Out of Lance’s Slipstream, a Trainer Reinvents Himself

Out of Lance’s Slipstream, a Trainer Reinvents Himself

   After seven Tour de France victories, Lance Armstrong's coach is going after the sedentary.

Fitness: Quick, Do You Know Your B.M.I.?

Fitness: Quick, Do You Know Your B.M.I.?

   Should one measure of body size fit all? The Body Mass Index affects everyone from teeny tiny models to adoptive parents to schoolchildren, but few people actually know what it means.

Second Opinion: When Bad Things Come From ‘Good’ Food

Second Opinion: When Bad Things Come From ‘Good’ Food

   Despite disease outbreaks, outrage over filth in produce seems to be lacking.

The Energy Challenge: Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart

The Energy Challenge: Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart

   The retailer is determined to push energy-saving light bulbs with the help of some unlikely partners.

Recalculating the Costs of Global Climate Change

Recalculating the Costs of Global Climate Change

   Exploring the implications of alternative assumptions is likely to lead to better policy than making a single blanket recommendation.

In Shirt-Sleeve Holiday Season, Overcoats Linger on the Racks

In Shirt-Sleeve Holiday Season, Overcoats Linger on the Racks

   Balmy temperatures on the East Coast have been disastrous for sales of cold-weather clothing.

Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart

Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart

   The retailer is determined to push energy-saving light bulbs with the help of some unlikely partners.

Storms Damage Homes in Florida

Storms Damage Homes in Florida

   Powerful storms damaged at least three dozen homes on Monday as heavy rain and strong wind swept across the Southeast.

Another Northwest storm (weather.com)

Another Northwest storm
(weather.com)


   weather.com -

Advertising: Now Looking Green Is Looking Good

Advertising: Now Looking Green Is Looking Good

   More ad agencies are figuring that there is good money to be made from specializing in ads that promote greenness.

U.S. Companies Explore Ways to Profit From Trading Credits to Emit Carbon

U.S. Companies Explore Ways to Profit From Trading Credits to Emit Carbon

   A growing number of U.S. companies are preparing for what they think will be a booming market in carbon trading.

India's forgotten tribes gain rights over forests

India's forgotten tribes gain rights over forests

   GIR SANCTUARY, India (Reuters) - Daya Rakha, 36, was born in the jungles of the Gir wildlife sanctuary in western India and knows little else except how to live off the forest's resources.

Mayor: Evacuees increased murders (AP)

Mayor: Evacuees increased murders
(AP)


   

AP - The number of murders last year in Houston hit a 12-year high and increased by 13.5 percent over 2005, figures the mayor attributes in part to the arrival of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

The Energy Challenge: It’s Free, Plentiful and Fickle

The Energy Challenge: It’s Free, Plentiful and Fickle

   Wind, almost everybody’s best hope for big supplies of clean, affordable electricity, is turning out to have complications.

Horse meat, kale and crickets on menu at Bronx zoo (Reuters)

Horse meat, kale and crickets on menu at Bronx zoo
(Reuters)


   Reuters - Shopping list: 750,000 pounds (340,000
kg) of grain; 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of meat; 10,400 cases
of mixed fruits and vegetables; bees.

Study: La. slowly slipping into gulf (AP)

Study: La. slowly slipping into gulf
(AP)


   

AP - A new report by scientists studying Louisiana's sinking coast says the land here is not just sinking, it's sliding ever so slowly into the Gulf of Mexico. The new findings may add a kink to plans being drawn up to build bigger and better levees to protect this historic city and Cajun bayou culture.

Cows engineered to lack mad cow disease (AP)

Cows engineered to lack mad cow disease
(AP)


   AP - Scientists have genetically engineered a dozen cows to be free from the proteins that cause mad cow disease, a breakthrough that may make the animals immune to the brain-wasting disease.

Travel Habits Must Change to Make a Big Difference in Energy Consumption

Travel Habits Must Change to Make a Big Difference in Energy Consumption

   People eager to reduce their consumption can take many steps, but the size of their benefit — or cost — is not always evident.

Arctic Ice Shelf Broke Off Canadian Island

Arctic Ice Shelf Broke Off Canadian Island

   The breaking of the 25-square-mile shelf of floating ice appeared to be a result of unusual Arctic warmth in 2005 on top of a longer-term warming trend.

More storminess for Pacific Northwest (weather.com)

More storminess for Pacific Northwest
(weather.com)


   weather.com -

European scientists launch "planet seeker"

European scientists launch "planet seeker"

   PARIS (Reuters) - European scientists launched a satellite on Wednesday to seek out new Earth-like planets beyond the solar system and to explore the interior of stars, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

Hospitals cut medicine tube infections in study

Hospitals cut medicine tube infections in study

   BOSTON (Reuters) - Hospitals in Michigan nearly eliminated often-deadly infections involving tubes that deliver fluids and medicine to patients by stressing better hygiene and other preventive steps, a U.S. study showed.

U.S. weighs listing polar bear as threatened species

U.S. weighs listing polar bear as threatened species

   ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - With their icy Arctic habitat melting, polar bears need new protections under the Endangered Species Act, Bush administration officials said on Wednesday in a decision that raised questions about the president's skeptical stance on global warming.

Head-banging snakes may predict quakes

Head-banging snakes may predict quakes

   BEIJING (Reuters) - China has come up with an earthquake prediction system which relies on the behavior of snakes, state media said Thursday, two days after two quakes struck off neighboring Taiwan.

French space agency to publish UFO archive online

French space agency to publish UFO archive online

   PARIS (Reuters) - The French space agency is to publish its archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online, but will keep the names of those who reported them off the site to protect them from pestering by space fanatics.

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig

   BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have successfully bred partially green fluorescent pigs which they hope will boost stem cell research, Xinhua news agency said.

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north

   CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, a researcher said on Friday.

Mickey's cousins unwelcome guests in Florida town

Mickey's cousins unwelcome guests in Florida town

   ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Central Florida, the home of Walt Disney World, is typically invaded by visitors wearing mouse ears this time of year.

US backs sale of cloned food

US backs sale of cloned food

   US food authorities say food from cloned animals is safe to eat, paving the way for its eventual sale in shops.

Gene doubles breast cancer risk

Gene doubles breast cancer risk

   Scientists in the UK discover another gene linked to breast cancer, according to a new report.

Rains trap tourists in Kenya's Masai Mara safari

Rains trap tourists in Kenya's Masai Mara safari

   NAROK, Kenya (Reuters) - Heavy rains have trapped hundreds of frustrated tourists in Kenya's world-famous Masai Mara game reserve, authorities said on Sunday.

Gene-engineered cattle resist mad cow disease: study

Gene-engineered cattle resist mad cow disease: study

   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Japanese scientists reported on Sunday that they had used genetic engineering to produce cattle that resist mad cow disease.

How does aspirin crystallize?

How does aspirin crystallize?

   "The two crystalline forms of aspirin are so closely related," explain Andrew D. Bond, Roland Boese and Gautam R. Desiraju in Angewandte Chemie, "that they form structures containing domains of both crystal types."

ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 20, 2006

ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 20, 2006

   The American Chemical Society News Service Weekly Press Package with reports from 35 major peer-reviewed journals on chemistry, health, medicine, energy, environment, food, nanotechnology and other hot topics.

Dengue and other hemorrhagic fevers: Towards a first potential treatment

Dengue and other hemorrhagic fevers: Towards a first potential treatment

   IRD immuno-virologists and their research partners have determined the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of the vascular leakage triggered by the Dengue virus. Metalloproteinases are responsible for the passage of plasma across the blood-vessel walls. These original results, validated first by in vitro tests then in vivo on a mouse model, open up the first line of attack for treatment against hemorrhagic Dengue and new perspectives for others hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola.

'Vortex lattices' may help explain material defects

'Vortex lattices' may help explain material defects

   By combining two cutting-edge laboratory creations -- optical lattices and atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate spinning in a trap -- physicists from NIST and the University of Colorado have developed a method of visualizing defects in rotating patterns, a new method that could be used to simulate why and how defects arise in superconductors and other important materials that are difficult to study directly.

NIST laser-based method cleans up grubby nanotubes

NIST laser-based method cleans up grubby nanotubes

   Researchers at NIST and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have demonstrated a simple method of cleaning nanotubes by zapping them with carefully calibrated laser pulses.

Ossur hf. acquires the Gibaud Group in France

Ossur hf. acquires the Gibaud Group in France

   Ossur hf. (ICEX: OSSR), a trusted and leading global supplier of orthopaedic devices, announced today that it has acquired the Gibaud Group in France in a transaction valued at approximately USD 132 million (Euro 101 million).

Midwest snow on the wane (weather.com)

Midwest snow on the wane
(weather.com)


   weather.com -

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

   UCSF scientists have identified a cell population that is a primary target of the degenerative brain disease known as frontotemporal dementia, which is as common as Alzheimer's disease in patients who develop dementia before age 65.

Adenine 'tails' make tailored anchors for DNA

Adenine 'tails' make tailored anchors for DNA

   Researchers from NIST, the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland have demonstrated a deceptively simple technique for chemically bonding single strands of DNA to gold. The technique offers a convenient way to control the density of the DNA strands on the substrate, which could be important for optimizing DNA sensor arrays.

Genetic mechanism helps explain chronic pain disorders

Genetic mechanism helps explain chronic pain disorders

   Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that commonly occurring variations of a gene trigger a domino effect in chronic pain disorders. The finding might lead to more effective treatments for temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) and other chronic pain conditions.

USC team reveals structure of APOBEC family protein

USC team reveals structure of APOBEC family protein

   USC researchers have determined the 3-D atomic structure of the Apo2 protein, the first of the APOBEC enzyme family to be described. The protein structure has guided them to a new understanding of what goes wrong on a molecular level in a rare, but serious immunodeficiency syndrome.

Methamphetamine use increases risks of artery tears and stroke

Methamphetamine use increases risks of artery tears and stroke

   Methamphetamine use may be associated with increased risks of major neck artery tears and stroke, according to an article published in the December 26, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Structural mechanism of the E. coli drug efflux pump AcrB

Structural mechanism of the E. coli drug efflux pump AcrB

   The high-resolution crystal structure of trimeric AcrB solved using DARPin inhibitors reveals insights into the drug export mechanism via hemi-channels in each subunit.