Culture

The small number of scientists who are unconvinced that human beings have contributed significantly to climate change have far less expertise and prominence in climate research compared with scientists who are convinced, according to a study led by Stanford researchers.

In a quantitative assessment – the first of its kind to address this issue – the team analyzed the number of research papers published by more than 900 climate researchers and the number of times their work was cited by other scientists.

Rome, Italy: Europe leads the world in Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) with most cycles initiated in the region, the 26th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard today (Wednesday 30 June).

Pay-for-performance initiatives – in which health care providers are rewarded with more funds for meeting clinical targets – have been adopted in the UK and Australia. The approach has been piloted in the US by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for government-sponsored health insurance. The first wave of implementation across the US is slated for 2013, when hospitals will have some revenues withheld and then returned if they meet clinical targets.

To the untrained eye, University of Colorado at Boulder Research Associate Craig Lee's recent discovery of a 10,000-year-old wooden hunting weapon might look like a small branch that blew off a tree in a windstorm.

WASHINGTON, DC – Scientific advances often provoke deep concern on the part of the public, especially when these advances challenge strongly held political or moral perspectives.

Washington, DC -- Should we spend more money urging women to use mammography screening on a regular basis or should those dollars and effort be used for discovering and developing better early detection tests?

Washington -- "While tobacco use has decreased drastically over the last few decades, we still have a long way to go," American College of Physicians (ACP) President, J. Fred Ralston, Jr., MD, FACP, said as a new ACP policy monograph was released today. In Tobacco Control and Prevention, ACP called for a comprehensive federal strategy to control tobacco use, rather than the piecemeal actions being taken by states currently.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The passage of smoking bans in two large Minnesota cities was not associated with job losses at bars and may in fact have contributed to higher employment in restaurants, according to new research.

The study is the first to examine the economic effects of clean indoor air policies on bars and restaurants as independent types of businesses, the researchers said. Consistent with previous published studies of the economic impact of smoking bans, this analysis did not find significant economic effects on the hospitality industry as a whole.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. farmers are under pressure to produce more, pollute less, fulfill consumer preferences, and make a living -- all with increasingly scarce natural resources and the uncertain effects of climate change, says a new report from the National Research Council. To help U.S. agriculture evolve to meet these demands, the report concludes, national agricultural policies and research programs should look beyond focusing only on low costs and high production and adopt a holistic perspective to farming that encompasses multiple end goals.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Previous studies have found that the personality trait impulsivity, or a lack of planning and forethought regarding behaviors, is associated with alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders. For most individuals, impulsivity decreases during emerging and young adulthood. Some, however, do not "mature out" of impulsivity. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that individuals who exhibited the largest declines in impulsivity from ages 18-25 also exhibited the sharpest decreases in alcohol consumption during this time frame.

How can you complain about 'free'? It's certainly possibly if your expectations are high and in a survey of countries with nationalized health care, Germans came out least satisfied even though they rate the quality as good.

RENO, Nev. – With the effectiveness of school vouchers a hot topic of debate, researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chile have completed a lengthy study on the effects of Chile's school reforms in 1981. Along with other school decentralization efforts, the reforms included making Chile the only nation in the world to have a nationwide school voucher program.

The U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station has published a report about the role of forests in the stewardship of water in a changing climate. The report is available online at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/gtr_812.pdf and will be available in print beginning July 9.

A science historian at The University of Manchester has cracked "The Plato Code" – the long disputed secret messages hidden in the great philosopher's writings.

Plato was the Einstein of Greece's Golden Age and his work founded Western culture and science. Dr Jay Kennedy's findings are set to revolutionise the history of the origins of Western thought.