World 'must tackle space threat' 3 In E-mail, the Truth Is E-lastic 5 Getting a Handle on Why We Sleep 7 A Faculty Caste System? 10 Seawater holds key to future food 12 Baby decisions - adding to the world's woes? 14 A step closer to self-powered kit 17 Illuminating the Dark Ages 19 Ancient supernova mystery solved 22 Child obesity 'may harm thyroid' 25 Single cancer cell 'poses danger' 27 New Insight On Wonder Of Cell Division 29 Wireless Crib Monitor Keeps Tabs On Baby's Breathing 31 U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Still Increasing 33 Operations Engineering For More Efficient Operating Rooms 34 Major Breakthrough For Dialysis Patients, According To Preliminary Results 36 Novel Human Stem Cell-based Model Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis 38 Sundance Tilts to Heart-Tuggers 40 Now in Residence: Walls of Luscious Austerity 42 Slick and Styling: Provocative Poses 45 New Hope For Treatment Of Brain-damaging Disorder In Children 47 Almost Ready for the Doctoral Program Rankings 49 English, Redefined, at Harvard 51 A Widget Onto the Future 53 A Simple Story With a Complicated Greek Chorus 55 Here’s How to Rescue a Museum at the Brink 57 Glimmer of hope for rare monkey 59 'Body clock gene' diabetes clue 61 'Injectable bone' helps fractures 63 Intelligent 'have better sperm' 65 California's Deep Sea Secrets: New Species Found, Human Impact Revealed 67 Bone Marrow-derived Stem Cells May Offer Novel Therapeutic Option For Skin 69 Best Treatments For Long-term Survival In Brain Tumor Patients Identified 71 Privacy Issues: Avoiding Becoming A Victim Of Online Crime 72 American Values Blamed For U.S Health-care Crisis 73 Winter Brings Flu, Summer Brings Bacterial Infections 74 Climate Change Wiped Out Cave Bears 13 Millennia Earlier Than Thought 75 Mechanism Links Serotonin With Regulation Of Food Intake 77 More Evidence The Aging Brain Is Easily Distracted 79 Secondhand Smoke Raises Odds Of Fertility Problems In Women 81 Vitreous Humor In The Eye Helps To Establish Time Of Death 83 Decline Of Roman And Byzantine Empires May Have Been Driven By Climate Change 84 Technique To Differentiate Between Original And Bootleg CDs Developed 86 Human Approach To Computer Processing 87 The Adjunctification of English 88 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila With Budget Crunch Hitting IT, Time to Rethink Role? 91 Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics 94 Unraveling a 15th-Century Whodunit 95 What do Sarah Palin, Facebook and Euro 2008 have in common? 98 Don't be 404, know the tech slang 100 Gene 'triggers unhealthy eating' 102 Taking One (Percent) for the Team 104 Poor countries 'need carbon cuts' 106 Black hole confirmed in Milky Way 109 The mouse hits 40-year milestone 111 Vitamins 'do not cut cancer risk' 113 Warning of nut allergy 'hysteria' 115 Brain cell hope for hearing loss 117 New Class Of Anti-inflammatory Drugs Developed 119 Palm Pilots Bridge Communication Gap Between Therapists And Patients 120 Acoustic Phenomena Explain Why Boats And Animals Collide 121 Thrombosis Patients Face Greater Risks Than Previously Believed 123 Insects Affected More By Insecticides Than By Crops Engineered To Make Insect-specific Toxins 124 To Contract Or Not: A Key Question For The Uterine Muscles In Pregnancy 126 Tropics No Longer Museum Of Plant Biodiversity 127 Unique Archaeological Discovery In Balkan: World’s First Illyrian Trading Post Found 129 Eye Disorders Linked To Statin Drug Use In Some Patients 132 Robust Watermarking Offers Hope Against Digital Piracy 133 Surface-Level Ozone Pollution Set To Reduce Tree Growth 10% By 2100 135 Complex Decision? Don't Think About It 137 YouTube Usage Decoded 139 Unprecedented 16-year-long Study Tracks Stars Orbiting Milky Way Black Hole 141 Epilepsy Drug Shows Potential For Alzheimer’s Treatment 143 New Polymer Coatings Prevent Corrosion, Even When Scratched 144 Plastic Made To Conduct Electricity 146 Boy-girl Bullying In Middle Grades More Common Than Previously Thought 147 Production Line For Artificial Skin 149 New Classification Of Spinal Deformity Defines Range Of Normalcy 150 Old and Happy? It’s a Matter of Attitude 152 For I. M. Pei, History Is Still Happening 155 Snapshots From the American Road 159 Picture This 162 Exposed 165 Reconsidering the Man From Illinois 167 Confronting His Culture and Himself 171 The Body Politic: Gorgeous and Grotesque 174 Art and Mental Illness 177 Diabetes Epidemic Signals an Increase in Blindness, Too 179 The Pain May Be Real, but the Scan Is Deceiving 180 Researchers Put a Microscope on Food Allergies 185 Plenty of Guidelines, but Where’s the Evidence? 187 Amish gene 'limits heart disease' 190 Test 'predicts preterm baby risk' 192 Diverting Students from Developmental Ed 194 Iron Age 'Sacrifice' Is Britain's Oldest Surviving Brain 196 Amputees Can Experience Prosthetic Hand As Their Own 198 Innovative Technique To Record Human Impact On Coastal Waters 199 Strategic Video Game Improves Critical Cognitive Skills In Older Adults 200 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 51 December 2008 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila World 'must tackle space threat' By Julian Siddle Science reporter, BBC News The international community must work together to tackle the threat of asteroids colliding with Earth, a leading UN scientist says. Professor Richard Crowther's comments come as a group of space experts called for a co-ordinated science-led response to the asteroid threat. The Association of Space Explorers (ASE) says missions to intercept asteroids will need global approval. The UN will meet in February to discuss the issue. In the ASE report, the group of scientists and former astronauts point to the historical record to highlight the dangers of asteroids; an impact 65 million years ago may have wiped out the dinosaurs, and the Tunguska impact in 1908 produced a 2,000 sq km fire in Siberia, big enough to engulf a city the size of New York. They say the next major threatening event could occur in less than 20 years. Asteroid Apophis is due to pass close to the Earth and analyses suggest a one in 45,000 chance of a collision. An impact by Apophis would generate the equivalent of a 500 megatonne blast, at least 100 times more powerful than the Siberian event. Professor Crowther of Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), is the chair of the UN Working Group on Near Earth Objects. He says the threat needs to be taken seriously. 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 51 December 2008 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila "The issue is it's a single event, potentially causing a large number of casualties," be told BBC News. The UN broadly agrees that action is necessary, though what form this should take is still under discussion. Collision course Professor Crowther welcomed the ASE report and said it would be discussed by the UN action team tasked with coming up with a plan, when they meet next February. "A lot of what's in the report is consistent with what we're suggesting anyway, there needs to be effective scientific co-ordination, enough observatory time, and people looking in the right place at the right time." The document says most asteroids entering the Earth's atmosphere are small and burn up before reaching the surface. But it is the larger ones - perhaps 200m or more across - that would need to be deflected away from a collision course with the Earth. The researchers propose several ways of doing this, the most extreme methods being to crash a spacecraft into the asteroid to knock it off course, or to set off a nuclear explosion. They say the earlier the threat is dealt with, the less drastic the course of action need be. Professor Crowther says the natural forces of gravity can be used to deflect asteroids in many situations. "We can use the natural attraction of a probe to one of the bodies, to slowly pull the object away." He says if done at sufficient distance from the Earth, the orbit of an asteroid can be changed slightly to take it away from a collision path. ASE propose combining scientific monitoring and research with a global political strategy. Professor Crowther says the scientific consensus is already broadly in place, but political consensus may take longer. "We have to decide on a political framework, who's going to act and under what authority. That's clearly a role for the UN within the next two to three years. The key is to get it done before it's needed, when people are much more reasonable, rational and objective." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7760659.stm Published: 2008/12/02 17:42:49 GMT 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 51 December 2008 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila In E-mail, the Truth Is E-lastic People lie much more often when using electronic communication rather than paper, business profs find. By: Tom Jacobs | December 01, 2008 | 11:48 AM (PST) That winking emoticon may be more revealing than we realize, ; ) . A new study suggests people are more likely to lie using e-mail than other forms of written communication. In the latest in an ongoing series of studies of how our behavior changes when we interact via e-mail, researchers Terri Kurtzberg of the Rutgers University Business School, Charles Naquin of DePaul University and Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University report many people feel free to fib using the popular form of high-tech communication. Their paper, which has yet to be published, strongly suggests the "e" in e-mail does not stand for "ethics." "In previous studies, we found there was less trust, less cooperation in e-mail communications," Kurtzberg said in a telephone interview.