Livewire

Lady Gaga is now a plant. Duke University,US,announced it was naming a newly identified genus of ferns and 19 species within that genusafter the pop singer. We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defence of equality and individual expression, says Kathleen Pryer,a professor of biology at Duke. The fern has somewhat …fluid definitions of gender, reproducing by spores that can grow into plants that may be male,female or bisexual. The University said a student analysing the ferns had found the sequence GAGA in its DNA base pairs.

Liz Taylor surpassed Michael Jackson as the highest-earning dead celebrity in the past year,with her estate pulling in 210 million,much of it from the auction of her jewels,costumes and artwork,Forbes said. Jackson,who died in 2009,dropped into second place with earnings of 145 million,followed by Elvis Presley with 55 million. The actress,who passed away in 2011 also earned 75 million from sales of her top selling perfume,White Diamonds. Films stars and musicians dominated the list but Albert Einstein tied with Marilyn Monroe for seventh place.

Pippa Middleton a paparazzi favourite,is already a global celebrity. Now the 29-year-old sister of the future British queen is aiming to become a global brand. She has written a recipe and party planning book,Celebrate: A Year of British Festivities for Families and Friends,which hits the shelves this week. Predictably,Middletons introductory comments have dominated the headlines. In them,she addresses her status as one of the worlds most photographed individuals,and even tackles the topic many people most closely associate her withher behind.