Washington, Aug 20: Using calculators in the classroom does not hinder learning of multiplication, as long as children have a basic grasp of the skills first, suggests a group of researchers.

The study, conducted by Bethany Rittle-Johnson and colleague Alexander Kmicikewycz, will be published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Calculators are useful tools in elementary mathematics classes, if students already have some basic skills, new research has found. The findings shed light on the debate about whether and when calculators should be used in the classroom.

Washington, August 20: A scientist of Indian origin and his team have constructed a thermo-regulating technology, which could be applied on the surface of a "micro-spacecraft" like a skin, to control the temperature of the spaceship.

The scientist in question is Prasanna Chandrasekhar, who has described the new, razor thin temperature-regulating film that brings the sci-fi vision of "micro-spacecraft", weighing barely 50 pounds and 10-pound "nano-spacecraft" closer to reality.

Washington, Aug. 20: Cindy McCain, the wife of the Republican presidential candidate John McCain, claims of being a single child have been exposed with the emergence of a half-sister, who is now challenging that family history.

"I'm upset. I'm angry. It makes me feel like a non-person," The Independent quoted Kathleen Hensley Portalski, as saying.

Washington, Aug 20: Your society can influence the way you recognise other people's faces, according to a new PLoS ONE study.

It is so, because face recognition is effortlessly achieved by people from all different cultures, it was considered to be a basic mechanism universal among humans. However, by using analyses inspired by novel brain imaging technology, researchers at the University of Glasgow have discovered that cultural differences cause us to look at faces differently.

Lead researcher Dr Roberto Caldara said: "In a series of eye-movement studies, we showed that social experience has an impact on how people look at faces. Specifically we noticed a striking difference in eye movements in Westerners and East Asian observers.

Washington, August 20: The discovery of the body of the mythical ‘Bigfoot’ in the US has been declared to be a fake by an independent investigator, who has determined that it is nothing but a Halloween costume.

According to a report by Fox News, the hoax came into being after two Georgia residents, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, recently claimed that they had discovered the frozen corpse of a Bigfoot.

But, Tom Biscardi, owner of the website www. searchingforbigfoot. com, decided to get under the skin of things, and hired a self-described “Sasquatch detective” Steve Kulls to solve the mystery.

Washington, Aug. 20: U. S. President George W Bush has prided himself on his close personal relationships with foreign leaders, but according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), some of those relationships appear to have gone disastrously awry in the past few weeks.

According to CSM, former Russian President and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a case that backs this view.