|  KKR wins battle for forensic science firm LGC By Hannah Brenton LONDON (Reuters) - KKR has won the auction to buy UK forensic sciences group LGC from Bridgepoint, the private equity firm said on Tuesday, after fighting off competition from three other sponsors that also submitted second round bids. KKR fought off bids from rivals EQT, Carlyle Group and CVC. The investment in LGC will be made primarily by the KKR European Fund IV. Read More » No hiatus in global warming, says IPCC chief  | By Nina Chestney PARIS (Reuters) - Global warming has not paused, but more research is needed to understand the level that might cause tipping points, or irreversible damage to the earth's climate system, the chair of the U.N. panel of climate scientists told Reuters on Tuesday. In 2013, the panel reported a slowdown or "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, heartening skeptics who said the risks of climate change had been exaggerated. However, more recent research by the U.S. ...
| Read More » US Life Expectancy Holds Steady; Infant Death Rate Drops Infant mortality dropped to a record low in the United States in 2014, and mortality rates for several leading causes of death among adults have decreased as well, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the researchers looked more closely at this drop, analyzing the rates of the 10 leading causes of infant death, they found that the rates remained largely the same from 2013 to 2014. The only significant change was in the rate of deaths from respiratory distress in newborns, which dropped from 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births to 11.5 infant deaths per 100,000 births, according to the authors of the report. Read More » Rare 'Flasher' Squid Caught on Video  | A squid with shiny, bioluminescent "spotlights" tipping two of its arms and what look like waxy red lips shared a close encounter with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in deep ocean waters near Hawaii. And the underwater face-to-face was captured in a spectacular video by cameras attached to the ROV, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. The squid even attached itself to the vehicle and "hung out there for several minutes," according to a dive update posted on NOAA's Okeanos Ocean Explorer website.
| Read More » Gene Gems: Ultrapersonalized Jewelry Encapsulates Your DNA  | Diamonds may be forever, but what's more unique and rare than even the most precious stones on Earth? The code of life, said Swiss chemist Robert Grass, the mastermind behind Identity Inside, a project that aims to create ultrapersonalized jewelry embedded with a loved one's DNA. "We started playing around with the idea of what we could do with this technology," he told Live Science.
| Read More » 74 Years Later, Sunken Pearl Harbor Plane Still Filled with Mystery  | A ghostly, sea-life-encrusted airplane that has been resting at the bottom of Oahu's K?ne?ohe Bay for three-quarters of a century was recently photographed underwater by archaeologists in Hawaii. The U.S. Navy plane, a Catalina PBY-5 "flying boat," went down during the first few minutes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Just before bombing the Pearl Harbor naval base, Japanese planes dropped bombs on the nearby Naval Air Station on the east coast of Oahu.
| Read More » China's Latest 'Airpocalypse' Seen from Space  | Severe air pollution is choking China with thick veils of smog, and yesterday (Dec. 7), Beijing issued a red alert — the highest possible — due to poor air quality in the Chinese capital city. Recent satellite images of the country show large hazy clouds covering portions of northeastern China that are so thick they can be seen from space. The images, taken by NASA's Earth-watching Suomi NPP satellite on Nov. 30, show some of the most severe pollution that cities in eastern China, including Beijing, have seen this year.
| Read More » No strings attached -- but 'virtual guitar' wails By Matthew Stock and Anastasia Gorelova LONDON (Reuters) - A guitar with no strings attached has become a reality. British researchers have created a "stringless" virtual guitar that is putting the power of music in the palms of people's hands.The Kurv Guitar does not look much like a guitar - it consists of a button pad that fits neatly into the player's hand and an oversized, sensor-packed guitar pick that recognizes strumming movements. The player strums the air with a pick-style controller, simulating real guitar playing. This elevates Kurv above a novelty or gaming device, such as the Guitar Hero video games, he said. Read More » Vermont medical school delves into marijuana science  | BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — As more states allow for the use of medical marijuana, the University of Vermont is offering a course in the science of the drug — and the professors say they are challenged by a lack of research on what has long been a taboo topic.
| Read More » Sunken Treasure Ship Worth Billions Possibly Found After 300 Years  | The wreck of a lost treasure ship has been found 307 years after it vanished beneath the waves. The galleon San Jose was found at the bottom of the Caribbean off the Colombian coast on Nov. 27, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia said in a statement on Saturday (Dec. 5). Built in 1696, the Spanish galleon was lost in a sea battle with the English in 1708.
| Read More » Don't tell Ahab: scientists find the real great white whale  | Call me "Albicetus." Scientists on Wednesday said fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. "Because the fossil specimen is a pale white color, and an ancient sperm whale, it seemed appropriate to honor Melville's infamous whale," said researcher Alex Boersma of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington.
| Read More » Don't tell Ahab - scientists find the real great white whale  | Call me "Albicetus." Scientists on Wednesday said fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. "Because the fossil specimen is a pale white colour, and an ancient sperm whale, it seemed appropriate to honour Melville's infamous whale," said researcher Alex Boersma of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington.
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