6 out of every 10 university students, regardless their field of study, get anxious when it comes to mathematics, according to a research work carried out at the University of Granada.  There are significant differences between men and women in this sense, as men suffer less anxiety when it comes to deal with mathematical tasks (47% of men against 62% of women).

A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear. 

All speakers work by converting an electric signal into sound. Usually, the signal is used to generate a varying magnetic field, which in turn vibrates a mechanical cone, so producing the sound.   Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the new 'Flat, Flexible Loudspeaker' (FFL) speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.

Can't wait for the next Star Trek movie?    Okay, this doesn't have Zoe Saldana but it's still pretty terrific -  the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving along the edge of a graphene crystal. Given that graphene,  single-layered sheets of carbon atoms arranged like chicken wire, may hold the key to the future of the electronics industry, the audience for this new science movie might also reach blockbuster proportions.

Okay, I am going to do something that will cost me my Republican voter card - I am going to recommend we reopen a government agency, the  Office of Technology Assessment (OTA).

It's not just American cars that are hurting the environment, researchers in California and Colorado have set their sights on ... rocket launches?

Future ozone losses from unregulated rocket launches will eventually exceed ozone losses due to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which stimulated the 1987 Montreal Protocol banning ozone-depleting chemicals, said Martin Ross, chief study author from The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. The study, which includes the University of Colorado at Boulder and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provides a market analysis for estimating future ozone layer depletion based on the expected growth of the space industry and known impacts of rocket launches.

... Not that the Texas school board creationists were coherent before, but what else do they have left? After the defeat of language in the state standards to teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution in Texas public schools, the creationist school board members have rallied under the motto "Somebody's got to stand up to experts!" Thus, in defiance of the logical thinking and coherent grammar embraced so fondly by those nefarious experts, the Texas school board on Friday passed a number of incoherent amendments to their state science standards.

Here's another reason why dieters should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: When faced with a large variety of items, consumers tend to underestimate how much of each item is present, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) and Stephen J. Hoch (University of Pennsylvania) investigated consumers' perceptions of quantity in a set of experiments that may help us understand how quantity perceptions influence portion sizes.

"Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" the researchers asked. "Contrary to popular belief, the presence of variety actually makes it seem like there are fewer items."