Mitt Romney raises $17m more than Barack Obama campaign

US Republican candidate Mitt Romney raised almost $17m (£11m) more than President Barack Obama's re-election effort in May, figures show.

Mr Romney and the Republicans raised $76.8m, while the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party brought in $60m.

Mr Romney now has $107m cash on hand, almost matching the $115m Mr Obama's campaign had by the end of April.

Mr Obama's May total included $15m raised at the home of George Clooney, with tickets costing $40,000.

Members of the public also bought $3 raffle tickets to win a spot at that star-studded event.

Both presidential candidates are in the midst of a hectic fund-raising schedule as they prepare for the long campaign ahead of November's election.

Mr Obama is campaigning this week in California and Nevada, while Mr Romney has been in Texas.

The monthly campaign fundraising totals do not include millions of dollars being raised and spent by independent committees backing each campaign.

'Broken promises'

May's fundraising figures were the first since Mr Romney took an unbeatable lead in the Republican primary process, having won the required numbers of delegates to ensure he will face Mr Obama in November.

Announcing its fundraising totals early on Thursday, the Obama campaign said on Twitter that 572,000 people donated in May, 147,000 of them for the first time.

His campaign also reported that 98% of the contributions were less than $250.

In its statement shortly afterwards, the Romney campaign reported that donations of $250 or less made up 93% of all donations and $12m of the total amount raised.

"Our strong fundraising is a sign that Americans are tired of President Obama's broken promises and want a change of direction in the White House," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt used Twitter to play down Mr Romney's fundraising haul: "Reminder on RNC/Romney camp fundraising: 1st month joint committee was in existence, so all their primary donors wrote their maxout checks."

Both the camps raised considerably more in May than in April, when the Obama campaign and the Democrats brought in $43.6m, slightly ahead of their opponents.

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18358616

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'Starving' crown-of-thorns starfish in mass stranding

Hundreds of crown-of-thorns starfish found on a beach in southern Japan in January stranded themselves because they were starving, say researchers.

More than 800 were discovered on a 300m stretch of sand on Ishigaki island.

The starfish population "outbreak" was first identified in 2009, when masses of juveniles were seen feeding on the island's outer coral reef.

The coral-eating starfish then took three years to move onto the beach where they perished.

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The reason for the starfish population boom is not clear, but the strange behaviour has shown marine scientists what can happen when these slow-moving creatures completely deplete their food source.

"The shortage of food, corals, is a probable cause of the stranding," said Go Suzuki from the Fisheries Research Agency, who witnessed the phenomenon from his research station.

In a paper, published in the journal Coral Reefs, Mr Suzuki and colleagues described how an area once covered with up to 60% coral was reduced to 1% by the voracious starfish.

The marine scientists described how the starfish gradually moved closer to the beach, possibly in search of more coral to feed on.

Mr Suzuki suggested that the current may have helped the starfish along their doomed path, pushing the animals towards the shore.

Noting that they died on the beach, rather than in the water, the team concluded that when the starving starfish were eventually washed up they were too weak to return to the sea.

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18294729

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How tiny insects survive the rain

A mosquito's tiny, low-weight body is the key to its ability to survive flying in the rain, according to scientists.

A team from the Georgia Institute of Technology filmed the insects as they collided with raindrops.

This showed that their bodies put up so little resistance that, rather than the drop of water stopping in a sudden, catastrophic splash, the mosquito simply combined with the drop and the two continued to fall together.

The team report their findings in PNAS.

As well as helping explain how the insects thrive in damp, humid environments, the research could ultimately help researchers to design tiny, flying robots that are just as impervious to the elements.

"I hope this will make people think a little bit differently about rain," said lead researcher David Hu.

"If you're small, it can be very dangerous. But it seems that these mosquitoes are so small that they're safe."

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Dr Hu is interested in understanding completely the "tricks" that insects use to survive being so small.

After repeated attempts at what he described as the most difficult game of darts ever, he and his colleagues managed to hit flying mosquitoes with drops of water and capture footage of the result.

Each droplet was between two and 50 times the weight of a mosquito, so what they saw surprised them.

Describing the the results, Dr Hu cited the Chinese martial art of Tai chi.

"There is a philosophy that if you don't resist the force of your opponent, you won't feel it," he explained.

"That's why they don't feel the force; they simply join the drop, become one item and travel together."

When a moving object crashes into another, it is the sudden halt that produces a damage-causing force. For example, when a car hits a wall at 30mph, the stationary wall and the car have to absorb all of the energy carried by that moving car, causing a great deal of damage.

The trick for a mosquito is that it hardly slows the raindrop down at all, and absorbs very little of its energy.

Surviving the collision though, is not the end of the drama for a tiny insect. It has to escape from its watery cocoon before the droplet smashes the insect into the ground at more than 20mph.

This is where the insect's body, which is covered in water-repellent hairs, seems to give it another crucial survival technique.

Every mosquito studied in this experiment managed to separate itself from the water drop before it hit the ground.

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18294324

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Paralysed rats 'learn to walk'

Paralysed rats have been able to walk again after their spinal cords were bathed in chemicals and zapped with electricity, scientists have shown.

An injury to the spinal cord stops the brain controlling the body.

The study, in the journal Science, showed injured rats could even learn to sprint with spinal stimulation.

Experts said it was an "exceptional study" and that restoring function after paralysis "can no longer be dismissed as a pipedream".

In 2011, a man from Oregon in the US was able to stand up again while his spinal cord was stimulated with electricity. Rob Summers had been paralysed from the chest down after being hit by a car.

Now researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) say they have restored far more movement in rats which became able to run and climb stairs.

'Reawakening'

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End Quote Dr Bryce Vissel Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney

The spinal cord of the rats was cut in two places. It meant messages could not travel from the brain to the legs, but the spinal cord was still in one piece.

The researchers then tried to repair the damage. In an advance from the Rob Summers study, the spinal cord was first injected with chemicals to stimulate the nerves in the spine. The base of the spinal cord was then electrically stimulated as well. The scientists say they were reawakening the "spinal brain".

However, this was not sufficient to restore movement. The rats were supported in a robotic harness and were shown a treat which they needed to "learn" to walk towards.

The lead researcher, Prof Gregoire Courtine, said: "Over time the animal regains the capacity to perform one, two steps, then a long run and eventually we gain the capacity to sprint over ground, climb stairs and even pass obstacles."

He told the BBC: "It is completely unexpected to see this recovery, they walk and climb stairs voluntarily."

The scientists showed that new nerves were forming across the injury and there were also changes in the brain.

This is not, however, a cure for spinal cord injuries in people.

Rob Summers: ''The moment I stood up, I was in disbelief''

Prof Reggie Edgerton, from the University of California Los Angeles, was part of the team which helped Rob Summers stand again.

He told the BBC the study was "important" and that it was becoming clear that engaging the brain was the key. "You've got to make the rat want to step, it demonstrates the importance of training and rehabilitation," he said.

Both procedures only work while the spinal cord is still being stimulated, even though new nerves have bridged the injury.

Why this is the case is still unknown. Prof Edgerton speculated that "we are activating the spinal cord to a critical level" close to the level which would trigger movement, and a small signal from "the brain pushes it over" leading to movement.

Dr Bryce Vissel, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, said he was "excited" by the research.

He said: "The major advance of this new study is to show that it is possible to stimulate almost complete functional recovery in rats with profound injury, using a combination of therapeutic drugs injected into the spinal cord, electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and initial assistance to walk.

"We are on the edge of a truly profound advance in modern medicine: the prospect of repairing the spinal cord after injury."

Dr Mark Bacon, the director of research at the charity Spinal Research, said: "This is a robust demonstration that medical research is moving in the right direction and restoring function after paralysis can no longer be dismissed as a pipedream.

"For all its complexity, the important message here may be that our standard approach to rehab may not be making the most of the potential to restore function if we don't provide appropriate 'rewarding' feedback to every part of the nervous system, including the brain."

However he warned that "real world" injuries might be more complicated, with less tissue for new nerves to grow through.

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18257077

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