Tech

Warnings about the dangers of distracted driving while using a cell phone are prevalent these days, but cell phone use while driving may also put family relationships in jeopardy, says University of Minnesota professor Paul Rosenblatt.

Free clinics across the U.S. provide care to about 1.8 million mostly uninsured patients annually and the majority of clinics receive no government support, according to the first comprehensive survey of all known free clinics since the 1960s.

The study, conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Julie Darnell, appears in the June 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In a study illustrating the potentially powerful influence of political pressure on medical practice, a UC Davis physician-researcher has found that use of a largely unproven mammography screening device has surged since Medicare began covering its cost.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New public health research by a Purdue University professor could help shed light on how the environment can influence physical activity, especially when it comes to where people live.

Children living in areas where homicides are committed have lower reading and verbal test scores, a study by New York University Sociology Professor Patrick Sharkey shows. The research, which appears in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined test scores of children living in Chicago.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), a known cause of cardiovascular diseases.

Two Latina mothers are heroes in the new comic book, Small Changes Big Results from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Their quest is to create a healthier lifestyle for their children and families and combat obesity.

The cartoon moms are like real-life moms in Latino farm workers' families, who are concerned about the growing obesity problem among young children, says Jill Kilanowski, assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

New research from Queen's University Belfast shows the number of paramilitary flags now flown on arterial routes in Northern Ireland during July has more than halved. The figure is down from 161 flags in 2006 to 73 in 2009. The largest proportion of those that were flying in July 2009 belonged to the UVF.

Graphene oxide, a single-atomic-layered material made by reacting graphite powders with strong oxidizing agents, has attracted a lot of interest from scientists because of its ability to easily convert to graphene — a hotly studied material that scientists believe could be used to produce low-cost carbon-based transparent and flexible electronics.

When raising corn, straw left in the field after grain harvesting, along with legume cover crops reduces nitrogen leaching into waterways, but may lower economic return, according to research conducted in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

For space research as well as climate observation and weather forecasting satellites need increasingly powerful optical measurement and recording devices. They often consist of several aspherically shaped mirror elements which through their precise interplay provide the desired reflection of the incident light. »All the mirrors must be produced and characterized with extreme precision, that is to an accuracy of less than one micrometer.

Carnivorous mammals track fruit abundance

The scientific community already knew that many carnivores eat fruit, but had thought this was something purely anecdotal. Now researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) have shown that carnivorous animals such as foxes and martens play an important role in helping fruiting plants to reproduce and disperse their seeds.

English is increasingly becoming the world common language, being used in commerce, the Internet, science and many other areas of human endeavor. Learning English is critical to international success for countless individuals in non-English speaking countries. As mobile technologies have matured so have the possibilities for learning. Researchers in Australia and Taiwan suggest that podcasting could be used to foster a positive attitude in learning English as a foreign language.

Humans did not invent the wheel - nature did

The progression from the Neolithic solid stone wheel with a single hole for an axle to the sleek wheels of today's racing bikes is the result of human ingenuity but it also represents how animals, including humans, have come to move more efficiently and quicker over millions of years on Earth, according to a Duke University engineer.