pBy Zoeuml; Corbyn of Nature magazine/p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=misconduct-is-the-main-cause-of-retractions-in-life-sciences-journals[More]/a
pThe drought that has kept much of the nation in its grip this summer brings a host of additional downstream worries for growers already struggling with reduced yields./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-drought-2012-pick-your-poison[More]/a
pBy Susana Ferreira/ppPORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti imposed a ban on plastic and foam food containers as well as black polyethylene bags on Monday, amid concern that the countrys poorest consumers would not be able to afford the substitutes./ppThe ban is the first in a series of government measures aiming to help the environment of the poorest country in the hemisphere. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=haiti-plastics-ban-gets-mixed-react[More]/a
pBy Amanda Mascarelli of Nature magazine/p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plants-carbon-sinking-capacity-is-much-lower-than-thought[More]/a
pGreat-ape habitat in Africa has shrunk precipitously in the past two decades, according to the first continent-wide survey of the state of environmental conditions suitable for the animals./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=african-great-ape-habitat-underwent-massive-shrinkage-since-1990s[More]/a
pA common complaint about wrinkle-masking Botox is that recipients have difficulty displaying emotions on their faces. That side effect might be a good thing, however, for people with treatment-resistant depression./ppIn the first randomized, controlled study on the effect of botulinum toxin--known commercially as Botox--on depression, researchers investigated whether it might aid patients with major depressive disorder who had not responded to antidepressant medications. Participants in the treatment group were given a single dose (consisting of five injections) of botulinum toxin in the area of the face between and just above the eyebrows, whereas the control group was given placebo injections. Depressive symptoms in the treatment group decreased 47 percent after six weeks, an improvement that remained through the 16-week study period. The placebo group had a 9 percent reduction in symptoms. The findings appeared in May in the Journal of Psychiatric Research ./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=botox-fights-depression[More]/a
Prologue: Humans are born to a longer period of total dependence than any other animal we know of, and we also know that mistreatment or neglect during this time often leads to social, emotional, cognitive and mental health problems in later life. Its not hard to imagine how a lack of proper stimulation in our earliest years - everything from rich sensory experiences and language exposure to love and care - might adversely affect our development, but scientists have only recently started to pull back the curtain on the genetic, molecular and cellular mechanisms that might explain how these effects arise in the brain. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-story-of-a-lonely-brain[More]/a
pChildren come to school with different aptitudes, many of which determine their ability to learn. Some are quicker at grasping the concepts and skills that form the core of most educational curricula. Others are better able to concentrate or make friends. Some seem lazy; others determined. As a result, we label children as smart, attentive, social and hardworking--or as slow, distracted, shy and lackadaisical. The labels suggest fixed traits, not teachable skills./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-classrooms-can-change-childrens-brains[More]/a
p style=text-align:leftBy Whitney Pastorek /pp style=text-align:leftFemales are the fastest-growing online demographic, and studies have shown that companies with women in management tend to perform a great deal better. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=empowering-young-women-by-teaching-2012-10[More]/a
p /p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-worlds-best-countries-science[More]/a
The emergence of international air travel in the 20th century enabled an unprecedented spread of ideas, cultures and communication. Unfortunately, modern aviation has also proved an effective means of spreading diseases. Air travel didnt introduce worldwide pandemics, of course, but with tens of millions of scheduled international flights annually and hundreds of millions of passengers en route from high-risk areas, health officials are often hard pressed to pinpoint the source and cause of an international outbreak.With this in mind, the Transportation Research Board , part of the National Research Council, commissioned a team of researchers from the University of Florida at Gainesville to develop a Web-based tool to help better define the roles that airports and airlines play in transmitting diseases across great distances. The researchers used airline traffic figures (scheduled flights throughout the global air network and the capacity of each aircraft), disease risk maps and climate data to come up with their online vector-borne disease airline importation risk (VBD-AIR) tool, which went live in May. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=web-site-tracks-mosquito-borne-diseases-spread-globally-by-air-travel[More]/a
