Attention Firefox for Android users: You're going to want to head on over to the Android Market, as version 10 of Mozilla's browser is there waiting for you right now.
There is a couple of new features to report, the implementation of anti-aliasing for WebGL and support for accelerated layers via OpenGL ES. You also get a smattering of bug fixes, and improved Firefox sync setup. What is still noticeably lacking is support for Adobe Flash and other plugins. Nevertheless, Firefox for Android is still a pretty strong browsing option so hit the links after the break to download yourself a copy. Changelogs can be found by hitting the source link.
New York ? The president's Republican opponents will surely spend 2012 hammering away at his failures. So what exactly are they?
As I wrote last week, President Obama can point to several successes as he runs for re-election. But like all presidents, he has made his share of mistakes as well. I promised to list what I think are his five biggest errors. Here they are:?
5. Jamming through health-care reform In last week's article, this made the list of the president's biggest successes. But it also makes his list of mistakes. The president spent most of his political capital in his first year in office on health care, which he saw as a defining issue of his presidency. Aside from lingering questions over the constitutionality of the law's central provision ? the Supreme Court will likely rule this summer whether the government can mandate that all Americans have health insurance ? and questions about how much the program may cost, Obama did himself and the Democratic Party immense damage in terms of how the bill was passed. The president and congressional Democrats used divisive, bare-knuckled tactics, shoving the law down the throats of anyone in their way. "Hell no!"cried then-House Minority Leader John Boehner moments before the bill was passed. Anger over the Democrats' tactics helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party and the "wave election"of 2010, in which the GOP stormed back into the House majority. Obama has since complained of steady GOP obstructionism and a "do-nothing"Congress ? but in a sense, he created this problem by passing major social legislation without first achieving any kind of bipartisan consensus. That's not how a president makes good policy.
SEE MORE: Obama's 'confrontational' State of the Union: 8 talking points
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The president used divisive, bare-knuckled tactics, shoving the health-care law down the throats of anyone in their way.
4. Failing to stop Iran Over the weekend we learned that the Pentagon wants $82 million to make what is already its biggest bunker-buster bomb even bigger. The bombs are needed, officials say, to dig deep underground and hit Iranian nuclear facilities. This is a tacit reminder that the president has thus far failed to achieve his principle goal with respect to Iran: Bringing its nuclear weapons program to a halt.?Obama has hurt the regime with tightened sanctions, but not enough to change its behavior. The president also passed on an opportunity to weaken the regime internally by supporting Iran's Green movement ? the massive protests that erupted in June 2009 after an election was rigged to ensure another term for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At the time, Obama paid lip service to the Iranian protesters, but said "the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering with Iran's affairs."The protest movement ? the true beginning of the Arab Spring ? was brutally crushed (remember the video of the young woman "Neda" being gunned down?) and the regime marched on. Now the president appears closer than ever to "interfering with Iran's affairs"in a far more consequential way ? with military force.?
SEE MORE: Obama's State of the Union: A viewer's guide
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3. Ballooning the deficit In April 2010, the president launched a much-hyped deficit reduction commission, to be headed by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles. Obama claimed to take Simpson-Bowles seriously. "Once the bipartisan fiscal commission finishes its work," he told an Ohio crowd, "I will spend the next year making the tough choices necessary to further reduce our deficit and lower our debt." The commission produced a plan to slash the deficit by $4 trillion over a decade. No sacred cows were spared: Three-quarters of it would come from cutting government services and entitlement programs, and the rest from military cuts and the elimination of tax loopholes. But the president failed to endorse the plan. This opened the door to a series of 2011 fights: The debt ceiling clash between Obama and congressional Republicans, two missed opportunities for a "Grand Bargain" on deficits, the subsequent credit downgrade by S&P, and last fall's badly-misnamed "super committee." One of the president's economic allies, mega-billionaire Warren Buffett, said "What happened with Simpson-Bowles was an absolute tragedy." The Republicans share the blame for the circus that was 2011, of course, but by tabling the recommendations of his very own blue-ribbon panel, Obama gave some voters ? and GOP rivals ? an early and perhaps lasting impression that he wasn't serious about making those tough choices.
SEE MORE: Jan Brewer vs. Obama: Is the president 'thin-skinned'?
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2. Failing to fix the housing market The bursting of the housing bubble six years ago cost Americans more than $7 trillion in home equity, sparked the recession and the near collapse of the U.S. economy. Home prices have continued to fall since Obama was inaugurated, and now stand at 2002 levels. The president can rightly say that it began on George W. Bush's watch (Bush's 2008 bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have so far cost taxpayers $141 billion), but after three years, it's fair to ask what the president has done to fix housing. Answer: Not much. Efforts to stem foreclosures and help folks refinance were poorly designed and have fallen well short of expectations. A short-lived tax credit to encourage first-time buyers wasn't extended by Congress, and ongoing waves of foreclosures continue to depress prices. Today, 22 percent of all homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. The problem for the president is that housing is not an isolated issue. It's tied to jobs, and until the labor market heals, housing will continue to grind along. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Index for November warned bluntly that "the troubled housing market remains weak and won't recover any time soon." Housing, jobs and long-term consumer confidence can be a virtuous ? or vicious circle. It has been the latter for the better part of a decade already. This leads to what I think has been President Obama's greatest mistake of all.?
1. Overpromising on the economic recovery How many times have we heard the president say the downturn of 2007-09 was the "worst since the Great Depression?" Here's the rub: Given that it took Franklin Roosevelt 10 years and a world war to fix the Depression, why on earth would Obama compare our downturn to FDR's ? but promise to fix it in a fraction of the time? Consider this February 2009 statement to NBC's Matt Lauer: "If I don't have this done in three years, then there's gonna be a one-term proposition." And why, given the "worst downturn since the Depression," would the administration estimate that unemployment would only hit around 8 percent? The projection, made in a January 9, 2009, report called "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" (written by former economic advisors Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein) also forecast that the president's stimulus plan would create between three and four million jobs by the end of 2010. Fast forward just nine months, to October 2009, and the jobless rate hit 10 percent. (It has since fallen to 8.5 percent.) As for job creation, the administration was off as well. It has created three million jobs, but it took until the end of 2011 to get there. Because the president overpromised and under-delivered on the economic recovery, he may be right about that one-term proposition.
SEE MORE: Obama's '8th grade reading level' SOTU address: By the numbers
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Read about Obama's top 5 successes here.
View this article on TheWeek.com Get Obama and the 'road to serfdom'
Opinion Brief: 5 theories why Obama is going on 'The View'
Opinion Brief: Obama on 'The View': Unpresidential?
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WASHINGTON/CHARLOTTE (Reuters) ? State and federal officials are close to a settlement with the largest U.S. banks over mortgage abuses, with states facing an end-of-the-week deadline to decide whether they will sign on, people close to the talks said.
The final value of any settlement will depend on which states it includes, and could drop sharply if states like California, one of the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, do not join.
In another sign the deal is close, negotiators have overcome a sticking point and agreed on Joseph Smith, North Carolina's banking commissioner, as a monitor to ensure the banks comply with the terms of the settlement, these people said.
Talks have dragged on for more than one year but picked up steam last week as the Obama administration announced a new federal-state working group to investigate misconduct in the pooling and sale of risky home loans, a move that signaled the settlement would only allow banks to put behind them a small slice of misconduct. [ID:nL2E8CR8HB]
The banks in the talks are Bank of America (BAC.N), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Citigroup (C.N) and Ally Financial Inc (GKM.N).
The proposed settlement releases the banks only from civil claims of errors in servicing and originating the loans. Those details have been in place for months, but the launch of the working group, the Obama administration said, makes clear its commitment to continue to investigate misconduct that fueled the financial crisis.
In exchange for up to $25 billion, much in the form of cutting mortgage debt for distressed homeowners, the banks will resolve civil state and federal lawsuits about servicing misconduct and faulty foreclosures, and state lawsuits about how they made some of the loans.
President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union speech last week that he directed his attorney general to create the new working group to "help turn the page on an era of recklessness."
Left-leaning groups including MoveOn.org had decried the proposed settlement as a "sweetheart deal" and criticized the administration for what they said was a failure to bring big-ticket cases against Wall Street banks and individuals who played a role in the 2007-2009 collapse.
The new working group, designed to coordinate investigations into the residential mortgage-backed securities market, potentially gives the administration and dissident states political cover to join the settlement.
CALIFORNIA STILL IN QUESTION
In announcing the new working group, housed within an older financial fraud task force, federal and state officials made clear the settlement would cover misconduct that occurred in the aftermath of the crisis, while the group would focus on wrongdoing that fueled the crisis itself.
The attorney general in New York, Eric Schneiderman, who has been a holdout on the settlement, saying that it released the banks from too many claims, is helping to lead the new group.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, he said the focus of the settlement had "become narrow enough" to allow a full investigation to go forward, even though he said he was "not yet" ready to sign on.
California has also been reluctant to sign on.
The state's attorney general, Kamala Harris, withdrew from the talks last year amid concerns that the proposed settlement was too lenient, and her spokesman said again last week she believed the settlement remained "inadequate."
But Harris did meet with federal officials last week to press her concerns, people familiar with the matter said, and has not yet officially said her state is out of any final deal.
Separately, Massachusetts filed its own lawsuit against the banks last month, a signal that state may also go its own way in resolving allegations of deceptive foreclosure practices.
States have one week to make a decision, and an announcement of a settlement could come as early as next week, people familiar with the talks said.
The appointment of Joseph Smith as the monitor is also likely to win plaudits.
President Barack Obama nominated Smith, who has long had the respect of both banking executives and consumer advocates, to become the chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2010, but he withdrew from consideration amid objections from Republicans in Congress.
A spokeswoman for Smith said he was unavailable for comment.
(Reporting By Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C. and Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, additional reporting by Karen Freifeld and Margaret Chadbourn)
BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 percent to 8,785.22. South Korea's Kospi was 1.2 percent lower at 1,940.82 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5 percent to 20,401.32. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent at 4,272.40.
Benchmarks in Singapore and the Philippines also fell. Shares in mainland China were mixed after being closed for a week for Chinese New Year holidays. Taiwan and New Zealand rose.
European leaders were to meet later Monday in Brussels to discuss austerity and belt-tightening measures as well as a tentative deal reached Saturday between Greece and its private investors that could avert a disastrous Greek default on its debt.
If the deal holds and works, it will help prevent a potential shock to the world banking system. But it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions in Greece and other European nations as they rein in spending to get their debts under control.
Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said that "the Greece debt issues will remain a source of uncertainty and might dampen the risk mood ahead of the EU summit today."
Under the agreement, investors holding 206 billion euros ($272 billion) in Greek bonds would exchange them for bonds with half the face value. The replacement bonds would have a longer maturity and pay a lower interest rate.
The deal would reduce Greece's annual interest expense from about 10 billion euros to about 4 billion euros. When the bonds mature, Greece would have to pay its bondholders only 103 billion euro.
It is unclear how investors who buy and sell the bonds of other debt-burdened countries, such as Italy, Spain and Portugal, will react. If they drive up borrowing costs for those countries, the debt crisis could get worse.
Private investors hold two-thirds of Greece's debt, which is equal to an unsustainable 160 percent of its annual economic output. By restructuring the debt, Greece hopes to make it a more manageable 120 percent by decade's end.
On Wall Street, stocks mostly fell Friday after the government said the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected in the last three months of 2011.
Economic growth for October through December came in at an annual rate of 2.8 percent. That was the fastest of 2011 but lower than the 3 percent that economists were looking for.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent to 12,660.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 1,316.33. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 percent to 2,816.55.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 36 cents to $99.20 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 14 cents to end at $99.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3180 from $1.3208 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose slightly to 76.74 yen from 76.72 yen.
(This version CORRECTS Updates paragraph 2, corrects Hang Seng figure.)
Though a 101-year-old evicted Detroit woman has been taken in by a good Samaritan, she still needs more help to get by.
After the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development deemed Texana Hollis' foreclosed home too unsafe for her to live there, a church member, Pollian Cheeks, invited the Detroit native to stay with her. While Hollis now has a roof over her head, she still needs to replace her belongings that were trashed when she was evicted and to make the home where she's staying wheelchair accessible.
"I don't know what happened," Hollis told UPI.com. "Lord knows, I don?t know what happened."
But some donations have already started pouring in.
A local contracting company offered to install a wheelchair ramp and Cheeks has set up a fund for people to donate to Hollis' cause, the news outlet reported.
"Lord, yes, I had no idea in the world so many people was thinking about little old me," Hollis told The Detroit Free Press. "It's just a blessing, I'm telling you."
Want to help Texana Hollis? Send your donations to P.O. Box 4270, Detroit, Mich., 48204.
FILE - This undated file photo obtained from a Facebook page shows missing toddler Alya Reynolds. Investigators say they've found blood inside the Maine home where a toddler was reported missing six weeks ago. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said the blood was found in the basement early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville. The father, Justin DiPietro, said Ayla was missing from her bed when he checked on her the morning of Dec. 17. (AP Photo/obtained from Facebook, File)
FILE - This undated file photo obtained from a Facebook page shows missing toddler Alya Reynolds. Investigators say they've found blood inside the Maine home where a toddler was reported missing six weeks ago. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said the blood was found in the basement early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville. The father, Justin DiPietro, said Ayla was missing from her bed when he checked on her the morning of Dec. 17. (AP Photo/obtained from Facebook, File)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ? Investigators have been analyzing blood found in the basement of a Maine home where a missing toddler was last seen six weeks ago, an official said Saturday.
The blood was found early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville, state police spokesman Steve McCausland said. The state crime laboratory has been running tests on it since then, but it was unclear when results would be available.
Ayla's father, Justin DiPietro, reported her missing Dec. 17. He had put her to bed the night before in the home he shares with his mother and said she wasn't there the next morning.
McCausland called the discovery of the blood "troubling." He declined to discuss how much blood was found in the basement or how old it might have been.
Ayla was 20 months old when she disappeared. She had been staying with her father at the time in the house where DiPietro lives with his mother. Her mother, Trista Reynolds, lives in Portland.
DiPietro told police she was wearing green pajamas with polka dots and the words "Daddy's Princess" on them and had a soft cast on her broken left arm.
DiPietro, his mother and a third adult were home the night of Dec. 16, and police have questioned all three, McCausland said.
"We believe they have not given us the full story," he said.
Trista Reynolds was participating in a vigil Saturday for the girl and could not be reached for comment. DiPietro did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone.
The two came face to face for the first time since Ayla's disappearance at the vigil on the City Hall steps in downtown Waterville, said Bob Vear, a friend of the DiPietro family who organized the vigil. They spoke privately for about 10 minutes before giving each other a hug, Vear said.
A woman who answered DiPietro's mother's cellphone hung up after being asked about the blood.
The blood was among hundreds of pieces of potential evidence that were removed from their home as part of a criminal investigation into the girl's disappearance. The discovery of the blood was first reported Saturday by WCVB-TV in Boston.
Ronald Reynolds, who is Trista Reynolds' father, said DiPietro hasn't been forthcoming with his version of what happened or what he knows. DiPietro has said he took a polygraph test, but has declined to say what the results were.
"They haven't given the full story, but this family has gone through so much pain, so much hurt," said Reynolds, who lives in Portland. "We're going into two months now and don't know anything, and all we get is the runaround."
Vear said he was first made aware of the blood sample Dec. 24, but he doesn't think it'll amount to anything.
"I cut myself at home all the time," he said. "It could be Justin's, it could be the baby's. There were five or six people in the house that night."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Power couple Jay-Z and Beyonce joined a list of top music executives, led by Live Nation Entertainment chairman Irving Azoff, on Billboard magazine's first Power 100 chart on Friday.
Only a handful of artists broke onto the list that sought to name the recording industry's most influential people and was dominated by businessmen and women. The selection was determined by a combination of money, market share, Billboard chart data and other information, and a team of 15 magazine editors analyzed the results to produce the list.
Both Jay-Z and Beyonce made it due to numerous ventures outside their singing careers including Jay-Z's Roc Nation music, management and entertainment company and Beyonce's sponsorship deals with brands such as L'Oreal. Collectively, they were placed at No. 13 on the Power 100 list.
Azoff has been at the helm of Live Nation Entertainment, a ticket sales and concert company, since 2008 and previously represented artists such as Christina Aguilera and Van Halen.
Just behind Azoff at No. 2 was Coran Capshaw, the founder and partner of Red Light Management, who helps run the careers of groups such as the Dave Matthews Band. Rounding out the top three was Universal Music Group's chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge.
Others on the list included Creative Artists Agency's managing partner and head of music Rob Light at No. 7 and Interscope Geffen A&M Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine at No. 10.
Rock band U2 came in at No. 27 along with their manager Paul McGuinness based on their ability to sell more than 7 million tickets to their last tour along with their prolific chart career. Fellow rocker Jon Bon Jovi clocked in at No. 50.
Country music star Taylor Swift, 22, made the list at No. 78 for being a "branding powerhouse" with her own management company and lucrative contracts with companies such as CoverGirl. Pop sensation Lady Gaga followed Swift at No. 84, picked for the sway she holds over millions of loyal followers on Facebook and Twitter.
The list held some surprises as "The X Factor" creator and television mogul Simon Cowell ranked last at No. 100, beaten by his former "American Idol" colleague, host Ryan Seacrest, who ranked No. 64.
Seacrest was placed higher due to his numerous ventures including his syndicated daily radio show, "American Idol" hosting gig, production company at NBC Universal and his newest venture to reshape HDNet as a pop culture TV network in collaboration with billionaire Mark Cuban, Creative Artists Agency and live entertainment company, AEG.
The full list can be viewed at Billboard.biz and in the upcoming issue of Billboard Magazine, on newsstands January 30.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Kim Kardashian tweeted the Cher death hoax to her 12 million fans.
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
If you've been on the Internet for all of one second, you're aware that some of the information on it is false. Fake. Made up. Fiction. Wrongamundo. And yet people still fall for bad information daily -- it's why snopes.com, the great debunker of urban legends,?exists.
But if you have 12 million followers, as Kim Kardashian has, perhaps you should think and verify before retweeting information that even to you seems to be false.
On Thursday, Kardashian tweeted "Did I just hear that Cher has passed away? Is this real? OMG."
She may have heard it, but it wasn't, of course, true. (The Huffington Post has tracked the rumor to the Twitter?accounts which may have kicked off the hoax.)
Kardashian didn't just tweet once, she tweeted twice about the death-that-didn't-happen, later tweeting: "I hope this is a twitter joke and not true. I don't see it on the news anywhere. I'm praying its not true." Twitter user the boss?was one of many to set her straight, tweeting "Of course not, Cher will outlive you."
She's not the first celeb to grab information that has not been researched and run with it. Back in November, Ashton Kutcher came under fire?when he expressed anger that Penn State had fired coach Joe Paterno. He had his facts right -- Paterno was fired -- but Kutcher later claimed he didn't know anything about the much-publicized child sexual abuse cases?involving former coach Jerry Sandusky,?and thought Paterno was fired for a bad football season. For Kutcher, the fallout was so bad that he moved to a less-open Twitter account, saying his tweets would now go through a management team rather than just fly out as he thought them up.
Sure, there's a lot to be said for the spontaneity of a fun tweet, but it's different when only a few dozen of your friends are seeing it. Who knows how many people -- maybe even family and friends of Cher herself -- thought the singer really was dead because Kardashian sent it out there to 12 million followers?
Kardashian was apparently corrected on her error within an hour. She then tweeted: "Can't believe people would make up a sick joke like Cher died. These people need to get a life! Thanks Twitter for clearing that up."
Other Twitter followers were quick to reprimand Kardashian. A.J. Nelson?tweeted at?the reality star: "Can't believe u would immediately start tweeting about it before finding out facts."
In summary: Cher -- not dead. Kim Kardashian -- not that careful about facts. The Internet -- still trying to trick people. The beat goes on.
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Ever been fooled by an Internet hoax? Tell us on Facebook.?
ROCHESTER, N.Y. ? Corning Inc. posted a 53 percent slump in fourth-quarter profit Wednesday and said it is scaling back production of liquid-crystal-display glass because lackluster demand for LCD televisions has led to a steep drop in glass prices.
Its stock fell almost 10 percent, despite the assertion from Chief Financial Officer Jim Flaws that producing LCD glass remains "extraordinarily profitable."
The world's largest maker of LCD glass, Corning said it has had to cut its prices in recent months because Asian panel makers have excess supplies.
Corning hopes that by lowering its output it will help glass supplies "become balanced with glass demand at some point during the year," Flaws told analysts during a conference call.
Corning's net income fell to $491 million, or 31 cents per share, in the October-December period. That's down from $1.04 billion, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it said it earned 33 cents a share. That matches the average forecast from Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Revenue rose 7 percent to $1.89 billion from $1.77 billion, lifted by a 4 percent rise in sales of LCD glass, which totaled $780 million. That beat analysts' average expectation for revenue of $1.85 billion.
Flaws said "price declines would be significant" in the January-March quarter ? as they were in the fourth quarter ? and reach into double digits over the two quarters.
"We are hopeful that our pricing actions, combined with our capacity decisions, will help us get back to more stable price declines in the coming quarters," he said.
Corning shares fell $1.42, or 9.7 percent, to $13.20 in afternoon trading. The stock has ranged from $11.51 to $23.43 in the past year.
Corning expects the retail market for LCD products to grow to 3.6 billion square feet in 2012 from about 3.2 billion square feet in 2011. Revenue from LCD glass rose 4.5 percent to $3.1 billion last year, accounting for 40 percent of overall sales.
DisplaySearch estimates that 206 million LCD-TVs were shipped worldwide in 2011, up 7.5 percent from 2010, while shipments in North America fell 2 percent to 37.5 million units.
In 2012, the market-research firm in Austin, Texas, projects a 9 percent jump in global shipments to 225 million units, and a 3.7 percent rise in North American shipments to 38.9 million units.
"With small but continuous improvements in the economic outlook ... there's better times ahead for the industry," said DisplaySearch analyst Paul Gagnon.
Environmental technologies revenue amounted to $238 million in the fourth quarter, in line with a year ago. Life-sciences revenue rose 2 percent to $143 million, and telecommunications sales rose 11 percent to $490 million.
Propelled by ultra-strong Gorilla glass used in handheld, tablet devices and upscale TVs with frameless monitors, Corning's specialty materials revenue swelled 21 percent in the fourth quarter to $238 million. Invented in 1962, Gorilla found commercial use only in 2008 and sales surged to $710 million in 2011.
For all of 2011, Corning's revenue hit an all-time high of $7.9 billion, up 19 percent from $6.6 billion in 2010. But its net income fell 21 percent to $2.8 billion, or $1.77 a share, from $3.6 billion, or $2.25 per share, a year earlier.
Based in western New York, Corning employs 26,000 people. It also makes air-pollution filters for vehicles and industrial plants and is the world's largest producer of optical fiber and cable.
The planet Upsilon Andromedae b in close orbit to its parent star (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Understanding the structure, dynamics, and chemistry of planetary atmospheres is key to exoplanetary science. It?s sobering to realize that as of now it is still an enormous challenge to model even the atmospheres of planets in our own solar system. Despite great advances, a variety of trickery has to be employed to simulate a swirling maelstrom like the Jovian atmosphere, pretending for example that it has a very different soupiness and energy transport in order to overcome computational demands. Modeling the atmospheres of gas giant exoplanets is even more in its infancy. Nonetheless, an intriguing result a couple of years ago came from Crossfield et al. and their study of how we see the infrared light varying in the planetary system of Upsilon Andromedae. Their Spitzer space telescope phase photometry (light seen as time passes) on Ups And reveals the glow emitted by the innermost, roughly Jupiter sized, planet around this F dwarf star (about 1.3 times the mass of the Sun).
The planet orbits very tightly, every 4.6 days, and is expected to have been evolved by tidal interaction with the star to a state of spin-orbit-synchronicity ? in other words, in the simplest case, its day will equal its year and there will be permanent day/night sides. This sets the planet up for an extreme case of thermal disparity (about 1,400 Celsius in this case). We?d expect hot atmosphere from the day-side to flow to the cold night half of the planet ? in doing so there might be great jet-stream like structures, and the hottest point of the planet might get shifted along in the direction of these winds. Something like this seems to be happening on Ups And b, but to an extent that is truly puzzling. As it zips around in its orbit, the glow of the hot atmosphere betrays that temperature distribution, in a fingerprint of infrared photons collected by Spitzer.
The misaligned hotspot of Ups And b (Credits in image)
In a nutshell ? the hottest part of the atmosphere is not in synch with the planet orbit ? or more specifically it is systematically offset or phase-shifted by almost 90 degrees. In other words, the hottest side of the planet is almost at right angles to the direction of the star. On the Earth this would be a bit like saying the hottest time of day is at sunset instead of noon.
It?s a puzzle. Some amount of offset might be expected, driven by the strongly blowing hot-to-cold winds, but this is extreme. There are various possible explanations ? maybe the stellar heating is reaching to greater depths in the planetary atmosphere than expected and altering the fundamental dynamics. Perhaps the winds are so strong that they are going supersonic, forming great shock waves that pile energy up on this side of the planet. It?s a tough call ? even theoretical models of these hot Jupiter-like planets disagree on such things, and none of them predict exactly what we see on Ups And b. The good thing about this result is that it challenges the modelers to really sort out what works and what doesn?t ? advances will be made.
Crossfield et al. also end their paper with an interesting fact. This system of Ups And is actually too bright for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe at shorter wavelengths ? its sensitive instruments would simply be saturated with photons, blinded by the light. They further point out that a small space telescope dedicated to studying the phase curves of nearby hot-Jupiter systems might just provide the data needed to crack the problems of these extraordinary regimes of planetary atmospherics. This is a sentiment that could also apply to the hunt for terrestrial-type exoplanets ? especially those that transit stars that are much closer to us than the distant Kepler objects. We need a dedicated all-sky survey to find the targets for powerhouse instruments like JWST, especially those that aren?t going to require planetary sunglasses.
(This post was adapted from an older post on Life, Unbounded in October 2010)
Iran threatened a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to a new European Union ban on oil from Iran. Iran says it's considering an immediate shut off of oil to Europe.
The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.
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In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an oil exporting route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran should cut off oil to the EU immediately.
That might hurt Greece, Italy and other ailing economies which depend heavily on Iranian crude and, as a result, won as part of the EU agreement a grace period until July 1 before the embargo takes full effect.
Recommended: A briefing on Iran sanctions
A day after a U.S. aircraft carrier, accompanied by a flotilla that included French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf in defiance of Iranian hostility, the widely expected EU sanctions move was likely to set off further bellicose rhetoric in an already tense region.
Some analysts say Iran, which denies accusations that it seeking nuclear weapons, could be in a position to make them next year. So, with Israel warning it could use force to prevent that happening, the row over Tehran's plans is an increasingly pressing challenge for world leaders, not least U.S. President Barack Obama as he campaigns for re-election in November.
Meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers from the 27-state EU, which as a bloc is Iran's second-biggest customer for crude after China, agreed to an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products can honour them up to July 1.
EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.
Along with U.S. sanctions imposed on Dec. 31, the Western powers hope choking exports and hence funding can force Iran's leaders to agree to curbs on a nuclear programme the West says is intended to yield weapons.
EU SEEKS TALKS
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: "I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations.
"I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table ... last year ... or to come forward with its own ideas."
Iran has said lately that it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by either side make new negotiations likely.
The Islamic Republic insists it is enriching uranium only for electricity and other civilian uses.
Miraculously, no permanent brain damage was suffered
A Chicago-area man accidentally drove a nail into his?brain last week, and didn't realize it for a full 36 hours.?Dante Autullo was working with a nailgun when the accident occured last Tuesday. Losing his grip while using the gun on top of a wall, it swung around and hit the back of his head. The collision fired a 3 1/2" nail into his skull so cleanly that the wound appeared to be minor.
The incident hardly fazed Autullo, who treated himself by taking a few Advil before finishing his nailing work. Afterward, he?put in an eight-hour shift of work at his job as a plow driver. It wasn't until Thursday that a strong headache sent him to his doctor, who discovered the nail via?X-ray.
Doctors removed the part of Autullo's skull which held the nail in a procedure that took about two hours.?Amazingly, Autullo does not appear to have lost any?brain function as a result of his injury. Doctors believe that complications are unlikely to develop.
[Image credit:?Rosser321]
(Source)
This article wash written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
NEW ORLEANS ? Jury selection is under way in the trial of a retired New Orleans police sergeant charged with helping cover up deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina.
The trial starting Monday for Gerard Dugue is expected to last two weeks.
Dugue allegedly submitted a false report to make it appear police were justified in shooting six people, killing two less than a week after the 2005 storm.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ordered separate trials for Dugue and five other current or former officers who were convicted in August of civil rights violations stemming from the shootings.
Dugue isn't charged in the shooting. He didn't get involved in the case until several weeks later, when the department assigned him to help another sergeant investigate.
State-run TV marked Chinese New Year with a video of US billionaire Warren Buffett singing and playing a ukulele.?
I can think of any number of curious aspects of Warren Buffett's transmogrification into a Chinese pop star, but perhaps the oddest is that state-run TV here is using the 81-year-old Sage of Omaha to draw younger viewers.
Skip to next paragraph
Mr.?Buffett, widely admired in China for his wealth, his investment instincts, and his charitable donations (probably in that order), made a cameo appearance playing a ukulele and singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad"?as part of a marathon Chinese New Year gala aired Sunday.
The annual Spring Festival TV gala on the lunar New Year?s Eve is watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers. But its heavily scripted diet of moralizing comedy sketches, spandexed acrobats, magicians, and goldfish showing off their synchronized swimming skills (one of last year?s highlights) no longer appeals to young people?s more sophisticated tastes.
So state-run CCTV decided to air a hipper extended gala show online, and that is where?Buffett comes in.
?We all know that?Buffett?is good at investment, but few knew he also did well in singing,? Wang Pinjiu, one of the show?s producers, told a press conference earlier this month, according to Xinhua, the government news agency.
The video clip is one he made for a charity dinner last year organized by media investor Wu Zheng and his TV presenter wife Yang Lan, according to a spokeswoman for Mr. Wu.
When CCTV asked Wu to rope some international talent into the online gala he asked?Buffett?for permission to air the video, and he agreed, the spokeswoman said.
Buffett?is not shy about his musical talents; he has been heard playing the ukulele at Berkshire Hathaway events, and he appears in a US TV commercial for an insurance company that he owns, masquerading as Axl Rose. Not, to be frank, that his appearance offers much evidence of ?doing well in singing.?
He is also well known in China, both as a major investor in BYD, a Chinese firm hoping to spearhead the electric car revolution here, and as an investment guru whose books are popular with local businessmen.
Buffett?caused something of a stir in 2010 when he visited China with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in a bid to rustle up support from Chinese billionaires for charitable work, which is still in its infancy among the super-rich here. It took a while for some of the guests to accept his invitation to a banquet; it seemed they were nervous about being hit up for donations at the dinner.
Boxer is a Free DOS Game Emulator for your Mac (Mac) Computer games have come a long way since the days of Doom, Zork, Tie Fighter, and Castle Wolfenstein, but many of us who grew up with those games would like to replay them. Boxer is a free app that will let you play any DOS game on your Mac.
iBoostUp Cleans Out Your Mac's System File Clutter in a Minute (Mac) iBoostUp cleans out the crap on your drive and fine-tunes your system for better performance. It's simple, it's quick, and it's free.
AntiCrop "Uncrops" Your Photos by Extending the Picture's Background (iOS) If you've ever taken a hasty photo on your phone and didn't leave enough room on the outside, AntiCrop is the app can "uncrop" those photos by filling in the edges with just a few swipes.
Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 Is Finally Here (iOS) iPhone-hacking group Chronic Dev Team just released the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. We've explained why a tethered jailbreak can be such a hassle, which is why we've been waiting to recommend jailbreaking your up-to-date iPhone. Luckily, that wait is over.
Clean My Desktop Sorts Files Into Content Specific Folders (Mac) A desktop filled with hundreds of files in a variety of formats can be a headache to clean up, but Clean My Desktop makes it easy by sorting everything into content specific folders based on the file type.
MindNode Is a Mind Mapping App that Makes Brainstorming Simple and Easy (Mac/iOS) Regardless of the type of work that you do, brainstorming is an important part of generating new ideas and new approaches to getting your work done more efficiently. Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that helps you get all of your interconnected thoughts out in a diagram, and there are a number of complicated tools designed to help you do it. MindNode for Mac and iOS is pricey, but it's one of the best tools we've seen for the job.
Pomodroido Is an Elegant Pomodoro Timer for Your Android Phone (Pomodroido) If you're a fan of the Pomodoro productivity technique, you know that part of the philosophy is to work in short, focused, timed bursts and then take periodic breaks to relax. To do this, you'll need a timer, and Pomodroido is a free app that turns your Android phone into one that follows you everywhere.
Forismatic Is a Free App that Helps You Relax and Keeps You Inspired Every Day (Mac) Computers are supposed to make our work easier, but in reality they often just bring us more work and stress us out. Give your Mac the opportunity to help you relax for a change with Forismatic, a free app that sits in the menubar until you need a little inspiration to help you keep going, and will remind you to take a break now and again to relax.
Breathing Zone Guides You Towards Slower Breathing to Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety (Mac/iOS) Breathing Zone is a simple app that helps slow your breathing rhythm to calm you down and make you feel more relaxed. If you're a bit stressed or anxious, it's a good way to help you alleviate those feelings in just a few minutes.
WatchMe Is a Desktop Timer that Keeps Track of Multiple Alarms at Once (Windows) Unfortunately, few of us have the luxury of only keeping track of one thing at a time. There are plenty of great timers available to help you keep track of how long you've been working or when you need to take a break, but if you need to track multiple times or set more than one timer, you may be out of luck. WatchMe is a timer that allows you to set multiple alerts and multiple timers so you're alerted at different times for different things.
NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) ? Memphis police have ended their investigation of Robert "Bobby" Dodd, who lost his job as president of the Amateur Athletic Union after two former players claimed he sexually abused them in the 1980s, his attorney said Thursday.
"Memphis police have said they are not pursuing charges, that nobody has filed a criminal complaint and they've got nothing to go on," said attorney Steve Farese.
Memphis police opened an investigation into Dodd, who had led one of the nation's largest youth sports groups, after sports network ESPN first reported the men's complaints in December.
The complaints focused on the years Dodd spent in youth sports in Memphis. ESPN.com has since reported that the accusers, who were youth basketball players at the time, will not file formal criminal complaints.
The accusers spoke to ESPN soon after a former Penn State football coach was charged with serial sex abuse of boys, and two former ball boys accused a Syracuse University basketball coach of abusing them.
The men said they were emboldened to go public with their accusations against Dodd following the national publicity about sex abuse of children in the sports world.
A representative for Memphis police was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
The decision not to pursue the investigation will have no affect on the AAU, a spokesman for the youth sports organization told Reuters.
"Bobby Dodd and the AAU have parted ways for good," said Ron Sachs, whose public relations firm represents the AAU. "He is no longer a part of the leadership of the organization or a participant at any level."
The AAU had said previously that it was conducting its own independent investigation. Dodd was dealing with serious health issues related to his treatment for colon cancer, the AAU said.
Farese said that Dodd is doing better "mentally, emotionally and physically" since the most recent developments.
COMMENTARY | A major step in the effort to legalize same-sex marriage was taken on Friday, January 20, when a coalition of 80 mayors announced their support for legalizing marriage between gays.
Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and head of Mayors for Freedom to Marry said ,"Mayors understand that welcoming committed gay couples to the rights and responsibilities of marriage isn't just the right thing to do." Mayors of Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles are each supportive of such measures.
This announcement comes one day after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie softened his opposition to same-sex marriage and that is a good thing. His most recent statement is that he will make a "deliberate and thoughtful" decision if the New Jersey legislature passes a bill. Previously, in 2009, he vowed to return to the legislature any bill legalizing same-sex marriage "with a big red veto across it."
Governor Christie and other politicians may have been influenced by a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University which showed that a majority of New Jersey voters favor legalizing marriage between same-sex partners. This is the first time that more than 50 percent of the respondents favored same-sex marriage. The key word here is "marriage", because New Jersey has recognized domestic partnerships or civil unions since 2006.
If, and when the bill is passed and signed into law, New Jersey would then become the seventh state where same-sex couples can get married. There are also 10 states which recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships.
This is important because during the Republican debates, many candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, have called for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. You need 39 states to ratify an amendment and the more states which recognize marriage, the less likely that passage would occur.
While it is wonderful that some states recognize same-sex marriage, the real progress will only come when the federal government and the IRS recognize that two people of the same sex can be married.
Unfortunately, much of the discrimination is in the form of financial punishment. Gay couples cannot save on their federal income taxes by filing a joint return. They are not entitled to the unlimited marital deduction which is available to heterosexual couples, and that makes their estate issues more complex and expensive.
Heterosexual couples can contribute to a spousal IRA even if one spouse does not work. Gay couples are denied that right. In a traditional marriage, the surviving spouse is entitled to roll over the retirement assets of their deceased loved one without incurring tax consequences. This process is denied gays.
Granting same-sex couples the same rights and entitlements that heterosexual couples receive should be fundamental and the sign of a maturing society.
(Reuters) ? Hedge fund titan Steven A. Cohen is once again in the spotlight over allegations of improper trading at his $14 billion SAC Capital Advisors.
The arrest on Wednesday of technology analyst Jon Horvath marks the fourth time in two years that U.S. authorities have implicated or charged a person with engaging in insider trading while working at SAC Capital. It is the latest to come from an investigation FBI agents have coined Operation Perfect Hedge.
Federal authorities did not charge Cohen or SAC Capital with any wrongdoing in the case against Horvath, who is accused of using inside information to help the Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund generate a $1 million profit from trading in shares and option contracts of PC maker Dell Inc..
Horvath's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
The case against Horvath comes less than a month after SAC Capital capped another successful year, generating an 8 percent return while most hedge funds lost money in 2011.
But the new allegations of improper trading are a fresh reminder that SAC Capital remains a major focal point for U.S. prosecutors as they continue a multi-year crackdown on insider trading in the $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry.
And while industry observers and investment managers say the newest case is not likely to prompt investors to rush to pull money from Cohen's fund, it could cause some discomfort for some of his wealthy patrons.
"There is a feeling that the Feds' web around Cohen might be slowly tightening and that is bound to get people to think about what to do with their money," said one industry investor familiar with Cohen's fund but who asked not to be named.
A spokesman for Cohen's SAC declined to comment beyond saying that the firm is continuing to cooperate with the government investigation.
It is no secret in the hedge fund world that the federal authorities have been probing possible wrongdoing at SAC for years. Reuters previously has reported federal prosecutors and regulators have been investigating allegations of improper trading at SAC Capital since at least 2007.
But it was not until last year that those years of investigation began to get uncomfortably close for Cohen when two former traders, Noah Freeman and Donald Longueuil, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges. Another former SAC Capital employee, Jonathan Hollander, settled civil charges of insider trading with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Now that a fourth SAC Capital employee has been accused of improper trading, hedge fund industry analysts, lawyers and investors say the scrutiny of Cohen's roughly 800 employees is bound to increase.
"I suspect that remaining with a fund that's implicated is just bad business from a reputational standpoint," said Nicole Boyson, a finance professor at Northeastern University, who has researched the implications of hedge fund fraud.
Over the years, SAC Capital, in response to other trading scandals, has noted that it has some of the strongest compliance systems in the hedge fund industry. But in a deposition taken last year in a civil lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, Cohen said federal laws on insider trading were "very vague."
To be sure, Cohen, a 55-year old trader who founded SAC Capital in 1992 with just $25 million, continues to maintain a large reservoir of support. And a good deal of that stems from the fact that Cohen himself has never been charged with wrongdoing and that despite the negative headlines, SAC Capital continues to post strong returns.
"It is unfortunate, but I do not think Steve is involved with this and, yes, we have money with him and I stand by him," said Anthony Scaramucci, who runs Skybridge Capital which featured Cohen as a prominent speaker at his investment conference last year.
The improper trading Horvath is alleged to have engaged in occurred at Sigma Capital, a division of SAC Capital that is based in New York City. Horvath reported to Michael Steinberg, a long time top trader with SAC Capital, who talks frequently to Cohen, according to people familiar with the matter. Steinberg could not be reached at his office on Wednesday.
Ron Geffner, a partner at law firm Sadis & Goldberg, which specializes in representing hedge funds, said just because some employees at a fund are doing something wrong, it is incorrect to infer "that their employer put them on a path of bad decision-making."
Others also note that for hedge fund investors, solid performance counts for more than anything. These people say investors will put up with a lot of bad behavior at a hedge fund as long as the returns are good.
Still, the new charges come at an awkward time for Cohen, who has expressed some interest in submitting a bid to buy the financially strapped Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team. A spokesman for Major League Baseball said it is premature to discuss the sale because the deadline for submitting bids is still open. One of the many factors considered in vetting prospective buyers of teams is their business practices, a person familiar with the process said.
One of the biggest investors with SAC Capital is an investment fund managed by Blackstone Group Inc., sources have told Reuters. Blackstone's investment advisory arm is running the sales process for the Dodgers. A Blackstone spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
(Reporting By Svea Herbst-Bayliss, with additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan in New York. Editing by Matthew Goldstein and Martin Howell.)
Contact: Liz Williams williams@wehi.edu.au 61-405-279-095 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defenses mounted by the immune system.
The research team, led by Professor Alan Cowman from the institute's Infection and Immunity division, has identified one of the crucial molecules that instructs the parasite to employ its invisibility cloak to hide from the immune system, and helps its offspring to remember how to 'make' the cloak.
In research published today in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, Professor Cowman and colleagues reveal details about the first molecule found to control the genetic expression of PfEMP1 (Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1), a protein that is known to be a major cause of disease during malaria infection.
"The molecule that we discovered, named PfSET10, plays an important role in the genetic control of PfEMP1; an essential parasite protein that is used during specific stages of parasite development for its survival," Professor Cowman said.
"This is the first protein that has been found at what we call the 'active' site, where control of the genes that produce PfEMP1 occurs. Knowing the genes involved in the production of PfEMP1 is key to understanding how this parasite escapes the defenses deployed against it by our immune system," he said.
PfEMP1 plays two important roles in malaria infection. It enables the parasite to stick to cells on the internal lining of blood vessels, which prevents the infected cells from being eliminated from the body. It is also responsible for helping the parasite to escape destruction by the immune system, by varying the genetic code of the PfEMP1 protein so that at least some of the parasites will evade detection. This variation lends the parasite the 'cloak of invisibility' which makes it difficult for the immune system to detect parasite-infected cells, and is part of the reason a vaccine has remained elusive.
Professor Cowman said identification of the PfSET10 molecule was the first step towards unveiling the way in which the parasite uses PfEMP1 as an invisibility cloak to hide itself from the immune system. "As we better understand the systems that control how the PfEMP1 protein is encoded and produced by the parasite, including the molecules that are involved in controlling the process, we will be able to produce targeted treatments that would be more effective in preventing malaria infection in the approximately 3 billion people who are at risk of contracting malaria worldwide," he said.
Each year more than 250 million people are infected with malaria and approximately 655,000 people, mostly children, die. Professor Cowman has spent more than 30 years studying Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of the four Plasmodium species, with the aim of developing new vaccines and treatments for the disease.
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The research was carried out in collaboration with scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, Cell-free Science and Technology Research Center and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. The research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Victorian Government.
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Contact: Liz Williams williams@wehi.edu.au 61-405-279-095 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defenses mounted by the immune system.
The research team, led by Professor Alan Cowman from the institute's Infection and Immunity division, has identified one of the crucial molecules that instructs the parasite to employ its invisibility cloak to hide from the immune system, and helps its offspring to remember how to 'make' the cloak.
In research published today in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, Professor Cowman and colleagues reveal details about the first molecule found to control the genetic expression of PfEMP1 (Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1), a protein that is known to be a major cause of disease during malaria infection.
"The molecule that we discovered, named PfSET10, plays an important role in the genetic control of PfEMP1; an essential parasite protein that is used during specific stages of parasite development for its survival," Professor Cowman said.
"This is the first protein that has been found at what we call the 'active' site, where control of the genes that produce PfEMP1 occurs. Knowing the genes involved in the production of PfEMP1 is key to understanding how this parasite escapes the defenses deployed against it by our immune system," he said.
PfEMP1 plays two important roles in malaria infection. It enables the parasite to stick to cells on the internal lining of blood vessels, which prevents the infected cells from being eliminated from the body. It is also responsible for helping the parasite to escape destruction by the immune system, by varying the genetic code of the PfEMP1 protein so that at least some of the parasites will evade detection. This variation lends the parasite the 'cloak of invisibility' which makes it difficult for the immune system to detect parasite-infected cells, and is part of the reason a vaccine has remained elusive.
Professor Cowman said identification of the PfSET10 molecule was the first step towards unveiling the way in which the parasite uses PfEMP1 as an invisibility cloak to hide itself from the immune system. "As we better understand the systems that control how the PfEMP1 protein is encoded and produced by the parasite, including the molecules that are involved in controlling the process, we will be able to produce targeted treatments that would be more effective in preventing malaria infection in the approximately 3 billion people who are at risk of contracting malaria worldwide," he said.
Each year more than 250 million people are infected with malaria and approximately 655,000 people, mostly children, die. Professor Cowman has spent more than 30 years studying Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of the four Plasmodium species, with the aim of developing new vaccines and treatments for the disease.
###
The research was carried out in collaboration with scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, Cell-free Science and Technology Research Center and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. The research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Victorian Government.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 18-Jan-2012
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