Space telescope to hunt planets

A mission that will scour space for Earth-like planets is scheduled for launch on Wednesday.

Corot will be the first spacecraft capable of detecting planets outside of the Solar System that are just a few times larger than the Earth.

The French-led multinational mission will also help uncover the secrets of stellar interiors.

Corot will be launched at 1443 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz-2-1b vehicle.

We've been waiting 25 years to get such a mission into space Professor Ian Roxburgh

It will be taken into a polar orbit 827km (514 miles) above the Earth where it will survey star fields for approximately 2.5 years.

The mission is led by the French space agency, Cnes, which is working with six international partners: European Space Agency (Esa), Austria, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Brazil.

"We've been waiting 25 years to get such a mission into space," said Ian Roxburgh, professor of astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London, UK, and the Esa member of the Corot scientific committee.

"It will be the first space mission that will be searching for planets around other stars that are of a similar nature to Earth.

"We should be able to detect them down to about twice the size of Earth."

He added: "We will also be monitoring a substantial number of stars to find out what they are like inside and to see how they evolve over time."

1. 4CCD camera and electronics: captures tiny variations in a star's brightness 2. Baffle: shields telescope lens from light pollution 3. Telescope: views the star fields 4. Proteus platform: contains communication equipment, temperature controls and direction controls 5. Solar panel: the Sun's radiation is a source of power for the satellite

Stomach drugs 'may weaken bones'

Hip fractures are more common among the elderly

Long-term use of some of the most common drugs prescribed to tackle stomach acid problems may be weakening people's bones.

Researchers found a significantly increased risk of hip fracture among UK patients taking 'proton pump inhibitors' for more than a year.

They said doctors should consider the risk when prescribing such drugs.

The University of Pennsylvania study findings appear in the Journal of the American Association.

Millions of people in the UK take drugs such as omeprazole, frequently on a continuous basis, and they are even available directly from pharmacies.

Physicians should be aware of this potential association when considering PPI therapy Researchers at University of Pennsylvania Medical School

Some research has already suggested that taking the drugs could interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium to keep bones strong.

The Jama study looked at a large group of records from the UK General Practice Research Database. All the people involved were aged over 50, and some had been taking proton pump inhibitors (PPI).

The researchers found that people who had been taking the drugs for more than a year - not an uncommon scenario - had a 44% greater risk of suffering a hip fracture.

Taking the drugs for even longer seemed to increase the risk yet further.

Fall can be fatal

Hip fracture is one of the most significant causes of severe disability in older people - up to one in five people who suffer a fracture following a fall die within 12 months.

The costs to the NHS of hip fractures are also huge, not only immediately afterwards but in the cost of emergency hip replacement operations.

The researchers said that while the link between increased risk and taking the medication appeared clear, it was possible that the type, general health and age of patients taking regular PPI medication might contribute to the difference in some way.

They wrote: "Physicians should be aware of this potential association when considering PPI therapy and should use the lowest effective dose for patients with appropriate indications."

Research 'overdue'

They also suggested doctors should make sure that elderly patients took calcium supplements alongside the drugs to try to lower the risk.

Since 2004, omeprazole has been available directly from UK chemists without prescription, although at a lower than the normal prescribed dose, and, accompanied by guidelines which recommend it only for short periods.

Dr Denise Hansford, a senior lecturer in pharmacy at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said that research into how patients fared under this reclassification was 'overdue'.

She added that so far, her research had suggested relatively few patients were taking advantage of the new arrangements to obtain proton pump inhibitors.

'Long way short'

Ken McColl, a professor of gastroenterology at Glasgow University, said that the study did not prove that the drugs were the cause.

He pointed out that many people with arthritis and other joint problems - who were already more prone to hip fractures - would be taking large doses of painkillers known to cause acid indigestion.

He added that they would therefore would be more likely to be taking the proton pump inhibitor drugs to deal with it.

Although the study authors had adjusted their results to take account of this, he said, there was still the possibility that the results could be skewed.

"While this raises some interesting issues." he said, "it is a long way short of proving that PPIs are causing this."

Man Utd 3-1 Wigan

Substitute Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in four minutes as Manchester United extended their lead at the top of the Premiership to four points.

Ronaldo came on at the break and headed United in front with his first touch before scoring a rebound after Chris Kirkland parried his penalty.

The spot-kick was awarded after Gary Teale fouled Ji-Sung Park.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer then finished with his right foot before Leighton Baines scored a late penalty for Wigan.

United took to the field for the match shortly after rivals Chelsea had been held at home to Reading.

It was a very different United side to that which defeated Aston Villa on Saturday - with Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Louis Saha, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs either omitted completely or relegated to the bench.

Nonetheless, the home team set about their work with great intensity and were soon peppering Kirkland's goal.

Park cut inside from the left flank and shot narrowly wide after three minutes, while Rooney came within inches of scoring shortly afterwards.

The striker seemed certain to convert Wes Brown's low, powerful cross but the ball struck Kirkland and slowly dribbled goalwards.

Kirkland scrambled after the ball and eventually cleared the danger while a disbelieving Rooney appealed in vain that it had crossed the line.

The Latics keeper later saved from Mikael Silvestre and saw a Rooney strike flash just wide of his goal.

Rooney, who played with great conviction, collected a Darren Fletcher through ball just after the half-hour mark and shot across goal on the turn - his effort missing by inches.

But United's play had become increasingly fractured as Wigan did a reasonable job of stymieing their opponents - and the home crowd fell silent as the first half wore on.

They almost had something to cheer just before the break but Kirkland held on to Solskjaer's diving header.

Ferguson's decision to introduce Ronaldo for Fletcher paid dividends within two minutes of the restart when the Portugal international headed home Paul Scholes' corner.

Ronaldo was left completely unmarked to score his ninth goal of the season.

And Ronaldo struck again four minutes later, stroking the ball home after Kirkland parried his initial penalty kick.

Teale, guilty of the crude hack that led to the penalty, was withdrawn minutes later as Old Trafford found its voice - the United supporters celebrating an extension of United's lead at the top of the Premiership.

Solskjaer latched on to a Rooney header and tucked the ball across goal and into the bottom corner to further add to the party atmosphere.

Matt Jackson almost pulled a goal back for Wigan but directed his header straight at Edwin van der Sar before the luckless Rooney hit the crossbar at the other end from 12 yards.

Wigan scored their consolation goal with virtually the last kick of the game, Baines drilling his penalty down the middle of the goal after Silvestre had fouled David Wright.

Cristiano Ronaldo answered Sir Alex Ferguson's title SOS to send Manchester United four points clear at the Premiership summit following a 3-1 win over Wigan.

Major progress in prime number theory

The Green-Tao theorem resolves an important special case of the Erdös-Turan conjecture

Kumbakonam: Professor Terence Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was awarded the 2006 SASTRA's Ramanujan Prize at the International Conference on Number Theory and Combinatorics at the Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA University, Kumbakonam.

This $10,000 prize comes on the heels of the Fields Medal that was awarded to Professor Tao in August for revolutionary contributions to several areas of mathematics.

Following the award ceremony on Ramanujan's birthday at Kumbakonam, Professor Tao delivered the Ramanujan Commemoration Lecture entitled "Long arithmetic progressions of primes," in which he reported major progress in prime number theory based on his recent work with Professor Ben Green of Cambridge University.

One of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics is the Prime Twins Conjecture, which asserts that there are infinitely many prime pairs that differ by 2. More generally, the prime k-tuples conjecture states that if a k-tuple is admissible, then there are infinitely many such k-tuples of primes. Here by admissible one means that the k-tuple must satisfy certain non-divisibility conditions.

If the prime k-tuples conjecture is true, then it follows that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes. For example, 7, 37, 67, 97, 127, 157, is an arithmetic progression of 6 primes with common difference 30.

Sieve theory was developed in the 20th century to attack problems such as the k-tuples conjecture. Although this conjecture is still unsolved, sieve methods have succeeded in establishing similar results for almost primes, namely, those integers with very few prime factors, but not for the primes themselves.

Thus, the world was astonished when Professor Tao and Professor Green proved in 2003 that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes. The road to the Green-Tao theorem has been long, and in his lecture, Professor Tao surveyed the history of the problem and described the techniques that led to the recent breakthrough.

The first major advance was made in 1939 by van der Corput, who showed that there are infinitely many triples of primes in arithmetic progression. He used the circle method, originally invented by Hardy and Ramanujan to estimate the number of partitions of an integer and subsequently improved by Hardy and Littlewood to apply to a wide class of problems in additive number theory.

van der Corput's result was improved in 1981 by the British mathematician Heath Brown, who showed that there are infinitely many quadruples in arithmetic progression of which three are primes, and the fourth an almost prime with at most two prime factors. That such an improvement came after more than 40 years indicates the difficulty of the problem.

Another problem was the study of finite arithmetic progressions within sets of positive density. This was pioneered by the 1958 Fields medallist K.F. Roth, who in 1956 showed that any set of integers with positive density contains infinitely many triples in arithmetic progression. This study culminated in 1975 with the grand result of the Hungarian mathematician Szemeredi, who proved that any set of integers with positive density contains arithmetic progressions of arbitrary length. Professor Tim Gowers of Cambridge University, who won the Fields Medal in 1994, has recently given a simpler proof of Szemeredi's theorem. It is to be noted that since the primes have zero density, Szemeredi's theorem does not imply that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes.

Professor Green was a Ph.D student of Professor Gowers, who introduced him to Szemeredi's theorem. One of Professor Green's first major accomplishments was the result that any subset of the primes, which has relative positive density, contains infinitely many triples on arithmetic progressions. Professor Tao and Professor Green then corresponded due to their common interest on such problems. They studied the general problem of arithmetic progressions in sparse sets of integers. By combining ideas from ergodic theory, the techniques of Professor Gowers, and repeated use of Szemeredi's theorem, they were able to prove the astonishing result that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes. The ingredients of the proof were put together when Professor Green visited Professor Tao at UCLA in 2003.

The great Hungarian mathematicians Paul Erdös and Paul Turan conjectured that if A is an infinite set of integers the sum of whose reciprocals is divergent, then there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions in A. Since the sum of the reciprocals of the primes is a divergent series, the Green-Tao theorem is a special case of the Erdös-Turan conjecture, which remains unsolved in full generality. Erdös has offered $10,000 for a resolution of this conjecture. The Green-Tao theorem resolves an important special case of the Erdös-Turan conjecture and is a phenomenal achievement by two brilliant young mathematicians. Thus, it was a fitting tribute to Ramanujan that this great work was presented in his hometown on his birthday.

One of India's greatest mathematical geniuses - Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India's greatest mathematical geniuses.

He made substantial contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.

Ramanujan was born in his grandmother's house in Erode, a small village about 400 km southwest of Madras. When Ramanujan was a year old his mother took him to the town of Kumbakonam, about 160 km nearer Madras. His father worked in Kumbakonam as a clerk in a cloth merchant's shop. In December 1889 he contracted smallpox.

When he was nearly five years old, Ramanujan entered the primary school in Kumbakonam although he would attend several different primary schools before entering the Town High School in Kumbakonam in January 1898. At the Town High School, Ramanujan was to do well in all his school subjects and showed himself an able all round scholar. In 1900 he began to work on his own on mathematics summing geometric and arithmetic series.

Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902 and he went on to find his own method to solve the quartic. The following year, not knowing that the quintic could not be solved by radicals, he tried (and of course failed) to solve the quintic.

It was in the Town High School that Ramanujan came across a mathematics book by G S Carr called Synopsis of elementary results in pure mathematics. This book, with its very concise style, allowed Ramanujan to teach himself mathematics, but the style of the book was to have a rather unfortunate effect on the way Ramanujan was later to write down mathematics since it provided the only model that he had of written mathematical arguments. The book contained theorems, formulae and short proofs. It also contained an index to papers on pure mathematics which had been published in the European Journals of Learned Societies during the first half of the 19th century. The book, published in 1856, was of course well out of date by the time Ramanujan used it.

By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to undertake deep research. He investigated the series Sigma(1/n) and calculated Euler's constant to 15 decimal places. He began to study the Bernoulli numbers, although this was entirely his own independent discovery.

Ramanujan, on the strength of his good school work, was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. However the following year his scholarship was not renewed because Ramanujan devoted more and more of his time to mathematics and neglected his other subjects. Without money he was soon in difficulties and, without telling his parents, he ran away to the town of Vizagapatnam about 650 km north of Madras. He continued his mathematical work, however, and at this time he worked on hypergeometric series and investigated relations between integrals and series. He was to discover later that he had been studying elliptic functions.

In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa's College. His aim was to pass the First Arts examination which would allow him to be admitted to the University of Madras. He attended lectures at Pachaiyappa's College but became ill after three months study. He took the First Arts examination after having left the course. He passed in mathematics but failed all his other subjects and therefore failed the examination. This meant that he could not enter the University of Madras. In the following years he worked on mathematics developing his own ideas without any help and without any real idea of the then current research topics other than that provided by Carr's book.

Continuing his mathematical work Ramanujan studied continued fractions and divergent series in 1908. At this stage he became seriously ill again and underwent an operation in April 1909 after which he took him some considerable time to recover. He married on 14 July 1909 when his mother arranged for him to marry a ten year old girl S Janaki Ammal. Ramanujan did not live with his wife, however, until she was twelve years old.

Ramanujan continued to develop his mathematical ideas and began to pose problems and solve problems in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. He devoloped relations between elliptic modular equations in 1910. After publication of a brilliant research paper on Bernoulli numbers in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society he gained recognition for his work. Despite his lack of a university education, he was becoming well known in the Madras area as a mathematical genius.

In 1911 Ramanujan approached the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society for advice on a job. After this he was appointed to his first job, a temporary post in the Accountant General's Office in Madras. It was then suggested that he approach Ramachandra Rao who was a Collector at Nellore. Ramachandra Rao was a founder member of the Indian Mathematical Society who had helped start the mathematics library. He writes in [30]:-

A short uncouth figure, stout, unshaven, not over clean, with one conspicuous feature-shining eyes- walked in with a frayed notebook under his arm. He was miserably poor. ... He opened his book and began to explain some of his discoveries. I saw quite at once that there was something out of the way; but my knowledge did not permit me to judge whether he talked sense or nonsense. ... I asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted a pittance to live on so that he might pursue his researches.

Ramachandra Rao told him to return to Madras and he tried, unsuccessfully, to arrange a scholarship for Ramanujan. In 1912 Ramanujan applied for the post of clerk in the accounts section of the Madras Port Trust. In his letter of application he wrote [3]:-

I have passed the Matriculation Examination and studied up to the First Arts but was prevented from pursuing my studies further owing to several untoward circumstances. I have, however, been devoting all my time to Mathematics and developing the subject.

Despite the fact that he had no university education, Ramanujan was clearly well known to the university mathematicians in Madras for, with his letter of application, Ramanujan included a reference from E W Middlemast who was the Professor of Mathematics at The Presidency College in Madras. Middlemast, a graduate of St John's College, Cambridge, wrote [3]:-

I can strongly recommend the applicant. He is a young man of quite exceptional capacity in mathematics and especially in work relating to numbers. He has a natural aptitude for computation and is very quick at figure work.

On the strength of the recommendation Ramanujan was appointed to the post of clerk and began his duties on 1 March 1912. Ramanujan was quite lucky to have a number of people working round him with a training in mathematics. In fact the Chief Accountant for the Madras Port Trust, S N Aiyar, was trained as a mathematician and published a paper On the distribution of primes in 1913 on Ramanujan's work. The professor of civil engineering at the Madras Engineering College C L T Griffith was also interested in Ramanujan's abilities and, having been educated at University College London, knew the professor of mathematics there, namely M J M Hill. He wrote to Hill on 12 November 1912 sending some of Ramanujan's work and a copy of his 1911 paper on Bernoulli numbers.

Hill replied in a fairly encouraging way but showed that he had failed to understand Ramanujan's results on divergent series. The recommendation to Ramanujan that he read Bromwich's Theory of infinite series did not please Ramanujan much. Ramanujan wrote to E W Hobson and H F Baker trying to interest them in his results but neither replied. In January 1913 Ramanujan wrote to G H Hardy having seen a copy of his 1910 book Orders of infinity. In Ramanujan's letter to Hardy he introduced himself and his work [10]:-

I have had no university education but I have undergone the ordinary school course. After leaving school I have been employing the spare time at my disposal to work at mathematics. I have not trodden through the conventional regular course which is followed in a university course, but I am striking out a new path for myself. I have made a special investigation of divergent series in general and the results I get are termed by the local mathematicians as 'startling'.

Hardy, together with Littlewood, studied the long list of unproved theorems which Ramanujan enclosed with his letter. On 8 February he replied to Ramanujan [3], the letter beginning:-

I was exceedingly interested by your letter and by the theorems which you state. You will however understand that, before I can judge properly of the value of what you have done, it is essential that I should see proofs of some of your assertions. Your results seem to me to fall into roughly three classes:
(1) there are a number of results that are already known, or easily deducible from known theorems;
(2) there are results which, so far as I know, are new and interesting, but interesting rather from their curiosity and apparent difficulty than their importance;
(3) there are results which appear to be new and important...

Ramanujan was delighted with Hardy's reply and when he wrote again he said [8]:-

I have found a friend in you who views my labours sympathetically. ... I am already a half starving man. To preserve my brains I want food and this is my first consideration. Any sympathetic letter from you will be helpful to me here to get a scholarship either from the university of from the government.

Indeed the University of Madras did give Ramanujan a scholarship in May 1913 for two years and, in 1914, Hardy brought Ramanujan to Trinity College, Cambridge, to begin an extraordinary collaboration. Setting this up was not an easy matter. Ramanujan was an orthodox Brahmin and so was a strict vegetarian. His religion should have prevented him from travelling but this difficulty was overcome, partly by the work of E H Neville who was a colleague of Hardy's at Trinity College and who met with Ramanujan while lecturing in India.

Ramanujan sailed from India on 17 March 1914. It was a calm voyage except for three days on which Ramanujan was seasick. He arrived in London on 14 April 1914 and was met by Neville. After four days in London they went to Cambridge and Ramanujan spent a couple of weeks in Neville's home before moving into rooms in Trinity College on 30th April. Right from the beginning, however, he had problems with his diet. The outbreak of World War I made obtaining special items of food harder and it was not long before Ramanujan had health problems.

Right from the start Ramanujan's collaboration with Hardy led to important results. Hardy was, however, unsure how to approach the problem of Ramanujan's lack of formal education. He wrote [1]:-

What was to be done in the way of teaching him modern mathematics? The limitations of his knowledge were as startling as its profundity.

Littlewood was asked to help teach Ramanujan rigorous mathematical methods. However he said ([31]):-

... that it was extremely difficult because every time some matter, which it was thought that Ramanujan needed to know, was mentioned, Ramanujan's response was an avalanche of original ideas which made it almost impossible for Littlewood to persist in his original intention.

The war soon took Littlewood away on war duty but Hardy remained in Cambridge to work with Ramanujan. Even in his first winter in England, Ramanujan was ill and he wrote in March 1915 that he had been ill due to the winter weather and had not been able to publish anything for five months. What he did publish was the work he did in England, the decision having been made that the results he had obtained while in India, many of which he had communicated to Hardy in his letters, would not be published until the war had ended.

On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research (the degree was called a Ph.D. from 1920). He had been allowed to enrol in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications. Ramanujan's dissertation was on Highly composite numbers and consisted of seven of his papers published in England.

Ramanujan fell seriously ill in 1917 and his doctors feared that he would die. He did improve a little by September but spent most of his time in various nursing homes. In February 1918 Hardy wrote (see [3]):-

Batty Shaw found out, what other doctors did not know, that he had undergone an operation about four years ago. His worst theory was that this had really been for the removal of a malignant growth, wrongly diagnosed. In view of the fact that Ramanujan is no worse than six months ago, he has now abandoned this theory - the other doctors never gave it any support. Tubercle has been the provisionally accepted theory, apart from this, since the original idea of gastric ulcer was given up. ... Like all Indians he is fatalistic, and it is terribly hard to get him to take care of himself.

On 18 February 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and then three days later, the greatest honour that he would receive, his name appeared on the list for election as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He had been proposed by an impressive list of mathematicians, namely Hardy, MacMahon, Grace, Larmor, Bromwich, Hobson, Baker, Littlewood, Nicholson, Young, Whittaker, Forsyth and Whitehead. His election as a fellow of the Royal Society was confirmed on 2 May 1918, then on 10 October 1918 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, the fellowship to run for six years.

The honours which were bestowed on Ramanujan seemed to help his health improve a little and he renewed his effors at producing mathematics. By the end of November 1918 Ramanujan's health had greatly improved. Hardy wrote in a letter [3]:-

I think we may now hope that he has turned to corner, and is on the road to a real recovery. His temperature has ceased to be irregular, and he has gained nearly a stone in weight. ... There has never been any sign of any diminuation in his extraordinary mathematical talents. He has produced less, naturally, during his illness but the quality has been the same. ....

He will return to India with a scientific standing and reputation such as no Indian has enjoyed before, and I am confident that India will regard him as the treasure he is. His natural simplicity and modesty has never been affected in the least by success - indeed all that is wanted is to get him to realise that he really is a success.

Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 arriving on 13 March. However his health was very poor and, despite medical treatment, he died there the following year.

The letters Ramanujan wrote to Hardy in 1913 had contained many fascinating results. Ramanujan worked out the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series and functional equations of the zeta function. On the other hand he had only a vague idea of what constitutes a mathematical proof. Despite many brilliant results, some of his theorems on prime numbers were completely wrong.

Ramanujan independently discovered results of Gauss, Kummer and others on hypergeometric series. Ramanujan's own work on partial sums and products of hypergeometric series have led to major development in the topic. Perhaps his most famous work was on the number p(n) of partitions of an integer n into summands. MacMahon had produced tables of the value of p(n) for small numbers n, and Ramanujan used this numerical data to conjecture some remarkable properties some of which he proved using elliptic functions. Other were only proved after Ramanujan's death.

In a joint paper with Hardy, Ramanujan gave an asymptotic formula for p(n). It had the remarkable property that it appeared to give the correct value of p(n), and this was later proved by Rademacher.

Ramanujan left a number of unpublished notebooks filled with theorems that mathematicians have continued to study. G N Watson, Mason Professor of Pure Mathematics at Birmingham from 1918 to 1951 published 14 papers under the general title Theorems stated by Ramanujan and in all he published nearly 30 papers which were inspired by Ramanujan's work. Hardy passed on to Watson the large number of manuscripts of Ramanujan that he had, both written before 1914 and some written in Ramanujan's last year in India before his death.

Balboa back for one more bout

Three decades on from his first appearance, Sylvester Stallone's plucky pugilist is back in the ring with the release of Rocky Balboa in the US. But can he still go the distance?

Stallone refused to sell his script unless he played the lead role

He has survived countless beatings, financial ruin and even brain damage. But battling boxer Rocky Balboa is still out there swinging.

Even so, Sylvester Stallone's decision to revive his best-known character 30 years after his Oscar-winning heyday may well be one rematch too far.

"Who is Rocky fighting this time - incontinence?" joked US chat show host Jay Leno when news of a sixth instalment surfaced.

Stallone, however, is taking such criticism in his stride, acknowledging his hero's advancing years as he makes one last bid for glory.

Ever since Rocky made his cinema debut in 1976, his career has been inextricably linked with the man who plays him.

Persistence

Having written a script about a Philadelphia leg-breaker given an unlikely chance to fight the reigning world heavyweight, Stallone refused to sell it unless he played the role.

Both he and co-star Talia Shire (left) were Oscar-nominated

The studio wanted Burt Reynolds, James Caan or Ryan O'Neal, but the 30-year-old New Yorker stuck to his guns.

The reward for his persistence was overnight fame, phenomenal success and 10 Academy Award nominations.

Rocky went on to win three Oscars in all, for best direction, editing and picture.

Its success in the latter category came at the expense of such acclaimed modern classics as Taxi Driver, Network and All the President's Men.

Stallone was nominated for his acting and screenplay, while co-stars Burt Young, Talia Shire and Burgess Meredith were all shortlisted for their performances.

'Waxy feeling'

All went on to reprise their roles in Rocky II, this time directed by Stallone himself.

Released in 1979, the film saw Balboa and nemesis Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) strap on their gloves for a title fight rematch.

Millions visit Philadelphia's Museum of Art because of Rocky

But while audiences came to see Rocky's return in their droves, critics and awards bodies were less impressed.

"Rocky II has a waxy feeling, and it never comes to life the way its predecessor did," wrote Janet Maslin in the New York Times.

A similar response met Rocky III in 1982, which saw Stallone go toe-to-toe with aggressive new challenger Clubber Lang - played by The A-Team's Mr T.

Not half as aggressive, though, as the critics were towards Rocky IV, which saw Stallone trade blows with a man mountain from the Soviet Union (Dolph Lundgren).

"The Rocky series is finally losing its legs," rued Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, dismissing Stallone's fourth outing as "movie-making by numbers".

Lean period

By this time, of course, the actor-director was a dab hand at Roman numerals, having initiated a rival franchise involving volatile Vietnam veteran John Rambo.

With both Rambo III and Rocky V floundering at the box office, however, it seemed that audience had finally tired of their muscle-bound star.

Rocky Balboa is the sixth film in the long-running franchise

The 1990s were a lean period for Stallone, his attempts to sustain a career away from his two most familiar guises resulting in a string of flops.

Small wonder, then, that Rocky Balboa will be followed in 2008 by a fourth Rambo picture, provisionally titled Pearl of the Cobra.

So far reviewers have been kinder to Rocky's belated comeback than the earlier sequels, the Hollywood Reporter applauding "a low-key, stripped-down production that really does come close to capturing the heart and soul of the original".

It remains to be seen, however, whether audiences in the US and elsewhere will be as keen to celebrate the return of a character so steeped in iconography and cliché.

Rocky Balboa is out now in the US and opens in the UK on 19 January.

Quest for battery-free pacemaker

Many pacemakers have a definite shelf-life

A heart pacemaker that does not need a battery is being developed under a government-sponsored technology scheme.

Currently, some patients who have implanted pacemakers and electronic defibrillators need surgery once every seven to 10 years to fit a new battery.

The new device would use a microgenerator producing electricity every time the patient moves.

The cost of the £1m project is being shared by the Department of Trade and Industry and private companies.

This project has amazing potential to help huge numbers of people worldwide who have pacemakers and other medical implants Malcolm Wicks Science and technology minister

David Hatherall, from Zarlink Semiconductor, which is developing the device, described the technology as "groundbreaking".

"The ability to fit and forget implantable devices in terms of their power supply will have significant clinical and quality of life benefits," he said.

He predicted that new devices to tackle other illnesses could emerge as scientists are freed from the restrictions imposed by the size and lifespan of the batteries they currently need.

While some pacemakers can be recharged from outside the body, operations to replace the power source in others can cost up to £10,000, and must be carried out under general anaesthetic, which means additional risks to patients.

Worldwide interest

Other research teams are racing to find alternatives to conventional pacemakers, including tiny generators that use body heat to create the electricity needed, and 'biological pacemakers' that would correct heart problems without the need for a mechanical device.

The government funding for the project has come from the Technology Programme, which, so far, has ploughed more than £430m into research and development.

Science minister Malcolm Wicks suggested that the resulting technology could boost the UK economy.

"The NHS needs to improve in terms of technology transfer - there are lots of good ideas out there, but we have been a bit slow in employing them.

"This project has amazing potential to help huge numbers of people worldwide who have pacemakers and other medical implants."

A spokesman for the British Heart Foundation described the concept as a "useful innovation".

"If this technology is able to be developed, it could potentially prolong the life of pacemaker batteries," he said.

"This could reduce the need for battery replacements which is inconvenient for patients and can be costly for the NHS."

Olive oil 'can cut cancer risk'

The researchers used three types of olive oil Adding plenty of olive oil to a diet could help protect against cell damage that can lead to cancer, experts say. A study of 182 European men found those who had 25 millilitres of olive oil per day had reduced levels of a substance which indicates cell damage. The Danish team said it may explain why many cancer rates are higher in northern Europe than the south, where olive oil is a major part of the diet. The study is in the Federation American Societies for Experimental Biology. By-products The Copenhagen University Hospital researchers looked at 182 healthy men aged between 20 and 60 from five European countries. These data provide evidence that olive oil consumption explains the difference in cancer incidence between north and southern Europe Dr Henrik Poulsen Copenhagen University Hospital The scientists added either virgin, common or refined olive oil to their diets over two weeks. At the end of study, scientists measured levels of the substance which indicates oxidative damage to cells, called 8oxodG, in the men's urine. Oxidative damage is a process whereby the metabolic balance of a cell is disrupted by exposure to substances that result in the accumulation of free-radicals, which can then damage the cell. The men were found to have around 13% less 8oxodG compared with their levels at the beginning of the study. At the beginning of the study, men from northern Europe had higher levels of 8oxodG than those from southern Europe, supporting the idea that olive oil had a reductive effect. North-south difference Olive oil contains a number of compounds, called phenols, which are believed to act as powerful antioxidants. More long-term research is needed to confirm these effects Dr Anthea Martin, Cancer Research UK But the Danish researchers said the men in the study used the three different oils, which had different levels of phenols, so that was unlikely to explain the protective effect. They said that, instead, the monounsaturated fats in olive oil were probably behind the effect. The scientists, led by Dr Henrik Poulsen, wrote in the FASEB journal: "These data provide evidence that olive oil consumption explains the difference in cancer incidence between north and southern Europe." Dr Anthea Martin, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "The effect of diet on cancer risk is very complex because of the many different components of the food we eat. "Although this study suggests that olive oil can reduce DNA damage that could lead to the development of cancer, more long-term research is needed to confirm these effects." She added: "We do know that a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of vegetables and fruit and limited amounts of red and processed meat, can help reduce the risk of cancer."

UNIVERSITÉ ÉTRANGÈRE

Des études en langue roumaine effraient

Près de 200 Mauriciens étudient en ce moment à Cluj-Napoca.

«Ma fille a été informée qu’à partir de janvier elle devra étudier en roumain. Comment va-t-elle faire ça? Ses études seront compromises parce qu’elle ne maîtrise pas cette langue.» Ce parent ne cache pas son inquiétude, alors que d’autres ne savent quoi penser de cette décision de l’université roumaine où étudient leurs enfants.

Contactés, certains disent être au courant, alors que d’autres parlent de rumeurs infondées. D’autres encore se montrent très sceptiques. «Notre fils a signé un contrat où il est dit qu’il étudiera en anglais. Je ne crois pas qu’il sera possible pour son université de changer les choses aussi facilement», commente un père ayant deux fils à la faculté de médecine et pharmacie de Cluj-Napoca, en Transylvanie, région située en Roumanie.

«J’ai également entendu cette rumeur, mais mon fils n’a pu le confirmer. Il n’a rien reçu d’officiel de la part des autorités et la rentrée aura lieu dans deux semaines. C’est quand même un peu fort d’obliger les étudiants étrangers à changer de langue d’une année à l’autre», affirme cette mère de famille de Lallmatie.

La première étape a donc été de contacter celui qui agit comme recruteur pour les universités roumaines. Ce dernier, qui préfère conserver l’anonymat, se dit également surpris par cette information. «J’ai entendu, via des parents, que cette université avait cette intention, mais jusqu’ici je n’ai rien vu de concret. Il n’y a eu aucune lettre officielle indiquant que les autorités roumaines vont dans ce sens-là», dit-il.

L’information exacte ne peut donc être trouvée ailleurs qu’en Roumanie. Jointe au téléphone, une officielle de la faculté de médecine et de pharmacie de Kluj-Napoca, confirme en partie la nouvelle. «C’est vrai que les cours seront offerts en roumain à partir de janvier. C’est une décision prise par le conseil d’administration de l’université l’année dernière. Cela ne s’appliquera toutefois qu’aux étudiants qui sont en quatrième année à monter», affirme la porte-parole de cette institution.

Elle ne peut cependant expliquer le bien-fondé de cette mesure. «C’est ainsi. Le board a décidé ainsi. Si vous voulez plus d’informations rappelez en janvier», dit-elle. Elle ne souhaite pas non plus évoquer les mesures d’accompagnement offertes aux étudiants pour s’habituer à la langue roumaine.

Selon d’autres indications, cette université a appliqué une nouvelle politique de langues. Alors que jusqu’ici, les étudiants pouvaient compléter toute leur scolarité dans une langue étrangère, les autorités ont décidé d’introduire l’enseignement en langue roumaine à tous les niveaux, y compris pour les étudiants étrangers. Estimant que ceux-ci ont appris à maîtriser le roumain en trois ans, le médium d’enseignement change donc au début de la 4e année universitaire.

Près de 200 Mauriciens étudient en ce moment à Cluj-Napoca, aet ambitionnent de devenir médecins. De manière générale, les pays de l’Est sont assez prisés par les Mauriciens pour les cours de médecine. Le facteur prix étant la raison principale.

What Is Bronchitis?

Bronchitis (pronounced: brahn-kite-uss) is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, the airways that connect the trachea (windpipe) to the lungs. This delicate, mucus-producing lining covers and protects the respiratory system, the organs and tissues involved in breathing. When a person has bronchitis, it may be harder for air to pass in and out of the lungs than it normally would, the tissues become irritated and more mucus is produced. The most common symptom of bronchitis is a cough.

When you breathe in (inhale), small, bristly hairs near the openings of your nostrils filter out dust, pollen, and other airborne particles. Bits that slip through become attached to the mucus membrane, which has tiny, hair-like structures called cilia on its surface. But sometimes germs get through the cilia and other defense systems in the respiratory tract and can cause illness.

Bronchitis can be acute or chronic.

An Acute medical condition comes on quickly and can cause severe symptoms, but it lasts only a short time (no longer than a few weeks). Acute bronchitis is most often caused by one of a number of viruses that can infect the respiratory tract and attack the bronchial tubes. Infection by certain bacteria can also cause acute bronchitis. Most people have acute bronchitis at some point in their lives.

Chronic bronchitis, on the other hand, can be mild to severe and is longer lasting — from several months to years. With chronic bronchitis, the bronchial tubes continue to be inflamed (red and swollen), irritated, and produce excessive mucus over time. The most common cause of chronic bronchitis is smoking.

People who have chronic bronchitis are more susceptible to bacterial infections of the airway and lungs, like pneumonia. (In some people with chronic bronchitis, the airway becomes permanently infected with bacteria.) Pneumonia is more common among smokers and people who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms?

Acute bronchitis often starts with a dry, annoying cough that is triggered by the inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes. Other symptoms may include:

• cough that may bring up thick white, yellow, or greenish mucus
• headache
• generally feeling ill
• chills
• fever (usually mild)
• shortness of breath
• soreness or a feeling of tightness in the chest
• wheezing (a whistling or hissing sound with breathing)

Chronic bronchitis is most common in smokers, although people who have repeated episodes of acute bronchitis sometimes develop the chronic condition. Except for chills and fever, a person with chronic bronchitis has a chronic productive cough and most of the symptoms of acute bronchitis, such as shortness of breath and chest tightness, on most days of the month, for months or years.

A person with chronic bronchitis often takes longer than usual to recover from colds and other common respiratory illnesses. Wheezing, shortness of breath, and cough may become a part of daily life. Breathing can become increasingly difficult.

In people with asthma, bouts of bronchitis may come on suddenly and trigger episodes in which they have chest tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, and difficulty exhaling (breathing out). In a severe episode of asthmatic bronchitis, the airways can become so narrowed and clogged that breathing is very difficult.

What Causes Bronchitis?

Acute bronchitis is usually caused by viruses, and it may occur together with or following a cold or other respiratory infection. Germs such as viruses can be spread from person to person by coughing. They can also be spread if you touch your mouth, nose, or eyes after coming into contact with respiratory fluids from an infected person.

Smoking (even for a brief time) and being around tobacco smoke, chemical fumes, and other air pollutants for long periods of time puts a person at risk for developing chronic bronchitis.

Some people who seem to have repeated bouts of bronchitis — with coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath — may actually have asthma.

What Do Doctors Do?

If a doctor thinks you may have bronchitis, he or she will examine you and listen to your chest with a stethoscope for signs of wheezing and congestion.

In addition to this physical examination, the doctor will ask you about any concerns and symptoms you have, your past health, your family's health, any medications you're taking, any allergies you may have, and other issues (including whether you smoke). This is called the medical history. Your doctor may order a chest X-ray to rule out a condition like pneumonia, and may sometimes order a breathing test (called spirometry) to rule out asthma.

Because acute bronchitis is most often caused by a virus, the doctor may not prescribe an antibiotic (antibiotics only work against bacteria, not viruses).

The doctor will recommend that you drink lots of fluids, get plenty of rest, and may suggest using an over-the-counter or prescription cough medicine to relieve your symptoms as you recover.

In some cases, the doctor may prescribe a bronchodilator (pronounced: bron-ko-dy-lay-ter) or other medication typically used to treat asthma. These medications are often given through inhalers or nebulizer machines and help to relax and open the bronchial tubes and clear mucus so it's easier to breathe.

If you have chronic bronchitis, the goal is to reduce your exposure to whatever is irritating your bronchial tubes. For people who smoke, that means quitting!

If you have bronchitis and don't smoke, try to avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.

Smoking and Bronchitis

Tobacco smoke is the cause of more than 80% of all cases of chronic bronchitis. People who smoke also have a much harder time recovering from acute bronchitis and other respiratory infections.

Smoking causes lung damage in many ways. For example, it can cause temporary paralysis of the cilia and over time kills the ciliate airway lining cells completely. Eventually, the airway lining stops clearing smoking-related debris, irritants, and excess mucus from the lungs altogether. When this happens, a smoker's lungs become even more vulnerable to infection. Over time, harmful substances in tobacco smoke permanently damage the airways, increasing the risk for emphysema, cancer, and other serious lung diseases. Smoking also causes the mucus-producing glands to enlarge and make more mucus. Along with the toxic particles and chemicals in smoke, this causes a smoker to have a chronic cough.

Prevention

What's the best way to avoid getting bronchitis? Washing your hands often helps to prevent the spread of many of the germs that cause the condition — especially during cold and flu season.

If you don't smoke, don't ever start smoking — and if you do smoke, try to quit or cut down. Try to avoid being around smokers because even secondhand smoke can make you more susceptible to viral infections and increase congestion in your airway. Also, be sure to get plenty of rest and eat right so that your body can fight off any illnesses that you come in contact with.

Bombay Blood Group

Rare blood donor registry; need of the hour

Shardul Nautiyal - Mumbai

Reena Mathews lost blood heavily during delivery and urgently required blood. A sample of her blood was sent to the blood bank for matching. The red cells grouped like O group, while her serum reacted with all O group cells available in the blood bank during cross-matching or compatibility test, making the blood bank official realise that the lady may be carrying the rare Bombay Blood group.

Experts inform that a rare genotype (blood group) of people was detected in Mumbai, a few decades back, who neither had A, AB, B or O group. This rare genotype was labelled as the Bombay Blood Group. If a Bombay Blood Group recipient is not transfused the blood of a Bombay Blood Group person, it can lead to a haemolytic transfusion reaction, which can be fatal and lead to death.

According to Dr Anand Deshpande, consultant, transfusion medicine and haematology, Hinduja Hospital, “Transfusion of ‘O’ group blood to these persons would result in immediate red cell lysis because of the presence of anti H antibodies in the serum of Bombay Blood Group patients. Therefore blood from only a Bombay Blood Group individual should be transfused to a Bombay Blood Group recipient.”

Studies reveal that this is due to the absence of the H substance (antigen) in the red cells. The absence of the H substance is attributed to the deficiency of the enzyme fucosyl transferase. The Bombay Blood Group phenotypes lack H antigen in the red cells and have anti-H in the serum.

Says Dr Maya Parihar Malhotra, blood bank in-charge, Bombay Hospital, “Family studies have shown that the Bombay phenotype, called as Oh, is due to the presence in homozygous state of a rare recessive gene.”

The precursor protein from which the blood group proteins are formed is termed as the H substance. This is bio-chemically produced by the binding of Fucose to the surface glycoproteins, the process being catalysed by Fucosyl transferase. If N-acetyl galactosamine binds to the H substance, it forms the blood group A, whereas if galactose binds to it, it forms the group B. Absence of any binding substance produces the O blood group.

Studies reveal that all human red blood cells with exceedingly rare exceptions carry the red cell H antigen. It is present in greatest amount on type O red cells and least on type A1B cells. The H antigen is an intermediate stage in the production of the A and B antigens. The individuals with the so-called Bombay phenotype are recognised with the presence of anti-H in the serum, in addition to anti-A and anti-B, as in type O persons.

Experts say that if proper blood grouping or testing practices is not followed, it can lead to people with Bombay blood group not being detected. According to Dr Mukesh Desai, haematologist, H N Hospital, “During cell grouping or routine grouping, Bombay Blood Group would be categorised as O group because they wouldn’t show any reaction to anti-A and anti-B antibodies just like a normal O group. When a cross matching with different blood bags of O group is done, then it would show cross-reactivity or incompatibility. Therefore Reverse grouping or Serum grouping has to be performed to detect the Bombay Blood group.”

“Other issues related to Bombay Blood Group is that blood is incompatible with all A, B and O donors. In routine forward grouping, this blood group would give reaction as an ’O’ blood group where as in serum grouping it would show reaction with ’O’ cells due to the presence of anti H in their serum,” says Dr Deshpande.

Most of the cases once detected are registered at Institute of Immuno-haematology (IIH)) for further studies as well as for availability of information regarding the donors of this group.

According to Dr Kanjaksha Ghosh, deputy director, IIH, “Since Bombay Blood Group is the rarest of the rare group, it is desirable to develop cryopreservation facilities for rare donor units. Every blood bank can easily maintain a rare blood type donor file from amongst their regular voluntary donors.”

“If these blood banks can borrow or exchange rare blood units in times of need, lot of problems related to rare blood groups like Bombay Blood Group can be solved. This is only possible if each blood bank has a large number of committed regular voluntary donors,” added Dr Ghosh.

“The wrong notion among people need to be dispelled that of the possibility of getting infections like HIV1 through blood donation. The public need to be informed that there is no way a donor can get such infection through blood donation,” opined Dr Ghosh.

Cell Grouping			Serum Grouping			Interpretation
Anti A	Anti B	Anti AB	A cells	B cells	O cells
+	-	+	-	+	-	A
-	+	+	+	-	-	B
+	+	+	-	-	-	AB
-	-	-	+	+	-	O
-	-	-	+	+	+	Bombay Blood Group

Diagram As shown in above diagram, cell grouping is carried out using anti A, anti B and anti AB commercially available sera. Serum grouping is carried out using A cells, B cells and O cells.

Giant Sauropod Dinosaur Found In Spain

Fossils of a giant Sauropod, found in Teruel Spain, reveal that Europe was home to giant dinosaurs in the Late Jurassic period -- about 150 million years ago. Giant dinosaurs have previously been found mainly in the New World and Africa.

This dinosaur may have been the most massive terrestrial animal in Europe.

The findings are published in the 22 December 2006 issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

Researchers from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis found dozens of sauropod bone fossils at the Barrihonda-El Humero site the Riodeva village, Teruel, Spain.

The new sauropod, Turiasaurus riodevensis, is named for the Teruel area (Turia) and the village where it was found.

The turiasaurus is estimated to have weighed between 40 and 48 tons (the weight of six or seven adult male elephants) and is comparable to the world's largest known dinosaurs, including Argentinosaurus and Brachiosaurus. At its estimated length, between 30 and 37 meters, the sauropod would be as long as an NBA basketball court. "The humerus -- the long bone in the foreleg that runs from the shoulder to the elbow -- was as large as an adult," said Brooks Hanson, Science's deputy editor, physical sciences. The claw of the first digit of its pes, or hoof, is the size of an NFL football.

In addition to the humerus, researchers also found fragments of skull, scapula, femur, tibia and fibula, as well as teeth, vertebrae, ribs and phalanges.

The characteristics of the new dinosaur allows the authors to group several sauropod remains from Portugal, France, United Kingdom and other Spanish areas in a new clade, or branch, of dinosaurs that has more primitive limb and bone structures than other giant sauropods that have been found on other continents in Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous rocks. "This dinosaur is also more evolutionary primitive than other giant sauropods found," Hanson said.

Analyses indicate that the new giant dinosaur represents a member of a formerly unrecognized group of primitive European eusauropod dinosaurs that evolved in the Jurassic.

The giant sauropod fossils were found in terrestrial deposits in a 280 square meter section of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous) that has also yielded isolated elements of other sauropods, theropod teeth, postcranial remains of stegosaurs, as well as fish and turtles.

"New Giant European Dinosaur and a New Sauropod Clade" by Rafael Royo-Torres, Alberto Cobos and Luis Alcalá appears in the 22 December issue of Science. They are researchers at Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, Teruel, Spain.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A solution to one of the most difficult problems in mathematics was the most important advance of 2006

A solution to one of the most difficult problems in mathematics was the most important advance of 2006, according to the prestigious journal Science.

Grigory Perelman's proof of the century-old Poincare Conjecture has caused a sensation, and not just because of the brilliance of the work.

In August, the Russian became the first person to turn down a Fields Medal, the highest honour in mathematics.

He also seems likely to turn down a $1m prize offered by a US maths institute.

Dr Perelman is said to despise self-promotion and describes himself as isolated from the rest of the mathematical community.

The best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years Terence Tao, UCLA

But his work has set the field alight with excitement - and controversy.

Terence Tao, professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, called Perelman's result "the best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years".

Timofey Shilkin, a former colleague of Perelman at the Steklov Mathematics Institute in St Petersburg, Russia, told BBC News: "He definitely deserves the Fields Medal - that is my personal opinion. I am completely sure he is a genius."

'Excellent mathematician'

He added: "I'm afraid he is quite a self-enclosed person. We know about him approximately the same as you know - not too much.

"I met him when he was a member of our group and our contacts were about once a week, but we had only short discussions.

Grigory Perelman shuns the spotlight

"I know nothing about his personal life; I know only that he is an excellent mathematician."

The reclusive Dr Perelman left the Steklov Institute in January, and was last said to be unemployed and living with his mother in her apartment in St Petersburg.

For several years he worked, for the most part, alone on the Poincare Conjecture. Then, in 2002, he posted on the internet the first of three papers outlining a proof of the problem.

The Poincare is a central question in topology, the study of the geometrical properties of objects that do not change when they are stretched, distorted or shrunk.

The surface of the Earth is what topology describes as a two-dimensional sphere. If one were to encircle it with a lasso of string, it could be pulled tight to a point.

On the surface of a doughnut, however, a lasso passing through the hole in the centre cannot be shrunk to a point without cutting through the surface.

Checking the work

Since the 19th Century, mathematicians have known that the sphere is the only enclosed two-dimensional space with this property; but they were uncertain about objects with more dimensions.

The Poincare Conjecture says that a three-dimensional sphere is the only enclosed three-dimensional space with no holes.

Proof of the Conjecture eluded mathematicians until Perelman posted his work on the website arXiv.org.

This is a so-called pre-print server, where researchers upload study papers for informal feedback before they submit them to a peer-reviewed journal.

Feuding within the mathematical community now threatens to overshadow Dr Perelman's achievement.

The Russian had detailed a way to kick down the roadblock that had stymied a solution to the problem. It was then up to others to check his proof.

It was at this stage of the process - when mathematicians pored over Perelman's work to assess its accuracy - that much bad feeling started to rise to the surface.

'Complete proof'

In 2005, a Chinese team consisting of Huai-Dong Cao of Lehigh University and Xi-Ping Zhu of Zhongshan University published what they claimed was "the first written account of a complete proof of the Poincare Conjecture".

Cao and Zhu took on the task of checking Perelman's proof at the behest of their mentor Shing-Tung Yau, a Chinese-born professor of mathematics at Harvard University, US.

2006 saw progress in understanding Neanderthal DNA (Copyright: Natural History Museum)

Shortly after the Cao-Zhu paper was published, Professor Yau gave a speech in which he was reported as having said: "In Perelman's work, many key ideas of proofs are sketched or outlined, but complete details of the proofs are often missing."

This drew the ire of others in the field, who said that Yau's promotion of his proteges' work went too far.

In a rare interview, Perelman told the New Yorker magazine: "It is not clear to me what new contribution did they make."

However, speaking to the New York Times newspaper in October, Professor Yau denied having said there were gaps in Dr Perelman's work.

Science magazine also named its "breakdown" of the year: the scandal involving South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk, whose report of the production of stem cells from a cloned human embryo was found to have been faked.