science wire

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger , a noted First Amendment scholar, has established the Columbia Global Freedom of Expression and Information Project, a new initiative joining in

A globally renowned foreign policy, human rights and international relations scholar this week begins his new role as Executive Dean of UQ's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS).

McGill's Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) puts the spotlight on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions for promoting democratic good governance Over the last few decades, tru

A staunch advocate of women's rights and, in a broader sense, human rights, Los Angeles-based attorney Sandra Fluke '03 does not retreat from sensitive public issues. In her March 3 talk, "Making Our Voices Heard," in the Beck Center at Statler Hall, Fluke stressed that so-called women's issues should be reframed, for example, as family rights and workers' rights.

Media Lab professor's new book ties more than a decade's research into a new theory of information propagation in communities large and small.

Men over the age of 65 caring for ill or disabled relatives often feel isolated and ignored according to a study from Lancaster University Centre for Ageing Research.

Memory's crucial impact on our ability to establish and maintain social bonds is the focus of a new book, "Examining the Role of Memory in Social Cognition" (Frontiers), edited by Cornell neuroscientist Nathan Spreng. "The book brings together the first research on the linkages between memory and social behavior, processes traditionally studied separately," said Spreng, assistant professor of human development and the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

More people are working from outside Australia to provide Australians with consumer goods, than are working within Australia. The finding is from a University of Sydney study which analyses international employment and reveals that in 2010 there were more than 11 million workers outside Australia working for the Australian people, while the total workforce in Australia was about 10 million.

Diane Swanbrow, (734) 647-9069, swanbrow [a] umich (p) edu or Surveys of Consumers, (734) 763-5224 or Thomson Reuters PR Hotline: (646) 223-7222, ext.

27 Feb 2014 World Self-Injury Awareness Day is on Saturday 1 March and one of the UK's leading experts in self-harm and suicide is joining the call to try and raise awareness of the issue. Professor Nav Kapur works for Manchester Mental Health Social Care Trust and leads research at The University of Manchester's Centre for Suicide Prevention in the city.

Continuing its quest for data, perspectives and recommendations, a university task force devoted to advancing a positive culture of lab safety at Stanford has developed an anonymous online survey to elicit information from faculty and research staff on campus.

Most of the moves we make are within 5 km of our previous addresses, yet these short migrations are highly significant within individual lives.

A new centre will enable Oxford University scientists to play a leading role in the next generation of international sky surveys probing fundamental questions about our Universe.

New program introduces innovations in professional education aimed at creating framework for strategic decisions.

New research from the Department of Sociology is looking at how rhetoric and policy shape immigrant identities, attitudes and behaviour in Europe.

Linguistics experts are launching the first project to measure how UK Parliamentary language has changed over the past 200 years. Researchers at the University of Glasgow will analyse over 2.3 billion words compiled from Parliamentary speeches made between 1803 and 2003 and use them to chart the popularity of various topics such as war, honesty, honour, homosexuality and terrorism.

ANN ARBOR-The visiting scholars program at the University of Michigan China Data Center has accepted a record 16 participants in the current academic year.

o New system set to be created to automatically verify online rumours o The lie detector will be the first of its kind to automatically analyse, in real time, whether a piece of information is true o

Indonesia, with 700 spoken languages, is one of the most multilingual nations in the world. And while those languages with only a few hundred native speakers are clearly endangered, others, like Javanese, are spoken by tens of millions.

Chicago - Racism as a social and scientific concept is reshaped and reborn periodically through the ages and according to a Penn State anthropologist, both medical and scientific researchers need to be careful that the growth of genomics does not bring about another resurgence of scientific racism.

Historians - and husband and wife - Professor Kevin Passmore and Dr Garthine Walker, of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion have been awarded prestigious Leverhulme Research Fellowships to advance their fields of research.

We live in a multilingual society. More than a million children attending British schools speak more than 360 languages between them in addition to English.

o ID100 will establish priorities for policy and research in International Development o Promoting a vision of international development as global justice and social inclusion An international campai

14 Feb 2014 Newly discovered details of the funeral of a protester trampled to death by a police horse in 1887, have turned the event into one of Victorian time's most significant moments, according to a University of Manchester historian.

ANN ARBOR-Well-intended efforts to improve infant and child health in the developing world in the mid-20th century could be linked with increased risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease for people born during this period when they reach older age, a University of Michigan researcher found.

The Institute of Education (IOE) and UCL today announced that they are to begin consultation on a proposed merger.

With the Ashes safely back in Australian hands and the first test due to start in South Africa this week, ANU has launched a new program to encourage more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to play cricket. ANU Professor Mick Dodson and Dr William Fogarty from the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, with support from Cricket Australia, will travel around the country to examine how Indigenous communities engage with cricket.

When college students have casual sex - "hooking up" - how it influences their mental and physical health depends in part on their intentions for doing it, finds a Cornell study. Hooking up for the "wrong reasons" - peer pressure, to boost one's self-esteem, hoping it will lead to a long-term relationship or coercion by intoxication or other means, according to examples given in the study - decreased students' well-being compared to peers who refrained from casual sex.

If you left your apartment today to this scene - louts loitering in the street, drugs openly sold on the corner, prostitution and public alcohol consumption - would you call your city councilperson to complain?

Why some "non-identifying smokers" face risks while denying the behavior While smoking among California adults has dramatically declined in recent decades, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report there is a surprisingly large number of people who say they use cigarettes, but don't consider themselves to be "smokers.

University of Washington Here's yet another reason to focus on kids' early years. Children who grow up in well-managed households, enjoy school, and have friends who stay out of trouble report fewer sexually transmitted diseases in young adulthood, according to a new analysis. The findings, from University of Washington longitudinal surveys of nearly 2,000 participants, suggest that efforts to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases should begin years before most people start having sex.

Newly published research investigates the contrasting approaches taken by European states to the multiculturalism that results from increased migration.

In the midst of current controversies over immigration law and policy, Professor Alison Bashford discusses why it's important to recall Britain's unique place in the international history of modern bo

s available on request : Lisa Zilberpriver  M: 0435 060 030 lisa.zilberpriver [a] unimelb.edu (p) au Registrations: http://education.unimelb.edu.au/positivepsychology2014/home Sc

07 Feb 2014 More needs to be done to understand Hitler's infamous autobiographical manifesto "Mein Kampf” to avoid a resurgence of anti-Semitism when its copyright expires in 2016, according to a holocaust historian.

Dozens of women and girls in Wales are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation, according to experts at Cardiff University.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Dr Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah: Research Profile School of Social and Political Sciences College of Social Sciences The University of Glasgow has received

ANN ARBOR-In societies where women are equal to men, males stand a better chance of living longer, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and colleagues found gender differences in mortality rates are higher in more patriarchal societies. Men living in the top 25 percent most patriarchal societies were 31 percent more likely to die than men in the least patriarchal quartile, compared to mortality rates for women.

A decade ago, when people wanted to share vacation photos or muse about new movies online, they used MySpace or Friendster.

A glimmer of hope exists that the White House and Congress can come together on immigration reform, say two Stanford experts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Sea Grant have funded two Cornell projects to help officials improve coastal hazard warnings for residents in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

New research by cultural history expert Fred Turner reveals how changing ideals about American democracy in the 1940s and '50s planted the seeds of rebellion that flowered in the counterculture of the 1960s.

Today, we commence a month-long focus on research on migration. To begin, Professor Madeleine Arnot and Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, Co-Convenors of the new Cambridge Migration Research Network, discuss the Network's rationale and aims, and our preoccupation with the impact of migrant populations.

Adolescents with high media use, reduced sleep and low physical activity comprise an 'invisible-risk' group that has high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms, according to a large international study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The results of the study are published in the February issue of World Psychiatry.

Cultural sensitivity should be a vital component in all future services for older people, experts at the University of Birmingham, will say today (Monday).

Dr Gemma Catney is currently a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the University of Liverpool's Department of Geography and Planning, and starts a Lectureship in the Department next week "Today

Vodka is the main cause of the high and sharply fluctuating death rates in Russia, a large new study involving Oxford University researchers has confirmed. Currently, 25% of all Russian men die before the age of 55 years, compared with only 7% of UK men. The difference is due mostly to alcohol and cigarettes.