Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

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Police drama wins best picture at Chinese-language 'Oscars'

ILAN, Taiwan: A Chinese police drama featuring a cast of amateur actors on Saturday became the surprise best picture winner at Taiwan's annual Golden Horse Awards, dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars."

"Beijing Blues," directed by Gao Qunshu and about plain cloth police hunting down thieves and con artists in Beijing, also bagged best cinematography and best film editing awards.

"This is really unexpected... I am only an amateur director who shot a few films. I didn't expect that I'd have anything to do with the Golden Horse," said Gao at the ceremony in Ilan county in northeastern Taiwan.

Acclaimed Hong Kong director Johnnie To's financial drama "Life Without Principle" also fared well, collecting best director for To, best leading actor for Lau Ching-wan and best original screenplay.

Lau played a simple and honest gangster in the movie that centers on the characters' struggles between money and principles in the midst of a financial crisis in Hong Kong.

To was absent from Saturday's ceremony while Lau, a first-time Golden Horse winner, dedicated the award to his family in a brief speech.

Taiwan's Gwei Lun-mei was crowned best leading actress for her role as a wilful and frustrating woman in the love story "Gf*Bf", also released as "Girlfriend Boyfriend".

"This award is a major encouragement for me. I love making films very much and I will continue to work hard," said Gwei, her voice cracking with emotion. Gwei became the first Taiwanese to take the title in six years.

Hong Kong singer-actor Ronald Cheng won best supporting actor for his role in "Vulgaria" while Liang Jing from China took best supporting actress for playing a mid-wife in the black comedy "Design of Death".

Chinese social satire "Mystery," directed by Lou Ye, only collected best new performer for actress Qi Xi and best original film score despite leading the race with seven nominations.

"Mystery" marked Lou's first film after he was banned from film-making for five years for showing his politically-charged love story "Summer Palace" at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval in 2006.

More than 30 films from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong were nominated in the 49th edition of the Golden Horse Awards, styled after the US Academy Awards but decided by a jury along the lines of the Cannes festival.

Winners of Taiwan's 49th annual Golden Horse Film Awards

Best Picture: Beijing Blues

Best Director: Johnnie To (Life Without Principle)

Best Leading Actor: Lau Ching-wan (Life Without Principle)

Best Leading Actress: Gwei Lun-mei (Gf*Bf)

Best Supporting Actor: Ronald Cheng (Vulgaria)

Best Supporting Actress: Liang Jing (Design of Death)

Best New Director: Chang Jung-chi (Touch of the Light)

Best New Performer: Qi Xi (Mystery)

Best Original Screenplay: Milkyway Creative Team, Au Kin Yee, Wong King Fai (Life Without Principle)

Best Screenplay Adaptation: Bao Jingjing (Love Is Not Blind)

Best Cinematography: Wu Di (Beijing Blues)

Best Visual Effects: Wook Kim, Frankie Chung, Josh Cole (Flying Swords of Dragon Gate)

Best Art Direction: Lin Mu (Design of Death)

Best Make-up/Costume Design: Stanley Cheung (The Bullet Vanishes)

Best Action Choreography: Chin Ka Lok (Motorway)

Best Film Editing: Yang Hongyu (Beijing Blues)

Best Original Film Score: Peyman Yazdanian, Johann Johannsson (Mystery)

Best Original Film Song: Do Re Mi (Romancing in Thin Air)

Best Sound Effects: Kinson Tsang, Lai Chi Hung (Nightfall)

Best Documentary: China Heavyweight

Best Short Film: The Home Gleaners

Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year: Huang Yu-siang (Touch of the Light)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Shih Chun

-AFP/ac

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The greatest air-conditioner ad ever made

Is he creepy or wise?

(Credit:
AdAge screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Some products are never graced with memorable ads.

Perhaps the products speak for themselves. Or perhaps their manufacturers are dowdy conservative folk, who just want to do something basic.

Then along come the macabre minds at air-conditioner manufacturer BGH. They got together with their ad agency in Argentina to create something that may leave you with, well, chills.

For here is a man who hates summer.

He stays at home. He is regarded as something of a psychopath. Perhaps he merely grew up in New York, where summer offers a full exposition of the perfect hell, leaving many with strange tendencies.

And yet, as one listens to his explanations, we surely feel a little sympathy.

For we all have psychopathic elements ourselves, elements that we are desperate to control.

Perhaps we have an irrational distaste for those who wear North Face jackets. Perhaps we are sent demented by those who wear mules. Perhaps we are merely turned green by specific words like "shell" and "nuts."

More Technically Incorrect

For him, there is no joy in the sweaty, dripping armpit, nor in the sunbathing exhibitionist.

For him, there would be warm justice if suntan oil were flammable.

I am grateful to AdAge for having brought this work of art to my attention.

BGH has made itself something of a reputation for turning received summer wisdoms on their heads.

Earlier this year, the company released another quite brilliant ad in which summer's greatest nightmare was posited: dads in briefs. (I have embedded this for your pleasure below.)

At a time when many electronics manufacturers seem to struggle to capture the imagination of humans, BGH's work proves that, with a little thought and imagination, your brand can become indelibly imprinted on the human psyche.

Sometimes, it just takes a psycho.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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'Honey Trap' Professor Convicted of Drug Smuggling

A court in Argentina has convicted an Oxford educated University of North Carolina professor of attempting to smuggle four pounds of cocaine into the United States.

Paul Frampton, a 68-year-old esteemed professor of physics and astronomy, says he thought he was flying to South America to meet with a bikini model but ended up getting caught in what they call a "honey trap."

Frampton flew to Bolivia from North Carolina earlier this year after communicating with someone who claimed to be Denise Milani, winner of Miss Bikini World 2007. She never showed up.

Instead, Frampton says he was met by a man who gave him a suitcase, identifying himself as an intermediary for Milani, and instructing him to take it to her in Argentina.

PHOTOS: Sex, Spies and Scandal

Once there, he says he could not find her and decided to board a plane home, with that suitcase in hand. Police opened it up at the airport and found more than four pounds of cocaine inside.

"He has a high IQ, is well-known and very distinguished in the field of physics and other scientific areas, but when it comes to common sense he scored a zero," said former DC homicide investigator Rod Wheeler.

The Argentinean court sentenced Frampton to serve four years and eight months in custody after prosecutors there presented evidence of text messages they say Frampton sent to the person he thought was the model, saying, "I'm worried about the sniffer dogs," and "I'm looking after your special little suitcase."

READ: UNC Professor Held in Argentina on Drug Charges Wants Raise From University

The University of North Carolina has cut off Frampton's salary in a move that prompted dozens of his colleagues at the university to sign a letter of protest to administrators.

"As more information about his case becomes available ... it becomes more and more obvious that Paul was the innocent, although very gullible, victim of a scam," the joint letter said.

Many wrote separate letters of reference on a website they created to support the embattled professor, who is hoping to serve his time under house arrest in Argentina at a friend's apartment.

From prison Frampton has said, "It does seem unfair that an innocent scam victim is treated as a professional drug smuggler."

Frampton's Argentinean lawyer told ABC News she would have no comment until having a chance to review the judge's complete ruling, which she expects to be released early next week.

However, it appears this is not the first time Frampton has been in hot water over a woman.

The Telegraph, a London based paper that serves Great Britain , reported that friends say he once met another woman online and flew to China to marry her. This time, the woman was real, but after seeing Frampton, she reportedly canceled the wedding.

If you have a story you would like told you can email correspondent Mark Greenblatt at mark.p.greenblatt@abc.com.

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