Culture

Philadelphia, PA – October 29, 2008 – For decades, Israelis have sought to teach Arabs and Muslims that the existence of a Jewish state was a permanent fact of life. Israelis have thought that once Arab and Muslim belief in the state's permanence could be established, then Israel could reach out to its enemies with sensible rational compromises to achieve peace and stability in the region. In a new article in the journal Middle East Policy, Ian S. Lustick shows that Israelis have largely abandoned the hope of "teaching" the Arabs to accept Israel.

Chemistry researchers at The University of Warwick and the John Innes Centre, have found a novel signalling molecule that could be a key that will open up hundreds of new antibiotics unlocking them from the DNA of the Streptomyces family of bacteria.

At best the NHS might expect no real growth in funding from 2011, warns John Appleby, Chief Economist at The King's Fund, on bmj.com today.

Lower or capped NHS spending together with the health impacts of unemployment and deprivation caused by the credit crisis and looming recession could rock the health service in the future, he explains.

Currently, inflation is high and will reduce the spending power of the NHS—every 1% increase will cost the health service around £380 million.

A new study shows counties can boost voters' trust in elections by making an investment in the human side of elections by recruiting new poll workers.

The findings come from a study by Kent State University's Ryan L. Claassen, who collaborated with Brigham Young University researchers Quin Monson, Kelly Patterson and David Magleby, to conduct exit polling following the 2006 midterm election in Ohio's Franklin and Summit counties.

Children and adolescents who abuse alcohol or are sexually active are more likely to take methamphetamines (MA), also known as 'meth' or 'speed'. Research published today in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics reveals the risk factors associated with MA use, in both low-risk children (those who don't take drugs) and high-risk children (those who have taken other drugs or who have ever attended juvenile detention centres).

Washington, D.C.— Researchers at the Carnegie Institution have developed a new technique for improving the properties of diamonds—not only adding sparkle to gemstones, but also simplifying the process of making high-quality diamond for scalpel blades, electronic components, even quantum computers. The results are published in the October 27-31 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

Did the Bible's King David and his son Solomon control the copper industry in present-day southern Jordan? Though that remains an open question, the possibility is raised once again by research reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Drawing on records dating back to the journals of Henry David Thoreau, scientists at Harvard University have found that different plant families near Walden Pond have borne the effects of climate change in strikingly different ways. Some of the plant families hit hardest by global warming have included beloved species like lilies, orchids, violets, roses, and dogwoods.

The work appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What stands a better chance of surviving 50 years from now, a framed photograph or a 10-megabyte digital photo file on your computer's hard drive?

The framed photograph will inevitably fade and yellow over time, but the digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers – an unintended consequence of our rapidly digitizing world that may ultimately lead to a "digital dark age," says Jerome P. McDonough, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Individual investors are liquidating their holdings at record levels as financial markets sink, often absorbing losses to avoid possibly worse pain later. Contradicting the counsel of many financial advisers, it also flies in the face of widely accepted behavioral theory and reinforces recent research by Michigan State University scientists.

If you think candidates never keep their promises and will say anything to get elected, you're certainly not alone. And you're not right, either.

The perception is largely untrue, says Tracy Sulkin, a University of Illinois political scientist, who has conducted an extensive study, apparently the first of its kind, comparing the campaign ads and legislative records of recent congressional officeholders.

Inside your laptop is a small accelerometer chip, there to protect the delicate moving parts of your hard disk from sudden jolts.

It turns out that the same chip is a pretty good earthquake sensor, too—especially if the signals from lots of them are compared, in order to filter out more mundane sources of laptop vibrations, such as typing.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Congress needs to reform flawed 401(k) laws that could push back retirement for millions of Americans whose savings have collapsed along with the stock market, a University of Illinois elder law expert says.

Law professor Richard L. Kaplan says 401(k) accounts were meant to supplement traditional defined-benefit pensions, but have evolved into the sole nest egg for the bulk of U.S. workers whose employers offer any kind of savings program.

Université de Montréal Professor Sylvie Hébert is conducting a study exploring the root causes of tinnitus, a condition that creates the perception of sound in the absence of external stimulation. Tinnitus affects 20 percent of Quebecers 55 and older in Quebec, which represents one million people.

"The auditory sensations sound like buzzing or whistling in one or both ears," says Professor Hébert of the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine School of Speech Therapy and Audiology and researcher at both the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal and the BRAMS.

Jerusalem, October 26, 2008 – The ability to make fire millennia ago was likely a key factor in the migration of prehistoric hominids from Africa into Eurasia, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology believes on the basis of findings at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov archaeological site in Israel.