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Risk for patients in the intensive care unit clearly reduced By News Releases (University Hospital Heidelberg) To get life-threatening diseases under control, patients in the intensive care unit usually are administered many medications at the same time. Even for experts, it is difficult to keep track of the variety of possible side effects and interactions. The team headed by Dr. Thilo Bertsche, director of the cooperation unit for clinical pharmacy at Heidelberg University Hospital, has now shown that physicians can reduce serious events resulting from drug interactions by about half with the help of the "AiDKlinik" drug information system.

NoMix toilets get thumbs-up in 7 European countries By News Releases (American Chemical Society) People in seven European countries have positive attitudes toward a new eco-friendly toilet that could substantially reduce pollution problems and conserve water and nutrients, scientists in Switzerland are reporting. Their article, which calls on authorities to give wider support for the innovative toilet technology, is in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

World crude oil production may peak a decade earlier than some predict By News Releases (American Chemical Society) In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil and intensify the search for alternative fuel sources, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 -- almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS' Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal.

Texas earthquake study cites 'plausible cause' By News Releases (Southern Methodist University) A study published in the March issue of "The Leading Edge" examines series of small earthquakes occurring near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 16, 2009.

Fifty years of the 'light fantastic:' Laser advances spark scientific progress By News Releases (American Chemical Society) Fifty years after the first laser sparked a technological revolution, the "light fantastic" continues to impact people's daily lives -- by playing DVDs, speeding Internet connections, and performing intricate surgery. As the golden anniversary of the announcement of the first laser approaches on July 7th, Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine, takes a special look at the past, present, and exciting future of this amazing invention.

A huge step toward mass production of coveted form of carbon By News Releases (American Chemical Society) Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human hair with unique electronic properties. Their study appears in ACS' Nano Letters, a monthly journal.

Nitric oxide-releasing wrap for donor organs and cloth for therapeutic socks By News Releases (American Chemical Society) Scientists in Texas are reporting development of a first-of-its-kind cloth that releases nitric oxide gas -- an advance toward making therapeutic socks for people with diabetes and a wrap to help preserve organs harvested for transplantation. The study is in ACS' Chemistry of Materials, a bi-weekly journal.

Galaxy study validates general relativity on cosmic scale, existence of dark matter By News Releases (University of California - Berkeley) While general relativity describes well the behavior of the solar system, Einstein's theory of gravity and spacetime has not been tested on cosmological scales. Now, a team that includes UC Berkeley physicist Uros Seljak has analyzed data on 70,000 galaxies to show that the theory is so far the best description of the universe, at least out to 3.5 billion light years from Earth. Specifically, theories without dark matter do not fit the observations.

Studies that compare effectiveness of medications often do not include nonpharmacologic therapies By News Releases (JAMA and Archives Journals) An analysis of comparative effectiveness studies finds that few compare medications with nonpharmacologic interventions, and few examine safety or cost-effectiveness, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

Most extreme white dwarf binary system found with orbit of just 5 minutes By News Releases (University of Warwick) An international team of astronomers, including Professor Tom Marsh and Dr. Danny Steeghs from the University of Warwick, have shown that the two stars in the binary HM Cancri definitely revolve around each other in a mere 5.4 minutes. This makes HM Cancri the binary star with by far the shortest known orbital period. It is also the smallest known binary.