I've seen what Ubuntu managed to realize in the past years, and I must say I'm very excited about it. Even though it's missing decent and easy to use fake Raid support, I might try to install it. Compiz is one of the cool things I've heard great things in Ubuntu. Now, KDE 4.0 makes use of some of these effects adding a welcomed revival of the old user interface. Cool!

It's an awesome commercial for Skittles, with cool special effects. The guy says he's got the skittles touch! Just watch!

Here's an extremely realistic water simulation (the most accurate I've seen so far actually) which will take gaming into a new age of realism. You'll probably need a physics acceleration card for it, but with that kind of realism, who cares?

This video clip shows how an infrared x-ray machine can work, without the actual harmful effects of x-rays (like cancer also known as mesothelioma to some). An Infrared X-ray Machine displays your vessels and muscle directly on top of your skin by just moving your body under the beam. Enjoy this cool video clip.

According to Reuters, this bomb is similar in power to a nuclear detonation, but it doesn't have the contamination effects. Because it doesn't violate any treaties, it can be used freely, just as the US uses its thermobaric bombs which are very similar.

A 3 meter high giant Tesla Coil, shows some spectacular light effects. And at 55,000 Watts required to operate, it ain't cheap to use!

It's truly a breathtaking view. It's probably only used in movies for now, but if it will make it to the computer games industry, it would truly represent a revolution! Wow!

The Atomic Cannon detonated at the Nevada Test Site in 1953, showing the atom bomb detonation and weapon effects. It exploded with a force of 15 kilotons. At this force it is actually called a tactical atomic bomb. This video sequence is from "Trinity and Beyond - The Atomic Bomb Movie"

The particles of cobalt-chromium can cause DNA damage even if they do not come physically into contact with the cells. The nano-particles manage to damage the DNA of cells protected by a barrier made up of cellular membranes, without physically entering into contact with the cell, but rather through a multitude of chemical signals. This was found in a study coordinated at the Bristol Implant Research Center, proving that it brings out a new risk associated with nanotechnology, but also the opportunity to exploit this behavior in an innovative way. Nano-particles are now widely used. In surgery, for example, are an integral part of prostheses and implants. The research conducted so far on the risks of nanoparticles, however, relates mainly to the effects of direct exposure, while very little is known about what can cause the indirect exposure. In the new study, researchers have wondered if a barrier device was able to protect cells from the effects of nano-particles consisting of chromium and cobalt in the tissues of the clothes and orthopedic implants. The researchers interposed a barrier between nanoparticles formed out of multilayer chromium-cobalt (in quantities thousands of times greater than those with whom we come in contact normally) and a culture of human fibroblasts (connective tissue cells). Although nano-particles have not managed to cross the membrane, the fibroblasts had DNA mutations which were ten times more than the control fibroblasts. According to scholars, the effect is due to chemical signals between the cell membrane and fibroblasts. If the lines of communication between them are broken, the rate of DNA damage returned to normal.

An enzyme that can rewind the DNA at points where the two propellers should remain separate, even fatal, causing disturbances. The cause of some serious diseases, such as the rare immune-dysplasia of bone Schimke is a protein able to settle the two propellers of DNA at points in which they should remain separate and thus induce the expression of genes that would otherwise be idle. Under normal circumstances the DNA presents a series of "bubbles", namely the segments in which there is space between them and raggomitolate. The unusual alignment of the two parallel strips, led by newly discovered protein, called Harp (HEPA-related protein), reactivates the expression of genes in these traits, which may in this way to start even occurrence of very serious diseases. The enzyme is and was discovered by James Kadonaga and Timur Yusufzai, two biologists at the University of San Diego (California) authors whose research results were published in Science. Just as a zip, the enzyme flows on the tape of DNA tangles the lines and welding to the two separate entities, thereby according the traits of nucleic acid that ordinarily are designed to remain inactive. Exactly the opposite of what another enzyme, the "elicasi", which has the role to unwind the DNA during replication of the molecule, being essential for life. The protein discovery is only the first of an entire class of enzymes candidates to be the basis of occurrence of disorders characterized by cardiac or kidney malfunction, with even fatal effects on children.

A study explains how a yeast cell becomes cancerous: the fault is a chromosomal translocation An altering of the genome that causes cancer was finally detected and reproduced in the laboratory. The discovery, crucial for understanding the genesis and development of malignancies, is due to the geneticist Charles V. Bruschi, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of yeast, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Trieste (Icgeb) and coordinator of the Society of Italian scientific yeast (Zymi). Together with his group, Bruschi has uncovered, that the so-called chromosomal translocation is at fault. The yeast cells, whose DNA was sequenced completely in 1996, are a good model because they possess many similarities with mammalian cells and are easily manipulated by genetic engineering. Thanks to technical Bit (Bridge-Induced Translocation), designed by Bruschi and Valentina Tosato in 2005, it was possible to artificially induce the translocation and demonstrate the crucial role of this phenomenon in the formation of cancer. "Although it has long been a correlation between the presence of chromosomal translocations and the appearance of cancer cells," explains Bruschi, "so far it was not clear whether a translocation was the origin of cancer or whether, instead, it was a consequence. This is because we see patients when the cancer has already formed and in the cells already exists a particular translocation. In practice, these observations are made when it is too late to establish a relationship of cause and effect. "

An experimental study opens a way for gene therapy as a possible treatment for cases that do not respond to medicines in cases of Epilepsy. Research on Brain. Almost one third of people suffering from epilepsy don't respond to prescription drugs. To date, the only possibility for many of them is to undergo an operation to remove the area affected by the disease in the brain, but an alternative to surgery could rise by gene therapy. An experimental study of the Department of Neuroscience of Mario Negri in Milan, led by Noah, has shown that it is possible to induce the sick cells to produce a protein with anticonvulsant properties. And what this substance does is significantly reduces the recurrence of seizures. The research, conducted in collaboration with international groups led by Gunther Sperk University of Innsbruck (Austria), Asla Pitkanen University of Kuopio (Finland), and Matthew During dell'Ohio State University (USA), was just published on Brain magazine.

A study conducted by an Italian and published on Pnas shows that healthy cells, if required to "diet", have an increased resistance to stress caused by the drugs compared with those ill. Fasting can be a weapon against the heavy effects of chemotherapy. Just as the fight against cancer concentrates its efforts on the so-called magic bullets, drugs capable of selectively target diseased cells from laboratories of the University of Southern California shows a new paradigm: protect healthy cells and then go furiously only against those sick . A team led by biologist Italian Valter Longo, which involved the United States laboratories and the hospital Gaslini of Genoa, has discovered a kind of magic screen that healthy cells (as a result of caloric restriction) have as a defense against chemotherapy. The results of the study appeared on Pnas Early Edition (here a link to the video.)

Cloned cells were transplanted into the brain of mice who suffered from this disease and they replaced sick neurons. The success of therapeutic cloning in mice. Researchers of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, led by neuro-scientist Lorenz Studer, have treated the guinea pigs suffering from Parkinson with the transplantation of embryonic stem cells obtained from the skin of rodents themselves sick. The experiment, described in Nature Medicine, not only has recorded cases of rejection, but also significant improvements in the evolution of clinical pathology. The group Studer - after having caused lesions in the brains of mice that would determine the same effects of Parkinson's disease - has transferred the nuclei of cells inside the tail skin cell mouse egg "emptied" of its nucleus, through the technique known as therapeutic cloning (or Scnt, Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer). The cloned cells, cultivated, were then developed into blastocysts. The researchers thus generated 187 lines of embryonic stem cells from 24 different mice, most of which later differentiate into neurons capable of producing dopamine.

A study analysis conducted over the past 27 years by British researchers, suggests that some Fans can reduce the risk of developing cancer. A review of studies published over the last 27 years suggests that the anti-inflammatory non-steroidal pharmacy drugs (Fans) such as aspirin could reduce the risk of breast cancer by as much as 20 per cent! In support, some experts of Guy's Hospital in London appeared in a publication of International Journal of Clinical Practice. According to Ian Fentiman, Fans could play an important role not only in prevention, but also as a therapy for women who have developed this type of cancer, combining their use with a hormonal treatment and using them as analgesics.

A survey published on PloS Medicine considers the effects of "the happiness pill clinically nonexistent". And in Great Britain this survey resulted in an outbreak of controversy. Prozac, the antidepressant Seroxat and in general antidepressants do not produce clinically significant benefits. It had the effect of an earthquake relationship. Irving Kirsch, director of the psychology department of Hull University, which - published in the online journal PloS Medicine - assess the outcomes of total 47 studies (known and unpublished) of British and American experts on the real effects of "happiness pill", Prozac. Printed immediately on the front pages of major British newspapers, The Guardian and The Independent Times immediately attacked by the pharmaceutical companies concerned. The study argues that this type of medicines - given annually by more than 40 million people around the world -- found minimal improvements compared to the simple placebo, amounting to just two points on the Hamilton depression scale (comprising 51 points total). Findings for fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor), paroxetine (Seroxat) and similar molecules have been put on the market, but which do not reach the three points needed by the British National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) to recognize their significant clinical differences .

Filming particles is now possible. It was done for the first time by a group of Swedish researchers using extremely short pulses of light Getting images of electrons that do not appear to "move" has been impossible because of the speed of these microscopic particles. But a group of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Lund (Sweden) now has found a way to shoot the movement of an electron using an innovative technique that provides for the use of flash light of extremely short duration.