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Open Thread and Science Friday

By possum

Science never fails to offer new and exciting news on a regular basis.  Today I have a few offerings.  For more see the website, e! Science News.

Next time you see your physician for a chronic illness, be sure you are getting real medicine and not a placebo.  According to recent reports many US physicians prescribe placebo treatments on a regular basis.  The authors

conclude that prescribing harmless treatments like vitamins or over the counter painkillers to promote positive expectations without full disclosure of motivations might not raise alarm bells, but prescribing antibiotics and sedatives when there is no clear medical indication could have serious adverse consequences for both patients and public health.

Even honeybees are capable of learning.  Who would have guessed?

Bumblebees use flower scent to guide their nest-mates to good food sources, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London.

Bees use a hive pheromone to encourage foraging.  The scent brought home by other bees tells the new seekers what flowers are most productive.

More bad news comes on the atmospheric front.  Nitrogen trifluoride

is thousands of times more effective at warming the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide.

The amount of nitrogen triflouride in the atmosphere is increasing by about 11% per year.

scientists have recently recommended adding it to the list of greenhouse gases regulated by Kyoto.

Young people from poor neighborhoods are more likely to commit suicide according to a recent study.

The study showed that late teens from disadvantaged neighbourhoods had higher levels of depressive symptoms along with lower levels of social support

The findings are one more reason to be sure young people of all societal groupings are reached by intervention and treatment programs.

Good news for us coffee drinkers on two fronts.  First

Yale University psychologists show that people judged others to be more generous and caring if they had just held a warm cup of coffee and less so if they had held an iced coffee.

And we coffee drinkers have a lower death rate than others.

both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption is associated with a somewhat smaller rate of death from heart disease.

With all the concerns today about greenhouse emissions and energy needs there is good news on the way.  As scientists continue to study the interior of planets more knowledge is gained about fusion energy.

Fusion energy is widely considered an attractive, environmentally clean power source using sea water as its principal source of fuel, where no greenhouse gasses or long lived radioactive waste materials are produced.

Given the current and future energy needs any move to clean energy is a welcome respite.

Peace and good science to one and all.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).