MONTREAL (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton achieved a Formula One career first by steering his Mercedes to third place in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, even if the podium was a bitter-sweet one for the Briton.

In his five previous visits to Montreal with McLaren, the 2008 champion had won three times and crashed twice.

On Sunday, Hamilton found a third way - taking the chequered flag behind Red Bull's race winner Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

For the third time in seven races this year, Hamilton finished third - highlighting the reliability and potential of an improved Mercedes that started the season quick over one lap but hungry for tires.

However his inability to keep up with Vettel in the early stages, and to hold off Alonso at the end when the Spaniard overtook him for second place, underlined how far Mercedes still have to go to be regulars at the top of the podium.

"The car felt fantastic today and I had good grip for the low-speed corners but we just weren't quite on the pace of Seb and Fernando," said Hamilton.

"I was on the maximum that I could possibly drive and we got absolutely everything out of the car today.

"It would have been nice to have kept second place of course but Fernando was very quick today and it was difficult to keep him behind."

Hamilton's German team mate Nico Rosberg, who had taken pole position in the three previous races and won in Monaco, also struggled to keep up with the frontrunners and finished two places behind the Englishman.

"I think fifth place was probably my optimum today," he conceded. "Even if my race had gone perfectly, I wasn't able to match the pace of the guys in front."

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn, who is at the center of a controversial tire test with Pirelli, was pleased with the overall result but also admitted the car was just slightly off the pace.

"The car performed reasonably well but we still had some anxiety about the tire performance in the high temperatures, so we were managing the situation carefully, particularly in the opening laps of the stints," he said.

"Lewis drove a very strong race although it was a shame that he could not quite hold on to second position in the closing laps.

"However, that wasn't down to him but rather the fact that we still need to find a little more performance from our car to compete with Ferrari and Red Bull."

(Reporting by Julian Linden)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A Martian rock analyzed by NASA's rover Opportunity contains clays formed in non-acidic water, an environment potentially suitable for the chemistry of ancient life to brew.

The solar-powered Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was expected to be a 90-day mission to look for signs there was once water. It, and a twin rover, Spirit, which succumbed to the harsh Martian environment three years ago, had both found rocks altered by highly acidic water.

While acid-loving microbes exist on Earth, scientists suspect the chemical building blocks for life need more neutral conditions to evolve into life.

"The tough thing about an acid environment is that it's very, very hard, we believe, to get pre-biotic chemistry, the kind of chemistry that can lead to the origin of life," Cornell University's Steve Squyres, lead scientist for the Opportunity and Spirit missions, told reporters during a conference call on Friday.

"What's exciting about this discovery is that it points to a neutral pH at a time very, very early in Martian history," he added.

"What we have here is a very different chemistry. This is water you can drink," Squyres said. "This is the most powerful evidence for neutral (non-acidic) chemistry water that has been found by Opportunity," he added.

Opportunity took three years to reach the rim of a large impact basin called Endeavour Crater, where it examined, among other objects, a small rock called Esperance.

It took seven tries before Opportunity got itself positioned properly to scratch the rock's surface and see what lies beneath. Unlike NASA's follow-on Mars rover Curiosity, which landed on the opposite side of Mars in August, Opportunity has no drill or onboard chemistry lab to obtain and analyze samples.

Instead, it uses its instruments to determine basic mineralogy. Esperance, scientists determined, contains aluminum-rich clays, a telltale sign that neutral water flowed through the rock.

Likewise, Curiosity's first analysis of powder drilled from an ancient mudstone showed signs of neutral water, plus elements needed to support microbial life. Results from the rover's second sample analysis are pending.

Opportunity now is making its way south along the Endeavour Crater rim toward an exposed stack of rock that may provide more clues about Mars' transition from a warm and wet world to the cold, dry, acidic desert that exists today.

Scientists are hopeful Opportunity will make it there by August 1, before the start of Martian winter in the southern hemisphere.

"We've been on borrowed time for a while," said project manager John Callas, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "How long Opportunity lasts is anyone's guess."

(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)

(Logo: )

Recall Summary

Name of product: High-Pressure Scuba Diving Air Hoses

Hazard: The diving hose that connects the regulator to the tank's pressure gauge can leak, posing a drowning hazard to the user.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the hoses and contact Trident Diving Equipment for a free replacement hose.

Consumer Contact: Trident Diving Equipment at (800) 234-3483, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or e-mailor online at , then click on "Smooth High Pressure Hose Safety Recall" for more information.

Photos are available at

Recall Details

Units: About 200

Description: The recalled air hoses are high-pressure scuba air hoses with a black, smooth rubber outer covering. They are about five millimeters in diameter and 32 or 36 inches long. These hoses connect the regulator to the tank pressure gauge. The phrase "Scuba Diving High Pressure hose I.D. 3/16 (4.76 mm) W.P. 5000 PSI Exceeds SAE 100RT braid with Kevlar fiber from Dupont" is printed in white lettering on the hose's outer covering. The hoses have metal fittings on each end one female fitting and one male fitting. "CE EN 250 230" is stamped on the female fitting and one of the following production date codes is on the male hex head fitting: T1011, T1111 or T0312.

Incidents/Injuries: Trident has received one report of a hose leaking. No injuries have been reported.

Sold at: Scuba diving retailers nationwide from November 2011 through June 2012 for about $35.

Importer: Trident Diving Equipment, of Chatsworth, Calif.

Manufactured in: Taiwan

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about your experience with the product on .

Media ContactPlease use the phone numbers below for all media requests.Phone: (301) 504-7908Spanish: (301) 504-7800

CPSC Consumer Information HotlineContact us at this toll-free number if you have questions about a recall:800-638-2772 (TTY 301-595-7054)Times: 8 a.m. 5:30 p.m. ET; Messages can be left anytimeCall to get product safety and other agency information and to .

SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

LONDON (Reuters) - Applying painless but targeted electrical stimulation to parts of the brain that play a role in number manipulation may in future be a way to help people who struggle with math, scientists said on Thursday.

Researchers who experimented with a type of brain stimulation called transcranial random noise stimulation (TRNS) found that in less than a week it improved students' performance in both calculation and rote learning of mathematical tasks.

The researchers stressed this was a small, early-stage study with more research required, but said the technique may one day help people with learning problems or neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. It could also help people reach their full potential in math and other tricky subjects.

The experiment involved 51 students from Oxford who were asked to perform two arithmetic tasks testing their calculation and rote learning abilities over a five-day period. Around half the volunteers were given TRNS while performing the tasks each day.

"With just five days of cognitive training and non-invasive, painless brain stimulation, we were able to bring about long-lasting improvements in cognitive and brain functions," said Roi Cohen Kadosh of Britain's Oxford University, who led the study.

The improved performance was maintained for six months after the stimulation and training, he said.

TRNS applies random electrical noise to targeted regions of the cortex - a part of the brain important for memory and attention - through stimulation electrodes placed on the surface of the scalp. It is non-invasive, painless and relatively cheap.

Publishing his findings in the journal Current Biology, Cohen Kadosh said it was not entirely clear how the stimulation works, but evidence suggests it helps the brain work more efficiently by making neurons fire more synchronously.

Cohen Kadosh and colleagues have published previous studies showing how other forms of brain stimulation can make people better at learning and processing numbers.

"Maths is a highly complex cognitive faculty that is based on a myriad of different abilities," Cohen Kadosh said. "If we can enhance mathematics ... there is a good chance that we will be able to enhance simpler cognitive functions."

The researcher said that if future experiments with TRNS continue to show positive results, the technique could be used in clinics, classrooms and even at home to help people who struggle with particular cognitive tasks.

"This could include anyone from a child falling behind in ... maths class to an elderly patient suffering from neurodegenerative disease," he said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

(Reuters) - Biotech stocks are so hot that even some of the bulls are starting to find themselves on edge.

An index of biotech drugmakers' shares has climbed nearly 50 percent in the past 12 months to all-time highs as the industry starts to launch drugs developed by identifying genes associated with disease - a revolution made possible by decoding the first human genome more than 10 years ago.

The rise at such a fast pace is triggering the inevitable talk of a bubble, especially when investors are reminded that more than 90 percent of experimental drugs that reach mid-stage testing in humans do not make it past that point.

"Genetic information is providing a big opportunity for new drug development," said Rajiv Kaul, portfolio manager of Fidelity Investments Select Biotechnology Portfolio, in Boston. "There are exciting new opportunities, but you also need to be careful because most drugs fail."

Compared with a year ago, the Nasdaq Biotech Index, which is weighted by market cap, is up 45 percent, the dollar-weighted Arca Biotech Index has risen 35 percent, and the Pharmaceutical Index of large U.S. and European drugmakers' shares has increased 32 percent. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index has gained 25 percent.

A more favorable regulatory environment and lower capital costs are helping fuel the rally. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 39 drugs last year - a record beaten only in 1996. Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, estimates that interest costs for large-cap biotechs to borrow in the capital markets are about 2 percent lower today than in 2007, and are likely to remain there for several more years.

Still, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index trading well above its previous all-time peak in 2000 - just before the epic dot-com bust - some investors are thinking about locking in profits.

"The biotech industry is in good shape, but there's going to be a pause in news from medical conferences after ASCO (the American Society of Clinical Oncology), and I am thinking of taking profits on some of the large biotech names and switching some of the money into mid-cap companies," said Nathalie Flury, manager of the Julius Baer Biotech Fund at Swiss & Global Asset Management, in Zurich. "There are no big conferences to provide catalysts between June and August."

The annual ASCO meeting, where companies unveil their latest cancer drug research, will take place in early June in Chicago.

"I still think the sector has some room to grow, but it is not going to be as easy as it has been," said David Heupel, senior healthcare analyst at Thrivent Investment Management, in Minneapolis.

He and others said the sector's latest run-up is also being prompted by a newfound attraction to medical biotech from managers of general-interest mutual funds hunting for strong earnings growth potential.

"The reason is because they are looking for significant earnings growth, driven by new products over the next few years at Gilead, Biogen and Celgene," said Michael Yee, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, in San Francisco.

BEST AND WORST BUSINESS

Gilead Sciences, the world's largest maker of branded HIV drugs, is viewed as the leader in a race to develop a more safe and effective therapy for hepatitis C, a market Wall Street expects to garner billions of dollars in annual sales.

Short interest - a potential red flag that measures shares borrowed by investors expecting a price drop - has changed little over the past year for large-cap biotechs, standing at 2.3 percent of outstanding shares in early May, according to Jefferies & Co.

Short interest in biotech companies with market caps between $2 billion and $10 billion has fallen to 9.2 percent from 11.3 percent in the past 12 months, while short interest for companies with market caps of $500 million to $2 billion has increased to 15.2 percent from 12.7 percent over the past year.

Wall Street analysts estimate that shares of large-cap Gilead, which have more than doubled over the past year, trade at about 26 times 2013 earnings and 12 times 2015 earnings.

"That type of earnings growth is very impressive," Yee said. "And it all comes against a backdrop of a really tough macro-environment."

Concerns about overall consumer sentiment have served to cool investor interest in other growth-oriented sectors, including technology. The S&P Information Technology Sector Index has gained about 13 percent in the past year.

"That's why you are seeing more money moving into biotech," Yee said.

Even with the rally, some investors say biotech valuations remain attractive.

"These companies seem to be earning a much better return on their capital," Heupel said. "They are not off the charts expensive."

Earnings multiples for biotech shares remain well below the levels seen before the latest stock market crash in 2008.

The discount is even steeper when compared with multiples reached before the bursting of the biotech bubble in 2000. Amgen, for example, traded at an average price-to-earnings multiple of 59 in 2000, compared with its current P/E ratio of 14.4 times expected 2013 earnings, according to Deutsche Bank.

The question is how long the rally will continue.

Consensus estimates call for average combined annual earnings growth of 21 percent for biotechs in the next three years, compared with 9 percent for S&P 500 companies, according to Deutsche Bank.

"Biotech is both the worst business in the world and the best business in the world," Kaul said. "It is high risk ... but when you have a good business, there tends to be value there over long periods of time."

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London; Editing by Ed Tobin and Jan Paschal)

The Greek-born singer grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived in Paris in 1951, where he began to play guitar at nightclubs and met some of the period's best-known singers.

He was introduced to Edith Piaf in the late 1950s and started to write songs for the Parisian star, the most famous of which was "Milord" about a lower-class girl who falls in love with an upper-class British traveler.

Developing a reputation as a singer in his own right in the mid-1960s, the hirsute and heavily bearded Moustaki achieved fame with songs including the immigrant ballad "Le Meteque" and "Ma Liberte", a hymn to the 1960s free-living spirit.

Moustaki, a life-long advocate of left-wing causes, ended his singing career in 2009, later telling newspaper La Croix that he was suffering from an irreversible bronchial illness that made it impossible to carry on.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti hailed an "artist with convictions who conveyed humanist values... and a great poet", and Twitter was flooded with tributes to a singer who many said had defined their childhoods.

(Reporting By Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Paul Casciato)

reached the hardest-hit neighborhoods of Moore this afternoon as lightning and hail continued to batter the devastated city. The survey process is subjective, but team members rely on a checklist of 28 tornado damage indicators to estimate wind speeds and the degree of damage.

The National Weather Service's (NWS) four survey teams also found several areas of damage rated as EF-4 along the tornados path, according to the Facebook page of the NWS office in Norman, Okla. The preliminary ranking could still be revised in the coming days, as crews continue to assess the damage.

Tornadoes are ranked on the . An EF-0 rating is reserved for minor damage, and an EF-5 is considered the most severe, with winds topping 200 mph (322 km/h).

The Moore tornado excavated a path up to 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) wide along a 17-mile-long (27 km) stretch of central Oklahoma, the NWS said. The twister touched down 4.4 miles (7.1 km) east of Newcastle at 2:45 p.m. CDT and ended 4.8 miles (7.7 km) east of Moore, a southern suburb of Oklahoma City, at 3:35 p.m. CDT. []

At first, the tornado caused little damage on the ground. But the storm ramped up quickly, intensifying to EF-4 levels in about 10 minutes and in just about 4 miles (6.4 km), the NWS said. The storm , with winds of up to 200 mph (322 km/h) by Interstate 44 near Moore.

There have been 58 F5 or EF-5 tornadoes in the United States since 1950, according to the NWS. The rating scale was updated in 2007 to more closely align wind speeds with storm damage.

The United States has more than 1,000every year, and only 1 percent of those ever reach EF-5 strength, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

"In any given year, you will have maybe a dozen EF-4s and maybe one EF-5," said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and science writer for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

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And he was hardly alone.

The Cleveland Indians somehow pulled out a game they had no business winning.

"Best game I've ever been a part of," said Perez. "It was the craziest, most fun ... obviously, it stunk to give up a home run, but it was still fun."

Yan Gomes hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning as the Indians, revived by Seattle fielding errors in the final two innings, beat the Mariners 10-8 on Monday to complete a four-game sweep and continue a season that's shaping into one to remember in Cleveland.

Gomes, who also homered in the second, drove a 3-2 pitch from Charlie Furbush (0-3) over the wall in left, giving the Indians their fifth straight win, third walk-off over the Mariners in four days, and one of the most improbable victories in memory.

As Gomes reached the plate, he was mobbed by his teammates following the comeback that became necessary after Cleveland's bullpen gave up homers in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings.

"You don't look up very often and see your opponent score three straight innings and you win," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "That was interesting."

Incredible, really.

It was the Indians' first four-game sweep of Seattle since 1981, and the rally gave Cleveland its 18th win in 22 games.

Joe Smith (2-0) won despite giving up a go-ahead homer to Justin Smoak in the 10th and the Indians improved to a major league-best 21-7 since April 20.

Ryan Raburn hit a three-run homer for Cleveland, which opened a 2 1-2 game lead over the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. The teams play a two-game series starting Tuesday.

The Mariners got a tying homer by Kyle Seager in the eighth off Vinnie Pestano and a go-ahead shot by pinch-hitter Endy Chavez in the ninth off Perez, but couldn't close it out because of their own miscues.

"It was another weird game," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. "We're just on the south side of things right now."

The Indians were an out away from losing in the ninth when Seattle closer Tom Wilhelmsen dropped an underhanded toss while covering first, allowing the Indians to tie it at 7.

After Smoak homered in the 10th, the Indians were three outs away from losing when the Mariners helped them again.

Michael Brantley singled and Drew Stubbs followed with a bunt that Furbush, seeking his first career save, fielded but bobbled. The left-hander rushed his throw to first and would have had Stubbs umpire Tim Timmons called him out but Smoak dropped the ball.

Gomes then delivered his game-winning homer, taking an unexpected trip around the bases after it looked as if the Indians were finished.

"Moments like that, you just want to get back to your teammates," said Gomes, "just run around and make sure you don't miss a base. It was exciting. You just don't know what to do with your hands. I was like, 'Wow, this game's done.'"

It was another sign of resiliency by the Indians.

"You're supposed to play 'til they send you home," Francona said. "It's a good feeling. Once you do it a few times I think that breeds some confidence. Whether it's picking each other up,it's getting contagious, and that's good."

The final three innings bordered on the absurd as the Mariners took the lead only to give it away with bone-headed plays.

"We kept coming back and kept taking the lead," Wedge said. "We weren't able to make plays or make pitches when we needed to late. We weren't able to finish things off."

Wilhelmsen's error in the ninth not only cost the Mariners a certain win, but it allowed Perez to escape a loss after he gave up the homer to Chavez. It was another bad outing for Perez, who allowed back-to-back homers in the ninth on Saturday but wound up getting a win.

"I didn't my job today, but you can't feel sorry for yourself or hang your head," said Perez, who has managed to keep his sense of humor despite the rough outings. The only runs I've given up this year have been solo home runs. Maybe if I can walk the leadoff hitter, we'd be all right."

With Seattle trailing 6-5 in the eighth, Seager homered off Pestano, who recently came off the disabled list, into the Mariners' bullpen for his fifth homer.

The Indians took a 6-5 lead in the seventh off Yoervis Medina without hitting the ball beyond the infield grass. Starter Hisashi Iwakuma was tagged by the Indians for five runs in four innings, but the right-hander settled in and retired the final seven hitters he faced. He gave up seven hits and struck out six in six innings.

Indians starter Scott Kazmir didn't get out of the fourth as the teams combined for 10 runs and 14 hits through four innings. Raburn and Gomes hit back-to-back, two-out homers in the second, when the Indians caught a break to take a 4-2 lead.

With Carlos Santana on with a one-out double, Mark Reynolds just missed a homer, flying out to the track in left. Brantley walked and Raburn fell into an 0-2 hole and appeared to take strike three, but plate umpire Laz Diaz called Iwakuma's pitch a ball to give Raburn new life.

He made the most of it, connecting for his fifth homer to make it 3-2. Gomes followed with a shot onto the pedestrian porch in left.

NOTES:The Indians are 10-1 against the AL West. ... Indians RHP Brett Myers (elbow) will make his second rehab start on Wednesday at Double-A Akron. ... Indians RHP Justin Masterson was chosen AL pitcher of the week. He pitched 16 scoreless innings in wins over the Yankees and Mariners, allowing just seven hits and striking out 20. ... The Indians have won 13 of their last 15 at home.