News Articles

A future episode of CSI or your favorite crime drama may have an interesting new way to establish time of death, thanks to the work of a team of researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela.   Based on the analysis of several substances from the vitreous humour of the eye of cadavers, they write in the journal Statistics in Medicine, they have developed a piece of software that makes it possible to establish precisely the post mortem interval (PMI), information that will make the work of the police and the courts of justice easier. 

The wild pea pod is big and heavy, with seemingly little prayer of escaping the shade of its parent plant.And yet, like a grounded teenager who knows where the car keys are hidden, it manages – if it has a reasonable chance of escape.University of Florida researchers working at the world's largest experimental landscape devoted to wildlife corridors – greenways that link woods or other natural areas — have discovered the pea and similar species share, given a clear shot, a mysterious ability for mobility. Though their seeds are neither dispersed by birds nor borne by the wind, they are nevertheless far more likely to slalom down corridors than slog through woods.

For the first time in Australia, scientists at Sydney's Centenary Institute have filmed an immune cell becoming infected by a parasite and followed the infection as it begins to spread throughout the body. Professor Wolfgang Weninger, head of the Immune Imaging program at the Centenary Institute, says the discovery was made possible using high powered multi-photon microscopy which allows real cells to be viewed in real time. 

Middle-aged men want younger women and don't mind talking about their own positive qualities to get them, according to research at Gothenburg University and Oxford University that studied 400 matchmaking ads to see how men and women choose partners.There's no shortage of ideas about how men and women choose their partners. Among the more established myths is that men place more emphasis on attractive appearance, whereas resources and social status are more important to women.  By examining romantic advertisements, researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Oxford say they were able to test how valid these presumed preferences are when modern individuals choose partners.

Four living presidential science advisors, Democrats Drs. John H. Gibbons and Neal F. Lane and Republicans Drs. Edward E. David and John. P. McTague, have written an article called "Making a Critical Connection: Science Advice and the Next President", which highlights the need for the swift appointment of a science advisor whom President-elect Barack Obama trusts. 

In times of economic distress and plenty, ninety percent of Americans pray, more than half of us once a day or more. We pray for big things—to stay healthy, to keep our jobs, and to strengthen our relationships. And we pray for small things—to find parking spaces and missing items. Some of us are sure God exists and others pray simply to cover the bases. 

For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But new findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest body-shape comparisons don't completely explain risk.In two studies, they report excess liver fat appears to be the real key to insulin resistance, cholesterol abnormalities and other problems that contribute to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Having too much fat stored in the liver is known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide a unique insight into the windy atmosphere of our neighbouring planet and reveal that global patterns at the Venus cloud tops are the result of variable temperatures and cloud heights.Using the spacecraft's ultraviolet and infrared cameras, the Venus Express team, including UK scientists, have been able to compare what the planet looks like at different wavelengths, allowing them to study the physical conditions and dynamics of the planet's atmosphere. These results appear today (4th December) in the journal Nature.

Can radiation from cell phones affect memory?The debate continues but in rat experiments done at the Division of Neurosurgery, Lund University, in Sweden, Henrietta Nittby studied rats that were exposed to mobile phone radiation for two hours a week for more than a year and says these rats had poorer results on a memory test than rats that had not been exposed to radiation.The memory test consisted of releasing the rats in a box with four objects mounted in it. These objects were different on the two occasions, and the placement of the objects was different from one time to the other.

No one really feels left out if they don't have an iPod.  An MP3 player is nice to have but not essential to the human condition.   But Spanish researchers who have carried out a study looking into the potential future impact of robots on society say that the enormous automation capacity of robots and their ability to interact with humans will cause a technological imbalance over the next 12 years - between those who have them and those who do not.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) today released a comprehensive analysis clarifying major challenges and offering an assortment of options that could help negotiators reach a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions tied to forest destruction and degradation.
The report, Moving ahead with REDD: Issues, options and implications, is set to be released as officials from around the world have gathered here under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Negotiators are seeking to outline a new global agreement for reducing greenhouse gases, which will set the stage for final decisions scheduled for 2009 in Copenhagen.

If you're happy and you know it, thank your friends—and their friends. And while you're at it, their friends' friends. But if you're sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego have found that "happiness" is not the result solely of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques. Happiness is also a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion.