science wire

The University of Nottingham has signed a collaboration agreement with the China Guanghua Science and Technology Foundation, based in Beijing.

The world-renowned sociologist, Professor Manuel Castells, is to be the second Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media at the University of Cambridge, from 16 to 21 November 2011.

In October 1962, following the discovery of Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy called his top advisors together to determine America's response.

Early and mid-career researchers at the University of Sydney will improve our understanding of modern China, look for new ways to battle cardiovascular disease and provide new insights into Indigenous wellbeing thanks to new government funding announced on Monday. Thirty-six University of Sydney academics were among the 277 successful recipients of the inaugural Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) nationwide - the highest number of any university.

ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young has congratulated the 203 researchers around the nation announced today as Future Fellows, particularly the 26 recipients from The Australian National University. The Future Fellowships program administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC), aims to promote the best research in areas of national importance by giving grants to the country's best and brightest mid-career researchers.

A new study suggests a competitive market for university students which uses standardised information about courses to highlight differences in 'quality' is misleading.

Kelly Posner is trying to save lives. As director of the Center for Suicide Risk Assessment, she led a team from Columbia's Department of Psychiatry in developing a tool that successfully predicts suicidal intent.

It's National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, and this year, we are seeing a continuing trend.

A lavishly-illustrated book on the pre-Columbian goldwork of Panama has been published by Nicholas Saunders, lecturer in the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Roughly 1 million people die by suicide each year. In the U.S., where nearly 36,000 people take their own lives annually, more than 4,600 victims are between the ages of 10 and 24, making suicide the third leading cause of death in this age group. Youths treated at hospital emergency rooms for suicidal behavior remain at very high risk for future suicide attempts.

One million Britons experienced workplace violence in the last two years, while millions more were subjected to intimidation, humiliation and rudeness, new research has shown. Surprisingly, managers and professionals in well-paid full-time jobs are among the groups most at risk. The study by Plymouth and Cardiff Universities also shows that conventional employment policies are failing to deal with workplace ill-treatment.

Sandstorms, wolves, hail, altitude sickness and accommodation in a Mongolian yurt were all part of a recent field trip to China for University of Sydney archaeologist Peter Jia, during which he helped make two important discoveries.

The Swedish Research Council has reached the decision to grant over SEK 56 million (€6.2 million) in support for 15 new research projects in the humanities, social sciences and educational sciences at Umeå University.

By Melissa Beattie-Moss Research/Penn State What is life like for young gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered people in our nation today? Your impression might depend on which news report you happen to catch.

31 October 2011 Maps illustrate world population changes A series of maps demonstrating the distribution and changing trends of the world´s population have been created at the University of Sheffield. The three maps were developed by Benjamin Hennig and Professor Danny Dorling from the University of Sheffield´s Department of Geography as part of a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Evidence is mounting of an aggressive campaign by private providers to push hearing aids onto people who are not psychologically ready for them, according to an Australian National University sociology expert.

Oct. The Generation X Report: U-M survey paints a surprisingly positive portrait Listen to podcast ANN ARBOR, Mich.—They've been stereotyped as a bunch of insecure, angst-ridden, underachievers.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Kenneth Lieberthal, a professor emeritus and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, returned to the University of Michigan to join ongoing celebrations for the Center for Chinese Studies' 50th anniversary.

Should prison sentences be based on crimes that have not been committed yet? That's the question several recent news articles have been posing. One such article highlighted how in Pennsylvania, judges could soon consider a new dimension when it comes to sentencing: the future. The article describes how judges may start using statistical assessments of the probability of recidivism in the sentencing process.

An increased focus by government on tackling exploitative employers and bridging visas for victims are two of the key recommendations of a newly-published paper into forced labour.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Kenneth Lieberthal, a professor emeritus and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, returned to the University of Michigan to join ongoing celebrations for the Center for Chinese Studies' 50th anniversary.

Mid life is the peak time for committed relationships, parenthood and work responsibilities. While there is widespread concern about suicide by young people, UK suicide rates are in fact highest in the 40-44 age group.

AUSTIN, Texas — Pesticides and pollutants are related to a 450 percent increase in the risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Peking University.

A public lecture series at Heidelberg University will address the question of how philosophy can be viewed from a global perspective and what challenges and opportunities arise from this.

Meet Jovan Kojicic, newly appointed adviser to the Montenegrin Prime Minister. When you were ed in LUM just over a year ago, you said that your research on sexual minorities’ rights in the Balkans would have been dangerous and impossible to carry out at a Montenegrin university.

07 Oct 2011 The increasing use of "narrative verdicts” by coroners in England and Wales may be leading to greater underestimation of suicide rates, warn experts.

PA 299/11 A group of Palestinian Christians will share their experiences of the Arab Israeli conflict and what it is like to live among the small and declining Christian population in the Middle East at an event at The University of Nottingham next week.

A new web portal will make it possible for anyone - scholars, the general public and journalists - to track trends in hundreds of key measures of poverty and inequality and to gain access to the most important research on those trends.

Oct. Advance directives related to use of palliative care, lower Medicare end-of-life spending in many U.S. regions ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Advance directives do have an impact on health care at the end of life, especially in regions of the country with high spending on end-of-life care, according to a University of Michigan study.

Oct. Growing up in bad neighborhoods has a 'devastating' impact Listen to podcast ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Growing up in a poor neighborhood significantly reduces the chances that a child will graduate from high school, according to a study published in the current (October) issue of the American Sociological Review.

UW's Social Development Research Group UW School of Social Work Facebook page for Communities That Care Delaying the age when kids try alcohol or smoking decreases the likelihood that they will become dependent later in life. Effective interventions exist, but community disagreements about which programs to try can stymie decisions.

At Cornell, studying the origins and spread of domesticated rice doesn't just involve plant geneticists; but a new course also includes insights from archaeology, geography, plant genetics, anthropology and linguistics.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. It's not one border, one time, that makes an immigrant, says Dorothee Schneider. It's not a matter of crossing over and you're done.

Media Note: For the Honor Our Voices electronic press kit, see www.honorourvoices.org/press.html.

Mexico's burgeoning trade deficit with China is being seen in Washington as an indicator of further problems on the horizon for the US, says ARC Future Fellow Adrian Hearn.

In 2008 Facebook use grew by an amazing 645 per cent in Indonesia, even though most users access the website through Internet cafes.

Debaters from Glasgow University Union are heading to Beijing after qualifying to be part of a European team that will pit their skills against China on 24-29th September.

Sept. AUSTIN, Texas — Parenthood accelerates weight gain over the life course according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin. In a study to appear in Social Science and Medicine , Debra Umberson, professor of sociology at the university, found that adults with children gain significantly more weight over time than those without.

The scientists working at EPFL didn't wait for Netvibes to get famous on connecting through a collaborative Web 2.0 platform.

Sept. Abusive men likely to repeat violence if attraction to women is superficial ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Abusive men who select partners mainly based on appearance are likely to be violent again after completing an abuser intervention program, according to a new University of Michigan study. Fifty-nine percent of those who mentioned at least one physical trait as the reason for their attraction were violent again after the program, compared with 39 percent who did not mention physical traits as a reason.

A pioneering new centre will train the researchers of the future — and help to deepen links between the UK and China.

Government rewards for meeting targets have divided GPs, with some saying that they lead to doctors being too concerned with box-ticking to tackle fully patients' problems, new research says.

Along with a sharp rise in recent decades in worldwide obesity rates has come a flood of research on the subject - more than 66,000 papers in the past 10 years, according to one estimate.

Criminality can be an indicator of a higher risk of suicide in young people. A new study from Karolinska Institutet and the National Board of Health and Welfare shows that repeat offenders between the ages of 15 and 19 are three times more likely to commit suicide than young people who have not been convicted for a crime during these years.

The increasing significance of Chinese private sector investment, a heightened appetite by China to develop and finance Australian resources and infrastructure projects, and Chinese banks choosing Au