Culture | Page 2848 | Science Codex

Dinosaur whodunit: Solving a 77-million-year-old mystery

It has all the hallmarks of a Cretaceous melodrama. A dinosaur sits on her nest of a dozen eggs on a sandy river beach. Water levels rise, and the mother is faced with a dilemma: Stay or abandon her unhatched offspring to the flood and scramble to safety?

Seventy-seven million years later, scientific detective work conducted by University of Calgary and Royal Tyrrell Museum researchers used this unique fossil nest and eggs to learn more about how nest building, brooding and eggs evolved. But there is a big unresolved question: Who was the egg-layer?

MIT analysis shows how cap-and-trade plans can cut greenhouse emissions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Researchers at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research have produced a report concerning key design issues of proposed "cap-and-trade" programs that are under consideration in the United States as a way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The first contribution of the three-part study found that, based on an examination of the European Union's system and of similar U.S. programs for other emissions, such a program can indeed be effective in reducing emissions without having a significant economic impact.

Fish choose their leaders by consensus

Just after Americans have headed to the polls to elect their next president, a new report in the November 13th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveals how one species of fish picks its leaders: Most of the time they reach a consensus to go for the more attractive of two candidates.

How household bleach works to kill bacteria

Despite the fact that household bleach is commonly used as a disinfectant, exactly how it works to fight bacteria remained an open question. Now, a report in the November 14th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, provides an answer.

New evidence for homeopathy

The two new studies reconstructed the Lancet review and the main conclusions of that reconstruction are:

Quality, quantity lacking in children's educational TV, study says

Commercial broadcasters are doing the "bare minimum and not much more" for children's educational programming, according to University of Illinois communication professor Barbara Wilson, one of two lead researchers on a study released today (Nov. 12) by the organization Children Now.

The study was presented at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The mixed legacies of Ronald Reagan

Fairfax, Virginia – November 12, 2008 – Ronald Reagan became one of history's heroes long before his death. But now his accomplishments are in danger of being oversimplified and distorted for partisan purposes. In a new article in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Hugh Heclo illustrates the deeper complexity of Reagan's legacy under eight headings of public concern: the Welfare State, Taxation, National Security, the Presidency, Personnel, Party Politics, Political Leadership, and the Person.

Mandatory HPV vaccination is unwarranted and unwise

Washington, D.C. – November 12, 2008 – The HPV vaccine, sold as Gardasil in the U.S., is intended to prevent four strains of the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world. The vaccine also prevents against cervical cancer. While the vaccine represents a significant public health advance, a new article in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics suggests that it is premature for states to currently mandate the HPV vaccine as a condition for school attendance.

Shifts in soil bacterial populations linked to wetland restoration success

DURHAM, N.C. -- A new study led by Duke University researchers finds that restoring degraded wetlands -- especially those that had been converted into farm fields -- actually decreases their soil bacterial diversity.

But that's a good thing, say the study's authors, because it marks a return to the wetland soils' natural conditions.

Global warming link to amphibian declines in doubt

Evidence that global warming is causing the worldwide declines of amphibians may not be as conclusive as previously thought, according to biologists. The findings, which contradict two widely held views, could help reveal what is killing the frogs and toads and aid in their conservation.

"We are currently in the midst of a sixth mass extinction event," said Peter Hudson, the Willaman professor of biology at Penn State and co-author of the research study. "And amphibians are bearing the brunt of the problem."

Improved spectrometer based on nonlinear optics

Scientists at Stanford University and Japan's National Institute of Informatics have created a new highly sensitive infrared spectrometer. The device converts light from the infrared part of the spectrum to the visible part, where the availability of superior optical detectors results in strongly improved sensing capabilities. The research will appear in the Nov. 24 issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's open access journal.

Over 50 percent of people with high blood pressure unaware they have condition

More than half of people diagnosed with high blood pressure do not have it under control and many more go undiagnosed, according to research carried out at the University of Warwick.

Professor Franco Cappuccio from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick led the only UK team to participate in a European study examining awareness, treatment and control of high blood pressure, or hypertension. Hypertension is an important cause of serious diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

UD researchers show that plants can accumulate nanoparticles in tissues

Researchers at the University of Delaware have provided what is believed to be the first experimental evidence that plants can take up nanoparticles and accumulate them in their tissues

The laboratory study, which involved pumpkin plants, indicates a possible pathway for nanoparticles to enter the food chain. The research also reveals a new experimental approach for studying nanoparticles and their potential impacts.

Fiddler crabs reveal honesty is not always the best policy

Dishonesty may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought. A team of Australian ecologists has discovered that some male fiddler crabs "lie" about their fighting ability by growing claws that look strong and powerful but are in fact weak and puny. Published this week in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, the study is the first direct evidence that crabs "bluff" about their fighting ability.

What happens in Vegas? Place as a risk factor for suicide

Every day 85 Americans die by suicide and hundreds of thousands more make attempts every year. The vast majority of recent studies on suicide have focused on identifying psychiatric risk factors. However, a new study by Temple University Sociology Professor Matt Wray, published online this month in Social Science and Medicine, explores time and place as factors in suicide by closely analyzing the patterns of suicide in a single geographic area—Las Vegas—over a 30 year period.