Rental market for private homes may soften: analyst

SINGAPORE: Landlords of private homes may see the rental market softening when higher property taxes kick in next year, as these investors grapple with higher holding costs.

Owning luxury or investment homes will incur higher property taxes starting January 2014.

For private homes not occupied by owners, new marginal property tax rates of 12 to 20 per cent will be levied in addition to the current 10 per cent.

Coupled with the growing number of vacant apartments, industry players say Singapore's rental market is likely to soften.

Colin Tan, research head at Chesterton Suntec International said: "With the taxes especially, on vacant properties, which means you cannot seek relief from the taxman, investors now have to be a bit more cautious in trusting what the agents or sellers are telling them. What the tax does is to increase holding costs for investors.

"Going forward, I see rentals could soften because even at today's statistics - end of last year - there have been 12,000 vacant apartments. Can you imagine under the new tax regime, the landlord will have to start to look for tenants. And that makes a big difference."

The top one per cent of owner-occupied homes, about 12,000 units, will pay more taxes. This is on top of the various stamp duties imposed from the seven rounds of cooling measures.

But experts say Singapore properties remain attractive long-term investments for foreign buyers.

Kelvin Tay, regional chief investment officer at Southern APAC, UBS, said: "The number of foreign buyers as a proportion of total buyers, has actually dropped to 7 percent. If you are talking about the very high-end properties, you are talking about competition from other top global cities like London, San Francisco, New York, and not just Singapore. So you have to compare the real returns from the perspective of all these jurisdictions. Then you got to think about the regulatory regimes, the taxes that are in place."

Edmund Leow, head of tax and wealth management at Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow said: "We have to look at income tax, property, capital gain tax, estate duty and all kinds of other taxes. On an overall basis, Singapore is still fairly attractive to other foreigners, most other countries are also introducing similar measures."

- CNA/xq

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Illegal music downloads dropped in 2012, says report

Fewer people are illegally downloading and sharing music, NPD Group said in a new report out today.

Among those surveyed for NPD's "Annual Music Study 2012," 40 percent who illegally downloaded music via peer-to-peer services last year said they had stopped or downloaded less music this year.

Overall, the number of illegally downloaded songs from P2P services dropped by 26 percent this year from 2011.

Part of that was due to an overall decline in the use of P2P services. At the 2005 peek of P2P file sharing networks, 33 million people used them. For 2012, that number totaled 21 milllion.

But last year's trend extended beyond P2P services.

Songs burned and ripped from CDs owned by friends and family fell by 44 percent. The number of music files shared from hard drives decreased by 25 percent. And the amount of songs from digital lockers dropped by 28 percent, based on the people surveyed by NPD.

Why the drop in music sharing? NPD cited three reasons.

First and foremost, the rise of free music streaming services has sliced into the popularity of illegal music downloads. Half of the people polled who had stopped or cut back on their illegal downloads said they did so because of the increase in free and legal music streaming services.

Second, the music industry's legal tactics have forced many P2P sites to close shop. One of the most prominent examples was Limewire, which shut down almost two years ago after a lawsuit found the company liable of copyright infringement.

And third, a fair number of P2P sites have proven a bit too risky, offering viruses and spyware as part of the price to pay for free music.

Almost 20 percent of the P2P users surveyed said they stopped or reduced their downloads because their favorite site went offline or the sites they used created problems with viruses and spyware.

"In recent years, we've seen less P2P activity, because the music industry has successfully used litigation to shut down Limewire and other services," Russ Crupnick, NPD's senior vice president of industry analysis, said in a statement. "Many of those who continued to use P2P services reported poor experiences, due to rampant spyware and viruses on illegal P2P sites."

NPD's "Annual Music Study 2012" report was based on consumer surveys conducted last year.

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Sharks Warn Off Predators By Wielding Light Sabers

Diminutive deep-sea sharks illuminate spines on their backs like light sabers to warn potential predators that they could get a sharp mouthful, a new study suggests.

Paradoxically, the sharks seem to produce light both to hide and to be conspicuous—a first in the world of glowing sharks. (See photos of other sea creatures that glow.)

"Three years ago we showed that velvet belly lanternsharks [(Etmopterus spinax)] are using counter-illumination," said lead study author Julien Claes, a biologist from Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain, by email.

In counter-illumination, the lanternsharks, like many deep-sea animals, light up their undersides in order to disguise their silhouette when seen from below. Brighter bellies blend in with the light filtering down from the surface. (Related: "Glowing Pygmy Shark Lights Up to Fade Away.")

Fishing the 2-foot-long (60-centimeter-long) lanternsharks up from Norwegian fjords and placing them in darkened aquarium tanks, the researchers noticed that not only do the sharks' bellies glow, but they also had glowing regions on their backs.

The sharks have two rows of light-emitting cells, called photophores, on either side of a fearsome spine on the front edges of their two dorsal fins.

Study co-author Jérôme Mallefet explained how handling the sharks and encountering their aggressive behavior hinted at the role these radiant spines play.

"Sometimes they flip around and try to hit you with their spines," said Mallefet, also from Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain. "So we thought maybe they are showing their weapon in the dark depths."

To investigate this idea, the authors analyzed the structure of the lanternshark spines and found that they were more translucent than other shark spines.

This allowed the spines to transmit around 10 percent of the light from the glowing photophores, the study said.

For Predators' Eyes Only

Based on the eyesight of various deep-sea animals, the researchers estimated that the sharks' glowing spines were visible from several meters away to predators that include harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), and blackmouth catsharks (Galeus melastomus).

"The spine-associated bioluminescence has all the characteristics to play the right role as a warning sign," said Mallefet.

"It's a magnificent way to say 'hello, here I am, but beware I have spines,'" he added.

But these luminous warning signals wouldn't impede the sharks' pursuit of their favorite prey, Mueller's bristle-mouth fish (Maurolicus muelleri), the study suggested. These fish have poorer vision than the sharks' predators and may only spot the sharks' dorsal illuminations at much closer range.

For now, it remains a mystery how the sharks create and control the lights on their backs. The glowing dorsal fins could respond to the same hormones that control the belly lights, suggested Mallefet, but other factors may also be involved.

"MacGyver" of Bioluminescence

Several other species use bioluminescence as a warning signal, including marine snails (Hinea brasiliana), glowworms (Lampyris noctiluca) and millipedes (Motyxia spp.).

Edith Widder, a marinebiologist from the Ocean Research and Conservation Association who was not involved in the current study, previously discovered a jellyfish whose bioluminescence rubs off on attackers that get too close.

"It's like paint packages in money bags at banks," she explained.

"Any animal that was foolish enough to go after it," she added "gets smeared all over with glowing particles that make it easy prey for its predators."

Widder also points out that glowing deep-sea animals often put their abilities to diverse uses. (Watch: "Why Deep-Sea Creatures Glow.")

"There are many examples of animals using bioluminescence for a whole range of different functions," she said.

Mallefet agrees, joking that these sharks are the "MacGyver of bioluminescence."

"Just give light to this shark species and it will use it in any possible way."

And while Widder doesn't discount the warning signal theory, "another possibility would be that it could be to attract a mate."

Lead author Julien Claes added by email, "I also discovered during my PhD thesis that velvet belly lanternsharks have glowing organs on their sexual parts."

And that, he admits, "makes it very easy, even for a human, to distinguish male and female of this species in the dark!"

The glowing shark study appeared online in the February 21 edition of Scientific Reports.

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'93 WTC Bombing Crushed Lives, Not Memories

Edward Smith remembers vividly the call from the morgue 20 years ago today, that his pregnant wife had died in the World Trade Center bombing hours before she was supposed to start her maternity leave.

"It seems like kind of yesterday sometimes," he told ABC News, "but it seems like a long time ago, too."

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 WTC bombing, which was overshadowed eight years later by the 9/11 attacks. Six people died and about 1,000 were injured after terrorists detonated a truck bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center's North Tower Feb. 26, 1993.

Four of the six killed -- Robert Kirkpatrick, 61, Stephen A. Knapp, 47, William Macko, 57, and Monica Rodriguez Smith, 35 -- were employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the buildings. John DiGiovanni, 45, a dental-supply salesman visiting the World Trade Center, and Wilfredo Mercado, 37, a purchasing agent for Windows on the World restaurant, also died.

To commemorate the event, ABC News spoke with several people affected by the bombing -- a widower, a former Port Authority executive director, a plaintiff's attorney and a jury foreman -- to illustrate how the bombing resonates 20 years later.

EDWARD SMITH: Husband of pregnant Monica Rodriguez Smith, who died in the bombing.

Edward and Monica Rodriguez Smith on their wedding day, Aug. 31, 1990.

September 11: World Trade Center Time Lapse Watch Video

Edward Smith, 50, remembers where he was Feb. 26, 1993, when he heard the news.

"I was up in Boston, and I had heard there was a fire at the [World] Trade Center," Smith told ABCNews.com last week. "I turned the TV on, and eventually heard there was an actual bombing, and drove down as quickly as I could."

Smith said he couldn't reach his wife, Monica Rodriguez Smith, a secretary for a mechanical supervisor for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who worked in the World Trade Center, for "hours and hours."

He said he didn't hear from her or anything about her until he contacted the New York City morgue at 11:30 p.m. that evening.

"Obviously, I was informed that I should come there," Smith said.

He and his wife had been married for a little more than three years, he said, and Feb. 26 was to be Monica's last day of work before she went on maternity leave. They were expecting their first child, a boy, to be named Eddie.

"She had worked at the Port Authority for at least 12 years," Smith said. "And she had just gotten an award for never having a sick day. That was a little thing you remember."

Smith said the World Trade Center was where he met his wife the first time.

"I was a sales guy, selling to the Port Authority, and she was the admin [secretary] for one of the guys," he said. "For the first two years, she wouldn't go out with me.

"She said, 'Do you know how many knuckleheads come in here and ask me out? What makes you different?'" Smith recalled Monica's saying.

It took her two years to go out on a date with him, Smith said.

The couple tied the knot Aug. 31, 1990. Smith said he even bought the house in which he grew up on Long Island to raise their family.

But after the events of Feb. 26, 1993, Smith said, it was hard to stay in New York. Shortly after the bombing, he moved to Arizona and later to California.

"There were too many reminders, it was too much," he said.

Smith now resides in Phoenix, but makes a trip to New York every year for the memorial in February.
This year is no exception.

"It's kind of an interesting feeling," he said of the 20-year anniversary. "It seems like kind of yesterday sometimes, but it seems like a long time ago, too."

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Armband adds a twitch to gesture control

And you thought depth-sensing cameras were cool: well, now there's a gesture control device that looks like a sweatband. It lets you control everything from computers to flying drones just by moving the muscles in your forearm.

The Myo, built by Canadian startup firm Thalmic Labs, based in Kitchener, Ontario, aims to bring gestural interfaces right into the mainstream. Electrodes embedded in the band read electrical activity in a user's muscles as they contract or relax to make gestures with their hand and arm, and transmit it wirelessly to software that interprets the movements into commands.

"We really have this belief that technology can be used to enhance our abilities," says Stephen Lake, co-founder of Thalmic Labs. "This is a way of using natural actions that we've evolved to intuitively control the digital world."

Lake and his team built Myo using electrodes that work without making direct contact with the skin, unlike medical electrodes. The first generation can recognise around 20 gestures, some as subtle as the tap of a finger – and it is programmed to ignore random noise generated by other body movements.

Myo's creators envision it as an easy way to interact with everything from web browsers to video games to small drones. The first generation of the product, is expected to cost $149 and ship later this year. It will come with software that will allow any Windows or Apple Mac machine to recognise the gestures we use on touchscreens – like a vertical swipe to scroll down a page, or a pinch to zoom.

"It's not very often that a new, affordable and convenient interface technology comes along, so I think a lot of programmers are going to want to try it," says Trevor Blackwell, founder of robotics company Umbrella Research and a partner in Y Combinator. This startup incubator programme is based in Mountain View, California and has provided Thalmic Labs with funding in exchange for a 7 per cent stake in the company. "I think so far we've only thought of around 1 per cent of its potential applications."

Thalmic Labs is not the first firm to try making a device that recognises gestures by sensing muscle activity. In 2008, Microsoft created a prototype called MUCI that worked in a similar fashion to Myo, but needed medical electrodes, which are not feasible outside of a laboratory setting.

There are also devices that use cameras to precisely track users' hand motions, but they are either in early stages of development, or not portable. "Maybe this couldn't have been foreseen by early researchers working with cameras, but people don't like having cameras watching them all the time," Blackwell says. "Thalmic solves that problem nicely." Though the first generation of Myo is only just launching, the team is already imagining ways to integrate their rigs with augmented reality devices like the head-mounted display, Google Glass.

"If they combined with Google's Project Glass, I think it would be huge," says computer scientist Shahzad Malik, who co-founded the software company CognoVision of Toronto. "Something like Thalmic's technology is super-useful since you can do interactions in a subtle way, which is important when you're in a public venue."

"We're interested in seeing just how closely we can integrate technology into our daily lives and give people superpowers, if you like," says Lake.

Wear tech... look great?

Making wearable technology fashionable is tough – think belt-mounted cellphones, beepers, and bluetooth ear pieces. But iPod earbuds and headphones seem to work.

How do you get the mix right? Google is working hard to make Project Glass rigs look hip, even convincing clothing designer Diane von Fürstenberg and her models to wear prototypes of the head-mounted displays at Fashion Week in New York last year.

Myo bands (see main story) could be an easier sell , says computer scientist Shahzad Malik. "I could see these bands becoming smaller and smaller, or are made in different colours. Or there could be clothing with it built in," he says.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Football: Cahill bemoans Chelsea fixture pile-up

LONDON: Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill thinks the club's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League are being hindered by what he describes as "ridiculous" fixture congestion.

The European champions lost 2-0 at Manchester City on Sunday to give hope to the teams bidding to pip them to a top-four berth.

Tottenham Hotspur could climb above Chelsea into third place with victory at West Ham United later on Monday, while beleaguered Arsenal are just two points behind Rafael Benitez's side in fifth place.

Sunday's game was Chelsea's 46th this season -- more than Arsenal (41), Tottenham and Manchester City (both 38), and sixth-placed Everton (32).

The Blues' calendar has been swelled by December's trip to Japan for the Club World Cup, while they also remain in contention in both the FA Cup and the Europa League.

It may mean more matches for Chelsea's fans to take in, but Cahill said it is having a harmful impact on the squad.

"Unfortunately, it does take its toll," he told Chelsea TV.

"I think if you look back at the start of the season with the spark and the zip we had -- I think sometimes a little bit of fatigue plays its part.

"We haven't had a clear week for about 29 weeks and you're expecting to go into games feeling 100 percent fresh, trying to push on further in all competitions.

"I think at this stage of the season, it's not an excuse, but fatigue has to play a part. They (Manchester City) had a clear week and we've had a ridiculous amount of games."

There is little respite on Chelsea's horizon, with Wednesday's FA Cup tie at Middlesbrough followed by a league game with West Bromwich Albion and the away leg of their Europa League last-16 tie with Romanians Steaua Bucharest.

"It's something that we have got to deal with," Cahill said.

"We've got the two cups and obviously trying to get the Champions League spot. That's our aim from now until the end of the season. That's our focus. We have to go again. We are still in that position.

"All three are in our own hands so we need to keep going and plug away and make sure we achieve the goals we want to achieve."

Cahill believes the fatigue in the squad was evident in their porous defensive performance at City.

"I had way too much (to do)," he said.

"Normally at a big club, in a game you probably get asked to do three or four important things in a game. (Against City) we probably had 20 or 25.

"Unfortunately, if you keep getting asked the question, ultimately there's going to be a goal."

- AFP/fa

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Microsoft will reportedly launch Surface tablet in Japan

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet could be headed for Japan.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Surface may surface in Japan as early as next month, says a story from the Nikkei news service, as reported by the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.

Microsoft is expected to sell the Surface RT edition to Japanese consumers. That version can run certain desktop applications, such as
Microsoft Office RT and Internet Explorer 10, but otherwise is restricted to Windows store apps.

The 32GB Surface RT
tablet starts at $499 in the U.S. That same model may sport a price tag in Japan of around 50,000 yen ($531).

Surface has been wending its way around the world. The RT version debuted last October in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, and China. On February 14, the RT tablet went on sale in 13 additional countries throughout Europe, including Austria, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Earlier this month Microsoft unveiled Surface Pro, which runs the full flavor of
Windows 8 and can handle existing desktop applications.

CNET contacted Microsoft for comment and will update the story if we receive any information.

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Picture Archive: Dorothy Lamour and Jiggs, Circa 1938

Dorothy Lamour, most famous for her Road to ... series of movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, never won an Oscar. In her 50-plus-year career as an actress, she never even got nominated.

Neither did Jiggs the chimpanzee, pictured here with Lamour on the set of Her Jungle Love in a photo published in the 1938 National Geographic story "Monkey Folk."

No animal has ever been nominated for an Oscar. According to Academy Award rules, only actors and actresses are eligible.

Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier from last year's best picture winner, The Artist, didn't rate a nod. The equines that portrayed Seabiscuit and War Horse, movies that were best picture contenders in their respective years, were also snubbed.

Even the seven piglets that played Babe, the eponymous star of the best picture nominee in 1998, didn't rate. And the outlook seems to be worsening for the animal kingdom's odds of ever getting its paws on that golden statuette.

This year, two movies nominated in the best picture category had creatures that were storyline drivers with significant on-screen time. Neither Beasts of the Southern Wild (which featured extinct aurochs) or Life of Pi (which featured a CGI Bengal tiger named Richard Parker) used real animals.

An Oscar's not the only way for animals to get ahead, though. Two years after this photo was published, the American Humane Association's Los Angeles Film & TV Unit was established to monitor and protect animals working on show business sets. The group's creation was spurred by the death of a horse during the filming of 1939's Jessie James.

Today, it's still the only organization that stamps "No Animals Were Harmed" onto a movie's closing credits.

Editor's note: This is part of a series of pieces that looks at the news through the lens of the National Geographic photo archives.

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Best Moments From the Academy Awards

Host Seth MacFarlane took the stage at the 2013 Oscars with an opening monologue revealing he was ready to poke fun at the star-studded audience.

"The quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now," he said.

But it wasn't too long before MacFarlane was interrupted. William Shatner, dressed as his iconic character Captain Kirk from "Star Trek," descended on the stage to warn MacFarlane that he was about to ruin the Oscars and be branded the worst host ever.

"The show is a disaster. I've come back in time … to stop you from ruining the Academy Awards," Shatner said.

Seth MacFarlane's Boobs Tribute

Shatner tried to steer MacFarlane away from singing an "incredibly offensive song that upsets a lot of women in the audience."

Cue MacFarlane's medley "We Saw Your Boobs," a laundry list set to music of acclaimed actresses in Hollywood who all bared their breasts in film.

MacFarlane was joined by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles to call out Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Naomi Watts, Jodie Foster, Hilary Swank and countless others who we've seen nude in film.

Not every joke funnyman Seth MacFarlane made landed with the A-list crowd at the 85th annual Academy Awards.

The host elicited gasps from the crowd when he introduced "Django Unchained" as "the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who's been subjected to unthinkable violence. Or, as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie."

Another joke that somehow earned a too-soon nod? A throw to President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

"I'd argue that the actor who really got inside Lincoln's head was John Wilkes Booth," MacFarlane said.

MacFarlane's jab at Mel Gibson didn't land too smoothly either. MacFarlane said the N-word laden "Django Unchained" screenplay was "loosely based on Mel Gibson's voicemails."

Oscars' Movie Musical Tribute

The theme of the 85 annual Academy Awards was celebrating music in film, and the tributes to movie musicals didn't disappoint.

Featured performers included Catherine Zeta-Jones belting "All That Jazz" from 2002's Best Picture winner "Chicago," Jennifer Hudson's show-stopping "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from 2006's "Dreamgirls," and the cast of this year's Best Picture nominee "Les Miserables" reuniting on stage for "One Day More."

Introducing the Von Trapp Family

To introduce Christopher Plummer to the stage to present the award for Best Supporting Actress, MacFarlane couldn't help but make a joke out of the actor's infamous role as Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music."

MacFarlane came out to announce the Von Trapp family singers, but no one came out. Instead, a man dressed in a Nazi uniform ran in to tell him that they were gone.

Kristen Stewart Hobbles on Stage to Present

When Daniel Radcliffe took the stage to present the award for Achievement in Production Design, he was joined by his hobbling co-presenter Kristen Stewart, who was seen crutching along the red carpet during the pre-show.

The "Twilight" star's makeup artist told People magazine that the actress "cut the ball of her foot, quite severely, on glass two days ago."

The Associated Press reported that backstage, Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway told Stewart to "break a leg."

Jennifer Lawrence's Unstable Victory

Jennifer Lawrence was so shocked to take home the Oscar for Best Actress that she lost her footing on her way up to the stage to accept her award.

"You guys are just standing up because I fell and that's really embarrassing," she said to the audience.

Lawrence regained her composure to give her acceptance speech, extending a special thank you to "the women this year," who she called "so magnificent and so inspiring."

Daniel Day-Lewis a Three-Peat Best Actor Winner

It was a highly anticipated win for Daniel Day-Lewis, who took home the award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Abe Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."

Lewis cracked a joke in his acceptance speech, saying he was supposed to be cast as Margaret Thatcher and presenter Meryl Streep was the first choice for Lincoln.

"Meryl Streep was Steven's first choice to play Lincoln… I'd like to see that version," Lewis said.

Michelle Obama Announces Best Picture Winner

In one of the biggest surprises of the night, the Academy brought out First Lady Michelle Obama to help Jack Nicholson introduce the nominees for Best Picture.

Rocking her new bangs and a silver gown, the first lady, live from the White House, announced "Argo" as this year's Best Picture.

"It was a thrill to announce the #Oscars2013 best picture winner from the @WhiteHouse! Congratulations Argo!" FLOTUS tweeted afterwards.

Ben Affleck Triumphs at Oscars

Ben Affleck was flabbergasted by his win for Best Picture for "Argo." His frenzied, heartfelt acceptance speech resonated as he thanked his wife, Jennifer Garner, and ended on an inspirational high note.

"I want to thank my wife, who I don't normally associate with Iran. I want to thank you for working on our marriage. It is work, but it is the best kind of work," he said.

"I was here 15 years ago or something and you know I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here in front of you all, really just a kid. I went out and I never thought I'd be back here and I am because of so many of you who are here tonight …. I want to thank them for what they taught me, which is that you have to work harder than you think you possibly can, you can't hold grudges. It's hard, but you can't hold grudges. And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life because that's going to happen. All that matters is that you got to get up."

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New blood test finds elusive fetal gene problem

A NEW non-invasive blood test for pregnant women could make it easier to catch abnormalities before their child is born.

Human cells should have two copies of each chromosome but sometimes the division is uneven. Existing tests count the fragments of placental DNA in the mother's blood. If the fragments from one chromosome are unusually abundant, it might be because the fetus has an extra copy of that chromosome. But triploidy, where there are three copies of every chromosome, is missed, since the proportion of fragments from each chromosome is the same.

California-based company Natera uses an algorithm to calculate the most likely genotype for the fetus. To do this it looks at single letter variations called SNPs in the parents and compares this to a database of the most common SNPs patterns in the population. This genotype is then compared with placental DNA.

This approach can catch triploidy since the whole fetal genotype is the reference rather than a single chromosome. The method was presented last week at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco.

This article appeared in print under the headline "No hiding place for fetal gene errors"

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

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