Our bodies contain proteins that are made of smaller molecules that can be either left- or right-handed, depending upon their structure. Regardless of which hand we use to write, however, all human beings are `left-handed` at the molecular level. Life on Earth uses the left-handed variety and no one knows how this preference crept into living systems. In 2012, ESA`s Rosetta lander will land on a comet to investigate, among other things, if the origin of this preference lies in the stars.

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In the high Canadian Arctic, researchers at the University of Rochester have stripped away some of the mystery surrounding the powerhouse that drives the Earth’s magnetic field. The research strongly suggests that several of the characteristics of the field that were long thought to operate independently of one another, such as the field’s polarity and strength, may be linked. If so, then the strength of the field, which has been waning for several thousand years, may herald a pole reversal

Baseball fans might want to add a little more sauerkraut to their hot dogs: Researchers have identified compounds in the tangy topping, made from fermented cabbage, that may fight cancer. Their study will appear in the Oct. 23 print issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

The researchers found that the process of fermenting cabbage produces isothiocyanates, a class of comp

Women with low folic acid levels are at a significantly increased risk of having an early, naturally occurring termination of their pregnancy, according to an article in the October 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, both folate deficiency and folic acid supplements have been reported to increase the risk of spontaneous abortion, which refers to the naturally occurring termination of a pregnancy – end of th

Women seem to be less susceptible than men to stress and serious stress-related illnesses because of the protective properties of the sex hormone oestrogen, according to a recent study of nurses by the University of Greenwich.

The study indicates that oestrogen reduces the production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline which, when secreted during long periods of stress, can cause major illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.

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Today, Eurescom, Spirent Communications, and BTexact Technologies announced the completion of a test that confirms the feasibility of performance management for IP Quality of Service (QoS) using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

As a result of this test, service providers will be able to employ a simplified methodology for identifying the location of performance problems across multiple operator networks, and for verifying their capability to capture performance information at various cl