Topic: News

During APsaA's recent annual meeting held in Denver from June 20-24, the members of the association issued a positions statement, “When the War Comes Home”, regarding the mental health care needs of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

During APsaA's recent annual meeting held in Denver from June 20-24, the members of the association issued a positions statement, “When the War Comes Home”, regarding the mental health care needs of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

On the eve of the 62nd anniversary of the world's first atomic explosion, the Trinity atomic bomb test, a CDC-led study team has reported new insights on the radiation released at the time of the test. Analyzing the doses that nearby residents received, the CDC team has made preliminary estimates of additional doses that the residents could have ingested in their bodies.

From 1943 through the middle of 1945, while World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, scientists and engineers at an isolated and top secret scientific laboratory near Santa Fe, New Mexico surmounted unbelievable difficulties to design and produce the world’s first atomic bombs. One type used uranium while another used the newly produced and largely unknown element called plutonium. The scientists were confident that the uranium bomb would work, but they decided it was necessary to test the more complicated plutonium bomb before using it in combat.

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The only color photograph available for the Trinity blast,
taken by Los Alamos scientist and amateur photographer
Jack Aeby from near Base Camp. As Aeby later said,
"It was there so I shot it."

This research discusses the influence of the antiwar movement on the Democratic and Republican parties on a national level. The research involved surveys of people attending antiwar demonstrations across the United States.

Cooperation between the Democratic Party and antiwar activists helped Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections, say researchers at Indiana University and the University of Florida, but the upcoming presidential election could see this support wane because of divisions among the antiwar activists and the instability of the "Party in the Street."

A South Pacific species was able to ward off a deadly parasite infection by developing a new gene in less than a year.

Scientists have reported that they have documented very fast evolution in the butterfly species Hypolimnas bolina. After infection by Wolbachia, the fraction of the population that was male dropped drastically to about 1% of the total population. However, after approximately ten generations (about a year), the male population had rebounded to about 39% of the overall population.

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H. bolina is known colloquially as the Blue Moon Butterfly or Great
or Common Eggfly and is found mainly in the South Pacific.
Public domain photo

The person behind the threats to biologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been identified as Menachem "Michael" Korn, who is evidently a member of the group The Young Earth Creationist.

The Young Earth Creationist who sent threatening emails and letters to biologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder also sent threatening letters to the University chancellor G. P. Peterson as well as the vice-chancellor of undergraduate education and others.

In a case that's sure to be appealed, an Ontario judge has ruled that the province's marijuana laws are unconstitutional. Meanwhile, a Liberal MP from British Columbia is calling for the government to regulate marijuana in the same fashion that it regulates alcohol.

A judge in the province of Ontario, Canada dismissed marijuana possession charges against a 29 year old Toronto man, ruling that Canada's laws governing possession are unconstitutional.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers is conducting the first search for life and hot springs on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. Through the use of the World Wide Web and satellite communications, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and nine partner museums are bringing thousands of students and citizens along with them.

On July 2, WHOI researchers and communications specialists sent the first of 40 days of dispatches and photo-essays from the icebreaker Oden, which researchers are sailing into the ice pack of the Arctic in order to explore the seafloor mountain chain known as the Gakkel Ridge. Reports from the groundbreaking expedition to the world's most isolated ocean are posted daily on the Polar Discovery web site, which also offers podcasts, games, video and audio clips, and a forum for emailing questions directly to researchers at the Pole.

The remains of a baby mammoth has been found in the Yamal Peninsula in Siberian Russia. The baby mammoth, named Lyuba, a female, was six-month-old at the time of death.

The well-preserved remains of a baby mammoth has been found in the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia (Russia). The baby mammoth, named Lyuba, was a six-month-old female at the time of death, approximately 10,000 years ago.

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Mammuthus primigenius (Baby) named "Dima," similar to Lyuba.
Credit: Sikander (public domain)

Evolutionary biology labs at the University of Colorado in Boulder have received anonymous threats that mention a group affiliated with creationism.

On Friday, anonymous threats were sent to the evolutionary biology labs at the University of Colorado at Boulder by email and when workers returned to their labs on Monday morning they found threatening messages slipped under their doors. The threats mention a group affiliated with creationism, but police did not release the name of the group as the matter is still under investigation.

Survivors of ex-gay ministries visit Ted Haggard's former church to tell of the harm caused by message that gays should change their orientation.

Yesterday Soulforce released video of an action outside New Life Church. To view the video, go to: http://www.soulforce.org/article/1281.

On Sunday, July 8, three survivors of "ex-gay" ministries and counseling -- Christine Bakke, Daniel Gonzales, and Peterson Toscano -- traveled to New Life Church to speak out about the emotional, financial, and spiritual harm caused by the message that lesbians and gays can and should change their sexual orientation. They told their stories just outside the west entrance of the church and then walked to the church's World Prayer Center to present framed collages depicting their experiences.