A new study suggests that the Athabasca Valles, a group of valleys near the Martian equator, were not formed by ice, as some scientists have theorized.

Instead, high-resolution images of the valleys reveal more than 250 coiling spiral patterns that closely resemble lava flows on the Big Island of Hawaii. And that means the valleys on Mars were probably formed by volcanic activity, said Andrew J. Ryan, the planetary scientist at Arizona State University who discovered the coils.

Scientists have created a new type of housefly control device that has proven most effective in killing an insect that carries as many as 100 types of germs, researchers from the University of Florida (UFL) announced Wednesday.

Flies have been known to spread diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever and cholera, and they are often the first pests to occur in abundance when infrastructure is disrupted due to war or natural disasters, such as hurricanes or tsunamis.

Apple has asked for more clarity over how patents deemed crucial to industry standards should be handled.

The firm wrote a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in November, which has now been reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The iPhone maker called for "more consistent and transparent" application of rules designed to ensure that such intellectual properties were licensed.

Moscow- A Russian space probe designed for a bold mission to a moon of Mars has come down in flames, showering fragments into the south Pacific, west of Chile

Warner Bros. Interactive has announced that gamers will be treated to a new "content-rich version" of NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat in March this year, with the well received brawler and all of its DLC to date packaged together in the Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition.

 According to scientists, a mineral thought only to be unique to the moon has been found among rocks in Australia and is dated to be more than one billion years old.

Scientists have dubbed the mineral rock tranquillityite, named after the Sea of Tranquility where Apollo 11 landed in 1969. It was the first of three minerals to be found in moon rocks and was brought back to Earth. It was also the only one not found in later years on the planet.

Sony and Microsoft are set to go head to head at the E3 games expo this June, with the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 both purportedly to be given débuts at the LA based show.

That's the low-down according to gaming site MCV, who claims to have confirmed the details with "third-party publishing sources" who state that Microsoft had "signalled to partners" that it was all set and Sony would "not be left behind this time".

Microsoft famously beat Sony to the 7th generation console punch back in the mid-noughties with the Xbox 360 getting a head start on the PS3. A start that led to a lead it has never let slip.