Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with hopes of claiming the wealth of the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, for the Spanish. Two years later the explorer claimed the first European contact with a Pacific island culture when he landed on Guam – 1,500 miles north of the Spice Islands.

Was he the worst explorer ever? No, says North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick. Magellan’s historic circumnavigation of the globe was beset by unusual weather conditions, like El Niño, which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean but sent him over a thousand miles off course.

Yes, El Niño, bane or boon to global warming debaters, depending on which side you are on. Screwing us all up then too.

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mark Changizi says that actions like catching a football or easily moving through a room full of people requires something more than quickly responding to a situation — it requires our ability to foresee the future.

It takes our brain nearly one-tenth of a second to translate the light that hits our retina into a visual perception of the world around us. While a neural delay of that magnitude may seem minuscule, imagine trying to catch a ball or wade through a store full of people while always perceiving the very recent (one-tenth of a second prior) past. A ball passing within one meter of you and traveling at one meter per second in reality would be roughly six degrees displaced from where you perceive it, and even the slowest forward-moving person can travel at least ten centimeters in a tenth of a second.

REHOVOT, Israel, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Objet Geometries Ltd. (http://www.2objet.com), the innovation leader in 3-D printing, today announced that its revolutionary Connex500(TM) system has been recognized with the red dot award (http://www.red-dot.de), one of the highest and most coveted honors for product design and innovation worldwide. The Connex500(TM) is the first-ever system to allow printing of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties simultaneously.

(Photo: Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071115/281960 )

(Logo: Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080514/305187 )

LONDON, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Health Professionals Calling for Further Guidance From Department of Health

Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and breast cancer.

UVB exposure triggers photosynthesis of vitamin D3 in the body. This form of vitamin D also is available through diet and supplements.

Approximately 1,150,000 cases and 410,000 deaths from breast cancer occur annually worldwide, including 215,000 new cases and 41,000 deaths in the United States.

STEWARTVILLE, Minnesota, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Rochester Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: ROCM) announced today that the United Kingdom's Association for Continence Advice (ACA) has awarded Rochester Medical its trophy for best product. There were seventeen entries competing for the ACA "Look Good, Feel Good Award" at the ACA annual conference, including entries from the Company's major competitors. The ACA is a membership organization for health and social care professionals concerned with the progression of care for continence.

LONDON and NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- A volatile market environment with increased risk is forcing the investment community to adopt data management practices that enable aggregate position keeping across their organizations, finds a new white paper from GoldenSource Corporation (http://www.thegoldensource.com) and Investment Solutions Consultants (ISC). GoldenSource, a leading provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) solutions and ISC, a limited liability partnership exclusively serving the investment management community, collaborated on the white paper which identifies 11 key drivers that are influencing the need for aggregated position keeping across the investment community.

BARCELONA, Spain, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Randomized TRIAS HR Pilot Study Compares Genous, Boston Scientific's Taxus(R)

- Other Presentations Focus on Real-World Use of Genous, Stent's Performance in Patients with AMI, Those Who Could Not Tolerate Dual-Antiplatelet Therapy

OrbusNeich today announced that multiple clinical data presentations in a symposium at EuroPCR 2008 support the use of the company's Genous Bio-engineered R stent, the world's first pro-healing stent, as a safe alternative to drug-eluting stents.

12-Month TRIAS HR Pilot Study Data

MOSCOW, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces a new appointment to the management at its Southern Kuzbass OAO coal mining subsidiary.

Victor Skulditskiy (50), who previously held the position of Director of Coal Concentration and Processing Division, was appointed Managing Director of Southern Kuzbass OAO. Mr. Skulditskiy succeeded Sergei Popov, who was Acting Managing Director and now becomes the First Deputy Managing Director - Director for Operations.

Do you like that title? I can't help it, I hear that song from Robin Hood every time I see the word 'oekologie' so hum along with me and enjoy episode #16.

First, I can't take credit for finding most of the terrific stuff contained in here. We're big fans of community events like this so we bothered everyone we could to help find good stuff rather than stay passive and just use submissions that got sent in. As a result, we got some terrific work that was done over the last month. Let's get right to it.

Justin at Sustainablog advocates a velvet glove approach rather than the iron fist approach sometimes taken by enviromentalists in Myths of Environmentalism. He says it's a better idea to remind people that the beautiful nature experiences they enjoyed as kids should be around when they have grandkids too. No argument about that, though we're generally inclined to make fun of Proust here, but that's only because we have fewer Ph.D.'s in English than those guys.