Science & Society

It’s been known for quite some time that Fido and Spot can lower levels of stress in their owners. Studies by Karen Allen, a professor in neurology at the University of Buffalo, have shown that “the presence of a pet dog can diminish stress responses to real-life daily stress over which caregivers have no control.” Owning a pet dog can lower blood pressure, can play a therapeutic role in confronting disability or injury, and can actually lower stress even more than your BFF—unless, of course, that BFF is also a dog. Now, research that will be presented in Tokyo on August 30th at the…

On August 26th, a group of LHC critics filed a suit against CERN in the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg . The authors of the suit are physicists, professors and students largely from Germany and Austria, who feel that the operation of the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, poses grave risks for the safety and well-being of the 27 member states of the European Union and their citizens. The Rule of Law, the suit states, is also threatened. The legal arguments that define the legitimacy of the suit have been crafted in German by a Professor of International Law, Adrian…

If the "Book of Science" were written by a kid it would start by answering some basic questions: 1) How was the universe started? 2) Why do girls put on make-up? 3) Where and when was science first used in the world? Just as the world keeps spinning, so does the list of questions about science from kids, in this case, one seventh-grade science class taught by Kim Swayze who teaches middle-school science at E.V. Cain in Auburn, CA. Her students questions reflect concepts and emotions that many other teachers have seen their students grappling with as well…

Muscles are capable of providing an amazing amount of stability to the spine; a normal human spine can experience compressive loads of up to about 1,350 pounds during more demanding everyday tasks (9), and almost 4,000 pounds during something like Olympic weightlifting (2). So why can you hurt your back just by bending down to pick up a pencil or pen? The simple answer is that spinal stability is not a simple function of muscular force. One way to think about spinal stability is that it is made up of three different components: the spine itself, the muscles surrounding the spine, and the…

The latest research into dual-purpose contraceptives and non-hormonal contraception will be presented at the annual scientific conference of the Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) conference in Melbourne. University of Newcastle Laureate professor John Aitken, a world-leader in reproductive biology, will discuss the need to develop novel, safe, effective, dual-purpose contraceptive agents that combine the prevention of pregnancy with protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). His research has explored the development of a contraceptive agent that immobilises – but does not…

Contrary to stereotypes about masculinity, men interviewed in a large international study reported that being seen as honorable, self-reliant and respected was more important to their idea of masculinity than being seen as attractive, sexually active or successful with women. The study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine included interviews with more than 27,000 randomly selected men from eight countries (Germany, U.S., U.K., Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and France), with about 16 percent of the men reporting erectile problems. Regardless of age or nationality, the men more…

When it comes to predicting the rate of inflation, consumers know what they spend and that helps them be as accurate as professional economists, according to research by a Kansas State University professor. Lloyd B. Thomas, head of the department of economics, says that household surveys predict the inflation rate fairly accurately. While pros employ statistics like the unemployment rate, money supply growth and exchange rate changes, consumers participating in surveys are more likely to think about how much they spent at the grocery store that week. "Surprisingly, the median household is…

If you watched television broadcasts of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, you likely got a bad impression of the Italian people, shows a new research study from BI Norwegian School of Management. The Olympics is a venue that creates conflict in a country, they say, in that the competition to host the Games is increasingly tougher but the costs are staggering and the income from ticket sales, television rights, advertising, etc. does not even come close to covering all the expenses. An olympic championship attracts international attention, with international focus on both the…

Religious groups can help deliver cost-effective social services, says Bob Wineburg, a social work professor at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), but Obama’s proposal, which would build on Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative, would create more problems than it solves. Wineburg’s been doing research on partnerships between social service agencies and churches/synagogues for about 20 years and in the 1990s looked at partnerships in the Greensboro, N.C., area. Now he's working with Ram Cnaan from the University of Pennsylvania, for the United Way of Delaware, and says their…

Students from the University of Maryland attending the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change got a special session with academy-award winning actress Vanessa Redgrave August 13. "One of the problems for us all is that we are not, and cannot often be aware of what's going on that the camera hasn't focused on," she told the students. During a session with students and faculty from five continents and fifteen countries, Ms. Redgrave drew connections between the responsibilities of an actor and those of journalists. "When I was told today about the main fundamental ground on which these…