Culture

SPRINGFIELD, MO—The American elderberry is showing promise as a profitable commercial fruit crop. Traditionally used for making jelly, juice, and wine, elderberry is becoming increasing important in North America's burgeoning "nutraceutical" industry. Historically, elderberries have mostly been harvested from the wild; researchers have made recently made efforts to select or develop improved cultivars. Increased interest and emerging markets are encouraging scientists to develop improved elderberry cultivars that yield consistent, superior production.

Taking the pulse of coral reefs

Healthy reefs with more corals and fish generate predictably greater levels of noise, according to researchers working in Panama. This has important implications for understanding the behaviour of young fish, and provides an exciting new approach for monitoring environmental health by listening to reefs.

Washington, DC – In a presentation today at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference Health Braintrust meeting, Faina Shtern, M.D., president and CEO of AdMeTech Foundation, unveiled overwhelming support from Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members and patient advocacy organizations for the Prostate Research, Imaging, and Men's Education Act of 2010 (PRIME Act).

We are all scientists now, thanks to Galaxy Zoo, The Great Sunflower Project, Foldit and countless other projects that allow individuals to take part in scientific research directly or indirectly. In the case of something like SETI@home, users share computer CPU time with researchers whereas Galaxy Zoo is more about active involvement with the classification of stellar objects in images of the night sky, for instance.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The drug pazopanib may help revolutionize the care of patients with metastatic, rapidly progressive differentiated thyroid cancers, say researchers at Mayo Clinic who are publishing findings of a phase II clinical trial in The Lancet Oncology.

Teenagers are more sedentary on weekends

"A sedentary lifestyle has become one of the major public health problems in developed countries", Juan P. Rey-López, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR), tells SINC. "During the week, one-third of teenagers said the watched more than two hours of television per day. At weekends, this figure exceeds 60%".

As government support for personalized medicine grows, a consumer advocate, a patient, and bioethicists explore ethical controversies. Direct-to-consumer genetic tests, privacy, targeted cancer therapies, and Henrietta Lacks are among topics in the latest Hastings center Report

DALLAS – Sept. 17, 2010 – UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators have uncovered new insights on adolescent fighting: what triggers it, and how to stem it.

Varied real-life factors pile on daily to put teens on edge: destructive behaviors like drug abuse, drinking or high-risk sexual encounters; poverty; academic troubles; and even depression. Data analyzed by researchers at UT Southwestern suggests that when teens perceive support from their families and/or schools, it can help mitigate violence.

SEATTLE –Women are advancing further in school than at any time in recent history, a trend that is having a tremendous impact on child mortality, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Brussels, 16 September - More than 100 marine scientists, policy makers and members of industry unanimously call for action towards an integrated network of observatories monitoring Europe's seas, at the Marine Board-ESF Forum 'Towards a European Network of Marine Observatories'. This will give reliable, long-term data to underpin science and policy regarding the use of seas for fisheries, aquaculture, energy, shipping, as well as tourism and recreation.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have reported the successful loading of biological molecules onto "nanosprings" – a type of nanostructure that has gained significant interest in recent years for its ability to maximize surface area in microreactors.

The findings, announced in the journal Biotechnology Progress, may open the door to important new nanotech applications in production of pharmaceuticals, biological sensors, biomedicine or other areas.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---As another round of talks continues between Israelis and Palestinians, a new University of Michigan study documents the impact the violence has been inflicting on the region's children.

Palestinian and Israeli children not only suffer the direct physical consequences of violence, they are also being psychologically scarred by the high levels of violence they witness, according to the study, presented earlier this summer at the International Society for Research on Aggression.

Optical chip enables new approach to quantum computing

An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol has developed a new approach to quantum computing that could soon be used to perform complex calculations that cannot be done by today's computers.