Religious people say their belief in a personal god functions as a moral compass, helping them form opinions about controversial issues and distinguish right from wrong. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, suggests that it's just the opposite; people attribute whatever they happen to believe to god.

Men could soon have the same control over their fertility that women have had since the 1960s, according to a new paper published in the December 2009 issue of The FASEB Journal. The authors of the paper say they have found how and where androgenic hormones work in the testis to control normal sperm production and male fertility.

The discovery was the result of studies performed in two groups of mice. The first group of mice was normal, but the second was missing a gene from the peritubular myoid cells in the testis. This missing gene codes for the androgen hormone receptor, and when missing, sperm production was significantly decreased when compared to the normal group. The result was infertility.

Just because a vaccine is available doesn't mean people will choose to be inoculated, according to new research published amid widespread public confusion about the merit of H1N1 flu shots.

The research, appearing in the December issue of Health Services Research, looked at acceptability of potential future HIV vaccinations among high-risk adults in Los Angeles and demonstrated that many factors come into play when a person decides whether or not to be vaccinated.

Tomorrow morning Venice will sink under a maximum tide predicted to reach 1.30 meters above average sea level. The event will occur at 8.35AM, a time when Venetian residents are in the streets trying to bring children to school or to reach their workplace. You can see the predicted evolution of the tide in the graph below, where the red curve shows the time variation of the season's average, and the blue one the actual prediction for tomorrow. The peak of 130 cm above average sea level is predicted to occur at 8.35AM -which is 2.35AM in New York, or 5.35PM in Tokyo.