A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken an important step closer to finding the birth certificate of a star that's been around for a very long time. "We have found that this is the oldest known star with a well-determined age," said Howard Bond of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. The star could be as old as 14.5 billion years (plus or minus 0.8 billion years), which at first glance would make it older than the universe's calculated age of about 13.8 billion ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Primary care practices around the country are being encouraged and even paid to become "medical homes," but small practices might be at a significant disadvantage in this race to improve health care for children, according to a new study by child health experts at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Efforts around the country to improve health care for children have increasingly focused on the medical home as a model to make primary care practices more accessible, comprehensive, and focused on quality improvement. Since 2008, practices could become officially ...

What can green algae do for science if they weren't, well, green? That's the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer when they engineered a green alga used commonly in laboratories, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, into a rainbow of different colors by producing six different colored fluorescent proteins in the algae cells. While fluorescent green, red, blue and yellow may be all the rage this year for running shoes and other kinds of sporting gear, fluorescent algae hasn't been a style trend yet in scientific laboratories. But in announcing their achievement in ...

WACO, Texas (March 7, 2013) - A genetic analysis by Baylor University biologists suggests that the stocking of Florida bass in Texas reservoirs impacts bass populations far beyond the actual stocking location. The native largemouth bass has a long and nearly continuous stocking history in Texas. However, the Florida bass is widely considered a better sport fish because it grows to a greater size. Subsequently, stocking efforts in Texas reservoirs have transitioned from largemouth bass to Florida bass. The Baylor researchers analyzed the genetic composition of 69 largemouth ...

Malaria, the leading cause of death among children in Africa, could be eliminated if three-fourths of the population used insecticide-treated bed nets, according to a new study from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). The study, which uses a mathematical model, found that use of insecticide-treated bed nets or ITNs positively affected the infection's reproduction number, or R, which is the primary epidemiological number used to determine the degree which a disease can spread through a population. The model concludes that if 75 percent ...

VIDEO: This animation of NOAA GOES-13 satellite imagery from March 5-7, 2013, shows the progression of a cold front from the west associated with a low pressure system that brought snow... Click here for more information. The merging of two low pressure areas into a large Nor'easter on March 6 brought winter weather advisories and warnings to the Mid-Atlantic. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared and near infrared image of the storm's power, and NASA created an animation ...

The star Eta Carinae is ready to blow. 170 years ago, this 100-solar-mass object belched out several suns' worth of gas in an eruption that made it the second-brightest star after Sirius. That was just a precursor to the main event, since it will eventually go supernova. Supernova explosions of massive stars are common in spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, where new stars are forming all the time. They are almost never seen in elliptical galaxies where star formation has nearly ceased. As a result, astronomers were surprised to find a young-looking supernova in an old ...

With data from 73 ice and sediment core monitoring sites around the world, scientists have reconstructed Earth's temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age. The analysis reveals that the planet today is warmer than it's been during 70 to 80 percent of the last 11,300 years. Results of the study, by researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) and Harvard University, are published this week in a paper in the journal Science. Lead paper author Shaun Marcott of OSU says that previous research on past global temperature change has largely focused on the ...

HOUSTON – (March 7, 2013) – Results of a study using several imaging methods showed that CCSVI (chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency) occurs at a low rate in both people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and non-MS volunteers, contrary to some previous studies. The research by an interdisciplinary team at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) was published in a recent early online edition of the Annals of Neurology. "Our results in this phase of the study suggest that findings in the major veins that drain the brain consistent with CCSVI ...

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada) creates a conservation strategy that will promote wildlife resiliency in the Southern Canadian Rockies to the future impacts of climate change and road use. The report's "safe passages and safe havens" were informed in part by an assessment of six iconic species—bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, wolverines, mountain goats and bighorn sheep—five of which were ranked as highly vulnerable to projected changes. Nestled between Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff National ...

In the movie Alien, the title character is an extraterrestrial creature that can survive brutal heat and resist the effects of toxins. In real life, organisms with similar traits exist, such as the "extremophile" red alga Galdieria sulphuraria. In hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Galdieria uses energy from the sun to produce sugars through photosynthesis. In the darkness of old mineshafts in drainage as caustic as battery acid, it feeds on bacteria and survives high concentrations of arsenic and heavy metals. How has a one-celled alga acquired such ...

Scientists at UC San Francisco have found a more precise way to turn off genes, a finding that will speed research discoveries and biotech advances and may eventually prove useful in reprogramming cells to regenerate organs and tissues. The strategy borrows from the molecular toolbox of bacteria, using a protein employed by microbes to fight off viruses, according to the researchers, who describe the technique in the current issue of Cell. Turning off genes is a major goal of treatments that target cancer and other diseases. In addition, the ability to turn genes off ...

To students in Jennifer Burg's computer science classes, making music is the main objective. But her goal is to get them to understand how the underlying technology works – and to love it so much they decide on a science-based career path. And that, Burg's study has shown, has helped Wake Forest University fulfill the national imperative to increase the number of majors in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math. The results of Burg's research, "Computer Science 'Big Ideas' Play Well in Digital Sound and Music," will be published during the ...

Outdoor heat is associated with a significantly increased risk of emergency hospitalization for respiratory disorders in the elderly, according to a large epidemiological study of more than 12.5 million Medicare beneficiaries. "While outdoor heat has been shown to increase respiratory mortality, evidence on the relationship between heat and respiratory hospitalizations has been less consistent," said lead author G. Brooke Anderson, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "In the largest population ...

A study by the University of Liverpool has found that celebrity endorsement of a food product encourages children to eat more of the endorsed product. It also found that children were prompted to eat more of the endorsed product when they saw the celebrity on TV in a different context. Celebrity endorsement is an effective method of creating value, recognition and credibility for a brand, and celebrities are frequently used in television advertising to induce children to try foods. An example of this is former England international soccer player Gary Lineker, now principally ...

Massachusetts criminal cases under review after false testimony revealed Article provided by Stephen E. Dawley, P.C., Attorney at Law Visit us at http://www.stephendawley.com As many as 34,000 criminal cases may be up for review after the arrest of a crime lab chemist in Boston last year. The chemist -- who was employed by a Massachusetts crime lab for the past nine years -- was in charge of testing suspected drug substances seized during arrests throughout the state. False testimony revealed The female chemist served as an expert witness at thousands of trials ...

Recent tax law changes can have a great impact on divorce negotiations Article provided by Donelson Ciancio & Grant, P.C. Visit us at http://www.colodivorceattorneys.com On January 1 of this year, the U.S. Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) forestalling federal tax increases for the middle class and various spending cuts. Although the country did not topple over the "fiscal cliff" that everyone was so concerned about, passage of the ATRA brought about more cringes than sighs of relief for many divorcing couples in Colorado and ...

Late in life divorce phenomenon still growing Article provided by Evashevski, Elliott, Cihak & Hediger, PC Visit us at http://www.eechlaw.com "Late-life divorce." "Baby boomer divorce." No matter what name you use, the fact remains that one segment of our population has seen its divorce rate rise exponentially: couples over the age of 50. The rate of divorce in that demographic has more than doubled since 1990, and the phenomenal rise isn't showing any sign of slowing. Dissolutions of long-term marriages are different because they most ...

FDA says sleep aids may cause drowsy driving the next morning Article provided by Brady & Grabowski, P.C. Visit us at http://www.bradygrabowski.com If you have ever been behind the wheel for a long period of time, you have likely experienced this frightening phenomenon. You suddenly realize you have no recollection of driving the last few miles or a patch of rumble strips on the side of the road jerks you awake. Driving while fatigued is a dangerous choice, as drowsy drivers' abilities are often compared to those of drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Recently, ...

Ohio Teen's Delayed Pediatric Stroke Diagnosis Sheds Light On Problem Article provided by Klein & Carney Co., L.P.A. Visit us at http://www.kleinandcarney.com/ Recently, the parents of a teenage Ohio boy took him to the emergency room after he suddenly experienced a terrible headache and experienced difficulty walking. At the local hospital, the doctors stated they believed the teen was suffering from a migraine. Twenty-five hours later, the boy's mother -- a nurse -- knew something was wrong, and had her son transferred to the Cleveland Clinic. Physicians ...

NTSB targets wrong-way drivers Article provided by Burke Lasseter LLC Visit us at http://www.burkelasseterllc.com When you are driving down the highway, you are probably anticipating aggressive drivers or perhaps drivers weaving in and out of their lane while talking on their cellphone. However, one scenario that you probably did not prepare for is a driver barreling towards you while going the wrong direction on the highway. You may think that it is a rare occurrence, but it happens more often than you may think. According to the National Transportation Safety ...

Building the parental bond after divorce Article provided by Greenwald Law Offices Visit us at http://www.greenwaldlaw.com Parenting is not easy. Parenting after a divorce can be particularly difficult, but researchers continually find that the benefit of a strong relationship between children and their mothers and fathers is worth the extra work. Experts maintain that children's development is linked to the bond they have with their parents. Another scientific study recently released in a well-respected journal provides further support to this theory. As a result, ...

Maryland battles the issue of distracted driving Article provided by The Law Offices of Burch & Voss Visit us at http://www.burchandvoss.com While many Americans attempt to multitask in their everyday lives, studies suggest that humans are limited in the amount of information they can process at one time. To accommodate the multiple demands of life, people attempt to shift their concentration, back and forth, from one matter to the next. However, if one is assigned to the task of driving, he or she should not attempt to do multiple things at once. A motorist ...

Restaurant Expert Witness, Howard Cannon has secured OSHA Certification. OSHA (Occupation Safety and Health Administration) is part of the United States Department of Labor. The Senate and House of Representatives of the U.S.A. in Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: "To assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women; by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the Act; by assisting and encouraging the States in their efforts to assure safe and healthful working conditions; by providing for research, ...

TNT Express in Sri Lanka conducted a comprehensive training for the new and existing franchisees operating throughout the country. The objectives of the training are to raise awareness and provide guidelines about TNT Express standards and practices. The workshop training was delivered by TNT Express senior management. Jerome Brohier, Country Manager for TNT Express in Sri Lanka and The Maldives Islands commented :"TNT Express in Sri Lanka focuses on maintaining consistent standards amongst their franchisees, to be able to deliver the same level of service ...