The spread of cancer and the effect of drugs to combat it could be closely monitored using tiny implants. US researchers are perfecting a way to use microscopic particles which stick to chemicals in cancer cells and show up during scans. Their latest advance is to find a way to keep a supply of the particles inside the body for longer periods. However, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) technique has not yet been tested in humans
For all of his death-defying stunts, Harry Houdini couldn’t escape the Grim Reaper: the unparalleled performer, age 52, expired on Halloween 1926. Many of his trade secrets went with him to the grave — but rumors that Houdini was murdered soon took on a life of their own. Eighty-one years later, Houdini’s great-nephew wants to exhume the escape artist’s body to determine if enemies poisoned his renowned relative for debunking their bogus claims of contact with the dead
The working title of the third Stargate television series has been unveiled. The series currently exists in the form of a one-page treatment of the story and characters, with the title Stargate Universe. The new series has been conceived to be a completely separate, third entity
, executive producer Robert Cooper said in an interview — much more so than Atlantis was. Atlantis was much more of a spin-off series of SG-1 and was sort of born out of SG-1
The biggest whale fossil ever discovered in Italy has been found in one of the country’s finest vineyards. The five-million-year-old skeleton, 33ft (10m) in length, was dug up in the northern grape-growing area of Tuscany
Google’s YouTube is getting another challenge from the media industry, this time as NBC Universal and News Corp join forces to distribute full-length TV shows and other video over the Internet, supported by advertising. The new venture, which doesn’t have a name yet, will also allow users to download movies and TV shows to own and play back whenever they want. At first, however, the focus will be on showing video streams of hit shows — with ads — such as NBC’s Heroes
and Fox’s 24
Doctor Who will return for a fourth series in 2008, executive producer and lead writer Russell T Davies confirmed last night. Series four is officially existing,
he announced at the launch of Series Three in London. I’m very excited, but we have known for ages
A US federal judge has overturned a law designed to protect children from viewing internet pornography, saying it violated the right of free speech. The law made it illegal for websites to provide children access to harmful
material, but it was never enforced. Judge Lowell Reed of Philadelphia said other means of protection, such as software filters, were more effective
Activist groups sued the parent company of Comedy Central on Thursday, claiming the cable network improperly asked the video-sharing site YouTube to remove a parody of the network’s The Colbert Report
Four Amway distributors have been ordered to pay Proctor and Gamble over $19 million in compensation. The four had spread rumours that the company was involved in Satanism, and the case has dragged on for over a decade. The judge had earlier decided that Amway itself could not be held responsible for the actions of its self-employed distributors — via The Pagan Prattle
Three years after establishing itself as one of the first specialist CRM vendors running its software on Linux, SugarCRM has launched into the project-planning market
VOD and AnyTime have emerged as favourites to grab a deal to supply Australia’s number-three internet company, iiNet, with content for its online movie service, scheduled to launch before the end of June
There is a new form of contraception available for women. The device is a soft plastic ring that releases the contraceptive hormone directly into the bloodstream. Professor Gab Kovacs from Melbourne IVF says the device is inserted internally and is 99 per cent effective. It contains half the dose of female hormone contained in the lowest dose contraceptive pills
The Pukaki Lagoon Explosion Crater in Mangere, New Zealand, is for sale. Current owners the Pangley family are selling it as aprt of a 62.3 hectare property. According to the realtor, the crater, formerly used for auto racing, would be ideal for a natural amphitheatre — via Boing Boing
Philips hopes that fitting-room fiascos will become a thing of the past if it ever forays into the world of fashion. The consumer electronics giant has come up with a way to change the size, shape and style of clothes by weaving muscle wires
into the fabric. The wires are made of shape-memory alloys that change length according to the small current passed through them. Here’s the idea: you try on a special pair of Philips’ trousers, and connect up to a power source that changes the length of the wires in the fabric until the trousers have the correct waist size, inside leg and width. Then simply disconnect to try the trousers in exactly your size. Philips says the technique could also be used to correctly fit shirts, socks and bras, or indeed any other article of clothing
A recall of potentially deadly pet food has dog and cat owners studying their animals for even the slightest hint of illness and swamping veterinarians nationwide with calls about symptoms both real and imagined. Some of the 60 million cans and pouches of food have been blamed for kidney failure in scores of animals and killed at least 16 pets. Since Friday, nearly 100 brands of the cuts and gravy
style food have been recalled by Menu Foods of Canada, including popular labels sold at Wal-Mart, Kroger and other large retailers
Deutsche Telekom’s Musicload, one of the largest online music stores in Europe, has come out strongly against DRM on account of its effects on the marketplace and its customers. Musicload said in a letter distributed last week that customers are having consistent problems with DRM, so much so that 3 out of 4 customer service calls are ultimately the result of the frustrations that come with DRM
Vehicles may soon be swapping information about road conditions to warn drivers about jams and dangers. A German research project on show at hi-tech trade fair Cebit envisions a peer-to-peer network for vehicles on a road passing data back and forth. Cars or bikes experiencing problems would pass data that would ripple down the chain of vehicles behind them. Information would be conveyed to drivers via a dashboard screen or through a mobile phone headset
Richard Dean Anderson will appear in the upcoming movie Stargate: Continuum. Anderson, who played Jack O’Neill on Stargate SG-1 for eight years before entering semi-retirement, will travel with an 18-person crew to the US Navy’s Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station in the Arctic next week to film scenes for the direct-to-DVD movie
The maple tree already provides Canadians with a beautiful part of the landscape, a national emblem and the sticky sweet syrup created from its sap. Now researchers have tapped into a new use for the sap: a base for a natural, biodegradable polymer, one they say may reduce our dependence on fossil fuel-based plastics. The discovery could potentially provide a new range of biodegradable products such as more environmentally friendly packaging material, and could be used for medical applications like drug delivery systems and surgical sutures
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