Heavens

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Most Head Start classrooms serve children of mixed ages and that hurts the academic growth of older children, a new national study suggests.

Researchers found that 4-year-olds in Head Start classrooms that included higher concentrations of 3-year-olds were up to five months behind in academic development compared with their peers in classrooms with fewer younger children.

The results of an opportunistic, pilot-scale study led by Virginia Wotring of the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in the U.S. suggest that medication degradation on the International Space Station (ISS) does not differ from what is typically seen on Earth. The study, which used medicine samples sent back to Earth from the ISS, appears in The AAPS Journal, an official journal of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, published by Springer.

The results of an opportunistic, pilot-scale study led by Virginia Wotring of the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in the US suggest that medication degradation on the International Space Station (ISS) does not differ from what is typically seen on Earth. The study, which used medicine samples sent back to Earth from the ISS, appears in The AAPS Journal, published by Springer.

Astronomers have identified for the first time one of the key components of many stars, a study suggests.

A type of gas found in the voids between galaxies - known as atomic gas - appears to be part of the star formation process under certain conditions, researchers say.

The findings overturn a long-standing theory about the conditions needed for star formation to take place - a process that happens when dense clouds of dust and gas inside galaxies collapse.

Researchers at Mount Sinai Heart conducted a qualitative study to identify factors that may affect the implementation of an integrated family-based health promotion program for children aged 3-5 years old and their caregivers in Harlem, known as the FAMILIA Project. An abstract of the study was presented this week at the American Heart Association (AHA)'s Scientific Sessions 2015 in Orlando, Florida.

When sports fans wear their lucky shirts on game day, they know it is irrational to think clothing can influence a team's performance. But they do it anyway.

Even smart, educated, emotionally stable adults believe in superstitions that they recognize are unreasonable.

WASHINGTON --To prevent a single adverse drug event, one commercial electronic health record opioid warning system fired off 123 unnecessary and clinically inconsequential alerts, according to the results of a new study published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Clinically Inconsequential Alerts: The Characteristics of Opioid Drug Alerts and Their Utility in Preventing Adverse Drug Events in the Emergency Department").

Peering into darkness can strike fear into the hearts of some, but a new space telescope will soon peer into the darkness of "near space" (within a few thousand light years of Earth). Scientists are using the telescope to seek answers related to the field of high-energy astrophysics.

SAN FRANCISCO--Buried in the shallow soft mud of a dry California lake bed, a seismometer was able to detect the tiny tilts of the ground as it was pulled up by passing dust devils. The experiment, described online November 10 in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, is one of the first reports of a seismic signature from a dust devil.

An enduring astronomical mystery is how stars and galaxies acquire their magnetic fields. Physicists Jonathan Squire and Amitava Bhattacharjee at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found a clue to the answer in the collective behavior of small magnetic disturbances. In a paper published in October in Physical Review Letters, the scientists report that small magnetic perturbations can combine to form large-scale magnetic fields just like those found throughout the universe. This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science.

Boulder, Colo. - Nov. 9, 2015 - Scientists at Southwest Research Institute combined dynamical, thermal, and chemical models of the Moon's formation to explain the relative lack of volatile elements in lunar rocks. Lunar rocks closely resemble Earth rocks in many respects, but Moon rocks are more depleted in volatile elements like potassium, sodium, and zinc, which tend to have lower boiling points and vaporize readily.

Immersive media experiences that engage an audience's sense of touch are easier to create with the help of a new haptic design process, called tactile animation, developed by Disney Research.

The new process is akin to animation software, allowing the designer to focus on how a haptic effect will unfold over space and time rather than having to concentrate on individually controlling each actuator to create tactile feedback.

Running is one of the most popular sports. However, not many runners have received formal training on running. Associate Professor Shinichi YAMAGIWA of the University of Tsukuba and his colleagues have developed a system for improving running skills based on big data analysis.

Dr. YAMAGIWA, Associate Professor Yoshinobu KAWAHARA of Osaka University and Mizuno Corporation have jointly developed a technology that instructs the ideal running motions based on "big data of motions" collected by monitoring motions during running via sensors and videos.

The 1999 Odisha Cyclone struck the eastern coast of India, knocking out whole swaths of the Indian Railways Network, bringing the eastern IRN system to a halt. Cyclones Hudhud and Phailin caused similar mayhem in 2014 and 2013, while in 2012 power blackouts in northern and eastern India idled 300 intercity passenger trains and commuter lines. Closer to home, severe winter storms that hit Boston in 2014-2015 brought the MBTA mass-transit system to its knees.

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet Mars is today.