Science

Scientists have identified a genetic factor that is linked with a 20% to 30% increased risk of developing bowel cancer. Although very rare genetic mutations have been associated with the disease previously, the newly identified mutation - which is carried by over half the general population - is the most common yet discovered.

Researchers do not yet know which gene or genes are affected, let alone how they might cause the disease, but they say the finding will help to intensify screening of people most at risk for the disease.

Microsoft has said that it is facing a bill of more than $1bn to cover the cost of offering extended warranties, after failings with its Xbox 360.

The company admitted it had been forced to make "an unacceptable number of repairs" to the consoles after key hardware failed.

Customers who suffer the problems will now be given a free three-year warranty, the company said.

The failures are indicated by three red flashing lights on the console.

Microsoft, has not revealed how many of its machines have suffered the problem, but said the number was "bigger than we are comfortable with."

The world's fastest commercial supercomputer has been launched by computer giant IBM.

Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM.

The latest number cruncher is capable of operating at so called "petaflop" speeds - the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Approximately 100,000 times more powerful than a PC, the first machine has been bought by the US government.

It will be installed at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois later this year.

Female sharks can give "virgin birth" -- fertilizing their own eggs without sperm from males, according to research published Wednesday in the Royal Society's Biology Letter.

A sexual reproduction is common in some insect species, rarer in reptiles and fish, and has never been documented in mammals. Shark experts said this was the first comfirmed case in a shark of parthenogenesis.

The joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research in the Royal Society's peer-reviewed journal analyzed the DNA of a shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.

The shark was born in a tank with three potential mothers, none of whom had contact with a male hammerhead for at least three years.

In the race for ever thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all – a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

Sony Corp posted video of the new display on its Web page today. The display is being held up by a hand that's squeezing the 0.3 millimeter display, while showing color video of a bicyclist stuntman, picturesque lake and other images, according to The Associated Press.

Sony will present the research and video at an academic symposium in Long Beach, California, for the Society for Information Display this week, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said in a release.

TOKYO-- A protein that can suppress appetite, help treat obesity and metabolic syndrome has been identified by a group of Japanese researchers, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Tuesday.

The protein, named Nesfatin, was identified by a team of scientists from Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine led by Prof. Masatomo Mori. The findings have been published Monday in a paper on the online version of the British science magazine Nature.

According to the paper, Nesfatin works on the part of the brain known as the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and various other human functions. Nesfatin is secreted by the hypothalamus.

A new SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute site in northern California will have 42 radio astronomy dishes up and running by the end of 2007, enabling it to scan the heavens for alien radio waves around the clock.

"There are a number of groups around the world doing SETI research. They are listening for radio signals out there, but it is not 24/7," said Scott Hubbard, who holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

"But it tends to be borrowed time where scientists sign up to use a facility for a few days or a few weeks at a time," he told Reuters Friday on the sidelines of a space development conference in Dallas.