Since the reporting of the so-called “hobbit” fossil from the island of Flores in Indonesia, debate has raged as to whether these remains are of modern humans (Homo sapiens), reduced, for some reason, in stature, or whether they represent a new species, Homo floresiensis.

In a study funded by the National Geographic Society Mission Programs, Lee Berger and colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand, Rutgers University and Duke University, describe the fossils of small-bodied humans from the Micronesian island of Palau. These people inhabited the island between 1400 and 3000 years ago and share some – although not all – features with the H.

The universe as we currently know it is made up of three physical dimensions of space and a relative one of time, but researchers in the Department of Physics and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech are exploring the possibility of an extra dimension.

“The idea we’re exploring is that the universe has an imperceptibly small dimension (about one billionth of a nanometer) in addition to the four that we know currently,” Kavic said. “This extra dimension would be curled up, in a state similar to that of the entire universe at the time of the Big Bang.”

The group is looking for small primordial black holes that, when they explode, may produce a radio pulse that could be detected here on Earth. These black holes are called primordial because they were created a fraction of a second after the beginning of the universe.

ABU DHABI, UAE, March 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- TAQA to Announce FY'07 Results on 17 March, 2008

- Conference Call Details Below

The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC, a publicly listed company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM: TAQA), announced today that it will release its Full Year 2007 Financial Results for the period to 31 December 2007 before market open on Monday, 17 March, 2008. In conjunction with the financial results release there is a scheduled conference call at 16:30 hrs (UAE time) on Monday, 17 March, 2008.

The conference call will be hosted by the Company's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter E. Barker Homek, and Chief Financial Officer, Doug Fraser.

Announcement: TAQA Full Year 2007 Financial Results Conference Call

NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ --

SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that it has acquired the corporate payments division of Payformance Corporation (http://www.payformance.com), a Jacksonville, Florida based company that provides payment processing solutions for corporations and health care organizations. The acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, is not expected to have a material impact on SunGard's financial results.

CALGARY, Canada, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSX: ONC, NASDAQ: ONCY), will present a corporate overview of the Company at the BioSquare 2008 Conference on Thursday, March 13, 2008. The event is being held at the Congress Center in Basel, Switzerland from March 12-14, 2008.

About Oncolytics Biotech Inc.

Astronomers at the University of Rochester have announced that low-mass stars and possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking objects in the sky.

The news is ironic because the name “planetary” nebula has always been a misnomer. When these objects were discovered 300 years ago, astronomers couldn’t tell what they were and named them for their resemblance to the planet Uranus. But as early as the mid-19th century, astronomers realized these objects are really great clouds of dust emitted by dying stars.

Rochester researchers now say they have found that planets or low-mass stars orbiting these aged stars may indeed be pivotal to the creation of the nebulae’s fantastic appearance.

High-energy physicists devoted to recreating the conditions at the beginning of the universe have for the first time observed a new way to produce those basic particles of atoms, protons and neutrons.

Confirming a decades-old prediction, the physicists with the CLEO collaboration say they observed a rare and extremely short-lived subatomic particle with the unusual name of “charmed-strange meson” decay into a proton and anti-neutron.

Detection of the event was attributed to John Yelton, a physicist at the University of Florida, one of many institutions that are part of the CLEO collaboration.

When exotic species invade new territory, they often present a major threat to the other plants and animals living there, that much is clear, but in addition to their destructive tendencies, invasive species can also have a surprisingly “creative” side.

Researchers writing in Current Biology say they have discovered that an invasive population of the freshwater snail Melanoides tuberculata, found on the island of Martinique, harbors a tremendous amount of genetic variation for key life-history traits, such as fecundity, juvenile size, and age at first reproduction. And that means they have a remarkably large potential for evolutionary change.

LONDON, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Tanzania, 2007. A male patient is admitted to a hospital with pneumonia and possibly HIV. Due to staffing problems and improper handling, the patient is not seen for a week. Upon finally being seen, he is found to be HIV negative. Because he does not have HIV he has to pay for all expenses, totaling more than his monthly earnings. If he were HIV positive, the entire stay, all medication, and all tests would be free.

LONDON, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Heren Energy is pleased to announce the launch of a pioneering new spot Liquefied Natural Gas assessment to add to its extensive portfolio of energy pricing benchmarks.

The company's weekly global LNG publication, Heren LNG Markets, will carry a spot LNG price for cargoes delivered to the Far East as of 7th March.

The price reflects the traded value delivered ex-ship (d.e.s.) into Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.