Culture | Page 2556 | Science Codex

U-M experts: Parents trust doctors most when it comes to information about vaccine safety

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Most parents get their information about vaccines from their children's doctors, but some also consider public health officials, other parents, friends and family members and even celebrities as sources of vaccine information.

These are the results of a national survey conducted by University of Michigan researchers to determine how much parents trust different sources of information in regards to vaccines, as well as to determine what disseminating methods would be most effective for those distributing evidence-based information about vaccines.

Placing value, price on new drugs: The challenge facing new UK policy, say Hopkins bioethicists

The United States should pay close attention to how the United Kingdom carries out plans to assess a new drug's worth using factors that go beyond clinical and cost effectiveness, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Regular breakfast helps reduce lead poisoning in children

It is known that fasting increases lead absorption in adults and consequently regular meals and snacks are recommended for children to prevent lead poisoning. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health demonstrates that having a regular breakfast is associated with lower blood lead levels in children.

Archaeologists investigate Iraqi marshes for origins of Mesopotamian cities

Three National Science Foundation-supported researchers recently undertook the first non-Iraqi archaeological investigation of the Tigris-Euphrates delta in nearly 20 years. Archeologists Jennifer Pournelle and Carrie Hritz, with geologist Jennifer Smith, carried out the study late last year to look for links between wetland resources and the emergence of Mesopotamian cities.

Microreactors: Small scale chemistry could lead to big improvements for biodegradable polymers

Using a small block of aluminum with a tiny groove carved in it, a team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University is developing an improved "green chemistry" method for making biodegradable polymers. Their recently published work* is a prime example of the value of microfluidics, a technology more commonly associated with inkjet printers and medical diagnostics, to process modeling and development for industrial chemistry.

University presidents, senators discuss importance of scientific research to economy

Washington, DC – University leaders and U.S. Senators gathered for a roundtable discussion today at the Capitol on the vital role university-based scientific research plays in fueling innovation and sparking economic growth.

Getting closer to a better biocontrol for garden pests

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have found strains of bacteria that could one day be used as environmentally friendly treatments to keep caterpillars and other pests out of gardens and cultivated fields.

Researchers need to engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transginder populations in health studies

WASHINGTON — Researchers need to proactively engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in health studies and collect data on these populations to identify and better understand health conditions that affect them, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The scarcity of research yields an incomplete picture of LGBT health status and needs, which is further fragmented by the tendency to treat sexual and gender minorities as a single homogeneous group, said the committee that wrote the report.

Studies give growers tools to bring new tropical plant to Indiana

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have developed a set of propagation and production protocols that will help Indiana greenhouse growers bring a tropical plant into flower for spring sales.

Superwoman: A hard act to follow

Exposure to attractive, aggressive, female leads in films affects how men and women think about who women ought to be in the real world. Women in particular have high standards for other women, and expect them to be both stereotypically feminine and masculine i.e. beautiful and aggressive rather than beautiful and passive. That's according to new research by Laramie Taylor and Tiffany Setters, from the University of California, Davis in the US, published online in Springer's Sex Roles journal.

IU informaticists uncover online security flaws, receive free products

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Internet security researchers at Indiana University and Microsoft Research have exploited software flaws in leading online stores that use third-party payment services PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout to receive products for free or at prices far below the advertised purchase price.

Electronic faucets unsafe for use in high-risk patient hospital settings

Dallas, TX (March 31, 2011) – Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have determined that electronic faucets are more likely to become contaminated with unacceptably high levels of bacteria, including Legionella spp., compared with traditional manually operated faucets. The study will be presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

Archaeologists explore Iraqi marshes for origins of urbanization

The first non-Iraqi archaeological investigation of the Tigris-Euphrates delta in 20 years was a preliminary foray by three women who began to explore the links between wetland resources and the emergence and growth of cities last year.

"Foreign investigations in Iraq stopped in the 1990s," said Carrie Hritz, assistant professor of anthropology, Penn State. "Iraqis continued research, but because their work is unpublished, we are unsure of where they surveyed."

Overscheduled children and adolescents

Popular books and media reports have perpetuated the belief that children and adolescents are overscheduled in their extracurricular activities, and that this can disrupt how families function and undermine young people's opportunities for success. Although there is little empirical research to support this idea, some studies suggest a threshold effect in which the benefits of involvement stabilize or drop slightly after a certain point.

Warm water causes extra-cold winters in northeastern North America and northeastern Asia

PASADENA, Calif.—If you're sitting on a bench in New York City's Central Park in winter, you're probably freezing. After all, the average temperature in January is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But if you were just across the pond in Porto, Portugal, which shares New York's latitude, you'd be much warmer—the average temperature is a balmy 48 degrees Fahrenheit.