In America leafy greens are responsible for over a fifth of all food-borne illnesses (more than any other food), despite processing that often involves nasty chemicals and unpopular irradiation treatments. Dr Demokritou believes electrospraying could be used from farm to fork to reduce pathogens like E.coli, salmonella and listeria, as well as yeasts and fungi that […]

El toro races into the sandy bullfighting ring, running wildly for a few seconds before three banderilleros, men carrying fuschia and golden capes, step in waving heavy cloths to catch the attention of the lumbering beast. He obliges, charging at the flapping capotes. With that the game is on, a wildly popular sport that melds […]

Lawrence has a reputation for poverty and high unemployment, but the truth is more complicated — at least according to research by Barry Bluestone, an economist at Northeastern University who’s examined the city for the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. “Lawrence has actually been fairly successful relative to other working cities — or […]

The case of two 12-year-old girls accused of stabbing their friend multiple times to impress a fictitious Internet bogeyman raises so many questions for parents: How can we be sure our children can truly separate reality from fantasy? What are the warning signs that children are confusing the two? And how on Earth can we keep tabs […]

Americans have a nearly insatiable demand for blood. Every two seconds, someone in the country requires a blood transfusion. And to get one they go straight to a blood bank. But it’s a strange idea. A blood bank. Or a sperm bank. Or a breast milk bank. What kind of bank relies on donations? That’s […]

In politics, the notion of being gay by one’s own volition is like Voldemort—dangerous even to be uttered. Biological determinism is the new normal, yoked to tolerance claims much as magic hews to Harry Potter. It was not always this way, but a determinist ethos began to insinuate itself into gay politics in the late […]

The accomplishments of 25 women in the Charlotte region were celebrated Tuesday as they received the Charlotte Business Journal’s 18th annual Women in Business Achievement Awards. And Jane McIntyre, executive director of United Way of Central Carolinas Inc., was honored with the program’s Lifetime Achievement Award. McIntyre has led the local United Way organization since […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday unanimously slapped down the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, rejecting two of its patent rulings just over a month after hearing oral arguments in both cases. Monday’s decisions in Limelight Networks Inc. v. Akamai Technologies Inc. and Nautilus Inc. v. Biosig Instruments were the fourth and […]

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that induced infringement can occur only when one party performs every step of a patent will make it easier to fend off inducement claims when the infringement involves multiple actors. But the ruling may not be the final word, attorneys say, since the justices also invited the Federal Circuit to revisit direct-infringement […]

Numerous studies show that when school’s out for summer, kids’ brains start to drain. When the next academic year starts, they often spend a month or more catching up to where they were when vacation began. Here’s where the current generation’s obsession with digital devices can work in your favor. Obviously you don’t want them spending all summer […]

Barry Bluestone is director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University: “It’s not just a symbol; the luxury high rises. What is happening in Boston, almost more than any other city with maybe the exception of  San Francisco and New York,  is that housing is becoming the kind of determining factor in the […]

The mantra ‘publish or perish’ is drilled into every early-career scientist — and for good reason, a computer model suggests. The most important predictor of success for a young biomedical scientist is the number of first-author papers published in journals with high impact factors early in a researcher’s career, according to the formula. The model, […]