Network turns soldiers' helmets into sniper location system

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Imagine a platoon of soldiers fighting in a hazardous urban environment who carry personal digital assistants that can display the location of enemy shooters in three dimensions and accurately identify the caliber and type of weapons they are firing.

Engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed a system that can give soldiers just such an edge by turning their combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network.

New species of spiders discovered by UBC scientist in Papua New Guinea

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A University of British Columbia researcher has discovered dozens of species of jumping spiders that are new to science, giving scientists a peek into a section of the evolutionary tree previously thought to be sparse.

Jumping spiders are found in every part of the world except Antarctica. Capable of jumping 30 times their body length, some of the 5,000 documented species are common in households. They come in many shapes and sizes, some resembling ants or beetles.

Stanford scientists find new solutions for the arsenic-poisoning crisis in Asia

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Every day, more than 140 million people in southern Asia drink groundwater contaminated with arsenic. Thousands of people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar and Vietnam die of cancer each year from chronic exposure to arsenic, according to the World Health Organization. Some health experts call it the biggest mass poisoning in history.

More than 15 years ago, scientists pinpointed the source of the contamination in the Himalaya Mountains, where sediments containing naturally occurring arsenic were carried downstream to heavily populated river basins below.

Visual learners convert words to pictures in the brain and vice versa, says Penn psychology study

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PHILADELPHIA –- A University of Pennsylvania psychology study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to scan the brain, reveals that people who consider themselves visual learners, as opposed to verbal learners, have a tendency to convert linguistically presented information into a visual mental representation. The more strongly an individual identified with the visual cognitive style, the more that individual activated the visual cortex when reading words.

The opposite also appears to be true from the study's results.

Plant pathologists call for more data to support pre-harvest food safety interventions

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Washington, DC (March 24, 2009) - In meetings with USDA, FDA, NSF, EPA, the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last week, key leaders from The American Phytopathological Society (APS) Public Policy Board (PPB) addressed concerns related to human pathogens on plants and noted that significantly more research is needed to ensure national food safety.

Use of antibacterial associated with reduced risk of catheter-related infections

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For critically ill patients in intensive care units, use of a sponge containing the antimicrobial agent chlorhexidine gluconate as part of the dressing for catheters reduced the risk of major catheter-related infections, according to a study in the March 25 issue of JAMA. The researchers also found that reducing the frequency of changing unsoiled dressings from every three days to seven days appears to be safe.

Ownership of electronic health information must be addressed, article says

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Clarifying legal rights of patient control over electronic health records could be the key to making the best use of the huge amount of electronic medical information that the "Stimulus" funding will create in the next few years, according to a national commentary co-authored by a Wake Forest University and a Duke University faculty member.

Safe driving education should be part of routine teen physicals, Hopkins children's experts say

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The "are you driving yet?" talk should become part of every pediatrician's regular physical exam for teenagers, Hopkins Children's experts say.

Pediatrician Letitia Dzirasa, M.D., notes that car accidents kill more 15- to -20-year-olds than any disease, so teenage driving should be considered a risky behavior, in need of as much attention as unprotected sex or underage drinking.

Anti-microbial catheter to cut infection risk for dialysis patients

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Medical experts at The University of Nottingham have shown that an innovative anti-microbial catheter could vastly improve treatment and the quality of life for many community-based dialysis patients.

Results of a study published in the leading journal Biomaterials, have shown that the catheter has the potential to ward off attack from a wider variety of pathogens and protect Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) patients from infections for up to 100 days — around 20 times longer than current catheters.

Researchers create catalysts for use in hydrogen storage materials

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RICHMOND, Va. (March 24, 2009) – A team of scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and the Savannah River National Laboratory have identified that carbon nanostructures can be used as catalysts to store and release hydrogen, a finding that may point researchers toward developing the right material for hydrogen storage for use in cars.