The way celebrity entrepreneurs are depicted by the media doesn't illustrate what it's really like to start up and run businesses, according to a survey of small business owners and business advisers from Nottingham University Business School.

For the Q4 2009 editions of the UK Business Barometer (UKBB) and UK Business Advisers Barometer (UKBAB) surveys, three questions about the media's portrayal of enterprise and entrepreneurs were added and the results reveal some frustration from people running small businesses that media portrayals don't match their experiences and the challenges they face.

Badly fitting condoms reduce sexual pleasure for both partners and may discourage men from using protection altogether, suggests a study published in Sexually Transmitted Infections.

The findings are based on a survey of 436 men between the ages of 18 and 67, all of whom were recruited via newspaper ads and a blog on the website of a condom sales company. Participants completed a questionnaire on the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction website about the fit of condom they had most recently used for penetrative sex with a female partner.

DNA analysis of royal mummies suggest that malaria and bone abnormalities may have contributed to the death of Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun, with other results appearing to identify members of the royal family, including King Tut’s father and mother, according to a new study published in the Journal of The American Medical Association. The findings may lead to a new way of researching the molecular genealogy and pathogen paleogenomics of the Pharaonic era, perhaps even a new field called 'molecular Egyptology.'

I was asked the question, "What can we expect to see from science in the next decade?" My answer comes from the perspective of a social scientist, as I research social problems from the influence of cognitive neuroscience. I am inspired to write this particular analysis after attending the TED 2010 conference, which wrapped up this past weekend in Long Beach, CA.

Some of you may ask, "What is TED? And how does it relate to science in the next decade?"

Pegasus - A Load Of Horse Feathers?


Evolution proceeds by producing variants of a life-form which may, or may not, thrive in their current environment.  An interesting question arises: "In an alternate history of Earth, could horses have evolved feathers?"


Image source: Wikimedia, public domain.

Research published simultaneously in PNAS and Nature details how scientists have successfully transplanted most of the "nose" of the mosquito that spreads malaria into frog eggs and fruit flies and are employing these surrogates to combat the spread of the deadly disease that afflicts 500 million people worldwide. The mosquito's "nose" is centered in its antennae, which are filled with nerve cells covered with special "odorant receptors" that react to different chemical compounds. The insect ORs are comparable to analogous receptors in the human nose and taste buds on the tongue.

Human cells contain 46 strands of DNA that code for all our genes. Certain chemicals and UV light can break these strands into pieces, a process that typically leads to cell death or diseases such as cancer if the damage is not repaired quickly. But new research, published in PNAS, shows for the first time that stem cells will intentionally cut and then repair their own DNA as a mechanism of activating genes that promote the development of new tissues.

The discovery could help researchers develop better ways to activate stem cells, so that they can produce new tissues for therapeutic purposes. It also suggests that DNA mutations, which can contribute to a variety of diseases, may initially occur as a result of a normal cellular process.