The Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies posted its assessment of 800 health claims earlier this week, including some from manufacturers whose products include so-called functional ingredients like probiotics, which are food additives proponents claim can stimulate the immune system to aid digestion or inhibit pathogens.

In the first study designed to show how much dogs 'prefer' their owners, scientists say they have also shown just how much dogs rely on seeing their owners faces in order to recognize them.The researchers writing in the journal Animal Behaviour measured how much dogs prefer to gaze at and follow their owners, rather than a stranger and described how dogs had difficulty recognizing their human "best friend" when the person had their face covered.

In a move designed to help revive the tradition of taking a nap after lunch, Spain's first national siesta championship is underway in Madrid.Participants are monitored as they lie down for a 20-minute nap and they have pulse monitors attached to their bodies.   A maximum of 20,000 points is awarded to those who manage to sleep for the full 20 minutes and sleeping fewer minutes means fewer points but judges also award marks for original sleeping positions, the loudest snore and the most eye-catching outfits.AFP

Talk of significant cuts in the UK's science budget had some researchers in the country worried about a "brain drain" of researchers to other countries but the government has sent a signal to scientists and engineers in the UK that research is still a priority - sort of. Genomeweb has the details.

Autism was described as early as 1940 but only recently has there been a marked increase in the diagnosis of the broader class of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) - one in 110 children in 2006 and that diagnosis increased at an average annual rate of 57% between 2002 and 2006.

The escalating health care expenditures associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has the health community concerned.

If you are increasingly concerned about the numerous "connect to Facebook" links on too many websites to count (not here, but if you want to put this article on your Facebook page, by all means do so) or you don't feel like the vaguely creepy guy running it has the best interests of members in mind and shouldn't have your web browsing data, a Google engineer is here for you.

NPR news analyst Juan Williams gets nervous about people who put religion before anything - it's a sentiment shared by most of the progressives who listen to taxpayer-funded National Public Radio - but he was wrong to say it, according to NPR, so they fired him.It isn't just conservatives who are siding with freedom of speech over political correctness - though Whoopi Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly on the same side is a rarity.

Should tax dollars for a state school be used to solicit votes for a political party?   If you think it's illegal and unethical, you're right.   State school employees in the student affairs division at Winston-Salem State University didn't think that applied to elections where it's this important so 6,400 staffers and students got an email requesting that they help Democrats as much as possible and take advantage of early voting available there.

Okay, you may not have thought much of Penthouse but Bob Guccione, Sr. was a fan of science also - like many successful people of his day, he was a geek who made money one way and used it to finance things he loved, like science and science fiction.   One of those things that contained both was OMNI, a curious hybrid.While OMNI never made any money, he financed it for 16 years.

As Halloween approaches, tales of monsters and creepy crawlies abound. Among the most fearsome in places like Mexico and Puerto Rico is the legendary beast known as the chupacabras. But the real fiend is not the hairless, fanged animal purported to attack and drink the blood of livestock; it's a tiny, eight-legged creature that turns a healthy, wild animal into a chupacabras, says University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor.