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Canadian Immigrants Are In Better Health Than Citizens - Until They Stay A While

Canadian Immigrants Are In Better Health Than Citizens - Until They Stay A While

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

Research has shown that the health of immigrants is generally better than that of citizens of their host country, at least on their arrival and for some time afterwards. But a team of researchers in Montreal has found that this is not true of all groups of immigrants; children and older people, for example, may be exceptions. "Our analysis suggests that immigrant health policies should not be 'one size fits all' in type, and that they need to take account of immigrants' ages and the indicators of the health problems they are vulnerable to", according to Zoua Vang, Professor of Sociology at McGill University and Alain Gagnon, Director of the Demography Department at the University of Montreal.

In Latin America, Educated Women Having Kids Outside Marriage Are Increasingly Popular

In Latin America, Educated Women Having Kids Outside Marriage Are Increasingly Popular

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

In Latin America, consensual (common-law) unions are traditionally associated with poorer or indigenous populations. But recent research is turning this conventional wisdom on its head, finding that that in the past 30 years or so consensual unions have become increasingly popular throughout Latin America, including in higher-income groups. In certain countries, such as Panama, common-law partnerships are now as widespread as in Quebec.

India Must Address Its TB Epidemic

India Must Address Its TB Epidemic

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

Effective tuberculosis control in India needs political will and commitment. Unless this happens, TB will continue to be India's silent epidemic and a death sentence for poor people, warns consultant physician and public health specialist, Zarir Udwadia in BMJ.

20 years ago it was widely believed that India was successfully on its way to controlling its alarming tuberculosis (TB) epidemic yet India still has 2.2 million new cases and more than 300,000 deaths each year. Economic numbers are a guess at best but in the article he claims losses of $23 billion. At the heart of this crisis is the failure of India's Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) to engage and monitor the country's large and unregulated private sector, argues Udwadia. 
National Data Science Bowl Winner Announced

National Data Science Bowl Winner Announced

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

A team that developed an algorithm capable of automating the analysis of plankton populations – a critical step in measuring ocean health - has won the inaugural National Data Science Bowl.
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Shows 10 Years Of Changing UK Winters

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Shows 10 Years Of Changing UK Winters

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

A 10 year project to observe and analyze regular data about ocean circulation and how it impacts on Britain’s climate has provided new insight into Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a major system of currents in the North Atlantic.

10 years is too short a time to be meaningful but it is an important milestone. Since 2004, the project team has been monitoring the AMOC at 26.5N degrees, near where it carries its maximum heat, using instruments moored at 30 locations across the Atlantic between the Canary Islands and the Bahamas - so-called fixed arrays. The arrays’ instruments measure the temperature, salinity and pressure of the ocean, from which the AMOC’s strength and structure can be calculated.
Manuscript on Chemical Bonds: Lesson 1 Review on Atomic Structure and Periodic Table

Manuscript on Chemical Bonds: Lesson 1 Review on Atomic Structure and Periodic Table

Mar 24 2015 | comment(s)

This is the first of a series of lessons about chemical bonds.  The purpose of publishing this through Science 2.0 is to solicit comments and suggestions prior to a formal proposal for its use in the general chemistry classes particularly, in the junior high school science.  I will appreciate if one can point out any oversimplification that may lead to misconceptions.  Another purpose is for this to be used as a review material for non-chemistry major students enrolled in general chemistry.
Chemical bonds is one of the topics assigned to Grade 9 Science by the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd).
What Grade Do Academics Give To IARC Organophosphate Claims? A Big

What Grade Do Academics Give To IARC Organophosphate Claims? A Big "F"

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)


In politics, all parties have their own 'fact-checking' and supposedly non-partisan organizations debunking each other, so they can't really be trusted. But in science true neutral fact-checking is actually possible.
Wandering Jupiter, Did Our Solar System Once Have Super-Earths?

Wandering Jupiter, Did Our Solar System Once Have Super-Earths?

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

We may have Jupiter to thank for our unusual solar system. 

Before the inner planets we now call  Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars formed, a great inward-and-then-outward journey that Jupiter made early in the solar system's history may have torn apart a number of super-Earths - planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune - and caused their giant remnants to fall into the sun billions of years ago.
Facial Movements Of Unborn Babies Show Effects Of Maternal Smoking?

Facial Movements Of Unborn Babies Show Effects Of Maternal Smoking?

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

High-definition scans lead a team of researchers to conclude that the harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy may be reflected in the facial movements of mothers' unborn babies.

In the small pilot study, the scholars observed 4-d ultrasound scans and found that fetuses whose mothers were smokers showed a significantly higher rate of mouth movements than the normal declining rate of movements expected in a fetus during pregnancy. The researchers suggested that the reason for this might be that the fetal central nervous system, which controls movements in general and facial movements in particular did not develop at the same rate and in the same manner as in fetuses of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy.
End Of Latency: Musicians Rehearse 1,000 Miles Apart With No Delay

End Of Latency: Musicians Rehearse 1,000 Miles Apart With No Delay

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

Latency is so ingrained into modern communication we almost forget about it but in live or recorded events, like performances or rehearsals over a long distance, it is crippling.

 When recording a soundtrack over a pre-recorded base, the latency is perceptible to the human ear if a delay of 15-20 milliseconds occurs - the track seems displaced from the rest, giving the sense of being poorly played. To resolve displacement over long distances, elements such as sound capture, sound coding and decoding servers, intermediate network elements, lines of communication and the software used all must be factored in.
Phonons Controlled: Magnets Manipulate Sound Too

Phonons Controlled: Magnets Manipulate Sound Too

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

Researchers have discovered proof that acoustic phonons, the elemental particles that transmit both heat and sound, have magnetic properties. 

In a new paper, the authors describe how a magnetic field roughly the size of a medical MRI reduced the amount of heat flowing through a semiconductor by 12 percent. But because the phonons reacted to the magnetic field, the particles must be sensitive to magnetism.  
Migraine Headaches And Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Linked

Migraine Headaches And Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Linked

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome are more than twice as likely to have migraine headaches, according to data derived from nearly 26,000 Americans responding to a national health survey. Among other questions, participants were asked whether they had had carpal tunnel syndrome during the past year or "severe headache or migraine" during the past three months.

Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome have symptoms such as hand numbness and weakness, resulting from pressure on the median nerve in the wrist. 

The association also runs in the other direction, with migraine patients having higher odds of carpal tunnel syndrome, say Dr. Huay-Zong Law and colleagues of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Cosmic Building Block Dust From An Ancient Supernova Found

Cosmic Building Block Dust From An Ancient Supernova Found

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
Geoengineering: Ocean Pipes Would Make Climate Worse

Geoengineering: Ocean Pipes Would Make Climate Worse

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

To combat possible climate change due to greenhouse gases, a mix of alternative energy sources (except nuclear for the United States) and geoengineering schemes have been proposed. One idea proposes that ocean pipes could facilitate direct physical cooling of the surface ocean by replacing warm surface ocean waters with colder, deeper waters. 

A new study from a group of Carnegie scientists determines that these types of pipes could actually increase global warming quite drastically. 
Nova Vulpeculae 1670 - Colliding Stars Explain 17th Century Explosion

Nova Vulpeculae 1670 - Colliding Stars Explain 17th Century Explosion

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

In 1670, the greatest astronomers, including Cassini and Hevelius, the father of lunar cartography, documented the appearance of a new star in the skies.

Hevelius described it as nova sub capite Cygni — a new star below the head of the Swan — and now it is officially known it by the name Nova Vulpeculae 1670.  It lies within the boundaries of the modern constellation of Vulpecula (The Fox), just across the border from Cygnus (The Swan) and is also referred to as Nova Vul 1670 and CK Vulpeculae, its designation as a variable star. 
 
Historical accounts of novae are rare and Nova Vul 1670 is both the oldest recorded nova and the faintest nova when later recovered.
How Safe Is Today's Encryption?

How Safe Is Today's Encryption?

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

When checking your email over a secure connection, or making a purchase from an online retailer, have you ever wondered how your private information or credit card data is kept secure?

Our information is kept away from prying eyes thanks to cryptographic algorithms, which scramble the message so no-one else can read it but its intended recipient. But what are these algorithms, how did they come to be widely used, and how secure really are they?

Chromothripsis: Birth Defects May Be Caused By Chromosome Shattering

Chromothripsis: Birth Defects May Be Caused By Chromosome Shattering

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

In a complex system like the human body, it's no surprise things can sometimes go wrong in development but evolution has made the system rather forgiving. When children inherit chromosomes from their parents, some minor genetic changes frequently occur without consequence but chromothripsis - chromosomal shattering - has been linked to severly affected children of healthy mothers in a small study.
Breakthrough Prize Nominations For Physics, Biology And Math Now Open

Breakthrough Prize Nominations For Physics, Biology And Math Now Open

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

The Breakthrough Prize has opened nominations period for its 2016 prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics until May 31st, 2015.

The Breakthrough Prizes will recognize top scientists as well as promising junior researchers. The big prizes are  $3 million while the junior researchers prizes are $100,000.
Special Snowflakes: Why Some Kids Think They Are Exceptional

Special Snowflakes: Why Some Kids Think They Are Exceptional

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)

Narcissistic children feel superior to others, believe they are entitled to privileges and crave admiration from others.

When they don’t get the admiration they want, they may lash out aggressively.

Why do some children become narcissistic, whereas others develop more modest views of themselves? We have undertaken research into this question and we found socialization plays a significant role.

Apparently The Frog-pocalypse Is Still A Thing

Apparently The Frog-pocalypse Is Still A Thing

Mar 23 2015 | comment(s)


Lost in all of the hype and hysteria and White House panels on how industry is killing bees is the last indicator species that was being doomed by non-organic pesticides: frogs.