Pheromones are molecules that an organism releases to trigger a specific behavior in other members of its species. Insects make wide use of pheromones to attract mates, signal the location of food, warn of attackers and provide other signals.

A new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system.

"Although we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation," note the authors, "this study is the first attempt to test the idea empirically."

They do so by conducting three tests of the claim that part of the variation in political participation can be attributed to genetic factors. The results suggest that individual genetic differences make up a large and significant portion of the variation in political participation, even after taking socialization and other environmental factors into account. They also suggest that, contrary to decades of conventional wisdom, family upbringing may have little or no effect on children's future participatory behavior.

It has been commonly regarded as a good sign that the nation's homocide rate has remained flat but the big picture obscures a disturbing fact, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Namely that between 1999 and 2005, homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age.

For the study, Susan Baker, MPH, co-author of the study and a professor with the Bloomberg School's Center for Injury Research and Policy, and her colleagues Daniel Webster and Gouqing Hu, the study's lead author, analyzed data from WISQARS™ (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System), which includes information on injury-related deaths and mortality rates per 100,000 population from 1981-2005. Mortality data by urbanization level was obtained through the Wonder System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a process to build complex, three-dimensional nanoscale structures of magnetic materials such as nickel or nickel-iron alloys using techniques compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing. The process, described in a recent paper, could enable whole new classes of sensors and microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices.

The NIST team also demonstrated that key process variables are linked to relatively quick and inexpensive electrochemical measurements, pointing the way to a fast and efficient way to optimize the process for new materials.

LONDON, June 26 /PRNewswire/ --

- FAO: Tunbridge Wells Media

Unite will today (Thursday 26th June) leaflet staff outside AXA PPP in Tunbridge Wells. This is in reaction to the refusal by management to allow the trade union into the site.

The union has found that staff receive poorer pay in comparison to their colleagues in other AXA UK companies. The refusal of local management to allow union officials access to talk to employees on site about the benefits of union membership means that Unite has no option but to leaflet staff from outside the premises.

LONDON, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- Research indicates innovation is key to off-setting compliance costs

An IDC report on the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) compliance efforts across Europe has found that 'SEPA fatigue' is starting to emerge across the financial services community, leading to increasing risk of procrastination. According to the new report sponsored by Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq: INFA), the leading independent provider of data integration software and services and by Atos Origin, banks are warned that unless they are innovative and seek to provide value-added services to customers that leverage the SEPA infrastructure, they will fail to generate return on their investment.

MT. LAUREL, New Jersey, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Release Assures More Accurate and Faster Processing, Enabling Confidence in a Project's Success

The latest release of TruePlanning by PRICE Systems (www.pricesystems.com) called TruePlanning 2008 was announced today. TruePlanning 2008 provides new upgrades to usability, significant enhancements to the Common Estimating Framework, and overall improvements to the Systems, Software, IT, Hardware and COCOMO estimation capabilities.

MONTREAL, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- New M-Series has more memory and cross-platform flexibility to drive multiple-monitor business applications with exceptional performance.

Matrox Graphics announces the availability of its M-Series multi-monitor graphics cards. These quad-capable display cards offer 512MB of memory, native PCIe x16 performance, and support for independent or stretched mode on up to four monitors simultaneously.

VAL DE REUIL, France, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- New 100 Million Euros Facility Incorporates Latest Technology to Produce Vaccines Meeting the Highest Quality Standards

VAL DE REUIL, France, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today the inauguration of a high-tech vaccine production facility in France to respond to soaring demand worldwide. This new 100 million euros facility located in Val de Reuil (North West of France) incorporates the latest technology to produce vaccines that meet the highest standards of quality. It is part of 600 million euros investments undertaken by sanofi pasteur in France between 2005 and 2008.

NEW YORK, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- 11 million people in the UK visited social network sites in 2007

Facebook continues to trail MySpace in the US, but the online social networking site has overtaken its main rival in worldwide unique users. With almost 20 foreign-language versions of the site, starting with French, German and Spanish, Facebook has seen continuous growth throughout Europe. Now, with the new Chinese-language version, it is beginning its trajectory in Asia.