Science

Take that, pesky moms everywhere. A study presented at the annual study of the Radiological Society of North America has determined that a 90-degree upright sitting posture--you know, Miss Manners-style--might actually lead to back problems. According to the researchers, who are from the University of Alberta in Canada, the optimal sitting position is a nice 135-degree recline.

Maybe telecommuting from bed isn't such a bad idea after all.

It reads like a movie plot: a suburban 17-year-old builds an intricate physics lab in his parents' basement, then creates small-scale nuclear fusion using a machine he spent two years constructing. If this movie had been made circa 2001, he probably would've been played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

But, no, this isn't fiction; it actually happened. The Detroit Free Press reported that Thiago Olsen of Oakland Township, Michigan, a member of the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School, has successfully achieved the creation of nuclear fusion. He's the 18th person in the world to … Read more

No one really knows the extent to which products made from nanomaterials, which now include everything from fumeless paints to golf balls to medicines, pose health and environmental threats. But some have charged that government and industry have been guilty of dilly-dallying in their efforts to find out.

An article called "Safe Handling of Nanotechnology," to be published Thursday in the journal Nature, seeks to apply pressure to those who are may be dragging their feet in conducting studies--or forking over research funding--that could help assess the not-entirely-theoretical hazards associated with the tiny particles.

(Nanotechnology, for the record, … Read more

The first space mission dedicated to searching for planets outside the solar system will launch in late December, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

Roughly 12 years in the making, the so-called COROT mission will get off the ground Dec. 21 with the launch of a specialized space telecope aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. In orbit, the telecope will be used to detect rocky, extrasolar planets by observing changes of light when these bodies transit in front of a parent star.

The French space agency CNES is responsible for the mission, along with the European Space Agency (ESA), among others.… Read more

Taking a page from home-pregnancy tests, scientists have designed a dipstick that can detect traces of cocaine or other drugs in a person's bodily fluids.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the dipstick from DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, or a process for filtering tiny particles in order to detect specific molecules. The system can be packaged in a small kit so, for example, emergency room staff can quickly screen patients for drugs in their saliva, urine or blood serum.

"Our results show that the...dipstick is compatible with biological samples, making applications in medicinal diagnostics possible,&… Read more

There are more U.S. information technology jobs today than there were six years ago during the dot-com heyday, according to a recent study from the Association for Computing Machinery. The report, presented at Stanford University's Computer Forum last week, examined the global migration of software jobs, and its findings appear to dispel the myth that computer science jobs are moving overseas at a greater clip than they're being created by U.S. companies.

"There is a huge mismatch between perception and reality," said Rice University Professor Moshe Vardi, who co-lead the study and presented the … Read more

Do we understand love?

That was the question posed to two professors of medicine this weekend at Wonderfest, a San Francisco Bay Area science festival and host of several scientific talks. Their answer: Yes and No.

What scientists do know is that love and relationships regulate human physiology, according to Thomas Lewis, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California at San Francisco and author of "A General Theory of Love." For example, in a medical study of stockbrokers who suffered from hypertension, those patients who were given a puppy vs. drug treatments showed lower blood pressure … Read more

It may seem obvious, but computers on Earth are much faster than those in space.

That's why researchers at the University of Florida and Honeywell Aerospace said this week that they are developing a new, speedier PC for space missions, up to 100 times faster than current computing systems sent into orbit. If delivered as promised, NASA will test the computer on an unmanned ST8 rocket mission in February 2009.

"To explore space and to support Earth and space science, there is a great need for much more processing power in space," Alan George, an engineering professor … Read more

In time for Halloween, NASA has captured an image of a snake-like cloud formation that appears to be slithering through the galaxy. The space agency said that the image, take by the Spitzer Space Telescope, depicts "the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems."

Such clouds are so filled with dust that they're normally invisible to optical telescopes, but Spitzer's heat-seeking infrared vision can "see" the formation, which is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Scientists believe that by studying clouds like this … Read more