news 2012

Life Sciences - History/Philosophy - 17.05
Penn and Genographic Project Scientists Illuminate the Ancient History of Circumarctic Peoples
Two studies led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and National Geographic's Genographic Project reveal new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas.

Life Sciences - History/Philosophy - 8.05
Mystery of the domestication of the horse solved
Our research clearly shows that the original founder population of domestic horses was established in the western Eurasian Steppe, an area where the earliest archaeological evidence for domesticated horses has been found." —Dr Vera Warmuth, from the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology New research indicates that do

Life Sciences - History/Philosophy - 3.05
Biologists turn back the clock to understand evolution of sex differences
Battles of sexes shown to spur adaptive sex differences For video and explanations Sex differences account for some of the most spectacular traits in nature: the wild colours of male guppies, the plumage of peacocks, tusks on walruses and antlers on moose.

Medicine/Pharmacology - History/Philosophy - 23.04
Racial Bias Skews Medical Diagnosis and Treatment for African Americans, Research Shows
AUSTIN, Texas — Pervasive racial bias in American medical practice adversely affects treatment and diagnosis for African American patients, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.

History/Philosophy - Mathematics - 13.04
History Channel’s Titanic documentary features UW engineers
A hundred years ago this Sunday, a luxury ocean liner billed as “unsinkable” hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The Titanic sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic, leaving more than 1,500 passengers and crew dead.

History/Philosophy - 29.03
Archaeologists reconstruct the diet of Nelson’s navy
Salt beef, sea biscuits and the occasional weevil were the foods endured by sailors during the Napoleonic wars, according to new Oxford University research. A new chemical analysis technique has allowed archaeologists to find out just how grim the diet of Georgian sailors really was.

History/Philosophy - Social Sciences - 13.03
Research suggests suicide rates higher in protestant areas than catholic
Research from the University of Warwick suggests suicide rates are much higher in protestant areas than catholic areas. Professor Sascha Becker from the University of Warwick's Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Society (CAGE) has published his latest paper Knocking on Heaven's Door? Protestantism and Suicide.

Medicine/Pharmacology - History/Philosophy - 8.03
Drug 'reduces implicit racial bias,' study suggests
Taking a heart disease medication can affect a person's subconscious attitudes towards race, a team of ethicists, psychiatrists and psychologists at Oxford University has found. In a study published in Psychopharmacology , researchers gave 18 people the drug propranolol and 18 people a placebo and found that the propranolol group scored significantly lower on the Implicit Attitude Test into subconscious racial bias – a standard test for testing subconscious racial attitudes.

Life Sciences - History/Philosophy - 5.03
Human’s oldest ancestor found in Burgess Shale
Researchers from the University of Toronto , the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the University of Cambridge have confirmed that a 505 million-year-old creature, found only in the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Canada's Yoho National Park, is the most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, including humans.

History/Philosophy - Business/Economics - 27.02
Upper class more likely to be scofflaws due to greed, study finds
The upper class has a higher propensity for unethical behavior, being more likely to believe - as did Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street" - that "greed is good," according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley.

Medicine/Pharmacology - History/Philosophy - 15.02
Complexities in caregiving at the end of life
Faced with the inevitability of death, we all wish for good caregiving during the final stage of our lives. A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University shows that non-pharmacological caregiving at the end of life in specialized palliative care is not as basic as one might believe but is based on complex professional decisions that weave physical, psychosocial and existential dimensions into a functional whole.

History/Philosophy - 1.02
Archaeologists discover unique ’wing’ shaped building
A unique ‘wing' shaped building discovered close to the ancient capital of the Iceni in Norfolk is mystifying archaeologists. A building without obvious parallel in Roman Britain or the rest of the Roman Empire — that is how archaeologists at The University of Nottingham have described the discovery south of the Roman site of Venta Icenorum, which is known today as Caistor St. Edmund, in Norfolk.

Life Sciences - History/Philosophy - 26.01
Survey suggests family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests
by Morgan Kelly A hallmark of the individual is the cultivation of personal interests, but for some people, their intellectual pursuits might actually be genetically predetermined. Survey results published by Princeton University researchers in the journal PLoS ONE suggest that a family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging.

History/Philosophy - Law/Forensics - 18.01
Archaeologist reveals evidence of mass graves at Nazi death camp
Almost 70 years after the end of the Second World War a groundbreaking forensic archaeological study by the University of Birmingham has unearthed evidence of hidden burial sites at a former death camp where more than 800,000 Jews perished during the Holocaust.

Administration/Government - History/Philosophy - 9.12.2011
Bridging the divide
New study shows how integrated institutions can lead diverse populations to cooperate in rebuilding countries. One of the most pressing issues in world affairs today is state building: how countries can construct stable, inclusive governments in which a variety of religious and ethnic groups coexist.