For many children, a trip to the doctor or dentist is a stressful experience. The sensory environment (i.e., the sounds, smells, and lights associated with the clinical setting) can cause a child's anxiety levels to rise. This is especially true in children with developmental disabilities who may have difficulty understanding the unfamiliar clinical environment. A new study soon explores the relationship between the sensory environment and anxiety levels in children.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft will soon begin a journey to search for worlds that could potentially host life. Kepler is scheduled to blast into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket on March 5 at 7:48 p.m. Pacific Time (10:48 p.m. Eastern Time). It is the first mission with the ability to find planets like Earth -- rocky planets that orbit sun-like stars in a warm zone where liquid water could be maintained on the surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life. 

Show Me The Science Month Day 17



Often when something new crops up in evolutionary history, it's usually the result of tinkering with functional, preexisting molecular tools.. In a paper published in Science, some NYU researchers find that the protein cues used by  fruit fly embryos to direct their migrating reproductive cells are processed by some very ancient cellular machinery. The scientists test their ideas with a very weird experiment: they use their newfound knowledge to direct the reproductive cells to migrate into the embryos' brains.

Thanks to advances in satellite technology, college students are giving government intelligence a run for its money.  A student geography project from UCLA made waves in the Harvard International review for using principles of wildlife diversity to narrow bin Laden’s likely location to a few promising structures in Pakistan.  

Bin Laden has everything in common with a member of a species trying to escape extinction. This allowed the UCLA students used theories of wildlife dispersion to predict his whereabouts. 

I guess it was only a matter of time before my colleague Jerry Coyne at the University of Chicago lost his patience while reading one of several pieces that appeared in the press about the current and future status of evolutionary theory.

Looking for a great family vacation this summer? If you happen to be in BC's glorious interior, stop by and visit Cache Creek, the gateway to B.C.'s Cariboo Country. They boast cowboys aplenty, horses and, as it happens, some great fossil localities.

It's always satisfying to see concepts in the sciences, which reappear with varied nomenclature across fields and disciplines.  There are countless examples but one that always stood out for me is the concept of Green's functions.This is such an interesting an important concept in all of pure and applied science.  And to explain it will require some exploration of another interesting idea called a delta function and another important concept, linearity.

- Bioidentical Hormones for Physical Rejuvenation and Fitness

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has come to the movie theatres around the globe. Benjamin Button is born with the appearance and physical maladies of an elderly man but continuously growing younger - ailments and visible signs of aging disappear.

While in the film the effect of rejuvenation was achieved by changing actors, make up, and digital processing, modern medical technology can provide gentle rejuvenation of the body by up to 15 years.

DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich, Vienna-based expert in anti-ageing and cosmetic surgery: "Age-related hormone deficiency is one of the main reasons for premature ageing and can be treated by use of bioidentical hormones." His surgery Clinic DDr.

The Paleontologist community in China and around the world are all aflutter over a recent find in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia. Known more for its heavy oil potential and favorite export - pollution, northeastern China is the preferred stomping ground for the savvy petroleum geologist.

Coastal erosion has more than doubled in Alaska – up to 45 feet per year – in a 5-year period between 2002 and 2007 along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea, according to a U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) study that says average annual erosion rates along this part of the Beaufort Sea climbed from historical levels of about 20 feet per year between the mid-1950s and late-1970s, to 28 feet per year between the late-1970s and early 2000s, to a rate of 45 feet per year between 2002 and 2007.