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Eating a high-fat diet during pregnancy causes permanent changes in the fetal brain that can result in overeating and obesity early in life, according to a study with rats.

The researchers from Rockefeller University in New York City said their finding is an important advance in understanding mechanisms of fetal programming. It also sheds light on the production of new brain cells, helping to explain the dramatic rise of childhood obesity in the United States over the past three decades.

“We’ve shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the appetite for fat,” study senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz, director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller, said in a university news release. “This work provides the first evidence for a fetal program that links high levels of fat circulating in the mother’s blood during pregnancy to the overeating and increased weight gain of offspring after weaning.”

For the study, pregnant rats were fed either a high-fat or a balanced diet for two weeks. Pups born to mothers that ate the high-fat diet ate more, weighed more throughout life, and began puberty earlier than pups born to mothers that ate a balanced diet. The pups born to the mothers that at the high-fat diet also had higher levels of triglycerides in the blood at birth and as adults, and also had greater production of brain peptides that stimulate eating and weight gain.

The study was published in the Nov. 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

The creation of neurons that increase the appetite for fat may also occur in human babies born to mothers who eat a high-fat diet during pregnancy, Leibowitz said.

“We’re programming our children to be fat,” she believes. “I think it’s very clear that there’s vulnerability in the developing brain, and we’ve identified the site of this action where new neurons are being born. We now need to understand how the lipids affect these precursor cells that form these fat-sensitive neurons that live with us throughout life.”

A new study has found that just one response for every 12.5 million spam mails sent can turn spammers into millionaires.

Researchers from University of California, San Diego and Berkeley hijacked a working spam network and uncovered some of the economics of being a junk mailer.

The scientists broke into the Storm network that uses hijacked home computers as relays for junk mail.

The research team led by Assistant Professor Stefan Savage from UCSD, created several so-called “proxy bots” that acted as conduits of information between the command and control system for Storm and the hijacked home PCs that actually send out junk mail.

They used these machines to control a total of 75,869 hijacked machines and routed their own fake spam campaigns through them.

For the study, the researchers created a pharmacy site and ran two types of fake spam campaign through these machines

One mimicked the way Storm spreads using viruses and the other tried to tempt people to visit a fake pharmacy site and buy a herbal remedy to boost their libido.

The fake pharmacy site was made to resemble those run by Storm’’s real owners but always returned an error message when potential buyers clicked a button to submit their credit card details.

While running their spam campaigns the researchers sent about 469 million junk e-mail messages. The vast majority of these were for the fake pharmacy campaign.

“After 26 days, and almost 350 million e-mail messages, only 28 sales resulted,” BBC quoted the researchers, as writing.

The response rate for this campaign was less than 0.00001percent. This is far below the average of 2.15 pct reported by legitimate direct mail organisations.

“Taken together, these conversions would have resulted in revenues of 2,731.88 dollars—a bit over 100 dollars a day for the measurement period,” they added.

The researchers estimate that the controllers of the vast system are netting about 7,000 dollars a day or more than 2m dollars per year.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday said India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-II, will be launched by 2012.

“Chandrayaan-II will be launched by 2012. We will have a lander that will drop a small robot on the moon, which will pick samples, analyse data and send the data back. Already the project has been formulated for Chandrayaan-II,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.

He dismissed as speculation reports that the government had not sanctioned ISRO’s proposal for a manned mission.

Justifying the relevance of manned moon mission, Nair said, “We cannot be lagging behind in terms of our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space.”

Talking about Chandrayaan-I, the country’s first unmanned moon mission, he said the Moon Impact Probe would land on the lunar surface tomorrow evening. However, “we cannot specify the time as of now,” he said.

On the success of the moon mission, Nair said already 95 per cent of the mission had been completed and just five per cent of the work had to be over. The total success of the mission would be known only after the remaining work was completed, he said.

He said Chandrayaan-I would get extensive study map of the moon by which an idea of the minerals of the moon would be available. Mineral mapping and surface feature mapping would be of prime importance, he said.

He also said the ISRO was going ahead with the study of sending a spacecraft to Mars.

On the ‘Solar mission’ Aditya, he said a satellite was intended to study solar emissions. The design work had been completed and it would be launched within two years, he said.

After facing scores of problems in securing an arms licence for a prohibited bore weapon, India cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni finally seems to have won his way with the Jharkhand government relaxing the norms.

Dhoni had applied for an arms licence for a prohibited bore weapon, issued by the government under special circumstances, in August this year. But in spite of being a celebrity, he was not issued the licence even three months on.

On the other hand, he had been asked by the Commissioner of Chhotanagpur region Sheel Kisku Rapaz to produce a character certificate.

In fact, a comment by Rapaz on the application of Dhoni had surprised everyone.

‘First get the clearance from Superintendent of Police (vigilance), SP (special branch) and SP (CID) and then process the file. Verification is must in the given scenario that the extremism and terrorism cases are rising,’ the commissioner had told Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi Rajiv Arun Ekka.

Reacting angrily to the officialese, a source close to Dhoni’s family had said: ‘Is Dhoni a small figure. It is ridiculous to verify Dhoni’s credentials and raise the issue of terrorism and extremism.’

Now, the authorities appear to have had second thoughts.

In a letter to commissioner Rapaz, Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Ekka said: ‘Dhoni is not a person of small stature and he does not need investigation into his character’.

Dhoni’s file has now moved forward and is expected to move to the state home department for final clearance, officials said.

After obtaining a prohibited bore licence, Dhoni plans to buy a 9 mm pistol. Dhoni already possesses a non-prohibitory bore licence which he was issued in 2006. As per law, a person can keep licences for three weapons.

In see-saw trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today extended losses for the second day by losing another over 300 points on heavy selling across counters. The 30-share barometer gyrated in a wide range before concluding the day at 9,536.33, a fall of 303.36 points or 3.08 per cent over previous close.

In two days it has shed nearly 1,000 points. Marketmen said a slew of factors contributed to choppy trade today.

Weak global bourses and fall in the collections of excise and customs duties in October particularly dampened the spirit. This bit of news came a just after reports of export growth falling in September, dampening the sentiment, they added.

Expectations of more capital outflows also weighed on the market, brokers said. The bellwether index lost 280 points in early trade but it recovered sharply on encouraging numbers on industrial growth.

It even seemed that the crucial 10,000 level is very well within the day’s trade when the index touched the day’s high of 9928.60 points. However, by mid-session profit-booking emerged bringing Sensex steeply lower.

It even plunged to day’s low of 9376.73 points before rising again to settle day at 9,536.33 points. Brokers said 4.8 per cent growth in industrial production in September, after a mere over 1 per cent expansion in the previous month, revived buying for a brief period.

Broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped further by 90.20 points or 3.07 per cent to 2,848.45 from last close. Besides China, most of the other Asian indices ended in the red while European, after surrendering initial gains, were quoting lower this morning following feeble cues from Wall Street last night.

Feeling irritated because you can’t access the Internet? Well, may be it’s time to seek medical help as Internet addiction is now considered a clinical disorder rather than a bad habit, according to a new Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) diagnostic manual approved over the weekend by psychologists.The two major symptoms of IAD are lingering online for more than six hours a day instead of working or studying and having adverse reactions from not being able to get online, reports China Daily.

According to the manual, IAD sufferers usually engage in five main activities – Online gaming, net pornography, excessive involvement in virtual social networking, too much Internet shopping and general cyber-surfing.

Tao Ran, a leading medical professional on addiction in China who also headed the drafting of the manual, said that the guide would be the first of its kind in the world if the Ministry of Health officially approves it.

Immigration curbs on foreign workers, including those from India, will cut the number of immigrants to Britain by just 14,000, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Home Office announced 800,000 jobs on its “shortage list” - posts for which employers will be allowed to recruit from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

The aim of the list is to restrict the number of foreign workers taking jobs here, especially as unemployment rises in the economic downturn.

However, the government watered down the initiative by announcing a longer list than the one proposed by its migration experts earlier this year.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) estimates that the changes to the list mean a potential cut of just 14,000 from current levels.

Non-EEA workers entering Britain must conform to one of the five categories: highly skilled, skilled in a profession that has shortages, students, temporary workers, or low skilled. This last group has temporarily been suspended.

The new list, which comes into force on November 27, applies to the second category, and indicates that construction managers, geologists, civil and chemical engineers, and senior nurses get jobs in which there are a shortfall of British employees.

Social workers and skilled chefs will be reviewed by the Migration Advisory Committee, which will also re-examine evidence for demand in all teaching-related jobs by March next.

A month ago, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said that Britain would adopt tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis lifted unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade.

More stormy weather was forecast Wednesday for the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies, while rain and possible thunderstorms were expected from the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi Valley and into the Great Lakes region.

Strong winds, hail, flooding and even tornadoes were possible as a low-pressure system and cold front in the Plains push into the Mississippi Valley and continue northeastward. The Southeast was at greatest risk for severe weather.

Rain was forecast for the Northeast, where mild weather was predicted to end. Highs in the mid-40s were expected across New England.

More than 2 inches of rain was forecast for Oregon and Washington. Snow was expected at high elevations in the Rockies, with possible total accumulations ranging from 6 to 14 inches. Winds gusting up to 60 mph were likely in the northern Rockies.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Tuesday ranged from a low of 5 degrees at Watersmeet, Wis., to a high of 90 degrees at Alice, Texas.

The next time you plan to visit Gurgaon, you have one more place to party. The swanky and innovatively styled restaurant Asia 7 was launched recently at Ambience Mall and thrown open for foodies.

Celebrity chef Nikhil Chib, who has travelled extensively around the globe and has selected dishes from seven Asian countries for the menu. The party was organised to celebrate the launch by Soni and Rohit Aggarwal and Divya and Amit Burman.

From designers to TV anchors, builders to socialites, food enthusiasts from all over the city trooped in to pamper their tastebuds. Designer Nainika Karan, all set for the winter in her black dress, tasted the fare from all the seven countries.

Also spotted were designers Vijay Arora, Ravi Bajaj, Gauri Karan and Rina Dhaka. Rohit Aggarwal, director, Lite Bite Foods, was asked what is the one thing that makes Asia 7 different from other pan-Asian restaurants.

He quipped, “It’s the food.” And yes, we will vouch for it, too.

Designer Suneet Verma relished the fare, saying that he was there to enjoy the dinner and nothing else.

The zoo animals of “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” ruled the roost at the weekend box office in North America, while James Bond was the big shot across the rest of the world.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, DreamWorks Animation’s “Madagascar” sequel sold $63.5 million worth of tickets in U.S. and Canadian theaters.

The three-day sum blew past forecasts of an opening in the $50 million range, as young children dragged their parents to see the latest exploits of Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and their pals.

Its 2005 predecessor, “Madagascar,” opened to $47.2 million during its first three days, and finished with $193.6 million domestically.

Both films were distributed by Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures on behalf of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. The sequel cost $150 million to make and an additional $175 million to market worldwide, DreamWorks Animation said.

A DreamWorks official said it was too early to tell if there would be a third feature, but the studio was “definitely encouraged” by the start for the new film.

James Bond was the man of the moment everywhere else as “Quantum of Solace” claimed the top spot in all 60 of its foreign markets with a weekend haul of $106.5 million, distributor Columbia Pictures said.

It ranks as the second-biggest international weekend of 2008, behind the $146 million bow of the fourth “Indiana Jones” film, the studio said.

Daniel Craig’s second outing as the super sleuth beat the opening for his 2006 debut “Casino Royale” in every market, in some cases with double the numbers.

‘ROLE MODELS‘ SURPRISES

Having got a head start last weekend in Britain, France and Sweden, the film’s 10-day total now stands at $160.3 million. Top markets included Britain with $15.1 million (10-day total, $50 million), Germany with $15.0 million, Russia and China with $9.1 million each, and South Korea with $4.5 million.

The $200 million film opens on North America on Friday. Columbia, a unit of Sony Corp, oversaw production, marketing and distribution of the film, which is billed as a joint release with closely held Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

Elsewhere in North America, the raunchy comedy “Role Models” opened at No. 2 with a better-than-expected haul of $19.3 million. Pre-release forecasts had the film opening in the $11 million range. Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd play two guys who are sentenced to act as big brothers for a pair of troubled youngsters. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co Inc’s NBC Universal.

After two weeks at No. 1, Walt Disney Co’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” slipped to No. 3 with $9.3 million. Its total now stands at $75.7 million.

Not all was splendid at the box office. “Soul Men,” an urban-skewing comedy starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac, opened at No. 6 with just $5.6 million. “Soul Men” also features soul icon Isaac Hayes, who died the day after Mac in August. The film was distributed by MGM.