Tech Post for 12-October-2007

News at Nature

Moose use roads as a defence against bears - A drive through Yellowstone National Park these days is like going on a photo safari: elk, bison, deer, big horn and moose hang out so close to the roads that it’s easy to spot them. Research now shows this isn’t because the area is jam-packed with animals — some mammals seem to be attracted to the roads as a shield against predators.

ABC News: Technology & Science

New Fire-Retardant Gel Can Save Homes - It was the most intense fire ever recorded in the Black Hills National Forest, but nearly all homes coated with a slimy gel were saved while dozens of houses nearby burned to the ground. The gel was a super-absorbent polymer that can hold many times its weight in water and clings well to vertical surfaces and glass. It is mixed with water and then can be sprayed on homes with a truck-mounted hose or a backpack apparatus, or dropped from a plane.

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

MS nerve damage repaired in lab - US scientists have repaired the nerve damage caused by multiple sclerosis in lab experiments on mice. MS is caused by a defect in the body's immune system, which turns in on itself, and attacks the fatty myelin sheath which coats the nerves. The researchers used a human antibody to re-grow myelin in mice with the progressive form of MS.

The Globe and Mail - Science News

Vodka drip saves poisoned Italian - Australian doctors used an intravenous feed of vodka to keep an Italian tourist alive after he consumed large quantities of a poisonous substance.

PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news

Why it is impossible for some to 'just say no' - Drug abuse, crime and obesity are but a few of the problems our nation faces, but they all have one thing in common—people’s failure to control their behavior in the face of temptation. While the ability to control and restrain our impulses is one of the defining features of the human animal, its failure is one of the central problems of human society. So, why do we so often lack this crucial ability"

Global Warming May Make Humidity Worse - he world isn't just getting hotter from man-made global warming, it's getting stickier. It really is the humidity. The amount of moisture in the air near the surface - the stuff that makes hot weather unbearable - increased 2.2 percent in just under three decades. And computer models show that the only explanation is man-made global warming, according to a study published in Thursday's journal Nature.

How shyness and other normal human traits became sickness - What's wrong with being shy, and just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs, asks a Northwestern University scholar in a new book that already is creating waves in the mental health community.

Aussie scientist: Greenhouse gases worse - Top Australian conservation scientist Tim Flannery says the global level of greenhouse gases is now far worse than predicted. Worldwide economic growth has accelerated the level of greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold scientists had not expected for another decade. (see also: Greenhouse gases already beyond 'worst-case': scientist)

Ritual Threats of Violence in Small Newfoundland Communities Are Method of Creating Trust, Researchers Say - Residents of small isolated fishing villages on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland have participated in the ritual of 'mumming" for centuries. According to the tradition, small groups of villagers, or mummers, disguise their identities and go to other houses to threaten violence, whereupon the people of the houses try to guess the intruders' identities.

Brain's 'social enforcer' centers identified - Researchers have identified brain structures that process the threat of punishment for violating social norms. They said that their findings suggest a neural basis for treating children, adolescents, and even immature adults differently in the criminal justice system, since the neural circuitry for processing the threat of such punishment is not as developed in younger individuals as it is in adults. The researchers also said that their identification of the brain’s “social norm compliance” structures also opens the way to exploring whether psychopaths have deficiencies in these structures’ circuitry.