Heavy hydrogen excess hints at Martian vapour loss

Gravity means most things are lighter on Mars but it seems the Red Planet likes its hydrogen heavy. In its first chemical analysis of the Martian soil, the Curiosity rover has discovered an unusually high proportion of heavy hydrogen, also known as deuterium. Combined with future results, the finding may help pin down when and how Mars lost most...

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McDonald's seeks place in Australian dictionary

SYDNEY: The Australian arm of McDonald's has urged the national Macquarie Dictionary to include "Macca's" -- the brand's local nickname -- in its next edition.The hamburger giant said Macca's was second only to "footy" among recognisable words in local slang, according to a branding survey it commissioned that found 55 per cent of Australians referred to the golden arches in the abbreviated...

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Mobile Internet traffic gaining fast on desktop Internet traffic

Mary Meeker at D10(Credit:CNET/Rafe Needleman)Global mobile traffic is growing so fast that in some places it has already surpassed desktop traffic.That was one of the key conclusions of a year-end Internet trends report delivered this evening at Stanford University by Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist Mary Meeker.Once known by many as the "Queen of the Net," Meeker reported that 13 percent of all...

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified...

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Kate's Illness Sometimes Linked to Twins

Hyperemesis gravidarum, the reason newly pregnant Kate Middleton is in the hospital, is a rare but acute morning sickness that results in weight loss and accounts for about 2 percent of all morning sickness, doctors say.The condition is sometimes associated with women having twins, experts said.Women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum have lost 5 percent of their pre-pregnancy...

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Tiny tug of war in cells underpins life

TUG of war could well be the oldest game in the world. Cells use it for division, and now researchers have measured the forces involved when an amoeba plays the game. Hirokazu Tanimoto and Masaki Sano at the University of Tokyo,...

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6 weeks' jail for SMRT bus driver involved in strike

SINGAPORE: A SMRT bus driver from China has been sentenced to six weeks' jail for taking part in an illegal strike.Bao Feng Shan, 38, admitted that he committed the offence on 26 November.He appeared grim in court on Monday, as the charge was read out to him in Mandarin, accusing him of "commencing" the strike between 6am and 7am on 26 November at Woodlands Dormitory.Bao, who did not engage...

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Facebook interested in buying mobile chat app WhatsApp?

WhatsApp Messenger running on iOS.(Credit:Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)WhatsApp, the maker of a popular cross-platform mobile chat program, has been in talks to be acquired by Facebook, sources tell TechCrunch.TechCrunch had no information about a possible price range or how advanced the talks might be. CNET has contacted Facebook and WhatsApp for comment and will update this report when we learn...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Boehner on Fiscal Cliff Talks: 'You Can't Be Serious'

President Obama and his White House team appear to have drawn a line in the sand in talks with House Republicans on the "fiscal cliff."Tax rates on the wealthy are going up, the only question is how much?"Those rates are going to have to go up," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner flatly stated on ABC's "This Week." "There's no responsible way we can govern this country at a time...

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