Tired of always suspecting that your partner is cheating on you? Well, perhaps we can learn a little something from the multi-legged creatures on how male spiders ensure the faithfulness of their partners...sort of.

According to a new study conducted by German scientists regarding spiders' copulation techniques (it's times like this when you think scientists have waaay too much time in their hands), "males leave part of their sex organ inside their female partner as a sort of "chastity belt" to deter rivals." Hmmm..interesting, ain't it?

The Bonn University researchers found that by breaking off an itsy bitsy piece of their male organs inside a virgin female, sperm competition is reduced and further increases their paternity success. As you know, male spiders have to be real quick and fast in showing some luvvin' because it's only a matter of seconds before the larger female spider kills her partner. According to the study, this is how in over 80% of cases, the tip of the male's genitalia breaks off inside the female -- in the process of making a hasty getaway.

Now if only humans operate the same way -- we'd have a lot less one night stands and no need for various forms of contraceptive. Hahaha. Oh, which reminds us, for all the men out there, would you rather break off a piece of your woohoos or opt for the contraceptive dart gun? Your choice, fellas.

UK-based developer Playerthree, in collaboration with The United Nations, have just announced Stop Disaster Game, a free web-playable game which aims to educate children and gamers on how to "respond to and mitigate disasters." The game is part of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction which stands by the credo that "disaster risk reduction starts at school, teaches youngsters how to build safer villages and cities against disasters."

The game will require users to take on various missions to take the necessary precautions in case of a specific disaster. You'll be given a specific budget and time limit to test your ability to live out your "savior complex" by saving the most lives and livelihoods in the occurrence of simulated earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.

The game is currently available only in English and on the internet but the organization plans to have a multi-lingual DVD version of the game for the benefit of those in more remote areas in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Pacific, etc. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction director Salvano Briceño says,

Education is essential for reducing children risks to disasters. If we teach them about disaster risk reduction from an early age, they will understand why it is vital to build houses, schools and hospitals in safe locations, to have early warning systems in place and reduce disasters.

A strategy/simulation game that'll teach gamers about surviving natural disasters without the preachy vibe and the classroom setting? Can't say no to that. Click on the Read link to save the world (as much as you can).

According to Jennifer Bailey of the University of Washington, the saying that "History repeats itself" applies to grandma right here, and the repeat is disturbingly three-fold.

In a three-generational study conducted by Bailey's team, they found that substance use carries over to the next generations of the user. This is not a new finding as we see in different societies, where vices are inherited by the succeeding generations of the individual. However, the study's findings suggests that not only will our sons or daughters inherit our substance usage, but also down to our grandchildren.

Bailey and her team used data from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) for their Intergenerational Project wherein 808 respondents who had a biological child were followed from ages 10 to 27. Bailey's team studied the respondents' substance use and behavioral problems as well as those of their parents and children, who ranged from 1 to 13 years of age.

What they found was that children with attention problems and stealing during adolescence were also the ones whose grandparents smoked, used marijuana, or drank in binges. The behavioral problems at the adolescent phase (ages 13 to 14) were linked to substance use at a later age (15 to 18) and into early adulthood 'till age 27. These results were reported in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

Furthermore, the 27-year-olds who used certain substances also had children with behavioral problems. 43 percent of cigarette smoking-grandparents was linked specifically to cigarette smoking among their children. Bailey says, "Children of smokers, heavy drinkers or marijuana users are more likely to have behavior problems when they are young, and consequently more likely to have drug problems themselves as they get old," Bailey said in a university statement. "These children then grow up to be adult substance users, whose kids have behavior problems and the cycle is repeated."

Bailey says that this study is significant because we don't realize that not only is our specific vice inherited by our children and grandchildren, they also become prone to drinking heavily and drug abuse. However, she reminds us that their study is not deterministic in any way, that children of substance users are destined to end up the same way, but rather that these children become more prone and likely to acquire the same habits and vices that their parents/grandparents had.

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies..." Or so goes the controversial Beatles song that critics say was written when John Lennon was on an LSD trip (hence the letters LSD in the title). Whether this was a product of John's psychedelic high or really just a response to the image that Lennon's son drew of 'Lucy,' we would never know. Some people claim that if you listen to this Beatle song, you'd be able to picture kaleidoscope-eyed Lucy amidst diamonds in the sky. However, it would take a synaesthete to prove that possibility.

According to a study conducted by the University College London (UCL), most of us prefer an image to be combined with sound, rather than view it in and by itself. Dr. Jamie Ward of the UCL Psychology Department said that "combinations of sound and vision go together better than others.” The ability to see words and letters is actually inherent in every one of us, but being able to do involuntarily is a condition called synaesthesia.

Synaesthesia (or synesthesia) is a neurological condition wherein two or more bodily functions are able to intertwine and function at the same time. Synaesthesia is also said to be induced by LSD, magic mushrooms (or psilocybe), and other psychedelic drugs. The most common is the grapheme-color type, where letters or numbers are described and seen as colored, while other types are the number form synesthesia, personification, and the writer's personal favorite, the music-color synesthesia.

What happens when a person experiences music-color synesthesia, you ask? What basically happens is that individuals get to experience and 'see' colors by listening to music. Synesthetes rarely give the same colors for specific tones, which means that although different forms of music may evoke them to see certain colors, the hues sometimes vary. Evidence shows that for synaesthetes, there is no imagination involved, they literally see words and letters when listening to certain forms of music.

The UCL team set out to conduct an experiment where six synaesthetes where asked to draw and describe their experiences while listening to music by the New London Orchestra, a control group were asked to do the same. The images drawn by the participants were then shown to 200 persons, asking the latter which of the images best fit the music of the New London Orchestra which was also being played at the time. They found that all of the 200 respondents chose the images drawn by synesthetes.

According to Dr.Ward, this experiment shows that "all of us have links between our hearing and vision – even if we don’t really realise it." Kandinsky, a reknown painter and synaesthete, was once quoted to have said, while describing Composition VIII, 1923, "The painting is a good balance of contrasting noise – pure tones and cacophony – which was a delight to see. The more I looked at it, the more I came to appreciate the image and to like the ‘music’" This is perhaps why other synesthetes also describe his paintings in musical terms and annotations, while the rest of us who don't have synesthesia, can look at this image and not 'hear' anything.

Dr. Ward believes that all of us have at least a degree of synesthetic ability, but the crossover in our senses are not that pronounced. Ward further said that “We hope that understanding synaesthesia will enable us to understand more about how our senses are linked in our brains, and how this may help us create and appreciate works of art that combine music and sound.”

Recent findings suggest that semen could possibly cause cervical cancer in women. Should women stop having sex with men then to prevent cancer?

Not necessarily, according to the The Medical Research Council. It's just that a team from the MRC has found that cells of cervical and womb tumors contain prostaglandin receptor molecules on their surface, and there are very high levels of prostaglandin in sperm.

However, there's really no cause for sexual alarm whatsoever, as a cancer expert clarifies that while the prostaglandin in sperm could fuel cervical cancer, the chances of unprotected sex actually leading to cervical cancer are very slim.

So before you guys start cursing prostaglandin for potentially making your girlfriends or wives stop having sex with you, allow us first to brief you on what prostaglandin is and what it does. Prostaglandin naturally occurs in the cell lining of female reproductive organs, it's responsible for regulating cell growth and directs the womb lining to thicken or shed during menstruation. So yes, women have prostaglandin in their bodies to begin with, but the concentration of prostaglandin in semen is 1,000 times higher.

This is why the MRC team set out to conduct an experiment where they exposed cancerous tissue directly to prostaglandin. What they found was that the influx of prostaglandin found in semen boosted the level of signalling between cells. When this happens, the high level of signalling triggers new cascades of signals which in turn eventually lead to an increase in tumor growth. While cervical cancer is usually triggered or caused by the human papilloma virus, there are other factors that could fuel cancer growth, and in this case, the MRC found that sperm is potentially one of those factors.

This is a relevant finding according to cancer experts because they could develop a cancer treatment wherein prostaglandin is blocked from reaching the tumor cell receptors, thus slowing the growth of a cancer. Dr. Henry Jabbour, who spearheaded the research experiment, said that women with pre-cancerous cells may also be affected by this finding because even though the cells used in the experiment were already cancerous, pre-cancerous cells may also have prostaglandin receptors. However, more work has to be conducted before they can prove that.

Today, cervical cancer continues to be the second most common type of cancer in women under 35. Dr. Jabbour says that what sexually active women at risk of cervical or uterine cancer can do now is to encourage their partners to wear a condom during sex. And also for women who are not at risk of cancer, Dr.Jabbour says that "the most important thing that women can do at this time to prevent cervical cancer from developing is to go for regular cervical smear tests."

This nifty gadget puts a whole new meaning to the way overused saying "the eyes are the windows to one's soul" because it could show a step toward that saying becoming a reality. The Lie Detector Glasses can tell you whether someone is a possible terrorist or has criminal tendencies, and can even show you in real time (!) whether the person you're talking to is lying.

This Israeli technology is still currently being licensed by an American firm mysteriously called "V" so that it can be used even further for law enforcement, anti-terrorism, and other criminal investigations.

How it works: the glasses have internal LED lights which run real time analyses of the wearer's conversations as well as the emotional response of the person the wearer is talking to. The glasses use V's LVA technology, the same one being used to clear people through checkpoints in 30 seconds or less. The lie detector glasses are said to have more than 95% accuracy.

Wisconsin police chief Tom Winscher, who has 25 years of experience with the polygraph and voice analysis technologies, said "The use of this technology in criminal investigations is astounding, not only can you analyze 'live' conversations, but you can do a deep analysis of the interview, or do off-line analysis of recorded conversations. This enables law enforcement to focus on areas that require further investigation, saving a great deal of time."

These glasses could possibly be even better than the polygraph and other psychological testings that are currently being used today because of its time-saving element of providing the wearer with results in real time.

Get rid of the never-on-time weather reports and your not-so-funny weather man, now you can get weather reports and hurricane updates straight from your mobile!

Digital Cyclone, Inc., an innovator of wireless applications for mobile devices, has announced that their My-Cast 5.0 mobile weather service can now track down tropical storms and hurricanes. The new Hurricane Tracker feature now allows users to trace the path of storms and hurricanes in real time which shows the eye of the storm and where it's headed.

Paul Douglas, Chairman of Digital Cyclone, says "There's no doubt that America's weather is becoming increasingly severe and potentially deadlier than ever.With the new Hurricane Tracker feature, My-Cast users get that extra margin of safety, the critical hurricane information they need delivered directly to their mobile phone, to get a head-start and take appropriate action."

With the My-Cast 5.0, users can zoom into weather maps centered on any location in US and get information about the precise location, speed, and direction of storms and approaching weather disturbances through NEXRAD radar loops. Other features of the My-Cast 5.0 include infrared satellite imagery, advanced lightning tracking, and hourly weather forecasts for up to 7 days. Weather forecasts include temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, etc.

The My-Cast 5.0 also allows you to receive StormWatch plots and warnings for affected areas and states, as well as National Weather Service alerts in virtually the same time as they are issued. You can avail of this low-cost subscription service from your major handset carriers with data plans. So why wait for the weather report on your boob tubes when you can get it straight from your mobile? This way you can get a headstart in preparing for possible disasters that might hit your area.

In addition to the delay of the Atlantis launch (which was caused by lightning), it looks like NASA has to deal with their problem with Ernesto also.

Nope, Ernesto is not one of the Atlantis crew, nor is he NASA's big man, he may just be even more significant to the NASA Space Shuttle">Atlantis launch than those two mentioned. Ernesto is a tropical storm that looks like it's headed to Florida and can affect the conditions for the Atlantis launch.

LeRoy Cain, NASA's launch integration manager, says "With the current storm predictions, it would take a relatively significant change from the current forecasts... to prevent us from going into rollback preparation." However, this is not to say that the launch will definitely be halted and the Atlantis rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA is keeping their options open for the launch date, provided that everything in the system is checked and functioning properly.

In the meantime, NASA has prepared for both options, whether Atlantis leaves the shuttle on Launch Pad 39B or rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Cain adds, "Everybody would like to do a launch attempt Tuesday [but]...none of this is easy. This is just another aspect of what we do that is very challenging." Ernesto is said to have weakened according to the National Hurricane Center, but they warn that Ernesto could regain hurricane status as it moves toward Cuba.

While this is something that most of us have been eagerly awaiting, let's just thank NASA for taking all the necessary precautions before launching Atlantis. We wouldn't want to relive the crash of Columbia in 2003. So for now, let's just cross our fingers that everything goes well and that Atlantis will have a safe launch.

Just this Saturday, Nokia held an environmental-themed SMS Slogan Contest in Beijing, China where ten children were given the titles of "Environmental Pioneer."

 

As with everywhere else in the world, text messaging or SMS have also become very popular in China. Chinese youngsters showed off their texting skills by sending in their proposed slogan via SMS. This year, Nokia received more than 200,000 SMS from over 20 provinces in China, all suggesting their own environmental slogans.

China's Association for the Promotion of Environment and Culture was one of the organizers of the said event and they believe that by combining the popular text messaging culture with environmental concerns, they will able to reach out to more Chinese citizens and promote environmental awareness. According to them also, the best way to protect the environment is to teach children to love the environment.

One of the young slogan-senders said in his SMS that hopefully in the future, paper could be made from fibers, and ink could be made from chocolate, so that this way, instead of it adding up to our trash, we can eat the newspaper after reading it. We know we're not alone in saying this, so...altogether now: Aaawwwwww! Smart and cute, just the way little boys should be.

"I'm not heartbroken. I'm just shook up," said 93-year-old Patricia Tombaugh, wife of Clyde Tombaugh who discovered Pluto back in 1930.

In a phone interview from her home in Las Cruces, the old woman was asked regarding her sentiments about Pluto losing its planetary status. She said that she is frustrated regarding the decision, but says that her husband would have understood. Awwww...

Clyde Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto while working at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona where he spent months examining images of the sky. He was the only person in the Western Hemisphere to have discovered a planet in our solar system, until the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of its planetary status.

Tombaugh, who died in 1997, had reportedly fought off previous attempts to demote Pluto from being a classical planet to a "dwarf" one, but his wife said that this time, Clyde would have probably agreed with the decision because other planetary objects are now seen in the Kuiper Belt, the belt of comets near the edge of the solar system where Pluto resides.

"He was a scientist. He would understand they had a real problem when they start finding several of these things flying around the place," Patricia Tombaugh said. Awww, very true Mrs.Tombaugh, there are a lot things flying around nowadays. And we're all shook up just like you.