Washington, June 11 : A new study has shown that people with more green space in their living environment walk and cycle less often and for shorter amounts of time.

For the study, about five thousand Dutch residents were surveyed, which involved completing a questionnaire.

The survey questions focused on participants' physical activity and self perceived health.

Researchers also calculated the percentage of green space within a 1 km and 3 km radius around the house for each resident.

"Little is known about the way in which green space exerts a beneficial effect. Several explanations are possible," said lead author of the study Jolanda Maas.

London, June 11 : An astronomer has suggested that Nix and Hydra, two of Pluto’s moons, are spray-painting the planet and Charon with their dust.

According to a report in New Scientist, Alan Stern at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, US, has come up with this theory.

Pluto’s dazzling red stands in sharp contrast to the greys of its three moons Hydra, Nix and Charon.

The moons’ similarity was thought to be because the trio was created at the same time from the same material in a massive smash in the early solar system.

Now, Stern has determined that the similarity is due to Nix and Hydra throwing up some dust at Charon, as well as Pluto.

Washington, June 11 : A rare hundred-million-year old dino fossil found in Australia has led scientists to suggest a link between South American and Aussie dinosaurs.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the fossil belonged to a two-legged meat eater, or theropod, that is closely related to Megaraptor namunhuaiquii, a giant, big-clawed carnivore from Argentina.

The discovery could help redraw the world map during the dinosaur era, researchers said.

That’s because the newfound Australian dinosaur shows that animals could travel across the prehistoric supercontinent of Gondwana during the Cretaceous period, about
145 to 65 million years ago.

This in turn suggests that Gondwana’s Southern Hemisphere landmasses broke up later than traditionally thought.

Amsterdam, June 11 : Scientists are hoping that with the development of a new telescope known as LOFAR (Low Array), the search for aliens would get a boost.

Researchers from all over the world will now contribute to this effort to find ways in which LOFAR can be used in the search for extraterrestrial life.

There are about 100 thousand million stars in the galaxy and most of these are expected to harbour planetary systems. Some of these planets might actually be suitable for life.

Now, the search for such planets has got a shot in the arm with the LOFAR telescope that is currently being built by ASTRON. It consists of about 25,000 small antennas that will receive signals from space.

Washington, June 11 : The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico became a part of the global network of telescopes in North America, South America, Europe, and Africa when all of them simultaneously observed the same targets recently, simulating a telescope more than 6,800 miles in diameter.

The telescopes joined by the observatory managed by Cornell's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center were all members of the Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service (EXPReS) project.

They all marked a live demonstration of their first four-continent, real-time, electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (e-VLBI) observations on May 22.

London, June 10 : An ingredient in garlic is the latest weapon in the battle to fight the hospital ‘superbug’ MRSA, according to researchers at the University of East London.