Monthly Archives: April 2012

Violence puts wear and tear on kids\’ DNA

Children who have experienced violence might really be older than their years. The DNA of 10-year-olds who experienced violence in their young lives has been found to show wear and tear normally associated with aging, a Duke University study has found. \”This is the first time it has been shown that our telomeres can shorten […] … learn more→

New lab to focus on creating sustainable energy source

A state-of-the-art laboratory, which aims to use sunlight to power the sustainable conversion of CO2 and water to form syngas, a high-energy gas mixture with potential as a future fuel source, opened this week in the Department of Chemistry. The Christian Doppler laboratory for Sustainable SynGas Chemistry will address application-oriented basic research questions to facilitate […] … learn more→

Ensuring a healthy harvest

Today I’m thinking about insurance. The point of having it is to protect the things we value most—like our health and our homes. But in U.S. farm policy, that logic has been turned on its head, and many of the crops we should value most are actually ineligible for insurance. The risky business of farming […] … learn more→

Take 10 years off your image

How old an impression do you make when you\’re interviewing? Of course, we all know that an interviewer can just count backwards from the year of graduation printed on your resume. However, here is the truth: Perception is the new reality, like 60 is the new 50. So you need to learn the fine art […] … learn more→

Two galaxies in one

While some galaxies are rotund and others are slender disks like our spiral Milky Way, new observations from NASA\’s Spitzer Space Telescope show that the Sombrero galaxy is both. The galaxy, which is a round elliptical galaxy with a thin disk embedded inside, is one of the first known to exhibit characteristics of the two […] … learn more→

Double threat to North Australia\’s turtles

Green turtle populations off the coast of Townsville are facing a double threat of speeding boats and a lack of food. Dr Ellen Ariel, Senior Lecturer in Virology in James Cook University’s School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, said she would like to see zones where boats have to slow down over shallow waters where […] … learn more→

Which ads are winners? Your brain knows better than you do

Advertisers and public health officials may be able to access hidden wisdom in the brain to more effectively sell their products and promote health and safety, UCLA neuroscientists report in the first study to use brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements. Thirty smokers who were trying to quit watched television […] … learn more→

Water treatments alone not enough to combat fluorosis in Ethiopia

Increased intake of dietary calcium may be key to addressing widespread dental health problems faced by millions of rural residents in Ethiopia’s remote, poverty-stricken Main Rift Valley, according to a new Duke University-led study. As many as 8 million people living in the valley are estimated to be at risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis […] … learn more→

Foreign language thoughts boost risk-taking

When people consider a problem in a foreign language, they are more likely to take favorable risks and make more rational decisions—a finding that could have implications for business in a global economy. “We know from previous research that because people are naturally loss-averse, they often forgo attractive opportunities,” says Boaz Keysar, professor of psychology […] … learn more→