News Bytes

US has most Nobel Prize Winners
Over the past 105 years, US citizens won 228 Nobel Prizes, this year alone all prizes in the field of science went to US researchers. Great Britain (75 Nobel Prizes) and Germany (65 Nobel Prizes) are clearly behind the US. Professor Schwarz of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) sees less reason for this in a lack of quality and more in a lack of networking between European research institutions and lacking marketing strategies. The prime example for successful research is the Stanford University Medical School - with two winners this year. It cooperates closely with the Stanford Technical University and the Industry.

Birth of 300 millionth American
The time is today at 1:46pm CET (7:46am Eastern Time): according to official statistics of the US Census Bureau this is when the 300 millionth American is born. While the birth of the 200 millionth US citizen in 1976 was still cause for joy, this one seems a reason for concern for American politicians who worry about an increase in population growth. Especially immigrants from South and Central America contribute greatly to the significant increase in population. A total of 35 million people of the US population were not born in America, that is a share of 12% of the population.

After China and India, the US have now become the third country worldwide to exceed the 300 million mark. And the vast, unpopulated areas in the US still offer room for more. If American women continue to give birth to an average of 2.1 children (in Europe: 1.5, in Germany only 1.3!) and immigration continues the way it did up to now, the next mark will be passed in 2043 already with the birth of the 400 millionth US citizen.

Schwarzenegger criticizes President Bush
In a TV interview with Jay Leno, California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger harshly criticized US President Bush. He said a lot of mistakes had been made - and a strategy was needed for withdrawing US soldiers from the Iraq. The former actor avoided answering the question of whether US defense Secretary Rumsfeld should step down. Both Bush and Schwarzenegger are busy campaigning right now. Schwarzenegger to be re-elected as governor. Bush for the majority in Congress.

NASA jet with Pinocchio-nose
One F15B jet of US space agency NASA has been equipped with a variable nose that can be extended, similar to that of Pinocchio. The jet, however, does not have to lie for that. NASA hopes for new insights into the suppression of sonic booms that shall be avoided in the development of modern supersonic aircrafts, especially for passenger flights. A sonic boom is caused when an aircraft moves with a speed of 1,226 kilometers per hour (761 mph) also called Mach 1, and a shock wave of air is created around it. The research project is aimed at reducing that boom as much as possible in the future.

Secret of US-Dollar sing ($) revealed
The US-Dollar is known throughout the world. A rather nonsense-like explanation for the currency sign would be the merging of the letters "U" and "S" for "United States" or "Uncle Sam." But where does the sign, the "S" with the two lines, come from? The origin apparently is the old Spanish or Mexican Peso, and its written abbreviation "P's." The studying of old documents has revealed that in the past, the "P" and the "S" have been constantly moving closer together and the curves of the letter "P" were gradually disappearing.