Sometimes scientists won't understand it even after they see it, but at least they'll believe it despite its improbability. Such is the case with bats, the bumblebee and the hummingbird, which according to classic wing theory should not be able to fly. Yet they seem to have forgotten to read that textbook.

In 1995, bumblebee flight got its answer. This week, the aerodynamics of a hovering bat species has been revealed. Its flight was studied in the wind tunnel laboratory of Lund University.

The wind tunnel at Lund University is specially crafted for research on bird flight. Birds fly “at the spot” against a headwind, allowing detailed investigation of wing movements using high speed video cameras.

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes people to fall asleep uncontrollably during the day. It also includes features of dreaming that occur while awake. Other common symptoms include sleep paralysis, hallucinations and cataplexy. About one out of every 2,000 people is known to have narcolepsy. It affects the same number of men and women.

The majority of patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy experience a number of symptoms of eating disorders, with an irresistible craving for food and binge eating as the most prominent features, according to a study published in the March 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Low-fat diets are more effective in preserving and promoting a healthy cardiovascular system than low-carbohydrate, Atkins’-like diets, according to a new study by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Public awareness of the 'obesity epidemic' has resulted in various dietary weight loss strategies. In America, it is estimated that 45 percent of women and 30 percent of men diet to lose weight.

“The nutrient-specific effects of these diets on cardiovascular health are largely unknown,” says David D. Gutterman, M.D.

“Low-carbohydrate diets are significantly higher in total grams of fat, protein, dietary cholesterol and saturated fats than are low-fat diets. While a low-carbohydrate diet may result in weight loss and improvement in blood pressure, similar to a low-fat diet, the higher fat content is ultimately more detrimental to heart health than is the low-fat diet suggested by the American Heart Association,” points out Shane Phillips, M.D.

The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics Robotic Systems an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a total potential value of $40 million for production of the robotic Mobile Detection and Assessment and Response System (MDARS).

General Dynamics Robotic Systems will manufacture the semi-autonomous security vehicles and provide spare parts, training and technical services for a five-year period. The work will be done at its Westminster, Md., production facility.

Reported: a 42 year old female patient with a serious atopic dermatitis, abruptly appearing since age 8. During several hospitalizations, the patient underwent various therapies without reaching -she relates- any amelioration but on the other hand getting bad influences on the relationship, due to the deep hormonal diseases induced by the cortico therapy. Kept under observation from october 1995, the patient was subjected to an increasing treatment with cyclosporine, starting with a 2,5 mg/Kg/die at the end of an 8 months timeframe archiving a total recovery of the cutaneous pathology and being enabled to a normal social life.

The first case of progressive scalp cicatricial alopecia and
follicular lichen planus (LP) on the trunk and extremities, was
described by Piccardi in 1914, to which he gave the name
"cheratosi spinulosa".

Graham-Little published a similar case in
the successive year of a 55 year old woman, referred by Lasseur of
Lausanne,Switzerland. LASSUEUR PICCARDI GRAHAM LITTLE Syndrome is a rare case where are associated "Cicatricial alopecia and lichen planus follicularis" come together small confluent patches of progressive scarring alopecia, appearance of the lichen planus follicularis with follicular keratosis and noncicatricial alopecia of the axilae and pubes.

LONDON, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has this week decided to further postpone its decision on the sanction of a Lincolnshire veterinary surgeon who had appeared before the Committee a year ago, charged with serious professional misconduct.

How do scientists store nothing? It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but the answer is causing a stir in the realm of quantum physics after two research teams, including one from the University of Calgary, have independently proven it’s possible to store a special kind of vacuum in a puff of gas and then retrieve it a split second later.

In our everyday life, light is completely gone when we turn it off. In the world of quantum physics, which governs microscopic particles, even the light that is turned off exhibits some noise. This noise brings about uncertainty that can cause trouble when trying to make extremely precise measurements.

Kidney stones are very common – and painful – in men. About 3 in 20 men (1 in 20 women) in developed countries develop them at some stage. Mice, however, rarely suffer though the precise reasons are unknown. Jeffrey S. Clark and colleagues, writing in The Journal of Physiology, have come up with some answers.

Kidney stones are crystalline deposits of various chemicals that should normally be excreted in the urine, particularly oxalate. Common in food, it is usually disposed of by the gut into the faeces by exchanging it for chloride. If there is little chloride available, in a low-salt diet for example, oxalate may be retained by the intestine to eventually be excreted by the kidneys, where the stones may form.

Mice, unlike men, do not spontaneously develop kidney stones, making it difficult to set up an animal model of this common disease. Now, some reasons for this difference between mice and men may have emerged.

Do you like Thomas Pynchon, but are you stumped by the crazy turn-of-the-century science in his latest novel, Against The Day? You're not alone! I've put together a little guide for the perplexed, a three-part primer on special relativity, vector analysis and quaternions, and Riemann surfaces, just for Pynchon readers.