SEATTLE, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Seattle Children's receives US$1 million Gates Foundation grant for research and international summit

DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania and OXFORD, England, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Out-Licensing Enhances EUSA's Strategic Focus on Late-Stage and Marketed Products

People across the western hemisphere may be surprised to see a rust-colored Moon in the sky in a few days - an ominous omen to ancient people but a more predictable occurrence now. Early on 21 February (the evening of the 20 February for observers in North and South America) will be this year’s first and only total eclipse of the Moon.

Bonus: unlike the solar equivalent, the whole event is safe to watch and needs no special equipment.

In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth, Sun and Moon are almost exactly in line and the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. The Moon is full, moves into the shadow of the Earth and dims dramatically but usually remains visible, lit by sunlight that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.

The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at MIT.

Berwick will describe his ideas about language in a session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Sunday, Feb. 17. The session is called “Mind of a Toolmaker,” and explores the use of evolutionary research in understanding human abilities.

A team of scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder, has shown that by sampling a person’s breath with laser light they can detect molecules in the breath that may be markers for diseases like asthma or cancer. While many studies have been done to showcase the potential of optical technologies for breath analysis, the JILA approach takes an important step toward demonstrating the full power of optics for this prospective medical application.

The technique, called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy, may one day allow doctors to screen people for certain diseases simply by sampling their breath. “This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once,” says Jun Ye, who led the research. He is a fellow of JILA, a fellow of NIST and a professor adjoint at CU-Boulder’s Department of Physics.

Large-scale digital music distribution is bringing about a profound revolution in the way we ‘consume’ music. The market is still in flux, but it is very clear that the hi-fi systems of the future will be significantly different to what we see today, say European researchers.

With the advent of compressed music files (MP3) and easily accessible internet file exchange and download services, consumers are increasingly turning to personal mini-databases of music files (iPod, MP3 players) for their musical enjoyment. The CD market has already taken a hard knock and many predict its imminent demise. The hi-fi market is also suffering with sales decreasing steadily every year.

"Crime procedurals, like 'CSI' or 'Law & Order,' indexed highest among all genres of programming, retaining 95% of their viewers through all commercial breaks during the hour." (In other words, the audience stays glued to the tube through bathroom breaks.) --------------------- I wrote the following in April 2007, just after the Virginia Tech shooting. Here we are again, and again and again. The names and numbers change, the location changes. What else? What are the commonalities?

The strange world of quantum mechanics can provide a way to surpass limits in speed, efficiency and accuracy of computing, communications and measurement, according to research by MIT scientist Seth Lloyd.

Quantum mechanics is the set of physical theories that explain the behavior of matter and energy at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It includes a number of strange properties that differ significantly from the way things work at sizes that people can observe directly, which are governed by classical physics.

LONDON, February 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is concerned that Government proposals put forward by Lord Darzi(1) to aggregate local health services into 'polyclinics' or 'super surgeries' could put at risk the public's access to local pharmacies.

Currently 99% of the population can reach a pharmacy by car, walking or public transport within 20 minutes. The RPSGB has recommended strongly to the Department of Health that impact assessments should be mandatory so that local communities are able to understand the effects of any change.