Culture | Science Codex

Racing cane toads reveals they get cold feet on Southern Australia invasion

Cane toads weren't allowed to compete in the Olympics, but scientists have raced cane toads in the laboratory and calculated that they would not be able to invade Melbourne, Adelaide or Hobart and are unlikely to do well in Perth or Sydney, even with climate change.

According to research by Dr Michael Kearney, from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, and collaborators from Australia and the USA, the cane toad's march will grind to a halt once it is physically too cold for the toads to hop.

New LIDAR system sees the sky in 3-D

and German.

On August 26, EPFL, the Swiss National Science Foundation and Switzerland's National Weather service, MeteoSwiss, will inaugurate a new LIDAR measurement system in Payerne, Switzerland. This technically innovative installation, unique in the world, will provide continuous data on atmospheric humidity for Western Switzerland's weather forecasting headquarters.

Fingerprint analysis technique could be used to identify bombmakers

University of Leicester experts have held discussions with military personnel in Afghanistan following the discovery of new technology to identify fingerprints on metal.

Dr John Bond, a forensic research scientist at the University of Leicester and scientific support manager at Northamptonshire Police, has worked with a team from the University Department of Chemistry to develop the novel technique.

Tobacco control programs reduce health-care costs

Tobacco control programs not only reduce smoking, but reduce personal health care costs as well, says new research published in PLoS Medicine by Stanton Glantz and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco.

K-State research shows consumers can predict inflation as well as professional economists

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- When it comes to predicting the rate of inflation, professional economists might tell consumers, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Research by a Kansas State University professor shows that household surveys predict the inflation rate fairly accurately and as well as professional economists. The pros employ statistics like the unemployment rate, money supply growth and exchange rate changes. Consumers participating in surveys are more likely to think about how much they spent at the grocery store that week.

Rice University study: Americans need to save paycheck to paycheck

Americans are better at saving money when they set goals in the near future -- such as next month -- rather than the more distant future, according to a new study by researchers at Rice University and Old Dominion University. The study was presented this month at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

75 percent of athletes' parents let their child skip exams for a game

Three quarters of parents of young athletes let their child forgo an exam for an important game, a new study conducted at the University of Haifa has found. In comparison, only 47% of parents of young musicians will agree to their child choosing a performance over an exam. "Parents usually don't understand their role in the course of their child's career development, and cross the line between involvement and intervention," the study's authors said.

Future for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution

Amid mounting agreement that future clean, "carbon-neutral", energy will rely on efficient conversion of the sun's light energy into fuels and electric power, attention is focusing on one of the most ancient groups of organism, the cyanobacteria. Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade understanding the fundamental reaction of photosynthesis that evolved in cyanobacteria 3.7 billion years ago, which for the first time used water molecules as a source of electrons to transport energy derived from sunlight, while converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.

The impact of computing on scientific advancement

A new report from the National Research Council, THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF HIGH-END COMPUTING ON FOUR FIELDS OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, looks at scientific advances that could be achieved using high-end computing. The report – which focuses on the fields of astrophysics, atmospheric science, chemical separations, and evolutionary biology – identifies major scientific questions that will require high-end computing to address. The report also describes the requirements needed to address these questions and discusses the ramifications of postponing the use of high-end computing.

The big gulp: consumers avoid extremes in soda sizes

As portion sizes have increased, Americans' waistlines have expanded. And as a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research demonstrates, consumers are tricked into drinking more soft drinks when retailers eliminate small drink sizes.

No matter what the volume of the soft drink, customers tend to avoid the largest and smallest options, according to authors Kathryn M. Sharpe, Richard Staelin, and Joel Huber (all Duke University). "Our basic premise is that consumer purchases are altered by the portfolio of drink sizes made available," the authors explain.

Low-income? No car? Expect to pay more for groceries

Households located in poor neighborhoods pay more for the same items than people living in wealthy ones, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Public involvement usually leads to better environmental decision making

WASHINGTON -- When done correctly, public participation improves the quality of federal agencies' decisions about the environment, says a new report from the National Research Council. Well-managed public involvement also increases the legitimacy of decisions in the eyes of those affected by them, which makes it more likely that the decisions will be implemented effectively. Agencies should recognize public participation as valuable to their objectives, not just as a formality required by the law, the report says.

GOCE Earth explorer satellite to look at the Earth's surface and core

The European Space Agency is about to launch the most sophisticated mission ever to investigate the Earth's gravitational field and to map the reference shape of our planet – the geoid - with unprecedented resolution and accuracy.

The challenge of paying for quality nursing care

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, and Washington, DC – (August 21, 2008) It costs money to improve the quality of nursing care through work environment changes or increases in staffing but those costs may be offset through improved nursing satisfaction and patient outcomes, according to research in a Special Issue of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice published by SAGE.

UTMB researchers test new vaccine to fight multiple influenza strains

GALVESTON, Texas — A universal vaccine effective against several strains of influenza has passed its first phase of testing, according to Dr. Christine Turley of the University of Texas at Galveston.

Turley, who is director of clinical trials and clinical research at the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at UTMB and the study's principal investigator, said that VaxInnate's M2e universal vaccine could possibly protect against seasonal and pandemic influenza strains.