News Articles

Based on past elections and economic factors, two professors at the University of Oregon predict that Senator Barack Obama will win the presidential election by a 52 to 48 margin.In the paper "A Disaggregate Approach to Economic Models of Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections: Forecasts of the 2008 Election," published in the Economics Bulletin, economic professors Stephen Haynes and Joe Stone's research shows that lowest-income states prefer McCain by 55.4 percent to 44.6 percent. Middle income states are almost evenly split between the two candidates and highest-income states prefer Obama by 53.3 percent to 46.65 percent.Haynes and Stone note in their research that the 52 to 48 margin in favor of Obama falls within the four-point range of statistical error.

If Barack Obama is elected president on Nov. 4, and current polling suggests that is the case, he will come into office with something few presidents get and all envy: both houses of Congress controlled by his own party. With Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the helm in the House, and Majority Leader Harry Reid presiding over what may be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Obama, Pelosi and Reid will be able to fundamentally change the size, nature and scope of government.

For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to Earth. The team of astronomers suspects the fireball dropped meteorites in a region north of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that may total as much as a few hundred grams in mass.The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. On Wednesday, October 15 at 5:28 a.m., all seven cameras of Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network recorded a bright, slow fireball in the predawn sky. 

Does your boss  feel like an environmentally aware entrepreneur?   If so, it might  be worth mentioning that business travel, conferences and meetings have an  effect on the environment.   Virtual participation is possible but computers, networks and the entire data infastructure consume massive amounts of power as well.What is needed is a way to quantify meetings in terms of energy use.   At a recent “Informatics Day at the Technopark Zurich" , a Microsoft booth allowed visitors were able to test how much CO2 they would save, if any, if they replaced a “real” meeting with a videoconference. Using life cycle analysis methods and the «ecoinvent» database, Empa researchers produced comparative data showing what environmental effects were created, and where.

Yesterday, the Zefiro 9-A motor successfully completed its first firing test at the Salto di Quirra Inter-force Test Range in Sardinia (Italy). This was the penultimate firing test for the engine prior to the Vega launcher’s qualification flight, scheduled to take place by the end of 2009. The Zefiro 9-A (Z9-A) solid-fuel rocket motor, which will power the Vega launch vehicle’s third stage, left the production facility of Avio, in Colleferro (Italy), at the end of September and was installed at the test site over the last three weeks.  

Does ice-cream actually taste better when it is licked from a cone than when eaten from a spoon?Massey food technology senior lecturer Kay McMath thinks so. Although she is not aware of any specific scientific evidence to prove it, she says “there are some physical and physiological reasons why there are likely to be differences in flavour”.“Flavour in ice cream is only released when the fat content – which carries the flavour – is warmed in the mouth to at least body temperature,” she says. “During licking, the tongue is coated with a thin layer of ice-cream which is more quickly warmed and the flavour is detected by the large surface area of the taste buds present on the tongue.”

Some animals live longer when raised on low-calorie diets but now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say that they can extend the life spans of roundworms even when the worms are well fed — it just takes a chemical that blocks their sense of smell.Three years ago, the researchers, led by Kerry Kornfeld, M.D., Ph.D., reported they found that a class of anticonvulsant medications made the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans live longer. But until now, they didn't quite know what the drugs did to give the worms their longevity.

The dense, hot, radioactive core of the Sun rotates significantly more slowly than the layer next to it, the radiative zone, a Stanford solar physicist has concluded. According to Peter Sturrock, professor emeritus of applied physics, the idea of a slower core has been hinted at before, but his paper published in the Astrophysical Journal provides for the first time a precise rotation rate. - The core spins round once every 28.4 days- The radiative zone rotates once every 26.9 days- The surface rotates faster still-once every 25.2 days.

Sneezing, runny nose and chills? You might blame the human rhinovirus (HRV), which causes 30 to 50 percent of common colds. But in reality, it's not the virus itself but HRV's ability to manipulate your genes that is the true cause of some of the most annoying cold symptoms. For the first time, researchers have shown that HRV hijacks many of your genes and causes an overblown immune response that ends up with your nose being overblown. The research, published in the first issue for November of the American Thoracic Society's clinical research journal, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, is the first study to comprehensively review gene changes caused by HRV. 

Learning a second language is usually difficult and often when we speak it we cannot disguise our origin or accent. However, there are important differences between individuals with regard to the degree to which a second language is mastered, even for people who have lived in a bilingual environment since childhood.

''Henry Grays Anatomy of the Human Body" - Gray's Anatomy, as it is commonly called, is among the most iconic scientific books ever published: an illustrated textbook of anatomy that is still a household name 150 years since its first edition, known for its rigorously scientific text and masterful illustrations as beautiful as they are detailed.First published under the title "Grays Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical" in 1858, Gray would not live to see its full impact.    He contracted smallpox from his nephew and died in 1861 at the age of 34.

China's farmers and merchants should take advantage of new agricultural and business opportunities that could help mitigate some effects of the annual flooding behind the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, according to an Ohio State University wetland expert.

The level of water in the reservoir behind the dam will top off at 575 feet above sea level during the coming winter. The reservoir pool, covering abandoned cities, houses and farm fields formerly populated by an estimated 1.5 million people, will extend over 400 square miles – equivalent to the land area of Hong Kong.