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In the early 1990s, investors began pouring money into emerging stock markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Chile. Market watchers dubbed stocks in these burgeoning markets a "free lunch" because they offered both robust returns and a means to diversify and reduce risk in stock portfolios. These tiny emerging markets did not ride the waves of bourses in developed countries, thereby providing a hedge against drops in larger markets. But the recent dives in Asian stock markets beg the question: Is there ever really a free lunch? Finance professor Geert Bekaert thinks not"”at least not any more.

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When you trade stock, will it be on the NASDAQ, the NYSE, or the American Stock Exchange? Will it be in New York, London, Tokyo, or perhaps Bangkok or Paris? Electronic market access has made buying and selling the same security in more than one market an increasingly widespread practice both within and across countries, raising the issue of how markets should be regulated as stocks are traded around the clock and around the globe.

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New ultra-high speed computer software can simulate the effects of solar surface eruptions on the Earth's magnetosphere. 3-D models of eruptions are created far faster than real time---meaning the simulation might some day predict the effects of space weather phenomena on Earth in ample time to prepare for them.

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Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market MigranalÆ (dihydroergotamine mesylate, USP) Nasal Spray for the acute treatment of migraine headache with or without aura.

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Air-pollution-related hydrocarbon emissions from vegetation are much higher than expected over the African savanna (flat tropical grasslands), while those coming from the rain forests are somewhat lower than prior estimates, according to scientists. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research team is mapping natural and human-caused trace gas emissions across the African continent in a project is called EXPRESSO, the Experiment for Regional Sources and Sinks of Oxidants.

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Treatment using conventional antipsychotics show high rates of recidivism which, in turn, is costly for the system. However, new research from the University of Maryland shows that patients treated with the novel antipsychotic risperidone experienced a lower readmission rate than patients who received conventional antipsychotic treatment.

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The decline in political party loyalty and the influence of newspapers versus television are influencing political elections, making the results more volatile than in the past.

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A new "DNA" biochip developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could revolutionize the way the medical profession performs tests on blood.

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The American Medical Association (AMA) passed a resolution today introduced by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) and other concerned organizations aimed at ensuring insurance coverage of procedures associated with childhood deformities, disfigurements and congenital defects.

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Researchers have answered a fundamental question about how G proteins, the cell's message relay switch, coordinate and control signals that determine cell activities. By looking at the crystal structure of one type of G protein (Gs-alpha) bound to its target, an enzyme found in heart tissue, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas scientists also uncovered a possible target for cardiac drugs.

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Eliminating smoking in bars would increase business for these establishments, according to a study released Tuesday, December 2 at a New York City press briefing jointly sponsored by the American Medical Association and American Public Health Association. An overwhelming majority of Massachusetts adults - 89 percent - said that they would go out to bars just as often or more often than they do now if all bars were made smoke-free.

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John Grisham's The Rainmaker is a story about an insurance company that routinely denies coverage for medically necessary procedures. Unfortunately, this scenario doesn't just occur in books and movies. In a recent survey conducted by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS), more than half of plastic surgeons polled reported insurance denial or trouble obtaining coverage of procedures for deformities, disfigurements and congenital defects in children.

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are creating and studying aerogels, substances so porous they are more air than solid material. When used as insulators on computer chips, these porous materials could more than double computing speeds.

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Innovative new treatments are reducing the cost of treating specific illnesses while saving more lives and improving the quality of life for patients, according to new research by economists and physicians.

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East Lansing, Mich. -- Someone call Tom Cruise. Based on safety belt use in the top movies of 1996, buckling up on the silver screen seems like "Mission: Impossible."

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Got milk? Yes, you do. Those television commercials in which some poor dupe gets too little milk too late are working well. A Cornell University study to be published in December indicates that thanks to heavy doses of advertising, more and more American consumers are buying fluid milk.

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A new 300-site survey of borehole temperatures spanning four continents and five centuries has confirmed what most scientists already believe---the Earth is getting warmer and the rate of warming has been accelerating rapidly since 1900.

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Research published in the Dec. 11 Nature by Texas and New York scientists hints at ways to uncouple profound emotional associations resulting from things like child abuse, rape or war and offers some of the best support yet for a long-held theory of how we learn.

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Thanks to the work of ethnobotanists who study the uses of plants by ancient cultures, the garden of the Mughal emperors near the Taj Mahal may bloom again. The Mehtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden" is a 1000-square-foot garden built around the 17th century on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra, India. It blossomed across the river from the Taj Mahal, the world- famous mausoleum built in 1632 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite empress.

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Parkinson's and Alzheimer's-like diseases are as much a part of the island of Guam as its sandy beaches, emerald sea ... and palm-like trees called cycads. Only recently did scientists discover that the seeds of the cycads, a favorite food of the locals, contain BMAA, a nonprotein amino acid which triggers neurological damages in mammals.

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Leif Edvinsson, the first ever director of Intellectual Capital (at Skandia AFS in Stockholm, Sweden) and the world's leading expert on Intellectual Capital says there are applications for Intellectual Capital beyond business. He is meeting with MBA students at Fairfield University to discuss how Intellectual Capital can be used to improve the communities in which we live.

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After six years of witnessing remarkable growth in the stock market, investors should be prepared for a weakening market during 1998, University of Kentucky economist Donald J. Mullineaux warned Monday.

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Tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory: 1) Energy - What's Your R-Value? 2) Technology Transfer - The Long Arm Of ORCMT, 3) Environmental Management - Giving Waste The Cold Shoulder, 4) Computing - New 'Super'-Life For Old Computers

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Glaring lights, harsh noises and disruptive procedures in many neonatal intensive care units can deter the neurological development of tiny newborns and should be subdued, said a University of South Florida researcher who heads a national study examining the effects of the NICU environment on high-risk infants.

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Research Highlights from the New York Botanical Garden - In the tropics, traditional agricultural systems yield models for sustainable farming all over the world.

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Researchers at The New York Botanical Garden are working in a community forestry project in West Kalimantan, Indonesia to invest in the rain forest: developing sustainable ways to exploit forest resources - harvesting only the annual growth, (that is, interest), and safeguarding the basic stock of plant resources, (that is, principal), for the future.

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Researchers at The New York Botanical Garden are continuing their evaluation of the traditional healing methods of Latino, Chinese, and African cultures for certain women's ailments, in a collaborative study with the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in Women's Health at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. The current phase of the project focuses on uterine fibroids, a benign tumor composed of fibrous and muscular tissue in the uterine wall.

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First results from a satellite launched to advance technology for nuclear weapons detection show thousands times more lightning from thunderstorms than anything previously detected.

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Improved economic opportunities for women will decrease the level of violence in abusive relationships.So say the results of a recent study, "An Economic Analysis of Domestic Violence," co- authored by Jill Tiefenthaler of Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.

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After noticing a suspicious lump, a persistent sore or a chronic cough, low-income Dallas residents tend to treat themselves, then wait about a month before seeing a physician.

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West Virginia University and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have signed a unique agreement that will allow the school to offer the world's first degree programs in forensic identification.

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Kentucky's economy is expected to grow by more than 2 percent in 1998, reflecting "steady, moderate to strong will exceed the national economy's performance, a University of Kentucky economist forecasts.

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Nine teams of three to six students each from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson Colleghe will showcase their product innovations at the College's Third Annual Product Design Fair. Three of last year's designs resulted in a marketable product for the sponsoring company. One of these three designs has also received a patent.

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In the new book "Understanding Abusive Families," Cornell University professors of human development James Garbarino and John Eckenrode explore why families become abusive and what it takes to help such families care for their children or, failing that, to protect children from harm.

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Young lambs may not need inoculation against enterotoxemia type D -- otherwise known as "overeating disease" -- until past the age of 6 weeks, according to Cornell University animal scientists.

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Cornell university abuse experts have developed programs for the Army and Marines to enhance family stability, promote personal growth and responsibility and prevent family violence.

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A novel form of blood pressure reading can be a strong predictor of coronary heart disease death, according to a study reported by a Paris team of researchers in this month's Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

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Although the drug warfarin prevents up to 80 percent of strokes suffered by those who have atrial fibrillation, which is irregular heart beat, it is woefully underused in the patients who have this common heart condition, according to a study in this month's Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.

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After only seven days of physical activity -- walking or stationary biking -- women with high blood pressure began to reap dramatic health benefits, according to a report in this month's Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association.

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The flight of a balloon sent aloft by scientists over Kiruna, Sweden, seemed uneventful -- until researchers started examining the data. What was found by three graduate students has scientists scrambling for an explanation: an intense stream of X-rays, occurring in seven bursts, each separated by only a few minutes and lasting for a total of half an hour. The evidence is that the bursts came not from space, but from the Earth's upper atmosphere.

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It seems that Americans are not entirely to blame for the chemical smog that hangs over cities along the U.S. West Coast. A new study indicates that about 10 percent of the ozone and other pollutants are arriving from the industrialized nations of East Asia. After measuring pollutants from a remote Olympic Peninsula research station, a researcher concludes that Asian pollution is affecting much of the U.S.West Coast, with Washington and Oregon affected slightly more because of wind patterns.

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Two Iowa State University physicists are part of an international team of scientists who will be designing and building detectors for the Large Hadron Collider, a high-energy particle accelerator, at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas is one of several hospitals offering a new, more sensitive cochlear implant.

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A children's mental health report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimates that 20%, or one in five, of all children from birth through 17 years of age suffer from a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder, and that 9% - 13% of all youths ages 9 - 17 have a serious emotional disturbance (SED).

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Lucent Technologies announces a neew Internet firewall that is designed to be the industry's most secure, expandable and easy-to-use hardware and software platform for protecting customers' data networks.

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"President Clinton's Bill of Rights for health care consumers is good for people with mental illnesses," said Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the National Mental Health Association. "It will help provide essential safeguards for mental health consumers in an increasingly cost-based health care system."

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Lucent Technologies today announced a new business venture that will offer a unique software product that uncovers and displays trends and patterns often buried in large amount of data. Called Visual Insights, the venture will use Bell labs software to help businesses make faster, better decisions.

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Sinai Hospital of Baltimore is redefining emergency care with the opening of its new Emergency Center, ER-7, in the new Herman & Walter Samuelson Pavilion for Emergency Medicine.

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The Los Angeles basin's sediments seem to lessen the ground motion that threatens single-story and low-rise buildings in a severe earthquake, a new study of data from the 1994 Northridge quake has revealed. The study was conducted through the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Southern California Earthquake Center.

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A team of scientists has counted nearly 300 mountain gorillas living in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, bringing the total to around 600 for this most endangered gorilla sub-species.