Washington, Aug. 19: John McCain’s campaign has asked a Hollywood agent to sprinkle some glitter over his anointment as the Republican nominee.

According to The Times, Jeffrey Barry of the William Morris agency has been engaged to make the Republican convention in Minnesota shine a little brighter.

Barry is said to have signed up “Redneck Woman” singer Gretchen Wilson for an event on September 2. Other names scheduled to appear include John Rich, Cowboy Troy, LeAann Rimes, the Bellamy Brothers and the Charlie Daniels band.

Washington, Aug 19: The relationship between a mother and her daughter relationship can be difficult to understand, even though they have the same genetic material. Now, a new Northwestern University study has shown how this happens in yeast cells.

The research team has discovered a new mechanism for cell fate determination – how one cell, the daughter, becomes dramatically different from the mother, even though they have the same genetic material.

The study shows why mothers and daughters differ in how they express their genes.

Washington, Aug 19: Researchers from Stanford University have come up with a new method to combat diseases that have developed multiple drug resistance.

The researchers revealed that using an arginine-rich transporter to ferry a potent medication inside a resistant cell would help restore the drug effectiveness.

Arginine is an amino acid, the building block of proteins, and as such is found in virtually every cell in the human body, as well as other mammalian bodies.

"Nature has developed all of this firepower for getting things into cells, and one of the ways is to create entities that are arginine-rich," said Paul Wender, the Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University.

Washington, Aug.

Washington, August 19: Chemists at UC (University of California) San Diego, US, have found that dirty smoke from ships degrades air quality in coastal cities.

According to the scientists, the impact of dirty smoke from ships burning high-sulfur fuel can be substantial, on some days accounting for nearly one-half of the fine, sulfur-rich particulate matter in the air known to be hazardous to human health.

Washington  - A new rocky object similar to a comet and known as a minor planet has been discovered in the solar system some 3.2 billion kilometres from Earth and could provide clues about the formation of comets, scientists said Monday.

The minor planet 2006 SQ372, which could be as wide as 96 kilometres across, is slightly closer to the Earth than the planet Neptune and is orbiting the Sun in a
22,500-year, 241-billion- kilometre trip, researchers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey announced at a gathering of astronomers in Chicago.