Today on New Scientist: 6 December 2012

Deep inside a mouse's ear, a swirling galaxy of cells The winner of the GenArt 2012 image competition reveals the power of deep genetic sequencing to understand deafnessKyoto protocol gets a second lease of life Just weeks before it is due to expire, the world's only binding climate agreement appears to have been saved - sort ofZoologger: The toughest eggs in the world The eggs of the tiny seed...

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ECB slashes growth forecasts, keeps door open to rate cuts

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank slashed its eurozone growth forecasts Thursday, keeping the door open to more interest rates cuts, even as it insisted it was up to governments to solve the debt crisis.As widely expected, the ECB's decision-making governing council voted to leave the bank's main refinancing rate at a historic low of 0.75 percent at its last policy meeting this year.But...

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Will the Samsung Galaxy S IV be 'unbreakable'?

Will the next Samsung Galaxy flagship phone bring a comic book dream to life and be truly "unbreakable."(Credit:CNET)If the rumors are true, Samsung is looking to go big with its next flagship Android phone, presumably to be the Galaxy S IV.Not only is it rumored that the next batch of galactic goodies will pack a quad-core processor and 13-megapixel camera, as CNET's Scott Webster recently reported,...

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High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy

Patrick J. Kiger Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity...

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Winter Chill Descends on Frozen Fiscal Cliff Talks

A chill has descended on Washington just in time for tonight's lighting of the National Christmas Tree.President Obama will preside over an evening festival of star-studded carols and sparkling displays of holiday cheer on the White House Ellipse.But don't expect any of the holiday good will to warm the political frost over the fiscal cliff talks.The White House is mandating...

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Psychiatry is failing those with personality disorders

A workable diagnostic system is needed, because sticking with the status quo is not an option IF DOCTORS sent patients with angina home with nothing but a prescription for a painkiller to control chest pain, they would be sued for malpractice. Sadly, that is a fitting analogy for what happens all too often to people with personality...

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Britain faces more austerity pain

LONDON: Finance minister George Osborne on Wednesday warned Britons that they faced an extra year of austerity measures and insisted that reversing his belt-tightening measures now would be a "disaster".Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said Britain would face spending cuts and tax hikes until 2018 -- after the coalition government led by Prime Minister David Cameron had already previously...

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Apple shares continue decline, slide another 4 percent

Apple's stock can't seem to catch a break lately.Shares are off another 4 percent today, and Apple has lost a fifth of its market value since its peak in mid-September. Over the past few months, Apple has faced questions about whether it can maintain its current dominance in the mobile industry, with its iPhone andiPad both ceding market share to devices running on Google'sAndroid operating system....

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Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker...

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John McAfee Seeks Asylum, Thanks God for 'Sanity'

Eccentric software tycoon John McAfee, wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has made his escape from Belize to Guatemala, where he told ABC News he will be seeking asylum."Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," McAfee said. "I chose Guatemala carefully."McAfee, 67, has been on the run from police in the Central American country of Belize...

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