Washington, August 28 : By analyzing light from small, faint galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, scientists have discovered the minimum mass for galaxies in the universe, which they estimate to be 10 million times the mass of the sun.

Discovered by UC (University of California) Irvine scientists, this mass could be the smallest known “building block” of the mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter.

Stars that form within these building blocks clump together and turn into galaxies.

Scientists know very little about the microscopic properties of dark matter, even though it accounts for approximately five-sixths of all matter in the universe.

Washington, Aug 28 : In order to chalk out a strategy to combat the escalating violence along the Pak-Afghan border, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff secretly convened a secret meeting of the most senior American and Pakistani commanders on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday.

The gathering aboard the Abraham Lincoln was less confrontational in tone, aides said. “It was one of those meetings to help clear up the situation, get an understanding of the issues, and look for a way forward,” said a senior Pakistani officer privy to what was discussed at the meeting.

Washington, August 28 : The transition from the mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago, to the ice-covered region that we see today, can be attributed to changes in the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.

Though there have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all.

Now, scientists at the University of Bristol and the University of Leeds in the UK, show that only changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide are able to explain the transition from the mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago, to the ice-covered Greenland of today.

Washington, Aug 28 : Injury prevention experts have long understood that teens prefer not to wear seat belts while driving. Now, a new research has found that adolescent passengers also rarely use seat belts.

In the first ever-direct comparison of the differences between driver and passenger seat belt use for teen population, the Meharry researchers found that 59percent of teens always buckled up in the driver seat but only 42 percent always wore seat belts as passengers.

Even more sobering, only 38 percent of all teens reported always buckling up as both drivers and passengers.

Washington, Aug 28 : Republican presidential candidate and Senator John McCain has reportedly chosen the candidate who will fight the vice-presidential election against Democrats’ Joe Biden, who was chosen by Democratic presidential hopeful by Barack Obama a couple of days ago.

McCain is expected to announce the name of his running mate tomorrow at a large rally in Dayton, Ohio, at noon. The rally would be followed by join appearances in Pennsylvania and Missouri, the CBS quoted sources as saying.

Washington, August 28: Geologists have found that the molten plumes of material beneath the Yellowstone National Park in the US are cooler than expected.

The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their existence to the “Yellowstone hotspot” - a region of molten rock buried deep beneath the region.

But, to find out what is causing the “hotspot”, Derek Schutt of Colorado State University and Ken Dueker of the University of Wyoming took its temperature.

“Yellowstone is located atop of one of the few large volcanic hotspots on Earth,” said Schutt. “But, though the hot material is a volcanic plume, it’s cooler than others of its kind, such as one in Hawaii,” he added.