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Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH Magazine online at: http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.
The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.
Endangered icebreakers: The future of Arctic research, exploration and rescue at risk
2015-07-28
(Press-News.org) Alexandria, VA - The United States' Icebreaker Fleet - operated by the U.S. Coast Guard - consists of just two ships that are used for everything from search and rescue to national security operations to scientific research. In our August cover story, EARTH Magazine examines the various roles icebreakers play, especially in Arctic research, and how insufficient funding is affecting the icebreakers' roles.
Icebreakers are becoming more important every year, as more commerce is conducted in Arctic regions as seasonal ice cover decreases. Yet over recent fiscal cycles, Congress has appropriated fewer and fewer dollars for the Coast Guard to maintain its already aging fleet - despite myriad government agencies calling for additional icebreakers to be built. Find out what the potential impacts of losing our icebreakers would be and learn what some members of Congress are doing to stop it in EARTH Magazine: http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/endangered-icebreakers-future-arctic-research-exploration-and-rescue-risk.
The August 2015 digital issue of EARTH Magazine, and the July/August 2015 print issue brings the geoscience community the science behind the headlines and includes a scientific comment on who should be concerned about space weather, a story on the role science is playing in giving two famous dinosaur species a makeover and a tale about how megafloods shaped the Icelandic landscape. For all this, and more, go to: http://www.earthmagazine.org.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Neurology researchers evaluate evidence base for tests for clinical cognitive assessment
2015-07-28
West Orange, NJ. July 28, 2015 Recommendations for improving clinical cognitive testing were reported by the American Academy of Neurology's (AAN) Behavioral Neurology Section (BNS) Group, led by Kirk R. Daffner, MD, of Boston, Mass. The Group focused on the Neurobehavioral Status Exam (NBSE), conducting evidence-based reviews of testing used for five domains - attention, language, memory, spatial cognition, and executive function). "Improving clinical cognitive testing" (doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001763) was published online ahead of print on July 10, 2015, in Neurology, ...
Where memory is encoded and retrieved: New findings in a long-standing debate
2015-07-28
Are the same regions and even the same cells of the brain area called hippocampus involved in encoding and retrieving memories or are different areas of this structure engaged? This question has kept neuroscientists busy for a long time. Researchers at the Mercator Research Group "Structure of Memory" at RUB have now found out that the same brain cells exhibit activity in both processes. They have published their results in the journal "Hippocampus".
Hippocampus: the key to memory
In the course of their project, Dr Nozomu Nakamura and Prof Dr Magdalena Sauvage from ...
Majority rule: Why conformity can actually be a good thing
2015-07-28
Like to go your own way? Most of us actually prefer to follow the pack, according to UBC research.
That's one of the outcomes from a study published in Evolution and Human Behavior that examines how mathematical models predict human behaviour.
The research tested theories about when people should rely on "social information" - information that we learn vicariously from others - and when we should choose to go it alone.
"People are conformist - and that's a good thing for cultural evolution," said Michael Muthukrishna, a Vanier and Liu Scholar and recent PhD recipient ...
Diabetics who skip breakfast provoke hazardous blood sugar spikes
2015-07-28
More and more Americans on-the-go are skipping the "most important meal of the day," not eating until lunch. This tendency to miss breakfast has already been linked to the growing epidemic of obesity and cardiovascular problems in the US -- and it may put the health of diabetics at risk as well.
Very little was known regarding the effect of skipping breakfast on the health of diabetics -- until now. A new Tel Aviv University study reveals the substantial impact of skipping breakfast on type-2 diabetics. "Fasting" until noon triggers major blood sugar spikes (postprandial ...
Geography, skills, local companies affect higher education impact on economic development
2015-07-28
Amsterdam, July 28, 2015 - Policy makers need to take factors like geography, available skills and knowledge and the networks of local companies into account to boost the impact of higher education on economic development, according to a new Atlas Award-winning paper published in the International Journal of Educational Development.
The authors of the study, from the University of Nottingham, say it's not quite as simple as more students equals higher income: higher education is key to economic development, but the way the two relate is complex, they say.
"Of course ...
Early evidence suggests hybrid cochlear implants may benefit millions with common form of hearing loss
2015-07-28
People with a common form of hearing loss not helped by hearing aids achieved significant and sometimes profound improvements in their hearing and understanding of speech with hybrid cochlear implant devices, according to a new multicenter study led by specialists at NYU Langone Medical Center.
In the study, described online ahead of print in the journal The Laryngoscope July 7, researchers at 10 medical centers and private clinics in the United States implanted hybrid cochlear implants into one ear of 50 men and women. All study volunteers had badly damaged high-frequency, ...
Doctor warns about lead poisoning risk from recycling older electronic equipment
2015-07-28
The disposal and recycling of electronic devices has increased exposure to lead and other toxicants and created "an emerging health concern," according to a pediatrician who directs the Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
In a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Nick Newman reports on two children, ages 1 and 2, whose father worked at an e-scrap recycling company crushing cathode ray tubes (CRTs). CRTs, made from leaded glass, were commonly used in televisions ...
Cancer healthcare disparities exist in the LGBTQ community, say Moffitt researchers
2015-07-28
TAMPA, Fla. - The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) community is a growing and medically-underserved minority population in the United States, with 3 to 12 percent of the population estimated to identify as LGBTQ. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers published one of the first articles that describe the current knowledge about cancers that may disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community, and also offered suggestions for improving their healthcare.
LGBTQ community deals with significant economic and health disparities. Gay and lesbian ...
New therapy delivers long-term relief for chronic back, leg pain, study finds
2015-07-28
Chicago - Chronic back and leg pain sufferers in search of better pain relief options may have a new choice. According to a study published in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists® (ASA®), patients who received a novel high frequency form of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy experienced significantly greater, long-term relief for both chronic back and leg pain, when compared to a traditional low frequency form of SCS therapy.
"This is the first long-term study to compare the ...
Practice doesn't always make perfect (depending on your brain)
2015-07-28
This news release is available in French. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? New research on the brain's capacity to learn suggests there's more to it than the adage that "practise makes perfect." A music-training study by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at McGill University and colleagues in Germany found evidence to distinguish the parts of the brain that account for individual talent from the parts that are activated through training.
The research involved brain imaging studies of 15 young adults with little or no musical ...