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Sharenting: Do You Post Info About Your Kids On Social Media Too Much?

Sharenting: Do You Post Info About Your Kids On Social Media Too Much?

Mar 17 2015 | comment(s)

Countless blogs share stories about everything from potty training to preschool struggles while Facebook posts and Tweets are overrun with kids playing dress up, having meltdowns and dancing to the likes of Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

Today's University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health concludes that "sharenting" is here to stay, with more than half of mothers and one-third of fathers discussing child health and parenting on social media and nearly three quarters of parents saying social media makes them feel less alone.

But how far is too far when it comes to crossing the boundaries between public and private life? 
What Should You Do If Your Child Is Bullied At School?

What Should You Do If Your Child Is Bullied At School?

Mar 17 2015 | comment(s)

Having your child bullied at school is one of the greatest fears of parents – and research shows this fear is well founded. School bullying has been described as the single most important threat to the mental health of children and adolescents.

Glucose-Lowering Therapies To Treat Diabetes May Trigger Heart Failure

Glucose-Lowering Therapies To Treat Diabetes May Trigger Heart Failure

Mar 17 2015 | comment(s)

An examination of clinical trials covering more than 95,000 patients has found that glucose or sugar-lowering medications prescribed to patients with diabetes may pose an increased risk for the development of heart failure in these patients.

Heart failure is a common occurrence for patients with type 2 diabetes and has a major impact on one's life expectancy and quality of life as well as representing a major driver of health care costs. Overall, the study found that for every one kilogram of weight gain attributed to a sugar-lowering diabetes medication or strategy, there was an associated seven percent increased risk of heart failure directly linked to that medication or strategy.  
Depressed Parents Linked To Bad Behavior In Toddlers

Depressed Parents Linked To Bad Behavior In Toddlers

Mar 17 2015 | comment(s)

A father's depression during the first years of parenting - as well as a mother's - can put their toddler at risk of developing troubling behaviors such as hitting, lying, anxiety and sadness during a critical time of development, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

This is one of the first studies to show that the impact of a father's depression from postpartum to toddlerhood is the same as a mother's. Previous studies have focused mostly on mothers with postpartum depression and found that their symptoms may impact their children's behavior during early, formative years.

Under Obamacare, Cost May Make The Best Drugs Unavailable

Under Obamacare, Cost May Make The Best Drugs Unavailable

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

New Hepatitis C drugs are terrific - but like every new drug they cost a lot of money to develop and took a lot of time to navigate the regulatory system and as a result they are not cheap. Most cost-benefit analyses have found that these new treatments save a lot more than treatment without them would cost, but with the Affordable Care Act already straining under gigantic expenses that politicians didn't consider when approving it, it may be more economical to force people to do without the best treatment in the short term and incur more costs later, after the economy has time to inflate away the ballooning costs of today.
A Good Laugh Sparks New Friendships

A Good Laugh Sparks New Friendships

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)


If you to make new friends and get people to open up to you, make them laugh. 

Laughter makes people more willing to talk about personal details, without being aware that they are doing so. The act of verbally opening up to someone is a crucial building block that helps to form new relationships and intensify social bonds. Such self-disclosure can be of a highly sensitive nature - like sharing one's religious convictions or personal fears - or a superficial tidbit such as one's favorite type of food. 
Social Fitness: Did A Genetic Bottleneck Occur Because Of Wealth And Power?

Social Fitness: Did A Genetic Bottleneck Occur Because Of Wealth And Power?

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

DNA - inheritance - is more important than the color of your eyes or your hair, it can also influence whether you might develop certain diseases, like cystic fibrosis or hemophilia. Evolution - survival of the fittest - may seem like the great biological equalizer but mankind has clearly conquered it, since all kinds of people who might have died in the past due to foodborne diseases or tainted water or diseases no longer do.
Geoengineering And Climate Change

Geoengineering And Climate Change

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

A National Academy of Sciences panel said that, with proper governance and other safeguards, we should commence more research on geoengineering — technologies that might let humanity deliberately intervene in nature to counter climate change.  With the planet facing potentially severe impacts from global warming in coming decades, drastically reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases was by far the best way to mitigate the effects of a wa

ISRO Successfully Tests Its GSLV Mk III Cryogenic Engine

ISRO Successfully Tests Its GSLV Mk III Cryogenic Engine

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test on Saturday Mar. 14th to check the GSLV Mk III launch vehicle’s indigenous cryogenic CE-20 engine at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri, Tirunelveli district.

“It is yet another milestone achievement on the road map of developing a bigger and more powerful indigenously built high thrust cryogenic upper stage for GSLV Mk III rocket for the Indian Space Program,” said IPRC Director D. Karthikesan. IPRC is called the "Jet Propulsion Laboratory of India" as all stage and engine related tests of ISRO's launch vehicles and satellites are carried out there.
How Millennials Get News

How Millennials Get News

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

When "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart announced he was leaving the program, corporate journalism declared that Millennials without faux news would have no news at all. In reality, Millennials barely watched it, the steady viewers were older and wanted to seem like Millennials, but journalists couldn't figure out where else they might be getting news. Unless they were just passive and uninterested in civic issues - newsless.
Chiron May Possess Saturn-Like Rings

Chiron May Possess Saturn-Like Rings

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

When most people think of cosmic rings, they think of Saturn, but there are actually five bodies in our solar system known to have them. Rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune along with a "centaur", Chariklo, an homage to the mythological Greek creature which was a hybrid of man and beast to note the unclear dual nature of small, rocky bodies that possess qualities of both asteroids and comets.
Intel Science Talent Search Winner Wants To Solve Phonons - After He Finishes High School

Intel Science Talent Search Winner Wants To Solve Phonons - After He Finishes High School

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Michael Hofmann Winer just won a $150,000 first-place prize for innovation, based on quantum condensed matter physics work he did in collaboration with U-Md. physics professor Victor Galitski and graduate student Justin Wilson - and he hasn't finished high school yet.

Winer is the winner of this year's Intel Science Talent Search. Obviously he did a lot of work but he also credits the math, science and computer science magnet program at Montgomery Blair, as well as teacher James R. Schafer, whom he called “one of the best teachers in the universe.”
Sync Across Oceans - Light-Loving Microbes Act In Harmony Thousands Of Miles Apart

Sync Across Oceans - Light-Loving Microbes Act In Harmony Thousands Of Miles Apart

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Microbial communities in different regions of the Pacific Ocean displayed strikingly similar daily rhythms in their metabolism despite inhabiting extremely different habitats, according to a new study.  

From the nutrient-rich waters off California to the nutrient-poor waters north of Hawai'i, dominant photoautotrophs - light-loving bacteria that need solar energy to help them photosynthesize food from inorganic substances - appear to initiate a cascade effect wherein the other major groups of microbes perform their metabolic activities in a coordinated and predictable way. As expected, different photoautotrophs dominated the coastal versus open ocean but many other heterotrophic bacterial groups were common to both habitats.
Social Media May Allow Detection Of Adverse Effects Of Medication In Real Time

Social Media May Allow Detection Of Adverse Effects Of Medication In Real Time

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Adverse Drug Reactions are the biggest safety concern in the health field and they refer to harmful and unintended effects of drugs administered for the prevention and treatment of illness, both at normal dosages and in cases of incorrect usage or errors in medication. They are the fourth highest cause of death for patients in U.S. hospitals and  up to 15 percent of hospital expenses are due to drug-related complications despite the fact that clinical trials are larger, longer and more expensive than ever and pharmacovigilance area is high.
Non-genetically Modified Neurons And Light: Optogenetics Without The Genetics

Non-genetically Modified Neurons And Light: Optogenetics Without The Genetics

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Light can be used to activate normal, non-genetically modified neurons through the use of targeted gold nanoparticles, report scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The new technique, described in the journal Neuron on March 12, represents a significant technological advance with potential advantages over current optogenetic methods, including possible use in the development of therapeutics toward diseases such as macular degeneration.

Can Journalism Be Saved From The Internet?

Can Journalism Be Saved From The Internet?

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Last week, prominent tech site Gigaom ceased operations with the terse note “Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time”.

Started in 2006 by Om Malik, the site had raised about $40 million over that period to create a technology news site, an IT analysis business and another business running IT events. None of them could make enough money to cover the $400,000 a month needed to keep the business going.

Chitin Lobster Component Discovered In Vertebrates

Chitin Lobster Component Discovered In Vertebrates

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

 Chitin is a molecule that forms hard structures like fungal cell walls and the exoskeletons of invertebrates such as insects and crustaceans. It forms a strong and pliable material that is made even stronger when complexed with other materials (such as proteins and minerals) to form the protective outer shells of insects and crustaceans.  
Light Pollution's Impact On Food Webs Quantified

Light Pollution's Impact On Food Webs Quantified

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

A generation ago, environmental activists declared war on yet another field of science - astronomy. A new telescope was going to disrupt a squirrel, they alleged, and so astronomy abandoned places in the U.S. like Arizona and began to move to Chile.

Environmentalists declared a victory against science but they don't understand systems, including ecological ones. Astronomy is a clean industry with people from all over the world and to keep it going means limiting light pollution - and another study has shown that light pollution is an unknown force. 
Bias Is Why Super Mario Runs Left To Right

Bias Is Why Super Mario Runs Left To Right

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)

Why did the earliest side-scrolling games go left to right? From the 1980s on, they seemed to do that. And in the western world people write left to right. That is enough for psychologist Dr. Peter Walker of Lancaster University to speculate that there may be a fundamental bias in the way people prefer to see moving items depicted in pictures. 

Did video game developers in the early 1980s obey an evolutionary mandate in designing games? An analysis of thousands of items in Google Images led Walker to believe there is widespread evidence for such a left-to-right bias and that could a possible fundamental bias for visual motion. And it may be evidenced thousands of years ago also.
Why Organic Can't Fulfill Our Food Supply Ideals

Why Organic Can't Fulfill Our Food Supply Ideals

Mar 16 2015 | comment(s)