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Researchers have found a flaw in the technical setup of an experiment that startled the science world last year by appearing to show particles traveling faster Burberry Bags than light.

The problem may have affected measurements that clocked subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.

Two separate issues were identified with the GPS system that was used to time the arrival of neutrinos at an underground lab in Italy, James Gillies, spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said Wednesday.

One could have caused the speed to be overestimated, the other could have caused it to be underestimated, he said.

“The bottom line is that we will not know until more measurements are done later this year,” Gillies told The Associated Press.

The results of the experiment were received with great skepticism by scientists when they were published last September because they seemed to contradict Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That rule is fundamental to modern physics, and breaking it is seen as a step into the realms of science fiction where time travel and warp speed engines exist.

Even researchers involved in the experiment cautioned at the time that the measurements would need to be independently verified by other scientists before a genuine finding could be declared.

The experiment involved neutrinos being fired from CERN’s site on the Swiss-French border to a vast underground laboratory 454 miles (730 kilometers) away at Gran Sasso in Italy.

Researchers found that the neutrinos appeared to arrive 60 nanoseconds sooner than if they had been traveling at light’s speed of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).

The experiment’s margin of error allowed for just 10 nanoseconds. A nanosecond is one-billionth of a second.

Men, or at least male biologists, have long been alarmed that their tiny Y chromosome, once the same size as its buxom partner, the X, will continue to wither away until it simply vanishes. The male sex would then become extinct, they fear, leaving women to invent some virgin-birth method of reproduction and propagate a sexless species.

The fear is not without serious basis: The Y and X chromosomes once shared some 800 genes in common, but now, after shedding genes furiously, the Y carries just burberry outlet online 19 of its ancestral genes, as well as the male-determining gene that is its raison d’être. So much DNA has been lost that the chromosome is a fraction of its original size.

But there are grounds for hope that the Y chromosome has reached a plateau of miniaturized perfection and will shrivel no more. Researchers led by Jennifer F. Hughes and David C. Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have reconstructed the Y chromosome’s past and find that its gene-shedding days seem to be over. Men are not living on borrowed time after all, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

In people, sex is determined by a single gene that resides on the Y chromosome. Chromosomes come in pairs, with one set bequeathed by each parent, and the Y is paired with X such that men have an X-Y pair and women an X-X. When the male-determining gene first arose, some 320 million years ago, the X and Y were both full-length chromosomes, each bearing the same set of 1,000 or so genes.

The Y chromosome began its self-sacrificing downsizing in the gallant cause of protecting women. As is well known, the purpose of sex is to exchange DNA between the mother’s and father’s version of each gene, creating novel combinations that will help children adapt to a new environment better than their parents did. So before generating sperm and eggs, the two members of each pair of chromosomes line up side by side and swap large chunks of DNA.

But the male-determining gene on the Y cannot be allowed to sneak across onto the X because it would insert maleness where it should not be. So a no-swapping zone was created around the male-determining gene. That inhibitory zone was extended in five stages until it covered the whole of Y chromosome except its very tips.

Genes at the tips of the Y exchange DNA with the X in the usual way, but all those in between were condemned to a monklike existence. And being unable to innovate, most of these genes became first antiquated and then dispensable. The X chromosome now has 790 genes in its no-swap zone, according to best current estimates, but the Y retains a mere 19 of these original genes.

As the only part of the human genome that never passes through a woman’s body, the Y is the ideal refuge for male-favoring genes, especially those having to do with sperm production. Eight such genes have leapt onto the Y from other chromosomes, bringing its total score to 27. But these few additions have not allayed concern about the chromosome’s long-term viability.

The Whitehead team’s new report provides solid assurance by showing that the Y’s shedding of genes is not a continuing process. Almost all of its genetic self-sacrifice occurred in the distant past.

This insight was gained by decoding the Y chromosome of rhesus monkeys, which shared a common ancestor with humans at the time, and retain 20 ancestral genes, meaning those that have a counterpart gene on the X. Only one of these genes has been lost in humans at some time in the last 25 million years, showing that the Y chromosome became essentially stabilized long ago.

“It’s my sincere hope that this article might put the notion of the disappearing Y chromosome to rest,” Dr. Page said.

He and his colleagues have reconstructed the entire history of the Y chromosome, showing that its no-swap zone expanded in five stages, of which the first began 320 million years ago and the last ended 29 million years ago. Each stage was caused when a chunk of DNA fell out of the Y chromosome and was accidentally flipped the wrong way when it was patched back in, so it would no longer line up correctly with its counterpart region on the X. At each stage, loss of genes was precipitous at first but then leveled off.

The first stage originated to fence in burberry purse the male-determining genes. The driving force for creating more no-swap zones was probably the existence of genes in nearby regions that were beneficial for males and detrimental for females, Dr. Page said. Sexually antagonistic genes probably exist throughout the genome, but only on the Y chromosome can the male-favoring ones gain protection.

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No one claimed responsibility for the blasts at a military-intelligence headquarters and police station, which Syria’s state news agency said killed 28 people and wounded 235. But the opposition and the government each blamed the other, in what Syrians and observers viewed as jostling appeals for support from the city’s influential business community, which appears largely aligned with the regime gucci outlet.

Meanwhile, opposition in restive neighborhoods of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, appeared to weaken after seven days of relentless shelling by government forces.

After the Aleppo attacks, Syria’s state news agency published grisly photos of mangled bodies. As with other reports from both sides of the conflict in Syria, a country largely cut off to independent reporting, details of the attack couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Aleppo has seen few of the antigovernment protests that have gripped other cities in Syria during the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. If the city’s influential middle-class merchants were to turn against the regime, it would be a serious blow to Mr. Assad’s grip on power.

“A big part of the middle class live [in Aleppo], and the allegiance of this group is very important. If Aleppo and Damascus don’t turn against Assad, then the regime does have substantial and significant support,” said Ayham Kamel, a Middle East analyst at Eurasia Group, a New York-based political-risk consultancy. “The regime will use this attack to highlight that Syria’s situation is an internal conflict and that this is not simply a regime against peaceful protesters.”

The government blamed the blasts on terrorists, the term it has applied broadly to all those defying Mr. Assad’s rule. The opposition could benefit from a successful strike on security forces’ headquarters because it would appear to weaken the regime’s hold on the city and embolden any opposition in Aleppo, said Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist.

But Syria’s leading opposition groups accused the regime of blowing up the buildings to turn public opinion against the opposition. “The explosions happened after the government withdrew its forces from the compounds,” the Turkey-based commander of the Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Assad, told al-Jazeera. “We denounce this attack.”
Similar blasts struck security and intelligence compounds in Damascus in January and December gucci 2012. The regime blamed these attacks on al Qaeda.

Friday’s attacks drew a close to what appeared to be the bloodiest week yet in Syria’s uprising, beginning with a government assault on Homs. Against the backdrop of rising violence, an international diplomatic spat continued, one that pits Mr. Assad’s supporters, Russia and China, against the broad coalition, including the U.S., Europe, and Arab states, that are seeking his ouster.

Saudi King Abdullah spoke publicly for the first time in response to Saturday’s Russian-Chinese veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution that had called on President Assad to step aside. “We are going through alarming days, and unfortunately what happened at the United Nations is absolutely regrettable,” he said. “What took place does not augur well, as world confidence in the United Nations has undoubtedly been shaken.”

Moscow, which has borne the brunt of international ire in recent days i need top, accused Western states of shipping weapons to opposition fighters, and threatened “drastic measures” if the Western interference continued.

Tom Brady has three rings, and is now on his second quest for a fourth. That would pull him even with Terry Bradshaw and, as he enthusiastically assured this week, his idol, Joe Montana. Even when he tried to deny that equaling Montana’s accomplishment was on his mind, he still admitted that growing up a San Francisco 49ers fan in his hometown, and watching Montana, defined his childhood and love of the game.

Losing this game, though, further taints what not that long ago was a perfect record. Montana and Bradshaw were perfect 4-0′s. Going down to this Giants team, again, makes Brady 3-2. Nothing to apologize for, but not the same.

The prospect of Eli Manning becoming 2-0 in Super Bowls also changes the entire conversation about him. It’s changed substantially already just this season—all the “elite” talk, backed up masterfully—and the change from that 2007 and that previous Super Bowl has been close to 180 degrees.

Layer on the little-brother angle, and to everybody except the public Eli, it’s a mind-trip for the ages. In the house that Peyton built, at the end of a week where Peyton suddenly saw the sunset of his brilliant career on the horizon—and with Peyton having already fallen surprisingly in his own second Super visit—whatever toughness that has already been ascribed to Eli, at least double it as game time closes in.

And double his reputation in the annals of the NFL if Eli wins … again … over Brady.

Eli’s coach, meanwhile, is suddenly entertaining conversations about Canton, some six weeks after half the folks back home were wondering when Giants ownership would just pull the plug on him and his underachieving career. Yes, it’s another well-documented yet deeply perplexing development: Tom Coughlin getting called out by the masses, then getting lauded as an immortal. Twice, of course.

This time, if Coughlin wins a second ring, beats the Patriots again, rallies from the depths again, why not make a case for him for the Hall of Fame?

And what would beef it up more than defeating his former fellow Giants assistant, Bill Belichick, a second time?

Belichick even has something vital riding on this. He’d despise losing here, no less than he despised it last time (and how premature might his exit to the locker room be this time?), and like Brady, a Super record with two losses just doesn’t look as good.

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