HP unveils small laptop for schoolkids
SAN FRANCISCO – One more of the world’s biggest technology companies is clamoring to enter the growing market for pint-sized computers targeted mainly for pint-sized customers.

Online crooks face tough competition
SAN FRANCISCO – Fierce competition among identity thieves has driven the prices for stolen data down to bargain-basement levels, which has forced crooks to adopt mainstream business tactics to lure customers, according to a new report on Internet security threats.

EU to allow cell service on planes
BRUSSELS, Belgium – You can use your cell phone in the skies over Europe later this year under new rules that will allow air travelers to stay in touch — and raise the cringe-inducing prospect of sitting next to a chatterbox at 30,000 feet.

Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million people in Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) – Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in grayingJapan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country’s population shrinks.
Prediction:  Someday there will be only rich people and robots.

Too Little Sleep Leads to Too Much Weight for Kids
And some parents may unsuspectingly contribute to their child’s sleep problems, researchers say.

Backpack Straps Can Decrease Blood Flow In The Shoulder And Arm, And May Result In Loss of Fine Motor Control
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — More than 92 percent of the children in the U.S. carry backpacks. Typically the backpacks are loaded with almost one-fourth of the child’s body weight (22 percent) and worn with only one strap.  Last year, a team of physician researchers examined the effect heavy-loaded backpack straps can have on children. They found the straps can significantly increase pressure when the load is ten percent or more. They also found that strap pressures with loads as small as ten percent of bodyweight can obstruct localized blood flow and contribute to shoulder fatigue.

Study: Dyslexia differs by child’s language
Dyslexia affects different parts of children’s brains depending on whether they are raised reading English or Chinese. That finding, reported in Monday’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, means that therapists may need to seek different methods of assisting dyslexic children from different cultures.

A Disease That Allowed Torrents of Creativity
Some patients with FTD develop artistic abilities when frontal brain areas decline and posterior regions take over.

Damaged Brain Can Be Repaired And Cerebral Functions Restored, Neuronal Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2008) — Scientists … have shown that it is possible to repair an injured brain by creating a small number of new, specifically-targeted innervations, rather than a larger number of non-specific connections. Behavioral tests have demonstrated that such reinnervation can thus restore damaged cerebral functions.

Gator Blood May Be New Source of Antibiotics
Early research shows proteins from the reptiles can fight off ‘superbugs’

Green Tea Ingredient, EGCG, Significantly Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth In Female Mice
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Green tea is high in the antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin-3- gallate) which helps prevent the body’s cells from becoming damaged and prematurely aged. Studies have suggested that the combination of green tea and EGCG may also be beneficial by providing protection against certain types of cancers, including breast cancer. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Mississippi researchers now finds that consuming EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth in female mice.

Testosterone Therapy May Reduce Bone Loss in Older Men
But long-term effects of the hormone treatment aren’t known, researchers say

Yoga Poses Can Prevent Falls In Women Over 65, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — A specific type of yoga can help improve stability and balance in women over age 65, which could help to prevent falls, finds a preliminary study.

Medical Errors Costing U.S. Billions
Mistakes resulted in 238,337 preventable deaths from 2006-08, survey finds.
We don’t put up with this kind of casualty rate in airline transportation.  Why do we permit it in medicine?

Zoos tap into artistic talents of animals
Zoo officials are discovering that animal lovers are willing to pay hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars for the creatures’ creations, prompting zoos across the country to study whether their animal artists might be an untapped source of revenue.

Rats live fast, die young
Humans are built to last. Rats, not so much. A newly discovered body clock apparently ticks much faster in rats, snuffing out their lives tens of years earlier than humans.

Salt-tolerant Gene Found In Simple Plant Nothing To Sneeze At
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Whether a plant withers unproductively or thrives in salty conditions may now be better understood by biologists. The cellular mechanism that controls salt tolerance has been found in the arabidopsis plant by a Texas AgriLife Research scientist collaborating with an international team.
Salt tolerance could make it possible to grow food plants in areas that they can’t be grown in now.

Vanished: A Pueblo Mystery
Why, in the late 13th century, did a people called the Anasazi abandon magnificent settlements of the Colorado Plateau and move south into Arizona and New Mexico?.

Prehistoric Cultures Were Hunting Whales At Least 3,000 Years Ago
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known.

Massive star mystery: Do they explode?
Some of the most massive stars might not explode as supernovae, a new study suggests. Rather, researchers speculate, they simply collapse into black holes or if they do generate explosions, they’re not as intense as the deaths of less massive stars.

‘God Particle’ Expected to Be Found Soon
GENEVA (AP) – The father of a theoretical subatomic particle dubbed “the God particle” says he’s almost sure it will be confirmed in the next year in a race between powerful research equipment in the United States and Europe.