"Kepler is like Field of Dreams meets Cosmos" says Padi Boyd, a scientist with the Kepler planet-hunting mission. This set the stage for an enjoyable short interview. Earlier I wrote why Kepler is awesomeness squared, and now we look at how the motivation of the people involved leads to better science success.

Kepler was conceived, proposed, and lead by Bill Borucki. It is NASA Discovery mission #10, designed to be low cost and focused towards one task. For Kepler, that's planet-hunting.

BRACKNELL, England, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Boehringer Ingelheim maintained its growth path in 2008 too, thereby meeting the goals it had set itself.

As the company announced at its Annual Press Conference in Ingelheim, the corporation's net sales rose to EUR11.6 billion (2007 EUR10.9 billion). This corresponds to a currency-adjusted increase of +9.5% and +5.9% on a euro-basis. Boehringer Ingelheim thus showed stronger growth than the world pharmaceutical market for the ninth year in a row.

NESHER, Israel, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- Portable Solution for Wound Healing Using Low Frequency, Low Intensity Ultrasound

NanoVibronix, a medical device company specializing in applications that implement surface ultrasound waves, announced that its novel device has received CE approval in Europe for additional claims of wound healing. PainShield is the first hands-free, patch-based device that uses surface ultrasound waves for therapeutic treatment of wounds. The innovative PainShield consists of a disposable patch connected to a portable driver. PainShield for wound therapy will be introduced at the upcoming European Wound Management Association (EWMA) conference in Helsinki, Finland on May 20 - 22, 2009.

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

Shoplogix, a developer of Real-time Performance Management (RPM) solutions for sustainable Continuous Improvement, is pleased to announce that Neustro Consulting has recently joined the Shoplogix Value Added Partner (VAP) alliance to expand its product offering for RPM solutions throughout Europe and United Kingdom.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/NYTU022LOGO )

SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- Fully-integrated Security Event Monitoring, Incident Response, Log Management and Compliance Reporting is Massively Scalable, Cost Effective and Easy-to-deploy and Use

ROANOKE, Virginia, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

Meridium Inc., the leader in asset performance management (APM) software and consulting solutions, today announced that First National Operation and Maintenance Company (NOMAC) has chosen Meridium's RCMO solution for its reliability centered maintenance software. NOMAC, a joint venture between Sogex Oman Co. LLC and ACWA Power International of Saudi Arabia, delivers operation and maintenance services to public and private sector owners of power and desalination plants.

MANCHESTER, England, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Two young research scientists are at the cutting edge of experimental technologies which could help save the planet. The work of North West-based Ian Carline and Ruyi Hu has the potential to cut thousands of tons of carbon emissions and save GBP millions.

But details of the research projects the two are involved with can be a dinner party conversation stopper....the focus of their work is the billion litres of wastewater generated by the region each year.

SOUTHAMPTON, England, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Vantia Therapeutics, a company developing novel small molecule drugs targeting large underserved medical markets, today announces the appointment of Rachel Morten as Head of Regulatory Affairs.

Rachel has more than 24 years experience in global regulatory affairs and product development in the pharmaceutical and animal health industries. Most recently an independent regulatory affairs consultant, Rachel has also served as Senior Director, Group Head Regulatory Affairs for the international CRO Averion International Ltd (previously Hesperion). Previously Rachel founded ChapelPharma a regulatory consultancy that was acquired by Hesperion in 2004.

LAS VEGAS, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- Swarmcast powers Internet TV video for world's leading sports broadcaster

NAB -- Swarmcast, the leader in live sports Internet TV, announced today that Setanta Sports has partnered with Swarmcast to deliver Setanta's new online video offering, Setanta-i, bringing sports fans both live and on-demand video of Setanta programming, including the prestigious English Premier League.

The Setanta-i service offers live streams of all Setanta's main channels (varying by market) and brings a full screen, TV-like experience to viewers around the globe available on both a free and pay basis.

HSINCHU, Taiwan, April 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- Silicon-proven Reference Design Approach Accelerates RF Designs and Enables Systems-on-Chip Integration

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSE: 2330; NYSE: TSM) today unveiled the foundry industry's first Mixed Signal/Radio Frequency Reference Design Kit (MS/RF RDK) at its North American Technology Symposium in San Jose. The RDK initially targets 65nm process technology and aims to accelerate analog, mixed-signal, and RF designs and RF SoC verification and integration. The MS/RF RDK is the result of multi-year collaboration between TSMC and Cadence Design Systems and represents one of the initial deliverables of the TSMC Open Innovation Platform(TM).