Science & Society

It may seem like an odd marketing campaign but "Come visit Spain, the European point of entry for cocaine" remains apt. A study of randomly selected Spanish euro notes carried out by chemists at the University of Valencia (UV) has shown that they contained traces of cocaine at an average concentration of 155 micrograms, which is the highest rate in Europe, according to an article published in the latest issue of Trends in Analytical Chemistry. The researchers also carried out a comparative study of the methods currently used in detecting the presence of cocaine on bank notes worldwide. The…

The age of your housing plan may influence your risk of obesity, according to a new study from the University of Utah. Neighborhoods built before 1950 tend to offer greater overall walkability as they more often were designed with the pedestrian in mind, while newer neighborhoods often were designed to facilitate car travel. The study in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, linked the body mass index (BMI) of nearly a half million Salt Lake County residents to 2000 Census data. The study found that residents were at less risk of being obese or overweight if…

By the age of 18 years, two in every five South African schoolboys report being forced to have sex, mostly by female perpetrators. A new study, reported in International Journal for Equity in Health, reveals the shocking truth about endemic sexual abuse of male children that has been suspected but until now only poorly documented. Some 28% of victims said a non-family member or teacher was the perpetrator. Another 28% had been forced by a fellow student, while 20% had been abused by a teacher and 18% by an adult family member. Until 2007, forced sex with males in South Africa did not count…

A national survey into the bedroom behavior of British women has revealed that 46% percent never or rarely achieve orgasm. The survey, conducted by Scarlet magazine and the makers of the PelvicToner to mark National Orgasm Day on July 31, polled over 2000 women across the country and found that women with better pelvic floor muscles were also enjoying better sex lives. The survey is ongoing at http://www.orgasmsurvey.co.uk. The latest survey results can be downloaded from the site. It has been known for nearly 60 years that a strong pelvic floor muscle is essential to achieve vaginal orgasm…

LONDON, July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly half of lazy UK fellas believe they come up with their greatest ideas whilst resting on their mattress, whilst 1 in 10 think they find their most useful inspiration on the loo. The poll also found Britons picked the internet (36%) as the greatest invention or discovery in the world, followed by antibiotics (27%) and computers (20%). While other runners up included electricity, aeroplanes, language, decoding DNA, the telephone, light bulbs and the flushing toilet. But what Brits would most love is a Time Machine or a Star Trek-style Teleporter in a bid…

Our friends at LiveScience love Garth's stuff so much (*) they threw out the idea for a nifty widget that will give you a little drop-down tool and let you see lots of his equations. So if you are unsure whether or not to bluff in Texas Hold 'Em, simply stop the game, pull out your iPhone, and plug in the numbers. Likewise if you are standing in line at Starbucks and unsure how many cups of coffee you should have, this widget can tell you. Basically, you can completely abdicate responsibility for your own decisions. Leave it to Garth. He knows what he's doing. (*) We love them too!

The ten male soccer spectators who were struck by lightning in the Boston area on Sunday had taken refuge under a tree when a storm hit and were a great example of a rare phenomenon. Some occurrences as cited on a law-oriented personal injury page include: “A 42-year-old Texas man died of a brain hemorrhage when he was trying to steal a statue of the Virgin Mary from a local nursery, a woman's boyfriend, tossing sticks to his dog decided to toss a knife instead which caught on his finger, looped back and stuck his girlfriend in the throat, and traders turned on Greenpeace protesters at the…

In any country, some place has to be the deadliest. In the United Kingdom, that place is Scotland. The key reason is drug abuse, accounts for a third of the deaths behind Scotland's higher mortality rate, according to a study published on bmj.com today. Traditionally, higher death rates compared to England and Wales have been blamed on the higher levels of deprivation in Scotland. Yet over half the difference between Scottish and English deaths cannot be accounted for by higher levels of deprivation. This puzzling "excess" of Scottish deaths has become referred to as the "Scottish effect…

Research shows that as more scholarly and research journals are available online, researchers are citing fewer of them - and they are primarily newer papers. There's no question the Internet gives scientists and researchers instant access to a wealth of academic journals, a very good thing, but the impact hadn't been studied until recently. New research in Science says that scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories. James Evans is an assistant…

The key to good health is to be physically active. The key to being active is ... to be born that way? The well-documented importance of exercise in maintaining fitness has created the idea that individuals can manage their health by increasing their activity. But what if the inclination to engage in physical activity is itself significantly affected by factors that are predetermined? Two new studies suggest that the inclination to exercise may be strongly affected by genetics. Controlled experiments into the effects of genetics on human activity have yet to be attempted, but recent studies…