A full house isn't always a good thing, according to a new study that links high hospital occupancy to higher death rates for patients. High occupancy periods are a challenging time when more things can go wrong, authors say. Researchers evaluated records at 39 Michigan hospitals to study a set of factors that can affect hospital deaths. The large scale study can provide lessons for hospitals across the country.

A single session of heat therapy using the ThermoMed device appears to be as effective as a 10-day intravenous course of sodium stibogluconate for the treatment of Leishmania major skin lesions, according to a new study. The randomized treatment trial involved 56 military personnel who contracted L. major while serving in Iraq.

Mice are in many ways similar to Homo sapiens on a fundamental level. That is why the law in this part of the world only permits scientists to conduct research on human embryonic stem cells when they have "clarified in advance" their specific questions by using animal cells as far as possible. However, such tests are often pointless -- and sometimes even misleading, as a recent study demonstrates.

Researchers have identified a new syndrome affecting potentially thousands of hospital inpatients. Coined SHAKE (Supplement-associated Hyperammonemia After C(K)achetic Episode), the condition, which results in altered mental status and difficulty walking, can be prevented by excluding high protein dietary supplements in a patients' diet if they have experienced poor eating for more than a week prior to their admittance.

The recently observed reduction in air pollution implies that more solar radiation reaches Earth’s surface. This could lead to a far more rapid increase in Earth’s temperature in the coming decades than has previously been expected. In order to successfully combat global warming, it is crucial that scientists incorporate increases in CO₂ emissions reductions as well as reductions in air pollution in the calculations, according to a new analysis based on unique solar radiation data collected from weather stations between 1959 and 2002.

An international team of astronomers has shown that the two stars in the binary HM Cancri definitely revolve around each other in a mere 5.4 minutes. This makes HM Cancri the binary star with by far the shortest known orbital period. It is also the smallest known binary.

[ This special issue podcast is longer than the usual 60 seconds. ]

Last week, the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for energy held its inaugural conference in Washington, D.C.--a direct response to a growing sense that the U.S. is losing its technology lead when it comes to the race for cleaner ways to produce and use energy. "We have a Sputnik moment right now. We are losing our technology leadership and we are falling behind."

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Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the sixth blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for ScientificAmerican.com .

Imagine you’re in space, floating high above the Earth. Picture the world’s oceans, glimmering sapphire under the heat of the sun and the protection of the ozone layer. Look closer, there’s a patch of brown in the middle of all that blue. It’s a bloom of phytoplankton called Trichodesmium , a “world famous” nitrogen fixer. [More]

Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the sixth blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for ScientificAmerican.com .

Imagine you’re in space, floating high above the Earth. Picture the world’s oceans, glimmering sapphire under the heat of the sun and the protection of the ozone layer. Look closer, there’s a patch of brown in the middle of all that blue. It’s a bloom of phytoplankton called trichodesmium , a “world famous” nitrogen fixer. [More]

Seeing the letter A before an exam can improve a student's exam result while exposure to the letter F may make a student more likely to fail, according to a new study.