BAAR, Switzerland, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- In the third quarter of 2008, Manas Petroleum Corp. ("Manas") intends to reach a major milestone in its history with the commencement of drilling activity on licensed land in which it has an interest. South Petroleum, the venture between Manas and Santos Limited ("Santos"), expects to drill a 'shallow' (2000m) exploration well in the Kyrgyz Republic to be followed by a second exploration well in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a 'deep' (over 4000m) well planned for 2009. Manas expects to commence drilling in Albania and Chile in 2009.

LONDON, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix(R) interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces the release of SONG SUMMONER(TM): The Unsung Heroes, on sale at the iTunes(R) Store worldwide (http://www.itunes.com) and available for play in English and Japanese on the iPod nano with video, iPod classic and fifth generation iPod.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/squareenix/33937/      

A new mathematical model developed by University of Michigan atmospheric and planetary scientist Nilton Renno says that dust devils, water spouts, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones are all born of the same mechanism and will intensify as climate change warms the Earth's surface.

Renno hopes the new equation will allow scientists to more accurately calculate the maximum expected intensity of a spiraling storm based on the depth of the troposphere (the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere) and the temperature and humidity of the air in the storm's path.

This equation improves upon current methods, Renno says, because it takes into account the energy feeding the storm system and the full measure of friction slowing it down. Current thermodynamic models make assumptions about these variables, rather than include actual quantities.

Scientists announced today the discovery of reef structures they believe doubles the size of the Southern Atlantic Ocean's largest and richest reef system, the Abrolhos Bank, off the southern coast of Brazil's Bahia state. The newly discovered area is also far more abundant in marine life than the previously known Abrolhos reef system, one of the world's most unique and important reefs.

Researchers from Conservation International (CI), Federal University of Espírito Santo and Federal University of Bahia announced their discovery in a paper presented today at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale. "We had some clues from local fishermen that other reefs existed, but not at the scale of what we discovered," says Rodrigo de Moura, Conservation International Brazil marine specialist and co-author of the paper. "It is very exciting and highly unusual to discover a reef structure this large and harboring such an abundance of fish," he adds.

Poor tomatoes. They've overtaken spinach as the organic food we most worry about and they've been in the middle of the genetically modified foods debate for years.

Yet tomatoes have their proponents as well, like HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) and colleagues from Digital Biotech Inc. and the Department of Biological Science at Wonkwang University. They say this humble fruit could be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease.

Ground cover may be one workable method to reduce the effects of erosion that future biomass harvests are predicted to bring. Iowa State University researchers are looking at ways to use ground cover, a living grass planted between the rows of corn, in production farming.

Government subsidies and mandated minimum usage for ethanol has the industry looking beyond the kernel to the entire corn plant for more fuel because corn is the source of most of the United States' ethanol so turning corn stalks and leaves into ethanol is the target of much research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that by the year 2030, about 20 percent of ethanol could be made by turning corn stalks and leaves, known as corn stover, into fuel. That projection assumes that 75 percent of this corn stover can be harvested for biofuels. Currently, stover is not used to make ethanol.

RESTON, Virginia, July 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- Photo Messaging Climbed 60 Percent in the United States During the Past Year

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest figures from the M:Metrics Benchmark Study which reports that photo messaging from mobile phones has grown 60 percent in the United States over the past year and 16 percent in Europe, where photo messaging got an earlier start. As the mercury climbs in the summer months, so does the usage of photo messaging in the United States, where for the past three years, photo messaging rates have been higher than average in July and August.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

LONDON, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Explorers today announced the appointment of Jonathan Morris as COO and Christopher Holmes as Sales Director. Both bring with them a wealth of experience from the financial information industry.

Jonathan Morris

Schizophrenia is a severe and complex psychiatric illness that affects about 1% of the population. Diagnosis currently relies on subjective clinical interviews and the assessment of ambiguous symptoms, which frequently leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment. As such, biomarkers that would indicate schizophrenia risk or onset would be extremely useful.

A protein found in immune cells may be a reliable marker for schizophrenia risk, say researchers behind a new proteomics study.

Sabine Bahn and colleagues sought to find such a "protein fingerprint" in the blood (due to its accessibility). They compared protein profiles of schizophrenia patients and controls using mass spectrometry and identified two peaks highlighting a significant change. These were identified as alpha defensins, proteins responsible for killing microbes and viruses in the innate immune response.

Scientists have long been fascinated by structure of bone. Bone is very light but can withstand heavy pressure and he inside is like a sponge so bone is firm and compact in certain places and porous in others.

The construction industry would love to have materials like bone. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research have developed a simulation program that calculates the internal structure and density distribution of bone material and, from that, the scientists were able to derive the material structure for other components. The program simulates how the structure needs to be built in order to meet the specified requirements.