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Showing posts from August, 2013

Mother’s genes can impact ageing process

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As we age, our cells change and become damaged. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging have shown that ageing is determined not only by the accumulation of changes during our lifetime but also by the genes we acquire from our mothers. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature. There are many causes of aging that are determined by an accumulation of various kinds of changes that impair the function of bodily organs. Of particular importance in aging, however, seems to be the changes that occur in the cell’s power plant — the mitochondrion. This structure is located in the cell and generates most of the cell’s supply of ATP which is used as a source of chemical energy. “The mitochondria contains their own DNA, which changes more than the DNA in the nucleus, and this has a significant impact on the aging process,” said Nils-Göran Larsson, Ph.D., professor at the Karolinska Institutet and princ

Sony and Microsoft to launch PS4 console in November

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Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, said: 'The response we have received is nothing short of incredible.' Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters Sony has had more than 1m preorders worldwide for its new PlayStation 4 console, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment said on Tuesday. SCE chief executive Andrew House added that the console will be available from 15 November in North America and will hit stores in Europe from 29 November. "The response we have received is nothing short of incredible," he said at a news conference at Gamescom, Europe's biggest video games fair. He said the console will be available in 32 countries worldwide during the holiday season. Microsoft has said it will start selling its latest console at some point in November, intensifying competition ahead of the year-end holidays. Sony has priced the PlayStation 4, its first new console in seven years, at $399 (£255), $100 lower than

Apple plans new iPhone launch for 10 September, say reports

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Apple CEO Tim Cook: expected to announce fingerprint-detecting technology with update to the iPhone 5. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Apple is thought to be planning the release of two new phones on 10 September, including a much-anticipated cheaper iPhone , dubbed the iPhone 5C. As well as an incremental update to the current iPhone 5 , expected to include fingerprint-detecting technology, the iPhone 5C would be Apple's first lower-end phone. Historically, Apple has fulfilled the needs of the low-end market by offering previous years' models at cut-down prices. Industry suppliers have been told to expect the new device in mid-September, but a leak to news site All Things D claimed the launch is set for 10 September. At a recent earnings call , Apple's chief executive Tim Cook reiterated that plan to investors. When asked about the potential of a low-cost iPhone to first time smartphone buyers, he replied that the number attr

Can You Be Just Friends With the Opposite Sex?

HE SAID : Ladies, welcome to the biggest relationship cliché in the history of men and women. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan made this question famous twenty years ago in When Harry Met Sally , psychologists have studied and debated the merits of cross-gender relationships to death, and who hasn’t heard a friend say “you can’t be friends with a member of the opposite sex?” Despite what you may have learned growing up or what your girlfriends say at happy hour, men and women can absolutely be anywhere from good to great to best friends. It doesn't happen all the time and it's not always easy, but it is possible. The single biggest reason that deep friendships between men and women fail is sexual tension. Women I spoke to consistently said that it is “difficult to impossible” to have fulfilling friendships with men because as the friendship develops, men will inevitably want to elevate the relationship to a romantic level. Similarly but in much simpler terms, men I

Mobile application that can help communicate with the dead in view

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Millions of people get messages on their iPhones, but can a new app send messages from beyond the grave? Sending and receiving messages from beyond the grave used to require a caftan-wearing medium hosting a séance in a dark, candlelit room. How 20th century. Today's medium can ditch the caftan in favor of an iPhone, now that a pair of developers in Greenwood, Ind., have developed Spirit Story Box, an app that claims to let the dead communicate with the living. Developers Roger Pingleton and Jill Beitz of StreamSide Software created Spirit Story Box in an effort to improve on other paranormal apps, the Indianapolis Star reports.