Are you a scientist or researcher working abroad?

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 18:51
Many scientists and researcher work in institutions located outside their native country.

Sometimes it can be difficult to integrate into your new host country. An effort ought to be made, though. Because your stay will be so much better if you emerge yourself in the culture and daily life of your new home. Even if you are there temporarily.

Smoking and high blood pressure major killers

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Tue, 04/28/2009 - 15:29

A comprehensive assessment of the risk factors for preventable deaths in the United States has found that smoking and high blood pressure are responsible for the greatest number of preventable deaths – each accounting for around 1 in 5 deaths in US adults.

Anti-ageing cosmetics can repair sun damage

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Tue, 04/28/2009 - 15:26

Anti-ageing cosmetic reduced wrinkles in clinical trial. Scientists testing a cosmetic anti-ageing product sold on the high street have shown it can clinically reduce wrinkles and improve the appearance of skin damaged by everyday exposure to sunlight.

Dogs are aggressive if they are trained badly

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 13:23

Many dogs are put down or abandoned due to their violent nature, but contrary to popular belief, breed has little to do with a dog's aggressive behaviour compared to all the owner-dependant factors. This is shown in a new study from the University of Córdoba, which includes breeds that are considered aggressive by nature, such as the Rottweiler or the Pit Bull.

Hyena's laugh

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 12:35

To human ears, the laughs of individual hyenas in a pack all sound the same: high-pitched and staccato, eerie and maniacal. But every hyena makes a different call that encodes information about its age and status in the pack, according to behavioral neurologists from the University of California, Berkeley and the Université de Saint-Etienne, France.

Deep sea fish have phenomenal hearing

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 12:34

All fish have ears buried inside their heads. But fish that live in the deepest, darkest waters of the ocean may have particularly sensitive ears says Xiaohong Deng of the University of Maryland. She will be presenting the first anatomical evidence suggesting that some deep-sea fish have specialized structures to heighten their hearing.

The types of fish that Deng studies live in layers of the ocean that no sunlight can reach -- from 400 meters all the way down to depths of 4,000 meters. Biologists are currently unable to keep these mesopelagic and benthopelagic fish alive for very long at the surface, so knowledge about how they function comes from comparing their anatomy to other kinds of fish that live in surface waters.

Wimps hear noises differently

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 12:33

Scrawnier people are more likely to perceive an approaching sound as closer than it actually is. This connection between physical fitness and the brain's auditory system may have evolved to help the weak get out of the way of approaching danger.

That's the latest finding of evolutionary psychologist John Neuhoff and colleagues at The College of Wooster in Ohio, who study "looming" sounds. Participants in their study listened to a tone moving toward them and pressed a button when they thought the sound had arrived directly in front of them. Nearly everyone pushed the button too early, which Neuhoff interprets as an adaptation that helps human beings to anticipate and avoid danger.

Nice Lice?

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 12:13

Parasite infestations might have a good side. Wild mice from a Nottinghamshire forest have given experts at The University of Nottingham clues as to the importance of some parasites, such as lice, for the conditioning of a "natural" immune system.

Jan Bradley, Professor of Parasitology, said: "Our understanding of mammalian immunology is largely based on rodents reared under highly unnatural pathogen and stress-free conditions. Analysing the immune response in wild populations can give crucial insights into how the immune system functions in its natural context."

Tautology of the week

Submitted by Lennart Kiil on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 09:25

While male reproductive success varied more than female reproductive success overall, huge variability was found between populations; for instance, in monogamous societies, variances in male and female reproductive success were very similar.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...

And it's not even true. In Denmark, considered a monogamous society, 1 in 4 men will never have children while only 1 in 8 women never will.

Bateman stands.

The robo-scientist is here!

Submitted by Thomas Hesselberg on Sat, 04/04/2009 - 16:47

Biologists and computer scientists have developed the robo-scientist Adam. The researchers from the universities of Aberystwyth and Cambridge in the United Kingdom describe in a new paper in Science, how Adam has developed a hypothesis on the encoding of specific growth genes in yeast and then tested this hypothesis. Following the same procedure as a human scientist.

Adam consists of a central computer that automatically controls a cell growth chamber and complicated analysing and measuring devices. The computer is equipped with advanced software that allows Adam to develop hypotheses and then design and carry out experiments to test these hypotheses.

Syndicate content