Apple passes Microsoft to be biggest tech company

Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday's choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.However, Microsoft still enjoys higher profits than Apple. Its most recent annual net profit was $14.6bn (£10bn), compared with $5.7bn for Apple.Microsoft also reported bigger full-year revenues of $58.4bn, with Apple on $36.5bn.Apple's shares closed Wednesday trading down 0.4% at $244.11, while Microsoft fell by 4% to $25.01.iPhone boostThe value of a listed company, known as market capitalisation, is calculated by multiplying the number of shares in a company by the current share...

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Why Does Scratching Feel So Good?

Have you ever wondered why scratching an itch feels so good? Well, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina may have finally answered that burning question. “Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch,” said lead author Dr. Gil Yosipovitch in a news release. “It’s important to understand the mechanism of relief so we can develop more effective treatments. For some people, itch is a chronic condition that affects overall health.” For the study, researchers used functional magnetic response imaging (MRI) technology to monitor 13 healthy volunteers while they scratched on their lower leg with...

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Bank that lends to the poor!

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. An old maxim-but one thatdoes not account for the likes of Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshiprofes sor whose achievements are the stuff of lore amongdevelopment economists.Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, a Bangladeshi creditorganisation that has pioneered lending to the rural poor and in theprocess stood normal banking con ventions on their head.The customers of Grameen (whose name means rural in Bengali) arealmost exclusively those who have no collateral to offer against theirloans. Yet defaults are so low its repayment rates would be the envy ofmost mainstream lenders. "Compared to Grameen Bank," says Yunus,"other banks look like charity outfits for the rich."Two other things are immediately...

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Black hole 'hurled out of galaxy'

A supermassive black hole may have been observed in the process of being hurled from its parent galaxy at high speed. The finding comes from analysis of data collected by the US Chandra space X-ray observatory. However, there are alternative explanations for the observation. The work, by an international team of astronomers, has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Normally, each galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its centre. Given that these objects can have masses equivalent to one billion Suns, it takes a special set of conditions to cause this to happen.High-speed exit The authors believe this could be the result of...

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Strange headless creature washes ashore

A mysterious and headless “sea creature” has washed up on the shore of McIvers on the Bay of Islands in Canada.Local residents were out in force to take a look at the odd animal, but no one has any idea what species this actually is, if it is in fact a recorded species. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Corner Brook intends to check out the Lower Cove site today hoping to find some answers to the discovery by Warrick Lovell on Wednesday. “It would be nice to see if anyone knows what it is,” says Lovell. “First I thought it was a seal washed up (on the high tide earlier in the day), but when I went down to check on my boat that evening, I walked over to see and then I knew it wasn’t a seal. “But, I don’t know what it is.” The...

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Patient shocks surgeons with green blood

Surgeons operating on a 42-year-old Canadian man got a shock when they discovered dark-green blood coursing through his arteries, like Star Trek's Mr Spock. Stunned, the medical team immediately sent his blood for analysis. The test revealed the blood discolouration was caused by sulfhaemoglobinaemia, which occurs when a sulphur atom gets incorporated into the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin protein in blood. Doctors suspected that the patient's migraine medication caused the condition. "It is possible that our patient's arguably excessive intake of sumatriptan, which...

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Russian president asked to investigate alien claims

A Russian MP has asked President Dmitry Medvedev to investigate claims by a regional president that he has met aliens on board a spaceship. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalmykia, made his claim in a television interview. MP Andre Lebedev is not just asking whether Mr Ilyumzhinov is fit to govern. He is also concerned that, if he was abducted, he may have revealed details about his job and state secrets. The MP...

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New hope for HIV vaccine efforts

By Helen Briggs Health reporter, BBC News The HIV virus fusing with a T cell US researchers say they are a step closer to understanding why some people have natural protection against HIV.They believe rare individuals who progress very slowly to AIDs when infected make white blood cells that are better at fighting the virus. The findings, published in Nature, may help international efforts to design an effective AIDS vaccine. But the research team at MIT and Harvard says any...

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