Culture | Science Codex

Adolescents with unpopular names more prone to committing crime

Shippensburg, PA – January 28, 2009 – A new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly examined the relationship between first name popularity in adolescents and tendency to commit crime. Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity.

David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University analyzed state data by comparing the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population.

Tracking poultry litter phosphorus: Threat of accumulation?

MADISON, WI, JANUARY 26, 2009 – The Delmarva Peninsula, flanking the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, is home to some 600 million chickens. The resulting poultry manure and some of the chicken house bedding material is usually composted and then spread onto croplands as a fertilizer.

Ancient wounds reveal Triceratops battles

Claremont, CA – How did the dinosaur Triceratops use its three horns? A new study published in the open-access, peer reviewed journal PLoS ONE and led by Andrew Farke, curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, located on the campus of The Webb Schools, shows that the headgear was not just for looks. Battle scars on the skulls of Triceratops preserve rare evidence of Cretaceous-era combat.

Substantial work ahead for water issues, say scientists at ACS' Final Report briefing

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2009 — Scientists and engineers will face a host of obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water to millions of people caught up in a water shortage crisis, a panel of scientists and engineers said today at a briefing at the Broadcast Center of the National Press Building on the Final Report on the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

Big cats, wild pigs and short-eared dogs -- oh, my!

NEW YORK (January 27, 2009) -- The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released photos today from the first large-scale census of jaguars in the Amazon region of Ecuador—one of the most biologically rich regions on the planet.

The ongoing census, which began in 2007, is working to establish baseline population numbers as oil exploration and subsequent development puts growing pressure on wildlife in Ecuador's Yasuni National Park and adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve. Together, these two protected areas make up some 6,500 square miles (16,800 square kilometers) of wilderness.

Penn study identifies how ebola virus avoids the immune system

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus. Using a cell culture model for Ebola virus infection, they have discovered that the virus disables a cellular protein called tetherin that normally can block the spread of virus from cell to cell.

Researchers find lack of trust in leaders, institutions is major factor in US economic crisis

CHICAGO (Jan. 27, 2009) - As unemployment rates rise, the housing crisis deepens and 401Ks continue to deplete, it should come as no surprise that America's trust of its financial leaders and institutions has plummeted. To study the financial implications of eroding trust, Paola Sapienza (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University) and Luigi Zingales (University of Chicago Booth School of Business) have created the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index, publishing the first wave of results today.

Nuclear fusion-fission hybrid could contribute to carbon-free energy future

AUSTIN, Texas--Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants.

The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal.

Ethical evaluations of nanotechnology

Washington, DC – Recent action in Congress to reauthorize the U.S. federal nanotechnology research program offers the chance to address the social and ethical issues concerning the emerging scientific field, experts say.

New liquefaction hazard maps of Santa Clara Valley, Northern California

New hazard maps for communities from San Jose to Palo Alto in NorthernCalifornia delineate the probability of earthquake-induced liquefaction,based on three scenarios: a magnitude 7.8 on the San Andreas Faultcomparable to the 1906 event, a magnitude 6.7 on the Hayward Faultcomparable to the 1868 event, and a magnitude 6.9 on the CalavarasCalaveras Fault.

UH survey finds steady participation in Texas lottery

More often it's a man, spending about $15 a month, most likely in Victoria.

Participation in the Texas Lottery games remains steady from last year, according to the latest demographic survey conducted by the University of Houston Center for Public Policy (CPP). Participation rates had been on the downswing since 2005.

Substance use common among patients with TB, associated with treatment difficulties

About one in five U.S. tuberculosis patients reports abusing alcohol or using illicit drugs, and those who do appear more contagious and difficult to treat, according to a report in the January 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

How does a dog walk? Surprisingly, many of us don't really know

Despite the fact that most of us see our four-legged friends walking around every day, most of us-including many experts in natural history museums and illustrators for veterinary anatomy text books-apparently still don't know how they do it. A new study published in the January 27th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that anatomists, taxidermists, and toy designers get the walking gait of horses and other quadruped animals wrong about half the time.

'Happiness gap' in the US narrows

Happiness inequality in the U.S. has decreased since the 1970s, according to research published this month in the Journal of Legal Studies.

The study, by University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, found that the American population as a whole is no happier than it was three decades ago. But happiness inequality—the gap between the happy and the not-so-happy—has narrowed significantly.

A little parity is a good thing: You don't always have to be the best

We are all used to advertisers showing their products as superior among competitors. But a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that it's not a bad idea for marketers to offer comparisons that show their brand is equal to the competitor in some dimensions—parity information.

In fact, authors Prashant Malaviya (Georgetown University) and Brian Sternthal (Northwestern University) discovered that offering parity information in the right dose can positively affect consumers' attitudes toward products.