WASHINGTON, April 19—Invisibility cloaks are seemingly futuristic devices capable of concealing very small objects by bending and channeling light around them. Until now, however, cloaking techniques have come with a significant limitation—they need to be orders of magnitude larger than the object being cloaked. This places serious constraints on practical applications, particularly for the optoelectronics industry, where size is a premium and any cloaking device would need to be both tiny and delicate. An international team of physicists from the Technical University ...

Atlanta carpet and flooring company, Glover's Flooring America, will celebrate its 80th year of business in 2011. Glover's is a family-owned Atlanta flooring company offering huge selections of carpet, hardwood floors, tile, laminate, vinyl and area rugs. With eight decades of experience, Glover's is strengthened by a knowledgeable and passionate design staff that works with interior designers, contractors and homeowners to satisfy every customer's flooring need. "We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality flooring and a staff that can understand and ...

Right-handedness is a distinctively human characteristic, with right-handers outnumbering lefties nine-to-one. But how far back does right-handedness reach in the human story? Researchers have tried to determine the answer by looking at ancient tools, prehistoric art and human bones, but the results have not been definitive. Now, David Frayer, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, has used markings on fossilized front teeth to show that right-handedness goes back more than 500,000 years. He is the lead author (with colleagues in Croatia, Italy and Spain) ...

The National Trust is supporting the Plant and Protect campaign which has been launched by Copella. As English apple growth declines, new independent research has highlighted how out of touch with their heritage varieties Britons are. The study of over 1,000* Britons commissioned by apple juice experts, Copella, has revealed that over three quarters of the population (76%) think that the Granny Smith is an English variety - when in fact, it's Australian. The study also revealed that only 11% of Britons are able to identify English apple varieties from a list of names ...

Athens, Ga. – Dog owners and veterinarians have long relied on a mix of limited data and anecdotal evidence to assess which breeds are at risk of dying from various conditions, but a new University of Georgia study provides a rare and comprehensive look at causes of death in more than 80 breeds. The study, published in the current edition of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, can be used to create breed-specific health maintenance programs and is a starting point for future studies that will explore the genetic underpinnings of disease in dogs. "If we can ...

The National Trust has revealed a 'lost' maze in the gardens at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire that disappeared for over half a century and has now been re-created using over 1,000 two metre (six feet six inches) high yew trees. The fully-fledged maze is based on one that was built for Lord Astor in 1894 but had ceased to be maintained since the mid-1900s. The new maze, a horticultural project on a scale rarely seen these days, has taken two years to create, using over 1,000 metres of steel edging and 120 tonnes of gravel to produce 500 metres of path over one third ...

Research shows that a walk in the park is more than just a nice way to spend an afternoon. It's an essential component for good health, according to University of Illinois environment and behavior researcher Frances "Ming" Kuo. "Through the decades, parks advocates, landscape architects, and popular writers have consistently claimed that nature had healing powers," Kuo said. "But until recently, their claims haven't undergone rigorous scientific assessment." Kuo is also the director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the U of I and has studied the effect ...

easyJet Holidays, has announced the launch of the 'How Flexible Are You?' competition on its holiday offering's blog. This easyJet Holidays alliance which was established following a collaboration between easyJet and the Lowcosttravelgroup, provides customers with the choice and flexibility to enable them to tailor their holidays and city breaks to travel when they want, to wherever they want, for as long as they want. In light of this, and the recent heroics from the contortionist Rubber Richie, who managed to squeeze himself into a suitcase in London, the team has ...

Ernest Jones has launched a Facebook page allowing the high street jewellery brand to create a more interactive and personal relationship with its customers. By offering exclusive Facebook competitions and up to the minute trend stories that are not on the current website, Ernest Jones is allowing consumers into an exclusive group. In return Ernest Jones will incentivise consumers with competitions to share their comments and ultimately improve the relationship between retailer and consumer. The current Ernest Jones retail website features seasonal promotions such as ...

Botrytis bunch rot, a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, can devastate grape vineyards. Yet other plants can repel the invader and protect themselves by mounting a form of chemical warfare against the fungi through the production of antimicrobial substances, called phytoalexins. Scientists at the University of Missouri report on a discovery in a key component in the signaling pathway that regulates the production of phytoalexins to kill the disease-causing fungus Botrytis cinerea. "When the mustard plant Arabidopsis detects the fungus Botrytis ...

Montreal April 19, 2011 – Lapses in memory occur more frequently with age, yet the reasons for this increasing forgetfulness have not always been clear. According to new research from Concordia University, older individuals have reduced learning and memory because their minds tend to be cluttered with irrelevant information when performing tasks. Published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, these findings offer new insights into why ageing is associated with a decline in memory and may lead to practical solutions. "The first step of our study was to ...

As of April 15, 2011 Pokerstars has shut down to US players. They are still in full operation for non-US players at their Pokerstars.eu domain. However, if you attempt to visit their .com domain you will find a US DOJ and FBI seal along with a message regarding the seizure of the pokerstars.com domain. Regarding the recent events, Pokerstars has released the following statement: "We are reaching out to you in light of the recent developments in relation to our US business, following which PokerStars does not offer its services to US residents. Please note that ...

College Park, MD (April 19, 2011) -- Using well-known patterned media, a team of researchers in France has figured out a way to double the areal density of information by essentially cutting the magnetic media into small pieces and building a "3D tower" out of it. This greatly enhances the amount of data that can be stored in a magnetic storage device and provides a method to reach beyond a wall of physical limits that the currently used technology is hitting. The team presents their findings in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Applied Physics. "Over the ...

ZyLAB, a leading eDiscovery and information management technology company today announced the release of its state-of-the-art ZyLAB Audio Search Bundle, a desktop software product used to quickly identify relevant audio clips from multimedia files and from ubiquitous business tools such as fixed-line telephone, VOIP, mobile, and specialist platforms like Skype or MSN Live. The intuitive software enables technical and non-technical users involved in legal disputes, forensics, law enforcement, and lawful data interception to search, review and analyze audio data with the ...

Jamie Tyler, assistant professor in the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, has been invited to speak at a Royal Society of London high level workshop on May 11-12 on the security implications of advances in neuroscience. The workshop is part of a four-part policy study on neuroscience and society called Brain Waves. This third module, entitled Neuroscience, conflict and security (http://royalsociety.org/brainwaves-security/), focuses on the international security implications ...

Chef Point Cafe is one Fort Worth Restaurant that will be serving up Easter dinner with flair this year. This gas station eatery has an Easter special menu just for Sunday with a limited version of it being served on Good Friday. The Grilled Australian Lamb Lollipops may go down as the Easter favorite but soups, salads and more will be available to tempt taste buds too. Celebrate the spring season with a special meal on a special day this Easter. What is Easter all about? Family? Friends? Forgiveness? At this Fort Worth restaurant, it is about all three. Celebrate the ...

Consumers decide whether to use mail-in genetic tests based on both rational and emotional reasons, a finding that adds to a growing body of health-care behavior research on information seeking and avoidance, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside. In a study of what motivates or discourages consumers from participating in direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing, UC Riverside psychologists found that potential users of the tests were influenced by perceived benefits and barriers to testing, and anticipated regret over testing versus not testing. "We ...

NJIT Associate Professor Sergiu M. Gorun is leading a research team to develop biologically-inspired catalysis active, yet inert, materials. The work is based on organic catalytic framework made sturdy by the replacement of carbon-hydrogen bonds with a combination of aromatic and aliphatic carbon-fluorine bonds. Graduate students involved with this research recently received first place recognition at the annual NJIT Dana Knox student research showcase. http://www.njit.edu/news/2011/2011-101.php The newest focus of Gorun's research has been the cobalt complex as a ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Earth has 657 more barrier islands than previously thought, according to a new global survey by researchers from Duke University and Meredith College. The researchers identified a total of 2,149 barrier islands worldwide using satellite images, topographical maps and navigational charts. The new total is significantly higher than the 1,492 islands identified in a 2001 survey conducted without the aid of publicly available satellite imagery. All told, the 2,149 barrier islands measure 20,783 kilometers in length, are found along all continents except ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study published this month suggests that while younger Americans are more smitten with credit cards and debt than older Americans, the older generation helps enable their children by encouraging use of credit as a "safety mechanism." The findings were based on case studies conducted with 27 white, middle-class Americans in 2006. The researchers, Michelle Barnhart of Oregon State University and Lisa Peñaloza of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord of France, wanted to explore some of the attitudes, perceptions and cultural meanings behind ...

Researchers at The Wistar Institute have found a new way to force cancer cells to self-destruct. Low doses of one anti-cancer drug currently in development, called Gamitrinib, sensitize tumor cells to a second drug, called TRAIL, also currently in clinical development as part of an anticancer regimen. Their findings, published in the April issue of the Journal for Clinical Investigation, show how this combination approach kills tumor cells in both mouse models of glioblastoma and human glioblastoma cells. Glioblastomas are the most common and aggressive form ...

What race best describes your background? That one question, which appears on most paperwork for health care, could leave entire groups of people underserved and contribute to racial health disparities, according to new research from Rice University published in the current issue of the journal Demography. Medical forms that ask patients to identify a single race can alter patterns of racial health disparities because some multiracial adults identify with single-race groups whose health experience is different from their own. The researchers found that placing multiracial ...

Lund Sweden — April 19, 2011 — NeuroVive Pharmaceutical and Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL) today announced the enrollment and treatment of the first patient in the European multicenter trial of myocardial infarction (the CIRCUS study). NeuroVive's advanced CicloMulsion(TM) cremophor-free IV cyclosporine formulation is used in this study of 1,000 patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute myocardial infarction to examine cyclosporine's ability to protect cardiac tissue. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, investigator-initiated study is being ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif., April 19, 2011) -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, say they've figured out the cause of a problem that's made light-emitting diodes (LEDs) impractical for general lighting purposes. Their work will help engineers develop a new generation of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting that could replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. "Identifying the root cause of the problem is an indispensable first step toward devising solutions," says Chris Van de Walle, a professor in the Materials Department at UC Santa Barbara ...

An Ohio State biophysicist used a supercomputer to search thousands of molecular combinations for the best configuration to block a protein that can cause breast or prostate cancer. Chenglong Li, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy at The Ohio State University (OSU), is leveraging a powerful computer cluster at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) to develop a drug that will block the small protein molecule Interleukin-6 (IL-6). The body normally produces this immune-response messenger to combat infections, burns, traumatic injuries, ...