Business and Economy
In large-scale field trials, scientists from North Carolina State University have shown that silencing a specific gene in burley tobacco plants significantly reduces harmful carcinogens in cured tobacco leaves.
The mounting U.S. drug price crisis can be contained and eventually reversed by separating drug discovery from drug marketing and by establishing a non-profit company to oversee funding for new medicines, according to two MIT experts on the pharmaceutical industry.
I got this from the folks at ScienceDebate2008 and I'm passing it along.
Workplace bullying, such as belittling comments, persistent criticism of work and withholding resources, appears to inflict more harm on employees than sexual harassment, say researchers who presented their findings at a conference today.
Explanation of my Procedure of Refrigerating Bananas at Home.
Now that the primaries have narrowed the number of viable major-party presidential candidates to three, ScienceDebate2008 promises to give each of them an opportunity to address an issue that is not strictly partisan: science and technology policy and what it means for the future of our nation and the world.
Philadelphia's Franklin Institute has announced its prestigious awards, the Benjamin Franklin Medals and the Bower Awards for significant achievements in science and business leadership.
The Franklin Medal has been awarded for 184 years, far longer than the Nobel Prize, and its recipients have included many of the greatest names in international science and technology.
A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50 pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University.
Worldwide, the number of scientists is increasing as is the number of scientific journals and published papers, the latter two thanks in large part to the rise of electronic publishing. Scientists and other researchers are finding it more difficult than ever to zero in on the published literature that is most valuable to them.
In spite of globalisation, working conditions in call centres around the world are still governed by national regulations. That was the result of a major study supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, which looked at 2,400 call centres in 17 countries. As a follow-up to this study, the FWF is now funding further international analyses and case studies that will compare conditions in Austrian call centres with those in other countries.
Seeking an out-of-this-world travel destination? Outer space will rocket into reality as “the” getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza.
First came direct marketing, then focus groups. Now, advertisers, with the help of neuroscientists, are closing in on the holy grail: mind reading.
I'd still like to see the candidates speak for themselves on scientific issues, but the Physics Today blog has a useful posting.
ScienceDebate2008 is looking more and more likely as the campaigns of two major candidates (Obama and Clinton) sent surrogates on short notice to a hastily pulled-together preliminary session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. Senator McCain's campaign sent regrets due to the short notice, while the Huckabee and Paul campaigns did not respond at all.
I've been blogging occasionally to call attention to Peak Oil. Things would be different if I lived on Titan, though global warming would still be on the agenda.
