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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 22 May 2012

32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found In Siberian Ice - oldest viable multicellular living organism -

32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found In Siberian Ice - oldest viable multicellular living organism - 
32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit



Researchers in Russia have revived a fertile plant from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice.
The resurrected plant, from an era of woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats, is the oldest viable multicellular living organism, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is also the first plant returned to life from permafrost conditions, researchers said.
Enlarge image 
A narrow-leaf campion, revived from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice. Photographer: Svetlana Yashina via Bloomberg
The discovery raises the possibility of reviving other frozen organisms with prehistoric gene pools, researchers said. Using a horticulture technique called micropropagation, researchers grew the plant from fruit tissue in a test tube of nutrients. The ones that grew roots were transferred into pots with soil and light, where they developed flowers and seeds.
“There is abundant permafrost in northern Alaska and Canada,” said Buford Price, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who edited the paper, in an e-mail. Finding an organism that could produce a plant with dark green leaves and small white flowers shows the benefit of pursuing goals that seem impossible, he said.
Price said he expects the researchers to “get increased funding levels to expand this work, going deeper and looking at other likely locations of animal burrows where plants were stashed.”
The fruit was found preserved 124 feet (38 meters) deep in permafrost, ice at below-freezing temperatures that hadn’t melted or been disturbed since the late Pleistocene epoch. The ancient burrows can store as many as 800,000 seeds, the report said.


Read more -
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/32-000-year-old-plant-reborn-from-ancient-fruit-found-in-siberian-ice.html?cmpid=otbrn.sustain.story

Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser -

Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser - 




Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer last week as the world’s most used Web browser, according to a statistic released Monday.


The Google Web browser received more usage than Microsoft’s browser during the week of May 14 to May 20, marking the first time Chrome has received the highest traffic for a full seven days.


Chrome is now ahead of Internet Explorer, with Firefox in third place and Apple’s Safari a distant fourth, according to the website StatCounter.


Google would not address the statistic from StatCounter directly, but the company did put out a statement.


“It’s great to see more and more people around the world experiencing the speed, simplicity and security of Chrome,” a spokesperson for the company said in an email. “We continue to remain focused on building a better browsing experience so that people can enjoy a better web.”


But while Chrome is finally No. 1 worldwide, there are still certain regions on the planet where Internet Explorer holds the title.


In the United States, Chrome was still in second place, and that held true to a dramatic degree in some countries like Japan and China, as noted by The Verge.


However, the opposite held true in other countries and regions. In India, Chrome is the most used while Internet Explorer falls to third place, and in South America, Chrome brings in almost half of all Web traffic.


All in all, this is good news for Google because while browsers themselves do not make money, ad clicks from their search queries do. With more people using Chrome now, Google can rest assured its search engine is the default for most Web surfers.


Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1182385--google-chrome-becomes-most-used-web-browser

Does Facebook Wreck Marriages? - 1 in 3 divorce filings contain word 'FACEBOOK'... -

Does Facebook Wreck Marriages? - 1 in 3 divorce filings contain word 'FACEBOOK'... - 




Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his status to “married” Saturday and received over one million “likes” from his followers. But the site he founded isn’t always so marriage-friendly.  In fact, lawyers say the social network contributes to an increasing number of marriage breakups.




More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a  legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they’ve seen a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time,” says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.


“Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,” says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book “Facebook and Your Marriage” with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. “On Facebook,” he says, “they happen in just a few clicks.” The social network is different from most social networks or dating sites in that it both re-connects old flames and allows people to “friend” someone they may only met once in passing. “It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair,” he says. Facebook declined to comment.



Even when extra-marital affairs develop with no help from Facebook, experts say the site provides a deceptively comfortable forum for people to let off steam about their lives and inadvertently arouse the suspicions of spouses. “The difference with Facebook is it feels safe, innocent and private,” says Randy Kessler, an Atlanta, Ga.-based lawyer and current chair of the family law section of the American Bar Association. (See Facebook and Divorce Discussed in WSJ.) “People put an enormous amount of incriminating stuff out there voluntarily.” It could be something as innocuous as a check-in at a restaurant, he says, or a photograph posted online.


When couples do end up in divorce court, lawyers say Facebook posts are used to determine alimony and child custody. Last year, a superior district court judge in Connecticut ordered a divorcing couple to hand over the passwords of their respective Facebook to the other’s lawyers. Kessler says it’s an extremely useful vehicle to gather evidence. “It helps me cross-examine a witness,” he says. Any pattern of behavior that’s recorded on Facebook relating to parenting skills, excessive partying or even disparaging remarks about a spouse that violates a court order could be admissible in court. Of course, it’s not Facebook’s fault it’s being dragged through divorce court, he says, “It’s the people who use it.”


Read more - 
http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/05/21/does-facebook-wreck-marriages/