Culture

As the party season approaches, a timely reminder of the issues surrounding the binge drinking culture are again highlighted by research into 'young people and alcohol' a team lead by Professor Christine Griffin, at the University of Bath. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) suggests several considerations for future policy.

Independent security researchers in California and researchers at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands, EPFL in Switzerland, and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands have found a weakness in the Internet digital certificate infrastructure that allows attackers to forge certificates that are fully trusted by all commonly used web browsers.

MADISON — By mixing and matching a contemporary flu virus with the "Spanish flu" — a virus that killed between 20 and 50 million people 90 years ago in history's most devastating outbreak of infectious disease — researchers have identified a set of three genes that helped underpin the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus.

As the party season approaches, a timely reminder of the issues surrounding the binge drinking culture are again highlighted by research into 'young people and alcohol' a team lead by Professor Christine Griffin, at the University of Bath. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) suggests several considerations for future policy.

As the party season approaches, a timely reminder of the issues surrounding the binge drinking culture are again highlighted by research into 'young people and alcohol' a team lead by Professor Christine Griffin, at the University of Bath. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) suggests several considerations for future policy.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method to measure the toughness—the resistance to fracture—of the thin insulating films that play a critical role in high-performance integrated circuits. The new technique could help improve the reliability and manufacturability of ICs and, better yet, it’s one that state-of-the-art microelectronics manufacturers can use with equipment they already own.

Mast cells are now recognized as "granular cells of the connective tissue", whose activation exacerbates allergic immune responses and as key players in the establishment of innate immunity as well as modulators of adaptive immune responses. The role of mast cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa is not only to react to antigens, but also to actively regulate the barrier and transport properties of the intestinal epithelium.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Only 3 percent of kids' meals served at fast-food restaurants met federal dietary guidelines in the first study to examine the nutrient quality of such meals in a major U.S. metropolitan market.

Michigan State University's Sharon Hoerr, a food science and human nutrition researcher with the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, teamed up with economist Sharon O'Donnell and pediatrician Jason Mendoza from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to assess the nutritional status of kids' meals in the Houston market.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that an estimated 2 million drunk drivers with three or more convictions will be on the roads this holiday season. In 2007, approximately 1,500 people nationwide were killed in crashes that involved a drunk driver from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day.

In March of 2008, in a speech addressing contemporary racial tensions in America, then-Senator Barack Obama suggested that there is a "chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races." Could this be true? Is it more difficult for members of different races to understand each others' emotions and intentions? Psychologist Heather M. Gray from Boston University, along with Wendy Berry Mendes and Carrigan Denny-Brown of Harvard University, investigated whether the ability to detect a person's anxiety declines when perceptions are made across the racial divide.

A Tennessee professor is calling on Santa Claus this year to give seaweed instead of coal to children who have been naughty and not nice.

Doing so could save delivery of up to 5,000 tons of coal to children’s stockings worldwide, estimates Gerald Smith, professor of religion and environmental studies at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Seaweed, he says, has several advantages over coal while still delivering a message to naughty children that Santa is displeased with their behavior.

Roger Penrose on "Before the Big Bang" and Frank Wilczek on "Anticipating A New Golden Age" Are Now Available to View Online

Sir Roger Penrose and Prof. Frank Wilczek share their scientific views in two new presentations, now viewable online.

Washington, DC—Asian Americans are less attached to their racial identity than black Americans. This finding confirms that minority politics in the United States today is more complex than generally realized and that understanding the increasingly multicultural nature of the U.S. requires perspectives that incorporate, but go beyond, the black historical experience.

Earth's location in the Universe is utterly unremarkable, despite recent theories that propose toppling a foundation of modern cosmology, according to a team of University of British Columbia researchers.

In its annual list of the year's top ten scientific breakthroughs, Science has given top honors to research that produced "made-to-order" cell lines by reprogramming cells from ill patients. These cell lines, and the techniques for producing them, offer long-sought tools for understanding -- and hopefully someday curing -- difficult-to-study diseases such as Parkinson's disease and type 1 diabetes.