“Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents, teachers and childhood peers and sometimes is predictive of more serious behavior problems to come, such as juvenile delinquency, adulthood violence and criminal behavior,” according to background information in the article. Various predictive factors for childhood aggression have been studied. These include parents’ discipline style, neighborhood safety and media exposure. “After music, television is the medium children aged 0 to 3 years are exposed to the most.” Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen media for children younger than age 2, studies have found consistent use of television in that age group.

So…some people like to use cardboard boxes as office furniture, while others like to use actual real office furniture. The guy with the cardboard boxes probably says his furniture is just as good as yours. Who are you gonna believe?

Are Teletubbies good, or bad? Do they make your kids “RAGE”?

“Current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations mainly suggest limitations for direct child exposure to TV and other media; however, our findings suggest that additional household TV use may also be an important predictor of negative childhood outcomes, such as early childhood aggression,” the authors conclude. “Future research in this area should consider inclusion of both of these TV variables along with additional parent-child interaction assessments, observational assessments when possible, quality and/or content of TV programs and longitudinal analyses.”

Bottom Line: While studying children in a lab is obviously very good , everyone knows that if the parents are idiots the kids will probably be idiots. Some kids break the trend both god, and bad, but obviously these studies are of little to no value in my opinion.

The fat burner volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.

The new study, published in the latest issue of Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of little by little as has been predominantly believed. In addition, such sudden large-scale events on land pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events, says Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study.

“This work is a breakthrough in our understanding of continental rifting leading to the creation of new ocean basins,” says Ken Macdonald, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and who is not affiliated with the research. “For the first time they demonstrate that activity on one rift segment can trigger a major episode of magma injection and associated deformation on a neighboring segment. Careful study of the 2005 mega-dike intrusion and its aftermath will continue to provide extraordinary opportunities for learning about continental rifts and mid-ocean ridges.”

“The whole point of this study is to learn whether what is happening in Ethiopia is like what is happening at the bottom of the ocean where it’s almost impossible for us to go,” says Ebinger. “We knew that if we could establish that, then Ethiopia would essentially be a unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory for us. Because of the unprecedented cross-border collaboration behind this research, we now know that the answer is yes, it is analogous.”

Is the same true when it comes to influenza, or even H1N1, better known as Swine Flu (Is it still better known as swine flu?)? According to an article published in the November 2009 print issue of the FASEB Journal, they show that antioxidants — the same substances found in plant-based foods — might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on our lungs. Maybe this would help me regardless of having the flu since I like to spend time in the cigar store.

With the shortage of flu vaccines being reported (I was in Milwaukee today and they said they are giving the vaccine to PRISONERS even though the area is experience a shortage), it seems that some sort of panic is overtaking the public. Is it overblown? Maybe a little, but do we really want to ignore it?

“The recent outbreak of H1N1 influenza and the rapid spread of this strain across the world highlights the need to better understand how this virus damages the lungs and to find new treatments,” said Sadis Matalon, co-author of the study. “Additionally, our research shows that antioxidants may prove beneficial in the treatment of flu.”

“Although vaccines will remain the first line of intervention against the flu for a long time to come, this study opens the door for entirely new treatments geared toward stopping the virus after you’re sick,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, “and as Thanksgiving approaches, this discovery is another reason to drink red wine to your health.”

New research is being done at the Stanford University School of Medicine that hopes to unravel the mysteries of infertility for other couples struggling to conceive by using human embryonic stem cells derived from excess IVF embryos. These are embryos that will not be used and end up being DISCARDED. They certainly don’t qualify for online life insurance either.

“Ten to 15 percent of couples are infertile,” said senior author Renee Reijo Pera, PhD. “About half of these cases are due to an inability to make eggs or sperm. And yet deleting or increasing the expression of genes in the womb to understand why is both impossible and unethical. Figuring out the genetic ‘recipe’ needed to develop human germ cells in the laboratory will give us the tools we need to trace what’s going wrong for these people.” Reijo Pera is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school and the director of Stanford’s Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Education. The study will be published online by Nature on Oct. 28.

Previous efforts to study infertility have been hampered by the fact that — unlike many other biological processes — the human reproductive cycle cannot be adequately studied in animal models. And because germ cells begin to form very early in embryonic development (by eight to 10 weeks), there’s been a dearth of human material to work with. “Humans have a unique reproductive system,” Reijo Pera said. “Until now we’ve relied on studies in mice to understand human germ cell differentiation, but the reproductive genes are not the same. This is the first evidence that you can create functional human germ cells in a laboratory.”

Roughly 4% of the known universe is made up of things that we consider “known materials” for our order fulfillment. The rest? Astronomers believe that the stars, and gas in galaxies move so fast that there must be a hypothetical, and invisible dark matter that holds all these things together.

Now the team believes that the interactions between dark and ordinary matter could be more important and more complex than previously thought, and even speculate that dark matter might not exist and that the anomalous motions of stars in galaxies are due to a modification of gravity on extragalactic scales.

Dr. Benoit Famaey (Universities of Bonn and Strasbourg) explains: “The dark matter seems to ‘know’ how the visible matter is distributed. They seem to conspire with each other such that the gravity of the visible matter at the characteristic radius of the dark halo is always the same. This is extremely surprising since one would rather expect the balance between visible and dark matter to strongly depend on the individual history of each galaxy.”

Dr. Zhao at the SUPA Centre of Gravity notes, “The pattern that the data reveal is extremely odd. It’s like finding a zoo of animals of all ages and sizes miraculously having identical, say, weight in their backbones or something. It is possible that a non-gravitational fifth force is ruling the dark matter with an invisible hand, leaving the same fingerprints on all galaxies, irrespective of their ages, shapes and sizes.”

Such a force might solve an even bigger mystery, known as ‘dark energy’, which is ruling the accelerated expansion of the Universe. A more radical solution is a revision of the laws of gravity first developed by Isaac Newton in 1687 and refined by Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity in 1916. Einstein never fully decided whether his equation should add an omnipresent constant source, now called dark energy.

Dr Famaey added, “If we account for our observations with a modified law of gravity, it makes perfect sense to replace the effective action of hypothetical dark matter with a force closely related to the distribution of visible matter.”

“Clearly, we are now beginning to see the breadth of the effects of NSF investments in plant genomics. The knowledge gained in these projects will serve as the basic foundation that will ultimately enable plant biologists and breeders to develop crop plants that are higher yielding and better able to adapt to a changing environment,” said James P. Collins, former NSF assistant director for biological sciences.

The new awards–made to 53 institutions in 30 states–include international groups of scientists from Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America.

For a more extensive list of the plant genome projects being funded look here.

Of the many projects they have funded, some will focus on such things as how to better understand plant responses to the changing environmental climates. This will allow more food to be produced in areas that aren’t necessarily prime environments for growth. While in America we probably worry more about weight loss than trying to figure out how to produce better food, these projects should be beneficial in many ways including such things as helping promote the production of alternative fuel sources such as corn, soy, and other plant derivatives.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of about $6.06 billion, we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing. MORE

Apparently it isn’t as easy as all that, and now there is a study by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project that shows the ice in the Antarctic isn’t necessarily depleting as fast as previously thought, and that those estimates have been slightly overestimated.

So…the global warming people can find themselves fighting with the anti-global warming (ie. Global Warming is a scam people) saying “see! I told you it wasn’t that bad!”. To the point that someone will probably end up with a metal candle sconces over the head by Miss Scarlet in the kitchen.

“Our work suggests that while West Antarctica is still losing significant amounts of ice, the loss appears to be slightly slower than some recent estimates,” said Ian Dalziel, lead principal investigator for WAGN. “So the take home message is that Antarctica is contributing to rising sea levels. It is the rate that is unclear.”

“The published results are very important because they provide precise, ground-truth GPS observations of the actual rebound of the continent due to the loss of ice mass detected by the GRACE satellite gravity measurements over West Antarctica” said Vladimir Papitashvili, acting director for the Antarctic Earth Sciences Program at the National Science Foundation, which supported the research.

WAGN researchers do not yet know how large the overestimation was. A more definitive correction will be conducted by other researchers who specialize in interpreting GRACE data. Previous estimates of postglacial rebound were made with theoretical models. Assimilation of the direct GPS results into new models will therefore produce significant improvements in estimations of ice mass loss.

After reading further, I still feel the same.

At 7:31 a.m. EDT on October 9, an empty rocket booster was deliberately crashed into Cabeus, a shadowed crater near the moon’s south pole where ice is suspected to reside. Astronomers watched through telescopes and the visible-light camera aboard the rocket’s mother ship, NASA’s LCROSS, or Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, spacecraft. No plumes were visible. Amateur astronomers using medium-sized backyard telescopes have not reported seeing a plume, which had been predicted to rise above the crater rim and be visible from Earth.

About four minutes after the first crash, LCROSS took its own death plunge into the crater. Even without a visible plume to ooh and aah over, the data recorded by LCROSS as it homed in on Cabeus and flew through the debris from the first impact will still be invaluable for searching for frozen water, said Barbara Cohen of the lunar precursor robotics program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Cohen was one of about 200 astronomers in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, attending the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences and who gathered together to view the LCROSS images on a big screen.

They keep discussing the “plume”, which frankly doesn’t have any value to me. There is no gravity on the moon. Obviously you would expect stuff to kick back up. Apparently they did not see such a plume. Oh well, the plume tells us nothing anyways except that gravity is real. Amish fireplaces are awesome, but I don’t ahve to test it really do I?

The real reason they did this was apparently because they assumed there was frozen water there. Kind fof hard to believe we have been to Mars and all of a sudden we could find life on the Monn eh?

A powerful fish-killing toxin could have cancer-killing properties as well, according to collaborative research led by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Paul V. Zimba and chemist Peter Moeller of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The toxin, called euglenophycin, has a molecular structure similar to that of solenopsin, an alkaloid from fire ant venom known to inhibit tumor development.

Before we start giving him any book, or tv deals for finding a cure for cancer, let’s see what this is all about first.

In the summer of 2002, a commercial aquaculture facility in North Carolina reported mysterious fish mortalities in its ponds. More than 21,000 striped bass had died in July and August, resulting in losses of more than $100,000.

To find out why the fish had died, Zimba and Moeller collaborated with Michigan State University biologist Richard Triemer. Zimba works at the ARS Catfish Genetics Research Unit in Stoneville, Miss. The scientists isolated and analyzed dissolved compounds, bacteria and algae from pond water samples.

Moeller, working in NOAA’s Center for Human Health Risk in Charleston, S.C., then purified the active compounds and fully characterized the molecular structure of euglenophycin, the algal toxin responsible for the fish kills. The scientists are seeking patent protection on the toxin, and are currently investigating its properties. Laboratory tests have confirmed that euglenophycin is deadly to fish. Catfish exposed to the purified form of the toxin died within 4 hours of exposure.

While doing this they came upon the idea that these killers might actually be beneficial in fighting something else. Cancer cells.

Laboratory tests have shown that even low concentrations of euglenophycin led to a significant decrease in cancer cell growth, and can kill cancer cells. Future tests will attempt to verify whether the toxin can slow or prevent tumor formation. Positive results would indicate that this problematic alga could have beneficial medical applications.

Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for one of the orbiter’s instruments to confirm it is water-ice. Sound slike a new exhibit at a Walt Disney World hotels.

The finds indicate water-ice occurs beneath Mars’ surface halfway between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate.

“This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, Tucson.