A new book, just about to be published, has already caused a stir in the blogosphere. “Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think” by Elaine Ecklund, a sociologist from Rice University, claims that scientists are less atheistic than previously thought.

The dustjacket blurb explains:”In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. She finds that most of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. Nearly 50 percent of them are religious. Many others are what she calls “spiritual entrepreneurs,” seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion…..only a small minority are actively hostile to religion.”

A satellite recently made the news for careening out of order and threatening other satellites with its unplanned path and bad driving. I just want to point out, that is not my satellite. Not my fault. I wasn't there.  I have an alibi!

Short recap: The ground station lost control of the geostationary (always over the same part of the Earth) communications satellite Galaxy 15, which has now started to drift from its position while still broadcasting. Folks are worried because it's still transmitting, so it might cause signal interference with other statellite broadcasts. They need to regain control and force a full shutdown.

Children who pick up smoking may not recognize the symptoms of nicotine dependence early on in the habit, say researchers writing in Pediatrics.

Their study found that sixth-graders who started smoking in the 4-year period 2002–2006 were unable to recognize that symptoms such as irritability and desire to smoke are harbingers of addiction.

Researchers surveyed 1246 adolescent smokers every three to four months, over the four-year period.  Study participants were monitored for 10 symptoms of dependence with the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist. The association between number of symptoms and smoking frequency was examined using cross-lagged analyses.

A variant of the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme ADH1B*3 is associated with reduced rates of alcohol dependence (AD), according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical&Experimental Research.

The enzyme variant appears to cause sedation and reduce the amount alcohol a person will drink.  ADH1B*3 is found almost exclusively in populations with African ancestry, the study's authors say.

Problem gamblers react more intensely to "near misses" than casual gamblers, possibly spurring them on to play more, according to new research published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers found that the brain region that responds to rewards by delivering a dose of the chemical dopamine was especially active in these individuals.

Studies have shown that pathological gambling is an addiction, similar in many ways to drug addiction. The new study suggests that the degree to which a person's brain responds to near misses may indicate the severity of addiction.

A new study published in PLoS Medicine has found that skepticism about the benefit of the HPV vaccine remains high among parents of adolescent girls.

Even when financial and healthcare barriers are removed, some parents remain hesitant to have their daughters receive the vaccine - the more educated parents are, the less likely it is they will consent, says the new study.  As a result, policymakers must spend more money to ensure that the debate is properly framed.

The authors surveyed parents of sixth-grade girls (age 11) in a publicly funded school-based program in British Columbia, Canada, to determine the level of uptake of the first dose of the HPV vaccine, and to examine the factors involved in their decision to allow receipt of the vaccine.

Pregnant mothers who smoke during pregnancy may be putting their children at risk psychiatric problems in childhood and young adulthood, according to a new study.

Finnish researchers found that adolescents who had been exposed to prenatal smoking were at increased risk for use of all psychiatric drugs especially those uses to treat depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and addiction compared to non-exposed youths. The study will be presented tomorrow at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Researchers from the Seattle Children's Research Institute have found that teenagers who sleep less are more likely to gain weight. Their study, they say, is one of the first studies to document an association between sleep duration and weight in adolescents, even after controlling for calorie intake, activity level and depressive symptoms.

"Sleep has long been recognized as an important health behavior," said lead author Leslie A. Lytle. "We are just beginning to recognize its relationship to overweight and obesity in children and adults alike."

A University of Florida engineer has crafted a nickel-sized imaging device that uses organic light-emitting diode technology similar to that found in laptop screens for night vision. The device is paper-thin, light and inexpensive, making it a possible add-on for cell phones.

Other applications could include night vision technology for car windshields, or even for standard glasses to use at night.
 
A paper detailing the infrared-to-vision device was published in a recent issue of Advanced Materials.

A new report in the May issue of Cell Metabolism shows that our arteries can also suffer the effects of insulin resistance, though for entirely different reasons than other areas of the body.

Earlier studies showed that in the context of systemic insulin resistance, blood vessels become resistant, too. Doctors also knew that insulin resistance and the high insulin levels to which it leads are independent risk factors for vascular disease. But it wasn't clear if arteries become diseased because they can't respond to insulin or because they get exposed to too much of it.

Insulin sends a signal in our arteries that helps prevent the buildup of fatty plaques that can cause arteries to harden.