Science Education & Policy

In the first installment of this series, we encountered the common misconception that the order of the terminal nodes ("tips") on an evolutionary tree reflects the actual relatedness among the species represented. Simply rotating some internal nodes without affecting the branching order ("topology") of the tree -- and thus, making no change to the relationships among species -- showed that that the order of tips on a tree is actually arbitrary. What matters is the way that the species are connected through their common ancestors. This time, we will deal with misconceptions about the…

KINNELON, New Jersey and ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Recovery Systems, HD, LLC announced today approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application to investigate rapid hypothermia treatment in combination with primary angioplasty to treat heart attacks. Previous clinical data suggested early and rapid cooling before reperfusion therapy with primary angioplasty may potentially reduce infarct size post reperfusion. The study will enroll up to twenty patients at two institutions who present within six hours of…

TEANECK, New Jersey and BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- - CIO of Kimberly-Clark formally inaugurates the new center Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), a leading provider of global consulting, software, IT infrastructure and business process services, announced today the official inauguration of its 35th global delivery center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The new center will support Cognizant's North American customers in a similar time zone, leverage techno-functional and lingual capabilities available in the region to service global customers, and provide a base with deep local…

WATERLOO, Canada, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) is now providing the first in a new series of in-class, educational resources designed to help high school teachers introduce and guide students through a variety of topics in science. The first module on "The Mystery of Dark Matter" features a 25 minute DVD and teacher guide complete with student activity sheets and suggested hands-on demonstrations. The full video and kit can be viewed online at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca and is available to educators in a hard-copy format. Creative and…

PALO ALTO, California, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- - Unrestricted Grants to Allow Each Organization to Expand its Impact to Achieve Sustainable Change The Skoll Foundation today announced Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship for 11 organizations working around the world in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, and economic and social equity. The recipients, who will each receive three-year grants of US$1,000,000, join a growing global network of Skoll social entrepreneurs, now numbering 59, who have created innovative, proven…

LONDON, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- - Boardroom Meets Classroom in New National Enterprise Academy Entrepreneur and 'Dragon's Den' judge Peter Jones has today unveiled a plan to shift the boardroom firmly into the classroom by establishing a new National Enterprise Academy, dedicated to unlocking entrepreneurial talent among teenagers from all educational backgrounds. The doors to the National Enterprise Academy (NEA) will officially open to its first 16-plus students from September 2009 - after the completely new course in entrepreneurship has been rigorously tested, including being put…

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Initiating a dialogue with ISPs on how to protect social sites from exploitation, Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, asked network operators to trust that users will voluntarily report abuse and to cooperate with sites in building a safe online environment at the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) general meeting in San Francisco held Feb. 18-20. Over the course of the event, MAAWG committees completed a white paper on email authentication and updated best practices for volume email senders, both of which will be released to the industry…

ABBOTT PARK, Illinois, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- - New 2.25 mm Diameter Stent Now Available in Europe, Asia and Latin America Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that it has received CE Mark (Conformite Europeene) approval for a 2.25 mm version of its XIENCE(TM) V Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System, offering physicians a smaller stent based upon the proven efficacy, positive safety results and excellent deliverability of XIENCE V. The addition of the 2.25 mm stent to the XIENCE V portfolio gives physicians access to a wider range of stent sizes for treating a variety of patient types. "…

Rather than improving motorist safety, red-light cameras significantly increase crashes and are a ticket to higher auto insurance premiums, researchers at the University of South Florida College of Public Health conclude. “The rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don’t work,” said lead author Barbara Langland-Orban, professor and chair of health policy and management at the USF College of Public Health. “Instead, they increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections. If used in Florida, cameras could potentially create even worse outcomes…

At the end of "Back To The Future", Doc shows up wearing futuristic clothes and possessing a swanky new addition to his DeLorean - a "Mr. Fusion" device so that he no longer required the Plutonium that caused all of the problems with the terrorists. He just threw in potato peels and a beer can (pouring in the beer first, for reasons that were scientifically unclear) and off they went. It may not be fusion, but it's possible to turn garbage into fuel, say University of Maryland researchers. They started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay and came up with a process that may be able to…