http://www.physorg.com/science-news/sci-other/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on chemistry, math, archaeology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and science technologies. A study by six researchers, including a University of Colorado at Boulder associate professor and his former doctoral student, shows that amputees who use running-specific prosthetic legs have no performance advantage over counterparts who use their biological legs. http://www.physorg.com/news176565385.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:50:01 EST news176565385 For kids, ringing a neighbor's doorbell, yelling "trick or treat," and receiving candy brings plenty of smiles, but for many the real fun of Halloween happens when you turn your plastic jack-o'-lantern candy bucket upside down, unleashing a candy tsunami onto a tabletop or bedspread. From there it's easy to pick out the holiday-inappropriate items that somehow made it into the mix -- kids need pencils, and eating the occasional apple is swell, but not on Halloween night. http://www.physorg.com/news175971356.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:56:33 EST news175971356 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using advanced computer modeling and statistical analysis, a University of Texas at Austin linguistics professor has found that toddlers develop their own individual structures for using language that are very different from what we traditionally think of as grammar. http://www.physorg.com/news173979856.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:20:01 EST news173979856 (PhysOrg.com) -- The collapse of Greek democracy 2,400 years ago occurred in circumstances so similar to our own it could be read as a dark and often ignored lesson from the past, a new study suggests. http://www.physorg.com/news173955504.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:10:16 EST news173955504 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Ig Nobels are a highlight of the scientific calendar and award research that makes people laugh as well as think. The awards were presented last week at Harvard University in the U.S, and winning research included a bra that doubles as two face masks, a process for making diamonds from tequila, and Zimbabwe's scheme to simplify the handling of money. http://www.physorg.com/news173943429.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:00:01 EST news173943429 Acclaimed wheelchair-bound British scientist Stephen Hawking is to hand over his top Cambridge University job this week, the prestigious seat of learning said on Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news173529247.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:50:02 EST news173529247 (PhysOrg.com) -- The UK government is developing a new scheme, the Research Excellence Framework (REF), to assess university research proposals and allocate public funds for research. The scheme is being developed in collaboration with higher education bodies in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, and will make much greater use of quantitative information (bibliometrics) than its predecessor. http://www.physorg.com/news173084719.html Other Sciences - Other Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:10:01 EST news173084719 (PhysOrg.com) -- This year has seen the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession, and the start of the third television series of The Tudors -- yet we might so easily have been celebrating King Arthur I instead of arguably England's most famous monarch. http://www.physorg.com/news172423093.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:40:11 EST news172423093 The prevailing wisdom among many scientists and scientific organizations is that, as a rule, scientists are press shy, and those who aren't are mavericks. http://www.physorg.com/news171720619.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:10:39 EST news171720619 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many teachers appear to be leaving training college with serious misconceptions about how the brain functions, new research suggests. http://www.physorg.com/news171213840.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:40:02 EST news171213840 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Book of Kells and similarly illustrated manuscripts of seventh- and eighth-century England and Ireland are known for their entrancingly intricate artwork -- geometric designs so precise that in some places they contain lines less than half a millimeter apart and nearly perfectly reproduced in repeating patterns -- leading a later scholar to call them "works not of men, but of angels." http://www.physorg.com/news171132916.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:55:54 EST news171132916 Salpinx, barbiton, aulos, syrinx. Never heard them? Never heard of them? Neither had anyone else, for centuries. Until now. http://www.physorg.com/news170963147.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:46:22 EST news170963147 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence of a previously unknown voyage to North America in 1499, led by a Bristol explorer, is to be published this week in the academic journal Historical Research. http://www.physorg.com/news170605684.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:20:03 EST news170605684 Lemon-headed aliens, scrambled fighter jets and mysterious lights over a cemetery were among details of some 800 UFO sightings released by British authorities Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news169718228.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:57:53 EST news169718228 (AP) -- The handwritten letter to the governor is polite, articulate and to the point. "Dear Sir," begins the missive. "I wish you would come down to the jail and see me." http://www.physorg.com/news168693030.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:20:02 EST news168693030 What are the chances of a nuclear world war? What is the risk of a nuclear attack on United States soil? The risk of a child born today suffering an early death due to nuclear war is at least 10 percent, according to Martin Hellman, a tall, thin and talkative Stanford Professor Emeritus in Engineering. http://www.physorg.com/news167327145.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:46:22 EST news167327145 A new way to classify sounds in some human languages may solve a problem that has plagued linguists for nearly 100 years--how to accurately describe click sounds distinct to certain African languages. http://www.physorg.com/news166882422.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:14:27 EST news166882422 A team of researchers from the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH) has shown scientifically that human beings can develop echolocation, the system of acoustic signals used by dolphins and bats to explore their surroundings. Producing certain kinds of tongue clicks helps people to identify objects around them without needing to see them, something which would be especially useful for the blind. http://www.physorg.com/news165568028.html Other Sciences - Other Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:07:30 EST news165568028 For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference. http://www.physorg.com/news165555744.html Other Sciences - Other Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:30:03 EST news165555744 (PhysOrg.com) -- Where we are born not only determines how we speak but also how we taste our food and drink. http://www.physorg.com/news164632274.html Other Sciences - Other Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:30:02 EST news164632274 We've all sat through one of those presentations where the animated slides are more interesting than the speaker. Bold and brassy titles slide into view, tasty slices of pie chart fill the screen one by one, and a hail of arrows spikes the points the lecturer hopes to highlight. http://www.physorg.com/news163936965.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:03:06 EST news163936965 Cleantech is becoming increasingly popular as an industry. Cleantech companies are those that focus their efforts around innovations associated with environmental sustainability. http://www.physorg.com/news163864763.html Other Sciences - Other Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:00:01 EST news163864763 To engineering students, scenes like these might sound familiar: students splitting up group projects so they don't have to work together. One student bragging that he did the problem without following the directions but still got the right answer. Another student bragging about how he did the whole project in the hour before class. http://www.physorg.com/news163699049.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:57:53 EST news163699049 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fewer Americans are dying on our nation's roads, not only because they are driving less, but also because the type of driving has changed, says a researcher at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news163351130.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:19:42 EST news163351130 "You are what you eat." Can these pithy words explain the evolution of the human species? http://www.physorg.com/news163089378.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:36:56 EST news163089378 It's a long-standing and crucial question that, as yet, remains unanswered: just how common is scientific misconduct? In the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, Daniele Fanelli of the University of Edinburgh reports the first meta-analysis of surveys questioning scientists about their misbehaviours. The results suggest that altering or making up data is more frequent than previously estimated and might be particularly high in medical research. http://www.physorg.com/news162795064.html Other Sciences - Other Fri, 29 May 2009 05:52:29 EST news162795064 How will we feed nine billion people in the future? Can we ever have a disease-free world? Can robots play football? http://www.physorg.com/news162110741.html Other Sciences - Other Thu, 21 May 2009 07:52:21 EST news162110741 Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Sinatra and Hendrix -- these and many other of the world's most famous musicians have had "perfect" or "absolute" pitch. The ability, defined as recognizing the pitch of a musical note without having to compare it to any reference note, is quite rare in the U.S. and Europe, where only about one person in 10,000 is thought to have it. Often lumped into the mysterious realm of Talent, perfect pitch is - according to Diana Deutsch of the University of California, San Diego - probably more the result of nurture than nature, more environment than genes. http://www.physorg.com/news161968399.html Other Sciences - Other Tue, 19 May 2009 16:13:52 EST news161968399 Fish poisoning, or ciguatera could be the reason that New Zealand, Easter Island and, possibly, Hawaii in the 11th to 15th centuries became colonized by masses of migrating Polynesians. http://www.physorg.com/news161863010.html Other Sciences - Other Mon, 18 May 2009 10:58:03 EST news161863010 A retired Danish doctor claimed Tuesday to have uncovered the true cause of Napoleon's death, saying the French emperor died of a lengthy kidney illness instead of the being poisoned by his enemies. http://www.physorg.com/news160752718.html Other Sciences - Other Tue, 05 May 2009 14:32:36 EST news160752718