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Press release of issue dated August 2 for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine

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In the supermarket business, margins are razor-thin compared to the profits enjoyed by other retailers. Stanford Business School Marketing and Management Science Professor Rajiv Lal went shopping to find out why the low price leaders who offer the cheapest daily prices do as well as they do.

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For 50 years, Dr. Ignacio V. Ponseti, professor emeritus of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, has been telling his colleagues that surgery is not the proper method for correcting clubfoot in infants.

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Technologies developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have claimed three of the top 100 slots in R&D magazine's list of the most significant innovations of the past year.

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association: 1)Managed Care Case Study Collection - New APA Resource, 2) Smaller APA Meeting in October Provides Story Ideas, 3) Datebook of Upcoming APA Events, 4) List of Free APA Resources Available for Media

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association: 1) Researchers May Have Found Signs of Alzheimer's Disease Before Dementia Strikes, 2) Fewer Obsessive-compulsives than Previously Thought 3) Gay Men at Greater Risk for Eating Disorders,4) Managed Mental Health Care Meets Academia, 5)Parents Helping Children Survive Divorce - New Book

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Mounting scientific evidence suggests that significant reductions in birth defects, premature birth, and coronary heart disease can be achieved with daily vitamin intakes. Regular use of several specific vitamins to prevent these three conditions could also save $20 billion in U.S. annual hospital costs, according to a new study on the cost impact of preventive nutrition. Savings to Medicare alone would be $11 billion per year.

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Now more than ever, consumers are turning to nutritional supplements to improve their health. This increased interest in supplements can raise questions about how much to take and which nutrients might present safety concerns. To address these issues, The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) is pleased to announce the publication of Vitamin and Mineral SafetyæA Summary Review, a synopsis of a comprehensive scientific report which quantifies safe levels of intake for two dozen nutrients.

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Michigan State University is putting into action a battle plan to control an invasive wetland weed that has beetles as warriors and children and teachers as generals. The enemy, purple loosestrife, should be quaking in its roots.

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A long-term study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center has found that hemispherectomy, a surgical procedure in which half the brain is removed, does more than stop otherwise uncontrollable and often life-threatening seizures in children. For the vast majority of these children, hemispherectomy also reduces the burden of medication and allows more normal development.

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The University of California, San Diego Task Force on K-12 Outreach will sponsor a symposium July 30 at 10 a.m., featuring some of the nation's top experts on education outreach efforts to under served children.

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Two technologies developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will make it more difficult for smugglers to slip illicit items past border enforcement agents.

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Young men who report difficulty sleeping are one-and-a-half to two times as likely to experience major depression later in life, according to a new government-funded study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

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Fusarium head blight, a plant disease also known as wheat scab, has taken aim at America's breadbasket and is now seriously threatening New York State's $30 million wheat-growing industry, according to Cornell plant pathologists. The plant scientists will be speaking on new ways to solving this threat at the American Phytopathological Society annual meeting, in Rochester, N.Y., Aug. 9-13.

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The Presidential Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels, chaired by Cornell's Malden C. Nesheim, issues its draft report calling for or more scientific research on supplements, guidelines for scientific substantiation of any statements of nutritional support and for government surveillance to identify safety issues.

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Newer antihypertensive medications are more effective in controlling blood pressure of elderly people, especially those with heart disease who see their doctors regularly and have their prescriptions filled at one pharmacy.

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A three-dimensional view of the fine bones, nerves, and hollow spaces in the human ear--from any vantage point inside or outside the organ-- is now possible, thanks to a virtual model constructed by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The model--explored using a wand and a special pair of eyeglasses while facing a 20-square-foot screen--allows surgeons to familiarize themselves with the complex spatial relationships of structures composing the ear.

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At a recent conference on "data mining" at the University of Illinois at Chicago, experts from around the world witnessed a first in the use of the next generation of network communications. The demonstration of data mining--the automatic search for patterns, asociations, and changes in large databases--is important because it showed data mining shows data mining can be done over a wide geographic area.

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Disabling sophisticated bombs without getting hurt is what a small team of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories knows how to do best. Now Sandia is sharing its technology and expertise in the occult art of bomb disablement with members of the worldís most elite bomb squads during an eight-day, hands-on training conference in Albuquerque Aug. 11-18.

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Research team gains important insights into dengue fever; disease afflicts tens of million annually and it's moving into the U.S.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed the first human embryonic stem cell lines, cells that theoretically can form all the different cells and tissues of the body.

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Researchers have found that an endogenous peptide can reduce both hormonal and behavioral manifestations of human stress.

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Washington, D.C., July 24 -- Four high school chemistry students, representing the USA in the 29th International Chemistry Olympiad, returned home from Montreal, Canada, with four medals-- and one California student earns the highest finish ever for a U.S. student.

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Three Tips from Los Alamos: 1) This Won't Hurt a Bit--new laser analysis of lead poisoning; 2) Taking a Calculated Risk--software program aids emergency response to chemical spills; 3) Another Bright Idea--new type of fluorescent light bulb

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1) Immigrant Scientists And Engineers Decline; 2) NSF & NASA Launch Satellite Assessment; 3) Researchers Recommend Changes In Census' Racial Identifications

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A computer model developed by a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer mimics the way a heart works, down to the sub-cellular level, and can be used to mathematically "test" drugs for various heart disorders.

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In four separate studies, researchers from Henry Ford Hospital's Heart & Vascular Institute found no link between race and a patient's physiological response to a heart attack. These findings indicate there is no need to factor race into decisions regarding medical treatment after a heart attack.

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Researchers have discovered that packrats seem to save a little of everything-- including clues in fossilized packrat urine from prehistoric dens--that can help scientists more accurately determine the age of water and other materials.

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Press release of issue dated 26 July for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine.

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"Most issues that relate to families also relate to family- owned businesses," says Doug Sprenkle, Purdue University professor of child development and family studies. When problems in the workplace involve the family relationships of the participants, standard business advice is of limited value, he says.

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A comparison of data on fast-food consumption and rising obesity has found a surprising wrinkle: There doesn't appear to be much of a link, at least in terms of large populations.

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Injuries continue to have a major impact on the health of Americans, according to the latest federal government report on the nation's health, issued today by HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala.

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Remote islands of surreal beauty, the foggy, windswept Aleutians are thousands of miles from heavily populated areas. Even so, the islands harbor a nasty reminder of human activity: Sea otters and bald eagle eggs from the western Aleutians carry potentially harmful levels of DDT and other contaminants.

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Scientists studying mice genetically engineered to develop familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, have found that the human gene Bcl-2 may delay the onset of ALS. The study appears in the July 24 issue of Science.

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Researchers from Southern Illinois University have discovered the oldest African or Asian monkey skull yet found. Their account of their find appears in the July 24 issue of ìNature.î

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The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) today congratulated President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton on their efforts to immunize America's children, noting the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's new data indicating that 90 percent or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the recommended vaccines in 1996.

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UCSD Chemists Create Polymer "Mirror" for a variety of "Time Reversal" Optical Tasks.

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Researchers have found a way of controlling a tailor-made version of a protein that gives the glow to the Pacific Northwest jellyfish. The discovery not only sheds light on the inner workings of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, it also suggests a potential new way for storing and accessing computer memories in packages the size of a single molecule.

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Using electron-beam lithography, researchers at the Cornell University Nanofabrication Facility have built what they believe are the world's smallest mechanical devices, including a Fabry-Perot interferometer and, for fun, the world's smallest guitar, carved out of crystalline silicon and no larger than a single cell. The technology that could have a variety of uses in fiber optics, displays, sensors and electronics. Mechanical force probes can be made much smaller than a single cell, and forces associated with single biological molecules could be measured.

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A gene linked to the most common abdominal cancer in children also may contribute to the development of breast cancer, according to a study at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Oregon Health Sciences University.

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El Nino is a warming of surface waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean with far- reaching climatic consequences. This Tip Sheet describes an upcoming scientific meeting on El Nino, the relation between El Nino and global warming, and a new El Nino book, and lists El Nino experts and Web sites.

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Continuing its leadership in optical networking, Lucent Technologies has demonstrated a record-breaking experimental ultra-wideband optical-fiber amplifier that can boost lightwave signals carried simultaneously over 100 or more channels, or wavelengths, of light. The experiment underscores the potential of optical networks to deliver unprecedented network capacity. The optical amplifier spans 80 nanometers of the lightwave spectrum.

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The first ASME Asia Congress and Exhibition, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), will be held in Singapore, September 30 to October 2, 1997, at the Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. This conference provides a forum for engineers to examine environmental issues and technological advancements relevant to this region's industries, particularly those involved in power generation, offshore technology, oil and gas.

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Topics: Picking a sunscreen is easy if you follow some simple rules; Don't be shy about telling your eye care professional what to look for when you get glasses; Weight training in kids requires special precautions; Beware of once exotic bugs that can now pop up in your food supply.

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The M.W. Kellogg Company in Houston has pledged $100,000 to a foundation operated by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), a gift which will be put toward programs to enhance science, technology and engineering throughout the world.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Repeated exposure to molds often found in damp hay and grain can irritate the lungs causing a disease known as farmer's lung or hypersensitivity pneumonitis. The syndrome causes coughing and shortness of breath, and is "reasonably common in the Midwest," says Dr. Gary Hunninghake, University of Iowa professor of internal medicine, who has studied the disease for many years.

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Breeding trees that can be more easily processed into paper, with less harm to the environment, has long been a goal of researchers. Now, thanks to the discovery of abnormal, brown-colored wood in a mutant pine tree, scientists at North Carolina State University may be a step closer to achieving that goal.

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Government social welfare programs have helped create a less secure labor environment for the typical American worker by inadvertently harming family values, according to a new study by two University of Notre Dame economists.

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Big-cat expert, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz of the Wildlife Conservation Society, applauds last week's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to list the jaguar as an endangered species on U.S. soil. Rabinowitz released a report last week on the status of jaguars in the southwest.

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Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital researchers have achieved the first successful repair, in animals, of congenital anomalies by combining the emerging technologies of video-guided fetal surgery and the engineering of a scarce commodity--live replacement tissue.