Posts

By Nadia Drake of Nature magazineA high-profile claim that the Human Genome Project and associated research generated almost US$800 billion in economic benefits has been questioned by economists.The estimate comes from the Battelle Memorial Institute, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. A team of researchers used an ‘input-output’ economic model to calculate a 141-fold return on each dollar invested in the Human Genome Project. The team’s report concludes that a $3.8-billion federal investment (equivalent to $5....

Why are we, and not the gorillas, running the zoos? Other primates live inconspicuously in dwindling habitats, but humans have expanded and changed our surroundings to an astounding degree. Our dominance is obviously not the result of our physical ability; other animals are stronger and faster and have more acute senses. It is because of our mental abilities. Yet determining the cognitive traits that make us so special has turned out to be a devilishly complicated question to answer—one made more confusing by the frequent arrival of new studies that seem to show that animals from birds to chimpanzees can match many human cognitive skills....

When I was a kid, the taunt “Your mother wears Army boots” had not yet gone completely out of fashion. But the razz packed no punch for me. I could respond, “Actually she wears Marine Corps boots, and she will beat the hell out of your mother.” She had indeed been in the Corps, where she met my father. They were both sergeants. In his later years, my dad was fond of issuing his own taunts to ex-officers of other branches of the military, things like “You were a colonel in the Army?...

THE DETAILS One common complaint about psychiatry is its subjective nature: it lacks definitive tests for many diseases. So the idea of diagnosing disorders using only brain scans holds great appeal. A paper published recently in PLOS ONE describes such a system, although it was presented only as an initial proof of concept. News reports, however, trumpeted the advent of “objective” psychiatric diagnoses. The paper used data from several earlier studies, in which researchers outlined key brain regions in MRI scans of people with bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia or Tourette’s syndrome; people with low or high risk of developing major depressive disorder; and a healthy group....

Several high-profile cases of law enforcement officers using deadly force against civilians within the past year have politicians, police and researchers looking for ways to prevent such incidents. This search includes a closer look at the computerized early warning systems that many large police departments have used for years to identify officers who are most likely to overreact violently during stressful situations. The main challenge: it is difficult to say with certainty how well or even if these systems actually work....

Climate change is creating American ghost towns with a regularity not seen since the 19th century, when boomtowns sprouted and died as quickly as their resources could be devoured. Today, disasters are hollowing out more small communities and erasing important cultural, historical and religous sites, leaving only painful memories and sometimes nothing. Just this year, multiple hurricanes struck the Louisiana coast, including Zeta earlier this week. It remains a mystery whether Cameron and Creole, just 12 miles apart along the southwest Louisiana coast, will survive after back-to-back hits from Hurricanes Laura and Delta Today, Cameron has more opened graves than open businesses, and most of its residents have evacuated to other places....

Last week the internet was abuzz with rumors of a strange star that some suggested might host an extraterrestrial construction. Astronomers say that scenario is a slim possibility. A more likely explanation is that the weird star, called KIC 8462852, is orbited by a swarm of comets, which is a pretty interesting idea on its own. But either way, this intriguing star might never have been found. The oddball was just one of thousands of stars being monitored by NASA’s Kepler telescope, which searches for the telltale dips in a star’s light caused when exoplanets pass in front of it....

There are three reasons we are not constantly riddled with cancer, and today the scientists who discovered those reasons—three ways that cells repair damaged DNA that can ruin bodies–won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This morning The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the coveted prize is going to Tomas Lindahl from the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory in Hertfordshire, England; Paul Modrich from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina in the United States; and Aziz Sancar from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, also in the U....

Dyslexia may be caused by impaired connections between auditory and speech centers of the brain, according to a study published today in Science. The research could help to resolve conflicting theories about the root causes of the disorder, and lead to targeted interventions. When people learn to read, their brains make connections between written symbols and components of spoken words. But people with dyslexia seem to have difficulty identifying and manipulating the speech sounds to be linked to written symbols....

By Reuters Staff SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador on Thursday urged women in the Central American nation to avoid getting pregnant until 2018 to avoid their children developing birth defects from the mosquito-borne Zika virus which has rampaged through the Americas. The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses. Health experts are unsure why the virus, which was first detected in Africa in 1947 but unknown in the Americas until last year, is spreading so rapidly in Brazil and neighboring countries....

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced the new ruling Thursday. Implementation will vary among airlines, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. But many carriers are expected to allow passengers to be able to use their devices – in airplane mode – from departure to arrival by the end of the year. In its press release, the agency outlined some of the specific details and conditions: The prohibition against using cell phones for voice calls remains in effect because that matter is in the domain of the Federal Communications Commission....

Soaps, household cleaners, sponges, and even mattresses and lip glosses now pack bacteria-killing ingredients. Does adding those ingredients make sense? Traditionally people wash bacteria from their bodies and homes using soap and hot water, alcohol, chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide. Soap works by loosening and lifting dirt, oil and microbes from surfaces so that they can be easily rinsed away with water. General cleaners such as alcohol inflict sweeping damage to cells by demolishing key structures, after which the cleaners evaporate....

A small dog should be belly-up after eating a handful M&M’s, at least according to conventional wisdom. But watching “Moose,” a friend’s five-pound Chihuahua, race around a living room after his sweet snack makes one wonder: Is chocolate truly poisonous to dogs? Dogs and humans have similar tastes. Like us, they seek out sweets and have no problem indulging. But unlike humans, our canine companions experience dangerous effects from eating chocolate—it can poison them and in some cases is lethal....

By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Health workers are rushing to the site of a fresh Ebola outbreak in Guinea to bolster efforts to contain the virus and prepare for the likelihood of more cases, aid agencies said on Friday. Four people in the southern region of Nzerekore were tested on Thursday and two of them were found to have Ebola. They were all from Korokpara, a village where three people from the same family have died in recent weeks from diarrhoea and vomiting....

Think about the last time you got bored with the TV channel you were watching and decided to change it with the remote control. Or a time you grabbed a magazine off a newsstand, or raised a hand to hail a taxi. As we go about our daily lives, we constantly make choices to act in certain ways. We all believe we exercise free will in such actions – we decide what to do and when to do it....

Just because many businesses are open again doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. The coronavirus is still on the loose — actually surging in many locations — which means people have to make serious choices about their health all day, every day. Nothing in life is without risk, and decisions ultimately hinge on individual calculations. But, according to the public health experts we consulted, there are steps you can take — and signs to look for — to make you feel comfortable and help you decide whether to open the door and walk in....

Scientific American presents Math Dude by Quick & Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick & Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies. In the last Math Dude episode, we learned the ins and outs of rounding numbers. And, hopefully, we learned (or were reminded) that rounding numbers is pretty easy. But as it turns out, that’s not exactly true—because there are a few tricky situations when it’s not. What are they? Here’s a hint: They have something to do with the number 5....

When J. Langdon Down first described savant syndrome in 1887, coining its name and noting its association with astounding powers of memory, he cited a patient who could recite Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire verbatim. Since then, in almost all cases, savant memory has been linked to a specific domain, such as music, art or mathematics. But phenomenal memory is itself the skill in a 54-year-old man named Kim Peek....

Hawaiian volcano letting off steam (not to mention sulfur dioxide and lava) Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii’s largest island piped up with explosive eruptions and toxic sulfur dioxide emissions, the latest sign of unrest in the crater’s turbulent history. Now U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are scrambling to predict the volcano’s next move and whether neighboring villagers are in harm’s way. Also, the National Park Service has closed indefinitely Crater Rim Drive, which runs through the south caldera area....

Nuclear power is hot in China. The country is building 19 commercial reactors, including two of the largest ever assembled. Russia’s state-owned engineering firm, Rosatom, is erecting 13 reactors in five countries. India is developing its own domestic supply chain. Meanwhile the U.S. is canceling reactors, leaving only four under construction. American maker Westinghouse, long the global front-runner, filed for bankruptcy in March. France, which for decades happily relied on atomic power, will turn to renewables to meet new electricity demand....