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The latest findings about the ineffectiveness of PSA testing to screen for prostate cancer has confused many men–and their loved ones. On the one hand is the seeming chance to catch cancer early. On the other hand is the growing realization that many prostate tumors grow so slowly that they will never cause a problem in an individual’s lifetime. After closely examining all the latest data, investigators from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded in 2011 that the PSA test holds little or no value as a screening test for most healthy men....

Bad Advice Fool’s Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology by Stewart Justman. Ivan R. Dee, 2005 ($27.50) The genre of psychological self-help books has grown tremendously, and authors such as Dr. Phil (McGraw), Wayne Dyer and John Gray are repeat visitors to the best-seller lists. Such popularity poses a paradox, though: If the books really worked, why would readers need to keep buying them? In the erudite yet lively Fool’s Paradise, literary scholar Stewart Justman argues that pop psychology texts are ineffective because, among other things, they encourage people to hyperfocus on their own emotional states....

When Russian-American artist and cognitive scientist Allen Tager thinks about his childhood in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, his memories are violet-tinged. “We had one ink color, violet,” he reminisces, “and it was kept in glass jars that tipped over constantly. My hands, school uniform, and textbooks were perpetually covered in violet stains.” Outside of the classroom, in contrast, violet was inexplicably absent from household objects and other everyday items....

Among the few things I remember from grade school about George Washington is that as a youth he chopped down a cherry tree and then confessed the deed to his father, and as an adult, he wore wooden dentures. Recently I learned quite a bit more about Washington. It turns out he never chopped down a cherry tree. He didn’t wear wooden dentures either. But those were the least of the surprises....

Mariko Majoni in Malawi has dramatically changed how he farms. Like many small-scale African farmers, he could not afford fertilizers, and over the years his maize yields plummeted. When he learned about “fertilizer trees” that capture nitrogen from the atmosphere, he planted seedlings between his rows of maize. Six years later he was harvesting 10 times as much food, enough for his family and a surplus to sell. At first his neighbors thought he had gone mad....

Mimicking the series of steps by which an embryo develops has led to a significantly more efficient way of creating insulin-secreting cells. A team of researchers reports that by applying a sequence of chemicals to human embryonic stem cells in a culture dish, it has grown layers of cells similar to pancreatic tissue in a young embryo. Such cells may eventually be suitable for treating diabetes. Embryonic stem cells are a gold mine for medical research because they could potentially replace nearly any type of failed or damaged tissue....

Scientists for decades have clashed over whether evolution takes place gradually or is driven by short spurts of intense change. In the latest chapter in this debate, researchers report in Science this week that it appears that when new languages spin-off from older ones, there is an initial introductory burst of alterations to vocabulary. Then, the language tends to settle and accumulate gradual changes over a long period of time. The team believes this discrete evolutionary pattern occurs when a social group tries to forge a separate identity....

When an eel attacked a prey fish with high voltage, all the nearby fish in the tank became completely immobile in only three milliseconds. It was as if they had been turned into little statues; they just floated stock-still in the water. At first, I wondered if they had simply been killed. But if the eel missed its target and turned off the high voltage, the fish “unfroze” and took off at full speed....

For centuries, Shakespeare skeptics have doubted the authorship of the Stratfordian Bard’s literary corpus, proffering no fewer than 50 alternative candidates, including Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, Christopher Marlowe and the leading contender among the “anti-Stratfordians,” Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford. And for nearly as long, the Shakespeare skeptics have toiled in relative obscurity, holding conferences in tiny gatherings and dreaming of the day their campaign would make front-page news....

On Wednesday Elon Musk’s commercial space company SpaceX launched four astronauts into orbit as part of Inspiration4, the first all-civilian spaceflight mission. They will return to Earth three days later, having made history. Yet apart from collecting data to add to a robust body of research on human health and performance in space, Inspiration4’s value as a research mission is questionable. While eyes will be on the crew and mission, the game changer to watch may instead be an ongoing SpaceX project in the background: Starship, which the company envisions will be a fully reusable transportation system....

The airways and lungs of some patients with a vaping-related illness appeared damaged in ways similar to those exposed to chemical spills or harmful gases, researchers reported Wednesday. The study did not provide any clues as to the kind of chemicals that might be causing the condition, but the authors said signs of damage were consistent. “What all these appeared to represent was some sort of toxic chemical fume injury, or chemical burn if you will,” said Dr....

This year has been a painful one for fans of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the perennial contender that has fallen to 0–10 on the season. Perhaps Hoosiers can take some small comfort in the thought of a world where star quarterback Peyton Manning is healthy rather than hobbled and the Colts are undefeated rather than winless. If the cosmological concept of the multiverse is correct, such a world could exist right now....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The pottery of the Mycenaean civilization (1550-1050 BCE), although heavily influenced by the earlier Minoans based on Crete, nevertheless, added new pottery shapes to the existing range and achieved its own distinctive decorative style which was strikingly homogenous across Mycenaean Greece. Mycenaean wares typically display stylized representations of marine and plant life and show a fondness for minimalistic linear designs, a trend which would go on to influence the early pottery of Archaic and Classical Greece from the 9th century BCE....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Obsidian is a dark volcanic glass which provides the sharpest cutting edge available in nature. Ancient Mesoamerican cultures greatly esteemed the properties of obsidian, and it was widely traded across the region. Obsidian was used to create tools, weapons, and, when polished, for mirrors and as a decorative inlay in anything from jewellery to ritual masks....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The spices clove, nutmeg, and mace originated on only a handful of tiny islands in the Indonesian archipelago but came to have a dramatic, far-reaching impact on world trade. In antiquity, they became popular in the medicines of India and China, and they were a major component of European cuisine in the medieval period....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Roman-Parthian War of 58-63 CE was sparked off when the Parthian Empire’s ruler imposed his own brother as the new king of Armenia, considered by Rome to be a quasi-neutral buffer state between the two empires. When Parthia went a step further and declared Armenia a vassal state in 58 CE all-out war broke out....

THE GREAT RENAISSANCE scholar and artist Leonardo da Vinci left a legacy of paintings that combined beauty and aesthetic delight with unparalleled realism. He took great pride in his work but also recognized that canvas could never convey a sense of motion or of stereoscopic depth (which requires that two eyes simultaneously view slightly different pictures). He recognized clear limits to the realism he could portray. Five hundred years later the limits of depicting depth in art remain true (except of course for “Magic Eye”–style prints, which, through multiple similar elements, basically interleave two views that the brain sorts out for each eye)....

Journalists are always on the lookout for what’s called the man-bites-dog story, that is, a reversal of the ordinary order of things. Now, you’re correct if you think this theme seems familiar because we also discussed the man-bites-dog concept in this space in the February issue. Back then, the subject was animals that got the upper hand—well, hoof, paw or claw, really—on humans who were hunting them. I am compelled to revisit man-bites-dog now because on September 26, police in Pembroke, Ontario, arrested a man for biting a dog....

Remember Clippy, the helpful, googly-eyed paperclip? Microsoft hasn’t had a lot luck with anthropomorphic characters. But that’s not going to stop Sailor IE from lending a hand to the launch of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 on Thursday. Known as Inori Aizawa, the Microsoft Singapore character was created to draw local attention to the new IE, as well as Windows Phone-powered Nokia phones and Surface tablets, from attendees of the currently-underway Anime Festival Asia....

By Laura Onita LONDON, Sept 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Encouraging people to abandon their cars and use public transport or walk or cycle around cities offers the “least pain, most gain” way to cut air pollution from traffic by 2050, a new international study said on Wednesday. The report, by the University of California and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), proposed governments expand rail and bus transport and ensure cities are safer for pedestrians and cyclists....