Culture

Queuing, standing in line...it's what we do well, but complain about the most. Thankfully, science is coming to the rescue as researchers in Taiwan have devised a formula that could revolutionize restaurants, post offices, customer service desks, and theater ticket sales everywhere.

• Binge drinking accounts for more than half of 79,000 excessive-drinking deaths annually in the United States.
• A new study has looked at heavy and binge drinking in relation to drinkers' own perceptions of their overall health status.
• Results show binge drinkers have a 13 to 23 percent greater likelihood of self-reporting fair to poor health status.

• Binge drinking accounts for more than half of 79,000 excessive-drinking deaths annually in the United States.
• A new study has looked at heavy and binge drinking in relation to drinkers' own perceptions of their overall health status.
• Results show binge drinkers have a 13 to 23 percent greater likelihood of self-reporting fair to poor health status.

St. Louis, MO, June 1, 2010 – Making food choices based on television advertising results in a very imbalanced diet according to a new study comparing the nutritional content of food choices influenced by television to nutritional guidelines published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA/ATLANTA, GA, June 1, 2010 - Shionogi Pharma, Inc., a U.S.-based group company of Shionogi & Co., Ltd., today presented data summarizing the results of two pivotal studies of the investigational new drug PSD502, a topical metered dose spray being developed for the treatment of primary premature ejaculation (PE). These data were presented at the 2010 American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

• Portugal is currently ranked eighth in the world in alcohol consumption.
• A new study has examined the costs that alcohol consumption has on Portugal's health system.
• Findings show that roughly 3.8 percent of deaths are attributable to alcohol.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a previously unknown kinase that regulates cell proliferation, shape and migration, and may play a major role in the progression or metastasis of cancer cells.

The research will be published in the May 31 online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

UPTON, NY — When the first warm rays of springtime sunshine trigger a burst of new plant growth, it's almost as if someone flicked a switch to turn on the greenery and unleash a floral profusion of color. Opening a window into this process, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have deciphered the structure of a molecular "switch" much like the one plants use to sense light.

MADISON, WI, May 31, 2010 – A study of undergraduates in a five-year Brazilian forestry program finds that what students perceive as important change as they progress through program. These differences suggest ways to improve forestry curriculum and create more attractive forestry programs to reverse the global decline in forestry student enrollment.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 31, 2010—The May 2010 issue of Educational Researcher (ER) provides a significant scholarly review of Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP). Educational Researcher is one of six journals published by the American Educational Research Association. In the special issue, NELP Panel members Timothy Shanahan and Christopher J.

The consent forms that people sign before participating in research are widely considered difficult to understand and sometimes inaccurate. The lack of clarity was implicated in a high-profile legal settlement in April between Arizona State University and a Native American tribe, which claimed that blood samples that its members provided for genetic research were used for purposes not stated in the consent form. Efforts have been made to improve the forms, but how effective are they?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Today's college students are not as empathetic as college students of the 1980s and '90s, a University of Michigan study shows.

The study, presented in Boston at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, analyzes data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years.

A University of British Columbia researcher has uncovered what makes Rembrandt's masterful portraits so appealing.

In the study, published in the current issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's arts and sciences journal Leonardo, UBC researcher Steve DiPaola argues that Rembrandt may have pioneered a technique that guides the viewer's gaze around a portrait, creating a special narrative and "calmer" viewing experience.

A nationwide smoking ban would save more than $90 million and significantly reduce hospitalizations for heart attack, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

After analyzing data from the 13 states that don't have a law banning smoking in public places, researchers concluded that more than 18,596 fewer hospitalizations for heart attack could be realized from a smoking ban in all 50 states after the first year of implementation, resulting in more than $92 million in savings in hospitals costs for caring for those patients.

SALT LAKE CITY, May 27, 2010 – Ardipithecus ramidus – a purported human ancestor that was dubbed Science magazine's 2009 "Breakthrough of the Year" – is coming under fire from scientists who say there is scant evidence for her discoverers' claims that there were dense woodlands at the African site where the creature lived 4.4 million years ago.

Instead, "there is abundant evidence for open savanna habitats," says University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a critique published as a "technical comment" in the Friday, May 28 issue of Science.