SCIENCE BOND

Some users found that their iPhone stopped working following servicing by a non-Apple technician and saw an "error 53" message in iTunes.  Previously, Apple had said the error was a "security measure" taken to prevent fraudulent transactions.  Now, the company has released a software update to fix the error.  In a statement, Apple said that "error 53" occurs when a device fails a standard security test designed to ensure that the Touch ID fingerprint scanner is working correctly.  However, the company added: "We apologise for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers.  "Customers who paid for an out-of-warranty replacement of their device based on this issue should contact AppleCare about a reimbursement." A software update has now been released so that iPhone customers with disabled phones may restore their device via iTunes on a PC or Mac.  "To me, there was a lot of logi...

Traces of human DNA found in a Neanderthal genome suggest that we started mixing with our now-extinct relatives 100,000 years ago.  Previously it had been thought that the two species first encountered each other when modern humans left Africa, about 60,000 years ago. The research is published in the journal Nature.  Dr Sergi Castellano, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Germany, said: "It is significant for understanding the history of modern humans and Neanderthals."The ancient remains of a female Neanderthal, found in a remote cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, are the source of these revelations about the sex lives of our ancestors. A genetic analysis reveals that portions of human DNA lie within her genome, revealing an interspecies mingling that took place 100,000 years ago.Earlier research suggested that humans started interbreeding with our heavy-browed, stocky relatives when they migrated out of Africa and began to spread...

The breakthrough, published in Nature Biotechnology, raises the hope of using living tissues to repair the body.  Experts described the technology, developed in the US, as a "goose that really does lay golden eggs".  The idea of placing individual human cells in a precise pattern to replace a damaged jaw, missing ear or scarred heart muscle holds much promise.  But the field has been limited by the huge challenge of keeping the cells alive - they become starved of oxygen and nutrients in tissues thicker than 0.2 millimetres.  The team at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre developed a new technique that 3D-prints a tissue riddled with micro-channels, rather like a sponge, to allow nutrients to penetrate the tissue.The Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System - or Itop - combines a bio-degradeable plastic which gives the structure and a water-based gel which contains the cells and encourages them to grow. When the structures were implanted into animals, t...

The report - by a taskforce set up by NHS England - said around three-quarters of people with mental health problems received no help at all.  It said more needs to be done to tackle rising suicide rates.  Ministers agreed with the findings, committing a £1bn extra a year by 2020 to treat a million more people.  This is to come out of the £8.4bn the government has promised to the health service during this Parliament and comes on top of extra money already announced for children's services.  Prime Minister David Cameron said the plan would help put "mental and physical healthcare on an equal footing".Mental health care is sometimes called the Cinderella service of the NHS. Over the years it has been neglected, marginalised and under-funded. The taskforce's report acknowledges this.  So will the recommendations have the necessary impact? Ministers and NHS bosses have all said they're fully committed to it. But similar things were said in 2011 when the co...

The problem affects voice-over-internet-protocol (Voip) phones, commonly used by businesses.  Just by running a couple of lines of code on a website visited by the phone user, the researchers demonstrated how premium-rate calls could be made.  A security expert said such bugs could make "millions" for the perpetrators.  By exploiting the fact that Voip phones and desktop computers are connected to the same internet network at many organisations, attackers are often able to access the phones themselves and operate them without the owner becoming aware.  "It's incredibly easy to do," said security researcher Per Thorsheim, who was involved in the demonstration by fellow researcher Paul Moore. 'Pay to be eavesdropped' Mr Thorsheim explained that the phone could be compromised if the user visited a web page containing a couple of lines of Javascript web code,  This code was designed to launch the attack on a device made by phone hardware manufac...

The artist painted three versions of this famous scene, using broadly the same colour scheme.  But time and light degradation have taken their toll on the pigments.  Using a variety of techniques, the researchers have digitally restored the light blue walls and door to their original lilac and purple.  The computer visualisation is part of a major new exhibition at the The Art Institute of Chicago, which brings together all three versions for only the second time since Van Gogh produced them.  It is hoped visitors to the exhibition will get a deeper sense of the emotions the 19th Century artist was trying to convey in the works. "Science is vital in identifying the pigments that have faded, but then there is a lot of interpretation that we rely on from conservators and art historians who really know the hand of the artist, and know how to dial that virtual knob more or less," explained Dr Francesca Casadio, Mellon Senior Conservation Scientist at the Chicago...

The scientists conducting research on Generic Cialis rarely interacted with the men who were asked to sell that product. On one afternoon in 2006, however, the two groups did get together. The executives who arranged that meeting hoped to find a better way to prevent leakage of information about findings made in the company laboratories.  The executives had received information on a couple of ways to detect information thieves. The executives wanted to get input from the scientists and marketers on those potential detection methods. The executives hoped to receive feedback on the degree to which such detection methods might cut-off leakage of information to those making and selling Generic Viagra First the two groups studied a method that involved use of electronic watermarks. Such watermarks could be put on documents that were passed through a special Xerox product. The Xerox product put an invisible serial number on each document. That invisible serial number does not ...