(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2014 — Organic chemistry: It's among the most feared courses undergraduate science students take. Whether you call it "orgo" or "o-chem," it has reduced many hopeful scholars to tears. One professor thinks he has a solution. William Dichtel, Ph.D., of Cornell University shares his thoughts on making organic chemistry classes more interesting and relevant to students in the newest episode of Prized Science from the American Chemical Society. Watch the interview at http://youtu.be/A6j1qAOOeHs.
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Making the world's most dreaded undergrad course fun (video)
2014-10-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Gastrostomy tube not advised for advanced dementia or other near end-of-life patients
2014-10-07
Based on current scientific literature, gastrostomy tube (G-tube) placement or other long-term enteral access devices should be withheld or withdrawn in patients with advanced dementia or other near end-of-life conditions, according to a special report published today in the OnlineFirst version of Nutrition in Clinical Practice (NCP), the official journal of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.).
Written by the International Clinical Ethics Section of A.S.P.E.N., the report suggests that advanced dementia be seen by health care providers ...
Acknowledging appearance reduces bias when beauties apply for masculine jobs, says CU-led study
2014-10-07
Past research shows physical beauty can be detrimental to women applying for masculine jobs. But belles can put the brakes on discrimination by acknowledging their looks during an interview, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
The paper, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, is the first to provide a method for curtailing such prejudice against attractive women.
In the study, when an attractive woman applied for a job typically filled by men -- a construction job -- and said, "I know I don't look like your ...
Brazil's rainforests are releasing more carbon dioxide than previously thought
2014-10-07
This news release is available in German.
Because of the deforestation of tropical rainforests in Brazil, significantly more carbon has been lost than was previously assumed. As scientists of the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) write in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the effect of the degradation has been underestimated in fragmented forest areas, since it was hitherto not possible to calculate the loss of the biomass at the forest edges and the higher emission of carbon dioxide. The UFZ scientists have now closed this knowledge gap. ...
Researchers prefer citing researchers of good reputation
2014-10-07
If a scientist has a good reputation among his colleagues, other scientists are more likely to cite his publications. According to a study, reputation is crucial for the impact of publications.
Author reputation is key in driving a paper's citation count early in its life cycle, before a tipping point, after which reputation has much less influence compared to the paper's citation count, says Aalto University Professor Santo Fortunato, pointing out that this is a key finding of the study.
Quality – not quantity – of publications build authors' reputation
As ...
Results of study of the human mind and consciousness at the time of death available
2014-10-07
The results of a four-year international study of 2060 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals published and available now on ScienceDirect. The study concludes:
The themes relating to the experience of death appear far broader than what has been understood so far, or what has been described as so called near-death experiences.
In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories of visual awareness compatible with so called out-of-body experiences may correspond with actual events.
A higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due ...
Small spills at gas stations could cause significant public health risks over time
2014-10-07
A new study suggests that drops of fuel spilled at gas stations — which occur frequently with fill-ups — could cumulatively be causing long-term environmental damage to soil and groundwater in residential areas in close proximity to the stations.
Few studies have considered the potential environmental impact of routine gasoline spills and instead have focused on problems associated with large-scale leaks. Researchers with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, publishing online Sept. 19 in the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, developed a mathematical ...
Testosterone promotes prostate cancer in rats
2014-10-07
Washington, DC—A researcher who found that testosterone raised the risk of prostate tumors and exacerbated the effects of carcinogenic chemical exposure in rats is urging caution in prescribing testosterone therapy to men who have not been diagnosed with hypogonadism, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.
Testosterone use has soared in the last decade among older men seeking to boost energy and feel younger. One study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that the number of American men ...
Printing in the hobby room: Paper-thin and touch-sensitive displays on various materials
2014-10-07
Until now, if you want to print a greeting card for a loved one, you can use colorful graphics, fancy typefaces or special paper to enhance it. But what if you could integrate paper-thin displays into the cards, which could be printed at home and which would be able to depict self-created symbols or even react to touch? Those only some of the options computer scientists in Saarbrücken can offer.
They developed an approach that in the future will enable laypeople to print displays in any desired shape on various materials and therefore could change everyday life completely.
For ...
World's first child born after uterus transplantation
2014-10-07
In a ground-breaking research project at the University of Gothenburg, seven Swedish women have had embryos reintroduced after receiving wombs from living donors. Now the first transplanted woman has delivered a baby – a healthy and normally developed boy. The world-unique birth was acknowledged in The Lancet on 5 October.
The uterus transplantation research project at the University of Gothenburg started in 1999 and has been evaluated in over 40 scientific articles. The goal of the Gothenburg project is to enable women who were born without a womb or who have lost ...
Fundamentals of physics confirmed
2014-10-07
To explore any possible limits of the two theories, they have been experimentally verified many times already and both have passed all the tests so far. Hence, scientists look for deviations in experiments with increasing precision or under extreme conditions.
For this purpose, Nörtershäuser's team has now accelerated ions to velocities near the speed of light and illuminated them with a laser.
The results, which are presented in two new publications, confirm the time dilation predicted for high velocities in the theory of relativity with an accuracy that ...