THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, August 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell Canada Limited ("Shell Canada") (NYSE: RDSA)(NYSE: RDSB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, announced today that it has received the approval of the Minister of Industry under the Investment Canada Act for its offer to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of Duvernay Oil Corp. ("Duvernay") (including common shares issuable upon the exercise or surrender of any options). In approving the acquisition, the Minister determined that the transaction is likely to be of "net benefit to Canada" for purposes of the Investment Canada Act.

Life has had billions of years to evolve defences against free radicals, reactive oxygen compounds and other physical and chemical assaults that can damage cell components, including our genetic material, DNA. Those same, powerful defense mechanisms protect us from low levels of ionizing radiation - from the cosmic rays that strike the earth surface to the radioactive particles continually released from the earth's crust into the air around us.

Yet today the words 'radiation' and 'radioactivity' cause unwarranted fear, argues Zbigniew Jaworowski of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw, Poland.

Writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Low Radiation from Inderscience publishers, he suggests that because life evolved alongside ionizing radiation, we can cope far better with low doses of radioactivity than is often thought. He says that changing our perspective on radiation could reduce the costs to society of the precautionary principle adopted in the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident.

The field of particle physics is poised to enter unknown territory with the startup of a massive new accelerator--the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)--in Europe this summer. On September 10, LHC scientists will attempt to send the first beam of protons speeding around the accelerator.

The LHC will put hotly debated theories to the test as it generates new experimental data. Potential breakthroughs include an explanation of what gives mass to fundamental particles and identification of the mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the mass in the universe. More exotic possibilities include evidence for new forces of nature or hidden extra dimensions of space and time.

The scale of the LHC is gigantic in every respect--its physical size, the energies attained, the amount of data it will generate, and the size of the international collaboration involved in its planning, construction, and operation. In September, high-energy beams of protons will begin circulating around the LHC's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) accelerator ring located 100 meters (328 feet) underground at CERN, the European particle physics lab based in Geneva, Switzerland. After a period of testing, the beams will cross paths inside the detectors and the first collisions will take place.

Use of embedded software in electronics devices is growing even faster than advances in electronics themselves. Yet human capabilities for producing software have not increased in Europe over the past decade.

“The amount of software is growing very rapidly and it is increasingly difficult to find the people and resources necessary to develop it all,” explains Dr Pekka Abrahamsson of project coordinator VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland. “As a result, Europe is seeing a lot of development work transferring to India and other countries. An additional problem lies in the speed of development as it is necessary to get solutions to market in optimum time and with sufficient reliability that it works properly.”

Results of the EUREKA ITEA software Cluster AGILE project make it possible for European manufacturers to develop high quality embedded software in markedly shorter times and at much lower costs than possible with traditional techniques. Applying the approach to 68 pilot case studies in industries from avionics and telecommunications to consumer electronics, the project demonstrated clearly that ‘agile’ methodology can lead to massive improvements in embedded software engineering. Suitable tooling was also demonstrated to simplify application of the agile approach. As a result, much more software development can be carried out cost effectively in Europe rather than being outsourced to Asia.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, August 20 /PRNewswire/ --

- 12 Days to go Before 125 Universities Exhibit Latest Cleantech Innovations to Industry Executives at COPENMIND

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, August 20 /PRNewswire/ --

- Additional resources, training and investments to address growing customer demand.

Microsoft Corp and Novell Inc are announcing an incremental investment in their relationship to meet accelerating customer demand for their business model solution, which is designed to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software to deliver interoperability and intellectual property (IP) peace of mind for organisations operating mixed-source IT environments.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

On the 17th of June 2008, The Richard Green Library, a collection of rare scientific books was put up for bid by Christi’s Auction House.

Of the 289 lots sold totaling $11,019,688 the most notable was De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri V, 1543 (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), the seminal work, by Nicolaus Copernicus, in which he explained his theory of heliocentricity.

The book, which is often referenced as the beginning of modern astronomy was sold for $2,210,500, the most expensive of the lot.

LONGMONT, Colorado, and REUTTE, Austria, August 20 /PRNewswire/ --

The U.S. based DPHI, Inc. dba DataPlay has received the approval to purchase the assets and intellectual property of DaTARIUS worldwide and resume operations immediately. DataPlay will be forming a new subsidiary in Austria and in the United States to continue to serve DaTARIUS's existing customer base. The new company will combine DaTARIUS's existing expertise in optical test equipment with DataPlay's advance technologies to create a true leader in the optical media marketplace. This new level of integration will allow DaTARIUS to quickly develop and manufacture new products that exceed the current and future needs of optical media manufacturers.

After the Olympics, the next big thing is the international Large Hadron Collider. There's a lot of excitement at CERN. The first injections, and without a hitch, of low energy protons shot through an eighth of the 27 km LHC ring. Back to back for this weekend they're doing it again at 0.45 TeV with the anti-clockwise beam. It's an important preliminary test, kicking the protons from the pre-accelerator loops, into the unknown. At this point CERN is confident there is nothing to worry about. The energy is only half of the currently most powerful collider, Fermilab's Tevatron, in Batavia, Ill. So, CERN's probably right, this time. Higher energies will be the real test.

Now for the news major media aren't covering, from the current Strings 2008, a CERN conference, and not only on String theory. It's another window on CERN that is fascinating.

Scientific happenings, big and small, on this day in history

But first, today’s quiz:

What famous inventor, born on this day in 1871, will forever be famous for something he did for only 12 seconds? Think you know…? You might be right. To be sure check out the answer at the end of the article.