GEN-ERIC News

Schizophrenia, the psychotic disorder marked by hallucinations, multiple personalities and cognitive disorganization, affects roughly 1 percent of the U.S. population. Many of those afflicted, however, also have reduced reproductive fitness, which means they are less likely to pass a genetic profile associated with the condition onto their offspring. “It’s sort of a genetic paradox,” explains Steve Dorus, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Bath in England. “Why is this disease found at such a high prevalence?” New research reveals that genes related to the debilitating disorder may also provide developmental advantages.

College fraternities, long known as bastions of grace and decorum, are these days featuring yet one more accoutrement of scholastic refinement - the stripper pole. The most important campus development since the keg, the stripper pole shines like a luminous totem festooning the halls of the American academy. It’s erected for a single, glorious purpose: To get drunken chicks to do slutty stuff. As students convene on college campuses, many will be partying on and around sturdy items such as the portable Lil’ Mynx dance poles, manufactured with love in Fresno, Calif. Easy to install - and easy to take down when parents and alumni show up - the poles are au courant. “Not in Philly, maybe,” Mynx publicist Jenn Hoffman says, doubtless inspiring relief among local deans. “But in a lot of schools like Arizona State University and New York University. A very good percentage of frat houses now have them.” Retailing for $259 to $600, poles are available in school colors, as well as in tasteful pink and hard-core stainless steel.

By combining electrically induced fluid flow with nanoscale nozzles, researchers at the University of Illinois have established new benchmarks for precision control and resolution in jet-printing processes. “We have invented methods for an electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing process that can produce patterns and functional devices that establish new resolution benchmarks for liquid printing, significantly exceeding those of established ink-jet technologies,” said John Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature Materials, and posted on its Web site. This type of e-jet printing could be used for large-area circuits, displays, photovoltaic modules and related devices, as well as other wide-ranging application possibilities in security, biotechnology and photonics, Rogers said. The success of this effort relied critically on an interdisciplinary team of materials scientists, chemists, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and physicists within the university’s Center for Nanoscale Chemical Electrical Mechanical Manufacturing Systems, a nanoscale science and engineering center funded by the National Science Foundation.

The following was revealed on the POWER OF 10 episode broadcast on Wednesday, September 5
– 22% of American men think they look good in a Speedo bathing suit
– 31% of American men have worn their hair in a ponytail
– 7% of Americans said they have been abducted by aliens
– 31% of Americans said they’ve broken up with the same romantic partner more than once
– 29% of Americans do not consider driving over the speed limit to be breaking the law
– 74% of Americans think if Barry Bonds has actually used steroids, he should publicly admit it
– 79% of Americans said that as an adult, they’ve told their father that they love him
– 21% of Americans think obese people should pay more taxes, as they cost the government more in health costs
– 19% of Americans think the world would be a better place if America ruled all of it
– 50% of Americans make their bed every morning
– 23% of Americans have cried after receiving a haircut they didn’t like
– 47% of Americans have walked out of a movie before it ended because it was too awful to watch
– 17% of Americans think the number seven is luckier than any other number
– 23% of Americans have become engaged to someone who they did not ultimately marry
– 79% of Americans think Osama Bin Laden is still alive
– 81% of American parents said if their child asked them when they lost their virginity, they would tell the truth
– 9% of Americans believe Elvis Presley is still alive
– 38% of Americans have flown first-class
– 33% of Americans have fired someone from a job

“Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.”

A motorised wheelchair that moves when the operator thinks of particular words has been demonstrated by a US company. The wheelchair works by intercepting signals sent from their brain to their voice box, even when no sound is actually produced. The company behind the chair, Ambient, is developing the technology with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, in the US. The wheelchair could help people with spinal injuries, or neurological problems like cerebral palsy or motor neurone disease, operate computers and other equipment despite serious problems with muscle control. The system will work providing a person can still control their larynx, or “voice box", which may be the case even if the lack the muscle coordination necessary to produce coherent speech.

Ever feel your phone could be more communicative? A prototype developed by German and Swedish researchers uses pulses of heat on your skin to get the message across, and to direct you using GPS. They connected a phone to a Peltier device strapped to the user’s elbow that can both heat up and cool down. The tester was set loose in an unfamiliar city, and had to use the device and the GPS-capable phone to find her way to a particular location. The Peltier device used five different temperature levels to signal whether she was headed in the right direction. Hottest meant she was going the right way. The colder levels signalled how much she was deviating from the correct direction.