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By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - An updated review of 11 popular commercial diets found that only Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers show evidence for effective long-term weight loss. Doctors might prioritize these options when talking to patients about commercial weight loss programs, at least until other types of diets, like Nutrisystem or SlimFast, have produced substantial evidence of consistent long-term results, the experts conclude. “We’re not necessarily excluding any of these programs,” said lead author Dr....

Michael Tomasello, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and Paul Ibbotson, a lecturer in language development at the Open University in England, make the case in Scientific American that Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theories are being overturned. Tomasello has developed a broader set of theories that go beyond linguistics alone to explain why humans stand out from other species—ideas related to the ability of our species to cooperate, based on work with children and apes....

Editor’s Note: This story, originally published in the February 1992 issue of Scientific American, is being re-posted in light of Steven Chu’s nomination as U.S. secretary of energy. Before you turn another page of this magazine, consider your actions carefully. Every time you wish to grasp a page, you must place one finger above the paper and another below so that the distance between each finger and the paper is about equal to the diameter of an atom....

On a routine expedition in 1987, oceanographers in the submersible Alvin were mapping the typically barren, nutrient-poor seafloor in the Santa Catalina Basin, off the shore of southern California. On the final dive of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the bottom. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Alvin’s headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive videotapes, expedition leader Craig Smith and his team saw that the skeleton was probably either a blue or a fin whale....

Researchers for the first time have used 3-D printing to make a consumer electronic device, a loudspeaker ready for use almost as soon as it comes off the printer. The work by roboticist Hod Lipson at Cornell University and his colleagues suggests 3-D printing might soon be mature enough to let people manufacture complete devices on demand. “The exciting part of this project is that it paves the path to 3-D printing of consumer electronics and active systems,” Apoorva Kiran, a Cornell mechanical engineer tells Txchnologist....

A neurotoxic poison, mercury is especially worrisome to developing fetuses. A nationwide study reveals that a significant number of women of child-bearing age have too much of the metal in their systems. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Asheville based their results on hair samples from nearly 1,500 people of all ages. As hair grows, it incorporates mercury from the bloodstream. Interim results from the Greenpeace-commissioned survey released October 20 revealed that one fifth of those studied had mercury levels above the EPA recommendation of one part per million in hair....

Falling into the Fire: A Psychiatrist’s Encounters with the Mind in Crisis by Christine Montross Penguin Press HC, 2013 If Joan of Arc were alive today, she probably would not be heralded as a saint. The 15th-century French peasant girl instead would be institutionalized or put on heavy antipsychotic medications for claiming divine visions urging her to overthrow the English government. As our knowledge of the brain has advanced since those days, so, too, has our approach to treating mental illness....

A team led by Daniel Horton, a climate modeller at Stanford University in California, used 15 global climate models to track changes in the number and duration of atmospheric stagnation events, in which stationary air masses develop and allow soot, dust and ozone to build up in the lower atmosphere. “Much of the air-quality community focuses on pollutants,” says Horton. “This study takes a step back and looks at the weather or climate component that can lead to the formation of hazardous air quality....

Melting sea ice has accelerated warming in the Arctic, which in recent decades has warmed twice as quickly as the global average, according to a new study. “The findings reinforce suggestions that strong positive ice-temperature feedbacks have emerged in the Arctic, increasing the changes of further rapid warming and sea ice loss,” concludes the research published yesterday by the journal Nature. The work by James Screen and Ian Simmonds at Australia’s University of Melbourne echoes earlier studies that identified the same basic feedback loop....

The best military sonar technology pales in comparison with the echolocation porpoises use to track prey, predators and obstacles. The marine mammals can find objects a few centimeters wide from 100 meters away—akin to spotting a walnut from across a football field—by releasing clicks from their blowholes. Sonar-equipped ships, in contrast, must emit sound waves from multiple sources spread out over at least a few meters. A recent study suggests porpoises’ ultraefficient echolocation is made possible by adjustable structures in their heads—a finding that may help humans improve our own sonar technology....

INDIANA, Pa./CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - As deaths mount in America’s opioid crisis, communities on the front lines face a hidden toll: the financial cost. Ross County, a largely rural region of 77,000 people an hour south of Columbus, Ohio, is wrestling with an explosion in opioid-related deaths - 44 last year compared to 19 in 2009. The drug addiction epidemic is shattering not just lives but also stressing the county budget....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Wildfire has been an integral part of California ecosystems for centuries. Now, however, nearly a third of homes in California are in wildland urban interface areas where houses intermingling with wildlands and fire is a natural phenomenon. Just as Californians must live with earthquake risk, they must live with wildfires. Shaped by ignitions, climate and fuels, wildfires are likely to become more frequent and severe with climate change....

Every computer, modem, server and smartphone that connects to the Internet has a unique Internet protocol (IP) address, which enables users to find it. The address format, known as IPv4, was standardized in 1977 as a 32-digit binary number, making a then seemingly unlimited 4.3 billion addresses (232) available. Now they’re almost gone. In the past few years Internet and Web companies have begun snapping up a new set of addresses, known as IPv6, that have 128 digits....

I remember my excitement one morning in the winter of 2006 when I peered through a microscope in my laboratory and saw a colony of cells that looked just like embryonic stem cells. They were clustered in a little heap, after dividing in a petri dish for almost three weeks. And they were glowing with the same colorful fluorescent markers scientists take as one sign of an embryonic cell’s “pluripotency”—its ability to give rise to any type of tissue in an organism’s body....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Clothes in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603 CE) became much more colourful, elaborate, and flamboyant than in previous periods. With Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE) herself being a dedicated follower of fashion, so, too, her court and nobles followed suit. Clothing was an important indicator of status so that those who could afford it were careful to wear the correct colours, materials, and latest fashions from Continental Europe....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Women in ancient Greece, outside of Sparta, had almost no rights and no political or legal power. Even so, some women broke through the social and cultural restrictions to make their mark on history. All of the women did so at great personal risk and in defiance of the cultural norms of the time....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. No military commander in history has ever won a battle by himself. To be successful he needs the support of a well-trained army who will follow him regardless of the cost whether it be a stunning victory or hopeless defeat. One need only read of Leonidas as he bravely led his 300 Spartans to inevitable defeat at Thermopylae....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Battle of Zama (202 BCE) was the final engagement of the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE) at which Hannibal Barca of Carthage (l. 247-183 BCE) was defeated by Scipio Africanus of Rome (l. 236-183 BCE) ending the conflict in Rome’s favor. The Second Punic War had begun when Hannibal attacked the city of Saguntum, a Roman ally, in Spain and continued with a number of stunning victories by Hannibal in Italy, most notably the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The printing press, credited to the German inventor and printer Johannes Gutenberg (l. c. 1398-1468) in the 1450s, became the single most important factor in the success of the Protestant Reformation by providing the means for widespread dissemination of the “new teachings” and encouraging independent thought on subjects previously rigidly controlled by a literate elite....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. By the end of 1066 CE William the Conqueror had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings, subdued the south-east of England and been crowned King William I in Westminster Abbey but there remained rebellion in the air throughout 1067 and 1068 CE. This was especially so in the north of England, where York was repeatedly the focus of anti-Norman forces, and which required the Norman king to ‘harry’ that region, that is to conduct a sustained campaign of attacks on crops, livestock, and villages throughout the winter of 1069-70 CE....