Higher levels of testosterone are correlated with financial risk-taking behavior, as per a new study in which men's testosterone levels were assessed before participation in an investment game. The findings help to shed light on the evolutionary function and biological origins of risk taking. The study was jointly led by Anna Dreber, of the Program in Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University and the Stockholm School of Economics, and Coren Apicella, of Harvard's Department of Anthropology. The results are available online in Evolution and Human Behavior.......

An international collaboration of researchers today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the 17-mile-long underground circular path of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland........

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Earlier today, some 300 feet below the Earth's surface, in a circular tunnel so extensive that it travels from Switzerland into France and back again, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva fired the first beams of protons that they hope will eventually produce history-making science........

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a potential new way to vaccinate against avian flu. By delivering vaccine via DNA constructed to build antigens against flu, along with a minute electric pulse, scientists have immunized experimental animals against various strains of the virus. This approach could allow for the build up of vaccine reserves that could be easily and effectively dispensed in case of an epidemic. This study was published last week in PLoS ONE.......

For 5,000 years or so, the only way to shape metal has been to "heat and beat." Even in modern nanotechnology, working with metals involves carving with electron beams or etching with acid. Now, Cornell scientists have developed a method to self-assemble metals into complex nanostructures. Applications include making more efficient and cheaper catalysts for fuel cells and industrial processes and creating microstructured surfaces to make new types of conductors that would carry more information across microchips than conventional wires do........

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with national standards organizations, have taken the lead in developing the first two standards for solid-state lighting in the United States. This new generation lighting technology uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of incandescent filaments or fluorescent tubes to produce illumination that cuts energy consumption significantly........

Physicists at UC Riverside have made an accidental discovery in the lab that has potential to change how information in computers can be transported or stored. Dependent on the "spin" of electrons, a property electrons possess that makes them behave like tiny magnets, the discovery could help in the development of spin-based semiconductor technology such as ultrahigh-speed computers........

Researchers at Purdue University are developing a miniature refrigeration system small enough to fit inside laptops and personal computers, a cooling technology that would boost performance while shrinking the size of computers. Unlike conventional cooling systems, which use a fan to circulate air through finned devices called heat sinks attached to computer chips, miniature refrigeration would dramatically increase how much heat could be removed, said Suresh Garimella, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Mechanical Engineering........

Scientists at Purdue University are the first to precisely measure the forces mandatory to peel tiny nanotubes off of other materials, opening up the possibility of creating standards for nano-manufacturing and harnessing a gecko's ability to walk up walls. So-called "peel tests" are used extensively in manufacturing. Knowing how much force is needed to pull a material off of another material is essential for manufacturing, but no tests exist for nanoscale structures, said Arvind Raman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue........

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is proud to announce that 32-year-old Terence Tao, a professor of mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, will receive its 2008 Alan T. Waterman Award. Called a andquot;supreme problem-solver,andquot; and named one of andquot;the Brilliant 10andquot; researchers by Popular Science (October 2006), Tao's extraordinary work, much of which has been funded by NSF through the years, has had a tremendous impact across several mathematical areas. He will receive the award at a black tie dinner program at the U.S. Department of State on May 6........

Despite cuts in interest rates, the problems on the US real estate and banking markets have still not been solved and form the epicenter of a financial crisis in the OECD countries. The wave of asset-backed securities in the 1990s, in which the banks passed their credits on to the capital market, led to dubious developments. In view of the crisis faced by the British bank Northern Rock, which caused an almost unprecedented shock in Britain, the economist Paul J.J. Welfens sees the inadequate protection of deposits and poor banking supervision in Britain - and in other OECD countries - as the root of the problem. Typically in an article on the ongoing banking crisis recently reported in the springer journal international economics and economic policy, he writes that the leading finance centers are responsible for the shocking international crisis characterized by a loss of confidence in major markets........

Ohio State University engineers are in the process of developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- usually called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion. The zirconia chemically converts sand and other corrosive particles that build up on the blade into a new, protective outer coating. In effect, the surface of the engine blade constantly renews itself........

We encounter valves every day, whether in the water faucet, the carburetor in our car, or our bicycle tire tube. Valves are also present in the world of nanotechnology. A team of scientists headed by J. Fraser Stoddart and Jeffrey I. Zink at the University of California, Los Angeles, has now developed a new nanovalve. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, the researchers reveal what is special about it: In contrast to previous versions, which only function in organic solvents, this valve operates in an aqueous environment and under physiological conditions-prerequisites for any application as a gate for nanoscopic drug-transport agents, which need to set their cargo free at the right place and time........

Injecting CO2, the most troublesome greenhouse gas, into porous rock formations beneath the earth might be the best short-term option for slowing global warming. Los Alamos scientists are developing a comprehensive risk assessment program to ensure safe and effective CO2 containment. This program includes a unique computer model, named "CO2-PENS," to guide the choice and development of the best sites; laboratory experiments to understand the geochemistry of sequestration systems; and field studies to quantify natural CO2 flux in the ecosystem. Los Alamos has advanced its geologic sequestration research by partnering with the Enhanced Oil Recovery Industry, which has injected CO2 underground for 30 years........

Electing Hillary Clinton in the primary may prove disastrous for the Democratic Party in the November Presidential Election. A new Time magazine poll shows McCain has a good chance of winning the presidential race if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Nominee for the President. In this situation Hillary Clinton ties with McCain with 46 percent of the votes........