It seems like common sense, right? We don't allow cigarettes on TV because the risk to impressionable younger people is greater than it is with adults. Adolescents who have high levels of exposure to television programs that contain sexual content are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy over the following three years as their peers who watch few such shows, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
The study, published in the November edition of the journal Pediatrics, is the first to establish a link between teenagers' exposure to sexual content on TV and either pregnancies among girls or responsibility for pregnancies among boys.
Researchers in Spain writing in the Journal of Proteome Research report deep new insights into how evolution changes the biochemistry of living things, helping them to adapt to new environments. Their study, based on an analysis of proteins produced by two populations of marine snails, reveals chemical differences that give one population a survival-of-the fittest edge for life in its cold, wave-exposed environment.
Researchers in China writing in Journal of the American Chemical Society are reporting development of a new DNA "tweezers" that are the first of their kind capable of grasping and releasing objects on-demand. The microscopic tweezers could have several potential uses, the researchers note. Those include microsurgery, drug and gene delivery for gene therapy, and in the manufacturing of nano-sized circuits for futuristic electronics.
WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands, November 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Netherlands and Malaysia have joined forces to dispel the confusion that has arisen surrounding greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm cultivation in tropical peatland areas. Dutch Minister Cramer (Housing, Regional Development and Environment) and Malaysian Minister Chin (Plantation Industries and Commodities) set up the Joint Committee on Carbon Emissions, which is charged to shed light on this subject in the coming years.
Optical science has taken another leap forward. Increasing amounts of technologies rely on the usage of optic fibers for transmission of phone calls, TV broadcasts, and the internet. Optical fibers allows a higher bandwidth which means faster downloads, and connections.
A team of researchers from Clemson University, headed by Professor John Ballato, have devised a new optic fiber, containing a silicon core. Their findings, published in Optics Express (1), have propelled optic science into a new wave of applications for optic fibers.
You've had the flu three years in a row. The first year, you got it from Bob, the IT guy, who sneezed while updating your computer. The second year, you got it from Harry, who touched the tab on the water cooler after sneezing into his hand. The third year, you got it from Linda because she made out with Harry, and Harry's wife got the flu from their kids. Gross.
BRUSSELS, November 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) announced today that Ms Ann Keeling has joined the organization as Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director.
The International Diabetes Federation, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is an umbrella organization of over 200 diabetes associations worldwide. It is the global advocate for the more than 250 million people with diabetes, their families, and healthcare providers.
Scientific happenings on this day in history…
But first: today’s quiz. Not all inventions are cold and scientific… some are more on the “delicious” side of the scale. And some inventors don’t even have to create a particular invention, yet can still be the reason behind its fame. Such is the case with the answer to today’s quiz.
John Montagu, born on this day in 1718, was a well-known British politician, inventor, and explorer. What tasty, well-known invention (which he is the namesake of) -- did he make famous?
On to other historic happenings:
EVENTS
1664
By playing it safe and using a two-pronged attack, a novel designer molecule, created and tested by an international team of researchers, fights malignant melanoma. The substance is similar to components of viruses in that they alert the immune system so the body's own defenses are also strengthened against cancer cells in the process. But it also puts pressure on the tumor in a different way; it switches off a specific gene in the malignant cells, driving them to suicide. With mice suffering from cancer, the researchers have thus been able to fight metastases in the lung, they report in Nature Medicine's November issue.
Cast away on a desert island, surviving on what nature alone can provide, praying for rescue but fearing the sight of a boat on the horizon. Just the imaginative creations of Daniel Defoe in his famous novel "Robinson Crusoe?" There has long been a theory that it was based on the real-life experience of sailor Alexander Selkirk, marooned in 1704 on a small tropical island in the Pacific for more than four years, and now archaeological evidence has been found to support contemporary records of his existence on the island.
