Culture

Preterm related deaths accounted for more than 10,000 of the nearly 28,000 infant deaths in 2004, according to the NCHS. Birth defects remain the leading cause of infant death, followed by prematurity, according to official reporting systems. But, using this new classification, premature birth would be the most frequent cause of infant death. The traditional methods cannot accurately gauge the true impact of preterm birth on the infant mortality rate, the NCHS said. Although the national infant mortality rate is the lowest it's been since the U.S. started collecting data a century ago, there…

Companies selling food products may need to worry about their goods catching "cooties" by coming in contact with certain other products, such as lard and feminine napkins, in shoppers' carts or on store shelves. Based on their findings, researchers at Duke University and Arizona State University suggest companies may want to reconsider their packaging and shelf positioning strategies in order to safeguard their brands from offending products. Of all the things companies worry about when selling food products, catching "cooties" is probably not high on the list. But new research suggests it…

Think you can come up with the best playlist for astronauts in the International Space Station? ESA wants to hear from you. Everyone has a list of favorite tunes but what if you were suddenly transported 400 km above the Earth? What music would you take with you for entertainment as you floated around the world 16 times a day? ESA is launching a competition to find a set of 10 tunes that is "out of this world." All you have to do is craft a song selection that you think would be most suitable for the astronauts on the ISS to listen to. Before you decide, try to put yourself in the shoes of…

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make a lot of money, according to new research. A nationwide study found that people of below average intelligence were, overall, just about as wealthy as those in similar circumstances but with higher scores on an IQ test. Furthermore, a number of extremely intelligent people stated they had gotten themselves into financial difficulty. "People don't become rich just because they are smart," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio State University 's Center for Human Resource Research. "Your IQ has really no…

Obese and overweight children increase their food intake by more than 100% after watching food advertisements on television; a study by the University of Liverpool psychologists has shown. A group of 60 children of varying weights, aged between nine and eleven years was shown a series of both food television adverts and toy adverts, followed by a cartoon. Food intake following the food adverts was significantly higher compared with the toy adverts in all weight groups, with the obese children increasing their consumption by 134%; overweight children by 101% and normal weight children by 84…

New research on companies that sprint to rapidly gain market share is revealing the danger of pursuing sudden massive growth, according to the Management Insights feature in the April issue of Management Science. "Getting Big Too Fast: Strategic Dynamics with Increasing Returns and Bounded Rationality" is by John D. Sterman and Rebecca Henderson of MIT's Sloan School of Management; Eric D. Beinhocker, McKinsey Global Institute; and Lee I. Newman, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan. Positive feedbacks such as network effects, scale economies, and learning curves are…

Yes, a television broadcast on global warming is going to highlight the one section of the planet that is not warming. Stephen Padin, the South Pole station science leader, will be featured on the ABC broadcast "Planet Earth 2007: Seven Ways to Help Save the World." Padin is spending the southern winter at the world's most remote scientific observatory. He will talk about long-range scientific research to track levels of carbon-dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere since men first wintered at the Pole 50 years ago. The condition of the Earth's protective ozone layer is also monitored at…

Often people say they are good at one subject but worse at the other. For instance one claims to be good at math, but not so good at english. It is a dividing line in the way people think about how they learn, i.e. an identity construct like anything else. Both english and math are simply systems of abstractions "algorythmytized" by the brain. They are two sides of the same coin. Ultimately the purpose behind learning either subject, is to give you a special nichefied edge in being social with these concepts. The real value of learning anything comes mechanistically from being able to…

American college students today are civically and politically more engaged than they are commonly given credit for, and more likely to know the name of their elected representatives than the winners of "American Idol", according to the "National Survey of Civic and Political Engagement of Young People" conducted by Tufts University. "Young people seem to know more about politics than they know about popular culture," said project director and Professor of Political Science Kent E. Portney. "This level of political knowledge stands in stark contrast to the image of young people as…

A disturbingly high prevalence of self-reported drinking and driving has been found among Spanish health professionals. Published today in BMC Public Health, the study reveals that Spanish doctors and nurses are self-reporting drink driving at even higher rates than other university graduates. "The role of these health professionals in educating the population regarding the health consequences of drinking and of drinking and driving has been long advocated. Yet their capability to do so may be impaired due to their own lifestyles", write the authors, María Seguí-Gómez and colleagues, from…