SCIENCE BOND

The helium plasma - a cloud of loose, charged particles - lasted just a tenth of a second and was about one million degrees Celsius.  It was hailed as a breakthrough for the Max Planck Institute's stellarator - a chamber whose design differs from the tokamak fusion devices used elsewhere.  The Sun's energy is created by fusion.  Physicists are in a worldwide race to create stable fusion devices that could not only mimic the Sun but release abundant energy, without the volumes of toxic waste generated by nuclear fission - the splitting of the atom.The team at Greifswald, in northeastern Germany, aim in future to heat hydrogen nuclei to about 100 million C - the necessary conditions for fusion to take place like in the Sun's interior. They will use deuterium, a heavier type, or isotope, of the element. The stellarator's plasma was created on Thursday using a microwave laser, a complex combination of magnets and just 10mg of helium. The Max Planck Institute call...

On Saturday, the Soyuz crew module was attached to its rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  We watched as the completed vehicle was loaded onto a flat-bed transporter, ready to be carried to the launch pad.  Mr Peake and two other crew members will launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday 15 December.  During his seven-month stay on the orbiting outpost, the former Army helicopter pilot will carry out a programme of experiments and educational activities.  He will be accompanied on the flight by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Timothy Kopra.The Soyuz spacecraft - which carries the crew to the ISS - and its rocket are assembled at adjacent facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  On Friday, the crew module was transported by train from its assembly site - known as Building 254 - to the huge hangar-like facility designated Building 112. More than 40 years ago, Building 112 housed a giant (105m-high) rock...

It had been thought that being unhappy was bad for health - particularly for the heart.  But the decade-long analysis, published in the Lancet, said previous studies had just confused cause and effect.  However, experts argued that unhappiness in childhood may still have a lasting impact.  A series of studies had shown that how happy people are, strongly predicts how long they are going to live.  Ideas included detrimental changes in stress hormones or the immune system resulting in a higher risk of death.  But the research team in the UK and Australia said those studies failed to deal with reverse causality - namely, that people who are ill are not very happy.Participants in the Million Women Study were asked to regularly rate their health, happiness and levels of stress.  The results showed that whether people were "never", "usually" or "mostly" happy had no impact on their odds of dying during the duration of the study once other factors such as ...

Researchers from Trend Micro found blogs on the website had been modified to install malware known as Cryptesla on readers' devices.  The malware holds files on the host machine to ransom and demands a payment to restore them.  The Independent said it had removed all ads on the site while it investigated.  "It appears that an advert appearing on that blogsite may have included malware," said a spokesman for the newspaper.  "There is no suggestion or evidence that any of our users have been affected by this."  The spokesman said the site affected was an old or "legacy" system that was now rarely visited.  According to Trend Micro, the ransomware has been present on the Independent blogs website since at least 21 November. "We reported it to them on Tuesday - but, as of today, it is still happening," said Raimund Genes, chief technical officer at Trend Micro.  "Now we need to go public to warn people who are not using security s...

The 30km (18.6 miles) test route required a modified BMW 3 Series to navigate "complex road conditions", including human drivers, the firm said.  The car executed a range of manoeuvres, including U-turns, lane changes and merging into traffic from ramps.  Baidu has amassed a library of 3D road maps to guide its autonomous vehicles.  "Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing's road conditions and unpredictable driver behaviour," said Wang Jing, senior vice-president of Baidu and general manager of the company's Autonomous Driving Business Unit.  Baidu's highly automated driving (HAD) maps capture road data in 3D to within a few centimetres of accuracy, according to the company.  The car is able to detect vehicles, road lanes and objects in its path.Separately, South Korean firm Samsung announced that it would be launching a new division which will make car component...

Michael Ford, who worked in the American embassy in London, pleaded guilty to nine charges of cyber-stalking, seven of computer hacking to extort and one of wire fraud.  He preyed on sorority members at US universities and aspiring models.  Ford used the details he learned after hacking the women to find new victims.The 36-year-old, from Atlanta, in the American state of Georgia, posed as technical support staff from a well-known email company and sent phishing messages to thousands of potential victims.  Pretending to be a member of the non-existent account-deletion team, he told them their accounts would be closed unless they sent him their passwords.  He then accessed their email and social media accounts in search of explicit photos and other personal information, such as home and work addresses, employment information and details about family members.  He used that information to demand additional sexually explicit material, such as videos of the wom...

The eaglet, which has yet to be named, is the first of its kind to be born at a conservation centre in the southern Davao province in two years.  Thirty four eagles, including the hatchling, are currently being kept in a massive cage at the centre.  Only about 600 of the species are thought to be left in the wild.  Considered to be the country's national bird, the Philippine eagle has been classified as "critically endangered" because of the loss of its natural rainforest habitat and hunting.  The Philippine Eagle Foundation called the baby bird "a breakthrough" for their breeding programme with curator Anna Mae Sumaya said that the birth "gives hope" for the native population.  "At two days old, this baby eagle can already lift its head and get food from forceps. It's also very active, attentive and observant of its surroundings," Ms Sumaya said in a statement.In August, a rare eagle named Pamana was shot dead just two months afte...