LONDON, January 22 /PRNewswire/ --
- Apps in My Pocket Ltd Launches PocketPhonics for iPhone
A new development in iPod applications is helping children to read.
Phonics, the reading system taught by UK primary schools can now be taught electronically via an iPod Touch or iPhone.
Phonics is a traditional method of teaching children to read and decode words, it was once deemed too boring to be inflicted upon young children, but a recent government review (the Rose report in 2006) led to the revision of the national curriculum to mandate synthetic phonics.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has filed a petition with Secretary Salazar of the United States Department of the Interior to provide additional legal protection for the endangered Florida panther to help prevent its extinction.
Only an estimated 90 to 100 Florida panthers remain today, almost all within South Florida. Because of these low numbers, they are considered at extremely high risk of extinction. Although there are provisions to protect the panther provided by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), designation of critical habitat, a key component of the Act, has yet to be undertaken.
The cathedral termite, found in parts of Australia, is capable of creating mounds for the colony well over 10 feet high. Individual cathedral termites are just standard-looking bugs - head, thorax, abdomen, legs, and so on, with a tiny little primitive brain. But when combined with others of its species, the cathedral termite is capable of constructing a huge, complex hive to house the colony. Unlike human building projects, however, there is no foreman, no plan, and it's unlikely that any termite even knows what it is helping to create.
How is this possible?
The answer lies in the fact that sometimes, a system can provide more complexity than the sum of its parts - leading to what scientists call "emergent behavior."
Living with a female mouse can extend the reproductive life of a male mouse by as much as 20 percent, according to a study conducted by Ralph Brinster and a team of other researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and reported in the journal Biology of Reproduction.
They say this significant implications for the maintenance of male fertility in wildlife and even human populations.
The researchers hypothesize that the females' effect on the environment of the spermatogonial stem cells likely occurs through the male's endocrine and nervous systems, but other systems are likely involved. The change amounts to a reduction of fertility six months earlier in "lonely" mice as opposed to those who have female companionship.
Using Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, flying aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists are getting their first look inside the moon's coldest, darkest craters.
The images show the floors of permanently-shadowed polar craters on the moon that aren't visible from Earth. Scientists are using the instrument to map and search the insides of the craters for water ice.
Even though scientists have successfully sequenced the human genome, they still lack a clear picture of exactly how coding and non-coding DNA sequences function together, or how genomes evolve over time. This has been particularly problematic for scientists who use genetic similarities to characterize evolutionary divergence. Historically, the processes of genetic evolution and genome degradation have been difficult to study due to technological limitations and lack of accurate historical records for species.
Scientists at Penn State University and the Virginia Commonwealth University have discovered a way to produce hydrogen by exposing selected clusters of aluminum atoms to water. The findings are important because they demonstrate that it is the geometries of these aluminum clusters, rather than solely their electronic properties, that govern the proximity of the clusters' exposed active sites. The proximity of the clusters' exposed sites plays an important role in affecting the clusters' reactions with water.
A new, late-ripening apple named WineCrisp carries the Vf gene for scab resistance but was developed over the past 20 plus years through classical breeding techniques, not genetic engineering - so anti science types can rest easy.
Being resistant to apple scab is a big plus for growers, said University of Illinois plant geneticist Schuyler Korban, as it significantly reduces the number of chemical fungicide sprays. "Apple scab is the number one disease that growers have to spray for – 15 to 20 times per season – so not having to spray for apple scab lowers the cost for the grower and is better for the environment."
Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin", and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. The importance of these findings lies in the connection between cognitive function and dementia: people who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia.
Positive racial role models may have an effect on school performance, according to new research by Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management professor Ray Friedman and co-authors who document what they call the “Obama Effect” - namely that the performance gap between black and white Americans in a series of online tests was dramatically reduced during key moments of the 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama’s accomplishments garnered the most national attention.
