ScienceBlog.com

Researchers have identified a key molecular mechanism that may account for the development of cystic fibrosis, which about 1 in 3000 children are born with in the US every year. The findings, published February 29 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, add new knowledge to understanding the development of this disease and may also point the way to new corrective treatments.

Children who are spanked or victims of other corporal punishment are more likely to have sexual problems as a teen or adult, according to new research presented today by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire.

Naval warships might look like all-powerful vessels but they are also highly vulnerable to being spotted by the enemy. That fear of being detected has led the military to develop new stealth technologies that allow ships to be virtually invisible to the human eye, to dodge roaming radars, put heat-seeking missiles off the scent, disguise their own sound vibrations and even reduce the way they distort the Earth’s magnetic field, as senior lecture in remote sensing and sensors technology at Britannia Royal Navy College, Chris Lavers, explains in March’s Physics World.

Using “virtual peers” — animated life-sized children that simulate the behaviors and conversation of typically developing children — Northwestern University researchers are developing interventions designed to prepare children with autism for interactions with real-life children.

A celebration of Prof. Gene H. Golub will take place around the globe on Friday February 29, 2008, the date that would have been his 19th birthday.

The Missing Link – a monthly podcast on the history of science, medicine and technology – has just launched a three-episode series on the fascinating history behind the evolution-intelligent design controversy.

Episode 8, just posted at http://missinglinkpodcast.com, begins the series with an investigation into how the nature of scientific method has changed over the centuries. Discover at just what point science invented rules that creationism could not follow.

Future episodes will consider topics like Jewish and Catholic responses to the evolution-ID controversy, why the creationism movement waned in the immediate postwar period in America, and how the very word “evolution” might be inadvertently fueling the controversy.

Find more information at http://missinglinkpodcast.com

In a new article in School Library Journal’s “Extra Helping” Newsletter entitled “Schools Cut Back on Other Subjects to Focus on Reading, Math,” Debra Lau Whelan writes:

Are teachers spending less time on science and social studies to focus on their students’ reading and math scores? You bet, says a new report that analyzes how much other subjects are suffering as a result of districts trying to meet the strict requirements of No Child Left Behind.

How bad are the cutbacks? Read on.

For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. According to a new report released today by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project, at the start of 2008, 2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails, or one in every 99.1 men and women, according to the study.

Sedentary people who regularly complain of fatigue can increase their energy levels by 20 percent and decrease their fatigue by 65 percent by engaging in regular, low intensity exercise, according to a new University of Georgia study.

We like babies, but is there a reason we like babies? Only science knows.

Some of the oldest tales and wisest mythology allude to the snake as a mischievous seducer, dangerous foe or powerful iconoclast; however, the legend surrounding this proverbial predator may not be based solely on fantasy. As scientists from the University of Virginia recently discovered, the common fear of snakes is most likely intrinsic.

Diamonds may be rare on Earth, but surprisingly common in space — and the super-sensitive infrared eyes of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are perfect for scouting them, say scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Everyone has known for decades that smoking can kill, but until now no one really understood how cigarette smoke causes healthy lung cells to become cancerous. In a new research report published in the March 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), researchers from the University of California, Davis, show that hydrogen peroxide (or similar oxidants) in cigarette smoke is the culprit. This finding may help the tobacco industry develop “safer” cigarettes by eliminating such substances in the smoke, while giving medical researchers a new avenue to developing lung cancer treatments.

Researchers have shown that they can effectively kill prostate cancer cells in both the laboratory and in experimental animal models by blocking a signaling protein that is key to the cancer’s growth. The work proves that the protein, Stat5, is both vital to prostate cancer cell maintenance and that it is a viable target for drug therapy.

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.

As robots take to the battlefield, a robot expert and one-time judge of Robot Wars is raising concerns about the creation of autonomous killing machines.

When John Coltrane was expanding the boundaries of the well-known song “My Favorite Things” at the Village Vanguard in May 1966, no one could have known what inspired him to take the musical turns he took. But imaging researchers may now have a better picture of how the brain was helping to carry him there.

After the surgical removal of a malignant tumor, the chance that cancer will re-appear in a different location of the body remains high. But new research from Tel Aviv University, in a bold new field called Psychoneuroimmunology, may prevent those cancer cells from taking root again — and the key to the treatment is stress reduction.

An ability to avoid the plant equivalent of vapor lock and a favorable evolutionary history may explain the unusual drought resistance of junipers, some varieties of which are now spreading rapidly in water-starved regions of the western United States, a Duke University study has found.

Sometimes collaboration makes good science but lousy names.