SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


Today's Headlines - January 21, 2008

After Linking Staph to Gay Men, University Scrambles to Clarify

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

SAN FRANCISCO - In a matter of days, it jumped from a routine press
release
to a medical controversy.

On Monday, a team of researchers led by doctors from the University of
California at San Francisco announced that gay men were "many times more
likely than others" to acquire a new strain of drug-resistant
staphylococcus, a nasty, fast-spreading and potential lethal bacteria
known
as MRSA USA300.

And sure enough, the study, published online in the Annals of Internal
Medicine, was quickly picked up by reporters round the world and across
the
Internet, including a London tabloid which dubbed the disease "the new
H.I.V." But for gay men in the Castro neighborhood here ... the report
also
seemed to cast an unfair, and all too familiar, stigma on their
sexuality.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us/20castro.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yphgk4


Most Diversity Training Ineffective, Study Finds

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

Most diversity training efforts at American companies are ineffective
and
even counterproductive in increasing the number of women and minorities
in
managerial positions, according to an analysis that turns decades of
conventional wisdom, government policy and court rulings on their head.

A comprehensive review of 31 years of data from 830 mid-size to large
U.S.
workplaces found that the kind of diversity training exercises offered
at
most firms were followed by a 7.5 percent drop in the number of women in
management.

The number of black, female managers fell by 10 percent, and the number
of
black men in top positions fell by 12 percent. ... The analysis did not
find that all diversity training is useless. Rather, it showed that
mandatory programs -- often undertaken mainly with an eye to avoiding
liability in discrimination lawsuits -- were the problem.

To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011901899.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2eywbn


Rare Middle-Class Tomb Found From Ancient Egypt

from National Geographic News

Archaeologists have unsealed the intact burial chamber of an ancient
Egyptian official, providing a rare glimpse into the burial customs of
the
Old Kingdom's middle class.

The relatively modest tomb, belonging to a fifth dynasty priest and
politician named Neferinpu, was discovered in 2006 at Abusir, the
ancient
necropolis of the fifth and 26th dynasties, located near modern-day
Cairo.

Only recently, however, did a Czech team open the tomb's burial chamber,
a
tiny room about 33 feet below ground packed with offerings and personal
effects that had remained undisturbed for nearly 4,500 years.

To read more:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080118-egypt-
tomb.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/3xs9rg


Nuclear Revival Rekindles Waste Concerns

from the San Francisco Examiner

BEAUMONT-HAGUE, France (Associated Press) - Thousands of canisters of
highly radioactive waste from the world's most nuclear-energized nation
lie, silent and deadly, beneath this jutting tip of Normandy. Above
ground,
cows graze and Atlantic waves crash into heather-covered hills.

The spent fuel, vitrified into blocks of black glass that will remain
dangerous for thousands of years, is in "interim storage." Like nearly
all
the world's nuclear waste, it is still waiting for the long-term
disposal
solution that has eluded scientists and governments in the six decades
since the atomic era began.

Industry officials hope renewed worldwide interest in nuclear energy
will
break a long, awkward silence surrounding nuclear waste. They want to
revive momentum for scientific and political breakthroughs on waste that
stalled after the accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl
in
1986 ...

To read more: http://www.examiner.com/a-
1169432~Nuclear_Revival_Rekindles_Waste_Concerns.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2fha43


Damaged Landscape Can Still Be Helpful, Researchers Say

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

Researchers who study coastal mangroves, sea-grass beds, coral reefs and
sand dunes are reporting that, contrary to widely held views,
environmental
preservation on the coast does not have to be an all-or-nothing
proposition
and that landscapes can perform "services" like storm protection even if
they have been somewhat disturbed by development.

Most coastal researchers believe that the relationship between landscape
integrity and ecosystem services is linear. For example, the researchers
said in the new report, it is thought that if any coastal mangroves are
lost to development, storm protection would decline by a comparable
amount.

That is not necessarily so, said Edward R. Barbier, an environmental
economist at the University of Wyoming who led the study.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/us/19coastal.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yru2wn


Propelling America into Space

from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

PALM SPRINGS -- Fifty years ago this month, Henry Richter sat in a
mosquito-
infested Florida marsh, waiting to find out whether America had
successfully put its first satellite in orbit.

... In December, America's first attempt to catch up to the Russians
[had]
failed when the Navy's Vanguard rocket blew up on the pad. "Flopnik,"
cried
the headlines. In the wake of that embarrassment, the project landed in
the
lap of a little-known Army research center in Southern California called
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

...The launch of Explorer was the first step in a journey of exploration
that would culminate a decade later with the Apollo moon landing of Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It also was a coming-out party for JPL, which
emerged from its cloak of military secrecy with a reputation for
scientific
and technical prowess it has maintained for the last five decades.

To read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-
explorer20jan20,1,7735748.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2g7atj


Courts May Be Too Skeptical of Research Done with Juries in Mind

from Science News

... Much of what people know - or think they know - about U.S.
jurisprudence traces to [TV] shows about criminal cases. What few
nonlawyers realize is that these shows aren't especially good models of
cases involving torts-noncriminal suits where plaintiffs claim harm from
a
company's products or activities.

In these cases, judges frequently bar from the courtroom at least some
scientific experts and the data on which they might have testified.
These
judges are responding to a 1993 order by the Supreme Court to screen
potential junk science from U.S. trials.

That instruction appears in the court's opinion for a tort case known as
Daubert (for Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals). As judges have
struggled to comply over the past 15 years, many have relied on guidance
offered early on by Alex Kozinski, a judge with the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court
of Appeals.

To read more: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080119/bob10.asp

Or: http://tinyurl.com/ypqvam


FDA Weighs Over-Counter Cholesterol Drug

from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) - The government is questioning if too
many
of the wrong people will take cholesterol-lowering Mevacor if it's sold
without a prescription, days before Merck and Co. makes its third try to
move the drug over the counter.

Merck says selling a low dose of this long-used medication on drugstore
shelves, next to the aspirin, could get millions of people at moderate
risk
of heart disease important treatment that they otherwise may miss.

... But when Merck tested if consumers could judge who was a proper
Mevacor
candidate, only 20 percent answered all the questions completely
correctly -
- 50 percent if researchers counted people who said they'd check some
things with their doctor before purchasing, concluded FDA's lead medical
reviewer.

To read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-
cholesterol-drug,1,1096275.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yqr34m


Birth-Pair Studies Provide Novel Insights

from the San Diego Union-Tribune (Registration Required)

Twins attract double takes. They appear extraordinary, maybe even a
little
strange. Just how alike are they, we wonder? How different?

Twins challenge our beliefs about individuality and the idea that every
person is unique, says Nancy Segal, a professor of psychology at
California
State University Fullerton and the author of two books on the
subject, "Entwined Lives" and "Indivisible by Two."

"Their lives are hard to imagine," she says. But scientists like Segal,
who
directs Fullerton's Twin Studies Center, are trying to understand what
makes twins alike -  and different. These studies, in turn, reveal much
about the rest of us.

To read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20080117-9999-
1c17twin.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/236lmt


Warning on Rising Mediterranean Sea Levels

from BBC News Online

The level of the Mediterranean Sea is rising rapidly and could increase
by
up to half a metre in the next 50 years, scientists in Spain have
warned. A
study by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute says levels have been
rising
since the 1970s with the rate of increase growing in recent years.

It says even a small rise could have serious consequences in coastal
areas.
The study noted that the findings were consistent with other
investigations
into the effects of climate change.

The study, entitled Climate Change in the Spanish Mediterranean, said
the
sea had risen "between 2.5mm and 10mm (0.1 and 0.4in) per year since the
1990s." If the trend continued it would have "very serious consequences"
in
low-lying coastal areas ...

To read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7197379.stm

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yqx7vz