Science

The virtual world Whyville has undertaken a novel approach to educating kids about the dangers of influenza and the preventative measures that can be taken to protect from it: giving users virtual flu shots.

The idea is to give "vaccinations" against the "Why-Flu," a made-up disease that is intended to simulate the spread of the common flu.

Coordinated by Whyville and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu vaccination initiative is seen as a way to help kids--the users of Whyville--see that the flu is dangerous but preventable.

"The citizens of … Read more

A new team of U.S. researchers will collaborate on building the world's smallest cancer-detection device, thanks to a $2 million grant from The National Cancer Institute.

Scientists at the University of Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine will study tumor "microenvironments," in which tumor cells often spread rapidly into surrounding tissues and cells, or what's called metastasis. For this environment, they plan to build a novel microchip assembled from nanoscale components, or material on the scale of molecules. When implanted in human tumors, … Read more

U.S. Army acoustical engineers have developed a new stethoscope that can outperform its electronic predecessors by detecting a human heartbeat in intensely noisy environments, such as inside a military helicopter, according to LiveScience. The development could ultimately help doctors save lives on the battlefield, according to Adrianus Houtsma, an acoustical engineer at the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory in Fort Rucker, Ala., who lead the research.

Unlike others before it, the new stethoscope has a special head that can generate ultrasound waves, or sound frequencies that can cancel out external noises as high as 120 decibels. Background noise … Read more

Take that, pesky moms everywhere. A study presented at the annual study of the Radiological Society of North America has determined that a 90-degree upright sitting posture--you know, Miss Manners-style--might actually lead to back problems. According to the researchers, who are from the University of Alberta in Canada, the optimal sitting position is a nice 135-degree recline.

Maybe telecommuting from bed isn't such a bad idea after all.

It reads like a movie plot: a suburban 17-year-old builds an intricate physics lab in his parents' basement, then creates small-scale nuclear fusion using a machine he spent two years constructing. If this movie had been made circa 2001, he probably would've been played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

But, no, this isn't fiction; it actually happened. The Detroit Free Press reported that Thiago Olsen of Oakland Township, Michigan, a member of the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School, has successfully achieved the creation of nuclear fusion. He's the 18th person in the world to … Read more

No one really knows the extent to which products made from nanomaterials, which now include everything from fumeless paints to golf balls to medicines, pose health and environmental threats. But some have charged that government and industry have been guilty of dilly-dallying in their efforts to find out.

An article called "Safe Handling of Nanotechnology," to be published Thursday in the journal Nature, seeks to apply pressure to those who are may be dragging their feet in conducting studies--or forking over research funding--that could help assess the not-entirely-theoretical hazards associated with the tiny particles.

(Nanotechnology, for the record, … Read more

The first space mission dedicated to searching for planets outside the solar system will launch in late December, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

Roughly 12 years in the making, the so-called COROT mission will get off the ground Dec. 21 with the launch of a specialized space telecope aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. In orbit, the telecope will be used to detect rocky, extrasolar planets by observing changes of light when these bodies transit in front of a parent star.

The French space agency CNES is responsible for the mission, along with the European Space Agency (ESA), among others.… Read more

Taking a page from home-pregnancy tests, scientists have designed a dipstick that can detect traces of cocaine or other drugs in a person's bodily fluids.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the dipstick from DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, or a process for filtering tiny particles in order to detect specific molecules. The system can be packaged in a small kit so, for example, emergency room staff can quickly screen patients for drugs in their saliva, urine or blood serum.

"Our results show that the...dipstick is compatible with biological samples, making applications in medicinal diagnostics possible,&… Read more

There are more U.S. information technology jobs today than there were six years ago during the dot-com heyday, according to a recent study from the Association for Computing Machinery. The report, presented at Stanford University's Computer Forum last week, examined the global migration of software jobs, and its findings appear to dispel the myth that computer science jobs are moving overseas at a greater clip than they're being created by U.S. companies.

"There is a huge mismatch between perception and reality," said Rice University Professor Moshe Vardi, who co-lead the study and presented the … Read more