Easter comes so early this year that the annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is the pick of the Bank Holiday weekend events in London. Around a quarter of a million spectators will line the banks of the Thames to watch England's two elite universities battle it out on Easter Sunday at 4.30pm - hoping this year's gruelling duel will not be ruined by crazy campaigner trying to test the durability of the oars with his head. The Boat Race is just one of numerous outdoor events set to keep Londoners and visitors to the capital entertained over the Easter weekend, ...

Mark Systems announced today that, for the fifth time since 2008, it's Integrated Homebuilder Management System (IHMS) has garnered the Top Products award for construction software, according to Constructech Magazine of Carol Stream, IL. One of a series of high profile industry awards received by Mark Systems during that time, the Constructech top Products award honors technology solutions that have demonstrated the greatest innovations geared toward the homebuilding market. "We're extremely honored to be selected once again as a Top Product in residential software," ...

Polaris Financial Technology Ltd, a leader in products, solutions and services that enable unprecedented operational productivity for the global Financial Services industry, today announced the launch of its Research, Innovation and Development Centre (RIDC) in its Belfast Centre, UK. This launch enables Polaris to strengthen its leadership position by establishing a dedicated near-shore RIDC, in order to support transformational outsourcing programs for its strategic customers in Europe. With the active involvement of the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the current ...

We Talk Chalk is proud to announce their participation in the upcoming 'Living Arts Festival', to be held at Ratchaprasong in Bangkok from February 26th until March 3rd. Beyond just "another street painting event", artists will be creating 3D Street paintings, as well as "4D" paintings - 3D with added elements in sensory, complex perspective or augmented reality to take it to the next level. This type of event would be special anywhere it happened, but to the city of Bangkok this is an unprecedented event - the first of it's kind in the city. With ...

This spring, SWDTech will begin development on its first of many retro Role-Playing Games (RPGs) sure to interest and inspire casual and hardcore gamers alike. Pixel Noir is a retro, 16-bit era RPG with a strong emphasis on story, and a feel reminiscent of classic film noir. www.swdtechgames.com "There are cops gone bad, double-crosses, and frame-ups - all the classic elements of a gritty detective story, but with the added challenge of a protagonist who can't trust what he sees," says SWDTech lead writer Jennifer Keating. Pixel Noir is sure to remind ...

Firelight Fusion, a top e cigarette brand, recently announced on their blog could save the average smoker over $1,000 dollars a year when used as an alternative to smoking tobacco. Considering that the average smokers pays over 6 dollars a pack at the lower end of retail and claim that some could cut their monthly cost down to as little as 30 to 40 bucks per month by simply switching to this product. There are added benefits to switching other than prices when it comes to this powerhouse electronic cigarette. The product emits no smoke and harm reduction and tobacco ...

National Power Supply is a company that specializes in offering quality remanufactured engines and generators. National Power Supply now offers better prices than OEM's by working with top notch independents. These engines include remanufactured caterpillar engines, remanufactured Perkins and remanufactured diesel engines. The engines at National Power Supply are from different application fields which include; mining, industrial, marine, commercial, agriculture, construction and specialty in over the road transport. The company has initiated a power generation division ...

Performing sensitive biological experiments is always a delicate affair. Few researchers, however, contend with the challenges faced by Cheryl Nickerson, whose working laboratory aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is located hundreds of miles above the Earth, traveling at some 17,000 miles per hour. Nickerson, a microbiologist at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, is using the ISS platform to pursue new research into the effects of microgravity on disease-causing organisms. Nickerson presented her research findings and charted the course for ...

Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini has made his name by successfully transplanting bioengineered stem cell-based trachea, composed of both artificial and biological material. He now plans to use the technique to recreate more complex tissues, such as the oesophagus and diaphragm or organs such as the heart and lungs. He has also made an experimental attempt to regenerate brain in mice and rats. This is part of the news he will be presenting during his seminar at the scientific AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. In June 2011, media all over the world reported about a ground breaking ...

BOSTON -- Society currently faces profound social and environmental challenges that must be met to secure a sustainable future for humanity. A major challenge in achieving this goal is discovering how best to synthesize important findings and ideas from many disciplines and use them to produce scientifically informed social and environmental policy. This task is not easy. Different disciplines use different theories and methods, and scientists and policy makers rarely work together. New types of research centers are needed, as are new ways of organizing collaborations ...

A skilful negotiator can save a lot of money when shopping in his favourite store. This was found out by researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in a large-scale study. An extra five percent discount is, on average, no problem - as long as you know how to use your customer loyalty as a trump. The credo turned on its head For loyal customers, the price is not so important – at least, that was the credo in marketing and sales up to now. The recently published study by the Bochum scientists Prof. Jan Wieseke, Sascha Alavi and Johannes Habel of the Faculty of Economics ...

Solidoodle, the most affordable 3D printer on the market according to ABC, will hold its first official press conference on Thursday, February 28th at 10:00 am. The press conference will be held at Ensemble, located at 1150 Avenue of the Americas, 6th floor. Over 100 members of the media will be present to hear about the industry-shaking steps Solidoodle is taking to assert itself as the world leader in affordable desktop 3D printing. Solidoodle will announce several key partnerships as well as discuss the company's efforts to impact the defense, art, education, design, ...

Some 90,000 patients per year are treated for Parkinson's disease, a number that is expected to rise by 25 percent annually. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), which consists of electrically stimulating the central or peripheral nervous system, is currently standard practice for treating Parkinson's, but it can involve long, expensive surgeries with dramatic side effects. Miniature, ultra-flexible electrodes developed in Switzerland, however, could be the answer to more successful treatment for this and a host of other health issues. Today, Professor Philippe Renaud of the ...

For an amputee, replacing a missing limb with a functional prosthetic can alleviate physical or emotional distress and mean a return of vocational ability or cosmetics. Studies show, however, that up to 50 percent of hand amputees still do not use their prosthesis regularly due to less than ideal functionality, appearance, and controllability. But Silvestro Micera, of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, is paving the way for new, smart prosthetics that connect directly to the nervous system. The benefits are more versatile prosthetics with ...

Using powerful X-rays, University of British Columbia researchers have reconstructed a crime scene too small for any microscope to observe – and caught the culprit of arrhythmia in action. Characterized by the heart beating too fast, too slow or inconsistently, arrhythmias may cause a decrease of blood flow to the brain and body, resulting in heart palpitation, dizziness, fainting, or even death. Presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, the 3D animated model reveals for the first time how ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It has been almost 20 years since the first genetically modified foods showed up in produce aisles throughout the United States and the rest of the world, but controversy continues to surround the products and their regulation. Bruce Chassy, a professor emeritus of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes that after thousands of research studies and worldwide planting, "genetically modified foods pose no special risks to consumers or the environment" and are overregulated. Chassy will elaborate on ...

DURHAM, N.H. – As our climate changes, the way we engineer our cities must, too. That's the message that University of New Hampshire professor Paul Kirshen, an author of a recent report that assessed Boston's vulnerability to coastal flooding, will deliver at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting February 14-18, 2013, in Boston. Kirshen will speak coastal adaptation planning for vulnerable communities in the "Environmental Challenges and Adaptation in Cities" session (3 – 4:30 p.m., Room 308, Hynes Convention Center). He'll present ...

A possible Higgs boson of cancer and steps to give natural biodiversity a fighting chance will be among the topics Princeton University researchers will discuss during the 2013 AAAS annual meeting. Below are summaries, arranged chronologically, of the research to be presented. All information is embargoed until the beginning of the respective session. * Virtual water trade helps cope with climate change Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Friday, Feb. 15, 8 a.m., Room 203 Climate change ...

RICHLAND, Wash. -- To make fuel cells more economical, engineers want a fast and efficient iron-based molecule that splits hydrogen gas to make electricity. Online Feb. 17 at Nature Chemistry, researchers report such a catalyst. It is the first iron-based catalyst that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. The result moves chemists and engineers one step closer to widely affordable fuel cells. "A drawback with today's fuel cells is that the platinum they use is more than a thousand times more expensive than iron," said chemist R. Morris Bullock, who leads the research ...

The UK's national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source, is now the first and only place in Europe where pathogens requiring Containment Level 3 – including serious viruses such as those responsible for AIDS, Hepatitis and some types of flu – can be analysed at atomic and molecular level using synchrotron light. This special light allows scientists to study virus structures at intense levels of detail and this new facility extends that capability to many viruses that have a major global impact on human and animal health. Studying pathogens in this way has the potential ...

Until now, however, it was practically impossible to accurately predict which molecules performed well on the job. They basically had to be identified by trial-and-error. Now, an international team of scientists around Dr. Georg Heimel and Prof. Norbert Koch from the HZB and the Humboldt University Berlin has unraveled the mystery of what these molecules have in common. Their discovery enables more focused improvements to contact layers between metal electrodes and active materials in organic electronic devices. "We have been working on this question for a number of ...

Long segments of RNA— encoded in our DNA but not translated into protein—are key to physically manipulating DNA in order to activate certain genes, say researchers at The Wistar Institute. These non-coding RNA-activators (ncRNA-a) have a crucial role in turning genes on and off during early embryonic development, researchers say, and have also been connected with diseases, including some cancers, in adults. In an online article of the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Wistar's Ramin Shiekhattar, Ph.D., detail the mechanism by which long non-coding RNA-activators ...

UPTON, NY - Over the last quarter century, scientists have discovered a handful of materials that can be converted from magnetic insulators or metals into "superconductors" able to carry electrical current with no energy loss-an enormously promising idea for new types of zero-resistance electronics and energy-storage and transmission systems. At present, a key step to achieving superconductivity (in addition to keeping the materials very cold) is to substitute a different kind of atom into some positions of the "parent" material's crystal framework. Until now, scientists ...

The circadian clocks that control and influence dozens of basic biological processes have an unexpected "snooze button" that helps cells adapt to changes in their environment. A study by Vanderbilt University researchers published online Feb. 17 by the journal Nature provides compelling new evidence that at least some species can alter the way that their biological clocks function by using different "synonyms" that exist in the genetic code. "This provides organisms with a novel and previously unappreciated mechanism for responding to changes in their environment," said ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. -- While most farmers consider viruses and fungi potential threats to their crops, these microbes can help wild plants adapt to extreme conditions, according to a Penn State virologist. Discovering how microbes collaborate to improve the hardiness of plants is a key to sustainable agriculture that can help meet increasing food demands, in addition to avoiding possible conflicts over scare resources, said Marilyn Roossinck, professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology, and biology. "It's a security issue," Roossinck said. "The amount ...