Celebrating the birthday of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams, Google's March 11 Doodle features a retro spaceship console with an iconic tablet computer atop it, providing the answers to all of life's most nagging questions, including the ultimate one.
Click through the Guide's entries, and you'll be surprised at the diversity and cleverness of the Google designers. You'll see pantomimed demonstrations of the virtues of the towel, the effects of drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, even the reason why Vogon poetry is considered bad ? and not just for humanoids. You'll also see a brief history of Deep Thought, the super computer which replied, when asked, that the answer to life, the universe and everything is "42." And if you click around enough, you'll be able to spot Marvin, the Paranoid Android.
Adams died all too soon, at the age of 49, but his writing will live on for millennia to come, perhaps one day providing us with useful behavioral advice when we do actually venture out into the galaxy, towel in hand.
Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.
Mar. 9, 2013 ? The daffodil is one of the few plants with a 'corona', a crown-like structure also referred to as the 'trumpet'. New research suggests that the corona is not an extension of the petals as previously thought, but is a distinct organ sharing more genetic identity with stamens, the pollen-producing reproductive organs.
The origin of the corona has long been a subject of debate in botany, and in the 1930s botanist Agnes Arber claimed that it was an extension from the petals. With its colourful petal-like appearance, it's easy to see why this was believed for so long. Yet by studying the corona's development and genetic information, this new study has shown that it is in fact related to stamens.
Dr Robert Scotland of the University of Oxford led the research, and was supported by colleagues at Harvard University, the United States Department of Agriculture and the University of Western Australia. The researchers were funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the United States National Science Foundation. The study is published online in The Plant Journal.
By studying the development of daffodil flowers, the researchers found that the corona only begins to form after the other parts of the flower are fully established. 'This shows that the corona could not be a straightforward modification of either petals or stamens,' explains Dr Scotland, 'Since it develops independently of both, it is more accurately described as a separate organ.'
The different parts of daffodil flowers are located on a small cup-like platform termed the 'hypanthium'.
The researchers analysed genetic activity in all parts of the daffodil flower, and found that daffodil coronas were genetically similar to the stamens and hypanthium, but not the petals.
'We found that the corona develops from the hypanthium, and is not simply en extension of the petals or stamens,' says Dr Scotland, 'The corona is an independent organ, sharing more genetic identity with stamens, and which develops after the other organs are fully established.'
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oxford.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Mark T Waters, Anna M M Tiley, Elena M Kramer, Alan W Meerow, Jane A Langdale, Robert W Scotland. The corona of the daffodil Narcissus bulbocodium shares stamen-like identity and is distinct from the orthodox floral whorls. The Plant Journal, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/tpj.12150
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is likely to choose Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to be the next secretary of labor, a source familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The choice of Perez, who is Hispanic, would be a nod to the importance of the Latino vote in the 2012 election. Hispanics voted for Obama in large margins, helping him in political swing states such as Colorado and Nevada.
Perez, currently the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, would replace Hilda Solis, the first Hispanic woman to head a major federal agency.
Perez previously served as secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
Another Hispanic leader, Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, had also been in the running for the job, according to sources, but he fell behind Perez in the deliberations.
White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Peter Cooney)
LONDON (AP) ? British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: It may have started as a giant burial ground for elite families around 3,000 B.C.
New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, researchers said Saturday.
"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said. "We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure."
Parker Pearson said archeologists studied the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and believed that they were buried around 3,000 B.C. The location of many of the cremated bodies was originally marked by bluestones, he said. That earlier circular enclosure, which measured around 300 feet (91 meters) across, could have been the burial ground for about 200 more people, Parker Pearson said.
The team, which included academics from more than a dozen British universities, also put forth some theories about the purpose of the second Stonehenge ? the monument still standing in the countryside in southern England today.
Various theories have been proposed about Stonehenge, including that it was a place for Druid worship, an observatory for astronomical studies, or a place of healing, built by early inhabitants of Britain who roamed around with their herds.
Parker Pearson said the latest study suggested that Stonehenge should be seen less a temple of worship than a kind of building project that served to unite people from across Britain.
Analysis of the remains of a Neolithic settlement near the monument indicated that thousands of people traveled from as far as Scotland to the site, bringing their livestock and families for huge feasts and celebrations during the winter and summer solstices.
The team studied the teeth of pigs and cattle found at the "builders' camp," and deduced that the animals were mostly slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring births. That meant they were likely eaten in feasts during the midwinter and midsummer, Parker Pearson said.
"We don't think (the builders) were living there all the time. We could tell that by when they were killing the pigs ? they were there for the solstices," he said.
The researchers believe that the builders converged seasonally to build Stonehenge, but not for very long ? likely over a period of a decade or so.
The mass monument building is thought to end around the time when the "Beaker people," so called because of their distinctive pottery, arrived from continental Europe, Parker Pearson said.
Mar. 6, 2013 ? Just as a global posi?tion?ing sys?tem (GPS) helps find your loca?tion, the brain has an inter?nal sys?tem for help?ing deter?mine the body's loca?tion as it moves through its surroundings.
A new study from researchers at Prince?ton Uni?ver?sity pro?vides evi?dence for how the brain per?forms this feat. The study, pub?lished in the jour?nal Nature, indi?cates that cer?tain position-tracking neu?rons -- called grid cells -- ramp their activ?ity up and down by work?ing together in a col?lec?tive way to deter?mine loca?tion, rather than each cell act?ing on its own as was pro?posed by a com?pet?ing theory.
Grid cells are neu?rons that become elec?tri?cally active, or "fire," as ani?mals travel in an envi?ron?ment. First dis?cov?ered in the mid-2000s, each cell fires when the body moves to spe?cific loca?tions, for exam?ple in a room. Amaz?ingly, these loca?tions are arranged in a hexag?o?nal pat?tern like spaces on a Chi?nese checker board.
"Together, the grid cells form a rep?re?sen?ta?tion of space," said David Tank, Princeton's Henry L. Hill?man Pro?fes?sor in Mol?e?c?u?lar Biol?ogy and leader of the study. "Our research focused on the mech?a?nisms at work in the neural sys?tem that forms these hexag?o?nal pat?terns," he said. The first author on the paper was grad?u?ate stu?dent Cristina Dom?nisoru, who con?ducted the exper?i?ments together with post?doc?toral researcher Amina Kinkhabwala.
Dom?nisoru mea?sured the elec?tri?cal sig?nals inside indi?vid?ual grid cells in mouse brains while the ani?mals tra?versed a computer-generated vir?tual envi?ron?ment, devel?oped pre?vi?ously in the Tank lab. The ani?mals moved on a mouse-sized tread?mill while watch?ing a video screen in a set-up that is sim?i?lar to video-game vir?tual real?ity sys?tems used by humans.
She found that the cell's elec?tri?cal activ?ity, mea?sured as the dif?fer?ence in volt?age between the inside and out?side of the cell, started low and then ramped up, grow?ing larger as the mouse reached each point on the hexag?o?nal grid and then falling off as the mouse moved away from that point.
This ramp?ing pat?tern cor?re?sponded with a pro?posed mech?a?nism of neural com?pu?ta?tion called an attrac?tor net?work. The brain is made up of vast num?bers of neu?rons con?nected together into net?works, and the attrac?tor net?work is a the?o?ret?i?cal model of how pat?terns of con?nected neu?rons can give rise to brain activ?ity by col?lec?tively work?ing together. The attrac?tor net?work the?ory was first pro?posed 30 years ago by John Hop?field, Princeton's Howard A. Prior Pro?fes?sor in the Life Sci?ences, Emeritus.
The team found that their mea?sure?ments of grid cell activ?ity cor?re?sponded with the attrac?tor net?work model but not a com?pet?ing the?ory, the oscil?la?tory inter?fer?ence model. This com?pet?ing the?ory pro?posed that grid cells use rhyth?mic activ?ity pat?terns, or oscil?la?tions, which can be thought of as many fast clocks tick?ing in syn?chrony, to cal?cu?late where ani?mals are located. Although the Prince?ton researchers detected rhyth?mic activ?ity inside most neu?rons, the activ?ity pat?terns did not appear to par?tic?i?pate in posi?tion calculations.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Princeton University. The original article was written by Cather?ine Zan?donella.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Cristina Domnisoru, Amina A. Kinkhabwala, David W. Tank. Membrane potential dynamics of grid cells. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11973
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has found alleged irregularities in the farm debt waiver scheme worth Rs 52,000 crore. In its report, the CAG deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008 under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore.
The CAG has also found instances of tampering of records and pulled up the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the Finance Ministry for deficient monitoring of the multi-crore scheme.
?Overall, the Performance Audit revealed that in (22.32 per cent of cases test checked) there were lapses/errors which raised serious concern about the implementation of the scheme.? said the CAG report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
The report deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008 under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore.
The CAG report said in several cases ?farmers who had taken loan for non-agricultural purposes or whose loans did not meet eligibility conditions, were given benefits under the scheme.?
It said several farmers who were eligible for the benefit under the scheme were not considered for loan waiver by the lending institutions.
Besides other observations, the report said the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) were given benefit under the scheme in violation of the debt waiver guidelines.
The banks, it said, also claimed undue benefits like penal interest, legal charges, miscellaneous charges from the Government. Under the scheme, banks were supposed to bear these charges themselves.
Referring to tampering of records, CAG suggested DFS should review such cases and take ?stringent action? against erring officials and banks.
Opposition BJP has reacted sharply and demanded strict action against those responsible for it.
?The UPA Government is for the scam, of the scam and by the scamsters? This is a huge scam of Rs 10,000 crore which stand looted in the Rs 50,000 crore scheme. This is a big fraud committed on the nation and we want strict action,? BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters outside Parliament.
He said the CAG report on farm loan waivers has come with hard evidences and ?evidence in the farm loan waiver is a very big thing.?
?The estimate is that there is a scam of more than Rs 10,000 crore in the Rs 52,000 crore loan waiver. In this scheme, more than 34 lakh farmers who were eligible for the waiver were not granted any concessions and 24 lakh ineligible farmers were given huge benefits of this loan waiver,? Javadekar alleged.
The spokesperson said the scheme was ?essentially skewed? because once even single instalment is repaid, one is not eligible for getting the waiver.
?That is why we see that Rs 60,000 crore have been distributed and farmers continue to die by hanging themselves and committing suicides,? he said.
Javadekar said in Delhi and Chandigarh, the loan waiver amount is more than in UP, Bihar and West Bengal put together.
?This is how the schemes are being manipulated by vested interests and this is the face of the UPA Government. We condemn it. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will look into it. But they owe answers. It is not just an irregularity. Thousands of crores cannot be given to ineligible people without somebody supporting or saying,? he said.
BJP leader Jaswant Singh said the scheme ?was an electoral game and its shortcomings were bound to get exposed. Yes, there have been irregularities but the point is Government?s money should not be spent to further the interest of political parties in elections.?
Asked if this was a failure of the system, the BJP leader said, ?Yes, it is but before that it is result of vitiated thoughts.?
(With inputs from agencies)
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Hannover might not be as famous as Hamburg (Beatles), Berlin (politics) or Frankfurt (erm, meat-based cuisine), but for one week in March, it's home to one of the world's biggest tech events. Unlike our jaunts to MWC and CES, we're never quite sure what weird and wonderful things we're likely to find at this Teutonic tradeshow, but we'll be sure to bring you something new and exciting. Even better, thanks to some corrupted Michel Thomas Method MP3s, we'll be getting by with what remains of our high school German, a nice smile and a heck of a lot of pointing -- so wish us luck.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has found alleged irregularities in the farm debt waiver scheme worth Rs 52,000 crore. In its report, the CAG deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008 under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore. 
