Researchers at Low Temperature Laboratory and Laboratory of Physics (TKK) and at University of Stony Brook (New York) have potentially solved the problem of accurately defining the ampere. The group has developed a frequency to current converter, the accuracy of which is based on the known charge of an electron and the extreme accuracy in defining frequency. The nanodevice is essentially a single electron transistor which works as a simple single-electron turnstile. Its best performance is achieved at very low temperatures.

Previously, the electric current and its unit, the ampere, have been defined through the classical force induced to two parallel leads carrying the current.

ZURICH, Switzerland, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Player-to-Screen Distribution System to be Added to Six New Product Lines

Minicom is proud to announce the expansion of its partnership with NEC Display Solutions. The joint Minicom and NEC venture began in February of 2006 with the announcement of the integration of the DS Vision 3000 receiver with NEC's Mutleos line of display screens. The partnership will now be enlarged to incorporate Minicom receivers in a total of seven different models of NEC screens.

CALGARY, Canada, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- SemBioSys Genetics Inc. (TSX:SBS), a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of therapeutic proteins for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, today announced that Oye Olukotun, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, has agreed to join the Board of Directors of the Company. Dr. Olukotun is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of VIA Pharmacueticals (NASDAQ: VIAP) a company focused on cardiovascular disease treatments. He will replace Dr. Douglass Given, who is retiring from the Board of SemBioSys after serving for seven years.

Long-lived, wild animals harbor genetic differences that influence how quickly they begin to show their age, according to the results of a long-term study reported in Current Biology. Evidence for the existence of such genetic variation for aging rates—a central tenet in the evolutionary theory that explains why animals would show physiological declines as they grow older—had largely been lacking in natural populations until now, the researchers said.

“We’ve found that individuals differ in their rates of aging, or senescence, and that these differences are (at least in part) caused by genetic effects so they will be inherited,” said Alastair Wilson of the University of Edinburgh.

LONDON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Germany is lagging in seasonal online retail shopping

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the second in a series of three studies of the online shopping activity of U.K., French and German consumers this Christmas season. This study tracked the number of visits to online retail sites each week since October 29, using data collected from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

Online Retail Site Visits Increase in November

GUANGZHOU, China, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Covanta Holding Corporation (Covanta), the leading provider of energy- from-waste solutions, today announced that is has taken a 40 percent stake in a joint venture with Guangzhou Development Industry (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (GDIH) to develop energy-from-waste projects in the Guangdong Province of Southeast China.

GDIH is one of the largest power companies in China's Guangdong Province and has extensive experience in energy and electric power development, construction, operation and management.

HOUSTON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation (Amex: END) announced today that the company will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (16:00 Greenwich Mean Time) on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 to discuss the company's 2008 capital budget and guidance.

To participate and ask questions during the conference call, dial +1-888-204-4317 (U.S., toll-free) or +1-913-312-1457 (international), pass code: 4398087. To listen only to the live audio web cast via the Internet access Endeavour's internet home page at http://www.endeavourcorp.com.

DALLAS and LONDON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a company that is building the first network focused on prevention in the United States and internationally (http://www.USPreventiveMedicine.com), announced today it has signed a letter of intent with iHealth UK Ltd. to jointly develop three preventive medicine businesses in the United Kingdom. iHealth brings together leading clinicians, advanced modalities, electronic integration and a holistic perspective to support enhanced wellbeing through its health screening and assessment services.

Their day job is to keep trees upright but the forest's tiniest building blocks could soon be on their way into future products. Imagine a packaging material that also kills bacteria. Or a disposable duvet cover that keeps infection away when you are in a hospital bed.

Scientists in Trondheim believe that exciting new products can be created if we make use of some of nature's tiniest construction materials. They are called “fibrils” and you may never have heard of them, but there are millions of them in each piece of paper you hold.

A wonder of nature

Fibrils form continuously in all growing trees.

PARIS, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- "We need to concentrate on the most cost-effective measures to reduce CO2 emissions in transport", stressed Jack Short, Secretary General of the International Transport Forum, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali on Thursday. Too often high cost and low impact measures are being chosen, he criticised. Because the challenge for the sector to reduce its CO2 emissions is immense, neither industrial nor developing countries can afford to get priorities wrong. "By achieving the required emission reductions at the lowest overall cost, it is possible to protect the climate with minimal damage to welfare and economic growth."