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Germany Applies Brakes to Google & Co.
12 03 2010 Sometimes it's a good thing to have at least one real enemy, particularly when you already have no friends. No one knows this better than Ilse Aigner. from Spiegel
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Thalidomide's Partner in Crime
12 03 2010 Thalidomide ranks as one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in modern history. Prescribed as an antinausea drug for pregnant women in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it caused severe birth defects in as many as 10,000 children before it was yanked from the market. Half a century later, scientists are still not sure exactly how the drug does so much damage, which includes shortened arms and legs, ear deformities, and malformations in the digestive system. from ScienceNOW Daily News
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Dogs That Detect Bedbugs
12 03 2010 Cruiser made four house calls on a recent rain-soaked Tuesday. There were two happy endings and two unhappy ones, a fairly typical outcome for a typical day in the life of a bedbug-sniffing puggle. from the New York Times (Registration Required)
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Novel TB Detector Could Shorten Testing Times
12 03 2010 Tuberculosis is a serious public health challenge in the developing world, where the infection claims roughly two million lives each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet the disease, which is a leading killer of patients with HIV/AIDS, is cumbersome to detect, resulting in delayed or inappropriate treatment, greater spread of the infection and preventable deaths. from Scientific American
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See-Through Vision Invented
12 03 2010 Scientists have figured out how "see" through opaque barriers by unscrambling what little light passes through. The reason you can't see through thin materials such as dry paint, eggshells, paper, or skin is because any light that manages to pass through them is scattered in complicated and seemingly random ways. from National Geographic News
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New National Math, English Standards Drafted
12 03 2010 SEATTLE (Associated Press) -- Math and English instruction in the United States moved a step closer to uniform--and more rigorous--standards Wednesday as draft new national guidelines were released. from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)
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CDC Used Frequent-Shopper Cards to Find Salmonella
12 03 2010 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (Associated Press) -- As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used a new tool for the first time--the frequent-shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe when they buy groceries. from USA Today
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Evolutionary Genetic Relationships Come into Focus
12 03 2010 Scientists are closer to unraveling the genetic pedigree of all backboned creatures, but the fish branches of the vertebrate family tree lack detail compared with those of flesh and fowl, a new analysis suggests. from Science News
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Invasive Heart Test May Be Overused, Researchers Say
12 03 2010 Nearly two-thirds of those who undergo an invasive heart test called cardiac catheterization when they do not have diagnosed heart disease receive a clean bill of health, suggesting that the expensive procedure--which exposes the patient to substantial amounts of radiation--may be overused, researchers reported Wednesday. from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
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Magnetic Flows Cause Sunspot Lows, Study Shows
12 03 2010 Newly reported observations of gas flows on the solar surface may explain why the sun recently had such an extended case of the doldrums. from Science News
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Few Studies Compare the Efficacy of Medical Treatments
11 03 2010 The forward momentum of medical progress is manifest, it could be argued, in the $50 billion spent in 2008 on pharmaceutical research and development in the quest to bring new drugs to market. But little scientific or governmental infrastructure exists to ensure that each new treatment is actually an improvement over existing therapies--and to tease out what therapies are best for which patients... from Scientific American
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Bottled Wind Could Be as Constant as Coal
11 03 2010 Wind power has made incredible inroads into the U.S. energy system thanks to big, efficient machines standing hundreds of feet tall. But the future of wind power may be underground... from Wired
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Keeping Tabs on Biological Clocks
11 03 2010 On Sunday, when daylight-saving time takes effect, people will spring forward to turn their alarm clocks ahead one hour. Adjustments to their biological clocks might take a bit longer... from the San Diego Union-Tribune (Registration Required)
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DNA From Eggshells Could Help Reconstruct Extinct Birds
11 03 2010 Scientists have collected DNA from the fossilised eggshells of birds that died hundreds and in some cases thousands of years ago. The oldest eggshell to yield DNA came from an Australian emu that died around 19,000 years ago. It is the first time that scientists have succeeded in extracting ancient DNA from the fossilised eggshells of a bird... from the Guardian (UK)
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UN to Review Errors made by Climate Panel
11 03 2010 The United Nations is to announce an independent review of errors made by its climate change advisory body in an attempt to restore its credibility... from the Times (London)
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Doctors Debate C-Section Options
11 03 2010 Many women who have had a C-section aren't encouraged to try vaginal delivery or are barred from it at smaller hospitals where surgeons and anesthesiologists aren't immediately on hand... from the Columbus Dispatch
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After Errors, Global Warming Gets a Cold Shoulder
11 03 2010 A series of highly publicized errors in a landmark report about manmade global warming--and lingering controversy over hacked e-mails between climate scientists--is eroding public confidence in the research and could further stall efforts in Congress to pass climate legislation... from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)
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Researchers Confirm Safety of Kidney Donations
11 03 2010 People who donate a kidney to a sick friend or relative live at least as long as others in the general population and may live somewhat longer because they tend to take better care of themselves after the procedure, researchers reported Tuesday... from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
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LHC to Shut Down for a Year to Address Design Faults
11 03 2010 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) must close at the end of 2011 for up to a year to address design issues, according to an LHC director. Dr Steve Myers told BBC News the faults will delay the machine reaching its full potential for two years. The atom smasher will reach world record collision energies later this month at 7 trillion electron volts... from BBC News Online
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Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome
11 03 2010 Two research teams have independently decoded the entire genome of patients to find the exact genetic cause of their diseases. The approach may offer a new start in the so far disappointing effort to identify the genetic roots of major killers like heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's... from the New York Times (Registration Required)
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Obama's Plans for NASA Changes Met With Harsh Criticism
10 03 2010 Harrison Schmitt's credentials as a space policy analyst include several days of walking on the moon. The Apollo 17 astronaut, who is also a former U.S. senator, is aghast at what President Obama is doing to the space program. "It's bad for the country," Schmitt said. "This administration really does not believe in American exceptionalism." from the Washington Post (Registration Required)
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Gene Linked to Pain Perception
10 03 2010 One form of a common genetic variant may ratchet up pain sensitivity in people who have it, researchers report online March 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery could lead to more powerful pain treatments that lack the debilitating side effects of current drugs... from Science News
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Not More Quakes, Just More People in Quake Zones
10 03 2010 (Associated Press) -- First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot. It's not... from the San Diego Union-Tribune (Registration Required)
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For Iran, Enriching Uranium Only Gets Easier
10 03 2010 In the Iranian desert, at a sprawling industrial site ringed by barbed wire and antiaircraft guns, a shift in the enrichment of uranium is producing global jitters because it could shorten Iran's path to the acquisition of nuclear weapons... from the New York Times (Registration Required)
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Centuries-Old Shipwrecks Found in Baltic Sea
10 03 2010 STOCKHOLM (Associated Press) -- A dozen centuries-old shipwrecks--some of them unusually well-preserved--have been found in the Baltic Sea by a gas company building an underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany... from the Seattle Times
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