Very few people really know much today about the experience of owning an electric vehicle of course, given that EVs are not widely available. Nissan hopes to change this by the end of the year when its fully electric Leaf debuts. However, owning an electric vehicle promises to be a lot different than owning any other type of car, different even from plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt set to arrive later this year as well. [More]



ElectricVehicle - Plug-in hybrid - Chevrolet Volt - Leaf - Automobile

Toward the end of the last ice age, a major reorganization took place in the current system of the North Pacific with far-reaching implications for climate. About that time, the North Pacific branch of the conveyor belt changed drastically. The reconstructed changes in the North Pacific current system may have buffered the global impacts of the collapsed circulation in the Atlantic and possibly prevented further cooling of the Northern hemisphere.

New research shows that adding fat to mouse stem cells grown in the lab affects their response to the signals that push them to develop into one or other of the main types of fat storage cells -- subcutaneous (under the skin) or visceral (around the organs).

Courtship calls help penguin females decide which males are likely to be devoted dads, according to a new study. By listening to male courtship calls, a female can tell how fat a male is and what kind of father he'll be. Fatter males make better fathers because they have the energy reserves to endure long fasts, so are less likely to leave the nest and desert their chicks.

Neutrinos are so numerous that they affected the evolution of the universe in ways that provide an estimate of their masses.

Cognitive psychologists have shown that an image displayed too quickly to be seen by an observer can be detected if the participant first hears the name of the object.

Chagas disease affects 10 to 12 million people in Latin America, killing more than 15,000 a year. It is caused by a parasite that roams with only limited control among the rural poor in Latin America. Researchers have found that dogs are important vectors in both the spread of the disease and the potential to help control it, and can make good sentinels for health officials monitoring T. cruzi transmission.

Being beautiful has its advantages. It can make you more popular, even make you seem more competent. Now, University of Haifa researchers have found that if you’re a politician, good looks will also make you seem more newsworthy--because better-looking pols get more media coverage, findings that appear in the International Journal of Press/Politics . [Yariv Tsfati, Dana Markowitz Elfassi and Israel Waismel-Manor, http://bit.ly/cNXbpx ]

People respond to pretty faces. And broadcasters, it seems, are no exception. The researchers surveyed how much TV news coverage was given to every member of the Israeli Knesset on three local channels. At the same time, they showed pictures of these elected officials to Dutch students who knew nothing about Israeli legislators, and they asked the students to rate the politicians’ physical attractiveness. The results: generally speaking, the Knesset members with the highest marks for appearance appear most often on the nightly news. [More]



Israel - University of Haifa - Knesset - Middle East - Human physical appearance

Being beautiful has its advantages. It can make you more popular, even make you seem more competent. Now, University of Haifa researchers have found that, if you’re a politician, good looks will also make you seem more newsworthy. Because better-looking pols get more media coverage, findings that appear in the International Journal of Press/Politics . [Yariv Tsfati, Dana Markowitz Elfassi and Israel Waismel-Manor, http://bit.ly/cNXbpx ]

People respond to pretty faces. And broadcasters, it seems, are no exception. The researchers surveyed how much TV news coverage was given to every member of the Israeli Knesset on three local channels. At the same time, they showed pictures of these elected officials to Dutch students who knew nothing about Israeli legislators. And they asked the students to rate the politicians’ physical attractiveness. The results: generally speaking, the Knesset members with the highest marks for appearance appear most often on the nightly news. [More]



Israel - University of Haifa - Knesset - Middle East - Human physical appearance

Being beautiful has its advantages. It can make you more popular, even make you seem more competent. Now, University of Haifa researchers have found that, if you’re a politician, good looks will also make you seem more newsworthy. Because better-looking pols get more media coverage, findings that appear in the International Journal of Press/Politics . [Yariv Tsfati, Dana Markowitz Elfassi and Israel Waismel-Manor, http://bit.ly/cNXbpx ]

People respond to pretty faces. And broadcasters, it seems, are no exception. The researchers surveyed how much TV news coverage was given to every member of the Israeli Knesset on three local channels. At the same time, they showed pictures of these elected officials to Dutch students who knew nothing about Israeli legislators. And they asked the students to rate the politicians’ physical attractiveness. The results: generally speaking, the Knesset members with the highest marks for appearance appear most often on the nightly news. [More]



Israel - University of Haifa - Knesset - Middle East - Human physical appearance