the smart, connected, service-oriented devices of the future.

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Some regions of our genomes are under permanent lockdown because they are hazardous to our health - or at least the health of our future offspring. These secured regions include large swaths of parasite-infested DNA - DNA that contains transposable elements, virus-like genetic parasites that have the ability to hop around the genome and cause harmful mutations.

Because out of control transposable elements are a major danger, cells (ours and those of most other organisms) have an elaborate maximum-security system for shutting these bad boys down. Just how this lockdown system works is an active area of research, and a recent paper revealed how plant cells enforce security and prevent prison breaks by these DNA parasites.

WEST PATERSON, New Jersey, April 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- ANNOUNCES RECORD QUARTERLY TURNOVER

Interactive Systems Worldwide, Inc. (Pink Sheets: ISWI) announced its quarterly transaction volumes (i.e. the Turnover and the Hold), associated with the wagering services provided by Global Interactive Gaming Ltd. (GIG), the Company's wholly owned UK subsidiary, for the three month period ended March 31, 2009.

DRESDEN, Germany, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Germany is a hotbed for innovative technologies and a prime location for microelectronics, a fact confirmed by Dresden's selection as host of the Printed Electronics Europe 2009 conference. The region surrounding the city boasts over 43,500 employees in approximately 1,200 companies in this industry. Companies and research institutes involved in the development of printed electronics, the next generation of technology, will gather April 7-8 at this year's conference in Dresden.

SAN JOSE, California, April 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- Minimally Invasive Treatment for Varicose Veins to be showcased at National Health Service EXPO

ALTRINCHAM, England, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- 3J Finance Ltd today announced a national roll out of Aquarium Software's business process and claims management software solution in support of their finance and credit control business. This follows a successful twelve month pilot providing financial support services for two regions of the Student Support Centre (SSC). SSC is the largest supplier of home-based learning materials for children in the UK, specialising in tuition in maths and English. Many of SSC's clients pay for their courses through different payment plans, the administration of which formed the core of the pilot undertaken by 3J and Aquarium.

Integral has captured one of the brightest gamma-ray bursts ever seen. A meticulous analysis of the data has allowed astronomers to investigate the initial phases of this giant stellar explosion, which led to the ejection of matter at velocities close to the speed of light. In particular, the astronomers believe that the explosion lifted a piece of the central engine’s magnetic field into space.
 
On 19 December 2004, the blast from an exploding star arrived at Earth. ESA’s Integral satellite, an orbiting gamma-ray observatory, recorded the entire event, providing information for what may prove to be one of the most important gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) seen in recent years. As the data was collected, astronomers saw the 500-second-long burst rise to extraordinary brilliance. 

While sipping on sports drinks all day may provide an energy boost, this popular practice is also exposing people to levels of acid that can cause tooth erosion and hypersensitivity, NYU dental researchers have found.

In a recent study, the researchers found that prolonged consumption of sports drinks may be linked to a condition known as erosive tooth wear, in which acids eat away the tooth's smooth hard enamel coating and trickle into the bonelike material underneath, causing the tooth to soften and weaken. The condition affects one in 15 Americans and can result in severe tooth damage and even tooth loss if left untreated.