An important component of early genetic material found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, say scientists from Europe and the USA. They say their research in Earth and Planetary Science Letters provides evidence that life’s raw materials came from sources beyond the Earth.

The materials they have found include the molecules uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to the molecules that make up DNA and RNA, and are known as nucleobases. The team discovered the molecules in rock fragments of the Murchison meteorite, which crashed in Australia in 1969.

They tested the meteorite material to determine whether the molecules came from the solar system or were a result of contamination when the meteorite landed on Earth. The analysis shows that the nucleobases contain a heavy form of carbon which could only have been formed in space. Materials formed on Earth consist of a lighter variety of carbon.

LONDON, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Solcara, the market-leading provider of software for the control, management and searching of digital information, has announced the appointment of three senior sales managers for Financial Services, Legal & Professional Services and the Commercial Sector.

Commenting on the expansion of Solcara's sales force Rob Martin, Managing Director, said:

"Solcara has reached a stage in its development where we are confident in accelerating our growth plans and extending our client base in these critical business sectors. Through senior hires, new product development, and the growth of our channel sales partnership, we are taking the necessary steps to consolidate and strengthen our leadership position."

The appointments are:

MÉRIGNAC, France, June 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Cortix: A new European Wave This Summer (June-July)

- Creation of New HQs in Dublin (Ireland) and Milan (Italy) and a new Agency in Palma, Majorca (Spain - Balearic Islands)

CARLISLE, England, June 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Published today, The Pattern Recognition Theory of Humour, by Alastair Clarke, answers the eternal question about the nature of humor. Clarke explains how and why we find things funny and identifies the reason humor is common to all human societies, its fundamental role in the evolution of humans and its continuing importance in the cognitive development of infants.

Clarke explains: "For some time now it's been assumed that a global theory of humour is impossible. This theory changes thousands of years of incorrect analyses and mini-theories that have applied to only a small proportion of instances of humour. It offers a vital answer as to why humour exists in every human society."

PARIS, June 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Abbott announced new data from the open-label extension of the ATLAS (Adalimumab Trial Evaluating Long-Term Efficacy and Safety in AS) phase III clinical trial, which showed HUMIRA(R) (adalimumab) reduced the signs and symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) for up to three years of treatment among 74 percent of patients tested. AS is a type of arthritis that primarily causes inflammation of the spine and the spinal joints. These data were presented at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) annual meeting in Paris.

Practice makes perfect, but a question that still remains a mystery is why it is so difficult to transfer learning from a trained to an untrained task? Why are we no better at remembering faces when we have been training our memory for words? Scientists at Umeå University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show in the journal Science that the answer lies in the brain areas activated by each task.

The scientists studied the brain activity of healthy subjects as they performed a task that was part of a training program and two untrained tasks. Their performance on the trained task and one of the untrained tasks improved. What these two tasks had in common was the activation of the striatum, a cluster of neuronal nuclei in midbrain.

New research from the American Museum of Natural History says that global warming is forcing species to move up tropical mountains. Christopher Raxworthy, Associate Curator in the Department of Herpetology, predicts that at least three species of amphibians and reptiles found in Madagascar's mountainous north could go extinct between 2050 and 2100 because of habitat loss associated with rising global temperatures.

These species, currently moving up-slope to compensate for habitat loss at lower and warmer altitudes, will eventually have no place to move to. The mountains can only go so high.

In a paper published this month in Global Change Biology, Raxworthy and colleagues found overall trends for elevation changes among 30 species of amphibians and reptiles. Uphill movement is a predicted response to increased temperatures, and other studies, including that of J. Alan Pounds in Costa Rica, have provided some empirical evidence of how tropical animals respond to climate change.

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 12 /PRNewswire/ --

ProQuest, a Cambridge Information Group company, has signed an agreement under which ProQuest would acquire the Thomson Reuters Dialog(R) business. The transaction is expected to close pending a successful completion of the formal consultation period and other customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

The acquisition of Dialog would allow ProQuest to deepen its penetration in the corporate library and professional research markets with a valued brand, authoritative content and precision search tools.