Whether you go through life as a daredevil or tend to avoid taking risks depends a lot on your own pedigree. This is shown by a current study by the Institute for the Study of Labor (Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, IZA) and the University of Bonn. Inherited character traits could also be a decisive factor for economic success, the researchers speculate.
Scientists from the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have produced the world’s first engineering model to predict how much damage a reef is likely to suffer when confronted with an angry sea. In a paper in Nature, Dr. Joshua Madin and Dr. Sean Connolly use mathematical models to calculate the forces that coral is subjected to by waves or storm surge and the probability of the colonies being ripped from the seabed.
Early findings from a new urban pollution study suggest that commuters in Manchester inhale their biggest daily dose of harmful traffic fumes during the morning rush hour.
Researchers are using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to show that sitting in an upright position places unnecessary strain on your back, leading to potentially chronic pain problems if you spend long hours sitting. The study, conducted at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland, was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Your brain may be determining what car you buy before you’ve even taken a test drive. A new study gauging the brain’s response to product branding has found that strong brands elicit strong activity in our brains. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
An implantable pump can help heart-failure patients live and recover strength while they wait for a transplant. But an evaluation concludes that the UK’s National Health Service should continue to restrict the technology’s use — at least for now.
It sounds like the stuff of a campy ’50s horror movie (“It Came from the Ice!”), but a Bowling Green State University biologist believes it’s a very real possibility.
Perinneal wheat? The possibility is being looked at by a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher. Annual wheat, which is traditionally grown in the Great Plains, isplanted in the fall and dies after harvest in mid-summer. But Dr. CharlieRush, Experiment Station plant pathologist, is testing some perenniallines of wheat bred in Washington state.
Wavy leaf thistle was difficult to find along Panhandle highways five years ago. But now the noxious weed can be found moving into pastures, said a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher. Dr. Jerry Michels, Experiment Station entomologist at Bushland, along with Nagendra Earle, a West Texas A&M University graduate student, began looking at controlling the intruding noxious weed with natural controls about two years ago.
Certain women may miss out on routine tests that screen for early signs of breast cancer. Elderly women, women with publicly funded health insurance and women who don’t go to an obstetrician and gynecologist for routine exams are all less likely than others to get a clinical breast exam and a recommendation for a mammogram.