The fish that nearly sank Isaac Newton's career

The fish that nearly sank Isaac Newton's career - An intricate image of a flying fish is one of hundreds of images now searchable online courtesy of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science.

This striking wood engraving appeared in the 1686 text "Historia Piscium" or "The History of Fishes" by John Ray and Francis Willughby. Now mostly forgotten, the book was groundbreaking for its time. Unfortunately, "The History of Fishes" almost prevented another groundbreaking work from being published: Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy").

A seventeenth century engraving of a flying fish from John Ray and Francis Willughby's 1686 book Historia Piscium. The 300-year-old drawing of a flying fish that nearly scuttled Isaac Newton's world-changing opus on modern physics will be showcased in the Royal Society's online picture library. (AFP Photo/Richard Valencia)

The lavish engravings in "The History of Fishes" were so expensive to publish that they nearly bankrupted the young Royal Society, at that time only 26 years old. Short of cash, the Society had to rescind its promise to help pay for the production of Newton's masterpiece.

Fortunately for Newton (and for science), his "Principia" caught astronomer Edmond Halley's eye. Halley would be remembered mainly for computing the orbit of the comet that bears his name, but at the time he was a young Royal Society clerk. Halley took on the "Principia" as a personal project, raising funds (many from his own pocket) to get the work published in 1687. Newton's book included his three laws of motion, which along with his law of universal gravitation, was able to explain the orbits of planets. In fact, his book is still widely considered to be one of the most important scientific works of all time, covering physics and mathematics.

It might seem strange that the Royal Society nearly passed up Newton's work for a book about fish, but the scientific revolution was young, said Jonathan Ashmore, the chair of the Royal Society's library committee.

"Although the Principia may have gone on to achieve lasting fame and glory, we hope that visitors to our new online picture resource will be able to appreciate why early Fellows of the Royal Society were so impressed by Willughby's stunning illustrations of piscine natural history," Ashmore said in a statement.

The new picture library is the first time the Royal Society's image collections have been available online.

The picture library also includes Robert Hooke's 17th-century engravings of microscopic organisms, some of the first images drawn directly from a microscope. There are astronomical illustrations of Captain James Cook's voyages to Tahiti, portraits of various Royal Society scientists and even historical political cartoons satirizing science figures. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - The fish that nearly sank Isaac Newton's career

Was the Titanic Shipwrecked by a Celestial Alignment?

Was the Titanic Shipwrecked by a Celestial Alignment? - Is it possible the most famous shipwreck of recent history was due to an astrological phenomenon?

(A scale model of Titanic is displayed at the 'London Model Engineering Exhibition' at Alexander Palace on January 20, 2012 in London, England.)

Next month will mark 100 years since the Titanic struck a giant iceberg and sank in April of 1912, and scientists have a new theory of why the tragedy occurred.

The full moon a few months before, on Jan. 4, 1912, might have created unusually strong tides that pulled a bunch of icebergs south, according to Astronomers Texas State University. That particular full moon was actually a rare supermoon—which is when the moon is at its closest to earth—and the alignment of the moon and sun on opposite sides of earth created extra high and low tides.

Astronomers think the resulting so-called spring tides could have dislodged beached icebergs from the coasts of Canada’s Labrador and Newfoundland, pulling them into the Titanic’s path and making 1912 one of the worst seasons for icebergs on record.

Somebody call James Cameron and Leo DiCaprio—it’s time for a sequel. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Was the Titanic Shipwrecked by a Celestial Alignment?

What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon

What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon -- A century after the Titanic disaster, scientists have found an unexpected culprit of the crash: the moon.

Anyone who knows history or blockbuster movies knows that the cause of the ocean liner's accident 100 years ago next month was that it hit an iceberg.

"But the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist whose team of forensic astronomers examined the moon's role.

Ever since the Titanic sank in the early morning of April 15, 1912, killing 1,517 people, researchers have puzzled over Captain Edward Smith's seeming disregard of warnings that icebergs were in the area where the ship was sailing.

Smith was the most experienced captain in the White Star Line and had sailed the North Atlantic sea lanes on numerous occasions. He had been assigned to the maiden voyage of the Titanic because he was a knowledgeable and careful seaman.

Greenland icebergs of the type that the Titanic struck generally become stuck in the shallow waters off Labrador and Newfoundland, and cannot resume moving southward until they have melted enough to re-float or a high tide frees them, Olson said.

So how was it that such a large number of icebergs had floated so far south that they were in the shipping lanes well south of Newfoundland that night?

The team investigated speculation by the late oceanographer Fergus Wood that an unusually close approach by the moon in January 1912 may have produced such high tides that far more icebergs than usual managed to separate from Greenland, and floated, still fully grown, into shipping lanes that had been moved south that spring because of reports of icebergs.

Olson said a "once-in-many-lifetimes" event occurred on January 4, 1912, when the moon and sun lined up in such a way that their gravitational pulls enhanced each other. At the same time, the moon's closest approach to earth that January was the closest in 1,400 years, and the point of closest approach occurred within six minutes of the full moon. On top of that, the Earth's closest approach to the sun in a year had happened just the previous day.

"This configuration maximized the moon's tide-raising forces on the Earth's oceans," Olson said. "That's remarkable."

His research determined that to reach the shipping lanes by mid-April, the iceberg that the Titanic struck must have broken off from Greenland in January 1912. The high tide caused by the bizarre combination of astronomical events would have been enough to dislodge icebergs and give them enough buoyancy to reach the shipping lanes by April, he said.

Olson's team has sought to use tide patterns to determine exactly when Julius Caesar invaded Britain and prove the legend that Mary Shelley was inspired by a bright full moon shining through her window to write the gothic classic "Frankenstein."

The team's Titanic research may have vindicated Captain Smith - albeit a century too late - by showing that he had a good excuse to react so casually to a report of ice in the ship's path. He had no reason at the time to believe that the bergs he was facing were as numerous or as large as they turned out to be, Olson said.

"In astronomical terms, the odds of all these variables lining up in just the way they did was, well, astronomical," he said.

The research will appear in the April issue of "Sky & Telescope" magazine. ( Reuters )

READ MORE - What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon

Is Prostitution Really the World's Oldest Profession?

Is Prostitution Really the World's Oldest Profession? - Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “prostitute” and a “slut” on the air last week, enraging liberals and prompting many of his program’s advertisers to pull out. Prostitutes are often said to work in “the world’s oldest profession.” Is prostitution really the world’s oldest profession?

The Procuress, oil on canvas by Dirck van Baburen in 1622

It depends how you define it. Humans have exchanged money and goods for sex for thousands of years, and indeed it seems that any society that begins to develop material wealth soon develops some form of prostitution. The Bible depicts many Israelites as having large numbers of concubines, who could be viewed either as prostitutes or as wives of a lesser status. According to 1 Kings 11:3, King Solomon had “700 wives … and 300 concubines.” In ancient Rome, it seems you could hand over a token at a brothel in return for a specific sexual favor. However, the common image of prostitutes as a special group of outcasts walking the streets may not have arisen until the Victorian era, when health officials blamed them for the spread of venereal diseases. In the 21st century, prostitution occurs across cultures and political systems, even operating in socialist societies.

The originator of the phrase “the world’s oldest profession” was Rudyard Kipling. His 1888 story about a prostitute begins, “Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world.” As progressives debated how to deal with prostitution in the United States in the early 1900s, medical professionals soon began to cite (and misquote) Kipling, and the phrase took on a life of its own. Some wanted to do away with the vice and the many sexually transmitted infections that it spread. Their opponents in turn claimed fighting prostitution was worthless, because it was the world’s most ancient profession, and “you can’t change human nature.” Those who made this claim usually didn’t offer any historical evidence to support it: Christian progressives may have been thinking of the harlots and concubines depicted in some of the most ancient events of the Bible, while for others it was simply a figure of speech. By 1932 authors were naming their books after the idea, including physician William Josephus Robinson’s social and medical assessment The Oldest Profession in the World: Prostitution from 1929 and Joseph McCabe’s history The Story of the World’s Oldest Profession in 1932.

What does and does not constitute prostitution continues to be a subject of debate, but there's evidence that some kinds of animals engage in a form of prostitution. Female chimpanzees living in the Ivory Coast have been observed to trade sex for meat. In one experiment capuchin monkeys were taught to use silver discs as a sort of money (they could be redeemed for grapes), and it wasn’t long before one monkey exchanged one of the tokens for sex. Dr. Fiona Hunter, a researcher at Cambridge University, observed female penguins in Antarctica trading sex for stones and pebbles. Adélie penguins need rocks to build their nests, and some females—though they already had a mating partner—would have sex with a single male while away and then take some of his stones. While the females may have had other motives than gathering pebbles, Hunter noted that “stones are the valuable currency in penguin terms,” and penguins are usually very protective of them. Some penguins engaged in the behavior over and over, but she said, "It's probably only a few percent." ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Is Prostitution Really the World's Oldest Profession?

Was Osama Bin Laden Really Buried At Sea?

Was Osama Bin Laden Really Buried At Sea? - Osama Bin Laden was apparently buried in the waters of the north Arabian sea, but internal emails from intelligence service Stratfor, obtained by hacker group Anonymous and posted by WikiLeaks suggest otherwise.

According to official accounts, he was wrapped in a sheet and “eased” off the decks of the U.S.S Carl Vinson just hours after he was killed on May 2 in a United States-led operation, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

Was Osama Bin Laden Really Buried At Sea? WikiLeaks Emails Suggest Al Qaeda Chief's Body Was Flown To US Military Mortuary

But a leaked email from Stratfor vice president for intelligence Fred Burton, sent on 2 May 2011, at 5.26am states: “Reportedly, we took the body with us. Thank goodness.”

A subsequent email on the same day at 5.51am states: “Body bound for Dover, DE on CIA plane. Than (sic) onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda.”

US forces said Bin Laden was killed in a siege at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May 2011, just after 1am local time.

At 6.26am Burton wrote: “If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes. We would want to photograph, DNA, fingerprint, etc.

“His body is a crime scene and I don't see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”

The reference to Eichmann regards the cremation of the Nazi’s body following his capture, trial and execution, in order to prevent any memorial or shrine being built.

Stratfor CEO George Friedman appears to agree, noting: “Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which I doubt happened.”

By 1.36pm Burton writes again: “Body is Dover bound, should be here by now.”

The conversation takes a puzzling turn at 3.11pm, with Burton stating: “Down and dirty done, He already sleeps with the fish…”

A note adds: “It seems to me that by dropping the corpse in the ocean, the body will come back to haunt us… gotta be violating some sort of obscure heathen religious rule that will inflame islam?

"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX’s do, with OBL’s pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.”

The exchange casts a mystery over just what happened to the body of the Al Qaeda leader.

The thread of emails - under the heading The Global Intelligence Files - was published by WikiLeaks on 27 February 2012 and contains correspondence dated between July 2004 and late December 2011.

The site states: "They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency.

"The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods."

The New American reports: “The release of the Stratfor emails will likely revive the debate over just what happened to bin Laden’s body and consequently, whether or not US forces actually killed the terrorist mastermind in the first place.

“Secrecy prior to the raid is understandable; a refusal to produce the key piece of evidence that the raid was successful, on the other hand, is quite curious indeed."

According to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, a member of the military “read prepared religious remarks” that were translated into Arabic at the burial ceremony.

The lair where Bin Laden lived in secrecy before the alleged final stand off with US Commandoes was razed to the ground last month.

Bin Laden moved into the three-storey house in 2005 and lived there until it was stormed by Navy Seals in May 2011.

The house was located just half a mile from one of Pakistan’s top army training academies, which caused embarrassment for the country’s intelligence services, AP reported.

US officials say there was no evidence senior Pakistan officials were aware of Bin Laden’s location.

Residents living nearby told the Independent they had thought the building would be turned into a mosque, school or clinic.

Shah Mohammad said: “I think they should build a mosque. If you build a school there, people will just associate it with Bin Laden.”

A source had told the paper demolition was on the cards ahead of the event, adding: “There is an issue, in our culture, of such places becoming shrines.” ( huffingtonpost.co.uk )

READ MORE - Was Osama Bin Laden Really Buried At Sea?

'Super' salmon resist climate change better

'Super' salmon resist climate change better – Toughened by a punishing annual migration in western Canada, a special breed of sockeye salmon has proved better able to survive environmental change than other members of the species, a study said Thursday.

The Fraser River in British Columbia has more than 100 distinct populations of sockeye salmon, many of them so fine-tuned to their environment that even slight changes in water temperature, river flow or elevation change could spell disaster.

Sockeye salmon - This undated photo courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service shows sockeye salmon. According to new research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River are facing such critically warm water in the summer that populations will either have to adapt or die as climate change pushes temperatures even higher

"As climate change alters the conditions of the Fraser River watershed, our concern is that some populations may not be able to adapt to these changes quickly enough to survive," said Erika Eliason, the study's lead author.

But the Chilko salmon, named after a region of the river where they spawn, are proving more resilient than others, and Eliason and her colleagues at University of British Columbia believe it could be due to their harsher migration conditions.

"I like to call the Chilko population of sockeye 'Superfish,'" said Eliason, who explained they are conditioned by a migratory route that is extraordinarily difficult.

Eliason and colleagues studied eight sockeye populations for the study, which was published in the journal Science.

"This is the first large study examining how different populations of fish of the same species adapt to different environmental conditions during their annual migration," she said.

Scientists say the Fraser River, which runs some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles), has already warmed by almost two degrees Celsius since the 1950s, with the last 20 years among the warmest on record.

Millions of sockeye migrate up the Fraser to spawn each year, but the species has been in decline since the 1990s. There have been mass mortalities during migrations, when between 40 and 95 percent of some populations have died, according to UBC.

The sockeye populations follow exact migration routes that vary by distance, elevation, temperature and current strength. Some have it easy, but not the Chilko.

The Chilko must swim more than 650 kilometers (400 miles) upstream, gain a kilometer (0.6 miles) in elevation, and pass through an area known as Hell's Gate, where the river shoots through a passage just 35 meters (115 feet) wide.

They do all this at the height of summer in a heroic effort to reach a glacial lake, where they spawn.

To assess the salmon's abilities to cope with changing environmental conditions, the UBC team had fish from the eight population groups swim through a large tube designed to simulate Fraser river currents and water temperatures.

The scientists measured the heart rates and metabolism of the adult salmon as they did so.

They found that when water temperatures rose above an optimal level, the salmon's ability swim declined, probably as a result of a weakening of their cardiovascular systems.

But they also observed that the Chilko sockeye seemed physiologically less sensitive to the difference in temperature and other environmental change. The most sensitive was the Weaver sockeye.

Eliason said the Chilko were able to "swim at higher and a broader range of temperatures" compared to other sockeye in the river.

"We believe it has to do with how they've adapted to cope with their difficult migration." ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - 'Super' salmon resist climate change better

USGS finds 2,000-year-old coral near BP Gulf well

USGS finds 2,000-year-old coral near BP Gulf well – Federal scientists say they have dated coral living near the site of the busted BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico at 2,000 years old.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday it had determined the age of the black coral in the Gulf for the first time. Scientists had been studying the ancient slow-growing corals before BP's well blew out on April 20, 2010. The corals were found about 21 miles northeast of the BP well living 1,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf.

2010 photo provided by U.S. Geological Survey - A 2010 photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows 2- to-3-meter-tall orange colored, black coral trees (Leiopathes cf. glabberima) growing near Viosca Knoll in the Gulf of Mexico, which are among the oldest living organisms on Earth. For the first time, scientists have been able to validate the age of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico. They found the Gulf is home to 2,000 year-old deep-sea black corals, many of which are only a few feet tall. These slow-growing, long-living animals thrive in very deep waters—300 meters (984 feet) and deeper—yet scientists say they are sensitive to what is happening in the surface ocean as well as on the sea floor.

"They're extremely old and extremely slow-growing," said Nancy Prouty, a USGS scientist. "And there are big questions about their vulnerability and their ability for recovery."

Black corals feed on organic matter sinking to the sea floor and it could take decades, or even centuries, to recover from "a disturbance to these ecosystems," Prouty said.

She said scientists were looking at whether the ancient coral had been damaged by the BP oil spill, but the damage assessment had not been completed.

The location of the black coral is important because computer models and research cruises have mapped much of the deepwater oil moving to the southwest of the BP well, away from the black coral colony. Scientists have found dead coral southwest of the well.

However, Prouty said the surface oil slick was over the black coral colony during the spill.

BP's well leaked more than 200 million gallons of oil after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

Black corals, which resemble deep-sea bushes or trees, are found throughout the world and are an important marine habitat for fish and other forms of marine life. They grow very slowly — a human fingernail grows 2,000 times faster than black coral, USGS said.

Most of the Gulf's bottom is muddy and the coral colonies that pop up every once in a while are vital oases for marine life in the chilly ocean depths.

The USGS study was part of a larger federal survey of fragile reef ecosystems. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - USGS finds 2,000-year-old coral near BP Gulf well

Astronomers say they've found oldest galaxy so far

Astronomers say they've found oldest galaxy so far – Astronomers believe they've found the oldest thing they've ever seen in the universe: It's a galaxy far, far away from a time long, long ago.

Hidden in a Hubble Space Telescope photo released earlier this year is a small smudge of light that European astronomers now calculate is a galaxy from 13.1 billion years ago. That's a time when the universe was very young, just shy of 600 million years old. That would make it the earliest and most distant galaxy seen so far.

AP – In the center of this Jan. 5, 2010 NASA handout image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is a hard-to-see …

By now the galaxy is so ancient it probably doesn't exist in its earlier form and has already merged into bigger neighbors, said Matthew Lehnert of the Paris Observatory, lead author of the study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"We're looking at the universe when it was a 20th of its current age," said California Institute of Technology astronomy professor Richard Ellis, who wasn't part of the discovery team. "In human terms, we're looking at a 4-year-old boy in the life span of an adult."

While Ellis finds the basis for the study "pretty good," there have been other claims about the age of distant space objects that have not held up to scrutiny. And some experts have questions about this one. But even the skeptics praised the study as important and interesting.

The European astronomers calculated the age after 16 hours of observations from a telescope in Chile that looked at light signatures of cooling hydrogen gas.

Earlier this year, astronomers had made a general estimate of 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang for the most distant fuzzy points of light in the Hubble photograph, which was presented at an astronomy meeting back in January.

In the new study, researchers focused on a single galaxy in their analysis of hydrogen's light signature, further pinpointing the age. Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was the scientist behind the Hubble image, said it provides confirmation for the age using a different method, something he called amazing "for such faint objects."

The new galaxy doesn't have a name — just a series of letters and numbers. So Lehnert said he and colleagues have called it "the high red-shift blob. "Because it takes so long for the light to travel such a vast time and distance, astronomers are seeing what the galaxy looked like 13.1 billion years ago at a time when it was quite young — maybe even as young as 100 million years old — Lehnert said. It has very little of the carbon or metal that we see in more mature stars and is full of young, blue massive stars, he said.

What's most interesting to astronomers is that this finding fits with theories about when the first stars and galaxies were born. This galaxy would have formed not too soon after them.

"We're looking almost to the edge, almost within 100 million years of seeing the very first objects," Ellis said. "One hundred million years to a human seems an awful long time, but in astronomical time periods, that's nothing compared to the life of the stars." ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Astronomers say they've found oldest galaxy so far

Hottest sex variations

Hottest sex variations. When your relationship isn't a humdrum affair, then why should your sex life be dull and lifeless? There's more to a rocking sex life than just simple, great sex.

A marvelous sexual connection includes different kinds of sex, even the ones you haven't dared to experiment with perhaps. Check out the different kinds of love making acts you and your lover can indulge in for a night of passion.

There's more to a rocking sex life than just simple, great sex. (Getty Images)

Experimental sex

Couples in long-term relationship often opt for this kind of act as they miss the excitement and lust filled initial-days of their relationship. With time, a couple's love life loses its zing and to get it back one needs to try new things. "Try pushing the regular comfort zones. It may mean trying a new position or a new room in the house; you can even go for thrilling experiences like making love on the terrace or in the balcony or at some public place." explains Meera Wahi, married for last nine years.

Why to try : There's nothing like the moment when you're struggling for breath thinking, "That was amazing, we've never done that before." Experts suggest that no matter how long you've been in a relationship, you need to have an earth-shattering sexual experience every once in a while. What's more try pushing the boundaries, as this will heighten the trust between you two, create an exceptional comfort level and minimise the possibilities of casual flings outside the relationship. So, go ahead and clue in to Your partner's covert bedroom urges to transform the every-night mediocre sex to a mind-blowing encounter. You'll harvest the sensually gratifying perks too.

Necessary sex

Necessary sex can be explained as 'just-for-the-heck-of-it sex', which is vital for a long-term relationship to retain its sexual spark. These are your very special, intimate 'me-time' moments which relieve stress, burns calories and lift spirits. Supports Mihika, a 31-year-old, new mom, "As a new mom, I am tired most of the times. However, I make special effort to get going in the bed and this makes me feel closer to him. Even if the sex isn't that good, it feels like the relationship has become stronger."

Why to try : Necessary sex is all about decreasing sexual anxiety, accomplishing the Big O, and feeling good about your sexual prowess. Experts say that regular physical contact actually tunes the brain into the need to feel emotionally close. By making sex a regular habit, you can open new avenues of bonding as a couple. Moreover, doing it sometimes when you are not in the perfect mood can gear you up for something much hotter the next time around. And most importantly, don't forget how much a hit-the-roof orgasm does to keep your sex spark bright.

Bummer sex

Admit it, for it's something that's bound to happen. An awkward grunt, a stupid expression, somebody walking in unexpectedly or may be slipping down the bed, all of us can have these embarrassing moments that we would like to ideally forget. Akhil, a 27-year-old choreographer, recollects, "We'd been together since last one year. The last time we were having sex, her roommate just walked in. We didn't know what to say. Finally I said, 'Whoops!' and we laughed our heart out. The voyeurism added to the fire, needless to say."

Why to try : Don't fret about imperfect moments in your sex life; just rejoice and hold your lover tight. Your ability to deal with embarrassing situations reflects the strength of your relationship, say experts. Real understanding is about being able to feel at ease with each other in awkward circumstances as well. Emotional presence and trust is the biggest aphrodisiac of all and often provides the sexual thrill which can last a lifetime. React positively to embarrassing sexual mishaps and she will add funny, cute and smart to her mental list of reasons as to why she chooses to be intimate with you.

Vacation sex

A new, romantic locale often allows lovers to rediscover each another in a new light. Amidst trying different platters, adventure sports or checking out a variety of nightlife activities, every evening feels like a special date night. Vacation sexcapades act as a catalyst to reignite the passion in a relationship and make a couple feel more connected. "When on a vacation, you're at your most carefree best, which means you can try out new things you won't have to be accountable for at home. We went to Kerala on a friend's recommendation, and needless to say we had the best sex ever," shares Sidhartha, a 39-year-old business man.

Why to try : Something about leaving the laptop behind, turning the cell phone off and relaxing makes the sex better. Experts say that being in a totally alien environment sparks a sense of adventure and boldness in couples. All of this adds up to stimulating sex, which is more gratifying and more memorable than what couples have at home. Moreover, a vacation is the best place to get 'sexperimental'. When people encounter new experiences, dopamine spikes in the brain, eliciting a feeling of all encompassing lust. This is one of the reasons a vast majority of relationship counsellors recommend regular getaways as one of the things that can help strengthen your bond.

Make-up sex

There is nothing like engaging in a sexual reconciliation after a long, gut-wrenching argument. The quality of such sex is directly proportional to the amount of time spent apart; courtesy - the phenomenal release of emotions. "After all the screaming and blaming is over and we proceed towards reconciling, I fall in love with him all over again. This after-fight sex gives me the same kick as that 'beginning sex' when we first meet. All of that anger is released into passion and it's like we just want to tear down the place," admits Mehul, who's been married for seven years.

Why to try : Experts believe that make-up sex is a quick and effective way to get rid of the frustrations from a past argument. Also, it gives women the opportunity to be sexually aggressive, which might be a welcome change. This kind of sex is overloaded with passion because you have the rush of very intense emotions, from anger to joy. And when you're intimate like that, you're likely to have a strong orgasm, which releases Oxytocin, the bonding hormone which creates a physiological bonding mechanism between you and your beau.

Solace sex

If you are feeling miserable, dejected, anguished or lonely, sex can be the perfect remedy. Soothing sex is more emotional, more engaging and possibly more expressive than the usual act, because the desire to connect to life is enormous. You concentrate on cuddling and affection, rather than on climaxing. Diksha Ramani shares her experience, "My husband lost his mom and my brother was going though a cancer ordeal. In those times, we resorted to sex. It just distracted us from all our problems and reiterated the fact that we are there for each other. It was like a life-asserting act in the face of grief."

Why to try : Research points out towards the fact that those who can count on their partners to be there for them emotionally have sex more often and enjoy it all the more. Experts say that making each other feel loved and cared for is the most powerful way to bring the psychological and physical elements of your Realtionship together. Solace sex intensifies your bond with your lover and makes lovemaking a great source of eroticism and ecstasy. Such consoling acts may not necessarily be exciting, but it makes you feel very good and lifts up your dampened spirits. Moreover, when people feel safe with each other, they can also deal with their differences and problems effortlessly.

Supersensual Sex

With sensual sex, it's not only about where you and Your partner are going, but the process that gets you there. Remember that women aren't the only ones who desire slow-burn sexual intimacy. So whenever you have the gift of time, indulge in expressive lovemaking, which can be a blissful surprise and act like a relationship booster. "Knowing that he cares enough to love me for hours makes me feel very good. At that time, I feel as if I am his one and only priority. And trust me, such emotional benefits do have long-lasting effects," says Ridhima.

Why to try : Experts believe that supersensual sex is an extension of selfless love, which fulfills, satisfies, and helps couples bonds. This is when emotional candidness and sensitivity, affectionate touches and erotic exploration all unite. The key requirement here is not crazy sexual techniques, but a safe emotional acquaintance. Moreover, your bond in general feels more cherished when you turn the bedroom into a place which is not just about sexual sensations. The safer we feel emotionally, the more we can communicate, express our needs, play and explore our responses, and relax into sexual feelings.

Do not bind your experiences to the standard fare, when there's a whole sensual world out there for you both to explore. After all, spicing up your sex routine can bring the much-required mystery and adventure to your love life, and keep it grooving. ( indiatimes.com )

READ MORE - Hottest sex variations

Which is better for the planet, beer or wine?

Drink Responsibly. Which is better for the planet, beer or wine?. I'm hosting a dinner party next week, and I'll be serving both beer and wine alongside the meal. But it got me wondering: Which has the lower carbon footprint? Beer has to be kept refrigerated, which requires energy, but shipping wine in those heavy bottles can't be good for the planet, either.

It's hard to come up with a simple answer for this one, because so many factors affect the calculation: Where was your beverage made? What's it packaged in, and how did that package get to you? How was it stored at the point of sale? Accounting for all these variables can make your head spin, but the best available research suggests that parsing out the difference might not be worth the headache.

In 2007, an analyst for the U.K.-based Food Climate Research Network attempted to tally up the nation's alcohol consumption-related emissions. Across the three categories considered—beer, wine, and spirits—the research didn't find any significant differences in greenhouse gas intensity. Wine came out with "marginally lower" greenhouse gas output than beer, though the author stressed that the tiny differences calculated—about 10 grams of carbon-dioxide equivalent per unit of alcohol—were well within the margin of error for the data. (One unit of alcohol represents about a half-pint of ordinary strength beer or half a glass of white wine.)

American drinking habits differ in some key ways from those of our friends across the pond, though. For example, Brits drink most of their beer in public establishments, whereas we tend to indulge at home. And while virtually all their wine is imported—roughly half of it traveling long distances by sea—about two-thirds of the wine we drink is produced domestically, mostly in California. Still, until someone undertakes a similarly comprehensive study on booze and the environment in the United States, the British data may be the best we're going to find. So you might as well stick with your preferred tipple and then strive to make the greenest choices in that category.

When it comes to beer, the Lantern has already weighed in on bottles versus cans: If your beer is brewed close to home and your town has a good recycling program, choose glass; if it comes from far away, stick with aluminum. A pulled pint of draught beer will always be the greenest choice.

A recent carbon footprint analysis of Fat Tire Amber Ale highlights a few other areas that deserve attention. Producing and assembling the ingredients—malt, hops, water, and fizzy CO2 bubbles—created 678 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, or about 21 percent of the total footprint for a bottled six-pack. A significant chunk of that—244 grams—comes from the production of synthetic fertilizers for the barley and related soil emissions, so the authors suggest that switching to organic barley could make a considerable impact. (Keep in mind, though, that making a special car trip to purchase hard-to-find, earth-friendly brews might negate any upstream CO2 savings.) In Denmark, one company now brews with unmalted barley, which they claim reduces its beer's emissions by 8 percent.

Refrigeration, both in the store and at home, represented another third of Fat Tire's footprint. All things being equal, then, beers that don't need to be refrigerated—like strong beers and standard ales—should have a lower footprint than lighter beers that are best kept cold.

OK, so how about choosing a greener Chardonnay or Merlot?

First, check how it's stoppered. Though oenophiles are constantly debating the performance merits of natural corks, synthetic corks, and aluminum screw-tops, the World Wildlife Fund wants consumers to go natural, arguing that the commercial investment helps preserve threatened forests and their attendant ecosystems. (Harvesting cork doesn't require cutting down trees, just stripping off the outer bark.) Natural cork stoppers should also be less energy-intensive to manufacture than plastic or metal closures.

Food miles are probably a more important consideration for wine, since the bottles themselves are heavy—between a quarter and a half of the weight of a given case—and can travel a long way from the vineyard to your dinner table. The British study estimates that about 35 percent of wine's emissions stem from distribution.

But distance is only part of the equation; the mode of transport matters, too. For example, a recent study (PDF) by wine expert Tyler Colman and sustainability engineer Pablo Päster has gotten a lot of attention for proposing that people living east of an imaginary "green line"—which runs roughly through Kansas—would be better off buying wine sent by container ship from Bordeaux, France, then trucked to its final destination, than wine trucked all the way from Napa, Calif. That's due to the fact that container ships are generally considered cleaner modes of transport, which makes up for the longer journey. By the same token, shipping by rail rather than truck would push the green line eastward. (Colman and Päster's study focuses on transportation impacts and doesn't account for regional differences in viniculture or efficiency measures at the winery.)

In any case, one of the easiest, most straightforward things you can do is look for wine that comes in lighter and larger packages, wherever it originated. Some wineries, for example, ship their libations in bulk containers, to be bottled closer to the point of consumption. Others are reducing the amount of glass in their bottles—a practice known as "lightweighting." TetraPaks—those plastic- and metal-lined paper containers that soup and soy milk come in—get green points for being less energy-intensive to make and ship, though they lose a few for not being easily recyclable.

Finally, there's the much maligned wine-in-a-box, which is actually a vacuum-sealed plastic bag inside a cardboard container. It has all the benefits of TetraPaks as well as a more promising afterlife, since the cardboard can be recycled. (The plastic, though, is probably headed for the landfill.) Plus, once the box is opened, the wine inside stays drinkable for much longer than it would in a bottle. So if you want to lessen the impacts of your drinking, get ready to swallow your pride, as well. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Which is better for the planet, beer or wine?

Is the ozone layer still at risk?

Is the ozone layer still at risk?. What Ever Happened to the Ozone Layer?. Is there still a hole in it?. Last month, you updated us on the status of acid rain. That got me thinking about another environmental scourge of the 1980s—the hole in the ozone layer. What ever happened to that?

Is the ozone layer still at risk?

It's still a problem. As of a few weeks ago, the "hole"—which isn't so much a gap in the ozone layer as an area of seasonal thinning—is even bigger than it was at the height of the ozone panic in the 1980s. (At the moment, it spans a patch of sky almost the size of North America.) That said, the ozone layer is in much better shape today than it would have been had the world not taken decisive action 20 years ago. It's just that the damage we did in the old days is going to take a long time to heal.

You might remember that ozone gas—made from triplets of oxygen atoms—helps shield us from the sun's harmful UV-B rays. Most of it is in the lower stratosphere, roughly six to 30 miles above the Earth's surface, where it's created naturally by the interaction of sunlight and regular oxygen. Other gases, particularly those containing chlorine or bromine, can make ozone molecules break apart. Starting in the 1970s, scientists suspected that the widespread use of industrial chemicals might be putting additional chlorine and bromine into the stratosphere. In particular, researchers worried about the chlorofluorocarbons used in fridges, air conditioners, and aerosol spray cans and the halon gases used in fire extinguishers. (Human technology also creates some ozone, but that stuff tends to stay close to the ground, where it causes a range of health issues.)

By the mid-1980s, researchers knew that ozone concentrations were decreasing around the world, threatening humans with an increased incidence of skin cancer and eye cataracts and endangering plants and other kinds of animals. In 1985, following several years of U.N.-sponsored meetings, 21 nations formally agreed to cooperate on researching and monitoring the issue. It came to a head two months later, however, when a team of British researchers showed that a huge "hole" had appeared in the ozone layer above the Antarctic. What had been a predicament now started to seem like an emergency.

By 1987, 24 nations had ratified the Montreal Protocol (PDF), a landmark agreement that calls for a ban on producing and using nearly 100 of the most important ozone-depleting chemicals. As of this month, with the addition of East Timor, the protocol has been ratified by every member of the United Nations.

Ninety-seven percent of the substances regulated under the Montreal Protocol have now been phased out and replaced in manufacturing with more ozone-friendly alternatives, like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The remaining gases will be phased out globally by 2040. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, enactment of the protocol has prevented some 20 million cases of skin cancer and 130 million cases of eye cataracts. Since many ozone-depleting substances are also greenhouse gases (PDF), the treaty has also helped with global warming: A 2007 paper estimated that over the past 20 years, the protocol has prevented the emission of 10.7 to 13.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.

Even so, it's going to take several decades for the Antarctic hole to close up for good. That's because the ozone-depleting gases we emitted before the Montreal Protocol are still floating around the stratosphere or making their way in that direction. Some of these gases can circulate for a century before their molecules break apart or air currents remove them from the sky.

While we're waiting for the ozone layer to heal itself, a few new wrinkles have appeared in the story. Last month, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a paper showing that nitrous oxide—which isn't now regulated under the Montreal Protocol—is on its way to becoming the leading destroyer of ozone. It turns out that the chlorine in some of the other, more prominent ozone-depleting gases—like CFCs—dampens the effects of nitrous oxide in the stratosphere. Now that their levels are decreasing, N₂O is free to do more damage on its own. (As the Lantern has noted before, nitrous oxide is also an important greenhouse gas.)

Meanwhile, fixing the hole in the ozone layer may end up worsening some other environmental problems. The hydrofluorocarbons we use in place of many CFCs don't contribute to ozone depletion, but some of them have thousands of times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Given the projected boom in usage in the developing world—thanks to a growing appetite for refrigerators and air conditioners—these chemicals may end up being a major contributor to climate change. (Researchers estimate that HFCs could be one-fifth as problematic as carbon dioxide by the year 2050.) Earlier this month, the United States, Canada, and Mexico issued a joint proposal for a "phase down" in HFCs, which can be replaced in some applications with more eco-friendly options, like carbon dioxide, ammonia, or HFCs with lower global-warming potential. In November, the signatories of the Montreal Protocol will hold their annual meeting in Egypt, so we should hear more on this topic in the next few months. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Is the ozone layer still at risk?

Six Love Talks That Bring You Closer

Six Love Talks That Bring You Closer. Maya and Jack had ten years together, but they didn't have these soul-baring conversations until the last days of his life. Take a moment to read their story, and then be inspired by them to have these honest talks with the person you love, now.

Maya and Jack didn't have these soul-baring conversations until the last days of his life. Start them now, she says, with someone you love.

At first it sounds like a movie cliché: Jack and I met at a wedding where I caught the bouquet. I'd noticed him the minute he walked in, so when he asked me to dance, I was giddy. After one song, I felt like I'd known him my whole life.

But on our second date, Jack pulled some pills out of a vial on his key chain and said that he had a liver disease. At 15 he had been told he'd live a year, but at 27, after lots of medicine and procedures, he was healthy, playing racquetball, mountain climbing … and having dinner with me. I thought I could handle it. I was just 19 and didn't grasp how serious his condition was. I did know pretty fast, though, that we were serious. As we dated and got close, I could imagine being with him forever.

Eventually the liver infections came back, and within five years we got news from his doctors: Jack would need a transplant to live — and, said Jack, to get married. He didn't want to propose with a bad liver. He couldn't bear leaving me behind.

Finally, on July 2, 2005, Jack had his transplant. But the surgery didn't have the happy outcome we'd hoped for. The doctors found gallbladder cancer. Still, seven months later, at sunrise on a beach near the hospital, Jack got down on one knee and proposed. He was so bloated from chemo-induced kidney failure that I had to help him get back up. But I had no doubts. However long I could, I wanted to be his wife. A few weeks later, after a session of dialysis (to celebrate, the clinic staff sang the wedding march: "Dah dum dah dum …"), we eloped.

Our hope for a full future lasted not quite three years. Then things went bad. Every medical complication you could get, Jack got. Finally, together we made the decision to stop chemo and begin hospice care at home in August 2008. One night in his last couple of weeks, I said to Jack, "What do you want to talk about? What do you want to say to me?" That's when our amazing nightly talks started. We shared it all, things we'd never brought up in our 10 years together. Jack died on September 21, 2008, but I can say I have no regrets. Well, that's not entirely true. I wish we'd talked about all these things sooner. So I beg of you, talk about the tough subjects. In honor of my Jack, when you're with someone you love, ask each other these questions:

1. What did you really think when you first met me?

After we danced at that wedding, we were walking in an alley by the restaurant, and Jack said, "Oh, look — a shooting star!" We stopped and gazed at it silently. All those years later, Jack said, "I never told you what I wished for. What I wished was, 'I wish she were mine'." He'd never told me that. Life's too short — why not say what's in your heart?

2. Do you belive in God?

We'd never really talked about religion. Jack's parents are Jewish and Catholic, but he wasn't raised as either. I'm Catholic but didn't want to push that on him. In our last weeks together, we asked each other: Where am I going? What is my life about? What about my soul? At Jack's request, a priest even came to do a blessing and, eventually, last rites. I think it was a real comfort for him.

Just as Jack found faith, I now believe that energy is all around us. While Jack was sick, for instance, we would talk by walkie-talkie when he was in bed and I was in the kitchen. He died at 10:00 A.M. on a Sunday, and from noon on, that walkie-talkie made static noises, like it did when he would talk to me. I still get chills. I know it sounds a little crazy, but I absolutely think Jack was letting me know he was there.

3. What little things do you love about each other?

In his last weeks, Jack kept a journal. He wrote, "When we played Rock Band, I loved how something so simple could make you so happy." I had no idea! My "little thing" was a baby photo I'd seen of Jack in his playpen, laughing. Whenever he'd laugh a really deep belly laugh, he looked just like that. It warmed my heart, and I told him so. Let each other in on the secret moments you cherish.

4. What was missing whe you were growing up?

We'd talked about our families before, of course, but in the end, we spoke a lot about what we didn't get growing up, and what we hoped we had provided each other. Jack, for example, wished he'd gotten more spoken "I love yous," so I gave that to him. Through the years, my mother and I faced economic struggles, so Jack did everything he could to make me feel safe financially.

5. What would you change about each other?

Jack knew that I'd always had a type-A personality, so he had to teach me it's OK to relax and enjoy life. Over the years, he got me to try skiing, kayaking, even snorkeling in Hawaii! But in those last two weeks, I think Jack worried that, without him, I wouldn't keep trying new things. Jack said to me, "I want you to be more adventurous. I want even more for you." As a tribute to him, I've parasailed and am about to go to Tuscany with a girlfriend. And a few months after Jack's death, I went to the Bahamas with another girlfriend — a trip he had actually planned for me, saying, "I think it's something you'll need to do."

6. What are your greatest fears?

I don't mean if you're scared of bugs or heights; I mean the real things. Jack, for instance, wasn't afraid of dying. He was more scared of what would happen to me afterward — that I'd fall into a bad relationship or drink too much or maybe even want to end my life. Most of all, though, he said, "I'm afraid of leaving you."

I then shared my biggest fear, which was having to move forward and have a life after him. I was very candid with Jack about this, about not wanting to marry again. My mom said, "You're too honest. You have to stop upsetting him." But I had to tell him the truth. And Jack gave me the greatest gift. He said, "I want you to meet someone and have the family we couldn't." And as painful as it was for me to hear those things, I'm now so glad he told me that. I know that when I'm ready, I'll just say, "Jack, send me someone to love."

On the first anniversary of Jack's death, I visited the cemetery rose garden where I'd scattered some of his ashes. I brought some flowers, sat down and talked to him for a while. The hardest part, still, is when I want to tell him something and he's not there. So please, for me — for Jack — if you feel it, say it. Don't ever waste that chance. ( msn.com )

READ MORE - Six Love Talks That Bring You Closer

'Manscaping' - 3 Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Hair

'Manscaping' - 3 Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Hair. More men are taking steps to rid themselves of unwanted hair. There was a time, back in the 1970s, when a hairy chest and a few gold chains were all the rage in men’s fashion.

But the birth of “metrosexuality” over the past decade has men striving for a “smoother” look, paving the way for a movement called “manscaping.”

Men have been going for facials, manicures and pedicures -- grooming procedures once limited to women. And one of the more recent trends involves the removal of unwanted hair, mostly on the chest and back.

iStock

Some men try shaving the unwanted hair off, but quickly tire of the daily requirements of shaving and soon head to the salon to seek out alternatives.

“Men have been coming in for facials for a while, but I would say it’s really the last 10 years that men have been doing hair removal,” said Shizuka Bernstein, owner of Shizuka New York Day Spa in Manhattan. “The most popular area is the back, but some men also want the chest done.”

There are three approaches to hair removal that men can pursue:

— Waxing. This involves spreading hot wax across the area in which a person wants the hair removed. An aesthetician then begins removing the wax, and hair, by sticking muslin epilating strips to the wax and ripping them off in a quick motion. Warning: The first time can be painful, but the pain will lessen over time as the skin toughens to the process. Some men, especially those prone to acne, eczema and other skin conditions, may experience an allergic reaction to waxing, so it's best to start off with a small area to see how the skin responds.

Waxing is the cheapest of hair removal procedures, but it is not permanent and spa clients will have to undergo the procedure on a monthly basis -- if they want the hairless look year-round. Other men may opt to undergo the procedure only during the summer, when they are most likely to be shirtless. The cost varies by region and size of the area being waxed -- a back waxing runs about $90 a pop in the New York City area, Bernstein said.

— Laser Hair Removal. Intense pulsed light (IPL) laser hair removal is a permanent hair removal procedure, which uses heat to destroy the hair shaft or root of the hair. But not everyone is a good candidate for this procedure, Bernstein said. The best candidates have dark hair and light skin, because lasers have a harder time "picking up" light hair, and darker skin can be permanently discolored by the heat of the laser. Several treatments are required to permanently destroy the hair shaft.

“It usually takes four or five treatments and it will become thinner and lighter overtime,” said Bernstein. “Once the hair becomes lighter, it will become harder to remove. … But most men, unless they are professional weightlifters or something like that, are happy with 70-80 percent hair removal.”

The cost of laser hair removal also varies by region and state, as well as by the size of the area being worked on. Shizuka Day Spa charges $500 a session for full backs, $300 for the upper back only and $400 for the chest.

— Electrolysis. Electrolysis is a permanent, but tedious, hair removal process that involves inserting a needle into the hair shaft to destroy the hair using heat. In some cases, aestheticians use various chemicals to destroy the shaft. It’s a long process that can take several hours on a surface as large as a back, Bernstein said. Men will need several electrolysis procedures to achieve permanent hair removal, much like with laser hair removal.

Bernstein said the majority of her customers opt to use a laser for permanent hair removal and follow up with electrolysis for any hairs the laser does not pick up. This saves both time and money.

Bernstein charges $40 for every 15 minutes of electrolysis. She said using electrolysis alone to remove hair on a back may take 3-4 hours, meaning the procedure could run as high as $480 to $640 per session. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - 'Manscaping' - 3 Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Hair

Homeless brothers in line to inherit billions

Homeless brothers in line to inherit billions. Hungarian cave-dwellers could split grandmother's $6.6 billion fortune - Talk about a reversal of fortunes.

Two brothers who are so poor they live in a cave on the outskirts of Budapest and get by selling scavenged junk are in line to receive a $6.6 billion inheritance from a long-lost grandmother, the U.K. Daily Telegraph reports.

Zsolt and Geza Peladi have been informed that they are entitled to the fortune, along with a sister who lives in the United States, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

Charity workers in Hungary passed on the good news to the brothers after being contacted by lawyers handling the estate of their maternal grandmother, who died recently in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, the Telegraph said.

“We knew our mother came from a wealthy family but she was a difficult person and severed ties with them, and then later abandoned us and we lost touch with her and our father until she eventually died,” Geza Peladi, 43, was quoted as saying by ATV television in Hungary.

“If this all works out it will certainly make up for the life we have had until now — all we really had was each other — no women would look at us living in a cave,” said Geza Peladi.

“But with money, maybe we can find a partner and finally have a normal life. We don’t know yet if she even told our grandmother about us. I understand it was only while they were carrying out genealogical research that lawyers found we existed.”

Under German law, direct descendants are automatically entitled to a share of any estate. As the grandmother’s daughter is dead, the money goes to her grandchildren.

The brothers said they are trying to track down their mother's death certificate to prove relation to their grandmother before traveling to Germany to claim the fortune. The newspaper report didn’t say how the grandmother, whose name was not made public, amassed the fortune. ( masn.com )

READ MORE - Homeless brothers in line to inherit billions

Beauty is all in the eyes and the genes

Beauty is all in the eyes and the genes. It's a question many women ask ... will they look like their mothers when they get older. Now science has provided the answer ... they will.

Plastic surgeons have used new technology to study the ageing process.

For the first time, surgeons in the US used 3D photographic images to quantify the differences in 29 pairs of mothers and daughters who were perceived as similar.

They looked at the periorbital region, around the eyes, and found the ageing process can start in women in their 20s.

The eyes have it, research shows / Reuters

"This is one of the most apparent regions and challenging areas for plastic surgeons," Dr Subhas Gupta, who conducted the research, said.

"Our study revealed a consistent pattern of volume loss in specific regions of the lower eyelid that makes planning rejuvenation more predictable."

Mothers and daughters have the same skeletal and cellular makeup which is why surgeons can study where the changes occur.

Amanda Masters, 34, is not worried if she looks like her mother Joy Whiting, 64, when she gets older.

"I have always thought mum has great skin and I hope it carries through," Mrs Masters of Port Macquarie said.

"Even my grandmother, before she passed away, she looked good. It's in the genes. Hopefully I have them."

Eyelid surgery is fourth most common plastic surgery procedure in the US.

Australian plastic surgeons yesterday said the figures would be true here.

"People are coming up with new technologies to define what it is that makes someone look aged," plastic surgeon Dr Jeremy Hunt said.

"This study compares mothers and daughters purely because they have the same skeletal and cellular make up and we can see the changes over time in the aging process. This supports the trend in using injectable fillers in anti-ageing treatments."

Other popular procedures in Australia include breast augmentation, rhinoplasty and liposuction. / news.com.au

READ MORE - Beauty is all in the eyes and the genes

Satanist uses MySpace to feed desire for teen girls

Satanist uses MySpace to feed desire for teen girls. A Satanist obsessed with teenage schoolgirls invented a fake gothic society online to groom them for sex in the grounds of Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery.

Daniel William Peckham, 24, lured at least three girls, aged from 13 to 17, into the cemetery on his MySpace blog, "Rookwood Gothic Society".

A message on the site read: "If you have hang-ups about getting naked ... you are not welcome."

Peckham pleaded guilty yesterday to the aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl and to using the internet to solicit and transmit naked pictures of young girls between 2005 and 2007.

The opening day of his sentencing hearing in the District Court heard after he was charged he continued to send letters from jail to girls he met through the blog.

Extracts from the letters and journals Peckham has kept in prison were read to the court by Crown Prosecutor Bruce Levet to show his preoccupation with young girls had not changed.

"I like schoolgirls, they excite me," he wrote in one journal entry. "I'm going to turn Sydney into a big underage gang bang."

In a letter, he wrote he would "do the Devil's work until the day I die" and "keep luring young girls into Satan's loving embrace of carnal delights".

Psychiatrist Michael Diamond said Peckham's drive to obtain access to young girls had been "the core of his existence". / news.com.au

READ MORE - Satanist uses MySpace to feed desire for teen girls

Hobbit and dementia reseachers win top science gong at The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards

Hobbit and dementia reseachers win top science gong at The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. Undravelling the mystery of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans and discovering ways to prevent dementia have helped two Sydney researchers win one of Australia's top science gongs.

Dr Michael Valenzuela and Dr Kira Westaway were jointly named most outstanding scientist for NSW/ACT at The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.

The pair received a medal and $1500 at a gala event in Sydney last night, while 16 others were also awarded for their research in areas covering climate change, skin cancer, obesity and body tissue engineering.

The awards, now in their 10th year, recognise high achievers in the early stage of their careers making major breakthroughs across all scientific fields.

Dr Westaway, an archaeologist at Macquarie university who uses bone evidence to unravel the lives of early humans, was awarded for her research into the "hobbit" Homo floresiensis beings.

For the past five years she has pieced together evidence suggesting the small skeleton, found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004, belonged to a new species of human.

"There was a lot of controversy when we first came out and said that," she said.

"A lot of people couldn't accept it because it challenged everything we knew to be human.

The homo floresiensis bones have been dismissed as the remains of a sick human or near-human impacted by environmental factors.

But Dr Westaway concluded the 18,000-year-old bones did not share an immediate ancestor with modern humans.

"We have evidence they were living in the cave site for about 80,000 years, so it can't be a human with a disease that made it small," she said.

"We have slowly tried to build our case and I think people are finally coming over to our side, and it's very rewarding."

Dr Valenzuela's work at the University of NSW centres on the human brain and discovering ways of preventing dementia.

"We found more mental activity leads to a protective affect on a specific part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is the memory centre," he said.

"So if you can cultivate a cognitive lifestyle - or keep mentally active - you will reduce the risk of dementia."

There are no hard and fast rules, but anything from learning to dance, to practising Tai Chi

"Or any hobbies that have a mental, physical and a social component will do it", he said.

As part of their awards, the 18 scientists will spend the next year sharing their knowledge with school students, teachers and the broader community to help promote science. or travelling to a foreign country will pass the test. / news.com.au

READ MORE - Hobbit and dementia reseachers win top science gong at The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards