Science Education & Policy

What are the United States presidential candidates’ positions on scientific topics ranging from evolution to global warming? A special news report in the January 4th issue of Science addresses these questions and profiles the nine leading candidates on where they stand on important scientific issues. The 10-page special report, Science and the Next U.S. President profiles Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson and offers voters a glimpse at each candidate’s views on science. "Science felt that…

TORONTO, January 5 /PRNewswire/ -- President of cbm, Prof. Allen Foster announces that cbm has expanded its areas of work to include all persons with disability, not just persons with visual loss. For the past 100 years, cbm previously known as Christoffel Blinden Mission, and Christian Blind Mission, has worked to prevent and treat blindness and provide education and rehabilitation services for persons with visual loss. "The organization has decided that its purpose and work is to improve the quality of life of all persons with disability, which includes those with hearing or physical…

LONDON, January 3 /PRNewswire/ -- - Higher Paycheques, Flexible Work Arrangements, Candidate Screening Online Among Major Trends for 2008 - CareerBuilder.co.uk, a leading job site in the UK, released the results of its annual job forecast, conducted by Harris Interactive(R), tracking projected hiring and job search activities for the upcoming quarter and 2008. The survey, titled "2008 UK Job Forecast" was conducted between November 14 and December 3, 2007 and included 281 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 507 workers. "Looking ahead to 2008, recruitment trends are…

WILMINGTON, North Carolina, January 2 /PRNewswire/ -- - Strengthens global leadership in drug development PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPDI) today announced the appointment of Sebastian Pacios, M.D., as senior vice president of clinical operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In this role, Dr. Pacios will oversee Phase II-IV clinical development for PPD's operations in these geographic regions. Dr. Pacios brings extensive clinical research experience in national and international settings. Prior to joining PPD, he co-founded and rapidly grew a regional contract research organization (CRO…

DENVER, January 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Simulation Corporation announces the launch of the Edwards SAPIEN Transcatheter Heart Valve (THV) Training Program in Europe. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW), the world leader in the science of heart valves, received CE Mark approval for European commercial sales of its Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter aortic heart valve with the RetroFlex transfemoral delivery system in September, 2007, and CE Mark for the Edwards SAPIEN valve with the Ascendra transapical delivery system in December, 2007. Medical Simulation Corporation and Edwards…

A married couple who sailed from England to America around 1630 may be the ancestors of hundreds of people alive today who are at risk for a hereditary form of colon cancer. Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at The University of Utah have discovered a founder mutation—a mutation that has been traced from many individuals in the present-day population back to a common ancestor—which may contribute to a significant percentage of colon cancer cases in the United States. An article reporting the finding was published today in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The…

Bad dreams in pre-schoolers are less prevalent than thought. However, when they do exist, nightmares are trait-like in nature and associated with personality characteristics measured as early as five months, according to a study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. The study, led by Valérie Simard, under the direction of Tore Nielsen, PhD, of the University of Montreal, sampled 987 children in the Province of Quebec, who were assessed by their parents at the 29-month, 41-month, 50-month, five-year and six-year mark. Parents were asked in a questionnaire about the frequency…

In the New York Times, Abigail Zuger, an M.D., recently reviewed a book called Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine by R. Barker Bausell — the “truth” being, if I read Zuger correctly, that it’s all baloney. Zuger calls the book “immensely educational”. Not educational enough: Dr. Bausell starts out with the story of his late mother-in-law, Sarah, a concert pianist who developed painful arthritis in her old age and found her doctors to be generally useless when it came to satisfactory pain control. “So, being an independent, take-charge sort of individual…

In the 19th century, leaders like Bismarck understood that the politics of nation-states and warfare were going to be implemented by countries having the most effective transportation. Railroads required fuel and the notion of a 'strategic resource' - a resource essential for a modern country to be successful - was born. The 20th century and the rise of tanks, planes and automobiles meant that oil was a strategic resource. If you didn't have it, you had to buy it and if you couldn't buy it, you had to fight to get it. In the 1930s, America recognized that as the population began to soar,…

Highly publicized events such as school shootings arouse public interest in the effects of media violence exposure on children, yet there is still considerable public debate about whether to take this issue seriously. A recent article in Social Issues and Policy Review summarizes the research on the effects of media violence and convincingly demonstrates the profound influence that media violence is having in our society. The many studies that have been compiled on the effects of viewing media violence show that there are at least 14 scientifically documented effects on children’s…