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If science is the objective pursuit of truth, why is science writing so controversial? How can reporters cover specialized research for a general audience? And how should technically minded journalists approach heated political disputes? These questions and more will be debated at the Los Angeles Press Club Oct. 5, in a panel discussion on “The Politics of Science Journalism.” Participants will include Los Angeles Times science writer K.C. Cole, author of Mind Over Matter: Conversations With the Cosmos; Skeptics Society Director Dr. Michael Shermer, author of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown; and Reason magazine science correspondent Ron Bailey, author of Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Defense of the Biotech Revolution. The 90-minute event, co-sponsored by Science Blog ( http://www.scienceblog.com ) and PR Newswire, begins at 7:30, and is preceded by a one-hour reception.

A team of scientists including Marcello Canuto, assistant professor of anthropology at Yale, has found incontrovertible proof of Site Q, a long-speculated Mayan city, during a mission to the northwest Peten region of Guatemala. The proof–an in-situ panel carved with over 140 hieroglyphs that fill in the missing 30 year history–was found near a little known ancient city called La Corona.

Up to eight million people in Britain suffer from IBS, with symptoms including diarrhoea, pain and bloating. The condition can seriously affect sufferers’ quality of life and finding treatment can be difficult, leading many doctors to feel they can do little to help. Research by Peter Whorwell, Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology in the University’s Medical School and Director of the South Manchester Functional Bowel Service, has been researching the use of gut-directed hypnosis for over 20 years. Most recently, two hundred and fifty patients who have suffered from IBS for over two years were given twelve one-hour sessions, during which they were given an explanation of how the gut works and what causes their symptoms.

Newly hatched magellanic penguin chicks in breeding grounds with a large number of human visitors show a significant spike in levels of a stress-related hormone compared to chicks hatched in areas not visited by humans, a University of Washington research team has found.

Is there any formula or model fit for human variation and migration on Island?

A research team is the first to design a molecule that can move in a straight line on a flat surface. It achieves this by closely mimicking human walking. The “nano-walker” offers a new approach for storing large amounts of information on a tiny chip and demonstrates that concepts from the world we live in can be duplicated at the nanometer scale – the scale of atoms and molecules.

As the Sun slowly rises, a light fog begins to dissipate and sea gulls can be heard overhead. The ocean breaks along the beach. A light breeze dances across the sand. The morning begins on Virginia’s barrier island formerly called Keeckotank, Accocomoson and Occocomoson.

States that sentence the most criminals to death also tend to be the states that had the most lynchings in the past, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the number of death sentences for all criminals – Black and white – were higher in states with a history of lynchings. But the link was even stronger when only Black death sentences were analyzed.

A case opening today in the Federal Court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is likely to draw worldwide attention. A group of outraged citizens of the Dover School District, 20 miles south of that state capital city, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, has filed suit against their school board for requiring the teaching of “Intelligent Design” (ID) in science classrooms. The plaintiffs argue that ID is a religious doctrine because it is based on a non-falsifiable premise. As such, it should not be treated as a viable alternative to the Darwinian Evolution, which is regarded as one of the most robust theories in all of science.

Researchers in the Netherlands examined the relation between handedness and incidence of breast cancer in over 12,000 healthy, middle aged women born between 1932 and 1941. Body measurements were taken and risk factors such as social and economic status, smoking habits, family history of breast cancer, and reproductive history were recorded. They found that left handed women were more than twice as likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer as non-left handed women. Adjusting for risk factors hardly affected the overall association.

When is a medical emergency really an emergency? Not during key Boston Red Sox games, report investigators from Children’s Hospital Boston in a letter published in the October issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine. Although previous studies have found a decline in health-care use during major sporting events, the Children’s researchers are the first to quantify the magnitude of the events — using television Nielsen ratings — showing that the bigger or more suspenseful the event, the quieter the emergency department.

Scientists in Japan have found a way to improve on a promising diabetes treatment. In the October 3 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Masaru Taniguchi and colleagues report that transplanted insulin-producing cells survive better when the activation of a specific type of immune cell is blocked.

It seems too simple to be true but two design engineers at the University of Warwick have devised a simple 250 pounds plastic shield that could play a significant role in eliminating the card skimming cash machine fraud that costs banks tens of millions of pounds.

poetry is my way of communicating to the world “can’t you hear the children cry, no money for their food, while trillions spent on flogging beers, to tell us bud is good”

poetry as an expression of the chaos/order paradox that, without each other life could not exist cooperation and competetion make life (soliton tell you later) without either, only death description is so difficult, definition worse all of our ideas are taken on such trust imagine”the definition of poetry is …..blah…..blah….anything poetic!” this we must avoid if something needs more than one definition to fully understamd, well, then, face paradox without being amazed what does this have to do with energy and environment? everything no one thing can occur on its own

Magnetic shoe insoles did not effectively relieve foot pain among patients in a study, researchers report in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. And the results indicate that patients who strongly believed in magnets had pain relief even if they were given false magnets to wear.

” I would say that it would be easier to have a good robust laugh in the black hole of Calcutta than in the average university research department. ” says prof. Laurie Taylor in an exclusive interview with OhPurleese magazine :

on the subject : ‘ Is Science compatible with humour ? Discuss. ‘ . . .

see :

www.ohpurleese.com

About five to seven million years ago, when the lineage of humans and chimpanzees split, edible root plants similar to rutabagas and turnips may have been one of the reasons. According to research by anthropologists Greg Laden of the University of Minnesota and Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, the presence of fleshy underground storage organs like roots and tubers must have sustained our ancestors who left the rain forest to colonize the savannah.

Researchers have found that molecular markers indicating the presence of cancer in the body are readily detected in blood scanned by special arrays of silicon nanowires — even when these cancer markers constitute only one hundred-billionth of the protein present in a drop of blood. In addition to this exceptional accuracy and sensitivity, the minuscule devices also promise to pinpoint the exact type of cancer present with a speed not currently available to clinicians.