PhysOrg.com

Invisible Waves Shape Continental Slope, Researcher Says
A class of powerful, invisible waves hidden beneath the surface of the ocean can shape the underwater edges of continents and contribute to ocean mixing and climate, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found.

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US-EU private data sharing agreement at hand: report
The United States and European Union are close to an agreement to share private data of their citizens, including credit card information, travel history and internet browsing information, The New York Times said Saturday.

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NASA to Attempt Historic Solar Sail Deployment
"Hold your hands out to the sun. What do you feel? Heat, of course. But there's pressure as well - though you've never noticed it, because it's so tiny. Over the area of your hands, it only comes to about a millionth of an ounce. But out in space, even a pressure as small as that can be important - for it's acting all the time, hour after hour, day after day. Unlike rocket fuel, it's free and unlimited. If we want to, we can use it; we can build sails to catch the radiation blowing from the sun."1

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Romanian girl can have abortion, panel rules
An inter-ministerial panel in Romania ruled Friday that an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after allegedly being raped by her uncle can have an abortion.

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Facebook concepts indicate brains of Alzheimer's patients aren't as networked
This is your brain on Facebook. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine used concepts borrowed from the popular social networking site to analyze the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. They found that patients' brains were less well-connected than the brains of people without the disorder.

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Doctors must step up to the challenge of climate change
Doctors must lead by example on climate change, according to experts in this week's BMJ. Health professionals were powerful catalysts in changing society's view of smoking from a normal lifestyle choice to that of a harmful addiction, and they must do the same for climate change, writes Professor Mike Gill from the University of Surrey.

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Should doctors be increasing their carbon footprint by flying to medical conferences?
Are international medical conferences an outdated luxury the planet can't afford? Every year thousands of doctors and scientists fly to meetings all over the world, but with climate change accelerating, can this type of travel be justified, two doctors debate the issue in this week's BMJ.

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Exposing the Sensitivity of Extreme Ultraviolet Photoresists
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have confirmed that the photoresists used in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing processes now under development are twice as sensitive as previously believed. This finding, announced at a workshop last month,* has attracted considerable interest because of its implications for future manufacturing. If the photoresists are twice as sensitive as previously thought, then they are close to having the sensitivity required for high volume manufacturing, but the flip side is that the extreme ultraviolet optical systems in the demonstration tools currently being used are only about half as effective as believed.

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Oracle throws wet blanket on strong 4Q results
(AP) -- Oracle Corp. finished its fiscal year with an impressive flourish, then pulled out a wet blanket.

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Home-based cognitive behavioral therapy relieves IBS symptoms
Persons with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can relieve their symptoms as effectively by following a self-administered, at-home cognitive behavioral program as they can by undergoing a 10-week in-office program administered by a trained therapist, a new pilot study has shown. The findings are important because there are no reliable medicines available to treat successfully the full range of symptoms of this chronic, often debilitating, disorder that affects an estimated 14-24 percent of women and 5-19 percent of men in the U.S.

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