Washington, September 18: Artists, working along with scientists, have created the first model of a Neanderthal based in part on ancient DNA evidence, and have named her as “Wilma”, after the redhe

Washington, Sept 18 : Newly-elected Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is all set to break the tradition of taking along a huge delegation on foreign visits. He will be accompanied by only three ministers and two officials on his New York visit beginning September 22.

Contrary to the practice of past heads of states, of taking along 100-member delegation, including his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, there will be no media delegation accompanying the President.

Washington, September 18: A Penn State researcher of Indian origin has announced such a scientific advance that may one day help create cars with the metallic finish of some insects or the deep black of a butterfly’s wing, and reflectors patterned on a fly’s eyes.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, the Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has revealed that his team has developed a method to rapidly and inexpensively copy biological surface structures.

"Only a small fraction of mutations in evolutionary processes are successful. But, evolution has gone on for at least a billion years. A huge range of biological surface architectures have been created and are available," he says.

Washington, September 18 : Penn State researchers have created a new tool to study hypertension by modifying a honeybee venom toxin.

Research leader Zhe Lu, Professor of Physiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has revealed that their tool can be used to study the inner workings of ion channels that control heart rate, and the recycling of salt in kidney.

Ion channels selectively allow the passage of small ions — like sodium, potassium, and calcium — into and out of the cell.

Lu’s team looked at the action of the honeybee venom toxin tertiapin (TPN) on inward-rectifier potassium channels, also known as Kir channels, to identify new approaches to treat cardiovascular disease.

Washington, September 18 : The installation of a 70 million dollar instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-October would help to probe the “fossil record” of gases in the early universe for clues to the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets.

The telephone-booth-sized instrument known as the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), should help scientists better understand the “cosmic web” of material believed to permeate the universe, according to CU (University of Colorado) Boulder Professor James Green, COS science team leader.

Peshawar, Sept 18: Once again marking their presence in Peshawar, three Taliban operatives snatched away the car, cash and valuables from a Pakistani woman working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop working for the US organization.

Dr Aneesa Arif, the female USAID employee, said that three armed men with long hair and beards stopped her in front of her house in Hayatabad and demanded she stop working for USAID.

According to her, the men told her they were Taliban and would kill her if she did not stop working. Dr Aneesa said the Taliban stole her car, bearing registration number 
7522, cash and valuables, and fled the scene, reported the Daily Times.