Yousuf El-Jayyousi, a junior engineering student at the University of Missouri, wanted guidance and reassurance that it would be safe to go back to school for the fall semester. He tuned into a pair of online town halls organized by the university hoping to find that. He did not. What he got instead from those town halls last month was encouragement to return to class at the institution affectionately known as Mizzou....
By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Amgen Inc’s Repatha (evolocumab) drug for patients with hereditary forms of high cholesterol and those with cardiovascular disease. Last month the FDA approved a similar drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA. The drugs belong to a potent new class of injectable LDL-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors. Repatha was approved to treat patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) and patients with the rarer homozygous (HoFH) form of the disease....
Antonio T. Baines knows what it’s like to feel alone in the lab. He lived it while getting his doctorate. “I was in this Ph.D. pharmacology/toxicology graduate program, and there was nobody who looked like me when I first got there,” he says. At the time, Baines, who is African American, was studying at the University of Arizona. He entered his graduate program with a friend, who was also Black. “She was in the master’s program,” Baines says, “but we were the only two....
Researchers report today that they grew prostate glands—important for reproduction in male mammals—in mice using a single stem cell transplanted from the prostates of donor mice. The findings may pave the way to new therapies for prostate cancer, which strikes one in six men in the U.S. This year, more than 186,000 men—mostly over age 65—will be diagnosed with this form of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md; some 28,000 men lose their battle with the disease each year....
I’ve never enjoyed cooking. All the chopping, stirring and waiting—not to mention handling raw meat (the former vegetarian in me can’t help but shudder). Somehow I still pull together meals for my family that they seem to enjoy. But when I think about teaching my daughter to cook or about ways to help my husband become more comfortable in the kitchen, I’m at a loss. How do you translate habit and instinct into step-by-step pointers anyone can follow?...
By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazineSt-Paul-lez-Durance, France The world’s largest fusion experiment is finally beginning to take shape. Workers at a vast site in southern France have dug the 17-metre-deep pit that will house the ITER reactor, and will soon install 500 pillars of steel-reinforced concrete that should protect the machine during an earthquake. But even as they toil, a quake halfway around the world has struck a blow to the project....
Pathological lying may stem from an unusual imbalance of brain matter, say scientists at the University of Southern California. Working with senior investigators, doctoral student Yaling Yang scanned the brains of 12 self-described pathological liars as well as other volunteers who had no history of deception. Yang was surprised to find that the liars’ brains had 22 percent more white matter in the prefrontal regions that govern decision making and judgment....
Congress prompts Fish & Wildlife Service to revise endangered species delisting decisions Congress’s investigative arm this week accused the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) of playing politics with the nation’s animals. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report charging that U.S. Department of Interior service apparently decided which animals to designate—and protect—as endangered species based on political rather than scientific criteria. Fish & Wildlife has been subject to a number of recent congressional probes....
MIAMI—The more we learn about planetary systems throughout the galaxy, the more our own solar system appears to be rather unique. A research group measured the orbital tilt of two large objects circling the star Upsilon Andromedae, some 44 light-years away, finding that the two orbits are out of alignment by about 30 degrees. In contrast, the planets of our own solar system—and especially the massive ones—hew closely to a common orbital plane....
Enough sunlight bathes Earth’s daytime half in an hour to meet all human energy needs for a year. Sadly, there are several problems with meeting human energy demands by tapping such abundant, free solar power—not least of which is the cost of making semiconducting material that can cheaply harvest the power in sunlight. But material improvements from the California Institute of Technology and IBM might just lower the cost of solar power....
Television advertisements for cigarettes have been banned in the U.S. since 1971, but in the past few years supposedly healthier, battery-powered alternatives have landed numerous prime-time appearances. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, as they are known, soaked up the spotlight in recent Super Bowl commercials, on late-night talk shows and in a comedy sketch during the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. Indeed, a recent survey shows that nearly 60 percent of Americans are now familiar with the sleek, smokeless devices....
August 1965 Infrared Astronomy “Researchers from the California Institute of Technology used the 100-inch reflecting telescope on Mount Wilson to make measurements of the carbon dioxide absorption bands in the photographic infrared radiation reflected from Mars; they concluded that carbon dioxide is less plentiful than had been indicated by earlier and less accurate measurements. This implied that the pressure of the atmosphere at the surface of Mars is only about 0....
One thing is clear: peering inside animals leads to scientific discovery. In the 1960s and 1970s genetic and developmental biology research exploded after laboratories began studying naturally transparent critters, such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the zebra fish Danio rerio. With them, scientists could watch young cells develop into a full organism. Now, for the first time, they can see through mammalian bodies, thanks to a technique that can make mice and rats— and perhaps larger animals—clear....
Recent media attention to coyotes snatching up and eating pets in New Orleans has highlighted spring flooding as the possible culprit. While flooding may be playing a minor role, it’s really Hurricane Katrina that is to blame, according Kenny Ribbeck, chief of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ wildlife division. Ribbeck said that areas that were decimated by Katrina have become suitable habitat for the coyotes as a result. As these areas have come to be cleaned up and rebuilt, people have re-inhabited them....
“I can’t tonight, I have chlamydia.” With those words Miranda, a character on the racy television series Sex and the City, doused her partner’s lust and reminded the TV audience of just how awkward conversations about sexually transmitted diseases can be. Miranda’s admission aired 13 years ago, but the challenges of negotiating those conversations persist. More recently, the marketplace of ideas has churned out a bevvy of digital tools meant to help consumers anonymously inform past sex partners that they have been exposed to an STD (often via no-fun e-cards that carry the bad news) or to help people easily access their own test results—both for their own reference and to share with bedmates....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Epona was a Celtic goddess. Her name contains an allusion to the horse: in Celtic, “epos” means “horse” and the suffix “-ona” affixed simply means “on”. Epona is the patron goddess of mares and foals. The oldest information about the Gallic goddess of horses is found in Juvenal (Satires, VIII, 155 ff)....
Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The American School of Classical Studies in Greece has been running its operations since the 19th century CE, with excavations across the country and an academic program that runs throughout the summer and fall. They are arguably the most prominent foreign institution in Athens and are also the official representative of US archaeological endeavors in Greece....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Roger Williams (l. 1603-1683 CE) was a Puritan separatist who believed in and advocated for the separation of church and state, claiming that politics corrupted religion. He advocated for this policy in a number of his written works but, most succinctly, in his 1655 CE A Letter to the Town of Providence in which he compares a commonwealth or community to a ship on which many people of differing beliefs and lifestyles sail toward a common destination....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The only sources for the life of Jesus of Nazareth are in the canonical gospels (or the gospels that were included in the authorised version of the New Testament). We have no contemporary, eyewitness testimony from the time that he lived and preached in Israel. The earliest gospel, Mark, was written approximately in the year 65 or 70 CE , followed by Matthew, Luke, and John....
At the same time, it’s easy to understand why the FAA is worried about an unregulated, drone-filled airspace. All you have to do is review some of the greatest hits in drone crash disaster history. Here’s a sampling: Spectators injured: August 2013—A drone capturing footage for a production company abruptly tilted and crashed into the crowd at the Great Bull Run (a day of music, drinking—and actual bull runs) in Virginia....
