Weaver ants help flowers get the best pollinator

MOST flowers don't want pesky ants hanging around scaring away would-be pollinators. Not so the Singapore rhododendron - the first flower found to recruit ants to chase poor pollinators away. Francisco Gonzálvez at EEZA, the arid...

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Big plans to make comeback in post-crisis Dubai

DUBAI: Dubai is back in the business of unveiling mega projects, three years after a severe financial crisis crippled its booming property sector, but doubts still linger over finance and feasibility.Just as the economy in the glitzy city-state begins to look promising, despite a large debt burden dating back to the years when growth appeared endless, Dubai has once again set its sights...

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McAfee nabbed? His blog says maybe, following CNN interview

The bizarre real-life potboiler concerning on-the-lam antivirus-software pioneer John McAfee continued today, as -- following a cloak-and-dagger CNN interview with the fugitive -- McAfee's own blog posted an item saying he may have been captured at the Belize-Mexico border.The item, pictured above and reported earlier by news agency AFP, says little more than that and calls the report of the capture...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Wikileaks Case: Guards Deny Intimidating Manning

(Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images)Bradley Manning’s former guards testified today that they did not intimidate the man accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified cables to the anti-secrets website Wikileaks during  a Jan. 18, 2011 incident that resulted in Manning being placed on a temporary suicide risk watch.Manning’s attorneys cite the event as a key reason why his pre-trial...

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Today on New Scientist: 30 November 2012

Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon It had been thought that the canyon formed 6 million years ago, but now two geologists say it is actually closer to 70 million years oldSaturn's rings may double up as a moon factory A new model suggests Saturn's famous rings spawned the planet's moons. Could the mechanism explain the moons of Uranus, Neptune and even Earth?Gaming the future:...

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Macau triad boss "Broken Tooth" freed from jail

MACAU: A Macau triad boss known as "Broken Tooth" walked free from jail on Saturday after more than 14 years behind bars for heading a gang blamed for a string of murders and bombings in the former Portuguese colony.The release of Wan Kuok-koi has triggered tightened security in the world's biggest gaming hub, although experts say it is unlikely Macau will witness a return to the violence...

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Android-based Ouya game console shipping soon

Early birds get their hands on Ouya after December 28.(Credit:Ouya)Let the gamers,Android nuts, and open-source geeks rejoice -- the Ouya is shipping on time!Well, at least the developers' consoles are, that is. Ouya first garnered attention by raising more than $8.5 million on Kickstarter this summer to create an inexpensive, open-source, Android-based game system. Early supporters of the crowdfunding...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Could Outgoing Republicans Hold Keys to 'Cliff' Deal?

Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm AP Photo/Carolyn KasterThe outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”But there may be a glimmer...

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Projections of sea level rise are vast underestimates

Expect more water to lap at your shores. That's the take-home message from two studies out this week that look at the latest data on sea level rise due to climate change. The first shows that current projections for the end of the...

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Japan hails EU approval for free trade talks

TOKYO: Japan on Friday welcomed the green light given by the European Union to launching negotiations on a massive free trade agreement (FTA) between the two economies.The long-awaited move by EU trade ministers was hailed as particularly good news for Japanese automakers, who have struggled with the shrinking domestic market, a strong yen and a bitter island row with China."Acting on...

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Sprint tacks $10 charge on to iDEN subscribers not on CDMA

Sprint will begin charging Nextel iDEN customers who do not upgrade to Sprint's CDMA push-to-talk service an extra $10 a month starting in January.The move is apparently designed to encourage customers migrate from the iDEN network, which Sprint plans to shut down on June 30, 2013. The charge will not apply to CDMA customers."Customers that migrate prior to January will likely find a price plan comparable...

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

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Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.Today,...

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Today on New Scientist: 28 November 2012

Out-of-proportion black hole is a rare cosmic fossil A fairly small galaxy is host to a strangely enormous black hole, which could be a remnant of a quasar from the dawn of timeFlowing lithium atoms form accidental transistor A transistor that controls the flow of atoms, rather than electrons, could be used as a model to probe the mysterious electrical property of superconductivityEurope in...

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385 new HIV cases in S'pore between Jan & Oct

SINGAPORE: From January to October this year, 385 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were reported among Singapore residents, said the health ministry on Thursday.The Ministry of Health (MOH) expects the total number of notified HIV cases in 2012 to be similar to that of 2011, when there were 461 cases.In the first six months of this year, 215 new cases of HIV, which causes...

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Apple branches out with new campus in Santa Clara

Apple's proposed new headquarters would be able to fit all of its employees but has yet to be built.(Credit:Apple)As delays have hampered the construction of Apple's proposed upcoming spaceship-like headquarters, the tech giant has begun construction on a two-building campus in nearby Santa Clara, Calif., to house its overflow of employees, according to the Oakland Tribune. Apple agreed to lease...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Huge Jackpot Looms, but Can Money Buy Happiness?

Nov 28, 2012 1:02pm Can money buy happiness? If you’re clutching several Powerball tickets in one hand as you thumb through yacht and pony catalogs with the other, you’re probably betting yes.We’re all told the odds of winning are abysmal — about 1 in 175 million — but let’s assume you win the $500 million jackpot. Experts say the initial euphoria will wear off...

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Gas explosion in Springfield points to ageing pipes

Human error and corroded pipes were a catastrophic combination on 23 November when a natural gas explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts, injured 21 people and damaged more than 40 buildings. Gas company officials attributed the...

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Maldives defends scrapping India airport deal

COLOMBO: The Maldives defended Wednesday its controversial decision to terminate an airport management contract with an Indian firm, saying the deal was dogged by "legal, technical and economic issues".President Mohamed Waheed's government gave five days to GMR Group to leave after prematurely ending the 25-year lease of the nation's main international airport for a one-time fee of $78...

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Half of mobile phone users get online with their device

People are now using their cell phones for much more than talking. According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 85 percent of U.S. adults own a mobile phone and 56 percent of them use it to get online. "Fully 85 percent of American adults own a cell phone and now use the devices to do much more than make phone calls," Pew's Maeve Duggan and Lee Rainie wrote in the recently...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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Petraeus Scandal: Socialite Jill Kelley Fighting Back

Tampa socialite Jill Kelley is fighting back. Today, sources close to the woman who was caught in the media crossfire during the David Petraeus sex scandal have released new letters aimed at reclaiming her reputation.In a letter released to reporters by Jill Kelley's spokesperson, Kelley's attorney goes after a New York businessman who claimed Kelley was using her connections...

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