What young people say at the age of 11 about their intentions to stay at school post-16 is a good predictor of whether or not they will actually stay in post-compulsory education, according to a major study at the University of Reading.

Research conducted by Professor Paul Croll, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), looked at the intentions of young people expressed through their years in secondary school and compared these with their behaviour at th

Scientists at Stanford University have developed a new laser therapy that destroys cancer cells but leaves healthy ones unharmed. The new, non-invasive treatment is described in a study published in the Aug. 1 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“One of the longstanding problems in medicine is how to cure cancer without harming normal body tissue,” says Hongjie Dai, an associate professor of chemistry at Stanford and co-author of the stu

Clearing — or perhaps roiling — the murky and often contentious waters of Mesoamerican archeology, a study of 3,000-year-old pottery provides new evidence that the Olmec may not have been the mother culture after all.

Writing this week (Aug. 1, 2005) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of scientists led by University of Wisconsin-Madison archeologist James B. Stoltman presents new evidence that shows the Olmec, widely regarded as the creators of

Potential new drug target identified, as well

A study conducted at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) has demonstrated that omega-6 fatty acids such as the fat found in corn oil promote the growth of prostate tumor cells in the laboratory. The study also identifies a potential new molecular target for anti-tumor drugs: an enzyme known as cPLA2, which plays a key role in the chain leading from omega-6 fatty acids to prostate tumor cell growth.

The study was led

A new study of 60 beaches in Southern California suggests that water pollution varies with the lunar cycle, reaching the highest levels when tides are ebbing during the new and full moon. The findings could help beachgoers and managers better assess the potential risk of swimming.

The report appears in the Aug. 1 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology. ACS is the world’s largest scientific society.

Coastal water q

A University of Cincinnati (UC) study provides new evidence that drinking large amounts of beverages containing fructose adds body fat, and might explain why sweetening with fructose could be even worse than using other sweeteners.

Researchers allowed mice to freely consume either water, fructose sweetened water or soft drinks. They found increased body fat in the mice that drank the fructose-sweetened water and soft drinks–despite that fact that these animals decreased the a

Fears that chemical byproducts resulting from purifying drinking water with chlorine boost the chances that pregnant women will miscarry were not supported by the results of a major new study. If such threats exist at all, which is uncertain, they likely are modest, it concludes.

The national study, directed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists, contrasts with earlier, less detailed work done in Northern California and published in 1998. That research suggested an ass

A new study from the University of Alberta reveals that people with HIV in developing countries do just as well on antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs as do people with HIV on ART programs in developed countries. It also shows that people with HIV who are given free ART drugs will do “significantly” better at fighting the disease compared to those who must pay for the drugs.

“ART programs are complex therapeutic regimens that require patients to take a minimum of three pills a

A controversial surgical procedure that has lost favor among medical professionals may benefit women who have had caesarean sections. So say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who have found that closing the parietal peritoneum, a multi-layered membrane that lines the abdomino-pelvic walls, substantially decreases the likelihood of scarring that can make future C-sections more difficult.

The finding on this link between peritoneum closure and fewer adhesi

Babies born at night had a 12 to 16 percent increase in neonatal mortality

There is strong evidence that babies born at night have a greater risk of dying in their first month of life than babies born earlier in the day, according to a new study published this month in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

“We’re not surprised at this finding because it is supported by previous studies in the medical literature that were carried out in Europe,” said Diane M. Ashton, M.D., M.P.

The level of current funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to the University of Southampton has topped the critical £100 million mark for the first time.

Southampton currently has a grant income of £102,670,666 in EPSRC research funding across a total of 165 individual grants. The Russell Group University stands third in the Council’s portfolio of funded organisations ahead of Oxford University, and behind Cambridge and Imperial which take fir

Working parents rely on a network of caregivers – a source of positive bonds, stress when childcare is insufficient or inflexible

Despite the long-cherished belief that the nuclear family is independent and self-sustaining, most families with working parents depend on a network of care to manage work and family demands, according to research by Brandeis University sociologist Karen Hansen. More than half of all U.S. households with young children have two employed parents.

Two studies by researchers at the University of Chicago show how the bacteria that cause the plague manage to outsmart the immune system and how, by slightly altering one of the microbe’s tools, the researchers produced what may be the first safe and effective vaccine.

Both papers — one published online July 28 in Science Express and one in the August issue of Infection and Immunity — focus on aspects of the type-III pathway, a molecular syringe that Yersinia pestis, the ba

Long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur’s embryo offers insights

The embryos of a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur are the earliest ever recorded for any terrestrial vertebrate and point to how primitive dinosaurs evolved into the largest animals ever to walk on earth, say scientists from the University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM), the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

The discovery, published in the July 29 issue of Science, p

Researchers have isolated compounds from the vegetable broccoli that they believe may help prevent or slow the progress of bladder cancer.

The current work builds on a major study conducted six years ago by Harvard and Ohio State universities that found that men who ate two or more half-cup servings of broccoli per week had a 44 percent lower incidence of bladder cancer compared to men who ate less than one serving each week.

“We’re starting to look at which compou

Simple blood test may give diagnostic and prognostic information

Scientists from the Uppsala Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) have made a promising discovery that could improve the early diagnosis of breast and ovarian cancers through a simple blood test.

The LICR team, working in collaboration with a group at the Lviv Regional Oncology Center in Ukraine, discovered three proteins present in the blood of women with breast and ovarian cancer, but n