Neutron stars can be considerably more massive than previously believed and it is more difficult to form black holes, according to new research developed by using the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Paulo Freire, an astronomer from the observatory, will present his research at the American Astronomical Society national meeting in Austin on Jan. 11.

In the cosmic continuum of dead, remnant stars, the Arecibo astronomers have increased the mass limit for when neutron stars turn into black holes.

“The matter at the center of a neutron star is highly incompressible. Our new measurements of the mass of neutron stars will help nuclear physicists understand the properties of super-dense matter,” said Freire.

PUERTOLLANO, Spain and MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Castilla-La Mancha Site is Major Milestone in Commercialization of Concentrator Photovoltaics

SolFocus, designer and manufacturer of solar energy solutions including concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, intelligent tracking systems, and solar thermal technology, and Spain's Institute of Concentration Photovoltaics Systems (ISFOC) today announced the installation of the first CPV array in the ISFOC's 3 MW project in Castilla-LaMancha. This is the first 200kW of the .5MW that SolFocus will install over the next few months for this worldwide solar initiative aimed at accelerating the development and adoption of CPV technology.

LONDON, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Online Classifieds Help Fulfill Consumers' Resolutions to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in the New Year

Oodle (http://www.oodle.co.uk/), a whole new kind of classifieds, today released 3 easy tips to help consumers "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" as part of their New Year's Resolutions to maintain a greener lifestyle.

Resolutions to "go green" and reduce carbon footprints were very popular for 2008, and Reuse is one of the best ways to keep useful items out of landfills. Green resolutions were particularly popular in the U.K., topping more lists even than those in the U.S.

MADRID, January 15 /PRNewswire/ -- ONDAS Media, (ONDAS) the satellite radio company for Europe, today announced that it has entered into a commercial volume agreement to install Satellite Radio Receivers in Nissan and Infiniti vehicles across Europe. As a result of the agreement, it is anticipated that Nissan vehicles buyers will be among the first European car buyers to be able to receive the diverse programming that ONDAS will create and distribute.

NEW YORK, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Arkadin SA (www.arkadin.com), a global provider of audio and web conferencing services, today announced its expansion into India with the launch of Arkadin ConferIndia. Arkadin will deliver conferencing services to India through a partnership with ConferIndia -- one of the leading audio conferencing services in the region.

The partnership brings together the global services and technology network of Arkadin and the strong local presence of ConferIndia to offer the best in industry conferencing services to clients throughout India. Arkadin will offer services out of ConferIndia's office in the National Capital Region of Delhi, providing 24-hour, year-round local customer support and a local sales team.

GOTEBORG, Sweden, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Ascom UPAC - Simplifying Professional Messaging

Small and medium sized target groups like elderly care homes, retail, schools and social welfare offices will benefit from Ascom's new professional messaging and personal alarm solution; UPAC.

Did Columbus and his men introduce the syphilis pathogen into Renaissance Europe after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much longer history in the Old World?

The most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis conducted on the family of bacteria (the treponemes) that cause syphilis and related diseases such as yaws, published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, supports the so-called “Columbian theory” of syphilis’s origins.

Kristin Harper (Emory University, Atlanta, USA) approached this centuries-old debate by using phylogenetics — the study of the evolutionary relatedness between organisms — to study 26 geographically disparate strains of treponemes.

A 53-page study designed to provide a comparison between the KC-767 Advanced Tanker (AT), based on the 767, and its major competitor in the U.S. Air Force's KC-135 Tanker Replacement Program states that a commercial 767 airplane is substantially more fuel efficient than the larger Airbus 330 - the 767 fleet burned 24 percent less fuel than the A-330s and would save approximately $14.6 billion in fuel costs.

That number is significant since the Air Force spent approximately $6.6 billion on aviation fuel costs in 2006.

The study used published data to calculate the fuel consumption of flying a fleet of 179 767-200ER and Airbus 330-200 airplanes over a 40-year service life.

It's a marketing expert's dream; if you want people to like your product more, charge a higher price.

Hilke Plassmann, et al, writing in PNAS, had test subjects undergo functional MRIs while they sipped wine. They were given 5 wines at 5 different prices.

Except there were only 3 wines. 2 were identical and just had different prices. People enjoyed the $90 wine more than they did when told the price was $10. Likewise a $5 wine was better when told it cost $45.

Dinosaurs had pregnancies as early as age 8, far before they reached their maximum adult size, a new study finds.

Researchers at Ohio University and University of California at Berkeley have found medullary bone – the same tissue that allows birds to develop eggshells – in two new dinosaur specimens: the meat-eater Allosaurus and the plant-eater Tenontosaurus. It’s also been found in Tyrannosaurus rex.

The discovery allowed researchers to pinpoint the age of these pregnant dinosaurs, which were 8, 10 and 18. That suggests that the creatures reached sexual maturity earlier than previously thought, according to the scientists.