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"Unemployment has become less relevant to inflation," says economist Gary Shoesmith, director of the Center for Economic Studies at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. "Unemployment has now been below 6 percent for three years, but inflation has continued to ease downward, plainly opposite the pattern seen in the business cycles of the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The old business cycle has changed."

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"You shouldn't wear lipstick when you're drinking a glass of champagne." That unique reporting style of Joe Palca, science correspondent for National Public Radio, has earned him the top chemistry reporting award from the world's largest scientific society.

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Cystic fibrosis, the most common hereditary disease in the United States, is caused by the malfunction of an ion channel that is critical for maintaining the secretions of salt and water that protect the lungs. New research suggests a novel way in which this ion channel may function, thus challenging a commonly held "corked/uncorked" theory. The finding, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, paves the way for a more refined research effort to find a cure or improve treatment for cystic fibrosis.

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Athens, GA-- What's occurring at the "micro-level" of a therapy session is the subject of research by a professor at the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences. He uses discourse analysis -- a process that breaks down a conversation into the finest of detail.

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Athens, GA--A program developed by a College of Family and Consumer Sciences professor at the University of Georgia allows counseling clients to "turn the tables" on their therapists. "By directly obtaining feedback from clients about their experience of the therapy events and the therapist's actions, the therapist and supervisor are better able to focus their energy on helping the client," said Bill Quinn, a FACS professor.

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Athens, GA--A program that combines first-time juvenile offenders, their parents and siblings with counselors has shown a 21 percent decrease in recidivism rates when compared with juveniles who didn't complete the program.

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A team of astronomers using a pair of National Science Foundation (NSF) radio telescopes has made the first measurements of the size and expansion of a mysterious, intense "fireball" resulting from a cosmic gamma ray burst last May.

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The following stories appear in the American Thoracic Society (ATS) September journals: 1) Hospitalization claims more than half of the health care dollar spent on asthmatics; 2) Deaths from lung diseases growing faster in females; 3) Researchers find marker to identify patients with acute lung injury in early stages of disease progression

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Ongoing preclinical studies of an antirejection antibody have established its ability to prevent and reverse organ rejection while leaving the immune system intact.

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Uncommon numbers of potato leaf hoppers have caused widespread damage to alfalfa and other crops in New England, but for alfalfa growers, at least, thereπs a chance to duck the diminutive insect next year.

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More than 290 public health, labor and other grassroots groups from around the nation today urged President Clinton to require "full document disclosure" from the tobacco industry before endorsing any deal with the cigarette companies.

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The National Science Board (NSB) will convene its first off-site meeting of the year in Houston next month. (The board normally meets at the National Science Foundation headquarters in Arlington, Va.) The off-site meeting demonstrates the board's desire to reserve at least one such meeting each year for two purposes: (1) to focus on an important national science policy topic, and (2) to solicit input from communities outside of Washington D.C.

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Legal immigrants are more educated as a group than native-born U.S citizens, according to a just-released survey of new immigrants. This news is among many valuable findings about an increasingly important group in American society. The findings come from a new comprehensive survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with support from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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Physicians frequently prescribe antibiotics for common viral respiratory illnesses that typically do not benefit from antibiotic therapy, according to an article in tomorrow's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, co-authored by Ralph Gonzales, MD, MSPH, assistant professor of medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, could offer insight into the rapidly rising prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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A minority-owned small business in New York and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are uniting to harness the power of knowledge through the innovative Community of the Future Initiative.

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Albany Medical College researchers have for the first time provided data that shows that the major predictor of resistance to AIDS drugs is whether the amount of virus in a patient's body has been reduced to nondetectable limits. The analysis showed that among the patients who received just Indinavir, those who were able to reduce the amount of virus in them to less than detectable levels had "significantly lower risks of emergence of resistance" to the drug. When combination therapy was used, such as a combined treatment of Indinavir, AZT, and 3TC, patients had significantly longer times to resistance compared to monotherapy patients even after adjusting statistically for the increased antiviral effect of the additional drugs.

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A research team at Boston University School of Medicine has discovered that a synthetic compound significantly limits brain damage when administered after a stroke. Their finding, published September 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to the development of drugs to treat stroke and traumatic brain or spinal cord injury. These new drugs could also slow the progression of Parkinsonís disease and ALS, more commonly known as ìLou Gehrigís disease.î

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Drawing on artificial intelligence technology, researchers have for the first time found that machines show promise of improving on human's ability to diagnose heart attacks, according to a study in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation.

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Two diseases -- atherosclerosis and osteoporosis -- may be linked by a common problem in how the body uses calcium, according to two reports in American Heart Associations journals. One report is published in Stroke, the other is in today's Circulation.

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Researchers have found a mutation in a fat-dissolving gene that raises the risk of heart attack by five-fold compared to individuals with a normal gene. Reporting in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation, they say the gene mutation may place 1 in 1,500 individuals at increased risk for heart attack.

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Dr. David Furnas, Chief of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of California-Irvine Medical Center, will report tomorrow how the Digital Holographyô System from Voxelô (NASDAQ:VOXL) is helping plastic surgeons reshape congenitally malformed skulls. The holograms produced by the system have helped clinicians diagnose craniofacial problems, create pre-surgical plans, and intraoperatively measure and reconstruct these misshapened skulls.

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Results from a Temple University Hospital study indicate that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy does not speed healing time for soft-tissue sports injuries. Although HBO therapy is becoming increasingly popular with professional sports teams, this study marks the first time it has been put to the scientific test.

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1) Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are often prescribed unnecessarily for the elderly, and complications from such drugs are misdiagnosed or mismanaged by doctors; 2) Screening tests reliably detect deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after total hip or knee arthroplasty; 3) The Federated Council of Internal Medicine releases guidelines for internal medicine residency education; 4) Treating asthma with antilukotrienes, a new class of drugs.

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New images of an L-shaped molecule on the surface of a mouse leukemia virus could help scientists realize the promise of human gene therapyãthe effort to cure disease by inserting genes directly into human cells. The images, published in the September 12 issue of Science, show the crystal structure of a piece of the virusπs envelope proteinãthe piece required to recognize and bind to receptors on the surface of a mammalian cell.

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At a World Congress of Neurology in Buenos Aires the week of September 14-19, neurologists from around the world will learn a new noninvasive technique for study and diagnosis of brain diseases. Neurology professors from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and from Rome, Italy will teach magnetic brain stimulation.

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A Johns Hopkins University professor has built a "virtual laboratory" on the World Wide Web to give engineering students a taste of the challenges they may someday face on the job.

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Nearly 12 million children and adolescents are diagnosed with emotional disorders, including anxiety and depression, in the United States each year. Yet because the medications used to treat these disorders are tested mainly on adults, little is known about their safety and efficacy in children and adolescents. Now, a new National Institutes of Health research center at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons aims to correct that deficit.

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An advanced temperature sensor originally developed by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is allowing producers of galvannealed steel to tell in an instant if it is being processed correctly.

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The White House today announced that ten individuals and nine institutions are winners of the 1997 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

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A new form of matter, clusters of atoms, has been found to have a previously unsuspected property: it can melt at different temperatures from "solid" matter. An experiment described in Science this week paints an exotic portrait of certain substances seemingly confounding nature by existing as a liquid, instead of a solid, at room temperature.

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Glaciers have been regarded as catalysts for the multiplication of species around the globe. Now, new research at the University of Minnesota casts doubt on this general theory and points to a more complicated evolutionary history for birds and other animals.

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A new course in electronic commerce at Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management is preparing students to do business in the 21st century.

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Researchers at Purdue University have developed an oral delivery method for insulin that may eliminate a diabetic's need to take insulin injections.

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The American College of Emergency Physicians, a medical specialty association of more than 19,000 members, will hold its premier annual conventionóScientific Assemblyófrom Thursday, October 16, until Sunday, October 19, in San Francisco, California. As the world's most comprehensive forum for emergency medicine education, the convention will consist of 4 days of curriculum with more than 240 presentations, more than 500 exhibits, and a Research Forum that will present poster and oral presentations of original emergency medicine research.

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Broad gains in the nation's health, including a dramatic decline in the AIDS death rate as well as continued decline in the teen birth rate, was reported today by HHS' Centers for Disease control and prevention.

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The Vari-Wave microwave heating system, an award-winning technology developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, provides controlled and selective features not possible with conventional heating or traditional microwave techniques.

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Are astronauts at risk of developing coronary artery disease from spending time in space, or can their blood vessels adapt to the change in gravity? To find out, Johns Hopkins researchers are preparing a cargo of special cells to board the shuttle Atlantis for a 10-day trip including a stop at space station Mir. The shuttle is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sept. 25.

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The tuberculosis vaccine known as BCG has been given to more people worldwide than any other vaccine, yet its effectiveness remains controversial. A new analysis by researchers at Stanford School of Medicine suggests that the bacterial strains used in current BCG vaccines have evolved in the laboratory and are now considerably weaker -- and less likely to provide protection from tuberculosis -- than the original vaccine developed about 75 years ago in France.

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Some expectant parents fear that intercourse during pregnancy may cause premature labor. But a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine found that there is no direct and clear link between sexual intercourse and spontaneous labor.

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The more newborn rat pups are licked and groomed by their mothers, the better equipped they are to handle acute stress in adulthood, report Emory University's Paul M. Plotsky, PhD, and his McGill University colleagues in the week's issue of Science.

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Press release of issue dated 13 September for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine.

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Researchers at the University of Kansas have found new evidence confirming that a compound in a green tea supplement provides stronger damage protection of cells and their genetic material (DNA) than the well-known antioxidants vitamins E and C and the antioxidant compound in red wine. Announced today at the American Chemical Society annual meeting, the first side-by-side comparative antioxidant study led to an investigation of the protective power of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) against that of vitamins E and C, in addition to red wine and other teas.

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Ten individuals and nine institutions will receive the second annual Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) at a ceremony Sept. 11. The awards are administered and funded by the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency responsible for supporting scientific research and education programs in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.

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Women with established osteoporosis who have already experienced a vertebral fracture may be able to reduce their risk of additional fractures in the spine by taking calcitonin-salmon, a currently available medication delivered via nasal spray, according to a new study presented this week at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).

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The first detailed measurements in Mexico City of pollutants such as peroxyacetal nitrate show concentrations similar to those that burned eyes and lungs in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, according to preliminary results of a field study conducted earlier this year. Peroxyacetal nitrate also is implicated in the production of ozone, another irritant that makes breathing difficult. The international study has implications for U.S. cities

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Technologies that promise faster, cheaper and more effective cleanup of certain contaminated soils now are available commercially through a new company formed jointly by Battelle and Terra Vac Corporation of Irvine, Calif.

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1) How to control heartburn; 2) Many solutions are available for stress urinary incontinence; 3) Later-age pregnancy means greater risks and greater benefits.

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An antioxidant found in green tea is at least 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E at protecting cells and their genetic material, DNA, from damage believed to be linked to cancer, heart disease and other potentially life-threatening illnesses, University of Kansas research shows.The antioxidant, known as epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, carries twice the antioxidant punch of resveratrol, found in red wine, according to the study.

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Extinct sea creatures have provided evidence that about 80 million years ago the west began to wander. University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward and his collaborators report in Science that the discovery of pearly fossil shells of ammonites on two islands off the coast of Vancouver Island indicate that British Columbia and southern Alaska were once where Baja California is today.

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1) Scientists will meet next week in California to plan an international experiment they hope will answer a pivotal question in climate change, 2)The National Science Board (NSB) continues this year to examine how the agency manages its proposal review process, 3) The National Science Foundation-supported ocean drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution has been roaming the African coastline so that scientists may better understand the climate of southern Africa.