Culture

When three undergraduates set off on an expedition in 1965 to trap moths on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, little did they realise that they were establishing the groundwork for a study of the impacts of climate change.

New research led by the University of York has repeated the survey 42 years later, and found that, on average, species had moved uphill by about 67 metres over the intervening years to cope with changes in climate.

IT has 20 per cent of the world's population with 1.4bn people – but China's rapid economic and social change has caused its pensioners to feel lonely and alienated, a new study suggests.

Although capitalism has brought prosperity and increased political power to China, it has also caused the weakening of a traditional society that had collectivism and strong family ties at its heart.

Televisions have changed dramatically: While bulky TV sets dominated our living rooms until just a few years ago, the screens are now so flat that they can easily be hung on the wall. A close look at the inside of these devices will reveal fine conductor paths and transistors that supply the electricity needed to switch the pixels on the screen on and off. These circuits are manufactured layer by layer, usually by photolithography. The materials are deposited onto the entire surface of a substrate and covered with photoresist, which is exposed to light at specific points using a mask.

Until now, it has been difficult to prove that fast-swimming sperms have an advantage when it comes to fertilizing an egg. But now a research team at Uppsala University can demonstrate that unfaithful females of the cichlid fish species influence the males’ sperms. Increased competition leads to both faster and larger sperms, and the research findings now being published in the scientific journal PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, thus show that the much mythologized size factor does indeed count.

An unexpected discovery made by a Sydney scientist has potential to alter the body's response to anything it perceives as not 'self', such as a tissue or organ transplant.

Stacey Walters, an immunology researcher at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has found that by greatly boosting the levels of the hormone BAFF in mice, it is possible to alter their immune systems so that they will accept tissue transplants without the need for any immunosuppression.

The findings have just been published in the Journal of Immunology.

Melbourne, Australia, — 19 January 2009 — Australia's leading scientific journal in the substance use area, the Drug and Alcohol Review – published by Wiley-Blackwell, has released a special issue on the use of new technologies in the treatment of drug problems. The issue highlights the use of mobile phones, Internet and computers to treat drug use problems.

Street lighting provides a simple, low cost means of stemming the global epidemic of road traffic death and injury. Low income countries should consider installing more lights, and high income countries should think carefully before turning any off to reduce carbon emissions, is the advice from a new Cochrane Review.

Political prediction markets -- in which participants buy and sell "contracts" based on who they think will win an election -- accurately predicted Barack Obama's 2008 victory. Now Northwestern University researchers have determined that these markets behave similar to financial markets, except when traders' partisan feelings get in the way.

That was the case in the 2000 presidential election, where the researchers found that partisan feeling was so strong that it influenced trading.

The abolition of nuclear devices is the ultimate medical issue and U.S. President Barack Obama needs the help of physicians around the world to do this, writes renowned author Dr. Helen Caldicott in a January 20 editorial in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg151.pdf.

All countries should offer universal infant immunization for hepatitis B, write Dr. Christopher Mackie from McMaster University and coauthors in a public health analysis in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg196.pdf.

Epidemiological studies suggest that roughly one-third of chronic hepatitis B infections are acquired during infancy and early childhood.

While the harsh winter pounding many areas of North America and Europe seemingly contradicts the fact that global warming continues unabated, a new survey finds consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause.

A group of 3,146 earth scientists surveyed around the world overwhelmingly agree that in the past 200-plus years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Algae is a livid green giveaway of nutrient pollution in a lake. Scientists would love to reproduce that action in tiny particles that would turn different colors if exposed to biological weapons, food spoilage or signs of poor health in the blood.

Now, University of Florida engineering researchers have tapped the working parts of cells to clear a major hurdle to creating such "smart dust."The feat, which signifies a new approach to technology known as the "lab on a chip," is to be reported Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

A French study reported in the 12th January issue of Archives of Internal Medicine has found a strong correlation between blood pressure and outdoor temperature in a large sample of the elderly.(1) As a result, the investigators advise that, during periods of extreme temperatures, careful monitoring of blood pressure and antihypertensive treatment "could contribute to reducing the consequences of blood pressure variations in the elderly".

Scientists have developed a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often protracted. The study, by researchers at UCL (University College London), University of Warwick and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), shows that extended courtship enables a male to signal his suitability to a female and enables the female to screen out the male if he is unsuitable as a mate.

Nematodes

Nematodes are small worms. Some species are plant-parasitic and infect plants including important agricultural crops. The typical symptoms of a nematode-infection are withering, seriously retarded growth, and impaired development of flower and fruit. Severely infected plants often do not survive the damage that the worms inflict. Each year, plant-parasitic nematodes cause more than 80 billion euro in agricultural losses worldwide.

Plant roots as food factories