Washington, March 21: The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have selected an imaging coronal spectrograph for the ESA's Solar Orbiter mission to explore the innermost regions of the solar system from the closest distances to the Sun ever attempted.

Designed by scientists and engineers at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, US, the imaging coronal spectrograph is called SPICE (Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment).

The SPICE instrument is one of 10 selected to fly aboard the joint ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission.

Washington, March 21: Scientists in China have built mini prototypes for the most buoyant boats ever, which are made of copper mesh coated with a highly water repellent material that can float extremely well.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the boats, made out of the superhydrophobic mesh, even stay afloat “when the upper edges are just a hair below the surface of the water.”

Washington, Mar 21 : Researchers at Uppsala University, together with colleagues at Karolinska Institute and Sanger Institute, have identified three genes that would help determine the optimal dose of blood-thinning drug warfarin.

The team led by Mia Wadelius have come across three genes VKORC1, CYP2C9, and CYP4F2 that would help determine adequate warfarin dosage.

"We have previously studied selected genes that can affect warfarin treatment," said Wadelius.

Washington, March 21 : A worldwide online star-counting program, which is part of the International Year of Astronomy, has begun, calling on public in 110 partner countries to participate, in order to measure the light pollution.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the two-week online campaign, known as `Globe at Night', would run from March 16 to March 28.

As part of the campaign, participating public would be expected to go outside at night and count the stars visible in and around the bright constellation Orion.

Washington, March 21 : Archaeologists have recently uncovered evidence which indicates that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice, perhaps on a massive scale, which add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery.

After a first century B. C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories of sacrifice by high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

First-century historian Pliny the Elder even suggested that the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies'' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.

London, March 21 : A new study has warned that Africa might soon see its first bird extinction in about four years time.

According to a report in New Scientist, the bird in question is the Sidamo lark, which may become the first contemporary African bird to go extinct.

The lark is adapted to Ethiopia's "rangeland" - the savannah of native grasses that traditionally covered large parts of east Africa, but is now rapidly disappearing.