LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, January 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Surely you know of those practical plastic pouches which heat-up as soon as you bend the metal platelet inside. A good thing to have during winter: warm fingers are just a pants pocket away. But how does it work without fire or a battery? Another secret that can be revealed through chemistry. In entertaining weekly episodes our Chemical Reporter answers questions of our podcast listeners on chemistry in our everyday life.

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LONDON, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Monster Leads The Category With More Than 6 Million Visitors Per Month

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q4 2007 rankings of the largest careers services & development sites in Europe, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

Approximately 53.9 million Europeans visited a career services and development site during an average month during the fourth quarter of 2007, averaging 3.5 visits per visitor.

Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively somehow different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion?

These questions are part of a long-standing debate, with some researchers arguing that what we call “creative thought” and “noncreative thought” are not basically different. If this is the case, then people who are thought of as creative do not really think in a fundamentally different way from those who are thought of as noncreative. On the other side of this debate, some researchers have argued that creative thought is fundamentally different from other forms of thought. If this is true, then those who tend to think creatively really are somehow different.

GENEVA, Switzerland, January 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A new International Standard from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) will help designers of audio-video and information technology equipment - such as laptops, mobile phones and TVs - to make the best decisions on energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact at the start of the design and development process.

The standard - IEC 62075 - makes designers consider the entire life cycle of a product - from the materials and energy used in its manufacturing, to its efficiency when switched on or in standby mode, through to the safe disposal of the product at the end of its life.

Using mice as models, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology traced some of the differences between humans and chimpanzees to differences in our diet.

Humans consume a distinct diet compared to other apes. Not only do we consume much more meat and fat, but we also cook our food. It has been hypothesized that adopting these dietary patterns played a key role during human evolution. However, to date, the influence of diet on the physiological and genetic differences between humans and other apes has not been widely examined.

By feeding laboratory mice different human and chimp diets over a mere two week period, researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, were able to reconstruct some of the physiological and genetic differences observed between humans and chimpanzees.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

3LCD today confirmed its support for the new Color Brightness metric. The Color Brightness metric is being submitted to the ISO for approval as an update to the International Standard for light output measurement. Color Brightness specifies a projector's ability to deliver color. The Color Brightness metric addresses the failure of current projector specifications to measure color performance, allowing purchasers to evaluate color performance at a glance. 3LCD joins a growing list of industry players supporting the new metric.

SAN RAMON, California, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Public Availability of ZigBee Technology Foreshadows New Products Available From ZigBee Members This Year

The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, today announced the public availability of the latest version of the ZigBee Specification and the certification of the newest ZigBee Golden Unit platforms which implement the ZigBee PRO Feature Set.

A new International Standard from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) will help designers of audio-video and information technology equipment - such as laptops, mobile phones and TVs - to make the best decisions on energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact at the start of the design and development process.

The standard - IEC 62075 - makes designers consider the entire life cycle of a product - from the materials and energy used in its manufacturing, to its efficiency when switched on or in standby mode, through to the safe disposal of the product at the end of its life.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, which is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, is now being studied for its potential to treat a variety of conditions. For example, DBS of the hypothalamus has been used to treat cluster headaches and aggressiveness in humans, and stimulating this area influences feeding behavior in animals.

A new study in the Annals of Neurology found that hypothalamic DBS performed in the treatment of a patient with morbid obesity unexpectedly evoked detailed autobiographical memories.