Mothers are more likely than fathers or childless people to leave jobs that require long hours - unless the occupations are female-dominated, according to sociologists.

More than one-third of men and nearly one-fifth of women work more than 50 hours a week. Mothers are far fewer than fathers in those numbers. What explains that? Are male-dominated jobs harder on mothers or do some occupations become female-dominated because they are more conducive to women with kids? Does that explain the difference in income?   Male-dominated engineering pays women in America better than any other field while heavily female occupations such as environmentalism and social work pay women far worse than men.

Businessman Jim McCormick Guilty

Fake Bomb Detector Vendor Convicted For Fraud - Assets Seized

For some years now, scientists, science writers, bloggers and others have been writing about the bogus bomb detector scam perpetrated by Jim McCormick.  Now, at last, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service has done what it should have done sooner: put on its best hobnail boots and jumped all over the guy.


Image source: explosivedetectorfrauds.blogspot.co.uk

What makes adult human males attractive (to adult human females) ? Of the many possible factors, at least three have been scientifically investigated, measured, and described by ‘Honest Signals’ researcher Dr. Nick Neave, of the School of Life Sciences, Department of Psychology, at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Factor one: Facial hair (of the right length)

“A within-subjects design employed one condition (facial hair) incorporating five levels (clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, light beard and full beard).”

Currently, 1.5 billion people worldwide report chronic pain of varying degrees. Among all types of chronic pain, neuropathic pain stands out, with approximately 3-4.5% of the global population affected, and incidence rate increasing in line with increased age of the population. 

According to a recent estimate, the global pain management market is to reach US$60 Billion by 2015.[1]

Convergence Pharmaceuticals Limited has started a Phase II proof of concept study with CNV2197944 in pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). Convergence is conducting the development of CNV2197944 on behalf of Calchan Ltd.

Contrary to widespread consumer belief, organic farming is not the best way to farm from an environmental point if view.

The guiding principal of organic is to rely exclusively on natural inputs.  That was decided early in the 20th century, decades before before the scientific disciplines of toxicology, environmental studies and climate science emerged to inform our understanding of how farming practices impact the environment.  

"Yeah well, it's just a theory".
Seven words that make my blood boil.

This same point has been made in every evolution-creation debate there has ever been, and it provokes the same exasperated response from the evolution camp every time.

"Evolution is both a fact AND a theory. You're misunderstanding scientific terminology. What about the theory of gravity; if you don't believe it then you don't just float away!"

In a recent study, an area of the brain that initiates behavioral changes had greater activation in smokers who watched anti-smoking ads with strong arguments than ads with clever tricks like loud sounds and unexpected twists - and those smokers had significantly less nicotine metabolites in their urine when tested a month after viewing those ads.

One of the most intriguing effects in subatomic physics is the phenomenon of violation of the discrete symmetry called "CP". It is intriguing at various levels.

First of all, CP violation is intriguing because of the depth of the concept: proof of that be that it is not at all easy to explain it to outsiders (I will make an attempt below, but I am likely to fail!).

Second, its elusive nature makes it even more mysterious and difficult to study: only a few subatomic physical systems exhibit it, and the effect is visible only as a modification of measurable quantities at the level of a few parts in a thousand.

Rainfall over the Hawaiian Islands has been declining since 1978.

Is the drying trend due to global warming? Yes, says a team of researchers who found that climate models don't have enough resolution to capture the diverse rainfall pattern over Hawaii, where dry and wet areas often lie only a mile or even less apart, and so devised a method called 'statistical downscaling.'

 They first got a take on the effects of the general drying trend on local heavy-rain days by reanalyzing observations from 1978 to 2010 at 12 rain-gauge stations spread throughout the islands. Studying hundreds of weather patterns during such days, they identified the typical atmospheric circulation patterns in the North Pacific that favor heavy rains over Hawaii.