African-Americans are significantly more likely to be sanctioned by the United States welfare system than Caucasians, according to research published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, but is there bias?  Welfare sanctions in response to rules violations should be applied, in both law and principle, according to behavior and not characteristics like race, yet Sanford F. Schram, a professor of social theory and policy at Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, says that is exactly what happens.

"This study provides powerful evidence that race and stereotype-consistent traits interact to shape the allocation of punishment at the frontlines of welfare reform," according to Schram.

The terms 'athlete' and 'jock' are sometimes used interchangeably - especially be people who dislike athletes.   And it's usually negative.   Due to that, only 18 percent of students in a recent study strongly identified with the identity of "jock," while 55 percent strongly identified with the identity of "athlete."   Students were twice as likely to reject the jock label.

A University of Leicester student will be presenting his discovery of 425 million year-old fossils found in rocks from the Silurian period of geological time in Herefordshire.  The fossils represent a great range of animal groups and their study has tremendously increased knowledge of the evolution of life.

David Riley’s research represents the first major attempt by scientists to understand the preservation pathway giving us a rare ‘window’ into a Silurian sea floor environment.

Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change.   In a new study published this week in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) describe how they used satellite images to survey the sea-ice around 90% of Antarctica's coast to search for emperor penguin colonies. The survey identified a total of 38. Ten of those were new.

Of the previously known colonies six had re-located and six were not found.

WIGAN, England, June 1 /PRNewswire/ --

WIGAN, England, June 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- Your Country Needs You!

Keep Britain Tidy is looking for a celebrity ambassador to help give England a face-lift.

In an unusual step, the anti-litter charity has taken out a job advert in the national press as it searches for an iconic figure to champion its cause.

The successful candidate would be following in the footsteps of the Queen Mother, Abba, Marc Bolan, and comedy legends Morecambe and Wise.

Formed in 1954, and regarded as one of the world's first eco-brands, Keep Britain Tidy has long used stars of stage and screen to promote its work.

Keep Britain Tidy has had successes in recent years like reducing dog dirt and fly-posting.

DOHA, Qatar, May 31 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Groundbreaking Projects of Innovation From the 16 Candidates are Now Revealed

'Stars of Science', the previously unseen Pan-Arab innovation contest on TV initiated by Qatar Foundation, kicked off, yesterday, with a highly-anticipated first prime-time episode, available to millions of Arab homes.

In a fast-pace and vibrant rhythm, the audience has been transported to Doha, Tunis, Alexandria and Beirut, where 100 hopeful applicants, short listed among 5600 applications, tried to impress and convince the jury with their projects of innovation.

When we think of volcanic conditions, our minds leap to images of vast eruptions like Mount St. Helens in Washington State, or lava oozing down the slopes of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii. With my family, I once visited that lava flow.

We are used to stones being “rock solid” but here molten orange-hot rock oozes across a two-lane road and pours over a cliff, causing clouds of steam to erupt from the Pacific Ocean.

My daughter Ásta, five years old at the time, was understandably very suspicious of the stuff and would not go near the lava flow. It radiated an oven-like heat, even from fifty feet away. 

GENEVA, May 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- 6 Million People will die and $500 Billion Lost

G-20 leaders pledged to provide the International Monetary Fund with $500 billion to help struggling economies, sparking global controversy. Yet startling research shows that the combined costs of tobacco-related death and related productivity losses, healthcare expenditures, employee absenteeism, and widespread environmental harm are responsible for draining the same amount - $500 billion - from the global economy each year and it receives much less attention than it deserves.

It should be clear that the vast majority of biological interactions are largely indifferent to others, while there is also a high degree of cooperation as necessitated by the evolution of sexual reproduction. It is this level of cooperation that has also given rise to many animals living in groups or participating in group arrangements.



While there are many animals that are asocial, there are also a significant number that regularly interact and form groups of varying sizes. It should be clear that the formation of such groups is a cooperative effort, but more importantly it also gives rise to an additional consideration since there is often a “cost” associated in belonging.

MADRID, May 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Phase 3 study has demonstrated that Induction Chemotherapy prior to ChemoRadiotherapy significantly increased time-to-treatment failure in comparison to standard ChemoRadiotherapy alone -