The fine art of deciding before you decide
A study has revealed that the brain makes decisions about 10 seconds prior to when a person realizes it.
Experts involved in the study said that looking at brain activity while making a decision, they could predict the choices the subjects would make, before they realized that they had […]

 The crew of the No One’s Listening podcast. L to R: Irene McGee, Mandy Brown, Chris Cornell, Skye Ladybug
Podcasting use is rising and now reaches 18% of the US population, up from 13% a year ago.

Sometimes exercise can be bad for you
It is considered that exercise is an effective path to good health, but a new study has shown that exercise may lead to faster prostate tumor growth, and thus hasten the decline of some cancer patients.
Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC) and the Duke Prostate Center, […]

Pollution is affecting the distance that the smell of a flower will travel
Spring’s bloom may not smell so sweet anymore, as pollutants from power plants and automobiles destroy flowers’ aromas, a new study suggests. The finding could help explain why some pollinators, particularly bees, are declining in certain parts of the world.

“Brain drugs” are common among scientists
Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain’s top science journal. The overwhelming majority of these med-taking brainiacs said they indulged in order to “improve concentration,” and 60 percent said they did so on a […]

Closeup of a silicon surface pockmarked with holes, designed to slow light passing through it.
This “slow light” waveguide, designed by a team led by Yuri A. Vlasov of IBM’s Thomas J. Watson
Research Center, a crucial component of an optical computer.
New Scientist has a quick round-up of what they consider to be the ten […]

Cracking a power company network and gaining access that could shut down the grid is simple, a security expert says, and he has done so in less than a day.
Ira Winkler, a penetration-testing consultant, says he and a team of other experts took a day to set up attack tools they […]

During the first three months of the year, only five companies backed by venture capital investors went public on Wall Street, the National Venture Capital Association said last week. That is down from 31 in the fourth quarter of last year, and is roughly the same level as at the nadir of the dot-com bust.

A recent PiperJaffray survey of 200 US Internet users has found mixed responses to the question of how a slowing economy might affect e-commerce spending.
When asked how their discretionary e-commerce spending would change in 2008 versus 2007, 33% plan to purchase less online, while only 12% will purchase more and 55% will purchase the same […]

A Turkey-based cancer specialist, Dr Sefik Hosal on Sunday said cancer has assumed an alarming proportion across the world.
“Efforts must be made to check it, particularly in developing countries like India,” he said. “Though tobacco has proved to be a major factor causing cancer among people in India, consumption of liquor […]

 
Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that by 2013, US online TV and video services will generate revenues of $7.9 billion.
In 2007, the market was already worth over $1 billion and by 2008, that figure will leap to $4.7 billion.

For married women who can’t figure out why they always have so much housework researchers may have the answer — husbands.
A new study from the University of Michigan shows that having a husband creates an extra seven hours of extra housework a week for women. But a wife saves her husband from an hour of […]

While the housing slump has come to dominate American presidential debates and has sent Wall Street into a tailspin, the consequences of millions of foreclosures across the United States are also being felt far overseas. Nowhere is that more true than in Switzerland, the serene land of snowy peaks, ice-cold lakes and staid banks long […]

In a few years’ time, almost all businesses will use open source, according to Gartner; even though IT managers may be unaware of it, and prefer to talk about fashions such as software as a service.
Open-source promoters have welcomed the endorsement by what is seen as a conservative commentator, but predict the changes will go […]

Colorado ranked as the top growth state for families last year, according to U-Haul International Inc., which compiles the list based on moves to and from states.
U-Haul said that for states with more than 20,000 families, Colorado had the highest percentage of growth, with 7.01 percent more families moving in than out of the […]

Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.
In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 […]

 
Doctors have long understood the impact of grief on one’s health. Now, a new study has revealed how fragile a broken heart can really be.
Researchers in Britain have found that bereft people face the risk of death in the first year of being widowed. In fact, men are six times more […]

If a new research is to be believed, the adage — and they lived happily ever after — may not be true. Married bliss lasts only for about four years for most women, says a new study.
A team of researchers at the Princeton University has found that beyond a period of four years, the benefits […]

According to the University of North Dakota, coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests… at least in rabbits.
 

There is no clearcut scientific rationale for the average healthy individual to drink a lot of water — and it may be downright harmful — according to two kidney experts.
Drinking a lot of water is claimed to be helpful for everything from clearing toxins and keeping organs in tip-top shape to keeping weight off and […]

 
Video gaming drives the online experiences of children ages 2 to 14, according to a new survey conducted by The NPD Group for the Toy Industry Association. According to the survey, 76% of US online kids used social networks and gaming Web sites.

Female US Internet users are now leading males in the use of social networking, DVRs, online network TV shows, and PC gaming, according to Solutions Research Group.
Based on surveys conducted in February 2008 and between October 2006 and November 2007, more women than men—42% of online women versus 41% of online men—had visited a social […]

Just back away from the set. There is nothing to confuse you here.
Baby boomers may have more buying power than millennials, but those younger consumers are more comfortable using new technology such as streaming video, DVRs, VOD and PPV.

A group of scientists has created a new, improved fuel-cell electrode that is very lightweight and thin. Composed of a network of single-walled carbon nanotubes, the electrode functions nearly as well as conventional electrodes but renders the entire fuel cell much lighter. The research is an important step toward lightweight power supplies, which are becoming […]

 
The next time you see your kids chatting to themselves, don’t worry - for a new study has shown that children who talk to themselves do better on motor tasks.