Paul Morrow, who will graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on May 17, has come a long way from his days as an elementary school student, pulling apart his mother’s cassette player. The talented young physicist has developed two innovations that could vastly improve magnetic data storage and sense extremely low level magnetic fields in everything from ink on counterfeit currency to tissue in the human brain and heart.
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Obesity, unhealthy lifestyles and lower social economic status have been linked to more complex urinary problems in an American survey of 5,506 men and women. 58 percent were female, 32 percent were white, 32 percent were black and 34 percent were Hispanic.
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A large quantity of nitrogen compounds — emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nitrogen fertilizers — enters the oceans and may lead to the removal of some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, concluded a team of international scientists.
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Successful long-term weight loss for obese patients can be achieved without drugs using a low-cost approach that involves innovative intensive therapy followed by long term support, new research shows. Swiss researchers found that more than half a group of morbidly obese patients maintained a 10 kg weight reduction and overall 70% of their patients succeeded in avoiding further weight gain after five years.
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Aprotinin is associated with a 50 percent increase in the relative risk of death, according to a major Canadian clinical trial comparing three drugs routinely used to prevent blood loss during heart surgery. The trial shows that approximately six per cent of patients who received aprotinin died within 30 days of surgery compared to four per cent of patients who received tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid.
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Communities of Oregon white oak were once widespread in the Pacific Northwest’s western lowlands, but, today, they are in decline. Fire suppression, conifer and invasive plant encroachment, and land use change have resulted in the loss of as much as 99 percent of the oak communities historically present in some areas of the region. A new study indicates that if oaks are to be successfully restored, more aggressive management is needed within the next several decades.
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Researchers could soon use a blood test to identify the disorder in its early stages.

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A technology developed by IBM to cool computer chips could be a boon for solar energy.

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New software could help make location-aware devices ubiquitous.

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Researchers have developed geographic risk models, which indicate that as many as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. Using Geographic Information Systems, the researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population of Burma (also known as Myanmar) and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm’s effects.
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