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Submission + - Astronomers Discover Three Super-Earths Orbiting Nearby Star Gliese 667C

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The search for life on other planets continues. Now, astronomers may be just a bit closer to accomplishing that goal. They've discovered a system with at least six planets--and a record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths that lie in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist. This makes them possible candidates for the presence of life. The star that hosts these planets is called Gliese 667C. A well-studied star, it possesses just over one third of the mass of the Sun. It's actually part of a triple star system known as Gliese 667, also known as GJ 667, located 22 light-years away from the constellation Scorpius.

Submission + - Two mutations triggered an evolutionary leap 500 million years ago (uchospitals.edu)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: "Changes in just two letters of the genetic code in our deep evolutionary past caused a massive shift in the function of one protein and set in motion the evolution of our present-day hormonal and reproductive systems," said Joe Thornton, PhD, professor of human genetics and ecology & evolution at the University of Chicago

In a feat of "molecular time travel" the researchers resurrected and analyzed the functions of the ancestors of genes that play key roles in modern human reproduction, development, immunity and cancer. By re-creating the same DNA changes that occurred during those genes' ancient history, the team showed that two mutations set the stage for hormones like estrogen, testosterone and cortisol to take on their crucial present-day roles

"If those two mutations had not happened, our bodies today would have to use different mechanisms to regulate pregnancy, libido, the response to stress, kidney function, inflammation, and the development of male and female characteristics at puberty," Thornton said

Understanding how the genetic code of a protein determines its functions would allow biochemists to better design drugs and predict the effects of mutations on disease. Thornton said the discovery shows how evolutionary analysis of proteins' histories can advance this goal, Before the group's work, it was not previously known how the various steroid receptors in modern species distinguish estrogens from other hormones

They found that just two changes in the ancient receptor's gene sequence caused a 70,000-fold shift in preference away from estrogens toward other steroid hormones. The researchers also used biophysical techniques to identify the precise atomic-level mechanisms by which the mutations affected the protein's functions. Although only a few atoms in the protein were changed, this radically rewired the network of interactions between the receptor and the hormone, leading to a massive change in function

Submission + - Was Michael Hastings being investigated by the FBI? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Kris Clark
Kris Clark writes: Michael Hastings was a reporter known for his work in the Iraq War and for exposing General McChrystal of denouncing President Obama and his White House staff. He was killed in a car crash on June 18th, 2013. Was Hastings being followed and investigated by the FBI? His final email was to the WikiLeaks attorneys, announcing he had a big story and needed to be of the radar for a while.

Submission + - Snowden discloses US hacked Asia Pacific fibre-optic network operator

Submitted by Camael
Camael writes: In an exclusive provided to the South China Morning Post, a newspaper based in Hong Kong, Snowden revealed that computers at the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet – owner of one of the biggest fibre-optic networks in the Asia-Pacific region – were hacked by US spies in 2009. Accoding to their corporate website, Pacnet owns and operates the leading pan-Asian fiber optic submarine cable network spanning 36,800 kilometers that lands in 19 cable landing stations and extends from India to the US.

Submission + - Aging of our Nuclear Power Plants is not so Graceful (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: This is a very thoughtful article on nuclear power plant aging: how operators use early retirement of plants to extract concessions from rate-payers and a discussion on how California's "forward-looking planning process" has probably mitigated disruption from the closing of San Onofre. This is a good read about nuclear energy.
Biotech

Submission + - A new genetic code found (bytesizebio.net)

Submitted by Shipud
Shipud writes: A group from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Yale University and the Joint Genome Institute have isolated single cells of otherwise elusive and unculturable SR1 bacteria and sequenced their genomes. They found that SR1 deviate from the genetic code in a way previously unknown: what codes for "stop making proteins" in most organisms, is used differently in SR1, to actually continue making them. This study shows the power of a new technology, single-cell DNA sequencing, to reveal genetic information. SR1 bacteria are found in our mouths, and are suspected to cause periodontitis.
Piracy

Submission + - Returning NZ Soldier Fined Under Skynet Law (freezenet.ca)

Submitted by Dangerous_Minds
Dangerous_Minds writes: The publicity for the New Zealand three strikes law (or Skynet law) isn't getting any better. Freezenet is pointing to an article on Stuff which details the latest incident revolving around the Skynet law. Apparently, a soldier was just finishing a tour in Afghanistan and returning to New Zealand. When he got back to the country, he found out he received his third and final copyright infringement strike and was to appear before the copyright tribunal. Despite the obvious circumstances, he was fined $255.97 for downloading music from Hot Chelle and Rhianna anyway. Last month, it was revealed that RIANZ spent $250,000 just to reap the reward of $616.57.

Submission + - DOJ admits Aaron's prosecution was political (tumblr.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The DOJ has told Congressional investigators that Aaron’s prosecution was motivated by his political views on copyright.
I was going to start that last paragraph with “In a stunning turn of events,” but I realized that would be inaccurate — because it’s really not that surprising. Many people speculated throughout the whole ordeal that this was a political prosecution, motivated by anything/everything from Aaron’s effective campaigning against SOPA to his run-ins with the FBI over the PACER database. But Aaron actually didn’t believe it was — he thought it was overreach by some local prosecutors who didn’t really understand the internet and just saw him as a high-profile scalp they could claim, facilitated by a criminal justice system and computer crime laws specifically designed to give prosecutors, however incompetent or malicious, all the wrong incentives and all the power they could ever want.
Earth

Submission + - Billionaires Secretly Fund Vast Climate Denial Network 4

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Suzanne Goldenberg reports that conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120 million to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, helping build a vast network of think tanks and activist groups working to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarizing "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives. "We exist to help donors promote liberty which we understand to be limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise," says Whitney Ball, chief executive of the Donors Trust. Ball's organization assured wealthy donors that their funds would never by diverted to liberal causes with a guarantee of complete anonymity for donors who wished to remain hidden. The money flowed to Washington think tanks embedded in Republican party politics, obscure policy forums in Alaska and Tennessee, contrarian scientists at Harvard and lesser institutions, even to buy up DVDs of a film attacking Al Gore. "The funding of the denial machine is becoming increasingly invisible to public scrutiny. It's also growing. Budgets for all these different groups are growing," says Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace, which compiled the data on funding of the anti-climate groups using tax records. "These groups are increasingly getting money from sources that are anonymous or untraceable.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Changes Email Policy Making Spammers' Life Easier (microsoft.com)

Submitted by physics101
physics101 writes: It appears that Microsoft have made changes in the way that the email headers are formed for the mail sent from hotmail accounts. The X-Originating-Email tag now points to the IP belonging to Microsoft instead of the sender's IP. There are numerous threads (e.g. this one) at answers.microsoft.com. MS representatives are claiming that "the issue has already been forwarded to our Escalation team for further investigation". Despite of the bunch of dissatisfied users, this answer is being offered time and the time again for over two months. It suspiciously looks like a policy change for which they don't want to give any explanation.
Google

Submission + - Google speeds up Webstore with WebP (chromium.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: By converting PNGs and JPEGs to WebP, the Chrome Web Store was able to reduce image sizes by about 30% on average. Given the number of requests Chrome Web Store serves, this adds up to several terabytes of savings every day. WebP should translate into faster page loads and lower mobile data transfer costs, too.

Submission + - 550K Auction on Ebay For A Collection Dating Back 30 Years

Submitted by Busshy
Busshy writes: It seems the trend these days to put vast collections on ebay of Games Collections or just solitary rare games. DCEmu are reporting that a new auction with a rather staggering price of 550,000 Dollars has now appeared on the auction site. The collection which has been amassed over the last 30 years features 6850 games, 330 consoles, 220 controllers. The collector claims to have every game for Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Sakura Wars, Super Robot Taisen and so on. Also rare consoles such as Hitachi Gamenavi Saturn, Both the Bio Hazard Dreamcast (red & blue), The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles pearl white Gamecube, Game Boy Advance SP Famicom color for the 20th Mario Anniversary, The Metal Gear limited edition PSP. Still a heck of a lot of money though.
Medicine

Submission + - Crowdsourced coders take on immunology Big Data (nature.com)

Submitted by ewenc
ewenc writes: Mercenary computer coders are helping scientists cope with the deluge of data pouring out of research labs. A contest to write software to analyse immune-system genes garnered more than 100 entries, including many that vastly outperformed existing programs. The US$6,000 contest was launched by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School, both in Boston, Massachusetts. TopCoder.com, a community of more than 400,000 coders who compete in programming competitions, hosted the contest. The results are described in a letter published this week in Nature Biotechnology.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft rumored to be taking a 'meaningful look' at Office for Linux (engadget.com) 1

Submitted by alancronin
alancronin writes: Open source obsessive Michael Larabel says he has it on good authority that Microsoft is considering a native version of Office for Linux. Specifically, the company is taking a "meaningful look" at the idea, now that Linux is showing signs of becoming more of a player in the OS stakes. The information came to Larabel from an unnamed source during the Free Open-Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels, and this voice in the shadows apparently also revealed the port could be ready in 2014.

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