Posts
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2010/apple-broadcast-network.html
The Apple Broadcast Network on Saturday June 05, @07:30PM
(Posted on Slashdot)
Posted by timothy on Saturday June 05, @07:30PM
from the interesting-future-ahead dept.
advertising
Hodejo1 writes "In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild. That makes a proprietary amalgam greater than what the TV networks had in 1959 and one that easily serves as a foundation for a pending broadcast network that will be delivered not through tall radio towers, but through small wireless hubs and the Internet. Call it the Apple Broadcast Network. iAd is how Apple plans to pay for it."
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
One-shot radiotherapy 'success against breast cancer'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10239478.stm
A single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer, a study suggests.
Doctors have tested the technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumour site, in more than 2,000 patients.
It could save the UK £15m a year, the researchers said.
Cancer Research UK said The Lancet study could have a "huge impact" for patients.
The researchers said using the one-stop procedure would be more convenient for patients and cut waiting lists.
Treatment to surgically remove cancerous breast tissue is the starting point of treatment for thousands of women in Britain each year.
That is often followed up with weeks of radiotherapy to the whole breast to kill any remaining cancer cells.
But with the new technique, doctors use a mobile radiotherapy machine that can be inserted into the breast to target the exact site of the cancer.
Led by a UK team, but carried out in nine countries, the four-year trial in women over 45 showed similar rates of disease recurrence regardless of the treatment used.
There were six cases of the disease returning in those who had the new single-dose technique and five cases in those undergoing a prolonged course of radiotherapy.
But the single dose during surgery avoids potential damage to organs such as the heart, lung, and oesophagus, which can occur during radiation to the whole breast, the researchers said.
Jayany Vaidya, patient Josephine Ford and Prof Jeffrey Tobias Josephine Ford was treated using the radiation procedure
The frequency of any complications and major toxic effects was similar in the two groups.
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) oncologist Prof Jeffrey Tobias, who enrolled the first patient on the trial at the former Middlesex Hospital in London with oncologist Jayant Vaidya, said: "I think the reason why it works so well is because of the precision of the treatment. It eradicates the very highest risk area - the part of the breast from which the tumour was removed."
Meanwhile, Mr Vaidya, who is also a UCLH oncologist, said the new treatment "could mean that many more women could conserve their breasts".
Josephine Ford, 80, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2008 and was successfully treated with this form of treatment three months later.
She said this approach "simplified everything and made the process less traumatic".
And she added that it made her life "so much easier" since she "didn't have to come back to the radiotherapy department on a daily basis for five or six weeks".
'Exciting prospect'
While optimistic about the results, the researchers stressed the findings were only applicable to women with a similar type of breast cancer as those in the trial.
But they added: "Treatment of patients with breast cancer accounts for about a third of the workload of radiotherapy departments in some parts of the world and contributes substantially to the unacceptable waiting lists seen in many oncology departments worldwide.
"In countries such as the UK where the waiting list for postoperative radiotherapy could rapidly diminish with use of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy, we estimate savings of around £15m a year."
Kate Law, director of clinical research at Cancer Research UK, said: "Radiotherapy is already a very effective treatment, so improving that even further is an exciting prospect.
"Further follow-up of these women will be needed to confirm whether this strategy not only makes the most of the therapy's power but also minimises any long-term side effects."
A single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer, a study suggests.
Doctors have tested the technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumour site, in more than 2,000 patients.
It could save the UK £15m a year, the researchers said.
Cancer Research UK said The Lancet study could have a "huge impact" for patients.
The researchers said using the one-stop procedure would be more convenient for patients and cut waiting lists.
Treatment to surgically remove cancerous breast tissue is the starting point of treatment for thousands of women in Britain each year.
That is often followed up with weeks of radiotherapy to the whole breast to kill any remaining cancer cells.
But with the new technique, doctors use a mobile radiotherapy machine that can be inserted into the breast to target the exact site of the cancer.
Led by a UK team, but carried out in nine countries, the four-year trial in women over 45 showed similar rates of disease recurrence regardless of the treatment used.
There were six cases of the disease returning in those who had the new single-dose technique and five cases in those undergoing a prolonged course of radiotherapy.
But the single dose during surgery avoids potential damage to organs such as the heart, lung, and oesophagus, which can occur during radiation to the whole breast, the researchers said.
Jayany Vaidya, patient Josephine Ford and Prof Jeffrey Tobias Josephine Ford was treated using the radiation procedure
The frequency of any complications and major toxic effects was similar in the two groups.
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) oncologist Prof Jeffrey Tobias, who enrolled the first patient on the trial at the former Middlesex Hospital in London with oncologist Jayant Vaidya, said: "I think the reason why it works so well is because of the precision of the treatment. It eradicates the very highest risk area - the part of the breast from which the tumour was removed."
Meanwhile, Mr Vaidya, who is also a UCLH oncologist, said the new treatment "could mean that many more women could conserve their breasts".
Josephine Ford, 80, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2008 and was successfully treated with this form of treatment three months later.
She said this approach "simplified everything and made the process less traumatic".
And she added that it made her life "so much easier" since she "didn't have to come back to the radiotherapy department on a daily basis for five or six weeks".
'Exciting prospect'
While optimistic about the results, the researchers stressed the findings were only applicable to women with a similar type of breast cancer as those in the trial.
But they added: "Treatment of patients with breast cancer accounts for about a third of the workload of radiotherapy departments in some parts of the world and contributes substantially to the unacceptable waiting lists seen in many oncology departments worldwide.
"In countries such as the UK where the waiting list for postoperative radiotherapy could rapidly diminish with use of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy, we estimate savings of around £15m a year."
Kate Law, director of clinical research at Cancer Research UK, said: "Radiotherapy is already a very effective treatment, so improving that even further is an exciting prospect.
"Further follow-up of these women will be needed to confirm whether this strategy not only makes the most of the therapy's power but also minimises any long-term side effects."
Friday, June 4, 2010
Part-Human, Part-Machine Transistor Devised
http://news.discovery.com/tech/transistor-cell-membrane-machine.html
By embedding a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane, scientists link humans and machines more intimately than ever.
By Eric Bland
Wed Jun 2, 2010 10:46 AM ET
THE GIST
* Scientists embedded a biologically powered transistor inside a cell membrane.
* The device is the most intimate binding of man and machine yet achieved.
* The research could lead to new man-machine interfaces.
Man and machine can now be linked more intimately than ever, according to a new article in the journal ACS Nano Letters. Scientists have embedded a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane and powered it using the cell's own fuel.
The research could lead to new types of man-machine interactions where embedded devices could relay information about the inner workings of disease-related proteins inside the cell membrane, and eventually lead to new ways to read, and even influence, brain or nerve cells.
"This device is as close to the seamless marriage of biological and electronic structures as anything else that people did before," said Aleksandr Noy, a scientist at the University of California, Merced who is a co-author on the recent ACS Nano Letters. "We can take proteins, real biological machines, and make them part of a working microelectronic circuit."
To create the implanted circuit, the UC scientists began with a simple transistor, an electronic device that is the heart of nearly every cell phone and computer on the planet. Instead of using silicon, the most common material used in transistors, the scientists used a next generation material known as a carbon nanotube, a tiny straw-shaped material made from a single curved layer of carbon atoms arranged like the panels of a soccer ball.
The scientists then coated the carbon nanotube transistor with a lipid bilayer, basically a double wall of oil molecules that cells use to separate their insides from their environment. The scientists didn't use an actual cell membrane, however.
To this basic cellular structure the UC scientists added an ion pump, a biological device that pumps charged atoms of calcium, potassium, and other elements into and out of the cell. Then they added a solution of adenosine tri-phosphate, or ATP, which fuels the ion pump.
The ion pump changes the electrical charge inside the cell, which then changes the electrical charge going through the transistor, which the scientists could measure and monitor.
In their initial device the biological pump powered the artificial transistor. Future devices could work just the opposite, where an outside electrical current could power the pump and alter how quickly ions are pumped into or out of a cell. That could have dramatic effects.
For instance, instead of using drugs to block the release or uptake of various drugs or neurotransmitters, scientists could change the electricity regulating the ion pump, which would then change the amount of the drug or molecule inside, or outside, the cell.
Other groups have tried to mix man and machine before, said Itamar Willner, a scientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but none have achieved this level of intimacy.
"Previous students used enzymes that were not incorporated into membranes in the transistors," said Willner. "In this case, an enzyme that usually works in the membrane was linked to carbon nanotubes."
The new enzyme-transistor link could help eventually monitor and even treat diseases and conditions, said Willner.
Some of the most obvious medical conditions the embedded transistor could help study, or alleviate, are toxins and poisons. Many of these chemicals puncture cell membranes and cause the cell's inner fluid, or cytoplasm, to leak out, essentially bleeding the cell to death. Other toxins create ion imbalances inside the cells, which can cause paralysis and other conditions.
If the cells could be encouraged to pump the necessary ions into or out of the cell that could help treat a specific condition. Though any actual treatment based on this technology is still years away, said Willner.
"We don't want to just sense things, we also want to treat them," said Willner. Clinical applications may still be years away, but the new research is the most intimate link between life and machines that has yet been created.
By embedding a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane, scientists link humans and machines more intimately than ever.
By Eric Bland
Wed Jun 2, 2010 10:46 AM ET
THE GIST
* Scientists embedded a biologically powered transistor inside a cell membrane.
* The device is the most intimate binding of man and machine yet achieved.
* The research could lead to new man-machine interfaces.
Man and machine can now be linked more intimately than ever, according to a new article in the journal ACS Nano Letters. Scientists have embedded a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane and powered it using the cell's own fuel.
The research could lead to new types of man-machine interactions where embedded devices could relay information about the inner workings of disease-related proteins inside the cell membrane, and eventually lead to new ways to read, and even influence, brain or nerve cells.
"This device is as close to the seamless marriage of biological and electronic structures as anything else that people did before," said Aleksandr Noy, a scientist at the University of California, Merced who is a co-author on the recent ACS Nano Letters. "We can take proteins, real biological machines, and make them part of a working microelectronic circuit."
To create the implanted circuit, the UC scientists began with a simple transistor, an electronic device that is the heart of nearly every cell phone and computer on the planet. Instead of using silicon, the most common material used in transistors, the scientists used a next generation material known as a carbon nanotube, a tiny straw-shaped material made from a single curved layer of carbon atoms arranged like the panels of a soccer ball.
The scientists then coated the carbon nanotube transistor with a lipid bilayer, basically a double wall of oil molecules that cells use to separate their insides from their environment. The scientists didn't use an actual cell membrane, however.
To this basic cellular structure the UC scientists added an ion pump, a biological device that pumps charged atoms of calcium, potassium, and other elements into and out of the cell. Then they added a solution of adenosine tri-phosphate, or ATP, which fuels the ion pump.
The ion pump changes the electrical charge inside the cell, which then changes the electrical charge going through the transistor, which the scientists could measure and monitor.
In their initial device the biological pump powered the artificial transistor. Future devices could work just the opposite, where an outside electrical current could power the pump and alter how quickly ions are pumped into or out of a cell. That could have dramatic effects.
For instance, instead of using drugs to block the release or uptake of various drugs or neurotransmitters, scientists could change the electricity regulating the ion pump, which would then change the amount of the drug or molecule inside, or outside, the cell.
Other groups have tried to mix man and machine before, said Itamar Willner, a scientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but none have achieved this level of intimacy.
"Previous students used enzymes that were not incorporated into membranes in the transistors," said Willner. "In this case, an enzyme that usually works in the membrane was linked to carbon nanotubes."
The new enzyme-transistor link could help eventually monitor and even treat diseases and conditions, said Willner.
Some of the most obvious medical conditions the embedded transistor could help study, or alleviate, are toxins and poisons. Many of these chemicals puncture cell membranes and cause the cell's inner fluid, or cytoplasm, to leak out, essentially bleeding the cell to death. Other toxins create ion imbalances inside the cells, which can cause paralysis and other conditions.
If the cells could be encouraged to pump the necessary ions into or out of the cell that could help treat a specific condition. Though any actual treatment based on this technology is still years away, said Willner.
"We don't want to just sense things, we also want to treat them," said Willner. Clinical applications may still be years away, but the new research is the most intimate link between life and machines that has yet been created.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Mexico opens California office to provide ID for illegals
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Mexico-opens-California-office-to-provide-ID-for-illegals-95434969.html
By: Sara A. Carter
National Security Correspondent
June 3, 2010
The Mexican government is opening a satellite consular office on Catalina Island -- a small resort off the California coast with a history of drug smuggling and human trafficking -- to provide the island's illegal Mexican immigrants with identification cards, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The Mexican consular office in Los Angeles issued a flier, a copy of which was obtained by The Examiner, listing the Catalina Island Country Club as the location of its satellite office. It invites Mexicans to visit the office to obtain the identification, called matricular cards, by appointment.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican whose district includes Catalina Island, said handing out matricular cards will exacerbate an already dangerous situation.
"Handing out matricular cards to Mexicans who are not in this country legally is wrong no matter where it's done," he said. "But on Catalina it will do more damage. It's a small island but there's evidence it's being used as a portal for illegals to access mainland California."
Rohrabacher added, "If there were a large number of Americans illegally in Mexico and the U.S. consulate was making it easier for them to stay, Mexico would never permit it."
Mexican officials with the consular office in Los Angeles could not be reached immediately for comment. The matricular consular identification card, is issued by the Mexican government to Mexican nationals residing outside the country, regardless of immigration status. The purpose is to provide identification for opening bank accounts and obtaining other services. But the cards are usually used to skirt U.S. immigration laws, since Mexicans in the country legally have documents proving that status, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
In 2004 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI officials called the card an unreliable form of identification. The agency said that Mexico lacks a centralized database for them, which could lead to forgery, duplication, and other forms of abuse.
Officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their agency was asked by Mexican officials not to enforce U.S. immigration laws on the island while the cards were being issued.
"It amazes me every time that the Mexican government has the gall to tell us what to do," said an ICE official, who asked not to be named. "More surprisingly is how many times we stand by and let them. This is just an example of one of hundreds of requests we've had to deal with."
In April, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies seized a boat carrying large quantities of marijuana and detained three Mexican nationals who said they were being smuggled into the United States.
The island has a sizable Mexican migrant population. Most are undocumented low-income workers.
1:15pm UPDATE:
Mexican government officials have moved their satellite consular office from the Catalina Island Country Club to a Catholic Church – citing protection under the Geneva Convention.
British Dialect or Speech Impediment? Rhotacism
I've heard the Elmer Fudd effect from many British speakers and not just from the BBC's Jonathan Ross - also Terry Jones of the Monty Python troup, Dave Murray of Iron Maiden, Frank Muir on the BBC's game show, 'My Word!, and several other BBC reporters.
Here's a great example:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/video/2011-12/14/content_14263204.htm
It would seem more likely that the BBC would legitimize a dialect than they would hire someone with an impediment. But that didn't impede Barbara Walter's career.
This effect is apparently called 'Rhotacism'.
I found a forum with the heading of "http://ask.metafilter.com/67058/Wabbits">Wabbits", which delves into this effect prevalent amongst certain Britains.
http://ask.metafilter.com/67058/Wabbits
The question is whether we are hearing a true dialect, a speech impediment, or perhaps a dialect that developed around someone of influence who had a speech impediment. Certainly the impediment is corrected when it appears at an early age here in the States, as are crooked teeth. So what's the scoop?
No greater homage to the phenomenon than the scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc
Comments from the Wabbit Weblog:
The wikipedia page for Jonathan Ross refers to "a common dialectal variant of English common in the UK called the labiodental approximate. This pronunciation has increased in usage over the past 30 years and is mainly associated with speakers in the South West of England, although Ross is actually a Londoner."
Welsh people do this quite a bit. I spent a year in Wales, and I never got tired of my coworker's breathey "Wheally, Bill?" when she meant "Really, Bill?"
Terry Jones is the Pythonite who does it, and if you listen closely to Catherine Zeta-Jones, she slips her r's for w's when she's excited. On the Chicago soundtrack, listen for "My sister Vewonica and I..."
There's tons of good examples of this trend. An accessible one is found in the Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do." The refrain becomes "wappers do!"
It's totally South Wales, like Cardiff/Newport. And you can hear it in some folks up through Powys, but it fades pretty rapidly. For example, lots of people have the r-to-w in Llandrindod and Builth, but almost no one does in Rhayader. And not many in Brecon do, despite Brecon being further south. Brecon and Rhayader have a relatively high number of native Welsh speakers, where the trilled r prevails.
People from South Wales don't trill the r, but they still have the heavy aspirant quality associated with a Welsh accent. It's a "breathy" r that ends up sounding like a w.
Here's a great example:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/video/2011-12/14/content_14263204.htm
It would seem more likely that the BBC would legitimize a dialect than they would hire someone with an impediment. But that didn't impede Barbara Walter's career.
This effect is apparently called 'Rhotacism'.
I found a forum with the heading of "http://ask.metafilter.com/67058/Wabbits">Wabbits", which delves into this effect prevalent amongst certain Britains.
http://ask.metafilter.com/67058/Wabbits
The question is whether we are hearing a true dialect, a speech impediment, or perhaps a dialect that developed around someone of influence who had a speech impediment. Certainly the impediment is corrected when it appears at an early age here in the States, as are crooked teeth. So what's the scoop?
No greater homage to the phenomenon than the scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc
Comments from the Wabbit Weblog:
The wikipedia page for Jonathan Ross refers to "a common dialectal variant of English common in the UK called the labiodental approximate. This pronunciation has increased in usage over the past 30 years and is mainly associated with speakers in the South West of England, although Ross is actually a Londoner."
Welsh people do this quite a bit. I spent a year in Wales, and I never got tired of my coworker's breathey "Wheally, Bill?" when she meant "Really, Bill?"
Terry Jones is the Pythonite who does it, and if you listen closely to Catherine Zeta-Jones, she slips her r's for w's when she's excited. On the Chicago soundtrack, listen for "My sister Vewonica and I..."
There's tons of good examples of this trend. An accessible one is found in the Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do." The refrain becomes "wappers do!"
It's totally South Wales, like Cardiff/Newport. And you can hear it in some folks up through Powys, but it fades pretty rapidly. For example, lots of people have the r-to-w in Llandrindod and Builth, but almost no one does in Rhayader. And not many in Brecon do, despite Brecon being further south. Brecon and Rhayader have a relatively high number of native Welsh speakers, where the trilled r prevails.
People from South Wales don't trill the r, but they still have the heavy aspirant quality associated with a Welsh accent. It's a "breathy" r that ends up sounding like a w.
Deep sea fish 'mystery migration' across Pacific Ocean
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8717000/8717761.stm
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Deep sea fish species found in the north Pacific Ocean have mysteriously been caught in the southwest Atlantic, on the other side of the world.
It is unclear how the animals, a giant rattail grenadier, pelagic eelpout and deep sea squid, travelled so far.
Their discovery 15,000km from their usual home raises the possibility that deep sea currents can transport animals from one polar region to another.
Details are published in the journal Deep Sea Research part I.
"These findings were completely unexpected," says Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department, based in Stanley, on the Falkland Islands in the southwest Atlantic Ocean.
DEEP SEA DISCOVERIES
Watch extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea fish
See strange jellies discovered in the icy depths
Explore the deep sea
Since 1987, the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department has performed surveys of fish caught by commercial and research fishing trawlers travelling above the Patagonian Shelf and slope around the islands.
Commercial longline catches of Patagonian toothfish have also been examined.
Recently, these catches have brought to the surface animals previously unknown in the southwest Atlantic.
For example, Dr Arkhipkin and colleagues Dr Vladimir Laptikhovsky and Dr Paul Brickle report a 81cm-long grenadier fish belonging to the genus Albatrossia caught by the longline fishery set to catch Patagonian toothfish.
Another deepwater trawl caught a small 15cm-long pelagic eelpout at a depth of 1000m.
map showing route travelled by deep water species
The route travelled
Experts have identified this fish as being a member of the slipskin species Lycodapus endemoscotus.
Previously both species were only known from the deepwaters of the north Pacific Ocean.
A small immature 11cm-long north Pacific gonate squid Gonatopsis octopedatus was also recovered from a trawl south of the Falkland Islands.
Genetic analyses confirmed the identification, which is the first time any member of this squid genus has been recorded in the southern hemisphere.
The catches are the first time that such deepwater species have been caught so far from their natural habitat.
All three species habitually live in the deep waters of the north Pacific, at depths greater than 600-1000m.
That makes it extremely unlikely that the fish and squid could have become trapped in ballast water used by ships, and transported around the world.
"We would not expect that relatively slow deepwater fish and squid might travel so far from their common habitats," says Dr Arkhipkin.
Rattail fish
An out of place rattail
All three species live above the seafloor, and none of the three are known to habitually migrate, just as tuna and whales do.
Far more likely is that each animal was transported thousands of kilometres by deepwater currents.
These flow south, across the equator, moving past South America underneath another northbound flow called the Humboldt Current.
Finally, this flow mixes with another called the Upper Circumpolar Deep Water to pass through the Drake Passage, whcih separates South America and Antarctica, to the Southwest Atlantic.
Such deep water currents flow slowly, so it may take a few years for a long-lived fish, or even several generations of short-lived fish or squid to migrate the whole way.
Dr Arkhipkin says the catches may force scientists to reevaluate their ideas about the distribution and movements of deepwater species.
Though there is no evidence to support the idea, Dr Arkhipkin speculates that climate change may be influencing the deepwater currents, facilitating the novel spread of such animals.
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Deep sea fish species found in the north Pacific Ocean have mysteriously been caught in the southwest Atlantic, on the other side of the world.
It is unclear how the animals, a giant rattail grenadier, pelagic eelpout and deep sea squid, travelled so far.
Their discovery 15,000km from their usual home raises the possibility that deep sea currents can transport animals from one polar region to another.
Details are published in the journal Deep Sea Research part I.
"These findings were completely unexpected," says Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department, based in Stanley, on the Falkland Islands in the southwest Atlantic Ocean.
DEEP SEA DISCOVERIES
Watch extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea fish
See strange jellies discovered in the icy depths
Explore the deep sea
Since 1987, the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department has performed surveys of fish caught by commercial and research fishing trawlers travelling above the Patagonian Shelf and slope around the islands.
Commercial longline catches of Patagonian toothfish have also been examined.
Recently, these catches have brought to the surface animals previously unknown in the southwest Atlantic.
For example, Dr Arkhipkin and colleagues Dr Vladimir Laptikhovsky and Dr Paul Brickle report a 81cm-long grenadier fish belonging to the genus Albatrossia caught by the longline fishery set to catch Patagonian toothfish.
Another deepwater trawl caught a small 15cm-long pelagic eelpout at a depth of 1000m.
map showing route travelled by deep water species
The route travelled
Experts have identified this fish as being a member of the slipskin species Lycodapus endemoscotus.
Previously both species were only known from the deepwaters of the north Pacific Ocean.
A small immature 11cm-long north Pacific gonate squid Gonatopsis octopedatus was also recovered from a trawl south of the Falkland Islands.
Genetic analyses confirmed the identification, which is the first time any member of this squid genus has been recorded in the southern hemisphere.
The catches are the first time that such deepwater species have been caught so far from their natural habitat.
All three species habitually live in the deep waters of the north Pacific, at depths greater than 600-1000m.
That makes it extremely unlikely that the fish and squid could have become trapped in ballast water used by ships, and transported around the world.
"We would not expect that relatively slow deepwater fish and squid might travel so far from their common habitats," says Dr Arkhipkin.
Rattail fish
An out of place rattail
All three species live above the seafloor, and none of the three are known to habitually migrate, just as tuna and whales do.
Far more likely is that each animal was transported thousands of kilometres by deepwater currents.
These flow south, across the equator, moving past South America underneath another northbound flow called the Humboldt Current.
Finally, this flow mixes with another called the Upper Circumpolar Deep Water to pass through the Drake Passage, whcih separates South America and Antarctica, to the Southwest Atlantic.
Such deep water currents flow slowly, so it may take a few years for a long-lived fish, or even several generations of short-lived fish or squid to migrate the whole way.
Dr Arkhipkin says the catches may force scientists to reevaluate their ideas about the distribution and movements of deepwater species.
Though there is no evidence to support the idea, Dr Arkhipkin speculates that climate change may be influencing the deepwater currents, facilitating the novel spread of such animals.
Somali troops free pirate-held cargo ship
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/10224293.stm
Soldiers from Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region have stormed a Panama-flagged cargo vessel held by pirates, a Puntland minister has said.
The pirates, who refused to surrender, killed the captain of the ship, he said.
There was a brief shoot-out with the seven pirates before they were captured, he added.
The pirates seized the 15,000-tonne ship, MV QSM Dubai, in the Gulf of Aden in the early hours of Wednesday.
"Our troops stormed the Panama-flagged vessel and engaged the pirates. There was brief fighting before they defeated them," Said Mohamed Raage, Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, said.
Puntland map
"We arrested seven pirates after they killed the captain of the ship."
The vessel has a crew of 24 made up of Ghanaian, Egyptian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals, and was taking supplies to northern Somalia.
It was sailing from Brazil in the "internationally recommended transit corridor" in the gulf when it was seized.
Puntland, which declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998, has been used by pirates as a base of operations.
On Wednesday, the crew of a Libyan-owned merchant ship seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden were reported to have recaptured their vessel.
Soldiers from Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region have stormed a Panama-flagged cargo vessel held by pirates, a Puntland minister has said.
The pirates, who refused to surrender, killed the captain of the ship, he said.
There was a brief shoot-out with the seven pirates before they were captured, he added.
The pirates seized the 15,000-tonne ship, MV QSM Dubai, in the Gulf of Aden in the early hours of Wednesday.
"Our troops stormed the Panama-flagged vessel and engaged the pirates. There was brief fighting before they defeated them," Said Mohamed Raage, Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, said.
Puntland map
"We arrested seven pirates after they killed the captain of the ship."
The vessel has a crew of 24 made up of Ghanaian, Egyptian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals, and was taking supplies to northern Somalia.
It was sailing from Brazil in the "internationally recommended transit corridor" in the gulf when it was seized.
Puntland, which declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998, has been used by pirates as a base of operations.
On Wednesday, the crew of a Libyan-owned merchant ship seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden were reported to have recaptured their vessel.
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