Science News

MAY

5 German philosopher Karl Marx was born on this day in 1818. Although Marx is most famous for his political ideas, his philosophies also contributed indirectly to modern psychology. Embedded in Marx’s doctrine of historical materialism--the study of society, economics and history--is the idea that understanding the human mind relies not only on inward reflection but also on the historical and social context in which a person lives. For Marx, that meant a person’s work life. Today the study of social psychology explores in much greater depth how cultural influences, social status and other factors contribute to a person’s mind-set and behaviors.

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Practice makes perfect--and it rewires the brain, as many studies have shown. But sometimes hours of practice can take these brain changes too far, as happens in musician’s dystonia, when the boundaries between muscles blur in the brain and precise movements are no longer possible. In pianists, for example, the fingers might clutch inward involuntarily every time they attempt to strike a key. This condition takes years to develop, but new research suggests a treatment that takes only 15 minutes can reorganize the brain and allow musicians to play again.

A team led by Karin Rosenkranz of University College London applied vibrations to individual hand muscles in pianists with dystonia, giving each muscle several rounds of a two-second vibration followed by a two-second rest. The 15-minute protocol immediately improved playing to match that of pianists without dystonia.

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A shift in wind direction means ash from Iceland's volcanic eruption is set to force closures for at least some of the country's airports.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A series of bombs targeting Shi'ite areas rocked Baghdad Friday, killing at least 56 people in an apparent backlash after Iraq touted a series of blows against a weakened al Qaeda-led insurgency.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil appears not to be flowing from a sunken drilling rig and damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, but hope was dimming as search continued for 11 workers missing in the disaster, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.

VATICAN CITY/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian Catholic bishop resigned on Friday after admitting he had sexually abused a boy when in charge of the diocese of Bruges.

Have you joined the Twitterverse? All over the world millions of people are posting their 140-or-­fewer-character tweets online via Twitter. As a confirmed Twitterer, I wondered what it might have been like if Twitter, and all its users, had been around for, oh, the past few thousand years.

PythyinGreece Had amazing insight into right triangles. Add squares of sides = square of hypo. Could be useful.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress may want to look tough on financial reform in front of voters but that has not stopped them from filling their re-election war chests with plenty of Wall Street cash.

OSLO (Reuters) - Plane-free skies over Europe during Iceland's volcanic eruption may yield rare clues about how flights stoke climate change, adding to evidence from a closure of U.S. airspace after September 11, 2001, experts say.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Debt-stricken Greece appealed to its European partners and the IMF for emergency loans on Friday, yielding to overwhelming market pressure to start the first financial rescue of a member of the euro zone.

TALLINN (Reuters) - NATO ministers on Friday met to discuss how to cut troop numbers in Afghanistan next year, but the alliance is struggling to send enough trainers to help Afghan forces take over security so foreign troops can go home.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has said that it will allow U.N. nuclear officials better monitoring and access to a site where it started enriching uranium to higher levels over two months ago, diplomats said.

BRISTOL, England (Reuters) - Britain's election remained wide open on Friday after the three main party leaders were unable to land a knockout punch on their rivals during a combative live televised debate.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - While much of New York has tried to return to normal since September 11, 2001, the search for victims of the World Trade Center attacks goes on every day.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell told Israel and the Palestinians on Friday that President Barack Obama wants a comprehensive peace deal to be a reality "soon, not in some vague and distant future time."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - G20 finance leaders said on Friday they had secured a better-than-expected global economic recovery but were wary of overconfidence as Greece's debt crisis put the focus on worsening public finances.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Art collectors, environmentalists and celebrities packed the salesroom at Christie's on Thursday, the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, and spent nearly $2 million at the Green Auction benefiting the environment.

In a photograph from a 1947 newspaper advertisement, a smiling mother leans over her baby’s crib. The wall behind her is decorated with rows of flowers and Disney characters. Above the photo, a headline reads “Protect Your Children From Disease Carrying Insects.”

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"Erotic capital" is the implicit but powerful commodity that can count just as much as educational qualifications in the labor market, politics, media or the arts, argues a new study...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford was named as the first overall pick by the St Louis Rams in the 2010 NFL draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday.