Electric Cars

Two big batteries stand side by side at the General Motors testing lab in Warren, Mich. One is an artifact, built a dozen years ago. Weighing 1,200 pounds, it could fill the back of a large pickup truck. Standing on one end, it towers over GM’s Robert A. Kruse, executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids and electric vehicles. The other battery is new and produces the same amount of energy but is a relatively trim 400 pounds. It comes up just past Kruse’s shoulder, and it will squeeze into the body of the compact Chevy Volt that GM plans to start producing next year. “You can see the direction the technology is driving us,” Kruse said. But while battery technology has traveled far from the big clunkers in the late 1990s, the costs and limits of current batteries remain the biggest obstacles to mass marketing plug-in vehicles. Although nearly every major auto company is moving ahead with electric-car plans, the batteries still cost about $8,000 or more each, experts estimate, and that could make electric cars money-losers. Moreover, electric carmakers warn, the industry’s manufacturing capacity is limited, and few factories are in the United States.

Solving these problems could become more critical as President Obama pushes to toughen fuel-efficiency standards. Automakers are lobbying Congress for help establishing a battery industry in the United States. In the House version of the big economic stimulus package, at least $2 billion — half in spending and half in federal loan guarantees — would go to promoting advanced battery technologies and manufacturing.

On Jan. 23, the entire Michigan congressional delegation sent a letter to President Obama urging him to support renewable-energy industries and electric-car batteries in particular. Lawmakers from the state have also implored the Energy Department to speed the release of money earmarked for fuel-efficiency research. “We cannot move from a dependency on foreign oil to a dependency on foreign-made technology,” the letter said.

The issue for some is not whether battery development is needed, but whether it is the most cost-efficient means of reducing the nation’s dependency on oil. “You can heavily subsidize small volumes of electric cars and lightly subsidize high volumes, but you cannot heavily subsidize high volumes,” said Menahem Anderman, chief executive of Total Battery Consulting. “The environment and energy security will benefit more if we had a million hybrids in the United States than 10,000 [electric vehicles], and technologically and economically this is more realistic.”

For now, batteries represent the greatest obstacle to an electric car, said J.B. Straubel, chief technical officer at Tesla Motors, a small, Silicon Valley-based maker of all-electric luxury sports cars. “There is no question that we can make 10 million cars. The motors are not a problem. Power electronics the same. But with batteries, you’re beyond the existing manufacturing base. You need to build a whole new industry to make the batteries, as big as the industry that is making the cars themselves.” According to Lux Research, a consulting firm specializing in emerging technologies, the electric-car battery market is projected to grow sixfold by 2013. About 70 percent of it will be lithium-ion batteries. Similar technology could become widespread in storing wind and solar energy for utilities, too.

So far, Asian battery makers have a leg up. General Motors this month announced that it had passed over U.S. battery firms and chosen LG Chem, a Korean firm, to make the lithium-ion battery cells for the Chevy Volt. (GM plans to assemble the cells at a $30-million plant it wants to build in Michigan.) “The point is LG Chem, thanks to years and years in the prismatic lithium-ion cell business and also thanks to massive financial technological support from Korea Incorporated, has a several-year head start,” said Bob Lutz, GM’s vice president for global product development. “This is why we say if we’re serious about electrification of the automobile, we do need, as part of a national energy policy, ... These are the government support for advanced battery development. sort of things I’m hoping the Obama administration will understand.”

A123 Systems of Watertown, Mass., was one company that lost out in the competition to become the battery maker of choice for General Motors. Founded in 2001, it licensed technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today the company has more than 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space, mostly in China and Korea as well as Massachusetts. But it has yet to land a passenger-vehicle deal (or show a profit) and is burning through cash as it strives to expand. It sells batteries for machine tools to Black & Decker, which accounted for 63 percent of A123’s total revenue from inception through Sept. 30 last year. A123 campaigned hard for the GM contract. GM’s Lutz said that the A123 batteries were “good for power tools,” but that “LG Chem is just farther along” on the batteries GM was seeking.

Other American companies, EnerDel and Altairnano, are also still looking to capture pieces of the electric-car-battery market. Now the U.S. firms are turning to the federal government to help them rev up production, and there are few voices fretting about the perils of industrial policy, especially when the economy needs a boost. Both sides of the aisle in Congress have backed government support. A123 has applied for a $1.84-billion low-interest loan from the Energy Department under the advanced-vehicle-technology program created by energy legislation in 2007 to build manufacturing facilities in the United States. EnerDel has asked for $480 million to expand facilities in Indiana. (Both of the state’s senators, GOP Sen. Richard G. Lugar and Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh have urged Obama to increase support for battery technology.) The Energy Department has received about 75 applications for about $38 billion in loans; the program is authorized to issue $25 billion.

Fourteen companies have banded together in a National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture seeking $1 billion to $2 billion in investment over the next five years. They say it is the only way to compete with Asian manufacturers. For carmakers, the choice of battery is a matter of strategy as well as technology. Three-quarters of American motorists drive 40 miles or less a day, so carmakers are trying to decide how much range an electric car battery should have. GM plans on a battery pack big enough to last 40 miles, at which point a small gasoline engine will take over. Some rival companies are considering a smaller battery pack that might go only 20 miles, still enough to serve the needs of many local commuters without adding as much weight and cost.

One company is making all-electric cars, albeit in tiny volumes. Tesla Motors has sold just more than 100 cars for about $100,000 each. Tesla has had its share of production problems, with parts coming from at least three foreign countries. But boosting battery production to serve an entire industry would be a problem of a different magnitude. If you commandeered all the lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity in the world, you would be able to make about 1 million plug-in cars a year, said Tesla’s Straubel. Moreover, he noted, there is virtually no spare capacity sitting idle. “If you’re talking about tens of millions of cars,” he said. “You’re talking about building new companies.”

North Korean "Full Ready" For War

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Seoul on Thursday, on the third leg of a week-long Asia tour. Earlier, during the flight to South Korea from Indonesia, Clinton told reporters that North Korea's leadership situation was uncertain and that the United States was worried the Stalinist country may soon face a succession crisis to replace dictator Kim Jong Il. Clinton said the Obama administration was deeply concerned that a potential change in Pyongyang's ruling structure could raise already heightened tensions between North Korea and its neighbors as potential successors to Kim jockey for position and power. Her comments were a rare, if not unprecedented public acknowledgment from a senior U.S. official that the secretive nation may be preparing for a leadership change following reports that Kim suffered a stroke last year. Clinton said the South Koreans are particularly worried "about what's up in North Korea, what the succession could be, what it means for them, and they are looking for us to use our best efforts to try to get the agenda of denuclearization and nonproliferation back in gear." "Everybody is trying to sort of read the tea leaves as to what is happening and what is likely to occur, and there is a lot of guessing going on," Clinton said, referring to talks between Chinese, South Korean, Japanese and U.S. officials about the situation in the North. "But there is also an increasing amount of pressure because if there is a succession, even if it's a peaceful succession, that creates more uncertainty and it may also encourage behaviors that are even more provocative as a way to consolidate power within the society," she said. Clinton's remarks came as North Korea stepped up belligerent rhetoric towards the United States and South Korea amid signs the North is planning to test fire what intelligence analysts believe is a long-range missile.

Just hours before Clinton arrived in Seoul, the North Korean military stepped up its war rhetoric Thursday, issuing a statement in which it accused South Korean president Lee Myung-bak of misusing "nonexistent nuclear and missile threats" as a pretext to invade. It also warned it was prepared for an "all-out confrontation." The strident statement carried on state-run media comes amid reports that the North is preparing to test-fire a long-range missile. Visiting Tokyo earlier this week, Clinton warned Pyongyang against conducting the missile tests. "The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward," she said. Analysts say North Korea is using the threats and missile test preparations to win President Obama's attention at a time when nuclear negotiations with the U.S., South Korea and three other nations stand at a deadlock and tensions with the South are at their highest level in a decade. North Korea, however, said Monday it "has no need to draw anyone's attention" and has defended its right to use missiles as part of its space program. Kim, 67, inherited leadership from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, in 1994, creating the world's first communist dynasty. He rules the nation of 23 million people with brutal authority, allowing no opposition or dissent. His failure to show up last September for a military parade marking the country's 60th anniversary spurred questions about the health of a man believed to have diabetes, heart disease and other chronic ailments. Citing intelligence, South Korean and U.S. officials later said Kim suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August. North Korean officials have steadfastly denied Kim was ever ill.

However, state-run media made no mention of Kim's public appearances for weeks last fall, feeding fears that his sudden death without naming a successor could spark a power vacuum, internal struggle in the nuclear-armed nation or send scores of hungry North Koreans fleeing to China. Clinton, who will visit China over the weekend, said she would be seeking advice in Seoul and Beijing about how to resume stalled six-nation disarmament talks given questions about Kim's health and who is now or may soon be in charge in Pyongyang. Clinton is to meet with Lee on Friday and said she would speak to him and others about how to defuse tensions between the two Koreas. Relations between the two Koreas have been tense since Lee took office a year ago taking a harder line toward the North than his liberal predecessors. The North's military, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, called the Lee administration a "group of traitors" and warned it "should never forget that the (North) Korean People's Army is fully ready for an all-out confrontation." The North's Radio Pyongyang said tensions are so high that armed skirmishes could break out near their disputed sea border at any time, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitors the broadcasts from Seoul. The South Korean military is prepared to repel any North Korean provocation, Gen. Kim Tae-young, chairman of the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly told lawmakers. Officials at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the parliament could not immediately confirm the comment. KCNA also cited joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises as proof Thursday that Washington and Seoul are preparing to attack the North. The report warned they would pay "a high price" for such a move. The U.S. and South Korea insist the joint exercises are purely defensive.

No 1 Killer Of Women In The U.S.A.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States, but many women are not aware of that. Health experts say informing women about the risk of developing the disease is the first step in preventing it. Women today are more likely than ever to suffer from heart disease, says cardiologist Matthew Budoff. "They are actually at increased risk of heart disease, partly because they live longer," he says. "And so, as they get older, they are more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and their cholesterol goes up. A lot of these issues are not discussed with their primary care physicians as diligently as men." The first step toward fighting the disease among women, Budoff says, is dispelling the misconceptions about it -- such as that heart disease only affects men. "The heart attack rate actually now is higher in women than in men in the United States," he says. "More women die of heart attack, more women die of stroke, and more women die of heart failure than men every year in the United States. It's really a female-predominant disease at this point."

Another misconception, he says, is that breast cancer is women's No 1. health concern. "Breast cancer is a very important disease for women and a big health concern," he says. "But approximately 5-to-1 of those women will die of heart disease rather than breast cancer. So heart disease is a much bigger killer of women in our society than breast cancer." Separating facts from fiction, Budoff says, can help women make better health decisions. "Women have to make sure that they are not only getting their mammograms and self breast exams, but that they're also finding out about their heart health," he says. "I highly recommend that women know their numbers, know their blood pressure and their cholesterol, and after menopause, consider a heart scan to see if they have any plaque building up in their coronary arteries." "Breast cancer is a very important disease for women and a big health concern," he says. "But approximately 5-to-1 of those women will die of heart disease rather than breast cancer. So heart disease is a much bigger killer of women in our society than breast cancer."

Separating facts from fiction, Budoff says, can help women make better health decisions. "Women have to make sure that they are not only getting their mammograms and self breast exams, but that they're also finding out about their heart health," he says. "I highly recommend that women know their numbers, know their blood pressure and their cholesterol, and after menopause, consider a heart scan to see if they have any plaque building up in their coronary arteries." To help prevent heart disease, registered dietitian Keri Glassman encourages women to re-examine their lifestyle and take baby steps to make it healthier. "We're really focusing on women making small changes and building on them to improve their overall lifestyle," she says. "We can modify many things to our daily lifestyle. We can improve our weight. We can reduce the amount of sodium we're consuming. We can incorporate more fiber and more omega-3s into our diet."

Healthier Living Prevent Most Common Cancer

Healthier living could prevent about a third of the most common cancers in rich countries and about a quarter in poorer ones, international researchers said on Thursday. Better diets, more exercise and controlling weight could also prevent more than 40 percent of colon and breast cancer cases in some countries, according to the study which urged governments and individuals to do more to cut the number of global cancer deaths each year. "At the time of publication, roughly 11 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer and nearly eight million people die from cancer each year," said Michael Marmot, who led the study from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research. "However, cancer is mostly preventable."

The study involved 23 experts who analysed both the incidence of 12 common cancers across the world and data on diet, exercise and weight to see how these factors contributed to kidney, mouth, lung, gallbladder and the other cancers. The researchers found that healthier living would prevent 43 percent of colon cancer cases and 42 percent of breast cancer cases in Britain, and 45 percent of bowel cancer and 38 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States. The findings follow the same groups' study in 2007 that showed how quickly people grow and what they eat are both significant causes of cancer. They recommended - in line with what health experts, including governments and the UN World Health Organisation, have long been advising - that people follow diets based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains and go easy on red meats, dairy products and fats.

The team also looked at China and Brazil as representatives of low- and middle-income countries, respectively. Overall improving diet, exercise and weight would in the United States prevent more than a third of the 12 most common cancers -- which also included stomach, womb (uterus), prostate, pancreas and oesophagus tumours. This amounted to 39 percent of the cancers in Britain, 30 percent in Brazil and 27 percent in China. "This report shows that by making relatively straightforward changes, we could significantly reduce the number of cancer cases around the world," Marmot said in a statement. "On a global level every year, there are millions of cancer cases that could have been prevented and this is why we need to act now before the situation gets even worse." - Reuters

Consider Taking Drug To Prevent Prostate cancer

For the first time, leading medical groups are advising millions of healthy men to consider taking a drug to prevent prostate cancer if they regularly get tested for signs of the disease. The advice stops short of saying men should take the drug finasteride, sold in generic form and as Proscar. It has risks and benefits each man must weigh, they say. That’s bound to be confusing, doctors admit. The drug can cut the odds of being diagnosed with prostate cancer by about 25 percent. Earlier worries that it might spur aggressive tumors have largely faded with further study, making doctors more willing to recommend it now. “If a man is interested enough in being screened, then at least he ought to have the benefits of a discussion” about taking the drug, said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Institutes of Health scientist and one of the authors of the new guidelines. They were published in two medical journals and discussed in a news briefing Tuesday in connection with a cancer conference in Florida. They were written by doctors with American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Urological Association.

Cost could be a big issue for many men. Finasteride, which must be taken daily, costs $2 to $3 a pill and insurers may not cover it for cancer prevention. Also, to prevent a single additional case of cancer, 71 men would have to take the drug for seven years — another reason this is an individual decision, doctors say. “There probably would be millions of different attitudes about taking a pill a day to prevent a condition that may or may not occur,” said the University of Michigan’s Dr. Howard Sandler. About 186,000 American men this year will be told they have cancer of the prostate. The disease often is diagnosed from a biopsy after a suspicious PSA blood test, which measures a protein. PSA can be high for many reasons, and there’s no proof that screening saves lives — the reason no major cancer groups recommend it. Most men over 55 get the test anyway, then face a dilemma if cancer is found. It usually grows so slowly it is not life-threatening, but it can prove fatal.

Treatments often cause sexual or bladder control problems. “We still don’t know if screening and aggressive treatment is a good thing,” but if men are getting PSA tests, taking finasteride is reasonable, said the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley. Finasteride shrinks the prostate and curbs testosterone, a hormone that helps cancer grow. The drug already is used for urinary problems from prostate enlargement as men age. At a lower dose, it’s sold as the baldness drug Propecia. A similar drug, dutasteride, sold as Avodart, is being tested to see if it, too, prevents prostate cancer. The guideline covers the whole class of drugs but for now, doctors are focused on finasteride. That’s because it’s the only one shown to prevent cancer so far. A landmark study in 2003 found fewer men who took it got prostate cancer than those on dummy pills. However, that study also raised a concern: Those on the drug who did get cancer seemed to have more aggressive tumors.

More study found that that wasn’t the case. It was just that the tumors were more easy to detect among men taking the drug because it helped reduce prostate size. The new advice to consider finasteride “is long overdue,” said Dr. Eric Klein, prostate cancer chief at the Cleveland Clinic. When men are given a full picture of the drug’s effects, “it’s not a tough sell,” he said. Finasteride has been linked to lower sexual desire and difficulty having an erection. However, in a study of older men, those were problems for most who weren’t taking the drug as well. Finasteride also gave benefits: fewer urinary problems and less incontinence. “The overall quality of life was identical,” and most side effects go away after a few weeks of use, Kramer said. Three of the 15 guideline writers have consulted for Merck & Co., which makes Proscar, or GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which makes Avodart. The advice is “aimed at people like me 10 years ago,” said Stewart Justman, a 60-year-old literature professor at University of Montana. He is in his third battle with prostate cancer and he represented patients on the guidelines panel.

Astonishing Richness

The polar oceans are not biological deserts after all. A marine census released Monday documented 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic, including several hundred that researchers believe could be new to science. "The textbooks have said there is less diversity at the poles than the tropics, but we found astonishing richness of marine life in the Antarctic and Arctic oceans," said Victoria Wadley, a researcher from the Australian Antarctic Division who took part in the Antarctic survey. "We are rewriting the textbooks." In one of the biggest surprises, researchers said they discovered dozens of species common to both polar seas — separated by nearly 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers). Now they have to figure out how they separated. "We probably know more about deep space than we do about the deep polar oceans in our own backyard," said Gilly Llewellyn, leader of the oceans program for the environmental group WWF-Australia. She did not take part in the survey. "This critical research is helping reveal the amazing biodiversity of the polar regions."

Most of the new discoveries were simpler life forms known as invertebrates, or animals without backbones. Researchers found scores of sea spider species that were as big as a human hand, and tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans in the Arctic basin that live at a depth of 9,850 feet (3,000 meters). The survey is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalog all life in the oceans. The 10-year census, scheduled for final publication in 2010, is supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations. The survey — which included over 500 polar researchers from 25 countries — took place during International Polar Year which ran in 2007-2008. Researchers endured up to 48-foot (16-meter) waves on their trip to the Antarctic, while their colleagues in the Arctic worked under the watchful eye of a security guard hired to protect them from polar bears.

New technology also helped make the expeditions more efficient and productive than in the past. Researchers used cell-phone-like tracking devices to record the Arctic migration of narwhals, a whale with a long twisted tooth, and remotely operated submersibles to reach several miles (kilometers) down into the oceans to study delicate marine animals that are impossible to collect. As many as 235 species were found in both polar seas, including five whale species, six sea birds and nearly 100 species of crustaceans. “We think of the Arctic and Antarctic as similar habitats but they are separated by great distances," said University of Alaska Fairbanks plankton ecologist Russ Hopcroft, who took part in the Arctic survey. "So finding species at both ends of the Earth — some of which don't have a known connection in between — raises a whole bunch of evolutionary questions," he said.

Hopcroft and other polar researchers will now try to determine how long these species have been separated and whether they have drifted apart genetically. David Barnes, of the British Antarctic Survey, said there a number of possibilities to explain how similar species live so far apart. Some may have traveled along the deep-sea currents that link the poles or may have thrived during the height of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago when the polar environment was expanded and the two habitats were closer. Hopcroft and Barnes cautioned that more work needs to be done to confirm whether the 235 species are indeed the same or differ genetically. "Painstaking work by geneticists investigating both nuclear and mitochondrial genes will only be able to confirm this," Barnes said in an e-mail interview. "It may be they separated sometime ago but similar selective pressures have meant they have not changed much."

Researchers Claim Enamel 'Tissue' May Be Regrowable

The days of whining drills and shrieking patients that can make a trip to the dentist an experience to dread may be numbered, according to scientists who claim that they may have found a way to regrow rotting teeth. Researchers studying tooth development have singled out a gene that controls the growth of enamel, the hard outer layer of teeth, which cannot grow back naturally once it is damaged by tooth decay. The discovery sheds fresh light on the way teeth form and could pave the way for new dental treatments that heal decayed teeth by regenerating a layer of enamel, making traditional drilling and filling obsolete. Scientists at Oregon State University found the gene after noticing that mice born without it grew teeth with no enamel covering. Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the body and begins to form when humans are still embryos. Specialised cells called ameloblasts in the tooth bud make enamel by releasing calcium phosphate minerals into a protein "scaffold" that shapes them into tightly packed rods of enamel. When our teeth are fully formed, they erupt from the gums and the enamel-forming cells die off, making it impossible for our teeth to regrow new enamel later.

For most animals this is not a problem, but in humans, the large amount of sugar and starch in our diet is turned into acid by bacteria living on our teeth, which slowly dissolve the enamel to make a hole in the tooth. If untreated, cavities can cause life-threatening infections in the body. If scientists can perfect a way of regrowing teeth and replacing the drill in the dentist's surgery, it could have important knock-on effects for patients. In 2005, a survey by researchers at the University of Toronto found that 5% of patients were extremely anxious about visiting the dentist, and half were so afraid that they either cancelled their appointment or failed to show up. By missing appointments, patients risk turning a fairly minor dental problem into a serious risk to their health. Last year, a poll by the Irish Dental Association found that parents passed on their fear of dentists to their children by telling them they were being brave or had nothing to fear from a visit. Despite rates of dental cavities falling for the past 30 years, almost half of children and adolescents and more than 55% of adults in the UK are still affected by holes in their teeth. Paul Sharpe, an expert on tooth development at the Dental Institute at King's College London, said: "If you could find some way of growing ameloblasts that make enamel, you could find a way to repair teeth. "Any gene like this is worth understanding.

The more we learn about it the more we can use the information to make biological models of tooth repair." Prof Sharpe's own work focuses on using stem cells to regenerate teeth, but he said the introduction of the Human Tissue Act had made it difficult to obtain teeth from patients to do the work. "We've probably lost a year because we've not been able to get hold of the right cells, and often these are from wisdom teeth that people are choosing to have removed," he said. In the latest research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Chrissa Kioussi and Mark Leid bred mice that lacked a gene known as Ctip2. They found that the gene was crucial for the enamel-producing cells to form and work properly. By understanding the genetics of tooth development, Kioussi said it may be possible to repair damaged enamel and even produce new teeth in the laboratory. Some groups have already succeeded in growing the soft tissues inside teeth, but they do not have the hard enamel covering needed to withstand chewing and biting. "Enamel is one of the hardest coatings found in nature. It evolved to give carnivores the tough and long-lasting teeth they needed to survive," said Kioussi. "A lot of work would still be needed to bring this to human applications, but it should work. It could be really cool; a whole new approach to dental health," she said.

New Google Phone Gains Momentum In Spain

Google’s bid to dominate the mobile phone operating software market got a boost on Tuesday when Taiwanese handset maker HTC (宏達電) unveiled the third phone based on the US Internet giant’s technology. The touch-screen HTC Magic is to be sold by British network operator Vodafone and its subsidiaries in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, the companies said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Rival developers are battling to create the dominant operating system for mobile phones, with Google and its Android system competing with Microsoft, Nokia, an open-source Linux-based project and Blackberry. “We are very excited to be introducing our first Android-powered smartphone in the spring,” said Patrick Chomet, global director of terminals for Vodafone. On Monday, Chinese manufacturer Huawei (華為) had revealed its first mobile phone that will run Android, meaning there are at least three “Google” phones now developed. LG and Samsung have promised their versions this year. The first phone to use the Google software was launched by HTC last October in partnership with German network operator T-Mobile. “For a new platform with open source, I am impressed with the momentum growing behind Android,” said Gavin Byrne, an analyst at telecom research group Informa. Android is “open-source,” meaning that the basic code is free for phone manufacturers and is available to other software developers who are encouraged to build applications to add on. Byrne said he still expected the system by Nokia, called Symbian, to remain dominant in the next five years, but that Android would establish itself as an alternative.

Google is hoping to establish its operating system as an industry standard, which would help drive users to its services, which include Internet search, maps and chat. HTC chief executive Peter Chou (周永明) stressed that people would increasingly access the Internet from their mobile devices rather than in an office or at home — particularly in the developing world. Google has recognized this, which is the reason it is so keen to establish itself and its applications in the mobile industry, analysts say. “There is a generation of people from various parts of the world who have never experienced Internet on a PC yet, but they will experience Internet on these mobile devices,” Chou said. Andy Rubin, head of Android at Google, said the project had gone from concepts and prototypes to realization in the last 12 months. The first prototypes for Android were put on display at the World Mobile Congress last year, creating a buzz among the crowds. “Last year there was a lot of promises and expectations. We delivered on those promises,” Rubin said.
He said that Android could reduce the manufacturing cost of a handset by 20 percent because the operating system is free. Sometimes we don’t even know it when they [manufacturers) announce phones with Android. They don’t need to sign a contract with us,” he said, adding that he did not judge success “by the number of handsets.” The HTC Magic is a slim, tablet-shaped device with touch-screen control that, like other high-end phones launched at the Mobile World Congress, has a resemblance to the top-selling Apple iPhone.

Junk Food During Pregnancy, Bigger Impact On Childhood Obesity

Eating junk food during pregnancy could have a bigger impact on childhood obesity, liver disease and diabetes than whether a mother is overweight, according to a study conducted on monkeys. A high-fat diet of potato chips, peanut butter and chocolate in pregnant monkeys produced fetuses with fatty-liver disease, a potential precursor to diabetes. And their babies were obese by six months old, according to research from the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine. It didn't matter whether the adult monkeys who ate the high-fat diet actually got fat. The study is evidence that the childhood obesity epidemic might start in the womb, said Jed Friedman, University of Colorado pediatrics, biochemistry and molecular genetics professor and co-author of the study. "Maybe there is something in pregnancy that sets you up," he said. Almost one-third of children aged six to 19 and 12 per cent of infants in the United States are overweight, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and obesity is now the most prevalent nutritional disease of children and adolescents in the US. "That is not due to genetics - it has to be due to environment," Professor Friedman said. Scientists from the University of Colorado and the Oregon National Primate Research Centre studied about 100 macaque monkeys for five years and watched half of the monkeys eat a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables and 15 per cent fat.

The other half got a diet similar to an American human - high-calorie and 35 per cent fat. Researchers removed the fetuses from some of the pregnant monkeys in the third trimester to study their organs, finding fatty-liver disease in the fetuses from mothers on fatty diets. Other monkeys were allowed to give birth, and the babies born to those mothers on the high-fat diets became obese. Monkeys on the junk food diet lived together and could eat as much or as little as they wanted. Some of them stayed thin, while others grew fat - but their babies all got fat, leading researchers to believe their diet in the womb made the offspring more likely to become obese. "It implicates the saturated fat in the diet as the culprit," Professor Friedman said. A high-fat diet in the womb may also affect the "appetite centre" of the brain, meaning baby monkeys might have problems with appetite control after birth, he says. In the next phase of the study, researchers will study what happens when the baby monkeys which have been eating junk food are switched to a healthy diet.

Mother's Obesity

Women with a BMI of 25 — 145 pounds for that 5-foot-4 woman — up to 29.9 are considered overweight, but the new analysis did not link that weight range and a higher risk of birth defects. "That's not necessarily because overweight doesn't have a risk attached to it," but studies to answer that question haven't been done, says co-author Judith Rankin, an epidemiologist at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Rankin and her co-authors came up with possible explanations for the link between obesity at conception and a higher risk of birth defects:

•Obesity is a strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and diabetes in pregnant women is an established risk factor for birth defects, especially of the central nervous system and the heart.

•Performing ultrasounds of obese pregnant women is more difficult, so perhaps they might not terminate pregnancies because of fetal defects as often as thinner women.

•Research has found an association between maternal obesity and nutritional deficiencies, specifically reduced foliate levels. Women of childbearing age are advised to take 400 micrograms of folic acid a day to protect against spina bifida, but maybe that's not enough if they're obese, Rankin says.

But James Mills, senior investigator in the epidemiology branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, says there's no evidence that bigger doses of folic acid for obese women would help. Back in 1994, Mills co-wrote the first study to link obesity in pregnancy to birth defects. It found that obese women were 2½ times more likely to have a baby with spina bifida than normal-weight women, fairly consistent with Rankin's finding.

Activity Cuts Breast Cancer

Vigorous exercise seems to protect against the development of breast cancer in normal-weight postmenopausal women, US research shows. Regular activity such as running, aerobics or even heavy housework was associated with a 30% reduced risk of developing the disease, a study found. Strenuous activity was only protective in women who were not overweight or obese and light exercise had no effect. The 11-year study of 32,000 women is published in Breast Cancer Research. Women were asked to fill in a detailed questionnaire about how much and what physical activity they did. Vigorous exercise was judged to include the more strenuous household and gardening tasks, such as scrubbing floors, washing windows, digging, or chopping wood and sports or exercise such as running, fast jogging, competitive tennis, aerobics, bicycling on hills, and fast dancing.

The figures initially showed a small, non-significant reduced risk of breast cancer associated with vigorous physical activity, the researchers from the US National Cancer Institute reported. But when they looked only at women of a healthy weight, the association became much stronger. There was no link with exercise in overweight or obese women. And there was no difference in the strength of the association when the team looked at whether women had a hormone-dependent type of cancer or not. Non-vigorous activity, which included light housework such as vacuuming, washing clothes, painting, general gardening and light sports or exercise, such as walking, hiking, light jogging, recreational tennis, or bowling was not protective.

It is not clear exactly why exercise may protect against breast cancer, the researchers said. Study leader Michael Leitzmann said: "In this cohort of post menopausal women, breast cancer risk reduction appeared to be limited to vigorous forms of activity. "It was apparent among normal weight women but not overweight women. "Our findings suggest that physical activity acts through underlying biological mechanisms that are independent of body weight control." Henry Scowcroft, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study adds to the growing body of evidence that breast cancer is less common amongst post-menopausal women who lead an active lifestyle. "Although this paper suggests that vigorous activity gives the most benefit, several other studies have shown that less intense activity can also be beneficial in the long run. "Clearly, we need to do more work to find out exactly how exercise affects breast cancer risk, so that women can make informed decisions about their lifestyle."

U.S. Airways To Eliminate 233 Jobs

U.S. Airways said Tuesday it will eliminate 233 jobs in 10 cities, including several in Columbus. Doug Parker, CEO of the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier, wrote in a memo to employees that the cuts were sparked by “uncertain times marked by less business flying, fewer family vacations and rising unemployment.” The company said airports in Pittsburgh, Tucson, Ariz., and Las Vegas make up the majority of the cuts, but US Airways’ operations in Columbus will lose some jobs. Spokesman Morgan Durrant, in an e-mail response to Columbus Business First, declined to detail the number of reductions in Columbus but said 10 or fewer workers were affected.

Those workers will be offered jobs at other locations, Durrant said. Airways (NYSE:LCC) employs more than 32,000 workers, including about 100 ticket and gate agents and fleet service workers at Port Columbus International Airport. “This is an extremely difficult decision and one we did not take lightly,” Parker said in the memo to workers. “We have been proud that US Airways has managed through the recent industry turmoil and downsizing with fewer job reductions than many of our peers. That is still the case after this reduction, but that doesn’t make it any easier. “ The airline, the second-busiest at Port Columbus, announced in January it would cut domestic mainline capacity by 8 percent to 10 percent during the year. Total mainline capacity will be reduced 4 percent to 6 percent, the airline said. Parker said the company had hoped to avoid cuts by not filling open positions. US Airways didn’t rule out future reductions, but said in a statement it has “the right amount of flying for the current economic environment,” but will continue to “evaluate and adjust our operation as business conditions dictate.”

Get Rid Of Belly Fat

Almost everyone has a little excess belly fat. Even the healthiest people can have a little fudge in the tummy. For many women, your stomach, along with your hips and thighs, is one of the first areas that expand when you put on extra weight. But be careful that your tummy doesn’t expand too much.A study released Thursday, suggests that young and middle-aged adults, between the ages of 20 and 55, with excess waistlines have an increased risk for migraine headaches. The researchers sampled over 22,000 people and asked them to report if they suffered from migraines or severe headaches. Using the body mass index, they calculated abdominal obesity and total body obesity. They found that overweight people between 20 and 55 years of age had more migraine attacks than those of the same age but with smaller waists. Around 37 percent of the overweight women in this age bracket reported migraines compared to the 29 percent of their slimmer counterparts.

Twenty percent of men with a larger waistline reported they suffered from migraines compared to the 16 percent of the non-obese men. For people over 55, the researchers did not find that total body obesity was associated with migraines. Women over 55 with more belly fat actually reported fewer migraines. “These results, while still in the early stages, suggest that losing weight in the stomach area may be beneficial for younger people who experience migraine and especially so for women,” study author, B. Lee Peterlin, DO, of Drexel University College of Medicine said in a press release. The American Academy of Neurology Foundation estimates that migraines affect around 28 million Americans. It affects more women than men and tends to run in families. This study is scheduled to be presented in Seattle, Washington later this year. These findings are just the latest in a string of health problems associated with obesity. Other health risks include some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Tennessee has one of the highest obesity rates in the country—30.1 percent, according to the CDC.

Crash Submarines Packed With Nuclear Missiles

A huge disaster was narrowly avoided when British and French nuclear submarines crashed in the Atlantic, a marine engineer said yesterday. The vessels, which are armed with up to 32 ballistic missiles between them, collided 1,000ft underwater in the Bay of Biscay. French sailors, who were returning to base, heard a bang after HMS Vanguard apparently clipped the front of their submarine, Le Triomphant. The Vanguard was forced to return to Faslane, in Scotland, where it arrived at the weekend with 'very visible dents and scrapes', witnesses said.Yesterday First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band confirmed the collision, which happened on February 3. Admiral Sir Jonathon Band confirmed the collision at a Royal Navy press conference

There was no nuclear leak and no injuries to the crew, he said. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment further, citing operational secrecy. However, experts and MPs called for a full explanation. Dr John Large, a nuclear submarine engineer who has advised the Royal Navy, said: 'This could easily have been very serious. There could have been a massive humanitarian disaster. 'If any plutonium from the missiles or reactors had got into the atmosphere there would have been a likelihood of causing both immediate deaths among people who breathed in the particles - and a big increase in cancers over the next three decades.'The £4billion vessels were believed to be in 'stealth mode', moving at just four-and-a-half miles an hour, with most of their systems switched off, when they collided. They avoid using active or 'pinging' sonar to find other objects, as it would give away their own position. The sophisticated passive sonar systems - listening for sounds from another vessel - would be switched on. But as both subs move astonishingly quietly, they were able to blunder into each other without either spotting the other.Navy insiders say the French submarine may have been the only vessel at sea at the time with which Vanguard could have collided in this way.

Chinese and Russian submarines are thought to be noisier and easier to detect. U.S. vessels are just as quiet as Britain's but the countries exchange information on where their submarines are patrolling. There is no information-sharing deal with France, it is understood. Dr Large, who led the operation to raise the Russian Kursk submarine which sank in 2000, added: 'It's like two blindfolded men creeping around a room. Eventually they are going to bump into each other. 'Nuclear power stations are subjected to strict regulations and have to be accountable when accidents happen. The same standards should apply to the MoD.' A worse accident could easily happen, he warned. 'The Atlantic is very big, but most navies use the same nesting grounds, quiet areas, deep areas, roughly the same distance from their home ports. 'These station-grounds have got quite a few submarines, meaning there is always the risk of a crash.' Angus Robertson, Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, said: 'The MoD needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine, carrying weapons of mass destruction, to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction, in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean.

Farmers fight EU plans to tag 30 million sheep

Britain's sheep farmers are on the brink of revolt over European commission proposals ordering them to electronically tag and identify every single animal in the 30 million-strong national flock. They claim the move will devastate the industry and could force farmers on to the streets in protest if Brussels insists on imposing regulations they claim are "crazy" and "unnecessary". The regulations, to be introduced in January next year, mean each sheep must be fitted with an electronic ear tag. The move is designed to track all individual sheep in the wake of the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001. But Britain has more sheep than anywhere else in Europe, and farmers, already under pressure from falling prices and low profit margins, say it is not practicable or even necessary. "We are prepared to fight this to the bitter end," said farmer John Hore, from Pilning, near Bristol. "The strength of feeling is such that it is quite possible we will see farmers taking to the streets. We are just not being listened to. And we need our government firmly behind us. "We have 30 million sheep in this country - probably more than the rest of Europe put together. They want each one of those sheep to be individually identified. And farmers are saying 'No, it's just not possible'. This could do to the sheep industry what TB is doing to the cattle industry." John Mercer, chief livestock adviser to the National Farmers' Union, said: "It's a crazy rule. It's not wanted. It's not needed. And it could, potentially, devastate the sheep industry. We really need political pressure now."

Farmers argue that British sheep are already identified by numbers and batch movements are recorded. That, in addition to restrictions on animal movements during disease outbreaks, is sufficient to combat further epidemics, they say. The huge costs associated with introducing the scheme - around £5,000-£6,000 for a machine to scan the tags, which themselves could cost between 50p and £1.50 each - would be enough to sink some farms, they claim. "It's a huge extra cost," said Alistair Mackintosh, who has 1,200 sheep on his farm near Whitehaven on the Cumbrian coast. "When you consider that the average sheep farmer only makes something like £6,000 a year, this could see a significant number of farmers deciding it is just too much." There are potential problems with ageing farmers struggling with the new technology, as well as internet and broadband issues in more remote areas. Farming organisations in Spain, Germany, Italy, the NetherlandsSweden have backed Britain's protests. South West England MEP Neil Parish, who chairs the European parliament's agriculture committee, has tabled a resolution calling for individual sheep identification to be voluntary. Last week an EU delegation visited the south-west to hear farmers' objections. Despite tagging demonstrations, farmers remain unconvinced, said Hore, who is chair of the NFU's south-west livestock board. "It's one thing to operate the system under a roof where it is relatively dry and warm. It's quite another to do it out in the middle of Exmoor in winter, when your hands won't work."

Why An Attack On Iran Is Not An Option

Israel simply cannot afford to launch a strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, though threatening to do it might be a useful tactic, Professor Gary Sick, a leading expert on Iran, said yesterday. Nor could any US president afford to sanction such a strike or, probably, to mount a US attack either, he added, arguing that the Obama Administration’s best course – perhaps its only one – was to talk to Tehran as soon as the Iranian presidential elections in June are out of the way. This view, it must be said, is a long, long way at the dovish end of the spectrum in Washington. It is “softer” than President Obama’s inauguration speech, in which he talked about keeping a clenched fist in reserve of an open hand. It doesn’t answer the question of what happens if America offers to talk to Iran but Iranian leaders don’t give up or freeze their nuclear programme. It doesn’t begin to answer Israeli fears that Iran is an existential threat, from which no other country will do enough to protect it. But it is worth paying attention, partly because of Professor Sick’s influence, and partly because these views are gaining some ground in Washington, from a low base. Professor Sick, who advised President Carter on the hostage crisis and is now at Columbia University, says that he has no intention of joining the Obama team. His views are followed widely, however, partly because of his own contact with leading Iranians, including President Ahmadinejad. His message – in which he has been consistent for years, despite the failure of the hostage talks – comes at a time when Obama advisers are beginning to consider how to live with an Iran that is within arm’s reach of nuclear weapons, or how to contain it if it chooses to get them.

Professor Sick, speaking at Chatham House, the LondonIranIran, because they can’t.” international affairs think-tank, said he worked on the assumption that Iranian leaders wanted to develop their nuclear programme to the point where weapons were within easy reach. Of the threats by assorted Israeli politicians to strike those facilities before acquires a nuclear weapon, he said: “They won’t bomb The technicalities were formidable, including the need to fly over Iraq and refuel in the air. Israel’s bombardment of South Lebanon showed, he argued, how you could mount strikes for weeks and miss the essential targets. A single Israeli strike would immediately provoke IranAfghanistanIraq (where it was certainly capable of forming a short-term alliance with al-Qaeda). “No one in the world would believe that Israel acted without US permission,” he argued. “What Israel would do with its one strike is take us [the US] to war,” he said, and no USIranIran analysts in Washington, recognising that it may be impossible to stop the first, and that, for all the reasons Professor Sick laid out, military action by the US or Israel is deeply unattractive. to withdraw from arms control treaties, rush to make a nuclear weapon, bolster hardliners and retaliate in the Gulf, and president would welcome that. Instead, he recommended that the new Obama team acknowledges the big difference between acquiring the skills and material to make a bomb, and actually making it. This is an increasingly popular distinction among

Ready To Strike

A FORMER senior Israeli diplomat has warned that Israel is ready to launch a military offensive against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. In an exclusive interview, Dan Gillerman, Israel's permanent United Nations representative from 2003 until last September, said the time for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability might already have expired. "The world cannot afford to live with a nuclear Iran," he said. "I hope diplomacy will work, but I'm not sure we have the time for [it] to work. "Israel has made it very clear that it will not live with a nuclear Iran, and I believe that Israel has the ability and the capacity to make sure that it will not happen."

Mr Gillerman, who is to visit Australia this month and is one of Israel's most senior diplomatic voices, said two clocks were running with respect to Iran. "There is the technological clock of Iran, and there is the diplomatic clock, and I think the Iranian clock is running much faster. "Israel has both the responsibility to defend itself and the capacity to defend itself, and I am sure that when the time comes and all other options have been exhausted, Israel will act in the only way it must to protect its people." Detailed military plans to bomb Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have long been on the table of Israel's senior military commanders.

Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, was believed to have requested support from the US for a military strike on Iran last May, but the plans were aborted after president George Bush declined to endorse them. Last June Israel carried out a military exercise over the Mediterranean involving more than 100 F-16 and F-15 fighters in what was interpreted as a rehearsal for a bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. On Tuesday the man most likely to lead Israel's next government, the Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, made a direct reference to Iran in his speech claiming victory in general elections.

Space Junk, Circle Earth For The Next 10,000 Years

The crash of two satellites has generated estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday. One expert called the collision "a catastrophic event" that he hoped would force President Barack Obama's administration to address the long-ignored issue of debris in space. Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday's smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred in the busiest part of near-Earth space — some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth. "800 kilometers is a very popular orbit which is used by Earth-tracking and communications satellites," Solovyov told reporters Friday. "The clouds of debris pose a serious danger to them." Solovyov said debris from the collision could stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years and even tiny fragments threaten spacecraft because both travel at such a high orbiting speed.

James Oberg, an experienced aerospace engineer who worked on NASA's space shuttle program and is now a space consultant, described the crash over northern Siberia as "catastrophic event." NASA said it was the first-ever high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft — with the Iridium craft weighing 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms) and the Russian craft nearly a ton. "At physical contact at orbital speeds, a hypersonic shock wave bursts outwards through the structures," Oberg said in e-mailed comments. "It literally shreds the material into confetti and detonates any fuels." Most fragments are concentrated near the collision course, but Maj.-Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff of the Russian military's Space Forces, said some debris was thrown into other orbits, ranging from 300 to 800 miles (500-1,300 kilometers) above Earth.

Obesity Problem In India

Obesity problem in India was bad enough, but it just got larger. According to Dr Ramen Goel,of the All India Association for Advancing Research (AIAARO) in Obesity, about 15% more Indians now have the dubious distinction of being considered overweight or obese. This is the upshot of new scientific definitions of obesity for Indians announced by Dr. Anoop Misra and Dr Makkar at the Asia-Oceana Conference on Obesity organized for the first time in India recently by the AIAARO. The findings were a part of a Consensus Statement published in February 2009 issue of the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India (JAPI). The statement was published by a prestigious consensus group of medical professionals representing numerous medical disciplines from reputed medical institutions, hospitals, government-funded medical research institutions and policy making bodies. Several years of excellent research provided the basis for redefining obesity for Indians. Current definitions for obesity and for predicting associated adverse health effects are largely adapted from the criteria developed in the Western countries for the Caucasian population.

Increased body fat, is associated with many health conditions associated with obesity such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Particularly, central fat – the fat deposited around waist and the internal organs such as intestines and liver is the worse offender. Higher body fat or the central fat dramatically increases obesity-related health risks. Body mass index (BMI) is a convenient surrogate marker for estimating body fat content. BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kg twice by your height in meters. Western standards consider a BMI of 20 – 24.9 as “normal”, 25 – 29.9 as overweight and 30 and above as obesity. Overweight and obesity cut-off points indicate a sharp increase in obesity-related health risks.

However, research showed a peculiar phenomenon. At similar BMI, Asian Indians have much greater central or total body fat compared to Caucasians, indicating that Asian Indians are more predisposed to health risks at a BMI that may be considered normal for Caucasians. Moreover, Asians with body fat and central fat distribution similar to that of Caucasians had greater health risks compared to Caucasians. Thus, Indians appear to get obesity-related diseases at a lower body fat level compared to Caucasians. This contributed to reconsidering the validity of the cut-off points for Asian Indians. Those with BMI between 23 – 25 will now be considered overweight and above 25 will be considered obese.

Similarly, new lowered cut-off points suggest that Indian men with waist circumference above 78 and women above 72 cm should be alerted against further weight gain and active treatment be initiated for weight management for waist circumferences above 90 and 80 cms for Indian men and women, respectively. Redefining overweight or obesity has more than academic significance. By recognizing possible health risks in a population segment hitherto considered “normal”, more Indians are likely to receive medical attention needed for prevention and treatment of obesity-related conditions. The new consensus guidelines also make specific treatment recommendations for Indians including physical activity, and for initiating drugs or surgical therapy. Overall, the recognition of a peculiar health situations in Indians, which is different from that of the West is a very welcome sign and is hoped to lead to appropriate corrective actions in this country.

First Gazan Killed Since Truce

A 20-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, becoming the first fatality since Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the territory. Maher Abu Rajila died after being shot in the chest as he was traveling in a vehicle near the town of Khan Yunis, close to the border crossing into Israel, medics said.

News of his death came shortly after emergency services said that 40 bodies had been recovered from rubble in northern Gaza, bringing the overall toll from Israel's 22-day offensive 1 245.

Stolen Shot

Yamaha Rider in Right Leaning Position

Swarm Of Earthquakes

The swarm of earthquakes that hit Yellowstone National Park in late December and January was the second-largest earthquake swarm in Yellowstone's recorded seismic history, the Yellowstone Volcano Laboratory said today in its updated analysis of the quakes. The laboratory said the swarm began Dec. 26 and continued into January but that it subsided rather quickly on Jan. 5. The swarm under the north end of Yellowstone Lake consisted of 813 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging up to 3.9. The sequence contained 19 earthquakes of 3.0 or higher. A number of the quakes were felt in the park itself and in surrounding areas, said the observatory. For the entire month of January, 315 earthquakes were located, with 205 associated with the Yellowstone Lake swarm.

A second swarm of 35 earthquakes from Jan. 9 to Jan. 12 occurred near the northeast edge of the Yellowstone caldera, about 10 miles north northeast of the north end of the Yellowstone Lake swarm. The strongest of the quakes was 3.3. The observatory said Yellowstone commonly experiences 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes a year. There have been more than 32,000 earthquakes recorded in Yellowstone from 1973 to 2009. Scientists said today that while earthquake activity was elevated during the Yellowstone Lake swarms, the amount of earthquake activity has now "returned to relatively normal background levels." Through January, said the scientists, the Yellowstone caldera has continued to rise, though at a lower rate than the past several years.

The Yellowstone Plateau, which comprises Yellowstone National Park, is one of the largest super volcanoes in the world and has gone through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the world's largest-known eruptions. Yellowstone is the site of the largest and most diverse collection of natural thermal features in the world. The most devastating earthquake in recent history in the Yellowstone region occurred on Aug. 17, 1959, when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit. It was centered near Hebgen Lake, Mont., killed 28 people and caused more than $11 million in damage. The observatory was created as a partnership of the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park and the University of Utah. It monitors long-term volcanic and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone Park region.