ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Experts report on progress and explore promise of rotavirus vaccines

Over 350 of the world's leading scientific experts, policymakers and leading public health professionals from 67 countries convened today during the 8th International Rotavirus Symposium in Istanbul, Turkey, to present new data about rotavirus -- a disease which causes acute diarrhea and often leads to death among young children.

"Regardless of where they live, virtually all children become infected with rotavirus by the age of three. Yet, 90 percent of child deaths due to rotavirus occur in the world's poorest countries," said Dr. Ciro de Quadros, of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

Many scientists have expressed the belief that if they only had a chance to explain the facts, they could convince intelligent educated people (at least) of the validity of a neo-Darwinian approach to understanding life. As the following email exchange suggests, this conventional assumption is wrong. Not all people - even intelligent ones - have minds that operate according to the same principles of rationality.

The following email conversation took place between me and a reader of an article called "Life 2.0" that I published in Newsweek International about synthetic life.   The reader - a young earth creationist - was only upset by what I wrote in the very first paragraph of a rather long article.  The email exchange that followed is instructive to those of us who want to convince our fellow citizens of the legitimacy of modern science  and its implications for understanding life and the universe as a whole. 

PARIS, June 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Alcatel-Lucent has Already Announced the Deployment of More Than 50 TPSDA Networks

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext: Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced several new enhancements to its Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA) which pave the way for new, sophisticated and innovative multimedia services. Going beyond the initial, mass-market solution requirements for IPTV, voice and Internet services, the new architecture enhancements now enable consumers and business partners to choose the quality of experience they want, for the content they care about and at a price they are prepared to pay.

A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that makes California's earthquake problem seem trivial.

Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts&Sciences, and colleagues combined seismological and global positioning system (GPS) analyses to reveal two bursts of seismic waves from an ice stream in Antarctica every day - and each one equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake.

The ice stream is essentially a giant glacier 60 miles wide and one-half mile thick. The data show that the river of ice moves about 18 inches within ten minutes, remains still for 12 hours, then moves another eighteen inches. Each time it moves, it gives off seismic waves that are recorded at seismographs all around Antarctica, and even as far away as Australia.

BERLIN, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Axxonis Pharma AG today announces the submission of a marketing authorisation application to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for Nenad(R) (lisuride transdermal patch as add-on therapy for Parkinson's Disease and for Restless Legs Syndrome, and subcutaneous (sc) lisuride infusion for advanced Parkinson's Disease)

AUSTIN, Texas, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Ringdale, Inc., a technology leader in network enhancing connectivity solutions, today announced the integration of fax receiving functionality with the document routing engine of FollowMe(R) to provide enhanced workflow capabilities.

NEW YORK, June 4 /PRNewswire/ --

Liquidnet today announced BATS Trading Inc. (BATS) has become its 22nd Streaming Liquidity Partner (SLP). This liquidity alliance enables Liquidnet's nearly 500 Member firms, via Liquidnet H2O(TM), unique access to approximately 700 million additional shares of liquidity per day(1). BATS has integrated the ability to cross with Liquidnet H2O via its new Dark Scan order type and joins Liquidnet H2O's growing list of Streaming Liquidity Partners (SLPs) who include some of the industry's leading brokerages, exchanges and ECNs.

At Euro 2008, the soccer championship for European countries held every four years, this event, held jointly in two countries, means both Austria and Switzerland regard themselves as having the upper hand due to the "twelfth man" - home field advantage.

But does it really exist? Eva Heinrichs, a future diploma statistician at Technische Universität Dortmund, has scientifically tackled the issue and examined all games of the premier and second German national league as well as the Spanish, Italian and English premier leagues since 1963 - which is nice work if you can find it - and concludes it does exist, though it was a lot stronger in prior decades than it is today.

ORLANDO, Florida, June 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Leading technology partners honoured for achievement on connected device platforms.

Microsoft Corp announced the winners of the 2008 Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Awards for the Americas, which were presented this week at the Tech*Ed North America 2008 Developers conference. The Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Awards recognise visionary organisations round the world that use Windows Embedded technology in innovative and creative ways. Windows Embedded Partners were honoured for their outstanding customer service and the many innovative ways they are using the Microsoft Windows Embedded platforms.

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

ORLANDO, Florida, June 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- The next generation of Windows XP Embedded, Windows Embedded Standard 2009, enables devices to easily connect to Windows Vista-based PCs and take advantage of new features in Windows Server 2008.