By observing and surveying 30 cool solar-type stars in the 2.5 Billion-year-old cluster NGC 6819 an international research team has created an analytical procedure for accurately determining the ages of stars with knowledge of their masses and rotation periods. 

 This "gyrochronology",  a neologism of co-author Sydney Barnes, has been shown to work over a wide age range, significantly improving the accuracy of stellar age determination.

"The relationship between mass, rotation rate and age of the observed stars is now defined well enough that by measuring the first two parameters, the third, the star's age, can be determined with only 10 percent uncertainty," said Barnes.

For fruit crops such as apples, compromised skin appearance results in reduced market value. Identifying causes of fruit disorders and diseases can help producers modify growing strategies and increase profits and so researchers in Germany recently released a study of "skin spot", a disorder found in 'Elstar' and occasionally in 'Golden Delicious' apples. It is characterized by patches of small brownish dots that usually appear on the apples' skin after the fruit is moved from storage.

Staying active allows you to age optimally, according to a small study in The Journal of Physiology which analyzed older amateur cyclists and found that many had levels of physiological function that would place them at a much younger age compared to the general population. The authors say this debunks the common assumption that aging automatically makes you more frail than younger people.

The researchers recruited 84 male and 41 female cycling enthusiasts aged 55 to 79 to explore how the aging process affects the human body, and whether specific physiological markers can be used to determine your age.

Solidarity with France and Charlie Hebdo in Taipei Pichi Chuang/Reuters

By Lucas Hollister, Dartmouth College

In his 1998 novel, The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq argued that Charlie Hebdo played a pivotal role in the redefinition of social values in post-1968 France.

The political football of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America is well-known but a new study has found that even immigrants with job offers are less likely to have those immigration requests granted - if they are from Latin America,

Higher alcohol taxes curb binge drinking, according to a new paper by Boston University scholars. 

With the cultural spotlight shining so brightly on the risks of gridiron football, it was only a matter of time before the unknown risks of youth rugby got some scrutiny, and a senior doctor in The BMJ does that this week.

Michael Carter, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, argues that "rugby sidesteps many safeguards intended to ensure pupil wellbeing" and calls on schools, clubs, medical facilities, and regulatory bodies to "cooperate now to quantify the risks of junior rugby."

In UK schools where rugby is played, it mostly begins as a near compulsory activity from the age of 8 years, he explains. By 10 years, most players engage in some form of contact competition, increasing the potential for injury.

Bacteria in our digestive tract have evolved to help us break down and digest the complex carbohydrates that make up the yeast cell wall that give beer and bread their bubbles - and that could support the development of new treatments to help people fight off yeast infections and autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease, according to a new study.

Evolving over the 7,000 years that we have been eating fermented food and drink, the ability of a common gut bacterium called Bacteroides thetaiotomicron to degrade yeasts is almost exclusively found in the human gut. The team says the discovery of this process could accelerate the development of prebiotic medicines to help people suffering from bowel problems and autoimmune diseases.

By Charles Q. Choi, Inside Science - A laser could be created with air in a practical way, a new advance that could one day be used to help spot explosives or pollutants from afar, researchers say.

Laser light is generated by pumping energy into atoms or other objects. A chain reaction can occur in which energized atoms all stimulate each other to give off laser light.

January is a strain for most people. It’s dark and the festive lights don’t disguise this anymore. You’re back at work and the next holiday may be some way off. You’ve just had to spend a large amount of time with your family. This has consequences.