ప్రపంచం తీరూ తెన్నూ

Bearded capuchin monkeys not only use stones as tools to crack open nuts, they also exploit tangible information like humans to increase their chances, scientists claim. The monkeys deliberately place palm nuts in a stable position on a surface before trying to crack them open, revealing their capacity to use tactile information to improve tool use, researchers found. The black-striped capuchin, Sapajus libidinosus, also known as the bearded capuchin, is a capuchin monkey from South America. It is the first non-ape primate where tool usage was documented in the wild. Dorothy Fragaszy and colleagues from the University of Georgia analysed the monkeys' tool-use skills by videotaping adult monkeys cracking palm nuts on a surface they used frequently for the purpose. They found that monkeys positioned the nuts flat side down more frequently than expected by random chance. When placing the nuts, the monkeys knocked the nuts on the surface a few times before releasing them, after which ...

Google is the most trusted online brand in the country, with Facebook coming in at number two, says a study by Brand Trust Advisory. Yahoo has emerged as the second-most trusted search engine after Google, says the report. The survey was conducted in 16 cities, taking into consideration 19,000 unique brands across 211 categories, Trust Research Advisory chief executive N Chandramouli said. Social networking sites are gaining popularity, with Orkut and Twitter ranking fourth and sixth respectively overall. "Google's Orkut, steadied at fourth rank despite a significant fall in daily visitors from here. Facebook has ranked first in the sub-category of social networking," he said. The fifth slot has gone to shopping portal eBay, which tops in the list of e-commerce brands followed by AOL, Amazon, Ibibo and OLX.in. YouTube, which ranks ninth, leads the sub-category of online sharing portals, while Naukri managee the 24th position overall.

BlackBerry today launched its much-awaited smartphone Z10, powered by its latest operating system 'BlackBerry 10', in India at a price of Rs 43,490, taking rivals Apple and Samsung head on in the world's second largest telecom market. The Canadian smartphone maker has launched its latest model in India nearly a month after the global launch of new operating system 'BlackBerry 10' and two devices Z10 and Q10 on this platform on January 30. The new device is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and has 2GB RAM. It comes with 16GB onboard memory, which can be expanded up to 64GB using a microSD card. It has 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, a 2MP HD camera in front and its connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. The device supports content in eight Indian languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Devanagiri (Hindi), Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Gujarati, and Bengali – as well as support for third-party solutions fo...

Newly-appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry on his first overseas visit today held talks with British leaders on key global issues like Syria, Iran and North Korea, as he seeks to reinforce ties with Europe. Kerry, 69, who took over from Hillary Clinton earlier this month, held talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron and foreign secretary William Hague today. Topics on the agenda included the status of the Falklands Islands, claimed by both the UK and Argentina, as well as the crisis in Syria and Iran's nuclear programme. He will be heading off to Germany as part of a nine-country, 11-day "listening tour" covering Berlin, Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha. The issues likely to be addressed by America's top diplomat will include Syria, Mali and North Korea. According to senior US State Department officials, Kerry's decision to make his first trip to Europe, unlike his predecessor Hillary Clinton who chose to tour countries in Asi...

Astronauts are at an increased risk of infections in space as weightlessness of outer cosmos can make germs even nastier, researchers say. In space, astronauts encounter greatly reduced levels of gravity, often erroneously referred to as zero gravity. This near-weightlessness can have a number of abnormal effects on astronauts, such as causing muscle and bone loss. "We seek to unveil novel cellular and molecular mechanisms related to infectious disease progression that cannot be observed here on Earth, and to translate our findings to novel strategies for treatment and prevention," said microbiologist Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute. Although microgravity can distort normal biology, conventional procedures for studying microbes on Earth can cause their own distortions, SPACE.com reported. Experiments on Earth often involve whirling cells around to keep them from settling downward in a clump due to gravity. The most common sites of human ...