Hockey: India lose to Germany but finish top of pool

MELBOURNE: India finished top of Pool A despite going down 3-2 in their pool game to Olympic champions Germany at the Champions Trophy in Melbourne on Tuesday.

India will now face win-less Belgium, who finished fourth in Pool B, in a quarter-final on Thursday.

Elsewhere, England blew their chance to finish on top of Pool A after being held to a 1-1 draw against New Zealand, while the Netherlands had a scare against Belgium, but hung on to win 5-4.

A win will put India into the semi-finals and a chance for their first Champions Trophy medal since their bronze at Amstelveen in 1982.

Striker S.K. Uthappa said his team still took confidence going forward despite the loss to the Germans.

"Team morale is very high because we knew that it wouldn't be an easy game to play against the Olympic gold medallists, so we were prepared for a good fight and that's what happened," he said.

"It was most important that we finished on top and that is what we did."

German captain Moritz Fuerste said his team would reassess now they were at the quarter-final stage.

"The first three games weren't that important, but we are definitely happy to avoid Australia or Holland," Fuerste said.

Germany have to await the outcome of the match between Australia and Pakistan later on Tuesday to see who their quarter-final opponents.

India made the best possible start with Gurwinder Chandi finding space in the circle to deliver a powerful shot for the opening goal.

Germany worked themselves back in the game minutes later, with Oliver Korn following up his first shot which hit the post to fire home the rebound and level the game.

The match continued at a frantic pace, with India producing several shots on goal which were all stopped by German goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi.

India continued on with their form after half-time, with a deflection from Nithin Thimmaiah from a penalty corner retrieving the lead.

India continued to play attacking hockey in search for another goal, however the disciplined German defence held firm.

This eventually paid dividends with a lapse in concentration from India allowing Germany back in the game.

Tobias Matania levelled with 13 minutes remaining and scored again two minutes later to seal the win.

The Netherlands improved their claims of finishing on top of Pool B despite a close call against Belgium 5-4.

While they came away with the win, they were pushed by the Belgians, who fought back from a 3-0 half-time deficit.

Dutch captain Klaas Vermeulen said despite the close call they would take the positives heading into the quarter-finals.

"The tournament is starting now (with the quarter finals). We have to forget the second half and remember the first and stay focused," he said.

Earlier, England let slip a chance to finish on top of Pool A when they were held to a 1-1 draw with New Zealand.

They scored the first goal of the game through Mark Gleghorne, however the Kiwis controlled the second half with veteran Phillip Burrows levelling the score.

New Zealand will next play whoever finishes on top of pool B in the quarter-finals, with captain Dean Cousins saying his team has more scope for improvement.

"We are pleased (today), but need to keep getting better as it is going to get tougher as we go on (throughout the tournament)," he said.

- AFP/de

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My Best Tech Gift Ever: Meeting James 'Scotty' Doohan

You might not know it from his expression, but CNET copy editor Jeff Sparkman got the thrill of a young geek's life in 1987 when dad Frank took him to meet actor James Doohan. That's Jeff's brother Josh in Doohan's lap.

(Credit:
Jeff Sparkman)

Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor will recall a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read yesterday's story by Crave contributor Eric Mack here, and look for another installment tomorrow at midnight PT.

It was hard picking the greatest tech gift I ever got -- we got a lot of tech as gifts for the whole family. Should I pick the Atari 2600 or the Sega Genesis? Should I pick the Texas Instruments TI99/4A, the Commodore 128, or the Magnavox HeadStart 500 (the first computer we owned with a CD-ROM drive)? I was almost tempted to pick the Coleco Adam we got one year because it was the first system to teach me about backing up my documents. Heck, my parents just got me a
Nexus 7
tablet for my birthday, and that's pretty spiffy, too.

But since I can't decide, here's my pick for best tech (well, geek) gift: the day my parents took me to our local video store not just to buy "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" on VHS (yes, I'm that old), but to get it autographed by James "Scotty" Doohan himself. This was right in the middle of my full-on "Star Trek" geekdom.

What's the best tech gift you ever got? Send your stories and photos to crave at cnet dot com (subject line: Best Tech Gift) for possible inclusion in an upcoming feature.

I also brought my copy of "Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise," a kind of faux technical manual, to get signed. I mean, I knew he was an actor, but in so many ways, he was also the embodiment of future tech to me. Being able to look up things on a computer just by talking to it, instant personal communication, and interstellar travel -- all that stuff held my interest much more than sports,
cars, or any semblance of a social life.

When I met Scotty (he insisted I call him that), it was the first time I thought I could have a career in the tech field. Granted, I'm a copy editor, so I'm more concerned with the spelling of dilithium than trying to recrystallize it, but I'm here.

Find a memorable gift for the people in your life by visiting CNET's 2012 Holiday Gift Guide.

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.

Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified previously in polar Mars—appeared to also be present in Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity's exploration.

The possible discovery of organics—or carbon-based compounds bonded to hydrogen, also called hydrocarbons—could have major implications for the mission's search for more complex organic material.

It would not necessarily mean that life exists now or ever existed on Mars, but it makes the possibility of Martian life—especially long ago when the planet was wetter and warmer—somewhat greater, since available carbon is considered to be so important to all known biology.

(See "Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Proof of Flowing Water—A First.")

The announcements came after several weeks of frenzied speculation about a "major discovery" by Curiosity on Mars. But project scientist John Grotzinger said that it remains too early to know whether Martian organics have been definitely discovered or if they're byproducts of contamination brought from Earth.

"When this data first came in, and then was confirmed in a second sample, we did have a hooting and hollering moment," he said.

"The enthusiasm we had was perhaps misunderstood. We're doing science at the pace of science, but news travels at a different speed."

Organics Detected Before on Mars

The organic compounds discovered—different combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine—are the same or similar to chlorinated organics detected in the mid-1970s by the Viking landers.

(Related: "Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?")

At the time, the substances were written off as contamination brought from Earth, but now scientists know more about how the compounds could be formed on Mars. The big question remains whether the carbon found in the compounds is of Martian or Earthly origin.

Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of the instrument that may have found the simple organics—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)—said that while the findings were not "definitive," they were significant and would require a great deal of further study.

Mahaffy also said the discovery came as a surprise, since the soil sample involved was hardly a prime target in the organics search. In fact, the soil was scooped primarily to clean out the rover's mobile laboratory and soil-delivery systems.

Called Rocknest, the site is a collection of rocks with rippled sand around them—an environment not considered particularly promising for discovery. The Curiosity team has always thought it had a much better chance of finding the organics in clays and sulfate minerals known to be present at the base of Mount Sharp, located in the Gale Crater, where the rover will head early next year.

(See the Mars rover Curiosity's first color pictures.)

The rover has been at Rocknest for a month and has scooped sand and soil five times. It was the first site where virtually all the instruments on Curiosity were used, Grotzinger said, and all of them proved to be working well.

They also worked well in unison—with one instrument giving the surprising signal that the minerals in the soil were not all crystalline, which led to the intensive examination of the non-crystalline portion to see if it contained any organics.

Rover Team "Very Confident"

The simple organics detected by SAM were in the chloromethane family, which contains compounds that are sometimes used to clean electronic equipment. Because it was plausible that Viking could have brought the compounds to Mars as contamination, that conclusion was broadly accepted.

But in 2010, Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center and Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico published an influential paper describing how dichloromethane can be a byproduct of the heating of other organic material in the presence of the compound perchlorate.

They conducted the experiment because NASA's Phoenix mission had discovered large amounts of perchlorate in the northern polar soil of Mars, and it seems plausible that it would exist elsewhere on the planet.

"In terms of the SAM results, there are two important conclusions," said McKay, a scientist on the SAM team.

"The first is confirming the perchlorate story—that it's most likely there and seems to react at high temperatures with organic material to form the dichloromethane and other simple organics."

"The second is that we'll have to either find organics without perchlorates nearby, or find a way to get around that perchlorate wall that keeps us from identifying organics," he said.

Another SAM researcher, Danny Glavin of Goddard, said his team is "very confident" about the reported detection of the hydrocarbons, and that they were produced in the rover's ovens. He said it is clear that the chlorine in the compounds is from Mars, but less clear about the carbon.

"We will figure out what's going on here," he said. "We have the instruments and we have the people. And whatever the final conclusions, we will have learned important things about Mars that we can use in the months ahead."

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

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Kate's Illness Sometimes Linked to Twins

Hyperemesis gravidarum, the reason newly pregnant Kate Middleton is in the hospital, is a rare but acute morning sickness that results in weight loss and accounts for about 2 percent of all morning sickness, doctors say.

The condition is sometimes associated with women having twins, experts said.

Women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum have lost 5 percent of their pre-pregnancy weight, or 10 pounds, said Dr. Ashley Roman, a professor and OB/GYN at New York University Langone Medical Center.

It poses little danger to the tiny heir, doctors said.

"It's traditionally thought that nausea and vomiting is a sign of a healthy pregnancy," Roman said

Dr. Nancy Cossler, an OB/GYN at University Hospitals in Ohio said the condition does not cause loss of pregnancy or birth defects, but it can be a torture to endure.

"The biggest problem with this is how it interferes with your life," Cossler said. "Constantly feeling sick and puking is difficult."

Click here to read about other women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

Hyperemesis gravidarum is thought to be caused by higher levels of the pregnancy hormone, hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, Cossler said. Extra hCG can often be brought on by carrying more than one fetus, she said.

Chris Jackson/AFP/Getty Images

Kate Middleton Pregnant, Admitted to Hospital Watch Video

Kate Middleton, Prince William Expecting Their First Child Watch Video

Prince William and Kate Middleton's Big News Watch Video

In other words, it could be a sign that Middleton is carrying twins. Although there's very little data on twins and hyperemesis gravidarum, one study showed that women carrying twins had a 7.5 percent higher risk of experiencing the acute morning sickness, Roman said.

The extreme morning sickness is usually diagnosed about nine weeks into the pregnancy, and in most cases resolves itself by 16 or 20 weeks, Roman said. In rare cases, it can last the whole pregnancy.

"As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter," a statement from St. James Palace said. Prince William is at the hospital with Middleton, according to the Britain's Press Association.

Click here for photos of Kate through the years.

Roman said doctors prescribe vitamins and ginger capsules at first. If that doesn't stop the vomiting, they will prescribe antihistamines and stronger anti-nausea medications.

Women with hyperemesis gravidarum are also treated with fluids, said Dr. Jessica Young, an OB/GYN at Vanderbilt University. But if left untreated, a pregnant woman who is severely dehydrated for a long period of time could die, "just like any person," Young said.

In extreme cases in which the woman is losing weight and unable to eat, doctors will treat her with intravenous nutrition, Young said.

Hospital stays can vary, and women will often have to be admitted more than once before the condition passes, doctors said.

Hyperemesis gravidarum is somewhat mysterious because some expectant mothers have acute morning sickness during only one of their pregnancies, but have no morning sickness for subsequent pregnancies.

There is a chance that higher levels of hCG, which likely caused Middleton's nausea, could be a sign of a molar pregnancy instead of twins, Cossler said. This would mean Middleton is carrying only a benign growth in her uterus instead of a fetus, or she is carrying a fetus with abnormal DNA and a benign growth. Neither is considered a viable pregnancy.

However, Cossler said molar pregnancies become apparent early on, and doctors would already know whether Middleton had one.

"They would not have released this information," Cossler said of the birth announcement. "I'm certain that they have already eliminated both of those [types of molar pregnancies]."

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Elon Musk: Mars base will open the way to other stars

The SpaceX founder says he'd like to "die on Mars". Why the obsession with going to the Red Planet?

Why are you so keen to get humans to Mars?
Because this is the first time in 4 billion years of Earth's history that it has been possible. That window may be open for a long time - and I hope it is - but it may not be. We should take advantage just in case something bad happens. It wouldn't necessarily be that humanity gets eliminated; it could just be a drop in technology.

Why go to Mars, when advances in telepresent robotics could give us all the physical sensations of being there?
Maybe I'm just being romantic but I do think there is some value to being there in person. We can learn a lot from robotics but it is no substitute for being there. And having a base on Mars, where there is a lot of travel to and from Earth, will create a powerful incentive for developing technology that will enable us to travel to other star systems.

Like the exoplanet recently found in Alpha Centauri 4 light years away?
I think you could figure out how to get there. With a nuclear thermal rocket you could definitely reach a tenth of the speed of light. It would take 40 years, though, which is a long time. You'd have to start off not too old if you wanted to see it.

What could change that?
There are some interesting things I've seen lately about warp drives. You can't exceed the speed of light but you can warp space and effectively travel many times the speed of light. That's kind of exciting. People have found increasingly smarter ways of minimising the energy required [to warp space]. Before, you would need the mass-energy of Jupiter.

Is a warp drive something that SpaceX, your space exploration company, could use?
Sure we'd love to have a warp drive. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

As a pioneer, is it nerve-wracking to know that the world is watching you and SpaceX?
I'm getting more comfortable with it. It was super-white knuckles in the beginning. We made many mistakes. We only made orbit on the fourth flight. We reached the edge of space on flights 2 and 3, but didn't have enough velocity. If flight 4 hadn't worked, it would have been curtains for SpaceX.

Your Dragon capsule has just returned cargo from the International Space Station. When will you start taking astronauts?
We're hoping to do our first flight with people in three years. Actually, if somebody were to stowaway on the present version of Dragon they'd be able to go to the space station and be fine.

Will you be on the first crewed flight?
It's really up to NASA, our customer. I used to do quite dangerous things, like flying a fighter jet at low altitude. Then I had kids and companies and I want to see them grow up, so I've curtailed my dangerous activities. I'd like to go up, but I won't be the first. The very first flight will be on automatic pilot, so there will be no people on board.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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PM Lee meets former US National Security Advisor Scowcroft at Istana

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met former US National Security Advisor General Brent Scowcroft at the Istana on Monday morning.

Mr Scowcroft is also President of the Scowcroft Group, an international business advisory firm.

PM Lee and General Scowcroft exchanged views on a wide range of issues, including developments in the US as well as international and regional developments, according to Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While in Singapore, General Scowcroft will also meet Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law Mr K Shanmugam and former Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

- CNA/jc

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Chrome gains a mobile foothold -- on Android only

The mobile browser market is more volatile than the PC browser market, but Apple consistently keeps the top spot. Chrome now accounts for more than 1 percent of mobile browser usage, Net Applications has found.

(Credit:
data from Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Chrome has made a dent in the
mobile browser market -- but only on
Android so far.

Although Google released Chrome for iOS in June, the browser accounted for only 0.01 percent of browser usage on iOS in November, Net Applications' latest statistics show. On Android, it was 4.03 percent for the month, and in the mobile market overall, it reached 1.14 percent of usage.

Chrome is available only for Android devices running version 4.0 or later of the mobile operating system, which means most people can't use it even if they want to. On iOS, Chrome uses Apple's version of the WebKit rendering engine, as required by Apple rules, but wraps it with Google's user interface and other extras. Chrome is "exceptionally profitable" for Google because it drives search traffic and because Google doesn't have to share resulting ad revenue with other browser makers.

In that mobile market, Apple's
Safari continues to dominate with 61.5 percent of usage among people who visited the Web site that use Net Applications' analytics software. Android's unbranded browser has been rising through the second-place ranks, up to 26.1 percent of usage in November from 16.4 percent a year earlier.

Google's mobile-browser growth has come at the expense of the former No. 2, Opera Mini, which has plunged from 20.1 percent in November 2011 ago to 7.0 percent in November 2012. Opera Mini is popular on older-generation phones, but the Norwegian company is struggling to transfer that usage to modern smartphones. It's still ahead of Firefox, which doesn't even show in Net Applications' statistics, though Mozilla has begun pushing hard for influence in the mobile market.

Microsoft's IE leads the desktop browser market, with Chrome and Firefox jockeying for second place.

(Credit:
data from Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Mobile browsing -- that done with smartphones and tablets -- now accounts for 10.4 percent of all browser usage. On personal computers, which was responsible for 89.3 percent of browser usage in November, the market is much more stable.

Here, Internet Explorer maintained its lead with 54.8 percent of usage. Second-place Firefox reclaimed a bit of lost ground lost in October to reach 20.4 percent in November. Chrome dropped to 17.2 percent; Safari and Opera were mostly level at 5.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Mobile browser usage has surpassed a tenth of all browsing, according to Net Applications

(Credit:
data from Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Into the Sea

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.

  Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Sea of Fire

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.

  The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Volcanic Flare

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.

  The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Fiery Encounter

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  “Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Point of Contact

  
  Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
  

  A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  

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Boehner on Fiscal Cliff Talks: 'You Can't Be Serious'

President Obama and his White House team appear to have drawn a line in the sand in talks with House Republicans on the "fiscal cliff."

Tax rates on the wealthy are going up, the only question is how much?

"Those rates are going to have to go up," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner flatly stated on ABC's "This Week." "There's no responsible way we can govern this country at a time of enormous threat, and risk, and challenge ... with those low rates in place for future generations."

But the president's plan, which Geithner delivered last week, has left the two sides far apart.

In recounting his response today on "Fox News Sunday," House Speaker John Boehner said: "I was flabbergasted. I looked at him and said, 'You can't be serious.'

"The president's idea of negotiation is: Roll over and do what I ask," Boehner added.

The president has never asked for so much additional tax revenue. He wants another $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years, including returning the tax rate on income above $250,000 a year to 39.6 percent.

TOBY JORRIN/AFP/Getty Images

Obama Balances Fiscal Cliff, Defense Department Appointment Watch Video

Boehner is offering half that, $800 billion.

In exchange, the president suggests $600 billion in cuts to Medicare and other programs. House Republicans say that is not enough, but they have not publicly listed what they would cut.

Geithner said the ball is now in the Republicans' court, and the White House is seemingly content to sit and wait for Republicans to come around.

"They have to come to us and tell us what they think they need. What we can't do is to keep guessing," he said.

The president is also calling for more stimulus spending totaling $200 billion for unemployment benefits, training, and infrastructure projects.

"All of this stimulus spending would literally be more than the spending cuts that he was willing to put on the table," Boehner said.

Boehner also voiced some derision over the president's proposal to strip Congress of power over the country's debt level, and whether it should be raised.

"Congress is not going to give up this power," he said. "It's the only way to leverage the political process to produce more change than what it would if left alone."

The so-called fiscal cliff, a mixture of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, is triggered on Jan. 1 if Congress and the White House do not come up with a deficit-cutting deal first.

The tax increases would cost the average family between $2,000 and $2,400 a year, which, coupled with the $500 billion in spending cuts, will most likely put the country back into recession, economists say.

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Tiny tug of war in cells underpins life

TUG of war could well be the oldest game in the world. Cells use it for division, and now researchers have measured the forces involved when an amoeba plays the game.

Hirokazu Tanimoto and Masaki Sano at the University of Tokyo, Japan, studied what happens during the division of Dictyostelium - a slime mould that has barely changed through eons of evolution. The amoeba uses tiny projections or "feet" to gain traction on a surface.

The pair placed the amoeba on a flexible surface embedded with fluorescent beads. They used traction force microscopy to measure how the organism deformed the pattern of beads: the greater the deformation, the greater the force.

Dictyostelium normally exerts a force of about 10 nanonewtons when it moves, but the pair found this roughly doubles during division. That's because the cell uses its feet to pull itself in opposite directions, as if playing tug of war with itself.

The forces involved are about 100 billion times smaller than those used in the human form of the game, Tanimoto says (Physical Review Letters, in press).

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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