What is it about coffee?

Remember when people (and their doctors) used to worry that coffee would harm their hearts, give them ulcers, and make them overly nervous?

In excess, coffee, and more particularly, caffeine, can cause problems. But the fretting about two or three cups a day, or even more, is fading as study results suggestive of health benefits from coffee keep on coming in. Coffee drinking is associated with a lower risk of depression among women, a lower risk of lethal prostate cancer among men, and a lower risk of stroke among men and women. Earlier research also shows possible (it’s not a done deal) protective effects against everything from Parkinson’s disease to diabetes to some types of cancer.

Coffee contains literally a thousand different substances, and some of the lesser lights are thought to be responsible for healthful effects in other parts of the body. Some studies show caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee as having the same effect, which suggests that something else in coffee is involved.

It gets complicated, though. Caffeine and some of these other substances in coffee seem to have their good and bad sides, and coffee’s overall effect may depend on how much they cancel each other out.

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Junk Foods Widely Available At Elementary Schools, Study Shows

CHICAGO -- Junk food remains plentiful at the nation's elementary schools despite widespread efforts to curb childhood obesity, a new study suggests.

Between 2006 and 2010, nearly half of public and private schools surveyed sold sweet or salty snack foods in vending machines or other places, the study found.

There was little change over the four years, a surprising finding given vocal advocacy campaigns to improve kids' diets, said researcher Lindsey Turner, a health psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the study's lead author.

The study focused on snacks not sold during mealtimes, which until recently weren't subject to government nutrition standards.

Schools most likely to sell chips, cookies or similar foods were in the South, where obesity rates are the highest; these foods were scarcest at schools in the West.

The results are concerning, Turner said, because they show that many schools have not heeded messages from health advocates including the Institute of Medicine, which in a 2007 report urged limiting availability of food in schools outside of mealtimes, and said these items should not be sugary, salty or fatty snack foods.

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CONFERENCE-INTED2012 (6th International Technology, Education and Development Conference)

INTED2012 (6th International Technology, Education and Development
Conference)
5th- 7th of March, 2012
Valencia (Spain)
Website: www.inted2012.org
Email: inted2012@iated.org

INTED2012 (6th International Technology, Education and Development
Conference) will be held in Valencia (Spain) on the 5th-7th of March, 2012.

It is an annual meeting point for lecturers, researchers, educational
scientists and technologists from all disciplines. The attendance of more than
650 delegates from 75 different countries is expected.

The Conference Program is available at:
http://www.iated.org/inted2012/session_overview

In addition, you will be able to enjoy the beautiful city of Valencia, its
historical places, lovely beaches and unique gastronomy.

We look forward to seeing you in Valencia!
Best regards,

INTED2012 Technical Secretariat
Email: inted2012@iated.org

Making a 'Big Bang' on TV: 10 questions with David Saltzberg

If you watch the popular CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" about a group of brilliant but socially inept science postdocs, you're familiar with the work of UCLA Physics Professor David Saltzberg.

As science consultant for the show, Saltzberg is one of the rare experimental particle physicists whose work gets attention from 12 million people a week. It's a decidedly different experience compared to his usual pursuits: smashing atoms with the world's biggest particle accelerators and traveling to Antarctica for astronomy experiments related to subatomic particles such as neutrinos.

But since 2006, when a "friend of a friend of a friend" got him involved with the show, Saltzberg has taken on such tasks as dropping scientific details into scripts and introducing actors to real UCLA physicists. In an interview with UCLA Today's Alison Hewitt, he talks about his sideline job.

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What Can U.S. Schools Learn from Foreign Counterparts?

China, Finland and Singapore are creating stronger students—and finally inspiring American educators to take action.

If the results of the most recent international achievement tests were graded on a curve, U.S. students probably would rank somewhere in the B range. They placed 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics among 70 countries whose 15-year-olds participated in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) testing, the latest figures available.

How could U.S. students make it to the top tier and thus maximize their chances of competing in a global economy? It would require that radical reforms in curriculum, testing and funding be instituted at the national level, says the nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), which has investigated the educational systems of high-ranking countries like Canada, China, Finland, Japan and Singapore to distill best practices.

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I’ve got a social science PhD now what?

   I’m taking a break from digital professionalism this month to consider an issue which is currently dominating PhD / Post Doc discussions on twitter – Career options for Post docs and where you fit Post PhD.

   In the week before Christmas I had a couple of long, somewhat analytical and at times teary conversations with my boss about being unsure of where I ‘fit’ post-PhD. This was in part to do with the adjustment to starting a new job and part to do with being in this weird PhD Postdoc transitionary period where you have to find your feet on the other side of academia. When I started my PhD I didn’t think too much about the end result. I just expected for my career to be in academia and automatically associated academia with more research and lecturing. Thus when I finished I was full of happiness but also bemused about what to do next. There was a distinct lack of research jobs and although I applied and was interviewed for a seemingly endless number of positions I got sick of coming a ‘very close second’ etc. although in my head I was still expecting to go PhD post doc or two then lectureship. My PhD is from a Russell Group institution where the focus is on research and developing international, highly qualified researchers. Thus the way I had been brought up academically through my university career I saw this as the natural trajectory.

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How the Finnish School System Outshines U.S. Education

Educational philosophy in Finland is strikingly different than in the United States, but the students there outperform U.S. learners.

BY STEPHEN TUNG

The Finnish school system might sound like a restless American schoolchild's daydream: school hours cut in half, little homework, no standardized tests, 50-minute recess and free lunch. But the Finns' unconventional approach to education has vaulted Finland to the upper echelon of countries in overall academic performance, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Finnish students have ranked at or near the top of the Program for International Student Assessment ever since testing started in 2000. In the most recent assessment in 2009, they ranked sixth in math, second in science and third in reading. By comparison, U.S. students ranked 30th, 23rd and 17th, respectively, of the 65 tested countries/economies.

But Finland's system hasn't always been successful.

"Finland had been traditionally thought of as the lowest achieving country in Scandinavia, and one of the lower achieving ones in Europe for a very long time. It was not a highly developed education system," said Linda Darling-Hammond, the co-director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, in a lecture delivered Tuesday afternoon about the Finnish educational success story. She introduced the main speaker, Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish education expert and the director of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture.

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