Science & Society

More than 55 million cosmetic surgery procedures will be performed in 2015, predicts a recent study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). That's 4 times the number of procedures performed in 2005. Pushing this growth is what you might expect - marketing and vanity. The study's findings are great news for the plastic surgery industry but the ASPS suggests caution to current and future patients. While cosmetic procedures seem lower risk than ever and are easy to access, they are not a cure-all for many patients, and choosing…

A study recently published in Social Science Quarterly finds that religious beliefs play a more significant role than church attendance or religious traditions in political participation. Religious beliefs affected political participation more than other measures of religious behavior. In addition, different types of religious beliefs influence political participation differently. Generalized, macro religious beliefs affected national political participation. Macro beliefs include religious beliefs that involve broad, worldly concerns. Narrow, individually experienced micro beliefs that are…

LONDON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- - As Food Waste Awareness Week Starts, Ocado Reveals That Brits Throw Away Enough Food at Dinnertime to Feed 19 million. The kitchen is the heart of the home but over-enthusiastic Brits are cooking up enough food at mealtimes to lay an extra place at the table in every one of the nation's homes(1). This waste food could feed the British Army 51 times over(2). Much of the food waste is borne from a renewed passion for cooking, discovers Ocado, the independent online grocer, at the start of its inaugural Food Waste Awareness Week. A key reason identified for the…

Is it worse to be fat or just to feel fat? Quality of life is lower in obese children but it is unknown how much of that correlates to self-evaluation. If adolescents think they are “far too fat,” they forfeit a lot of their quality of life, whatever their actual weight. If adolescents consider their weight “just right,” their quality of life is the same as if they were of normal weight, even if this is not true. The results of a new survey say the proportion of German adolescents who think they are overweight has been increasing more rapidly in recent years than the proportion of those…

Courtesy of the Phoenix landing craft on Mars we just discovered that there is ice on Mars. Now that is cool, very cool! In the last century there has been a constant fascination and debate about whether there might be, or might have been, life on Mars. Well, we still have yet to answer that question with any certainty, but at least we know that there is water in some form on the planet. Where there is water, there is a good chance there might be life. The question is there life elsewhere in the Universe, is a fundamental human question that will ultimately be answered. I am of the…

Skin piercings might be the rage among teens, but researchers from Tel Aviv University have found good reasons to think twice about piercing one's tongue or lip. Dr. Liran Levin, a dentist from the Department of Oral Rehabilitation, School of Dental Medicine at Tel Aviv University has found that about 15 to 20 percent of teens with oral piercings are at high risk for both tooth fractures and gum disease. Resulting tooth fractures as well as periodontal problems, he says, can lead to anterior (front) tooth loss later in life. High rates of fractures due to piercings are not found in other age…

Dr. Ira Sharlip, President of the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) detailed a new definition of premature ejaculation. He addressed the audience of the American Urological Association during the ‘late breaking science forum’, a session designed by AUA to premier newsworthy developments in clinical urology. The ISSM convened a panel of world experts who met in Amsterdam in the fall of 2007. Each of the 21 members of the panel was selected through a peer review process for their expertise in ejaculatory physiology, pharmacology and dysfunction. The panelists were tasked with…

Health-care system constraints combined with a lack of a uniform referral process are leaving Ontario physicians brokering which patients are in greatest need of hip and knee replacement, a study led by a St. Michael's Hospital researcher funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has revealed. The study, conducted by a team of researchers from across the University of Toronto and published in Medical Decision Making, examined the impact of patient characteristics, including age, weight/obesity, comorbidity and perioperative risk, and gender and caretaker roles in the decision-…

The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), the International Mathematical Union (IMU) and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) today released the Citation Statistics report. The report is written from a mathematical perspective and states that while citation-based statistics such as impact factor are often used to assess scientific research they are not the best measures of research quality. The use of citations in assessing research quality is a topic that is of increasing interest throughout the world's scientific community. The report cautions…

Whether your summer vacation plans involve staying close to home or crossing the globe, you'll want to put as much thought into protecting your health while traveling as you do choosing your destination. A new report, Healthy Travel: A 10-Minute Consult from Harvard Medical School, includes this list of important health-related items to take along: 1. Your prescription medications. Take at least a week’s supply in your carry-on (in case your luggage is lost). Anything beyond a week’s supply can be packed in your checked luggage. 2. Other prescription medications. Depending on your…