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Study shows that workers seek information from people they already know

Even with the Internet at their fingertips, people who really need information are more likely to seek it from other people ? especially people they know. That is what University of Washington researchers discovered when they tracked, in minute detail, how 31 aerospace engineers obtained information vital to their work. The engineers usually chose human sources over written ones and were three times more likely to choose familiar people over experts they didn’t know.<

Nation’s brightest increasingly shun science

America’s top college graduates increasingly reject careers in science and engineering, researchers have found, raising concerns about America’s technological future. Faced with the prospect of low-paid apprenticeships and training lasting a decade or more ? and constricted job opportunities even after that ? more of the brightest young Americans are instead pursuing the quicker and surer payoffs offered by business and certain professions, according to the Washington study. “With the notable exception of biological sciences, many of the top U.S. students with potential to become scientists are turning toward other career paths,” said one of the study’s co-authors.

Half of older adults with high blood pressure don’t have it under control

At least half of older adults with hypertension do not have their blood pressure controlled to normal levels, according to a survey of 5,888 patients around the country. The failure to control blood pressure to less than 140/90 mmHg may account for as much as 22 percent of myocardial infarctions and 34 percent of strokes in older adults, according to University of Washington researchers.