Tech

TEMPE Ariz. – A balanced diet, exercise and reduced stress not only can lead to a longer life, but also better reproduction, according to a new study by a team of researchers, including one from Arizona State University, on barn swallow nutrition and mating habits.

The study shows that swallows who maintained a positive antioxidant balance over the course of their breeding season were those who produced the most young.

February 24, 2010, New Orleans, LA. Advanced cancer patients who regularly received massages averaging 14 minutes or more by a partner or family member declined in stress scores over four weeks, according to results of a study reported at the 7th annual conference of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society.

North Grafton, Mass., February 25, 2010 – A study involving the world's deadliest substance has yielded a new strategy to clear toxins from the body—which may lead to more efficient strategies against toxins that may be used in a bioterrorist event, as well as snake bites, scorpion stings, and even some important chronic diseases.

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates North American barn swallows outperform their peers in reproduction -- the "currency" of evolutionary change -- by maintaining a positive balance of antioxidants commonly sold in health food stores.

Scientists are reporting an advance toward scavenging energy from walking, breathing, and other natural body movements to power electronic devices like cell phones and heart pacemakers. In a study in ACS' monthly journal, Nano Letters, they describe development of flexible, biocompatible rubber films for use in implantable or wearable energy harvesting systems. The material could be used, for instance, to harvest energy from the motion of the lungs during breathing and use it to run pacemakers without the need for batteries that must be surgically replaced every few years.

Baby monitors of the future could translate infant cries, so that parents will know for certain whether their child is sleepy, hungry, needing a change, or in pain. Japanese scientists report details of a statistical computer program that can analyze a baby's crying in the International Journal of Biometrics.

MADISON, WI, February 22, 2010 -- Peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.) essential oil is a major aromatic agent used extensively in chewing gum, toothpaste, mouth washes, pharmaceuticals, and confectionary and aromatherapy products.

Lactose intolerance is a real and important clinical syndrome, but quantifying its public health burden is challenging. An NIH Consensus Development panel was convened this week to assess the available evidence on lactose intolerance and health across the age spectrum and across racial and ethnic groups.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24—As part of LaserFest, the year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first working laser, the Optical Society (OSA) and the American Physical Society (APS) sponsored a special day-long seminar on the birth, growth and future developments in laser science and technology at the 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting. The seminar, titled "The History and Future of Laser Technology," took place Sunday, Feb. 21 in San Diego at the meeting, considered the world's largest interdisciplinary science forum.

A University of Iowa study supports an earlier UI report that found polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments lining the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal (IHSC) in East Chicago, Ind. The study also presents data showing that the sediments are a significant source of PCBs found in surrounding air and in Lake Michigan.

The study appears in the online edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), a publication of the American Chemical Society and is scheduled for formal journal publication in April.

A laser technique best known for its use to remove unwanted tattoos from the skin is finding a second life in preserving great sculptures, paintings and other works of art, according to an article in ACS' monthly journal, Accounts of Chemical Research. The technique, called laser ablation, involves removing material from a solid surface by vaporizing the material with a laser beam.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice.

The inspiration? Not wax. Not glass. Not even Teflon.

Instead, University of Florida engineers have achieved what they label in a new paper a "nearly perfect hydrophobic interface" by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders.

In a technological advance that its developers are likening to the cell phone and wireless Internet access, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that—complemented by acoustics—enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission.

Oxford, UK, 24 February 2010 - A recent Special Issue of Business Horizons (www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor), the journal of the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and published by Elsevier, addresses issues central to healthcare and life sciences. Healthcare reform, for example, has been at the center of U.S. political debate in recent years with renewed attempts to gain bipartisan support from Congress for passage of a national system of health insurance coverage.

The search for new therapeutic agents is time-consuming and expensive. Pharmaceutical companies may have to screen thousands of compounds for the ability to bind a target molecule before they hit upon a promising drug candidate.