Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540 million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia.

A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to almost all known antibiotics has been found in bacteria in water supplies in New Delhi used by local people for drinking, washing and cooking, scientists said on Thursday.

The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as “super superbugs“, has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

One of the biggest issues or discussion subject within the whole geographic information domain at the moment is the ever-changing demands for handling information in a better and more efficient way. The domain is expanding in all kinds of directions. What remains is geo-referenced information handled with a computer. We are seeing applications and demonstrators showing off in 3D and the wonderful things one can experience here. We are seeing an ever-growing number of applications that handle online information for example traffic or flight control.