Science & Society

A new study by Yan Zhang at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Management seeks to determine why CEOs leave the job after a short period. Of the 204 company leaders Zhang studied from 1993 to 1998, 55 (27 percent) left their jobs within three years. Is it an alarming statistic? Not really. According to the 2005 Hudson report (1), 36 percent of employees expect to leave within three years, though most of them are likely unhappy with pay and benefits, something CEOs don't share. Zhang doesn't factor in competition from other companies and the specific nature of Sarbanes-Oxley that…

An article published in the Journal of Forensic Science details the fruits of a collaboration between the University of Leicester and the Northamptonshire Police, which led to a “major breakthrough” in crime detection, perhaps allowing “hundreds of cold cases being reopened,” according to a press release. The University’s Forensic Research Center has been working with Northamptonshire Police's scientific support unit to develop new ways of taking fingerprints from a crime scene. The collaboration between the boffins and bobbies – boffin being British slang for someone engaged in technical…

It's no surprise that a woman in a bikini can increase a man's sexual appetite but research in the Journal of Consumer Research says that men who watched sexy videos or even handled lingerie had more appetite for everything - and it impacted their decisions about soda, candy and even money. Authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop (KULeuven, Belgium) found that the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched video clips of young women in bikinis running through a park. The authors believe the stimuli…

The government in the UK is proposing to change their NHS in response to complaints about waste, delays in treatment and quality concerns. The new idea is to create 'polyclinics' - general practitioners and specialists in one location. Will it lead to better care or just more cost? The public is against it. Recent data from 1562 patients across 24 Primary Care trusts suggests that only 1 in 10 patients favor the polyclinic model over their current practice. Michael Dixon, Chair of the NHS Alliance and Stewart Kay, Chair of the Londonwide Local Medical Committees (LMC’s), debated the issue…

Each day we risk exposure to around 70,000 chemicals. In food packaging or even the air we breathe, contact with potentially-toxic substances could be affecting our health, including fertility. The Reproductive Effects of Environmental Chemicals in Females Consortium (REEF) is one of the first studies tackling the effect of environmental chemicals on female mammals. REEF will receive a total of £2.4m in funding from the EU. Dr Richard Lea and Dr Kevin Sinclair at The University of Nottingham will receive a £500,000 grant for their work researching how these chemicals impact on mammalian…

Women ask for considerably lower salaries in salary negotiations than men but it may be because they are expected to do so, according to a dissertation in psychology by Una Gustafsson at Lund University in Sweden. Conceptions of good and poor negotiators are tied to stereotypical notions of masculine and feminine characteristics: good negotiators are regarded as being decisive, strong, and self-assertive - masculine qualities. Poor negotiators are seen as being concessive, emotional, and overly focused on relationships, which are regarded as feminine qualities, she says. But Una Gustafsson…

Professor John Burn is Medical Director of the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University, where some of the most controversial stem cell research in the UK takes place. He's taking on a formidable task as the UK parliament debates controversial amendments to the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act - namely helping determine at what point a cell becomes a human. Concerns about the misuse of funds, threats to the structure of the family, and the dangers of admixed (hybrid) embryos can all be adequately addressed without an act of parliament. Stem cell research is done in a…

Do black NBA coaches have a harder time getting hired and an easier time getting fired? Not according to a new University of Michigan study, though it did find that white coaches with losing records got slightly longer opportunities before being fired than black coaches. The study found no difference in "technical efficiency" by race of coach, and found no evidence that there are differences in firings based on race, says lead researcher Rodney Fort, U-M professor in the Division of Kinesiology. Fort claims the NBA is the most integrated professional sport, so the results are not all that…

Infants and toddlers whose mothers are severely depressed are almost three times more likely to suffer accidental injuries than other children in the same age group, according to a new study. The study’s findings, published today in the Advanced Access edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, suggest that proper treatment for depression would improve not only the mothers’ health, but the health of young children as well. Prior studies have shown that mothers who reported symptoms consistent with clinical depression had children who experienced a significant number of accidental…

Most teenagers wouldn’t have a clue what agarose gel electrophoresis means, but middle school student Andrew Trigiano does - and as a result he's the youngest author to ever publish in the American Society of Horticultural Science’s journal HortTechnology. One of the most frequently used tools in biochemistry and biotechnology, agarose gel electrophoresis is a common forensic technique often used in genetic or DNA fingerprinting. The procedure is achieved by moving negatively charged nucleic acid molecules through a gelatinous substance known as agarose by using an electric field. When…