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Party beverages that go by “blackout in a can” and other monikers may soon be banned from store shelves in some U.S. states, thanks to a number of incidents that have left drinkers unconscious and with dangerously high blood alcohol levels. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) last week effectively prohibited the sale of all alcoholic energy drinks after considering several studies regarding such beverages as well as concerns voiced by substance abuse prevention and parental groups, the general public, and an ongoing U....

By Quirin Schiermeier of Nature magazineRadiation released by the tsunami-struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could have long-lasting consequences for the natural environment in the vicinity of the damaged plant.Scientists estimate that in the first 30 days after the accident on 11 March, trees, birds and forest-dwelling mammals were exposed to daily doses up to 100 times greater-and fish and marine algae to doses several thousand times greater - than are generally considered safe....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In the Western tradition, many phrases and terms from the Bible are utilized as allegory, metaphors, idioms, or simply to describe the characteristics of a known person or event. They have become an essential element of literature and descriptions of everyday life situations. Here is a list of the more popular references....

All supernovae are bright. When a star ends its life in a cataclysmic explosion, it emits a burst of energy and light that can outshine the rest of the galaxy in which it resides. But some supernovae are a little too bright—at least from the standpoint of the researchers trying to figure out what caused them. A supernova discovered in August 2010 at the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii falls into that category....

Addyi, the first prescription medication approved to boost female libido, hits the market today. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved marketing the drug to premenopausal women whose low libido doesn’t stem from a medical or psychiatric condition, medication or other substances, but from a lack of desire characterized as hypoactive sexual desire disorder, or HSDD. The so-called “female Viagra”—something of a misnomer because Addyi does not affect arousal as Viagra does but rather increases libido—was mired in controversy prior to its approval, in large part because clinical studies did not show dramatic improvements in sexual desire and used measures that many experts criticized as inadequate....

On the current trajectory, greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trains, ships and airplanes may become one of the greatest drivers of human-induced climate change, according to a draft of the forthcoming U.N. fifth assessment report on mitigation of climate change. Authors project with high confidence that continued growth in emissions from global passenger and freight activity could “outweigh future mitigation measures,” says a preliminary version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study obtained by ClimateWire....

Four top Obama administration officials urged the Senate today to pass sweeping climate and energy legislation that builds off momentum created last month by the Democrat-led House. Testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the four emphasized the threats from climate change and how reducing greenhouse gas emissions would help the U.S. economy bounce back from a historic recession. “Denial of the climate change problem will not change our destiny,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, moments after describing the recorded loss of half the summer Arctic polar ice cap since the 1950s, fast-rising seas and the prospect of a more than 10-degree-Fahrenheit increase in global air temperatures....

Forty years ago geneticist Barry Ganetzky accidentally knocked out a batch of laboratory fruit flies by snapping a vial against his hand. “All the flies were on the bottom of the vial, not walking, totally uncoordinated, just lying on their sides,” he recalls. He did not give it much thought at the time, but as the devastating effects of head injuries in professional athletes have come to light, Ganetzky has realized that concussed Drosophila fruit flies might be scientifically useful....

Editor’s Note (2/25/22): This week Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to investigate gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth as “child abuse.” This article from April 13, 2021, is being republished to highlight the ways that anti-trans legislation is unethical and out of sync with the recommendations from prominent medical groups. In late March, the Arkansas State House and Senate voted to prohibit health care workers in the state from providing gender-affirming health care to transgender and other gender-diverse young people....

His finalist year: 1971 His finalist project: Classifying and analyzing fossils What led the project: Like many kids, Kraig Derstler grew up fascinated by fossils. Fortunately, the rocks around his town of Columbia, Pa., (near Harrisburg) featured a wide variety of fossils of echinoderms (a group of marine animals that includes starfish). He started collecting the fossils during elementary school in the 1960s, and as he grew older, began analyzing them....

Brain Truths Three books seek to improve our outlook on life Feeling overly worked up over the slow traffic light or the car honking as you cross the intersection? In Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You: Retrain Your Brain to Conquer Fear, Make Better Decisions, and Thrive in the 21st Century (Hudson Street Press, 2013), psychologist Marc Schoen explains why. He reveals that our brain’s limbic system, which processes emotions, has become overly sensitive to potential threats....

At first, Gregory Harpel thought the dark-brown object he found was just a stone. But it was oddly placed, resting in an isolated spot on a grassy embankment along a creek in Monmouth County, N.J. A closer look confirmed he had found something much more interesting. “I started seeing the little holes in the bone that the blood vessels go through,” said Harpel, an amateur fossil hunter who made this discovery in 2012....

A new experiment by scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that bisphenol A does not affect the health of rats fed low doses. The study adds to the ongoing scientific dispute over whether traces of BPA – an industrial chemical found in polycarbonate plastic, some canned foods and beverages, paper receipts and dental sealants – can harm people. Rats exposed in the womb and as newborns to the two highest doses of BPA had lower body weights, abnormal female reproductive development and altered hormone levels....

After a five-month delay, the US Senate is finally poised to vote on the nominee to head the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cardiologist and clinical trials expert Robert Califf. On February 22, lawmakers voted to limit debate on Califf’s nomination. That procedural tactic sets the stage for a final vote this week that would determine whether he will lead the FDA. President Barack Obama nominated Califf in September, but a handful of lawmakers has delayed consideration of the nomination over concerns about the FDA’s recent approval of genetically engineered salmon for use as food and the agency’s handling of the ongoing opioid abuse crisis....

Only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants. That’s the finding of a new report by the International Joint Commission, a consortium of officials from the United States and Canada who study the Great Lakes. The impact of most of these “chemicals of emerging concern” on the health of people and aquatic life remains unclear. Nevertheless, the commission report concludes that better water treatment is needed....

Volcanic rocks deep beneath the sea off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington State might prove one of the best places to store the carbon dioxide emissions that are causing global warming, a new study finds. In fact, the very instability that causes earthquakes and eruptions adds an extra layer of protection to keep the CO2 from ever escaping. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other experts, including the G8 (Group of Eight) leaders of the world’s richest nations, have called carbon capture and storage a critical tool in the fight against climate change....

Few images fire the imagination like Paleolithic cave paintings, part of the scant physical record left by humans who lived more than 10,000 years ago. To some scholars, this ancient art represents the handiwork of shamans; others detect traces of initiation rites or trancelike states. A new interpretation offers a more prosaic explanation for cave art: the expression of adolescent boys’ preoccupation with hunting and sex. During the late Paleolithic era, 10,000 to 50,000 years ago, humans roamed a vast steppe covering modern Europe, Asia and North America....

SHANGHAI, China—Rescue workers are using microphones and fiber-optic cable to probe rubble, searching for people trapped in Monday’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province. Specially trained dogs are being used to lead crews to areas where humans may be buried beneath slabs of concrete, and workers gingerly sift through the wreckage, hoping for survivors. The death toll has reached nearly 15,000 and at least 25,000 are missing, with time running out to rescue them....

In a finding that could help control harmful fungus, researchers have discovered a high-speed mechanism the germs use to project their spores into the air. Scientists from Miami University (M.U.) in Oxford, Ohio, and the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati report in the journal PLoS ONE that fungi may be one of the fastest land species, clocking speeds of up to 55 miles (88 kilometers) per hour and producing accelerations 180,000 times greater than gravity....

There is little debate that the growing use of smartphones among school students has created a whole new set of challenges for educators looking to keep their classrooms focused on learning. The same mobile gadgets that can be used as instruction and research tools are just as likely to serve as a distraction or a source of conflict when they are confiscated. Many U.S. schools initially reacted to student cell phone use by banning the devices from classrooms, citing concerns that they could be used to help students cheat on tests as well as engage in cyber bullying and sexting....