Why Nobel Laureates Are Getting Older

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Scientists are making major discoveries at more advanced ages than in the past

By Zo? Corbyn and Nature magazine ?| January 16, 2012?|

Image: Ted Spiegel/Corbis

Albert Einstein once commented that ?a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.? This may have been an accurate reflection of physics in his time, but it is no longer the case?for physics or any other field. Benjamin Jones, an expert in innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Bruce Weinberg of Ohio State University analyzed 525 Nobel Prizes awarded in physics, chemistry and medicine between 1900 and 2008. With a few exceptions?notably quantum mechanics discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s?the trend across all fields is toward researchers being older when they produce their greatest work.? ?

To explain the aging effect, Jones and Weinberg suggest a shift from theoretical work, in which youngsters do better, toward experimental work, which requires aggregation of knowledge. They also believe that as fields expand, it may take longer to accumulate the knowledge necessary to make a novel contribution. ?

Those younger than 30 need not despair, though. The anomaly of quantum physics suggests that, in the case of a scientific revolution where established knowledge can be a hindrance rather than a help, the trend might reverse. ?If there are future revolutions out there, it may make people younger yet again,? Jones remarks.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=26a14e65fbed1e0c977a170f11c688a6

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The Search for the Smallest Bits of Space [Video]

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Craig Hogan, a physicist at the University of Chicago and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is building an experiment to see if spacetime isn’t smooth like everyone thinks, but rather bit-like and chunky on the smallest scales. The experiment is the focus of the cover story " Is Space Digital? " in the February 2012 issue of Scientific American , as well as this short video.

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AP Exclusive: Dad of CA killings suspect homeless

Refugio Ocampo, 49, father of Itzcoatl Ocampo, the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California, talks about his son in Fullerton, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Refugio is himself homeless and said that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Refugio Ocampo, 49, father of Itzcoatl Ocampo, the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California, talks about his son in Fullerton, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Refugio is himself homeless and said that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

A relative holds a government military photo of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

This Dec. 2011 photo provided by the family shows Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif. Ocampo has been named, Jan. 15, 2012, as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Ocampo Family)

This photo provided by the Anaheim Police Dept. shows Itzcoatl Ocampo. Investigators are "extremely confident" that Ocampo a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Anaheim Police Dept.)

Itzcoatl Ocampo's dress uniform, government military photo, dog tags and a religious medallion that went to war with him lie on display at Ocampo's home in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo, 23, who saw combat duty in Iraq, has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. Family members declined to be photographed. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) ? The father of the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California is himself homeless and says his son last week showed him a picture of one victim as a warning of the danger of being on the streets.

Refugio Ocampo, 49, also told The Associated Press on Sunday that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian.

The father said he lost his job and home, and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.

His 23-year-old son, Itzcoatl Ocampo, was arrested Friday in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men since late December.

Refugio Ocampo said that on Jan. 11 his son came to him with a picture of the first victim, who was killed on Dec. 20.

"This is what's happening," the father quoted his son as saying.

"He was very worried about me. I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me. I will find something. Count on it,'" the father said.

While Refugio Ocampo lives away from his family, they remain close. He saw his children every day, and his wife brings food to the parking lot where the truck is located in the city of Fullerton.

Itzcoatl Ocampo has been living with his mother, uncle, and little brother and sister in a humble rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda.

Refugio Ocampo, who said he was educated as a lawyer in Mexico, immigrated with his wife and Itzcoatl in 1988 and became a U.S. citizen. He described building a successful life in which he became a warehouse manager and bought a home in Yorba Linda. In the past few years he lost his job, ran out of savings and lost his house.

His son entered the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006 instead of going to college as his father had hoped. Itzcoatl Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home to find his family in disarray, the father said.

Refugio Ocampo and his youngest son, Mixcoatl, 17, both described a physical condition Itzcoatl suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, both said.

"He started drinking like crazy, too much, way too much," the father said.

A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and the father both tried to push Itzcoatl to get treatment at a Veterans hospital, but he refused. Refugio Ocampo said he wanted his son to get psychological treatment as well.

"He started talking about stuff that didn't make any sense, that the end of the world was going to happen," he said.

"Before, he had the initiative to do things, the desire. But after the military, he didn't have any of that," he said.

That was far from the son who in high school was a polite and motivated student, he said.

Refugio Ocampo said investigators came to him on Friday night and showed him surveillance photos from a crime scene, but he did not recognize his son as the person in the images.

"If he did it, it wasn't right, obviously. But there's something wrong with him," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-15-Homeless%20Homicides/id-71e3048f248c4f2c8d2794190c6c053b

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Revolutionary surgical technique for perforations of the eardrum

ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2012) ? A revolutionary surgical technique for treating perforations of the tympanic membrane (eardrum) in children and adults has been developed at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre, an affiliate of the Universit? de Montreal, by Dr. Issam Saliba. The new technique, which is as effective as traditional surgery and far less expensive, can be performed in 20 minutes at an outpatient clinic during a routine visit to an ENT specialist. The result is a therapeutic treatment that will be much easier for patients and parents, making surgery more readily available and substantially reducing clogged waiting lists.

"In the past five years, I've operated on 132 young patients in the outpatient clinic at the Sainte-Justine UHC using this technique, as well as on 286 adults at the University of Montreal Hospital Centre (CHUM) outpatient clinic," says Dr. Saliba. "Regardless of the size of the perforation, the results are as good as those obtained using traditional techniques, with the incomparable advantage that parents don't have to lose an entire working day, or 10 days or more off school in the case of children."

The technique, which Dr. Saliba has designated "HAFGM" (Hyaluronic Acid Fat Graft Myringoplasty), requires only basic materials: a scalpel, forceps, a probe, a small container of hyaluronic acid, a small amount of fat taken from behind the ear and a local anesthetic. The operation, which is performed through the ear canal, allows the body by itself to rebuild the entire tympanic membrane after about two months on average, allowing patients to recover their hearing completely and preventing recurring cases of ear infection (otitis). Because it requires no general anesthetic, operating theatre or hospitalization, the technique makes surgery much more readily available, particularly outside large hospital centres, and at considerably lower cost.

"With the traditional techniques, you have to be on the waiting list for up to a year and a half in order to be operated on. Myringoplasty (reconstruction of the eardrum) using the HAFGM technique reduces waiting times, cost of the procedure and time lost by parents and children. What's more, it will help clear the backlogs on waiting lists," Dr. Saliba says.

Perforations of the eardrum

Myringoplasty is surgical procedures to repair the tympanic membrane or eardrum when it has been perforated or punctured as the result of infection, trauma or dislodgement of a myringotomy tube (also known as a pressure equalization tube). Surgical repair of the perforation will allow the patient to recover his or her hearing and prevent repeated ear infections, particularly after swimming or shower. Traditionally, these procedures are performed using what are known as overlay and underlay techniques, which require hospitalization for at least one day, and 10 to 15 days off work. Every year in Quebec, some 750 myringoplasties are performed on adult or child patients.

Details of the study

This world premiere of a new form of eardrum surgery is based on results of a four-year prospective cohort study of 208 children and adolescents, 73 of whom were treated using the new HAFGM technique. This study was published on December 16, 2011 in the scientific journal Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery by Dr. Issam Saliba, otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat or ENT specialist), surgeon and researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre affiliated with the Universit? de Montr?al, where he is also professor of otology and neuro-otology. Dr. Saliba is also a surgeon and researcher at the CHUM, where he conducted a similar study, applying the same HAFGM technique to cohorts of adult patients between 2007 and 2010, with publication in the August 20, 2008 issue of the scientific journal Clinical Otolaryngology and subsequently in the February 12, 2011 issue of The Laryngoscope. The University of Montreal and Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre are known officially as Universit? de Montr?al and Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, respectively.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universit? de Montr?al, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. I. Saliba, P. Froehlich. Hyaluronic Acid Fat Graft Myringoplasty: An Office-Based Technique Adapted to Children. Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 2011; 137 (12): 1203 DOI: 10.1001/archoto.2011.188

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120116112610.htm

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84-year-old Thai king treated for abdominal pain (AP)

BANGKOK ? Thailand's 84-year-old king has been treated with intravenous antibiotics after experiencing abdominal pain.

The Royal Household Bureau says in a statement that King Bhumipol Adulyadej "experienced some indigestion" Saturday and was breathing faster than normal.

The statement says that doctors detected pain in his lower left abdomen and that an X-ray showed a digestive condition common in older people, known as diverticulitis. After injecting antibiotics, the king's breathing returned to normal Sunday and he was able to eat "easily digestible food."

Bhumipol entered Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital in September 2009 with a lung inflammation and has stayed there ever since. The palace has said he is getting physical therapy and nourishment to recover his strength.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_king_s_health

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Russia spacecraft aimed at Mars moon headed for Earth crash

An ill-fated 14.6-ton Russian spacecraft built to explore the Martian moon Phobos is expected to crash back to Earth this weekend, Russian officials said.

Exactly where and when Phobos-Ground will strike, nobody knows. But scientists say it could fall as far north as London or as far south as Patagonia, leaving most populated portions of the planet at risk. Most of the craft will burn up as it reenters the atmosphere, and because the majority of Earth's surface is covered by water, chances are the space vehicle won't crash on land.

A number of conditions, including weather and the craft's position as it reenters the atmosphere, will influence its final fall to the ground. But the Russian Space Agency, or Roskosmos, said Friday on its website that its best estimate was that the craft would reenter Earth's atmosphere shortly after noon Sunday (Pacific Time) off the southern coast of South America.

Phobos-Ground was to be an important mission for Roskosmos because it was the space agency's first planetary mission beyond Earth in 15 years, said Anatoly Zak, editor of the website RussianSpaceWeb.com. The craft was designed to retrieve a sample from Phobos and return it to Earth.

"It was a jump-start for the Russian planetary exploration program," said Zak, who is based in Morristown, N.J. "It was important culturally, scientifically, politically."

A number of recent Russian launch failures raised the stakes for Phobos-Ground, others said.

Charles Vick, who follows the Russian space program at the military policy research firm GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Va., said that lapses in quality control led Phobos-Ground to malfunction shortly after its November launch.

"There was testing that didn't get done," he said. "It goes back to an industrial base that is trying to reconstitute itself on limited funding."

U.S. officials who track space debris kept their comments about the crippled craft to a minimum.

"It's a Russian spacecraft; Russia speaks," NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said.

Roskosmos did not respond to requests for an interview.

However, agency head Vladimir Popovkin acknowledged to the Russian newspaper Izvestia this week that limited funds and out-of-warranty components may have played a role in Phobos-Ground's failure to leave Earth orbit.

Controversially, he also said he believed foreign interference could have played a role.

Because of the tilt of its orbit around Earth, scientists know Phobos-Ground will fall somewhere between 51.4 degrees north and 51.4 degrees south of the equator.

About 20 to 30 pieces are expected to survive and fall to Earth.

Those are most likely to fall in water, said Bill Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo.

The chances that any pieces would hit people are minuscule, Ailor said.

The Planetary Society in Pasadena was among the teams that sent experiments into space aboard Phobos-Ground. The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment was intended to measure the effects of interplanetary travel on microbes that would have made the round-trip journey on a simulated space rock.

Executive Director Bill Nye said the experiment's "biomodule" was among the pieces that might survive the descent. But he acknowledged that it probably would wind up in an ocean.

In September, the U.S. Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, made an uncontrolled reentry after sending data to atmospheric scientists for 14 years; its debris is believed to have fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Germany's ROSAT astronomy satellite reentered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Bay of Bengal in October.

eryn.brown@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/XYZzL5lwpwE/la-sci-phobos-ground-20120114,0,1845435.story

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Crowd too big, Beijing Apple store cancels sale

A Chinese man in a red hood reacts since he is pushed away by police officers after he refused to leave the Apple Store as stains of eggs are left in its glass wall in the background in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular smartphones. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A Chinese man in a red hood reacts since he is pushed away by police officers after he refused to leave the Apple Store as stains of eggs are left in its glass wall in the background in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular smartphones. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A policeman tries to drag away people who refused to leave the Apple Store in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular new iPhone 4S model. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Stains of an egg are seen on the iPhone 4S logo on the Apple store's glass wall in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular smartphones. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Chinese people wait outside an Apple Store to buy the iPhone 4S model in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular smartphones. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A policeman, center left, tries to disperse the crowd outside an Apple store in Beijing Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. An angry crowd shouted and threw eggs at Apple's Beijing flagship store after it failed to open on schedule Friday to sell the popular new iPhone 4S model. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING (AP) ? Raw eggs splattered and streaked the gleaming windows of Beijing's Apple store Friday, hurled by angry and frustrated shoppers when the launch of the iPhone 4S was canceled due to fears over the size of the crowd.

The incident highlighted the role of Chinese middlemen who buy up wildly popular iPhones or smuggle them from abroad for resale at a big markup.

Hundreds of customers ? including migrant workers hired by scalpers in teams of 20 to 30 ? waited overnight in freezing temperatures outside the Apple store in a shopping mall in Beijing's east side Sanlitun district.

When the store failed to open as scheduled at 7 a.m., the crowd erupted in anger. Some pelted the store with eggs and shouted at employees through the windows.

A person with a megaphone announced the sale was canceled. Police ordered the crowd to leave and sealed off the area with yellow tape.

There were shouts of "What are you doing?" and "Go in! Go in!" as some of the people were pushed away from the entrance.

Employees posted a sign saying the iPhone 4S was out of stock.

"We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being," said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.

The iPhone 4S quickly sold out at other Apple stores in China, Wu said. She said the phone still will be sold in China through Apple's online store, its local carrier China Unicom Ltd. and authorized resellers.

Wu declined to comment on what Apple might know about scalpers buying iPhones for resale.

China is Apple's fastest-growing market and "an area of enormous opportunity," CEO Tim Cook said in October. He said quarterly sales were up nearly four times from a year earlier and accounted for one-sixth of Apple's global sales.

Apple's China stores are routinely mobbed for the release of new products.

The company has its own stores only in Beijing and Shanghai, with a handful of authorized retailers in other cities, so middlemen who buy iPhones and resell them in other areas can make big profits, said Wang Ying, who follows the cellphone market for Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing.

"Apple is making a lot of money, so it is not too concerned about the scalpers," Wang said.

Wang and other industry analysts said the size of the underground trade and price markups are unclear.

In Shanghai, stores limited iPhone 4S sales to two per customer. Several hundred people were waiting when the stores opened, bundled up against the cold. Some passed the time playing mahjong.

Buyers included 500 older people from neighboring Jiangsu province who were hired by the boss of a cellphone market, the newspaper Oriental Morning Post said. They arrived aboard an 11-bus convoy and were paid 150 yuan ($23) each.

Online bulletin boards were filled with comments about Friday's buying frenzy, many complaining about or ridiculing the scalpers.

An Apple contractor manufactures iPhones in China, but new models are released in other countries first. That has fueled a thriving "gray market" in China for phones smuggled in from Hong Kong and other markets.

Last May, the Sanlitun store was closed for several hours after a scuffle between an employee and a customer during the release of the iPhone 4, the previous model in the series.

Customers began gathering Thursday afternoon outside the Sanlitun store. People in the crowd said the number grew to as many as 2,000 overnight but many left when word spread the store would not open. About 350 people remained when the protest erupted after 7 a.m.

"On the one hand there is poor organization and on the other there were just too many people," said a man outside the Sanlitun store who gave only his surname, Miao. "I don't think they prepared well enough."

Another man who refused to give his name said he was a migrant laborer who was paid 100 yuan ($15) to wait in line overnight.

Others said scalpers had organized groups of 20-30 migrant workers to buy phones or hold places in line. Organizers held colored balloons aloft to identify themselves to their workers.

Beijing resident Zhu Xiaodong said he was waiting to buy the phone for himself.

"I just like the 4S," he said, adding that he was upgrading from the previous iPhone 4 model.

The iPhone 4S had its debut Oct. 14 in the United States and six other countries.

The delay between the release of Apple products in the U.S. and in China has yet to affect the company's reputation with Chinese customers, said Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a research firm in Beijing.

For other products, such a delay "sort of gives the impression here that you're not giving the Chinese consumer a fair shake," Dean said. "But demand and that 'cool factor' is so huge for Apple products that you don't hear that about them."

___

Associated Press writer David Wivell, researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing, all in Beijing, and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Apple Inc.: http:://www.apple.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-13-AS-China-Apple/id-9eb125dcdbce4cc9a02e21c404d1550d

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