The National Children's Study is an ideal opportunity to get valuable information about pregnant women's health, the most underrepresented population in clinical research, say ethicists at Duke University Medical Center, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. 

The new national study aims to follow children from conception to adulthood.

Although the Institute of Medicine began recommending that pregnant women be included in clinical trials 15 years ago, pregnant women remain excluded from trials for many reasons, primarily ethical concerns raised in the balance between mothers, a consenting group, and babies who have no choice.

Researchers have developed an environmentally-friendly lubricating grease based on ricin oil and cellulose derivatives, according to the journal Green Chemistry. Bonus: the new formula does not include any of the contaminating components used to manufacture traditional industrial lubricants.

Lubricants used in industry are made from non-biodegradable components, such as synthetic oils or petroleum derivatives, and thickeners made with metallic soaps or polyurea derivatives (a family of synthetic polymers). These are currently the best performers, but they also imply more problems from an environmental perspective. 

In an article that makes us want to review the "Studies you won't need to read" section,  UC  San Diego School of Medicine researchers examined HIV infection among male clients of female prostitutes - in Tijuana, of all places - and decided and found that over half of male clients had recently had other risky sexual behavior, like unprotected sex.

Unprotected sex with a tijuana prostitute  is what poker players would call a 'tell' when it comes to risky behavior.   They also reported a high prevalence of drug use. 

The public looks up to scientists but scientists tend to look down on the public; and science journalism gets a lot of the blame.  So say the findings of a new report by the Pew Research Center for the People&the Press which finds that overwhelming majorities of Americans believe that science has had a positive effect on society and that science has made life easier for most people. The public - even those skeptical of climate change and evolution - rates scientists highly and believes government investments in science pay off in the long term. 

Michael White recently blogged about Rock Stars of Science (July 8), which is an educational effort to attract kids to careers in science.  (Michael characterized this as “another hopeless attempt to make nerds look cool.”) 

Even though you're already the mathematical Wizard of Oz, you can still benefit from the Wow factor of hoisting a new curtain of number tricks to impress your friends and intimidate your enemies.

Here, dear geek, are three nifty mind widgets to make mates want you and peers want to be you.

Multiply up to 20x20
1. For example, take 17x13
2. Place the larger number on top, in your head
3. Imagine a box, encompassing the 17 and the 3
4. Add these to make 20
5. Add a zero to this, to make it 200
6. Multiply the 7 and the 3 to get 21
7. Add this to 200 to get the answer: 221

Multiply any two-digit number by 11
1. For example, take 79

A clinical report in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International supports the belief that the designer drug “Spice Gold” is strongly addictive.   Ulrich S. Zimmermann from Dresden Technical University and colleagues describe a young man who developed physical withdrawal symptoms after regular consumption, accompanied by a dependence syndrome.

Since January 2009, “Spice Gold” has been subject to the German Narcotics Law, meaning that production, free trade and possession are forbidden, but initially only for a year. There could be a permanent regulation at the end of that time and more information about “Spice Gold” is currently being collected.

A team of astrophysicists say they have solved a mystery that led some scientists to speculate that the distribution of certain gamma rays in our Milky Way galaxy was evidence for undetectable 'dark matter' making up much of the mass of the universe.

In two papers, the astrophysicists instead say that this distribution of gamma rays can be explained by the way "antimatter positrons" from the radioactive decay of elements, created by massive star explosions in the galaxy, propagate through the galaxy. Thus, they say, the observed distribution of gamma rays is not evidence for dark matter.

Johann Galle fans won't like reading this but professor David Jamieson, Head of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne, says Galileo beat him to the punch in the discovery of Neptune - by 234 years.

If correct, the discovery would be the first new planet identified by humanity since deep antiquity.

Medical doctors often like to characterize themselves as scientists, and many others in the public are happy to join them in this.

I submit, however, that such a characterization is an error.

It is not a slur on the profession or its practitioners to say this, particularly once one understands that science is not the only, or only worthy, or even the most prominent form of reasoned inquiry that people can and do engage in. Furthermore, it is not a slur to say something that is simply true.