Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a short- range unitary ballistic missile target in the terminal phase of its trajectory during a test at the Pacific Missile Range off the coast of Hawaii.

In the test mission, the SPY-1B radar on the Aegis BMD cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) detected and tracked the ballistic missile target, and computed a targeting solution to guide two SM-2 Block IV missiles to a successful endo-atmospheric (within the atmosphere) intercept. Once the SM-2s were launched from the ship’s Lockheed Martin-developed MK-41 Vertical Launching System (VLS), Aegis guided the missiles through the terminal phase of the intercept. The SM-2 Block IV missiles were recently modified to perform the terminal phase endo-atmospheric intercept of a ballistic missile.

If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.

But a new study suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world's periodic mass extinctions during the past 500 million years.[1]

"The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth," says Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and the author of the new Nature report.

Overweight men are not more likely to be infertile, as past research has shown to be true in obese women, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Findings of the study, performed in New York in nearly 300 very overweight men, were unexpected, said coauthor Nanette Santoro, MD, an Albert Einstein College of Medicine obstetrician-gynecologist who is trained in reproductive endocrinology.

Santoro and her colleagues studied 292 men who gave semen samples at fertility clinics. The men were ages 18 to 50 and, on average, had a body mass index (BMI) of 28, which is considered nearly obese. The authors found that greater body weight was not associated with worse sperm production or sperm motility. Impaired sperm production is the cause of infertility in 90 percent of infertile men, according to Santoro. About 6 percent of reproductive-age men are infertile, she said.

One of the nation’s leading joint specialists, Javad Parvizi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, says you should believe your grandmother, friend or co-worker when they tell you it’s going to rain — even if it’s simply because their aching knees, hips, hands or shoulders “say so.”

Dr. Parvizi, who is also director of clinical research at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson, and associate professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, explains that even though individuals can experience pain fluctuations with the slightest change in barometric pressure, most patients report significant increases in pain before and during severe changes in weather, like summer downpours and thunderstorms.

Why would humans evolve allergy problems? A team from the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King's College London are working on a molecule vital to the chicken's immune system which represents the evolutionary ancestor of the human antibodies that cause allergic reactions.

Crucially, they have discovered that the chicken molecule behaves quite differently from its human counterpart, which throws light on the origin and cause of allergic reactions in humans and gives hope for new strategies for treatment.

The chicken molecule, an antibody called IgY, looks remarkably similar to the human antibody IgE. IgE is known to be involved in allergic reactions and humans also have a counterpart antibody called IgG that helps to destroy invading viruses and bacteria. Scientists know that both IgE and IgG were present in mammals around 160 million years ago because the corresponding genes are found in the recently published platypus genome. However, in chickens there is no equivalent to IgG and so IgY performs both functions.

Every year, about 500 million people worldwide are infected with the parasite that causes dysentery, a global medical burden that among infectious diseases is second only to malaria. In a new study appearing in the June 15 issue of Genes and Development, Johns Hopkins researchers may have found a way to ease this burden by discovering a new enzyme that may help the dysentery-causing amoeba evade the immune system.

"This is the first enzyme to be identified that looks like it could mediate immune system evasion," says Sin Urban, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular biology and genetics at Hopkins.

The EhROM1 enzyme, it turns out, is part of an ancient group of enzymes—they are found in every branch of life from bacteria to man—known as rhomboid enzymes. In most animals, rhomboid enzymes seem to play a role in cell-to-cell communication, but a couple of years ago Urban found that malaria parasites use rhomboid enzymes for a more sinister purpose: to enter host cells uninvited.

CHELTENHAM, England, June 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Children from Bishop Stortfor College, Hornsby House School in South London and The Catholic School of St Gregory The Great in Cheltenham had the chance to show some of their artwork to Prince William today (Saturday June 14th) when they attended the annual Chakravarty Cup event at Ham Polo Club in Richmond as special guests of WellChild.

Four pupils aged between 9 and 11 and teachers from the schools have been working to produce art aimed at visually reflecting the work of WellChild - the national children's health charity providing nursing care, support and medical research to sick children and their families across the UK.

BEERSE, Belgium, June 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- 30 Percent Complete Response Rate Compared to 4 Percent With Current Drug Treatment Standard of Care

- Abstract Number: 0473

As a science site, one thing we understand is physics and how it can be exculpatory - no snowflake in an avalance ever has to take the blame.

The American Beverage Association(ABA) knows this too. They are the trade association representing the broad spectrum of companies that manufacture and distribute non-alcoholic beverages in the United States - that means soda and juice but also water and things that are basically good for you. Dr. Maureen Storey is their senior vice president for science policy and former director of the University of Maryland's Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Policy.

The ABA recognizes there is a lot of talk about childhood obesity and the link to sugary drinks. Since no snowflake in an avalanche takes the blame, that means obesity should be Doritos or it can be bread or it can be bad parents who buy their kids sugary drinks but the one thing that cannot definitively be linked to obesity are sugary drinks or the advertising departments at sugary drink companies. To prove this, Storey and colleagues did a meta-analysis (see notes) of 12 recent studies and published it in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

BRUSSELS, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- All across Europe, a wide range of events have taken place this week in the run-up to the European Wind Day 2008. Thousands of members of the public have already taken part in activities from exhibitions in Belgian train stations to photo contests in Sweden. The events all focus on how wind energy works and the benefits it brings as a clean and sustainable power source.

The official Wind Day is tomorrow, Sunday 15 June. National wind energy associations are organising events in 20 different countries, and over 100 wind farms are holding open days. Drawing competitions in Bulgaria, regattas and boat-races in Italy and hot-air balloon rides in Portugal are but a few of the activities on offer.