Science & Society

A new study by researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center suggests that the incidence of heterosexual anal sex is increasing among teens and young adults – particularly those who have recently had unprotected vaginal sex. These findings mirror recent data that show anal sex rates among adults doubled between the years 1995 and 2004. The study, published online by the American Journal of Public Health, is among the first to report on the little-known factors associated with heterosexual anal intercourse among adolescents and young adults. "The topic of anal intercourse is…

This is the topic of a recent Telegraph Blog (here) by Daniel Hannan, a Member of the European Parliament. The Hedgehog would like to know, WHAT SORT OF SCIENCE should the "some" be?  Any reasonable and prompt answers will be fed back to Daniel Hannan.

Ivan Oransky, managing editor of Scientific American online, was one of the judges for Nikon's Small World contest: "Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of serving as one of several judges for the Nikon Small World contest. Our task was to sit in a dimly lit room and try to rank the hundreds of entries—images taken by professional and amateur scientists around the world using visible-light microscopes." First place went to the U.K.'s Michael Stringer for his image of freshwater diatoms. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I think I'd go with 3rd place winner Albert Tousson's high-res…

Not much money this year?   Concerned that GM and Ford and all the big banks won't give out huge bonuses to CEOs if you spend too much?   Jan Brakefield, assistant professor of consumer sciences, offers a psychological tip sheet to follow during the holiday shopping season. *Make a spending plan and stick to it. *Shop early, before Thanksgiving. Eliminates last minute panic buying. *Be prepared each time you leave home to shop. Carry a list of who you are buying for and how much you can spend. Be specific. Get agreements from family members. *Pay cash. Credit card users typically…

Across Europe, we are transforming into a continent of content-craving 'connect-aholics', according to the findings of the AMD European Connectivity Study of over 5,000 online respondents. Sponsored by AMD, in conjunction with independent research company, YouGov, 77% of respondents said they could not live without daily access to the internet. This was higher than any other item including access to a car (54%) and to a washing machine (61%). This trend follows the findings of an earlier AMD survey* which stated that almost all (99%) of the respondents would rather part with their digital…

You might say I am fond of Sweden and its Nobel Prizes. Now that the Mars500 shortlist includes also a Swede, there implies another delight: The Swedish Biogas might save the day for men and women in space missions. Biogas for Mars?  Biogas is simply a biofuel that is obtained when organic matter is decomposed biologically in the absence of oxygen. A typical biogas has the following composition in percentages: Methane:  50-75Carbon Dioxide:  25-50Nitrogen:  0-10Hydogen Sulfide:  0-3Oxygen:  0-2Hydrogen: …

AAAS isn't usually regarded as fans of science journalism (well, unless it's people writing for Science) but that hasn't always been the case. Since 1945 they have honored science reporting for print and radio and later expanded that to television and now online reporting. This year, an ambitious series on memory and the brain, a look at whether research supports widespread use of anti-cholesterol medications, and a broadcast account of the contentious battle over intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania, are among the winners of the 2008 AAAS Science Journalism Awards. Panels of science…

There's no question that the World Wide Web is a much different beast today than it was during the election of 2000.   Yes, it was even then a communication medium but it was primarily a way to sell dog food.   After Bush was inaugurated www.blogger.com, which had begun in late 1999 but had not really taken off, became all the rage and truly launched the individual blogging phenomenon - big enough that Google bought them and, after that, blogging went truly mainstream, to the tune of somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million blogs today. Because of its presence during  Bush'…

Actually, today it's tea because I need to go easy on the caffeine. Here's what's interesting in science around the web this week: Where did hobbits come from? Not the hobbits in the Shire, but Homo floresiensis, a diminutive hominid that lived on an Indonesian island 20,000 years ago. PBS has an essay on evolution and why island creatures sometimes get very big or very small. (h/t to John Hawks.) Can you program a computer game with DNA? Check out Scientific American's piece on a DNA tic-tac-toe game. To be honest, I won't be impressed until you can program DNA to play chess. Networks,…

There's a perception that people who immigrate to the US from China, or whose parents did, the so-called "Chinese-Americans", are all wildly successful and well educated. And they are, unless they are the least educated. They are also confronted by a "glass ceiling," unable to realize full occupational stature and success to match their efforts, according to a new study from the University of Maryland. The returns on Chinese Americans' investment in education and "sweat equity" are "generally lower than those in the general and non-Hispanic White population," says the report, "A Chinese…