With the new movie ‘Star Trek’ opening in theaters across the nation, one thing movie goers will undoubtedly see is the Starship Enterprise racing across the galaxy at the speed of light but two Baylor University physicists believe they have an idea that can turn traveling at the speed of light from science fiction to science, and that their idea does not break any laws of physics. 

An international team of geologists may have uncovered the answer to an age-old question - an ice-age-old question, that is. It appears that Earth's earliest ice age may have been due to the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which consumed atmospheric greenhouse gases and chilled the earth.

Scientists from the University of Maryland, including post-doctoral fellows Boswell Wing and Sang-Tae Kim, graduate student Margaret Baker, and professors Alan J. Kaufman and James Farquhar, along with colleagues in Germany, South Africa, Canada and the United States, uncovered evidence that the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere - generally known as the Great Oxygenation Event - coincided with the first widespread ice age on the planet. 

With obesity reaching epidemic numbers, cultural marketing  has long been attempting to tell women that they're beautiful no matter what size they are.   Perception is about to run up against medical health, according to a new study out of Temple University.

In the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology research, Temple researchers studied the body image perceptions of 81 underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese women in the North Philadelphia area and found that as their body mass index (BMI) increased, two-thirds of the women still felt they were at an ideal body size.

Rising shale gas production in the United States and Canada as well as potential natural gas supplies from Iraq could be pivotal in curbing Russia's ability to organize an "energy weapon" against European consumers, according to a new study released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. 

The study, "Russia and the Caspian Basin in the World Energy Balance," examines Russia's evolving energy relations with its Caspian neighbors, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the West and considers potential scenarios for Russian and Caspian oil and natural gas strategies.

Methane has 23X the warming impact of carbon dioxide and food production, including livestock, is a huge source of methane, spiking as larger world populations have led to increased production.  

University of Alberta researchers say they have developed a formula to reduce methane gas (basically, farts) in cattle, balancing starch, sugar, cellulose, ash, fat and other elements of feed.  They say this will give beef producers the tools to lessen the methane gas their cattle produce by as much as 25 per cent. 

If proof were needed that the prospect of public speaking can turn an otherwise confident person to jelly, then it is supplied in figures released today by Great Speechwriting. They reviewed the surfing habits of the 50,000 most recent visitors to their sites, all of whom have sought speech-related help and advice, and Lawrence Bernstein, a professional speech writer who runs Great Speechwriting said, "Every day, thousands of anxious people surf to seek a cure for their public speaking nerves and the wedding season witnesses the annual culmination of this predominantly male phobia.

"Perhaps surprisingly, our statistics show that the most worried member of the wedding party is the Father of the Bride.

One year after giving birth, women were less likely to have the most dangerous kind of obesity if they had been given probiotics from the first trimester of pregnancy, found new research that suggests manipulating the balance of bacteria in the gut may help fight obesity.

Research presented Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity says scheduling more physical education time in schools does not mean children will increase their activity levels; those who got lots of timetabled exercise at school compensated by doing less at home while those who got little at school made up for it by being more active at home.

They propose it's not the environment that drives physical activity levels in children, but some form of central control in the brain similar to appetite – an 'activitystat.'

Except appetite is learned by practice too.   People who eat a lot get more hungry than people who don't.

Elsevier, one of the world's leading publishers of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) information products and services, announced today that Michael Hansen, CEO of Elsevier's Health Sciences Division, issued the following statement in light of recent allegations of improper Australia based sponsored journal publication practices between 2000 and 2005:

"Elsevier prides itself on operating its business in the most ethical, honest and transparent manner possible.