10/9/2008 - The Boston Globe
From medicine cabinets to the fermented beer in the fridge, Americans are surrounded by science all the time. The St. Louis Science Center is launching a festival this week to help people better understand, and enjoy, the ways that science plays a role in everyday lives.
10/9/2008 - BBC News
Perfect secrecy has come a step closer with the launch of the world's first computer network protected by unbreakable quantum encryption at a scientific conference in Vienna. Quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which have been shown to be inherently unbreakable.
10/9/2008 - National Geographic News
Newly evolved "superworms" that feast on toxic waste could help cleanse polluted industrial land, a new study says. These hardcore heavy metal fans, unearthed at disused mining sites in England and Wales, devour lead, zinc, arsenic, and copper.
10/9/2008 - CBS News
Cells taken from men's testicles seem as versatile as the stem cells derived from embryos, researchers reported in what may be yet another new approach in a burgeoning scientific field.
10/9/2008 - Chronical of Higher Education
Among the 142 ballot measures that will be before voters in 33 states this November are 17 proposals in 13 states that would directly affect higher education.
10/9/2008 - WebMD
Eating calcium-rich foods may do a body good, but calcium probably won't help you lose weight, new research shows. Investigators found no evidence that calcium supplementation influenced energy expenditure or fat-burning in overweight people whose regular diets were deficient in the mineral.
10/8/2008 - Chronicle of Higher Education
Three scientists at American universities have won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a fluorescent protein in a colorful jellyfish and developing it into a key tool for observing previously invisible processes such as the spread of cancer cells, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced.
10/8/2008 - Scientific American
A California-based company hopes to capture the wasted sunlight falling on roofs by using large, flat arrays of cylindrical thin-film solar cells. This design not only seals out moisture but allows the glass to act as a sunlight concentrator, funneling photons onto the thin film.
10/8/2008 - USA Today
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the number of overweight children from ages 6-11 has more than doubled in the last 20 years and tripled in those aged 12-19. Schools across the country are responding by adding more fruits, vegetables, salads, and healthier alternatives to menus.
10/8/2008 - National Geographic
Arrows and abandoned camps found in remote western Brazil are fresh evidence of isolated Amazon tribes fleeing Peru to escape the encroachment of illegal loggers, indigenous rights groups say. The tribes have been described as "uncontacted"—so remote that they may have had little or no substantive contact with the developed world.
10/8/2008 - The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah's charter schools performed far better than their traditional public school counterparts in meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for the federal education program No Child Left Behind.
10/7/2008 - Yahoo! News
Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets—or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards, and turtles, for that matter—because of risks for disease. That's according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.
10/7/2008 - Time Magazine
Two Japanese citizens and a Japanese-born American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in the world of subatomic physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.
10/7/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
An “extinction crisis” is under way, with one in four mammals in danger of disappearing because of habitat loss, hunting, and climate change, a leading global conservation body warned Monday.
10/7/2008 - Reuters
A prenatal blood test can be used to determine if an unborn baby has Down's syndrome without the small risk to the fetus posed by invasive testing methods such as amniocentesis, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
10/6/2008 - Education Week (requires registration)
The largest study of U.S. children ever performed—aiming to track 100,000 from conception to age 21—will start recruiting mothers-to-be in North Carolina and New York in January. The ambitious National Children's Study aims to learn how the environment and other factors affect youngsters' health, especially development of such conditions as autism, asthma, learning disabilities, diabetes, and obesity.
10/6/2008 - CBS News
Three European scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for separate discoveries of viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer, breakthroughs that helped doctors fight the deadly diseases.
10/6/2008 - eSchool News
Schools and colleges across the nation are scrambling to develop new plans to pay their bills after an investment fund that serves about 1,000 colleges and private schools last week partially froze withdrawals amid the current credit crunch.
10/6/2008 - National Geographic News
A worldwide weather "barrier" that can block air pollution from traveling southward, has been discovered, a new study says. Called a "chemical equator," the 50-kilometer-wide boundary separates the Northern Hemisphere's dirty air from that of the less polluted Southern Hemisphere.
10/6/2008 - The Wall Street Journal
First came organic. Then came fair trade. Now makers of everything from milk to jackets to cars are starting to tally up the carbon footprints of their products.
10/2/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
New York City is beginning to measure the performance of thousands of elementary and middle school teachers based on how much their students improve on annual state math and reading tests. To avoid a contentious fight with the teachers' union, the NYC Department of Education has agreed not to make public the reports—which described teachers as average, below average, or above average with various types of students—nor let them influence formal job evaluations, pay, and promotions.
10/2/2008 - WebMD
Vitamin C supplements and chemotherapy aren't a good combination, says a team of New York researchers. Vitamin C reduced the effectiveness of many cancer drugs, they found in laboratory and animal studies.
10/2/2008 - Reuters
A scientist who helped prove the existence of dark matter and a researcher who used the power of jellyfish to glow green in experiments may win Nobel prizes, according to Thomson Reuters. The analysis makes use of the way scientists credit one another for their work to find out who has done the most influential basic research in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and economics.
10/2/2008 - BBC News
For the first time in more than 25 years, captive-bred black rhinos have been released back into the wild. Experts have hailed it as a landmark step for African wildlife conservation.
9/30/2008 - Education Week (requires registration)
More than 400 educators in the Miami-Dade County, Florida school system are taking part in a professional-development and curriculum program that attempts to build students' science knowledge while helping them master English. The Promoting Science among English Language Learners program addresses a number of the crucial challenges facing elementary teachers in urban districts and other communities that have seen an influx of non-native English-speakers.