Culture

Almost a quarter of a million individuals addicted to heroin are incarcerated in the United States each year. However, many prison systems across the country still do not offer medical treatment for heroin and opiate addiction, despite the demonstrated social, medical, and economic benefits of opiate replacement therapy (ORT).

Should peer review detect fraud and misconduct? What does it do for science and what does the scientific community want it to do? Will it illuminate good ideas or shut them down? Should reviewers remain anonymous?

These questions are raised by one of the largest ever international surveys of authors and reviewers, the Peer Review Survey 2009, whose preliminary findings are released today.

The prestigious journal Energy Policy has recently reported two studies that highlight some key issues for the future of wind energy in Spain. A team of engineers from the University of Zaragoza believes it is "technically viable and economically reasonable" for wind energy to account for 30% of Spain's overall energy production. A report by two researchers from the University of Alcalá (UAH) and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), meanwhile, says the number of jobs generated by this sector in the European Union has increased by 226% since 2003.

There is more to life satisfaction than money, and public policy programs aiming to tackle poverty need to move beyond simply raising people's income to also improving their quality of life in other areas. These findings (1) by Professor Mariano Rojas from Mexico's Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales are published online in Springer's journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life.

HOUSTON—Urban residents across the United States have dug in to create green spaces in their neighborhoods, transforming vacant lots into colorful and crowd-pleasing community gardens. According to the American Community Gardening Association, there were an estimated 150,000 community gardens in the U.S. in 2004.

Consumption of contraband cigarettes amongst adolescent daily smokers in Canada accounts for 17% of all cigarettes smoked by this age group, and rises to more than 25% in Ontario and Quebec. This behaviour may be undermining tobacco-prevention strategies, as they focus on taxation and minimum age restrictions to curb and prevent smoking, states an article in CMAJ.

New research hints that the common belief that kids who go to daycare have lower rates of asthma and allergies later in life might be nothing more than wishful thinking. While young children in daycare definitely do get more illnesses and experience more respiratory symptoms as a result, any perceived protection these exposures afford against asthma and allergy seem to disappear by the time the child hits the age of eight.

Insects, such as some moths and fruit flies, react to microbial infection in the same way as mammals and so can be used to test the efficiency of new drugs, thereby reducing the need for animal testing. Dr Kevin Kavanagh from the National University of Ireland – Maynooth, presented his research findings at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, today (8 September).

PHILADELPHIA – Colorectal cancer screening rates are much lower among those in a safety net health system compared to the national average, and the number one predictor of screening is a combination of regular visits and insurance access.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States behind lung cancer. Nearly 50,000 Americans will die from colorectal cancer this year. Although scientists have differing opinions on the best method, the benefits of early screening are beyond debate — cancers caught early are easier to manage and treat.

Bacteria that manufacture hydroxyapatite (HA) could be used to make stronger, more durable bone implants. Professor Lynne Macaskie from the University of Birmingham this week (7-10 September) presented work to the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

New research from Northumbria University claims that homicide rates are closely linked to the form of political economy that runs a nation.

Senior Lecturers, Dr Steve Hall and Dr Craig McLean, state in the latest Theoretical Criminology that homicide rates are significantly higher in nations with neo-liberal policies and where free market forces are dominant, such as the USA, but are significantly lower in nations governed by social-democratic policies which still characterize most Western European nations.

An Australian study of families with genetic risk of bowel cancer has found that 50 percent of participants declined genetic testing when informed of insurance implications.

"This indicates that people have a significant fear of insurance discrimination which impacts their decision to have potentially life saving genetic testing," says co-lead author Dr Louise Keogh, of the University of Melbourne's Key Centre for Women's Health in Society.

Chimpanzees in the Congo have developed specialized "tool kits" to forage for army ants, reveals new research published Sept. 3 in the American Journal of Primatology. This not only provides the first direct evidence of multiple tool use in this context, but suggests that chimpanzees have developed a sustainable way of harvesting food.

Five million students will return to Canadian schools this month. If nothing changes at least a million will fail to graduate high school.

The fact that children who do not read well by the end of Grade 3 are at risk of dropping out or failing to graduate is one of the grim conclusions made in a report released by the Canadian Education Statistics Council.

The public health measures taken in response to swine flu may be seen as alarmist, overly restrictive, or even unjustified, says a US expert in a paper published on bmj.com today.

Peter Doshi, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argues that our plans for pandemics need to take into account more than the worst case scenarios, and calls for a new framework for thinking about epidemic disease.