Children born to mothers who are stressed during pregnancy may become adults with prematurely aged cells.

A comparison of 94 young adults found those subjected to prenatal stress tended to have white blood cells with shorter telomeres, the protein caps that prevent chromosome tips from fraying when cells divide.

Whether telomere shortening is a cause of aging’s ravages, or if age-related deterioration causes telomeres to shorten, isn’t known. Either way, shortening is linked to chronic disease risk and diminished longevity.

White blood cells of prenatally stressed adults “had aged the equivalent ...

Adobe has released a preview version of a new HTML animation tool dubbed Edge. Together with Wallaby, Adobe’s Flash-to-HTML conversion app, Edge is part of Adobe’s push to remind the web that the company is more than just its much-maligned Flash plugin.

Edge has been released as a free, beta public preview and is available for download through the Adobe Labs website.

Edge is not intended to replace Adobe Flash. At least not in the short term. Instead Edge is aimed at Flash animators looking for a visual way into the world of HTML, CSS and JavaScript-based animations, particularly the relatively...