*Announcing a new Windows Live Photo Gallery experience on foursquare that helps users discover some of the best photo spots in their city.*
About the image: Yerba Buena Gardens. Located at Fourth and Mission Streets in San Francisco, Yerba Buena Gardens features public art and five acres of gardens. Image credit: Microsoft (more…)
A highly skillful and delicate method of sharpening and retouching stone artifacts by prehistoric people appears to have been developed at least 75,000 years ago, more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The new findings show that the technique, known as pressure flaking, took place at Blombos Cave in South Africa during the Middle Stone Age by anatomically modern humans and involved the heating of silcrete — quartz grains cemented by silica — used to make tools. Pressure flaking takes place when implements previously shaped by hard stone hammer strikes followed by softer strikes with wood or bone hammers are carefully trimmed on the edges by directly pressing the point of a tool made of bone on the stone artifact. (more…)
The discovery of six new isotopes, reaching in an unbroken chain of decays from element 114 down to rutherfordium, is a major step toward better understanding how to explore the region of enhanced stability thought to lie in the vicinity of element 114—and possibly beyond.” (more…)
*Digital health innovation center is first step of a joint healthcare effort in Wuxi, China.*
REDMOND, Wash., and WUXI, China — Oct. 29, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. and iSoftStone Information Technology (Group) Co. Ltd. have signed an agreement that enables iSoftStone to introduce Microsoft HealthVault technology to the Chinese market. 
HealthVault, a personal health application platform, enables individuals to store and manage their health information in a personal, online account. Initially focused on Wuxi, in the province of Jiangsu, the vision of the Microsoft-iSoftStone relationship is to enable citizens to connect to various health systems and services run by government organizations, physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and even fitness facilities for a comprehensive view of their personal health information. iSoftStone will be the exclusive operator of HealthVault in Wuxi and will develop and offer the HealthVault-based services to developers, application providers and device manufacturers to provide citizens with tools that will help foster dynamic, trusted and personalized healthcare. (more…)
WASHINGTON — Scientists using sensors attached to a type of Arctic whale known for its unicorn-horn-like tooth have detected continued warming of the southern Baffin Bay off West Greenland. The temperatures of the waters have continued to rise since wintertime ocean temperatures were last effectively measured there in the early 2000s, the researchers reported October 23 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, a publication of the American Geological Union (AGU).
Temperatures in the study were collected by narwhals, a medium-sized whale species, during missions in 2006 and 2007. The animals were tagged with sensors that recorded ocean depths and temperatures during feeding dives from the surface pack ice to the seafloor, as deep as 1,773 meters, or more than a mile. (more…)
*IBM and University of Lugano to collaborate on multi-core technology research*
Switzerland and ARMONK, – 29 Oct 2010: Today IBM announced a Shared University Research (SUR) award in the form of a modern high-end server to the University of Lugano, Switzerland, to advance the design of future computer systems and applications for multi-core processors. The powerful new computer, an IBM Power 755, will be used to investigate how future computer systems can best be optimized as part of a three-year research collaboration with IBM Research – Zurich. (more…)
Richmond, Va. – If you were dying from cancer, would you consider genetic testing? A recent study conducted by 
researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center showed that most terminally ill cancer patients who were eligible for genetic testing never received it despite that it could potentially save a relative’s life.
The research, “Exploring Hereditary Cancer Among Dying Cancer Patients—A Cross-Sectional Study of Hereditary Risk and Perceived Awareness of DNA Testing and Banking,” was recently published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling, and is the first to document the prevalence of hereditary cancer risk and the need for genetic services and patient education among terminally ill cancer patients. (more…)
Growth across all business segments drives record first-quarter revenue and earnings per share.
REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 28, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today announced record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion for the 
quarter ended Sept. 30, 2010, a 25% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.12 billion, $5.41 billion and $0.62 per share, which represented increases of 59%, 51% and 55%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period. (more…)
