Vijay Marur I don’t know if you have noticed, but lots of fathers seem to be going around telling their sons and daughters that ‘they can be anything they choose to be’. While this advice is sound and commendable it makes life difficult for the genuine professionals who perhaps were not fortunate enough to have parents who believed in the song – be what you wanna be. It was bad enough when computerization meant that text typed out in Word Star could be easily edited by a client who very soon began to believe that he was a good copywriter because everyone at home told him that he was so... 

  Itching: caused by the bad ones! In a recent study published in Nature, only a few fungi species were found on other body parts known to house fungi—such as behind the ears and on palms—according to the most thorough analysis to date of our fungal “landscape.” The minute bioforms that live with us are the subject of much recent study. But most research has focused on easily studied bacteria instead of fungi, whose DNA was harder to sequence until recently, explained study leader Julie Segre, senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute, which is part... 

  Zuckerberg: ‘let in talent freely’! The billionaire founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has launched a new initiative to push for immigration reform, describing America’s current system as “unfit for today’s world.” The group, called FWD.us, (pronounced Forward US), is backed by other Silicon Valley leaders including Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer and Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of Linkedin. “We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world,”... 

  Grass eating lion: stupid? No way! What do animals do when they get sick? They can’t go to the doctor. But a surprising number of wild creatures have figured out ways to use herbs, resins, and even alcohol and nicotine for health’s sake. Scientists the ranks of animal pharmacists in the latest issue of Science. First on the list: primates, who are particularly good at exploiting the medicinal properties of plants. Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have all that swallowing rough leaves can purge their intestines of parasites. And chimps plagued by roundworm infections have been... 

  Bangalore: Free wireless internet services are expected to commence in the commercial heart of India’s technology capital starting next month. Mahatma Gandhi Road and Brigade Road, two of the best-known shopping destinations, will have free Wi-Fi access as part of a plan to make Bangalore the first city to have such a service available at public spots. The idea is the brainchild of a government-appointed panel headed by Mohandas Pai, a former director at Infosys. The pilot service will be available for at least six months, after which the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)... 

  iPhone microscope: useful in remote sites! In a discovery that provides doctors in remote areas with an alternative, scientists recently created a microscope using an iPhone, tape, flashlight and camera lens. They then used it to diagnose intestinal worms in about 200 students in Pemba Island, off Tanzania’s eastern coast. “To our knowledge, this is the first time the mobile phone microscope had been used in the field to diagnose intestinal parasitic infections,” said Isaac Bogoch, an internal medicine specialist at Toronto General Hospital. Bogoch, who conducted the study... 

  The coding Marathon: AppFest Mangalore: In less than a week from now, thousands of students in Karnataka will get together at the St Aloysius College, Mangalore at the Beeri campus, to develop apps for the Windows platform. On February 26, more than 10,000 students from across the length and breadth of country will gear up to code applications for a whole day, at more than 50 hub centers like the St Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT). The colleges are currently holding training sessions for students who wish to brush up their coding skills as they register.... 

    An ad for clinical trials! New Delhi: As many as 436 people died last year due to serious adverse events (SAE) during clinical trials. Investigations are now on to ascertain how many of the deaths were caused by drugs administered to the trial subjects. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Friday that deaths could be due to life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart failure and stroke or side-effects of the drugs or their administration to critically or terminally-ill patients. “Such deaths are investigated to arrive at the causal relationship, if any,”... 

    How the meteor looked! With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky and exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs, injuring more than 1000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million. At least 112 people have been seriously hurt among the 1100 injured, according to the Interior Ministry. About 200 children who had been at schools were among the hurt from flying glass and debris. While NASA estimated the meteor was only about the size of a bus and weighed an estimated 7000 tons, the fireball it produced... 

  A mammoth GAIL pipeline Patna: another evidence of how the Bihar government is pursuing all possible ways to solve its energy problems – according to a recent report Bihar government is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) for use of the natural gas from proposed Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline. The commissioning of the 800 km pipeline would help state government in setting up new industries and power plants. Around 205 km of the pipeline will pass through the state. “We are in touch with GAIL management,” state industries...