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Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The tornado has started After the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 CE and the catastrophic collapse of the Republic of Iraq, the tragedy of the looting of the Iraq Museum and several other museums in Iraq, as well as the wide-spread illegal excavations in Mesopotamia (Iraq) prompted the government of Kurdistan and its Ministry of Councils to issue a decree....

Security through biology is an enticing idea. Since 2011, police departments across the U.S. have been scanning biometric data in the field using devices such as the Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS), an iPhone attachment that checks fingerprints and iris scans. The fbi is currently building its Next Generation Identification database, which will contain fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans, voice data and photographs of faces. Before long, even your cell phone will be secured by information that resides in a distant biometric database....

In addition to purveying cat videos and baby pictures, social networks can provide useful demographic information. A recent study finds that worldwide, Facebook use by women is associated with greater gender equality. Researchers looked at the anonymized data of 1.4 billion users in 217 countries, territories and autonomous regions and calculated the proportion of women and men ages 13 to 65 who actively used the social network. Places with a lower female-to-male usage ratio, such as Afghanistan, were deemed to have a greater “Facebook gender divide” (chart and map)....

When Thomas Edison invented a practical electric lightbulb more than 130 years ago, he performed thousands of experiments on prototypes, and we still marvel at his methodical patience today. A modern inventor proposing a similar approach, however, would more likely elicit laughter than praise. Product research and development more and more lives in the realm of bits and bytes, with engineers designing, testing, tweaking and even demonstrating new ideas via computer before any physical version exists....

If one were to suggest that wastewater could be used as an efficient source of fresh water, a likely rejoinder would be serious doubt and, at the very least, a pinched face and a declaration along the lines of “Ew, that’s gross.” Call it “the yuck factor.” Yet capturing and reusing wastewater for municipal and household use, agricultural and industrial production, and recharging depleted aquifers is precisely what researchers writing in the latest issue of Science suggest needs to happen in order to address the world’s growing water crisis....

In his critically acclaimed song “Empire State of Mind,” rapper Jay Z used conventional rhymes such as made-Wade, as well as partial rhymes such as life-light. Long considered part of the verbal artistry of hip-hop, this latter type of word play also reflects a sophisticated awareness of what consonants sound like in different parts of words. In a recent study examining the songs of seven individual rappers, researchers found that partial rhymes such as life-light, in which the last consonant differs, occurred very frequently....

Is astrology real? Reading horoscopes is a popular diversion, but is there any science to suggest it means anything? Inspiration finds you if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to a cause. Problems may arise when you’re tempted by a familiar disruption and your willpower weakens. Something appearing meaningless may be a lesson to learn. As many as 70 million Americans read their horoscopes daily. Well, that’s at least according to the American Federation of Astrologers....

Two independent British research groups have discovered new stem cells in mouse embryos that could help enhance understanding of human embryonic stem cells as well as move scientists closer to harnessing these cells’ full healing power. When studying disease, scientists often rely on mice, which they can genetically manipulate to try to figure out the cause of illnesses. But mice are not always the best models for human cell behavior. One glaring example: mouse embryonic stem cells, first derived roughly 25 years ago....

By Amy Maxmen of Nature magazineResearchers have identified a gene that makes some strains of an antibiotic-resistant bacterium more virulent, and have found that the gene is becoming more prevalent.Epidemics of infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) come in waves. To uncover the molecular basis of MRSA’s virulence, Michael Otto, a molecular microbiologist at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues focused on a rare genetic element within a strain of MRSA, ST239, that is predominant in Asia....

Recollecting trivial and sometimes dull Facebook posts is easier than recalling the same information in a book. It also takes less effort to remember posted patter than someone’s face, according to new research. The result could be due to the colloquial and largely spontaneous nature of Facebook posts. Whereas books and newspapers typically are combed over by fact-checkers and carefully rewritten by editors, Facebook posts tend to be free flowing and more closely resemble speech....

Question: What’s 39.3 feet long, weighs 8,598 pounds and can see raindrops from space? Answer: NASA’s new rain and snow satellite, which will launch from Japan in a month. The satellite is called the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, or GPM, and is the first satellite to offer a near-global picture of rain and snowfall over the Earth. “Rain and snowfall affect our daily lives in many ways. … Extreme precipitation events like hurricanes, blizzards, floods, droughts and landslides have significant socioeconomic impacts,” Steven Neeck, deputy associate director of the NASA Earth Science flight program, said at a media briefing held yesterday....

The two reactors at the South Texas nuclear power plant, an hour southwest of Houston, last year churned out 21.37 billion kilowatt-hours. By 2015, its majority owner, New Jersey-based NRG Energy, hopes to at least double that capacity if it gets permission to build two more reactors on the site. The company filed the first application on Monday for a new nuclear power plant—two advanced boiling-water reactors—in more than 30 years....

By Syed Raza Hassan KARACHI, June 24 (Reuters) - A heat wave has killed nearly 800 people in Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi and piled pressure on a beleaguered provincial government, as rivals blame it for severe blackouts and crumbling public services that have added to the woe. The powerful military, which heavily criticized the government for corruption last week, is winning praise after it set up 22 health centres to distribute aid....

Ringo, a golden retriever born in 2003 in a Brazilian kennel, was never expected to live long. Researchers bred him and his littermates to inherit a gene mutation that causes severe muscular dystrophy. They hoped that the puppies would provide insight into Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), an untreatable and ultimately fatal human disease caused by inactivation of the same gene. But Ringo’s muscles didn’t waste away like his littermates’, and researchers have now determined why: he was born with another mutation that seems to have protected him from the disease, according to a paper published in Cell....

The story of Marie and Pierre Curie and their Nobel Prize–winning research on radiation has been oft told. But it finds new life in the hands of writer and artist Lauren Redniss, who weaves together deft narrative and vivid illustrations to create a thoroughly modern account of the scien­tif­ic and romantic pas­sions of the Curies, as well as the repercussions of their discoveries. Here Redniss describes how, following Marie’s observation of ra­dio­act­iv­ity in a mineral called pitchblende, the Curies isolated for the first time a compound containing radium, a radioactive element....

In 1952, educators and broadcasters met in State College, Pa., to discuss the potential of a new technology—television—for education. The mood was hopeful yet tempered with skepticism. One attendee pessimistically compared the medium with the potential of “atomic energy”; perhaps neutral, but possibly dangerous. One of the special guests of this conference was a slight man, with horn-rimmed glasses and wisps of white hair. He suggested, optimistically, that television was actually the perfect tool for education....

Sharing, the cornerstone concept of kindergarten, is a maddening proposition that nearly drove King Solomon to slice a baby in half. Thankfully, researchers have developed a new method for ensuring greater satisfaction among sharers. When modeling the nuances of fair division, scientists prefer cutting cakes to infants. The classic model is the “you cut, I choose” method: If two people are splitting a cake, one cuts it into two pieces and the other chooses which piece he wants....

Matthew Sturm has studied the Arctic for 38 years, in recent times concentrating on how climate changes affect ice and snow cover, permafrost thawing, and shrub and tree cover. He has published 100 academic papers and has led more than 25 research expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. He has also authored two Scientific American articles—“Meltdown in the North” (October 2003) and “Arctic Plants Feel the Heat” (May 2010)—as well as written blogs for the Expeditions channel on the SA Blog Network....

This month marks the 50th anniversary of NASA, which was launched a year after the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik into orbit, a feat that threatened to accelerate the communist rival’s lead over the U.S. in spaceflight technology. It’s probably fair to ask whether any U.S. president might once again be in a position to respond to such a huge scientific and technological challenge. Former Vice President Al Gore’s vision, for example, of creating 100 percent carbon-neutral electrical power in the next decade might be one such challenge—and something Gore specifically likened to a ‘moon shot’—requiring commitments, coordination and funding at every level of the public and private sectors....

It is your moment of decision. Your business partner has the only passcode that can access the pile of money you have made together. The scoundrel has offered you 30% instead of the half that is rightfully yours. But you have the ability to delete the account, along with every penny in it, permanently. If you refuse his offer and delete the account, neither of you will see a cent. Of course you are furious, but how much are you willing to lose just to spite him?...