So what's to say that the next major tsunami event doesn't befall the Pacific Northwestern region this time? Researchers from the San Diego State University are currently looking into a study which will simulate the next "megathrust" disaster event by running several scenarios through the San Diego Supercomputer Center's DataStar supercomputer. You can find out more about the results of this study by reading the full article.

Scientists and doctors alike are continuously looking for ways that'll improve the lives of paralyzed people.

In Neurosience 2007, a team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina put electrodes in the brains of two Rheses Macaques, more commonly known as Old World Monkeys, and analyzed the electrical signals that drive their legs. The full story after the jump!

A black hole with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun has entered the record books as the biggest stellar black hole found so far. Astronomers found the black hole in a galaxy called Messier 33, which is about 3 million light years from Earth.

Investigations led by Jerome Orosz, an Associate Professor at San Diego State University's astronomy department, also revealed that the black hole - known as M33 X-7 - orbits a companion star with a mass 70 times that of our sun. This companion star has also gained the distinction of being the most massive companion star in a binary system containing a black hole.

A paper on M33 X-7 appears in today's issue of the journal Nature. Jeffrey McClintock of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Orosz's co-author on the paper, notes that the black hole's companion star will also eventually go supernova, resulting in a pair of black holes.

Here's something to get most of us out of our rooms and enjoying the perfect day outside: ten minutes of fun in the sun could help against certain cancers, namely colon cancer and breast cancer.

This little tidbit of information comes from the latest study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, which also states that up to 250,000 and 350,000 cases of colorectal and breast cancer could be prevented by more sunlight exposure, respectively.

But how does basking in the sunlight have anything to do with cancer? If you haven't caught on to the craze yet, sunlight helps the human body's development of Vitamin D, the vitamin that protects against attacks of the big C.

As good as it sounds, there's a catch - you can only get doses of it from being exposed to sunlight, hence this study. And if you're asking for proof why, these guys are miles ahead - they've actually linked Vitamin D deficiency leading to a higher risk of breast and colon cancer, through a data-scouring survey that had the team pretty much going at it in a global scale.

All very well and good, but is ten minutes really the magic number? That depends. If you want to get number-crunchy about it, the blokes behind this study believe that 50 microgrammes of Vitamin D can lead to a "meaningful reduction" of breast and colon cancer. That comes around at about ten to fifteen minutes of sunshine - which should be enough for a casual walk around the park or so. It's not that hard.

So, put down your controller, put your PC into Hibernate mode and get some of that healthy sunshine that's just being wasted. It's free medicine, and you get a whiff of some fresh air too.

We don't want to turn this into a debate between the creationists and the evolutionists but more and more scientific evidences have been emerging stating that humans are not entirely different from animals. We don't know where the great Descartes is right now but his "I Think Therefore I Am" philosophy is currently being bombarded.

Many people believe that many of our more gentle emotions and moral reasoning are part of the human soul that was created by one almighty being. However, evolutionary biologists and cognitive neuroscientists are beginning to find out that these are actually connected genes, brain structures, and other physical correlates.

Quite interestingly, the above-mentioned physical manifestations were also found on animals. This, if taken to be true, will prove that humans' high level of thinking and moral judgment is still part of the evolution process. University of California San Diego brain scientist V. S. Ramachandran put it,

There may be soul in the sense of "the universal spirit of the cosmos" but the soul as it is usually spoken of, "an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brains and that only evolved in humans" - all that is complete nonsense. Belief in that kind of soul is basically superstition.

Georgetown University theologian John F. Haught, on the contrary, say that most people are having a hard time understanding or accepting the concept of soul because they see it as something unique to modern humans. He explained that he believes that that Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) existed and had in fact a soul. He further discussed,

Instead of eliminating the notion of a human soul in order to make us humans fit seamlessly into the rest of nature, it's wiser to recognize that there is something analogous to soul in all living beings. I think all of our hominid ancestors were ensouled in some way, but that does not rule out the possibility that as evolution continues, the shape of the soul can vary just as it does from individual to individual.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is currently holding its 160th annual meeting in San Diego, California and do you want to know what are they talking about? Well, our beloved psychiatrists are talking about Star Wars and Darth Vader among other things.

Experts from France's University Hospital of Toulouse Psychiatric Department told the APA that if Anakin Skywalker was a real-life person, he could clearly be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. It's actually a mental illness marked by instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior.

One of those who "revealed" these findings was Dr. Laurent Schmitt. The expert mentioned that the study was based from the original Star Wars film scripts. Aside from Skywalker's conflicted relationship with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and the rest of the Jedi Council, the following were also taken into consideration:

• Problems with controlling anger and impulsivity
• Temporary stress-related paranoia,
• Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (when trying to save his wife at all costs)
• A pattern of unstable and intense personal relationships
• Changing his name and turning into Darth Vader

Fans of the series know that Skywalker didn't really change his name. It was more like given to him by Sith Lord Darth Sidious. But any fan, we believe, can't contest the other four symptoms. We wonder what the APA thinks of Jabba the Hutt or Yoda.

Two ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: cut down on its production, the direct approach, or see if you can salvage the byproduct... could this be considered the indirect approach?

University of California-San Diego scientists have unveiled a device which they hope will be able to make a dent on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere - and get something economically useful out of it. It's a catalytic converter that strips CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO), and oxygen (O). And, making Mother Earth smile even more, it's designed to use sunlight to power the catalysts.

Now the device is not yet optimal, so it requires a little extra juice from an external power source to complete the reaction. Still, it is a promising start. Now, carbon monoxide ain't exactly a breath of fresh air, but when captured, it does have some useful chemical and industrial uses. It can also be converted into liquid fuel (And so as long as it doesn't get into the atmosphere, well, we should be safe).

Currently the scientists are experimenting with gallium-phosphide materials for the solar-energy half of their catalytic converter. Because it can convert more solar energy into electrical energy, they believe that it should supply enough juice to complete the splitting reaction. Hey, it's a start, and it's way better than bellyaching.

For those too young to remember, "Caspar Milquetoast" was a timid, weak-willed, wishy-washy character from the old H.T. Webster cartoons of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. "Big Bad Leroy Brown" was an aggressive, threatening, alpha-male-type bully from a Jim Croce song of the 1970's. Of course, all of us have known both types in our lives, and wondered - what makes one person mild-mannered and another pushy and domineering?

If recent research on fruit flies is any indication, it may boil down to a single gene.

Two researchers at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California, decided to breed a strain of aggressive fruit flies. After 21 generations, an index of fighting ability showed them to be 30 times more aggressive than controlled subjects. These flies started more fights that went on longer and were generally nastier. Genetic analysis showed that these flies' brains contained high levels of an enzyme called CYP6a20. This enzyme is produced by a single gene.

One would expect that several different genes would be involved in creating aggressive tendencies, according to a researcher at  the University of Melbourne. Ari Hoffman first bred "fighting flies" in the early 1990's. He finds it impressive that a single gene was responsible. He also theorizes that the enzyme in question may break down pheromones - further evidence that the ability to detect the scent of rivals may trigger aggression.

Of course, humans (with a few notable exceptions) are not fruit flies. While aggression in humans may have a genetic basis, human's more complex brains are also influenced by their environment, society, culture and perhaps even diet. Still, this research opens up some intriguing possibilities in treating aggressive disorders.