SAINT HONORE, renowned creators of watches resplendent with the unique Paris style, have launched their new Opera Piano Winter Set in seven exciting new colours and finishes, to mark the continuing success of their Opéra range of watches, which masterfully blends style with functionality. The sophisticated yet lightweight Opera Piano represents a delicious mix of emotions and freshness. It personifies seduction through its blend of watchmaking know-how, play of materials, sizes and colours and the magic of diamonds. The totally-round case conjures up softness and femininity and underlines the exclusivity of this model and comes in two different sizes - 33 mm and 37 mm. The case is extended for even greater comfort by horns that match the shape of the wrist perfectly. The Opera Piano is set apart by the spectacular Eclair Effect, pioneered by SAINT HONORE’s master craftsmen. The unique ‘diamond pave’ effect using precious bezels and dials, make the timepiece truly exclusive, which is highlighted by the elegantly simple Roman numerals decorating the dial. A particularly clever system makes the Opéra watch straps easily interchangeable (including the steel strap). Change them when you feel like it! The new OPERA Piano Winter Edition is delivered in a luxury box with seven interchangeable straps, all with deploying buckles: Croco design leather in white, black or brown; varnished leather in beige, grey or purple and black rubber. More»

Experts warn more research is needed to find out how to reduce the number of babies born early. Prematurity is the second most common cause of death for children aged five. An analysis of 39 developed countries, suggests numbers could be cut by measures such as stopping multiple IVF pregnancies - but only by 5%. But experts writing in the Lancet say the reasons for many early births remain unknown and much more research is needed. Each year 15 million babies are born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, and rates are rising almost everywhere. But there is limited understanding as to why this is happening or what could be done. An estimated 1.1 million premature babies die each year. Most are born just a few weeks early in developing countries, where they die from a lack of simple care. But experts believe developed countries can also cut rates. More»

Celebrating death is an odd concept for an exhibition, but a new show in London on the topic that many people would rather avoid is at times beautiful, macabre, harrowing, comforting and funny. "Death: A Self-Portrait" opens at the Wellcome Collection, which specializes in scientific and medical themes, on Thursday and runs until February 24 next year. It contains around 300 paintings, puppets, models, drawings and artifacts from the collection of Richard Harris, an American antique print dealer who just over a decade ago decided to dedicate his time to assembling works of art related to death. He has around 2,000 items in total, most of them in storage, and would love to display the collection around the world to help people come to terms with their ultimate fate. "My real aim is to have this show all over the world," the 75-year-old said at a preview of the exhibition on Wednesday. "All the world needs to continue to promote the discussion and dialogue about this just to make it ...something that is not taboo and something that we cringe about and close our eyes and our minds to," Harris told reporters. More»

Tens of thousands of tourists and astronomers gathered in northern Australia to glimpse a rare total solar eclipse. The eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, plunged parts of Queensland into darkness for just over two minutes. Estimates suggest the event, early on Wednesday, was viewed live by millions. A partial eclipse was expected in other parts of the region, including New Zealand and eastern Indonesia. The next total solar eclipse will not take place until March 2015. Onlookers gathered at vantage points, in boats and on hot air balloons to witness the rare phenomenon. There had been fears that cloudy weather would obscure the eclipse but the clouds parted just as it began, drawing cheers from the crowd as the full spectacle came into view. More»

A book about explorer George Mallory's attempt to conquer Everest has been named winner of this year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Wade Davis' book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest will receive the £20,000 prize. Judges said the "momentous" book, the result of 10 years' research and writing, "shed new light on events and stories we thought we already knew". Davis is also the National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. The adventurer gives a detailed insight into the explorers' world, focusing on Mallory's expeditions and the impact of the Great War. Chair of the judges, David Willetts MP, said it was a "fascinating historical narrative of a great adventure". More»

Novartis' Ilaris helps reduce patients' symptoms and the frequency of attacks in two rare inflammatory diseases, mid-stage studies showed, as the Swiss drugmaker looks to expand the use of the medicine. Results of two separate studies on Sunday in patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) and TRAPS - rare genetic diseases which can cause fever, rash and joint pain - both met their primary endpoints, Novartis said in a statement. Both studies are being presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) meeting in Washington D.C. Ilaris or ACZ885, which blocks a protein called interleukin-1 beta that is thought to increase inflammation, is already sold for treating cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, a rare inflammatory disorder. Novartis is also hoping to file the drug this year for regulatory approval in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA), a debilitating disease that can affect a child's growth. More»

An Anglo-German team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby sun at just the right distance for an Earth-like climate that could support life. The team actually found three new planets orbiting the star 44 light years away, but only one of them is in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, the band around a sun where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. "The star HD 40307 is a perfectly quiet old dwarf star, so there is no reason why such a planet could not sustain an Earth-like climate," said Guillem Angla-Escude from Germany's University of Goettingen, who led the research with Mikko Tuomi at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain. The planet has a mass at least seven times that of Earth but it orbits at about the same distance from its sun, meaning it receives a similar amount of solar energy as Earth gets. More than 800 planets have been discovered outside our solar system since the first was detected in the early 1990s, but only a handful of those have been in the habitable zone. Even more rare are planets in the zone that rotate, as this one does, to create a day-time and night-time, which increases the chance of an Earth-like environment. Those that don't spin are said to be tidally locked, with one half in constant darkness. More»

Smoking has long been linked with slower recovery in general from injuries and surgeries, and now a new study finds that smokers face more complications and higher chances of death following major surgery for colorectal cancers and other diseases. "We wanted to see if smoking has a specific effect on these patients... and really wanted to know if patients who stopped smoking had better results," said lead author Dr. Abhiram Sharma, who was at the University of Rochester in New York during the study. Smoking constricts the flow of blood throughout the body and is thought to prevent oxygen from getting to tissues that are trying to heal, according to the authors. In September, a review of surgeries to repair knee ligaments found that smokers tended to have worse outcomes, including not being able to get back full knee function. (See Reuters Health article of September 26, 2012: reut.rs/Xqf6is) For the new report, published in the Annals of Surgery, Sharma and his colleagues studied patients included in a nationally representative database of U.S. surgeries between 2005 and 2010. Overall, 47,574 patients were included in the analysis. All had part of their colon or rectum removed, a surgery known as a colorectal resection, either because of cancer, diverticular disease or inflammatory bowel disease. More»

Seminal American author Philip Roth, whose novels explored modern Jewish-American life, has told a French magazine that he will write no more books because he has lost his passion for it. The author of such novels as "American Pastoral", for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and "Portnoy's Complaint" slipped his retirement announcement into an interview last month with French magazine Les Inrocks. On Friday, Houghton Mifflin confirmed his decision. "He told me it was true," said Lori Glazer, executive director of publicity at the publisher.Roth, 79, one of the world's most revered novelists and a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature, said he had not written for three years. "To tell you the truth, I'm done," Roth was quoted as telling Les Inrocks. "'Nemesis' will be my last book," he said of his 2010 short novel set against a fictional polio epidemic in Newark, New Jersey, in 1944. The novella "Goodbye, Columbus" catapulted Roth onto the American literary scene in 1959 with its satirical depiction of class and religion in American life. Published along with five other short stories, it won the National Book Award in 1960. He again received that award in 1995 for "Sabbath's Theater." More»

More than $1 billion worth of fine art, from Picassos and Monets to Rothkos and Richters, will be auctioned at Christie's and Sotheby's in sales that officials say are shaping up to be some of the biggest in years. The art market, especially at its upper echelons, has thrived as the rich seek a safe haven for their wealth with artworks. "We had a great rush of consignments for the November auctions," said Marc Porter, Christie's Americas' chairman. "The property was made up increasingly of discretionary sellers versus estates," he said, referring to collectors who decide to sell a work. The prices that some of the main items are expected to fetch are eye-popping. Works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Mark Rothko are each expected to sell for as much as $50 million. Brooke Lampley, Christie's head of Impressionist and modern art, described it as "an exuberant market" with buyers from around the world. "Participation in our major sales is more global than ever, with buyers from growing markets in South America, Asia, and the Middle East," she explained. Monet's "Nympheas", one of the artist's water lilies works which Christie's estimates could sell for as much as $50 million, is among the highlights of the sales. More»