If proof were needed that the prospect of public speaking can turn an otherwise confident person to jelly, then it is supplied in figures released today by Great Speechwriting. They reviewed the surfing habits of the 50,000 most recent visitors to their sites, all of whom have sought speech-related help and advice, and Lawrence Bernstein, a professional speech writer who runs Great Speechwriting said, "Every day, thousands of anxious people surf to seek a cure for their public speaking nerves and the wedding season witnesses the annual culmination of this predominantly male phobia.

"Perhaps surprisingly, our statistics show that the most worried member of the wedding party is the Father of the Bride.

One year after giving birth, women were less likely to have the most dangerous kind of obesity if they had been given probiotics from the first trimester of pregnancy, found new research that suggests manipulating the balance of bacteria in the gut may help fight obesity.

Research presented Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity says scheduling more physical education time in schools does not mean children will increase their activity levels; those who got lots of timetabled exercise at school compensated by doing less at home while those who got little at school made up for it by being more active at home.

They propose it's not the environment that drives physical activity levels in children, but some form of central control in the brain similar to appetite – an 'activitystat.'

Except appetite is learned by practice too.   People who eat a lot get more hungry than people who don't.

Elsevier, one of the world's leading publishers of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) information products and services, announced today that Michael Hansen, CEO of Elsevier's Health Sciences Division, issued the following statement in light of recent allegations of improper Australia based sponsored journal publication practices between 2000 and 2005:

"Elsevier prides itself on operating its business in the most ethical, honest and transparent manner possible.

As a Senator last year, Obama voted for US$9.6 billion annually in funding for George Bush's Global AIDS Program but as President he wants it cut by almost 50%.

George Bush cares more about AIDS than Barack Obama?   Yes, says AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS organization in the US, which currently provides medical care and services to more than 100,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, who today chided President Barack Obama for retreating on his commitment to global AIDS.

Biofuels such as ethanol offer an alternative to petroleum for powering our cars, but growing energy crops to produce them can compete with food crops for farmland, and clearing forests to expand farmland will aggravate the climate change problem. How can we maximize our "miles per acre" from biomass? Researchers writing in Science magazine say the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity, rather than ethanol. They calculate that, compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.