science / Top Stories
Obama, Ban Ki-Moon Raise Stakes on Climate ChangeU.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon holds a high-level conference on climate
change. U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders attend
TIME Wednesday, September 23, 2009Archaeologists find suspected Trojan war-era coupleANKARA (Reuters) - Archaeologists in the ancient city of Troy in Turkey have found the remains of a man and a woman believed to have died in 1,200 B.C., the time of the legendary war chronicled by Homer, a leading German professor said on Tuesday.
Reuters Wednesday, September 23, 2009Inhale or Don't?: Marijuana Hurts Some, Helps OthersClinton didn’t inhale, Obama did--and maybe Reagan should have. New research suggests that THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its mind-bending properties, kills developing neurons, yet oddly, the same chemical saves neurons in adults with Alzheimer’s disease.“Marijuana is not the ‘soft drug’ people like to think it is,” says neuropharmacologist Veronica Campbell of Trinity College in Dublin, whose latest study uncovered the harmful effects of THC on young neurons. When Campbell and her co-workers treated brain cells from newborn or adolescent rats with THC, the neurons died, but THC did not have such deadly effects on neurons taken from adult rats. In fact, work from other labs shows that THC benefits adult neurons. “We don’t know why,” Campbell says. Several possibilities are being investigated for this “Jekyll and Hyde” effect. [More]
Scientific American Wednesday, September 23, 2009Lotus-plant-inspired dust-busting shield to protect space gearA NASA team is developing a transparent coating that mimics the self-cleaning properties of the lotus plant to prevent dirt from sticking to the surfaces of spaceflight gear and bacteria from growing inside astronaut living quarters.
Eurekalert.org Wednesday, September 23, 2009Research team finds first evolutionary branching for bilateral animalsIn the most computationally intensive phylogenetic analysis to date, an international research team led by Brown
university has found the first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals. The researchers determined that the flatworm group Acoelomorpha is a product of the deepest split within the bilateral creatures -- multi-celled organisms that, like humans, have symmetrical body forms. Results appear online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Eurekalert.org Wednesday, September 23, 2009New study shows simplifying financial aid process improves college access for low-income studentsMore low-income students would make it to college if changes were made to streamline the complicated financial aid process, according to a groundbreaking study released today by researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stanford
university School of Education, the University of Toronto, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Eurekalert.org Wednesday, September 23, 2009A New Approach to Treating Spinal Cord InjuriesResearchers focused on reversing the paralysis induced by spinal cord injuries have focused on using
stem cells to regenerate the damaged nerve cells that are needed to transmit signals from the brain to the limbs.
Bioethics.net Wednesday, September 23, 2009Pillinger speaks out on dying debateLeading scientist Professor Colin Pillinger, who has mutiple sclerosis, speaks out against assisted suicide.
BBC Wednesday, September 23, 2009Banking umbilical cord blood costs more than $1.3 million per added year of lifeUC San Francisco researchers compared the private banking of umbilical cord blood against not banking the blood at all. Their conclusion: "Private cord blood banking is not cost-effective because it cost an additional $1,374,246 per life-year gained. In sensitivity analysis, if the cost of umbilical cord blood banking is less than $262 or the likelihood of a child needing a stem cell transplant is greater than 1 in 110, private umbilical cord blood banking becomes cost-effective."
Bioethics.net Wednesday, September 23, 2009Debunking a myth: an epidemic of medical malpractice, not of malpractice lawsuitsAS we reach for the dream of health care for all, we need to focus our reform
energies on improving patient safety. Preventing medical errors will lower health-care costs, reduce doctors' insurance premiums and protect patients.
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