Heavens

3G and Wi-Fi are the two main mobile communications technologies today, but until recently they have been complementary services, the former offering users network access through cell phone masts forming a wide-area network (WAN), the latter based on hot-spot connections through a local-area network (LAN). Both then provide connectivity to the web, email and other services.

A computer science researcher at the University of Leicester has investigated a technique which senses the activity of the user with the help of computer software systems.

The doctoral study by a Pakistani student aims to deliver the systems which change according to the situation of the user by using Software Sensors that scan the context of the user.

Musical sounds created by longitudinal vibrations within the Sun's atmosphere, have been recorded and accurately studied for the first time, shedding light on the Sun's magnetic atmosphere.

People who remain pale and never tan can blame their distant ancestors for choosing to live in the northern reaches of the globe and those who easily achieve a deep tan can thank their ancestors for living in the subtropical latitudes, according to Penn State anthropologists.

Surveillance colonoscopy is effective and cost-effective when targeted to high-risk patients, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. However, overuse of surveillance colonoscopy could be excessively costly or even harmful.

New results from an investigation into Antarctica's potential contribution to sea level rise are reported this week (Sunday 20 June) by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and the National Oceanography Centre in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Children with autism have a different chemical fingerprint in their urine than non-autistic children, according to new research published tomorrow in the print edition of the Journal of Proteome Research.

The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London and the University of South Australia, suggest that their findings could ultimately lead to a simple urine test to determine whether or not a young child has autism.

The National Hurricane Center issued the final advisory on the Eastern Pacific Ocean's second tropical depression (2-E) on June 17 at 11 a.m. EDT. NASA satellite imagery from mid-afternoon that day revealed the depression's rains were waning, and the heaviest rainfall was over open ocean. As of June 18 Tropical Depression 2-E had dissipated off the coast.

Tropical Storm Blas is on a west-northwesterly track in the open waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and a NASA satellite flying overhead noticed some strong areas of convection in the storm.

Tropical waves can't escape the view of satellites, and System 94L which is associated with a strong tropical wave in western Atlantic Ocean and over the Lesser Antilles is being watched for development.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 18, 2010 -- A large group of scientists, including Jay Pasachoff, Bryce Babcock, and Steven Souza at Williams College, reveal the character of one of the most distant objects in the solar system in a scientific paper to appear in the June 17 issue of the journal Nature. In observing the object named 2002 TX300 October 9, 2009, as it passed in front of a distant star, they could tell what its surface is like and its size.

Rome, Italy, Friday 18 June 2010: The Chinese Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Treatment and Research Group (CSTAR) announced interim epidemiological information on SLE patients in China today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy. Robust data on SLE patients has been scarce to date; but now CSTAR provides the first online registry of this magnitude in China. To date the registry has collated data from 2,104 SLE patients across 30 Chinese provinces.

Regardless of race, fewer people see a kidney specialist before starting dialysis if they live in predominantly black communities, reports a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results highlight the importance of understanding why patients in predominantly black areas are less likely to receive kidney-related care while their kidney function is clearly declining.

NASA infrared satellite imagery captured two tropical depressions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean today, as one struggles to survive and the other powered up into Tropical Storm Blas.

New Haven, Conn.—Astronomers have glimpsed what could be the youngest known star at the very moment it is being born. Not yet fully developed into a true star, the object is in the earliest stages of star formation and has just begun pulling in matter from a surrounding envelope of gas and dust, according to a new study that appears in the current issue of the Astrophysical Journal.