News Articles

After reaching a high-water mark in 2006, when media talking points were portrayed by journalists as settled science prior to the actual IPCC reports in 2007, people have steadily lost interest in climate change since then.
There is an upside to that. Scandals like ClimateGate didn't damage public support. The bad thing remains that all of the new evidence for climate change isn't helping either. The public in the middle is simply numb and then people on the sides are entrenched.

Antibiotics for acute bronchitis don't work. 
Yet despite clear evidence of ineffectiveness, guidelines and more than 15 years of educational efforts stating that the antibiotic prescribing rate for acute bronchitis should be zero, the rate was about 70 percent from 1996-2010 and increased during this time period, according to a study in the May 21 issue of JAMA.

In Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic novel Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
Over the years, evolutionary biologists have used the Red Queen's statement to refer to the "Red Queen" hypothesis, which describes how living organisms, including humans, manage to survive in a changing environment by adapting through sexual reproduction. According to a University of Iowa researcher, the hypothesis is supported.
In a new paper, lead author Deanna Soper, assistant professor at Beloit College and colleagues write about testing a version of the Red Queen hypothesis.

A large study may upend our understanding of vitamin E, a vital antioxidant, and ties the increasing consumption of supposedly healthy vitamin E-rich oils such as canola, soybean and corn  to the rising incidence of lung inflammation and, possibly, asthma. 
The different health effects of vitamin E depend on its form. The form of Vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol in the ubiquitous soybean, corn and canola oils is associated with decreased lung function in humans, the study reports. The other form of Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, which is found in olive and sunflower oils, does the opposite. It's associated with better lung function. 

Oil and gas development from shale fields leads to high-paying jobs and a boost to property taxes, sales taxes and state-collected severance taxes or fees. Do they outweigh the increased costs related to road damage heavy truck traffic, water and sewer service expansion, government staffing and other needs brought on by rapid population growth?
An analysis of data from communities surrounding 10 oil and gas "plays" from September 2013 through February 2014, in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming found that the net impact of recent oil and gas development has been positive for local public finances.

Reducing medical resident duty hours may have unforeseen consequences; changes must be made carefully and evaluated rigorously to ensure patient safety and resident well-being, according to an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Canada's National Steering Committee on Resident Duty Hours recently released recommendations to help inform a discussion on the issue. The United States and Quebec have reduced resident duty hours because of concerns over patient safety and resident quality of life. Residents in Quebec now cannot work more than 16 hours in hospital, compared with about 24 hours in the rest of Canada plus 2 hours for handover of patient care information.

A study led by scientists from the Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy) involving researchers from the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM, CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), has determined that fishing trawling causes intensive, long-term biological desertification of the sedimentary seabed ecosystems, diminishing their content in organic carbon and threatening their biodiversity.

The first "Global Matrix" using
nine indicators
of children's physical activity has ranked video game-obsessed Scots among the least active in the world.

For several decades, there has been speculation about the formation of the enigmatic, vegetation-free circles frequently found in certain African grassland regions.
Now researchers have tested different prevailing hypotheses as to their respective plausibility. For the first time they have carried out a detailed analysis of the spatial distribution of these fairy circles – and discovered a remarkably regular and spatially comprehensive homogenous distribution pattern.
This may best be explained by way of reference to local resource-competition for water among plants and vegetation, the team now reports in the scientific journal Ecography.

Using artificial intelligence, computational geometry and geo/ultrasound techniques, a project begun in 2009 at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) have a success to report - a device to help people with low vision or blindness to navigate more easily.The new navigation device consists of glasses with stereo sound sensors, GPS technology and a tablet, which guides the blind person to a specific point and avoids hitting static or moving obstacles - but it also recognizes currency of various denominations and the color of clothing. No more crazy plaids and stripes, no chance of getting cheated in a store.

The laws of physics are absolute - in theory.  And with an exception. So absolute doesn't always mean what we think it means.How heat and temperature related to energy, the laws of thermodynamics, seem to violate the laws of physics theoretically. But now they theoretically don't. A paper recently published in EPJ B discussed a theoretical model of the environment's influence on a particle does not violate the third law of thermodynamics, despite appearances to the contrary. These findings are relevant for systems at the micro or nanometer scale that are difficult to decouple from the heat or the quantum effects exerted by their environment.

She will tell you it doesn't matter. But it does, men. It does.Up to a third of all men have had premature ejaculation - it's all good for them, but a University of Zurich sex researcher says curtailed sexual intercourse without climaxing can be more frustrating for women. Or less. It depends. Women are complicated that way..Premature ejaculation in men can causes increased psychological strain and stress in women, according to the survey conducted by Andrea Burri, a clinical psychologist at the University of Zurich,  but if men are focused too heavily on controlling ejaculation, they ignore the sexual needs of women and are unable to cater to their individual desires, which can seriously jeopardize the relationship.  See? Complicated.