Analysing data from the Cassini spacecraft, they found that 50 unique landmarks established earlier on Titan’s surface have shifted from their expected positions by up to 19 miles, the NASA said.

According to lead scientist Ralph Lorenz, “With its organic dunes, lakes, channels and mountains, Titan has one of the most varied, active and Earth-like surfaces in the solar system. Now we see changes in the way Titan rotates, giving us a window into Titan’s interior beneath the surface.”

Added co-researcher Bryan Stiles of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California: “We believe that about 62 miles beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia”.

The study of Titan is a major goal of the Cassini and Huygens mission because it may preserve, in deep-freeze, many of the chemical compounds that preceded life on Earth.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system that possesses a dense atmosphere. The moon’s atmosphere is 1.5 times denser than Earth’s. Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons, bigger than the planet Mercury.

Sure cure for heart

Regular exercise won’t only help  overweight men shed those extra pounds, but as it turns out, it’s also good for their hearts. The study was conducted by researches from Indiana University who found that being active ups vascular health in overweight men by an average of 24 per cent.

On the other hand, being inactive can decrease vascular function in overweight men by 32 per cent. “This overweight-obesity phenomenon is an epidemic in today’s society,” said lead researcher Ryan A Harris.

“This study supports that being consistent with daily physical activity is beneficial to cardiovascular health. Being active may not drop the pounds as quickly as you’d like, but it still is beneficial.”

The study involved 16 overweight men ages 46-68. Half were active, performing at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days.

25 environmental threats

Researchers, policymakers and environmental campaigners have identified 25 potential future threats to the environment, which they believe should be focused upon.

William Sutherland, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge, led a series of horizon-scanning workshops where the threats where highlighted. Sutherland said that they were convened in order to give researchers the opportunity to assess environmental threats before they become a political and social problem.

In addition to well-publicised risks such as toxic nanomaterials, the acidification of the ocean and increasingly frequent extreme weather events, the list includes some more outlandish possibilities. Some of the threats identified are more speculative, such as robots that imitate animal behaviour and microbes made from
synthetic molecules. If these forms of artificial intelligence are released into the wild they might eventually behave like invasive species, the group warns.

Wireless video transmission

German researchers have achieved a breakthrough in making the first wireless video transmission in the terahertz range, potentially 1,000 times faster than the existing wireless technologies.

Christian Jastrow of the Terahertz Communications Lab in Braunschweig says that, though the link spanned just 22 meters, the transmission marks a significant advance towards using much faster chunks of wireless spectrum, by harnessing radio waves oscillating a trillion times per second.

The present-day wireless technologies like WiFi and third generation (3G) mobile networks operate in the ranges of gigahertz and megahertz respectively. Jastrow says that using terahertz bandwidth, ranging from 300GHz to 3 terahertz (THz), may open up new frequencies for communication.

Pine extract for memory

When it comes to improving senior citizens’ memories, it seems that an apple a day may have to take a back seat to a French maritime pine tree extract called Pyconogenol.

Researchers at the Swinburne University, Australia, found that the extract improved both numerical working memory as well as spatial working memory in older adults. The finding, said lead researcher Con Stough, supports other studies that have shown that antioxidants may have an effect in preserving or
enhancing specific mental functions.

These results support research from a range of disciplines that suggest that antioxidants may have an effect in
preserving or enhancing specific mental functions, he said.