Washington, July 25: A team of experts at the University of California, Santa Barbara — including Indian-origin post-doctoral researcher Subir Ghorai — says that recent advances in chemistry may make it possible to solubalize the life-sustaining coenzyme CoQ10 into water.

"If you don''t know anything about it, that''s not surprising to me. Much of the public hasn''t heard of it," said Bruce Lipshutz, a professor of Chemistry at UC Santa Barbara.

"In a sense, I''m just a messenger. People need to not only know about CoQ10, they need to take it," he added.

Lipshutz revealed that just like vitamin C, CoQ10 is vital to survival.

Washington, July 25: After 30 years of research work, scientists have identified the mechanism that triggers off the aurora borealis, also know as the Northern Lights, attributing the cause to magnetic energy a third of the way to the moon that powers the phenomenon.

Substorms produce dynamic changes in the auroral displays seen near Earth''s northern and southern magnetic poles, causing a burst of light and movement in the Northern and Southern Lights.

Substorms often accompany intense space storms that can disrupt radio communications and global positioning system signals and cause power outages.

"We discovered what makes the Northern Lights dance," said Dr. Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Washington  - The United States wants to shift about 226 million dollars in aide for Pakistani counterterrorism effort to upgrade the country's fleet of F-16s.

The money was originally allocated for counterterrorism activities in the lawless tribal regions of the country near the Afghan border, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have sought refuge.

But Pakistan has undergone economic turmoil and rising fuel prices and requested assistance for its US-built F-16s, State Department acting deputy spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Thursday.

Washington  - With a flourishing foreign business the US conglomerate 3M defied the recession at home in the second quarter, the Minnesota-based company reported Thursday.

The company's surplus rose by three per cent to 945 million dollars. Revenues climbed nearly ten per cent to 6.7 billion dollars.

The manufacturer of Post It notes and Scotch tape confirmed that it had so-far achieved its profit objective for the current year.

Washington - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is preferred by a nearly 3-1 margin over his Republican rival John McCain by Hispanic voters in the United States, according to a new survey Thursday.

Obama beats McCain by 66 per cent to 23 per cent among registered Hispanic voters nationwide, the Pew Hispanic Center said. The support for Obama represents a wider shift towards the Democratic Party.

Washington - US chemical concern Dow Chemical Company reported Thursday that it continues to suffer in view of rising costs from sinking profits.

Although price increases for its products earned the largest US chemical company 762 million dollars in the second quarter the gain was lower than the same quarter last year.

Revenues climbed nearly a quarter to a new record value of 16.4 billion dollars, the Midland, Michigan-based company said on Thursday.