New nanotechnology paints for walls, ceilings, and surfaces could be used to kill hospital superbugs when fluorescent lights are switched on, said scientists today at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

The new paints contain tiny particles of titanium dioxide, which is the dazzling white compound often used as a brightener in commercial paints. It will also be familiar to tennis fans as the powder used for the white lines to mark out the courts at Wimbledon.

Retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other stores primarily attract both insured and uninsured patients who are seeking help for a small group of easy-to-treat illnesses or preventive care but do not otherwise have a regular health care provider, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Retail medical clinics are typically located in drug stores and other large retail chain stores, such as Target and Wal-Mart, rather than in medical facilities. There are now almost 1,000 retail clinics in the United States and it is estimated there may be 6,000 by 2011.

The RAND Health study is the first to examine the types of patients who use the retail clinics and the health care services delivered by the clinics, which are growing in number and popularity. The findings are published in the September/October of the journal Health Affairs.

More than 1,500 audiocassette tapes taken in 2001 from Osama bin Laden's former residential compound in Qandahar, Afghanistan, are yielding new insights into the radical Islamic militant leader's intellectual development in the years leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Flagg Miller, an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Davis, and the first academic researcher to study the tapes, will present his preliminary observations in a lecture at the Center of Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin on Sept. 18. The first research paper stemming from Miller's study of the tapes will appear in the October issue of the journal Language & Communication.

Women employed in casual and contract jobs are up to ten times more likely to experience unwanted sexual advances than those in permanent full time positions, a University of Melbourne study has found.

The research by Associate Professor Anthony LaMontagne of the McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing will be presented at the From Margins to Mainstream Conference: 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders.

Associate Professor LaMontagne's study examined the likelihood of sexual harassment in different types of employment.

SAN FRANCISCO, September 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- Market Momentum Growing for VoiceCon's European Launch Where Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, KPN, Siemens and Royal Dutch Shell to Keynote

VoiceCon Amsterdam(R), produced by TechWeb, today announced its keynote and exhibitor lineup, which demonstrate the market's enthusiastic reception to the European launch of the VoiceCon brand. VoiceCon Amsterdam will be held 14-16 October at the Amsterdam RAI. Registration and conference details are available at http://www.voicecon.eu.

Better self-control is linked to higher intelligence. But until now psychologists have been unsure exactly why. Now, researchers at Yale University are the first to report a clue that's helping to understanding why there is a tendency for more intelligent individuals to resist smaller, sooner rewards, while the preference for immediate rewards is associated with lower intelligence (IQ). The study, reported in the Sept. 9th issue of the journal 'Psychological Science,' is the first to investigate--and identify--the neural mechanisms that account for this relationship. The idea is relevant to areas such as personal financial planning and mental health, including massive credit card debt, substance abuse, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and excessive gambling or online gaming. The work suggests that understanding such a relationship could even lead to interventions for enhancing self-control. If a mentally challenging task like a Sudoku improves your IQ, could it help you quit smoking?

Imagine that instead of setting out to invent a better lightbulb, Thomas Edison had announced his intention to invent a light-emitting diode that you could use to illuminate your kitchen. This isn't completely far-fetched: the first examples of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) began to appear as early as 1907. But it wasn't until the 1960's and 70's that useful, visible-spectrum LEDs began to appear, and LEDs haven't been used to light kitchens until very recently. Thomas Edison, had he set out to make a useful, household LED, would have been doomed to failure beacause it would be years before basic science made the necessary technologies possible.

When Richard Nixon declared the conquest of cancer "a national crusade" in 1971, cancer researchers were inevitably set up to be viewed as failures. Although at the time the recent molecular biology revolution led people to think that disease conquest was just around the corner, now we can look back and see that the War on Cancer had no hope of achieving its goals in the 1970's. Scientists are being punished for that hubris now, in the form of misguided news pieces such as Newsweek's current exposé: "We Fought Cancer...And Cancer Won".

LONDON, September 9 /PRNewswire/ --

The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 32.81 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in August, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed September 9. This is 40,000 b/d higher than the July production of 32.77 million b/d.

Excluding Iraq, the 12 members bound by OPEC output agreements produced an average 30.41 million b/d, the survey showed. This is 100,000 b/d more than July's 30.31 million b/d and some 737,000 b/d greater than OPEC's 29.673 million b/d output target.

ANTWERP, Belgium, September 9 /PRNewswire/ -- N.V. Universal Bright from Belgium introduces TanBright+(TM), a new Professional Teeth Whitening System, in Russia at one of the world's top dental exhibitions: the Dental-Expo in Moscow. Link: http://www.dental-expo.ru/ from 9 to 12 September 2008.

TanBright+(TM) is a new unique user-friendly teeth whitening system for the dental market. With its superior results (up to 8 shades lighter) and faster procedure time, dentists experience it as one of the most time- efficient quality teeth whitening systems available on the market today.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, September 9 /PRNewswire/ --

Strong indications for some time of oil in the Dreki area, progress by leaps and bounds in oil exploration technology, a high oil price and possible economic gain are several of the main reasons that Iceland is now preparing a tender offer at the start of next year for exclusive licences for oil exploration in the Dreki area (NE of Iceland, south of the island of Jan Mayen).

This emerged during Minister of Industry Ossur Skarphedinsson's opening speech for the Iceland Exploration Conference 2008, on searching for hydrocarbons in Iceland, which was held recently in Reykjavik. Last but not least, Icelanders will be utilising their right with the nation's future interests as a guide, said the minister.