The 2014 European Astronomy Journalism Prize has been announced.   Now in its third year, the prize looks to reward excellence displayed in the field by professional journalists as well as students of both astronomy and journalism. It is awarded by Science  & Technology Facilities Council and ESO, in association with the Royal Astronomical Society and the Association of British Science Writers. 

New research has identified the mechanism used by plants in stress conditions to sense low oxygen levels - and scientists then used that knowledge and advanced breeding techniques to reduce yield loss in barley under water-logged conditions.

In 2011, University of Nottingham Professor of Crop Science Michael Holdsworth and colleagues identified the mechanism used by plants in stress conditions to sense low oxygen levels and now they have discovered how this works in barley.

“We now know how to breed barley cultivars more tolerant to waterlogging and flooding,” says Holdsworth.

The world of single atoms and molecules may seem to be governed by chaotic fluctuations, but a team of researchers has found that the spontaneous formation of Turing patterns - responsible for the irregular yet periodic shapes of the stripes on zebras' bodies - can not only occur on the small scale, but can also be used for potentially very interesting applications.

Craigslist's entry into a market results in a 15.9 percent increase in reported HIV cases, according to research from the University of Minnesota published in the December issue of MIS Quarterly. When mapped at the national level, more than 6,000 HIV cases annually and treatment costs estimated between $62 million and $65.3 million can be linked to the popular website.

"I actually think that the creators of Craigslist had no intent of harming society. They came in with good intentions," says Jason Chan, Assistant Professor of Information and Decision Sciences at the Carlson School of Management. "At the same time, they did not anticipate that users could use the features in an unexpected way with unintended consequences."

Tiny biological clocks attached to our chromosomes can't tell us the exact moment of our death, but they can narrow it down. These DNA end caps, called telomeres, are the great predictors of life expectancy: the shorter your telomeres, the shorter your lifespan.

But shorter telomeres also indicate a greater chance for bone marrow failure, liver disease, skin disease and lung disease. Knowing that, scientists have been experimenting with telomeres over the last three decades, trying to figure out ways to extend them and studying mutations within them. Now researchers have found another link to telomeres and lung disease.

Hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive implants remain highly effective even one year beyond their approved duration of use, according to a new study.

Now the researchers are evaluating whether such long-acting forms of birth control are effective for up to three years past the length of use under which they were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Contraceptive implants - matchstick-sized rods inserted into the arm - are approved for three years while hormonal IUDs are approved for five years.