There was an interesting study published recently that addresses the changes that occur to gut bacteria in pregnant women and the role this fulfills in maintaining a healthy pregnancy.

There are two primary points that need to be addressed in order to appreciate these findings.

During a recent American political convention, two networks carried real-time Twitter 'data', what they called a meter, based on the commentary on the social media service.  While election polls have not been accurate for the last few decades, some technologists believe Twitter can be.

As evidence, they say the have devised a means to predict the outcome of other election-based processes - TV talent shows - through their big data analysis of tweets. Analysis of Twitter is not new, it is built into their API, but Fabio Ciulla from Northeastern University in Boston, USA and colleagues say their method shows that the elimination of contestants in TV talent shows based on public voting, such as "American Idol", can be anticipated. 

According to WHO, "Although it is a vaccine-preventable disease, rabies still poses a significant public health problem in many countries in Asia and Africa where 95% of human deaths occur even though safe, effective vaccines for both human and veterinary use exist." 

Obesity is not just happening in New York City 7-Elevens(1), it is also happening in aging bones.

Bone marrow stem cells, which are adult stem cells, are in their fifth decade of uncontroversial new discovery. But they can still surprise us.  Our bones may be getting fatter as we age, and it could lead to osteoporosis, the condition where bone mineral density is 2.5 standard deviations below the mean (62%). The NIH estimates that up to 50% of women and 25% of men over the age of 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis. 

An 8.6 magnitude earthquake occurred 62 miles off the coast of Sumatra on April 11th, 2012. 

Along with being severe by any measure, in one way it was the largest earthquake in observed human history; it originated within the plate rather than at a plate boundary.

The quake originated under the Wharton Basin in the Indian Ocean, where hundreds of miles of rock were under crushing tension, causing the plate to deform at its base. This 'deforming zone' was also absorbing tension as two plates, the Indian and Australian plates, rotated toward each other. 

A new ATLAS search for supersymmetric signatures in 2011 LHC data has appeared last week in the arxiv. The result ? No hint of a signal, not even for ready money.

So if you are on a hurry, you can just have a glance at the graph below, which summarizes the measurement in terms of excluded regions of a slice of the complicated parameter space of SUSY theories.

Otherwise, if you want to know a bit more of what this is about, I can provide some detail.

Boston Scientific Corporation has received CE Mark approval for use of its PRECISION(TM) PLUS SPINAL CORD STIMULATOR (SCS) System in patients with the system and are in need for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) head-only scans. The PRECISION PLUS SCS System is the world's first rechargeable SCS device. This approval provides physicians with an additional diagnostic option for patients with chronic intractable pain. 

Remember The-Shadow-Scholar, the deeply disturbing confirmation of that academia generally selects for meaningless drivel while making critical information unheard; the story that especially academic media try to contain as a side issue about student writing although it is obviously symptomatic of the whole of academia and much of modern society?

Spend too much time on Facebook?  Can't get enough LOLcat videos?

You no longer need to be ashamed.  You may have a disease. Psychologists interviewed a total of 843 people about their Internet habits and an analysis of the questionnaires showed that 132 men and women in the group exhibit problematic behavior in how they handle being online; all their thoughts revolve around the Internet during the day, and they feel their wellbeing is severely impacted if they have to go without it.