WASHINGTON— The rapid decline in costs associated with many common laboratory techniques, such as DNA sequencing and synthesis, has led to their adoption by individuals outside of traditional university or industrial settings, giving rise to a rapidly growing Do-It-Yourself Biology (DIYbio) community. DIYbio.org and the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center this week are launching the "Ask a Biosafety Expert" service in order to provide this emerging DIYbio community with free and timely access to professional biosafety advice. The project comes amidst ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Dogs and wolves are genetically so similar, it's been difficult for biologists to understand why wolves remain fiercely wild, while dogs can gladly become "man's best friend." Now, doctoral research by evolutionary biologist Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests the different behaviors are related to the animals' earliest sensory experiences and the critical period of socialization. Details appear in the current issue of Ethology. Until now, little was known about sensory development in wolf pups, and assumptions were usually ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- More than 2,000 former football players are suing the National Football League, saying the league should have taken action earlier to deal with injuries related to concussions more seriously. But if a lack of speed in tackling concussions warrants criticism, the NFL isn't the only player deserving a penalty, according to a study co-authored by health care and law expert David Orentlicher, who teaches at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. Neurologists were also slow in sounding the alarm, and for decades, concussions ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (Jan. 17, 2013) – A new study that looked at more than 75,000 children in day care in Norway found little evidence that the amount of time a child spends in child care leads to an increase in behavioral problems, according to researchers from the United States and Norway. Several prior studies in the U.S. made connections between the time a child spends in day care and behavioral problems, but the results from Norway contradict those earlier findings, the researchers report in the online version of the journal Child Development. "In Norway, we do not ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are challenging the way pediatric neurologists think about brain injury in the pre-term infant. In a study published online in the Jan. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the OHSU Doernbecher researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature. This discovery opens up new avenues for potential ...

Whether an applicant receives a high or low score may have more to do with who else was interviewed that day than the overall strength of the applicant pool, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Drawing on previous research on the gambler fallacy, Uri Simonsohn of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School hypothesized that admissions interviewers would have a difficult time seeing the forest for the trees. Instead of evaluating applicants ...

URBANA – When low-income families devote three to four extra minutes to regular family mealtimes, their children's ability to achieve and maintain a normal weight improves measurably, according to a new University of Illinois study. "Children whose families engaged with each other over a 20-minute meal four times a week weighed significantly less than kids who left the table after 15 to 17 minutes. Over time, those extra minutes per meal add up and become really powerful," said Barbara H. Fiese, director of the U of I's Family Resiliency Program. Childhood obesity ...

January 17, 2013 – New Orleans – Extraversion does not just explain differences between how people act at social events. How extraverted you are may influence how the brain makes choices – specifically whether you choose an immediate or delayed reward, according to a new study. The work is part of a growing body of research on the vital role of understanding personality in society. "Understanding how people differ from each other and how that affects various outcomes is something that we all do on an intuitive basis, but personality psychology attempts to bring scientific ...

Most people are familiar with the concept of RADAR. Radio frequency (RF) waves travel through the atmosphere, reflect off of a target, and return to the RADAR system to be processed. The amount of time it takes to return correlates to the object's distance. In recent decades, this technology has been revolutionized by electronically scanned (phased) arrays (ESAs), which transmit the RF waves in a particular direction without mechanical movement. Each emitter varies its phase and amplitude to form a RADAR beam in a particular direction through constructive and destructive ...

VIDEO: NASA Goddard scientists transmitted an image of the Mona Lisa from Earth to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the moon by piggybacking on laser pulses that routinely track the spacecraft. HD... Click here for more information. As part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite at the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth. The iconic image traveled ...

Titan's siblings must be jealous. While most of Saturn's moons display their ancient faces pockmarked by thousands of craters, Titan – Saturn's largest moon – may look much younger than it really is because its craters are getting erased. Dunes of exotic, hydrocarbon sand are slowly but steadily filling in its craters, according to new research using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "Most of the Saturnian satellites – Titan's siblings – have thousands and thousands of craters on their surface. So far on Titan, of the 50 percent of the surface that we've seen ...

New York, NY — A new survey of stroke survivors has shown that those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are less likely to adhere to treatment regimens that reduce the risk of an additional stroke. Researchers found that 65 percent of stroke survivors with PTSD failed to adhere to treatment, compared with 33 percent of those without PTSD. The survey also suggests that nonadherence in PTSD patients is partly explained by increased ambivalence toward medication. Among stroke survivors with PTSD, approximately one in three (38 percent) had concerns about their medications. ...

Severity of emphysema, as measured by computed tomography (CT), is a strong independent predictor of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in ever-smokers with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a study from researchers in Norway. In patients with severe emphysema, airway wall thickness is also associated with mortality from respiratory causes. "Ours is the first study to examine the relationship between degree of emphysema and mortality in a community-based sample and between airway wall thickness and mortality," said ...

SALT LAKE CITY – A simple, inexpensive blood test performed on trauma patients upon admission can help doctors easily identify patients at greatest risk of death, according to a new study by researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The Intermountain Medical Center research study of more than 9,500 patients discovered that some trauma patients are up to 58 times more likely to die than others, regardless of the severity of their original injuries. Researchers say the study findings provide important insight into the long-term prognosis of trauma ...

Athens, Ga. – Light emitting diodes, more commonly called LEDs, are known for their energy efficiency and durability, but the bluish, cold light of current white LEDs has precluded their widespread use for indoor lighting. Now, University of Georgia scientists have fabricated what is thought to be the world's first LED that emits a warm white light using a single light emitting material, or phosphor, with a single emitting center for illumination. The material is described in detail in the current edition of the Nature Publishing Group journal "Light: Science and Applications." "Right ...

Foreclosures in Florida on the rise The rate of foreclosures across the nation has dropped. RealtyTrac, a real-estate research group that studies foreclosures across the country, reports that the national rate dropped by 16 percent between September of 2011 and September of 2012. Unfortunately, the housing market in Florida is not following this trend. According to the report, Florida continues to see high increases in foreclosure activity. The most recent statistic puts Florida at a 24 percent increase; resulting in the eleventh month in a row the state reported ...

Texas Supreme Court Clarifies Age Discrimination Law A south Texas school district secretary attempted to file an age discrimination claim earlier this summer, claiming that she was fired due to her age. However, the replacement employee was actually older by four years than the secretary herself. The secretary was 48-years-old at the time of her firing. Texas law had not yet established whether an age discrimination case should be thrown out on the basis that a replacement employee is older than the employee who was terminated. Other jurisdictions have varied in ...

Refusing a DUI test in Connecticut It is important to know your rights if you are pulled over for a DUI. If an officer suspects you for driving under the influence, he or she can ask you take a blood, breath or urine test to determine your blood alcohol content. But you do have the option to refuse. You may wonder what happens if you refuse to take these tests. Testing and arrest An officer can ask you to take the test to determine your blood alcohol content if he or she has probable cause to think you are driving under the influence. Then, the test must be taken ...

How South Carolina implied consent laws work Anyone who has seen an episode of a popular crime drama knows that when you are being charged with a crime, you have the right to remain silent. But if you have been charged with a DUIin South Carolina, you do not have the right to refuse a breath, blood or urine test without penalty. Implied consent laws in South Carolina In South Carolina, people who are lawfully arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol are required to take a blood, urine or breath test when a law enforcement officer requests one. Generally, ...

Briefly measuring the pros and cons of business entities: LLC or S-Corp Two of the most common business entities for small companies are the limited liability corporation and the S-Corp, but how do you know which entity is appropriate for your business? The answer may come down to cost, attraction of capital as your business grows, and tax considerations, among others. To begin, the major advantage of filing either as an LLC or S-Corp is that both entities offer limited liability, which means the personal assets of the business owner are protected from the creditors ...

Florida defendants questioning Intoxilyzer results Police and prosecutors in Florida have been relying on breath test results from a device called the Intoxilyzer to convict people of drinking and driving. The device has been around for 73 years, and its results are constantly challenged by people on trial for drinking and driving. In fact, the state hired a woman simply to travel around the state and testify about the reliability and accuracy of the Intoxilyzer. More than 60 people accused of drinking and driving in Brevard County are questioning the use of the Intoxilyzer ...

Recent campaign targets repeat DWI offenders A new campaign in North Carolina recently took place with the goal of reducing drunk driving. The North Carolina Department of Transportation's "Booze It & Lose It" campaign ran through January 2 and attempted to decrease drunk driving throughout the state. Over 10,000 additional checkpoints and patrols were conducted during the campaign in 2011. Additionally, more than 3,600 North Carolina drivers were charged with driving while impaired. Alcohol-related crash statistics in North Carolina Alcohol-related ...

New Technologies May Increase Distracted Driving Risks According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving poses serious risks on our nation's highways. In 2010 alone - the last year for which statistics are available - 3,092 people were killed and an additional 419,000 injured in car accidents involving distracted drivers. Unfortunately, the problem is only likely to get worse as cell phone ownership increases and texting gains traction as an accepted means of communication. New Technologies Pose New Dangers Any activity ...

NHTSA to require electronic stability control in heavy trucks and buses Tractor trailers and other heavy trucks are some of the most dangerous vehicles on our roads. Of course, this isn't to say that truckers are somehow worse drivers than the rest of us. To the contrary, most truck drivers approach their jobs with a sense of professionalism and care towards other motorists. However, they aren't infallible. When accidents happen, the trucks' sheer size means that serious personal injuries are much more likely to occur. Rollovers are some of the most dangerous types ...

Wrongful convictions in California According to a study from the California Wrongful Convictions Project at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, there were more than 200 wrongful convictions in the state since 1989. These wrongful convictions included serious offenses like rape and murder. California has the highest number of exonerations of any other state. Wrongful conviction costs add up The study included two definitions of wrongful conviction. The first was when the person's conviction was reversed and they were fully acquitted upon retrial, ...