Washington, June 26 : Palaeontologists have discovered tooth marks gouged in the rib bone of a large dinosaur by a mammal that lived 75 million years ago.

Researchers Nicholas Longrich of Yale University and Michael J. Ryan of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History think the tooth marks were made by an archaic order of extinct mammals resembling rodents, with each groove corresponding to a single incisor.

The pair discovered tooth marks on a femur bone from a Champsosaurus, an aquatic reptile that grew up to five feet long; the rib of a dinosaur, most likely a hadrosaurid or ceratopsid; the femur of another large dinosaur that was likely an ornithischian; and a lower jaw bone from a small marsupial.

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Washington, June 25 : Brooding female birds are sensitive to visual stimulation from attractive males of the same species, a breeding experiment with Houbara bustards has led scientists to conclude.

Females that observed highly displaying male birds in the experiment were more fertile and had a greater breeding success due to an increased allocation of testosterone into their eggs, leading to an increase in the growth rate in chicks.

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Washington, June 25 : A 95-year-old Australian microbiologist has declared that humans will be extinct in another 100 years or so.

"We''re going to become extinct. Whatever we do now is too late," Discovery News quoted Frank Fenner as telling The Australian in an interview.

"A lot of other animals will, too. It''s an irreversible situation. I think it''s too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off," he added.

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Washington, June 25 : Scientists from Yale University have discovered a novel technique that uses stem cells to build better lungs.

According to the researchers, ''reseeding'' lungs with a patient''s own stem cells before a transplant could save millions of lives.

The researchers have come up with a technique to remove all cells from a lung and then reseed the remaining connective tissue scaffold with a patient''s own cells.

"This is really the first paper that talks about engineering an entire lung that can be implanted and can exchange gas," Discovery News quoted Laura Niklason, a scientist at Yale University and a co-author on the Science paper, as saying.

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Washington, June 25 : The executive editor of National Enquirer said that the tabloid didn''t pay any money to the masseuse who made a sexual assault allegation against Al Gore.

Barry Levine said in an interview Thursday that the woman offered to sell the story for a million dollars but that "no money exchanged hands" and the paper conducted only a brief interview with her.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider confirmed that the Enquirer did not call Gore''s office for comment "for competitive reasons" out of concern that the former vice president would issue a statement and the paper would lose the exclusive in the two days before it reached newsstands.

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Washington, June 25 : Reiterating that its nuclear programme meets all international safety standards, Pakistan has once again called for its inclusion in the group of international nuclear states.

In a letter, published in the latest issue of the Foreign Affairs magazine, Press Minister at the Pakistan Embassy here, Imran Gardezi, stressed that his country's nuclear programme was based on minimum deterrence and self-defence.

Gardezi said that Islamabad had initiated and developed its own nuke programme in response to clear regional asymmetry in both conventional and nuclear arms, adding that it was now a source of regional stability.

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Washington, June 23 : Sharks have a keen sense of smell and a remarkable ability to follow their noses through the ocean, right to their next meal. Now, scientists have discovered how the sharks manage to keep themselves on course.

Researchers found that sharks can detect small delays, no more than half a second long, in the time that odors reach one nostril versus the other.

When the animals experience such a lag, they will turn toward whichever side picked up the scent first.

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New York, June 23 : Boeing has said it will recommend more frequent inspections of its long-range 767 aircraft after American Airlines found cracks in the pylons holding the engines onto the wings on two airplanes.

Boeing was working with American Airlines to resolve the problems and in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the issue, the aircraft manufacturer said Tuesday in response to a query.

Boeing cannot force any airlines to inspect their aircraft more often. But recommendations from manufacturers generally are adopted into airline guidelines.

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Los Angeles, June 23 : New York City, which has America's highest population of 8,391,881, is the largest city in the US, followed by Los Angeles, latest official statistics said.

Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the US, with a population of 3,831,868, Xinhua reported citing estimates released by the US Census Bureau Tuesday.

The rest of America's 10 most populous cities are: Chicago, 2,851,268; Houston, 2,257,926; Phoenix, 1,601,587; Philadelphia, 1,547,297; San Antonio, 1,373,668; San Diego, 1,306, 301; Dallas, 1,299,543; and San Jose,
964,695. (IANS)

Washington, June 22 : Nanotechnology researchers have successfully extended the operating life of an unsealed plastic solar cell, from mere hours to eight months.

The team of researchers from the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology had developed an inexpensive, readily available plastic solar cell technology.

But their advance hit a wall because of a chemical leeching problem within the body of the prototype.

A chemical coating on an electrode was unstable and migrated through the circuitry of the cell.

The team led by David Rider, developed a longer lasting, polymer coating for the electrode.

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Washington, June 22 : Scientists have successfully identified one of the most complex organic molecules yet found in the material between the stars, the so-called interstellar medium.

The discovery of anthracene, by researchers from the Instituto Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Texas, could help resolve a decades-old astrophysical mystery concerning the production of organic molecules in space.

"We have detected the presence of anthracene molecules in a dense cloud in the direction of the star Cernis 52 in Perseus, about 700 light-years from the Sun," explained Susana Iglesias Groth, the IAC researcher heading the study.

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New York, June 22 : Dr. Connie Mariano-the White House doctor when former US President Bill Clinton's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky hit headlines-has spilled some beans about the high profile affair in a new book.

In the new book, titled `The White House Doctor', Mariano details her reluctant involvement in determining that the 42nd President did have "sexual relations with that woman" after all.

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Washington, June 22 : India has welcomed China's decision to make its currency more flexible, saying it would help world trade.

"India is happy over China's announcement for its flexible policy as far its currency, Yuan, is concerned," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in response to a question at an interactive at a joint meeting India-US CEOs Forum here Monday.

"I am hopeful that China will follow the policy keeping in view the interest of the world economy," he said.

China has been criticised for keeping the yuan artificially undervalued to give the country an unfair advantage in international trade.

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Washington, June 22 : Customers who get a first-hand experience of using a product develop a good mental model of the product, a positive attitude, and greater willingness to pay for it.

"With the proliferation of consumer devices such as the iPhone, Wii, digital cameras, and various kinds of software applications, consumers face the challenge of learning to use new products," write authors Arun Lakshmanan, Charles D. Lindsey (both University at Buffalo - SUNY), and H. Shanker Krishnan (Indiana University).

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Washington, June 22 : The US military is funding a massive protection racket in Afghanistan, indirectly paying tens of millions of dollars to warlords, corrupt public officials and the Taliban, according to US Congressional investigators.

The security arrangements, part of a $2.16 billion transport contract, to ensure safe passage of its supply convoys throughout the country violate laws on the use of private contractors, as well as Defence Department regulations, the Washington Post reported Tuesday citing a Congressional report.

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Washington, June 22 : Carrying a Victoria's Secret shopping bag can make you feel like a gorgeous and glamorous woman, according to a new research, which says that certain brands have personalities that can actually change the way some people feel about themselves.

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New York, June 22 : Those who can't enough of dropping F-bombs online, a nasty dose of Pepper Mouth may curb your habit.

The device, invented by the Ultra-Modern-Life Training Lab, is plugged into a computer's USB port. It is a stink bomb canister that emits foul smells when swear words are used.

The main motive of Pepper Mouth is to teach people that swearing in emails can be risky.

"There have recently been many incidents where people got in trouble for the language they use in social media," Ultra-Modern-Life Training lab's website said.

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New York, June 22 : Women with low IQs are more likely than smarter women to go after rich men, according to a new research.

Experts say that it's not that women with a low IQ are naturally greedy, but they may instinctively be trying to line up financial security for their future kids.

Study author Dr. Christine Stanik of University of Michigan told the Daily Mail that it's `only natural' for poorly educated women with dismal job prospects to seek out rich men.

"In ancient times, women evolved an attraction to men with wealth because they knew such a mate could improve the chances of their offspring's survival," the New York Daily News quoted Stanik as saying.

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Washington, June 22 : The discovery and the consequent analysis of an early hominid skeleton - 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton - suggests that advanced human-like, upright walking occurred much earlier than previously thought.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, Addis Ababa University and Berkeley Geochronology Center were part of an international team that discovered and analysed the 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton found in Ethiopia.

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New York, June 22 : Ponzi king Bernard Madoff has told fellow jailbirds that he secretly paid three of his close friends nine billion dollars before being nabbed by the police.

The New York Post quoted Madoff as saying that his partner in crime Frank DiPascali knows who the recipients are, and that he suspects DiPascali is using that information to cut a better deal with the feds.

Madoff is lodged in the medium-security prison in Butner, North Carolina.

DiPascali, 52, pleaded guilty last year to 10 felonies in connection with helping Madoff swindle investors out of over 60 billion dollars at his Manhattan financial firm.

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