Initial investors include the European Investment Fund (EIF), Scottish Enterprise (via the Scottish Investment Bank), Strathclyde Pension Fund and Rock Spring Ventures.

BBC: Pipette and test tubes

Rock Spring Ventures EU is co-led by Sinclair Dunlop, who recently returned from the US to his native Scotland to launch the new fund.

BBC: Pipette and test tubes

And like many a fellow environmentalist, she is concerned that urban sprawl is now encroaching on surrounding conservation areas like Lake Mead, Spring Mountain and Red Rock Canyon.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Vegas heading for 'dry future'

"Buyer enquiries have slipped back to the lows seen in the wake of the Northern Rock crisis and this trend is likely to persist through the spring, " warned Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

BBC: Bank mortgage approvals still low

Blame Rooney Mara (or the androgynous computer-hacker character she plays in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), but the spring couture shows in Paris this week definitely had a punk-rock attitude.

FORBES: Trend-Spotting: Punk-Rock Couture

"We think there's room for another marathon in Manhattan, in the spring, " said Scott Dickey, chief executive of Competitor Group, whose Rock 'n' roll marathon and half-marathon series has grown from six races in 2008 to 33 in cities around the world.

WSJ: Hopes for a Second NYC Marathon

Notably, every 18.6 years, during the northern lunar standstill, the moonrise is aligned with the sites two rock pinnacles, as well as during the summer and winter solstices, and the fall and spring equinoxes.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House