Washington, April 13 : Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) have successfully used tiny molecules called microRNAs to help turn adult mouse cells back to their embryonic state.

The researchers say that the reprogrammed cells have the capacity to become any cell type in the body.

Their finding suggests that it may soon be possible to replace retroviruses and even genes currently used in laboratory experiments to induce pluripotency in adult cells.

Washington, April 12 : A 1,500-year-old tomb of the Moche Indian "king of bling", found in Peru at the base of an eroded mud-brick pyramid, has yield a treasure trove of artifacts, which are shedding light on ancient times in the country.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the finds include 19 golden headdresses, various pieces of jewelry, and two funerary masks, as well as skeletons of two other men and a pregnant woman.

Moscow - Russia on Sunday re-opned its cosmonauts museum after three years of renovation and expansion work. The Moscow museum, opened on the annual Cosmonauts Day, is four times as large as the previous faciltiy.

Moscow mayor Yuri Luskhov said at the opening ceremonies that Russia now had a museum where people could grasp the "magnificence of space." There was nothing comparable to it anywhere else in the world.

Washington, April 12 : An Indian-origin researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has come up with a new way for etching extremely narrow lines on a microchip by exposing it to certain wavelengths of light.

Research engineer Rajesh Menon and his colleagues call the new technique absorbance modulation.

The researchers say that this technique makes it possible to create lines that are only about one-tenth as wide as the wavelength of light used to create them.

Washington, April 11: A new research by NASA scientists has suggested that the ozone layer might recover in the future, thanks to the changing climate and atmospheric circulation.

According to the scientists, Earth’s ozone layer should eventually recover from the unintended destruction brought on by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and similar ozone-depleting chemicals in the 20th century, since greenhouse gases are changing the dynamics of the atmosphere.

Washington, April 11 : By sequencing the DNA of two tiny marine algae, a team of scientists has opened up a myriad of possibilities for new research in algal physiology, plant biology, and marine ecology.

The project was led by Alexandra Worden at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI).