A Michigan scientist who was put on academic trial for teaching evolution at Calvin College in the 1980s is emerging as a national figure in the cultural war over faith and science.

On Wednesday, Dr. Howard Van Till was one of four scholars from across the country who debated faith and evolution at a conference at Grove City College, a Christian liberal arts school near Pittsburgh.

And Sunday, he will lecture at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills.

"This is such an important issue for Americans," said John Cook, a lawyer from West Bloomfield who plans to attend Van Till's talk.

Insects and other flying animals are somehow able to maintain appropriate flying heights and execute controlled takeoffs and landings despite lacking the advantage of sophisticated instrumentation available to human aviators. By characterizing the behavior of a specially designed flying robot, researchers have now been able to test a theory that helps explain how visual cues are used by insects during flight to ensure appropriate distance from the ground.

Intradiscal biacuplasty is an effective procedure to treat chronic discogenic pain, report researchers at the 23rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in New Orleans. Improvement in pain scores and functional capacity can be observed much earlier with intradiscal biacuplasty than with intradiscal electrothermal therapy suggesting some additional or/and different mechanisms of action. It also appears to be more effective than intradiscal electrothermal therapy producing more than 50% of the pain relief in more than 50% of patients.

Intradiscal electrothermal therapy has produced variable results in the pain reduction and functional improvement in patients with axial discogenic pain.

Researchers have identified new genetic variations that may be associated with the risk of developing nonfatal venous thrombosis in postmenopausal women, according to a study in the February 7 issue of JAMA.

Deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the thigh or leg) and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the arteries leading to the lungs) cause significant illness and death in adult women, according to the background information in the article. The authors note that despite improved preventive treatments in high-risk patients, the incidence of venous thrombosis (VT) has not decreased.

In this study, Nicholas L.

Whether in the form of sensors in the refrigerator which automatically order more milk or in the car sounding an alarm when the driver starts to become drowsy, "Ambient Intelligence" is the next computer technology revolution. But networked objects equipped with intelligence will only be able to establish themselves if they take proper consideration of users' misgivings, in particular with regard to data protection.

A new theory to explain the high-energy gamma-ray emissions from collapsing stars has been put forward by an international team of researchers. Their results will be published shortly in the Monthly Notices of the RAS.

Long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), first discovered in the 1970s, are the most explosive events in the Universe. Finding out what happens during these cataclysmic events is a major challenge, partly because they usually occur at the edge of the visible Universe and partly because the bursts last only a matter of seconds.