Enlarge Image Staring at Goats, Geoengineering the WorldScienceNOW Daily News 10 November 2009 Here\'s a rundown of some of the stories we\'ve been following on Science\'s policy blog, ScienceInsider: A petition submitted earlier this year to the American Physical Society\'s leadership council to change the society\'s official statement in 2007 on climate change has gone down in (carbon neutral) flames.

Enlarge Image Money Pit. Throwing good money after bad in decisions like real estate investments could be contagious. Credit: Photos.com Bad Decisions May Be ContagiousBy Michael Torrice ScienceNOW Daily News 10 November 2009 Like the flu, a person\'s emotional state can be contagious. Watch someone cry, and you\'ll likely feel sad; think about the elderly, and you\'ll tend to walk slower. Now a study suggests that we can also catch someone else\'s irrational thought processes.

Central Africa\'s tropical Congo Basin was arid, treeless in Late JurassicGeochemical analysis of rare ancient soil produces new paleoclimate dataThe Congo Basin — with its massive, lush tropical rain forest — was far different 150 million to 200 million years ago. At that time Africa and South America were part of the single continent Gondwana. The Congo Basin was arid, with a small amount of seasonal rainfall, and few bushes or trees populated the landscape, according to a new geochemical analysis of rare ancient soils.

A motley collection of bonewormsIMAGE:This photograph shows a female of an as yet unnamed boneworm in the genus Osedax, which has been carefully removed from the whale bone in which it was growing. This... Click here for more information. MOSS LANDING, CA — It sounds like a classic horror story—eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green "roots" to devour their bones. In fact, such worms do exist in the deep sea.

Children with autism show slower pupil responses, MU study findsIMAGE:Xiaofei Fan, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, sits next to the computerized binocular infrared pulillography device, a machine that measures the time that the eye takes to... Click here for more information. COLUMBIA, Mo. – Autism affects 1 in 150 children today, making it more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined.

New fossil plant discovery links Patagonia to New Guinea in a warmer pastHow revising an ancient species can change what we know of a lineage’s historical distribution and the climate in which it livedIMAGE:This is foliage of Papuacedrus prechilensis (Berry) Wilf et al., comb. nov. (Cupressaceae), from the middle Eocene Río Pichileufú flora of Río Negro Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The monotypic genus Papuacedrus... Click here for more information.

Device enables world\'s first voluntary gorilla blood pressure readingVeterinary leap forward through collaboration with Zoo Atlanta, Georgia Tech, Emory University and a 300-pound great apeIMAGE:The Georgia Tech team that developed the Gorilla Tough Cuff and a Zoo Atlanta trainer position the pressure cuff casing inside the rectangular mesh trap so that a gorilla\'s blood... Click here for more information. Zoo Atlanta recently became the first zoological institution in the world to obtain voluntary blood pressure readings from a gorilla.

New \'finFETS\' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chipsIMAGE:Researchers are making progress in developing new types of transistors, called finFETs, which use a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers to create faster and... Click here for more information. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.

Discovery in worms by Queen\'s researchers points to more targeted cancer treatmentIMAGE:Research on this microscopic worm (Caenorhabditis elegans) may offer a drug target for cancer treatment. Click here for more information. Researchers at Queen\'s University have found a link between two genes involved in cancer formation in humans, by examining the genes in worms. The groundbreaking discovery provides a foundation for how tumor-forming genes interact, and may offer a drug target for cancer treatment.

Cave study links climate change to California droughtsCalifornia experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to a new study by UC Davis doctoral student Jessica Oster and geology professor Isabel Montañez. The finding, which comes from analyzing stalagmites from Moaning Cavern in the central Sierra Nevada, was published online Nov. 5 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

NASA sees high thunderstorms in newly formed Tropical Cyclone 4A near IndiaIMAGE:NASA\'s Aqua satellite captured cold thunderstorm cloud tops of Cyclone 4A with temperatures as cold as -63 degrees Fahrenheit (in purple), indicating strong convection is occurring in the storm. Click here for more information. Tropical Cyclone 4A formed yesterday, November 10 off the western coast of India in the Arabian Sea, and NASA\'s infrared imagery captured some high, powerful thunderstorms developing in the storm\'s center.

People with less education could be more susceptible to the fluANN ARBOR, Mich.---People who did not earn a high school diploma could be more likely to get H1N1 and the vaccine might be less effective in them compared to those who earned a diploma, new research shows. The University of Michigan study looked at a latent virus called CMV in young people, and the body\'s ability to control the virus.

Sculptured materials allow multiple channel plasmonic sensorsSensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers use sculptured thin films. "Everyone uses surface plasmon resonance sensors. They are a multi billion-dollar industry worldwide," said Akhlesh Lakhtakia, the Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State.

Iowa State University researcher discovers key to vital DNA, protein interactionIMAGE:Adam Bogdanove, associate professor in plant pathology, was researching the molecular basis of bacterial diseases of rice when he and Matthew Moscou, a student in the bioinformatics and computation biology... Click here for more information.

University of Colorado butterfly payload to launch Nov. 16 on space shuttleExperiments will involve K-12 students around nationIMAGE:A University of Colorado at Boulder educational payload containing butterfly larvae that will be monitored by thousands of elementary and middle school students around the country will launch to the... Click here for more information. When NASA\'s space shuttle Atlantis launches for the International Space Station on Nov.

New UAB study sheds light on brain\'s response to distress, unexpected eventsVIDEO:UAB Psychologist David Knight, Ph.D., discusses his latest research on the brain\'s response to distress and unexpected events. Click here for more information. In a new study, psychologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are able to see in detail for the first time how various regions of the human brain respond when people experience an unexpected or traumatic event.

Controversial new climate change dataNew data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of CO2 has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of CO2 having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year nowNew data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of CO2 has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of CO2 having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.

Iowa State scientist develops lab machine to study glacial sliding related to rising sea levelsIMAGE:Neal Iverson, an Iowa State professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, worked with a team of Ames Laboratory engineers to develop a machine that can simulate how glaciers slide across... Click here for more information.

\'Escaped\' proteins add to hearing loss in elderly, UF researchers findGAINESVILLE, Fla. — Age-related hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder among the elderly. But scientists are still trying to figure out what cellular processes govern or contribute to the loss. Now a University of Florida team and researchers from University of Wisconsin and three other institutions have identified a protein that is central to processes that cause oxidative damage to cells and lead to age-related hearing loss.

Minimally invasive surgery shown safe and effective treatment for rectal cancerLaparoscopic methods compare favorably with open surgery in 7-year NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell studyLaparoscopic surgery has been used in the treatment of intestinal disorders for close to 20 years, but its benefits have only recently begun to be extended to people with rectal cancer.

In the war between the sexes, the one with the closest fungal relationship winsFemale plants were more likely to be colonized by the mycorrhizal fungi than male plantsThe war between the sexes has been fought on many fronts throughout time—from humans to birds to insects, the animal kingdom is replete with species involved in their own skirmishes. A recent study by Dr. Sarah Eppley and colleagues at Portland State University published in the November issue of the American Journal of Botany (www.

Healthy babies by the numbersTel Aviv University develops innovative algorithms to combat growth restrictions before birth -- for healthy heartsWhen a fetus is smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy, due to associated problems like a poorly developed heart, health concerns as severe as brain damage can result. The condition, known as Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR), prompts doctors to use ultrasound to track a baby\'s health and determine the best time for delivery.

Ancient penguin DNA raises doubts about accuracy of genetic dating techniquesCORVALLIS, Ore. - Penguins that died 44,000 years ago in Antarctica have provided extraordinary frozen DNA samples that challenge the accuracy of traditional genetic aging measurements, and suggest those approaches have been routinely underestimating the age of many specimens by 200 to 600 percent.

90 percent of Africans are not protected by smoke-free lawsDespite tobacco industry\'s powerful efforts to halt progress, several countries continue to put smoke-free laws into placeDAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (11 November 2009)–As African nations are poised to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries, nearly 90 percent of people on the continent remain without meaningful protection from secondhand smoke, according to a new report released at a regional cancer conference today.

Rapid star formation spotted in \'stellar nurseries\' of infant galaxiesIMAGE:This is a Hubble Space Telescope observation showing the red \'arc\' of the rapid star forming galaxy MS1358arc -- seen as it was 12.5 billion years ago. The galaxy is... Click here for more information. The Universe\'s infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University.