This autumn's banking panic will take a severe toll on world growth especially in developed economies. GDP growth in the OECD group of mainly rich countries will slow to 0.4 per cent in 2009, the weakest since 1982. Among the G7, the American and British economies will contract next year and the best performer among the other five countries will be Canada, with GDP growth of just 0.5 per cent. The key downside risk is that the bailout packages may not succeed, in which case financial turmoil will persist and the recession will be deeper and more prolonged than we are forecasting.

A new image released by ESO shows the amazing intricacies of a vast stellar nursery, which goes by the name of Gum 29. In the center, a small cluster of stars — called Westerlund 2 — has been found to be the he home of one of the most massive double star systems known to astronomers.

Gum 29 is a huge region of hydrogen gas that has been stripped of its electrons (ionized) by the intense radiation of the hot young stars located at its centre. Astronomers call this an HII (pronounced "H-two") region, and this particularly stunning example stretches out across space for over 200 light-years. The name stems from the fact that it is the 29th entry in the catalogue published by Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum in 1955.

Within the scope of an international rescue excavation project, a team of four archaeologists specialized in Middle Eastern affairs headed by Dr. Dirk Wicke (Institute of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies) have unearthed parts of a Neo-Assyrian governor's palace dating back to the 9th to 7th cent. B.C. in a two-month excavation program amongst the ruins on Ziyaret Tepe.

Are you missing that special someone? To let him or her know you really care, nothing says 'I love you' like a lab report showing your corticotropin-releasing factor levels are elevated.

A paper published in Neuropsychopharmacology notes that evidence suggests social bonds have a positive impact on health and buffer against stressors. Absence or sudden disruption of those bonds can lead to anxiety-like and depressive-like disorders. "Thus," the authors say, "understanding the neurobiological consequences of partner loss, particularly with respect to increased susceptibility to depression, may be informative for developing strategies for coping with the loss of a loved one."

Eyes are the interface between the outside world and our brain's perceptions.   Being the instrument of sight, and therefore a lot of our information, we rely on the functions of our eyes quite obsessively, and why wouldn't we?  They make it possible to observe our beautiful world and really appreciate different species and the unique characteristics they hold - like their eyes. 

Evolution of the Eye

You know how people always tell kids it's not their fault when parents get divorced?  It may be partly their fault when it comes to kids with ADHD kids, according to results of a new study in the October issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 

Parents of a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are nearly twice as likely to divorce by the time the child is 8 years old than parents of children without ADHD, the researchers say.  Moreover, among couples in the study who were divorced, marriages involving children with ADHD ended sooner than marriages with no ADHD-diagnosed children. 

The first-ever glimpse of nanoscale catalysts in action could lead to improved pollution control and fuel cell technologies. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory observed catalysts restructuring themselves in response to various gases swirling around them, like a chameleon changing its color to match its surroundings.

Using a state-of-the-art spectroscopy system at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, the team watched, for the first time, as nanoparticles composed of two catalytic metals changed their composition in the presence of different reactants. Until now, scientists have had to rely on snapshots of catalysts taken before and after a reaction, never during.

Young people with Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not only at increased risk of starting to smoke cigarettes, they also tend to become more seriously addicted to tobacco and more vulnerable to environmental factors such as having friends or parents who smoke, according to a study from Massachusetts General Hospital reseachers. The report in the Journal of Pediatrics also found that individuals with more ADHD-related symptoms, even those who don't have the full syndrome, are at greater risk of becoming dependent on nicotine than those with fewer symptoms. 

Climate change will have different effects on lakes in warmer and colder regions of the globe, according to Japanese and German researchers following studies of very deep caldera lakes in Japan.

Scientists from Hokkaido University, the Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kagoshima University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) compared current measurements with measurements taken 70 years ago. This confirmed a rise in temperatures in the deep water layers of lakes in the south of Japan, while the deep water temperatures of lakes in the north remained the same.

A rise in carbon emissions is not the only threat to the planet. Changes to the nitrogen cycle, caused in large part by the widespread use of fertilizers, are also damaging both water quality and aquatic life. These concerns are highlighted by Professor Grace Brush, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, in her historical review (1) of landscape changes around Chesapeake Bay, a large estuary on the Atlantic coast of the USA. Her findings are published online this week in Springer's journal Estuaries and Coasts.