(Rice University) Theoretical physicists from Rice University have created a new model that helps define the subatomic origins of ferromagnetism -- the everyday "magnetism" of compass needles and refrigerator magnets. The model, which is detailed in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was created to explore the inner workings of ferromagnetic compounds that are related to high-temperature superconductors. [More]

(University of California - San Francisco) UCSF researchers today unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis. [More]

(Florida State University) The academic performance of adolescents will suffer in at least one of four key subjects -- English, math, science, history -- if their DNA contains one or more of three specific dopamine gene variations, according to a study led by renowned biosocial criminologist Kevin M. Beaver of the Florida State University. [More]

(Carnegie Mellon University) Scientists who are pioneering the use of gigapixel imagery will discuss how they are leveraging this new technology Nov. 11-13 at the first Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. The deadline for early conference registration is Sept. 13. [More]

(American Society for Cell Biology) The old joke is a joke no more. In a special September issue of the ASCB's online journal, CBE-Life Sciences Education, the adage that biology is for science students who don't do math is laid to rest forever. "Bio-math" or "math-bio" is the future for students of both disciplines, say the contributors of seven essays and 17 research articles on new ways to integrate mathematical thinking into biology education and vice versa. [More]

(University of Houston) The rare book, "India Illustrated" is now digitally preserved and available online for students, historians and others around the world interested in the social, economic and political history of India. [More]

(Elhuyar Fundazioa) Sociologist Ms. Lucia Merino presented her Ph.D. thesis titled, "Digital natives: a study of the technological socialisation of young people," at the University of the Basque Country. [More]

(Louisiana State University) LSU's Saundra McGuire, assistant vice chancellor for learning and teaching in LSU's Division of Student Life and Enrollment Services, recently co-authored an American Scientist article with Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Roald Hoffmann. The article, "Learning and Teaching Strategies," describes six learning and six teaching strategies using the authors' collective experiences as well as advances in cognitive psychology. [More]

(University of Cambridge) "Mindfulness," the process of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, increases well-being in adolescent boys, a new study reports. [More]

(Kennedy Krieger Institute) Kennedy Krieger Institute announced today new study results showing an early marker for later communication and social delays in infants at a higher-risk for autism may be infrequent gazing at other people when unprompted. Published in the September issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the study also found that six-month-old high-risk infants demonstrated the same level of cause and effect learning skills when compared to low-risk infants of the same age. [More]

(SAGE Publications UK) Faith based schools are on the rise in the UK, apparently boosting educational standards. But are religious values at odds with legislation on equality? Research that appears today in the journal Education Management Administration and Leadership published by SAGE shows what happens when school values and those of the state diverge, with unfortunate consequences for gay students and staff. [More]

(American Medical Informatics Association) AMIA, the US-based association for informatics professionals, has launched a nonprofit, wholly owned subsidiary organization called the Global Health Informatics Partnership to serve as an international center for collaborative initiatives on health informatics. [More]

(Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs) Hispanic middle school students may be more likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana than their peers of other races and ethnicities, whereas Asian students seem to have the lowest risk, according to new research in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. [More]

(University of California - San Diego) A combination of the biology of marine mammals, mechanical vibrations and acoustics has led to a breakthrough discovery allowing scientists to better understand the potential harmful effects of sound on marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. [More]

(University of California - Riverside) RT @UCRiverside: #Computerscience and #art student create tool to track Twitter's top trending topics over time. [More]

(American Institute of Physics) In December 2010, IceCube -- the world's first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory, located beneath the Antarctic ice -- will finally be completed after two decades of planning. In an article in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, Francis Halzen, the principal investigator of the IceCube project, and his colleague Spencer Klein of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provide a comprehensive description of the observatory, its instrumentation and its scientific mission. [More]

(American Institute of Physics) A new imaging system using six different wavelengths to illuminate the interior of the eyeball (ocular fundus) may pave the way for doctors to easily screen patients for common diseases of the eye, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The system is described in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments. [More]

(American Institute of Physics) In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, scientists in India report success in boosting the ability of zinc oxide solar cells to absorb visible light simply by applying a blended mixture of various off-the-shelf dyes commonly used in food and medical industries -- in a soak-then-dry procedure not unlike that used to color a tee-shirt in a home washing machine. [More]

(Stevens Institute of Technology) National Science Foundation funds Dr. Yingying Chen at Stevens Institute of Technology, the Innovation University, in her collaborative work with Dr. Hui Xiong from Rutgers University titled: "NeTSE:Small:Collaborative Research: MILAN: Multi-Modal Passive Intrusion Learning in Pervasive Wireless Environments." [More]

(Rice University) Rice University scientists have created the first two-terminal memory chips that use only silicon, one of the most common substances on the planet, in a way that should be easily adaptable to nanoelectronic manufacturing techniques and promises to extend the limits of miniaturization subject to Moore's Law. [More]

(Medical College of Georgia) A study of the body system that deals with Americans' love affair with salt may yield more insight into why so many end up hypertensive and how to better treat them. [More]

(University of Haifa) The brain's right hemisphere is not involved in the initial processes of reading in Arabic, due to the graphic complexity of Arabic script. Therefore reading acquisition in Arabic is much harder in comparison to English. This has been shown in a series of studies that were carried out at the department of psychology and the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa. [More]

(Stanford University) By mining data from the 2000 Census, Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld figured out the rates at which kids raised by gay and straight couples repeated a grade during elementary or middle school. He found that children of same-sex parents have essentially the same educational achievement as their peers growing up in heterosexual households. [More]

(American Institute of Physics) Physicists at China's Wuhan University discovered that nanospheres combined with a nanorod dimer could be used to solve the problem of measurement sensitivity at the nanoscale -- work reported in the Journal of Applied Physics. [More]

(Case Western Reserve University) Case Western Reserve University and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have reached a memorandum of understanding designed to build on the academic and research strengths of both institutions. The agreement is effective for five years and can be extended. It encourages collaboration in research and education in areas of mutual interest, recognizing the global nature of modern business, industrial needs and social issues, including a need for international cooperation. [More]