Should there be restrictions on the amount of sodium in processed and restaurant foods? Many public health advocates think so. They argue that people consume excessive amounts of sodium without even knowing it and mandatory restrictions would reduce the number of heart attacks, strokes, and even deaths that result from all that salty food.

But does the available research justify a population-wide restriction on sodium in food? Not quite, says Michael H. Alderman from the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Drilling firm Lapindo Brantas has denied that one of its gas exploration well was the trigger for the Lusi mud volcano, which killed 13 people and displaced thirty thousand in East Java, Indonesia on May 29, 2006. The firm instead blamed an earthquake that occurred 280 kilometers (174 miles) away and backed up their claims in an article published in Marine and Petroleum Geology.

In response, a group of scientists from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Indonesia have written a discussion paper in which they claim to refute the main arguments made by Lapindo Brantas and document new data that provides the strongest evidence to date of a link between the well and the volcano. That paper will be published in the same journal.

Dairy Farmer Makes BS Claim

The Utah House has passed a resolution questioning the science behind global warming.

Rep. Mike Noel, the Legislature's chief climate-change skeptic, declared Thursday that global warming is a conspiracy to control world population.

The House Natural Resources Committee then approved a resolution that expresses the Utah Legislature's belief that "climate alarmists' carbon dioxide-related global warming hypothesis is unable to account for the current downturn in global temperatures."

The question of whether record snows in the Northeast US says something about climate change is a scientific question. The NY Times shows us how not to report on a scientific issue:

Skeptics of global warming are using the record-setting snows to mock those who warn of dangerous human-driven climate change — this looks more like global cooling, they taunt.

Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events.

Every galaxy we know about has a collection of black holes that can each be up to 10 times the sun’s mass. In addition to these black holes, there is one to rule them all; a supermassive black hole embedded in the heart of each galaxy, roughly one million to one billion times the mass of the sun.

Electronic cigarettes fail to deliver nicotine to the consumer and be should be regulated and packaged in a manner consistent with the product's effect – even if that effect is a total failure to deliver nicotine as demonstrated, according to a study published in Tobacco Control.

Electronic cigarettes consist of a battery, heater and cartridge containing a solution of nicotine, propylene glycol and other chemicals and have been marketed to deliver nicotine without tobacco toxicants. Despite no published data concerning safety or efficacy, these products are sold in shopping malls and online. Further, "electronic cigarettes" currently are unregulated in the U.S., unlike other products intended to deliver nicotine to smokers such as lozenges, gum and patches.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego have discovered the origin of strains of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among men who have sex with men. The team says the results are important because knowing the mechanisms by which HIV uses human sex to spread is essential to stopping the HIV epidemic.

It is known that most HIV infections worldwide result from exposure to the HIV virus in semen, made up of seminal cells and the fluid around these calls, called seminal plasma. HIV virus particles contain RNA and exist in the plasma, while infected seminal cells contain HIV DNA.

Writing in the journal Radiocarbon, researchers report the development of a new calibration curve that could answer key questions about human evolution and climate change. The new calibration curve, which extends back 50,000 years, is a major landmark in radiocarbon dating-- the method used by archaeologists and geoscientists to establish the age of carbon-based materials.

The curve, called INTCAL09, not only extends radiocarbon calibration but also considerably improves earlier parts of the curve.

It takes Saturn almost thirty years to orbit the Sun, with the opportunity to image both of its poles occurring only twice in that period. 2009 brought a unique chance for Hubble to image Saturn with the rings edge-on and both poles in view. At the same time Saturn was approaching its equinox so both poles were equally illuminated by the Sun's rays.

A series of experiments on honey bees foraging for food has revealed that the bees warn their nest mates about dangers they encounter while feeding with a special signal that is akin to a 'stop sign' for bees.

The bees were attacked by nearby colonies while fighting for food at an experimental feeder and produced a specific signal to stop nest mates who were recruiting others for this dangerous location. Honey bees use a waggle dance to communicate the location of food and other resources. Attacked bees directed "stop" signals at nest mates waggle dancing for the dangerous location.