London, Mar 30 : Video games have long been shown in the bad light, but a new study has something positive to say about them-they improve eyesight.

The new research led by Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester has shown that action video games such as first-person-shooter games improves the ability to discern fine differences in contrast by 58 percent.

"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery-somehow changing the optics of the eye," Nature quoted Bavelier as saying.

New Delhi - India on Sunday successfully test-fired the land version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and said it was ready for induction in the army.

This was the third test-firing of the missile, developed under an Indo-Russian joint venture, since January.

"Today land attack version of BrahMos Block-II was tested from a mobile autonomous launcher at Pokhran test range by the Indian Army. The missile took off successfully and hit the desired target at bull's eye, meeting all mission parameters," the army's military's research wing said in a statement.

Pokhran, Mar 29 : The Block II version of the BrahMos cruise missile was successfully tested on Sunday, hitting its target during a test at the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan.

"The missile was successfully launched at 11:15 a. m. and in the next two-and-a-half minutes, it hit the bull''s eye in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan," said DRDO officials.

This was the third test-firing of the latest Block II version of the missile.

Washington, March 29 : Scientists at the University of Michigan have come up with a new method of detecting nitric oxide in exhaled breath, elevated levels of which are a telltale sign of diseases like lung cancer and tuberculosis.

The researchers say that their work may prove useful in diagnosing illness and monitoring the effects of treatment.

Washington, Mar 29 : The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven have safely returned to Earth. But the one thing pilots can’t get out their noses is space’s “weird” smell.

"One thing I''ve heard people say before, but it wasn''t so obvious, was the smell right when you open up that hatch," Live Science quoted Discovery pilot Dominic "Tony" Antonelli, as saying after a March 21 spacewalk.

"Space definitely has a smell that''s different than anything else,” Antonelli added.

London, March 29 : Six volunteers will be locked up in small steel tins off a parking lot in Moscow for 105 days, as scientists simulate a space rocket ride to Mars.

The cramped metal capsules will be connected by cables and corrugated metal pipes in a hanger at the back of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (IMBP) in the Russian capital on Tuesday.

The objective behind this experiment is to recreate as closely as possible the atmosphere of a spacecraft racing through the solar system, bombarded by cosmic radiation.