8/26/2008 - eSchool News
In his keynote address at the annual Intel Developer Forum, Craig Barnett said, "The future is dependent on the education of the workforce, but we don't spend enough time investing in education, incentivizing investment. The lack of a research and development (R&D) tax credit is very revealing. Our government refuses to acknowledge that investing in R&D for the future is important."
8/25/2008 - Sentinel and Enterprise
Southeast Elementary School Principal Beth Pratt is getting ready for another school year with a math and science theme. "We're really at a place where we've redefined what math and science looks like," Pratt said. The school's teachers and parents are focused on incorporating math and science into all aspects of education. Additional science classes, new technology programs, even scientifically themed playground equipment are all being used to get students ready to compete in a new global economy.
8/23/2008 - New York Times (requires free registration)
With a mandate to teach evolution but little guidance as to how, science teachers are contriving their own ways to turn a culture war into a lesson plan. How they fare may bear on whether a new generation of Americans embraces scientific evidence alongside religious belief. "If you see something you don't understand, you have to ask 'why?' or 'how?'" a Florida teacher admonishes his students. Yet their abiding mistrust in evolution, he fears, jeopardizes their belief in the basic power of science to explain the natural world—and their ability to make sense of it themselves.
8/22/2008 - Reuters
Health regulators have approved the use of ionizing radiation for fresh spinach and lettuce, saying the technique already approved for other foods can help control harmful bacteria and other pathogens.
8/22/2008 - National Science Foundation
Federal funding of academic science and engineering research and development failed to outpace inflation for the second year in a row, according to recently released fiscal year 2007 data from the National Science Foundation.
8/22/2008 - The Wall Street Journal
Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, according to health officials.
8/22/2008 - BBC News
Growing up with a pet dog could increase your chances of being a snorer later in life, claims a Swedish study. This is not just a potential annoyance—heavy snoring has been linked to early death, heart disease, and stroke. They suggested allergic swelling could alter the shape of a person's airways for life.
8/21/2008 - Scientific American
For $1 billion over the next 40 years, the U.S. could develop 100 gigawatts of electricity generation that emits no air pollution and pumps out power to the grid even more reliably than coal-fired power plants, according to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now Google.org—the charitable wing of the search engine giant—has chipped in nearly $11 million for this renewable resource: so-called geothermal power, or tapping the Earth's heat to make electricity.
8/21/2008 - Education Week (requires registration)
Congress has authorized a new federal research center that will be charged with helping to develop innovative ways to use digital technology at schools and in universities. The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies was included as part of the latest reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, approved last month.
8/21/2008 - MSNBC
The capability to taste calcium has now been discovered in mice. With these rodents and humans sharing many of the same genes, the new finding suggests that people might also have such a taste.
8/21/2008 - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota has long enjoyed a reputation as a nationwide leader in science education, but the results of a new test could cast a shadow on that image. Only about four out of 10 Minnesota students can be labeled "proficient" in science, according to results released by the Minnesota Department of Education.
8/21/2008 - BBC News
For black holes, there appears to be very little room for mediocrity, astronomers have found. A study suggests they come in either small or large sizes, but medium-sized ones are very rare or non-existent.
8/21/2008 - The Boston Globe
A privately funded initiative that pays students in some New York City high schools up to $1,000 for passing Advanced Placement tests is not making the grade, critics say. Students at the 31 schools participating in the program called Rewarding Achievement, or REACH, took 345 more tests this year than last year. But the passing rate dropped slightly, from 35% in 2007 to 32% this year.
8/21/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Two vaccines against cervical cancer are being widely used without sufficient evidence about whether they are worth their high cost or even whether they will effectively stop women from getting the disease, two articles in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine conclude.
8/20/2008 - WebMD
Exposure to arsenic, typically through drinking water, is linked to diabetes, according a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers studied 788 adults who had their urine tested for arsenic exposure; participants with type 2 diabetes had a 26% higher level of total arsenic in their urine than those without the disease.
8/20/2008 - Discovery.com News
Scientists say they've found an efficient way to make red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells. The results suggest that embryonic stem cells could someday supply type O-negative "universal donor" red cells for transfusion, they wrote. Experts called the new work an advance, but cautioned that major questions had yet to be answered.
8/20/2008 - National Science Foundation
A Greenland ice core reveals pollution in the Arctic region was higher 100 years ago. In fact, the research showed pollutants were two to five times higher at the beginning of the previous century than today. Continuous, monthly and annually averaged pollution records taken from the Greenland ice core dating from 1772-2003 produced the results. And although data showed heavy-metal pollution in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic is substantially lower today than a century ago, researchers say there is still cause for concern.
8/20/2008 - BBC News
A wild dolphin is apparently teaching other members of her group to walk on their tails, a behavior usually seen only after training in captivity. The tail-walking group lives along the south Australian coast. One of them spent a short time after illness in a dolphinarium 20 years ago and may have picked up the trick there.
8/19/2008 - WebMD
Simply chewing gum after colon surgery can reduce recovery time and shorten hospital stays, a review of research shows. It could also save more than $100 million in health care spending annually, according to findings from one study.
8/19/2008 - USA Today
Harder times and higher fuel prices are following kids back to school this fall. Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, and study from old textbooks. Bills are mounting for air conditioning and heating, for cafeteria food and for classroom supplies. The extra costs present a tricky math problem: Where can schools subtract to keep costs under control?
8/19/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Nostrums that promise to smooth wrinkled skin are a staple of snake-oil salesmen everywhere, but now there is strong evidence that certain kinds of treatment are effective. Over the past decade, researchers have been learning which treatments work, and why.
8/19/2008 - ScienceDaily
Knowing the words for numbers is not necessary to be able to count, according to a new study of aboriginal children by University College London and the University of Melbourne. The study of the aboriginal children—from two communities that do not have words or gestures for numbers—found that they were able to copy and perform number-related tasks.
8/19/2008 - National Geographic News
Ruins of a pagan temple from the second century A.D. have been unearthed in the heart of a Jewish capital that existed during Israel's Roman period.
8/18/2008 - BBC News
Students who are bravest are least likely to cheat, say researchers. Two studies of more than 400 students at Ohio State University found those who did not cheat scored highest in tests of courage and empathy. They also, perhaps unsurprisingly, scored higher than cheaters on tests of honesty.
8/18/2008 - ScienceDaily
A previously unrecognized group of air pollutants could have effects remarkably similar to harmful substances found in tobacco smoke, scientists report. Inhaling those pollutants exposes the average person up to 300 times more free radicals daily than from smoking one cigarette. The discovery could help explain the long-standing medical mystery of why non-smokers develop tobacco-related diseases like lung cancer.