A growth hormone that had shown some promise for treating people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) showed no benefit in a new study published in Neurology. 

Two previous, shorter studies using growth hormone insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1, to treat ALS had conflicting results. A North American study found that the drug was beneficial, while a European study found no benefit. 

Don't give up the driving range just yet, but a group of physicists at the 61st Meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics say they can optimize a golf ball with numerical simulations, leaving prototyping to verify manufacturing rather than as part of the design.

That means some day you could have a golf ball optimized for your swing.

Were you first in line to buy a new iPhone?   Or are you still using your handy Motorola StarTAC from 1998?    Do you like changing jobs now and again because you get bored?

These personality traits may be hard-wired in your brain, according to scientists at the University of Bonn.   They say the neural connection between the ventral striatum and the hippocampus is what makes the difference. Both of them are reward centers in the brain. The reward system which urges us to take action is located in the striatum, whereas the hippocampus is responsible for specific memory functions.

Russian semiologist Yuri M. Lotman has analyzed how epidemics of fear work through the study of witch-hunting processes that claimed thousands of victims in Catholic and Protestant countries centuries ago.

In the article, published in the latest edition of the Revista de Occidente magazine, the most senior representative of cultural semiotics in Spain highlighted that the witch persecution intensity curve “paradoxically coincides with progress in the field of culture and science”. “As Renaissance ideas spread, so do fear and processes”, asserted the expert.

It's classical music for the "Guitar Hero" generation - a way to compose and perform at the same time, with infinite variations.    That's right, you can be Ludwig van Beethoven (except not deaf) and perform his Ninth symphony, armed with a laptop and a midi system that samples different tones, processes them, and sends them back in ever-changing variations.  And an orchestra, if that helps.

You can call it “Ode to Joy 2008” because the basic theme is instantly recognizable but you can alter it in real-time, with ever-changing variety.

Official professional standards in both Scotland and England which aim to nurture the development of new teachers pay too little attention to what 'becoming' a teacher is really like, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which finds that existing standards ignore the emotional, relationship and personal issues which are the real challenge for teachers starting out in their careers, focussing instead on the acquisition of skills and knowledge.

Resulting from the study, researchers propose a new model which aims to improve existing standards by capturing the multi-dimensional experience of new teachers.

Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Strathclyde, Jim McNally, says: "Existing competence-based professional standar

Multiple high-definition videos and other data-rich services may soon stream through homes, offices, ships and planes via new hybrid optical/ultra-wideband-radio systems developed by European researchers.

Moshe Ran, Coordinator of the EU-funded project, UROOF (Photonic components for Ultra-wideband Radio Over Optical Fiber), has a vision. He wants to see streams of high-definition video and other high-bandwidth services flowing through homes, office buildings, and even ships and planes, through a happy marriage of optical and ultra-wideband radio technologies.

“It’s a natural combination that can bring a lot of advantages to the world,” says Ran.

A Spanish research study has tested different combinations of supports and indigenous plants to determine which are the best for reducing energy consumption inside buildings. This type of roof is a “rurban”, sustainable architectural solution that will lead to a reduction in environmental and acoustic contamination levels in cities, and be visually pleasing.

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) have built a roof covered with plants and a watering system that will optimise the consumption of a building’s heating and cooling systems thanks to its insulation. It is a third-generation ecological roof, characterized by its sustainability and the use of indigenous plant species.

A team of investigators from Valencia has developed a machine that separates automatically the seeds from the rind and pith of the pomegranate. The mechanism uses a computer vision system to distinguish and sort the different parts of this fruit, according to a study published on-line by the Journal of Food Engineering.

The difficulty in peeling pomegranates and separating out the seeds disheartens many consumers when they eat the fruit of the pomegranate (Punica granatum). Now this Spanish invention enables the food to be de-seeded automatically.

Breast cancer, the leading cause of death among women in France, is the most commonly occurring cancer in women. Sporadic breast cancer, which is non-hereditary, turns out to be the most widespread, representing 85 to 90% of all cases, but remains the least well-known. Researchers at CNRS and CEA (1), working with a team from Hôpital Saint-Louis (2), have just discovered the cause of 50% of sporadic breast cancers. The results should also explain epidemiological studies which suggest that hormone treatment predisposes patients to breast cancer. The work is published in Cancer Research.