Physorg

(AP) -- Hundreds of Iraqi artifacts looted from museums and archaeological sites across the country have been returned to Iraq.

(AP) -- Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.

(PhysOrg.com) -- While the optical laser celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year, some scientists have been working on a new type of coherent beam amplifier for sound rather than light. Scientists theorize that phonons, which are the smallest discrete unit of vibrational energy, can be amplified by a phonon laser to generate a highly coherent beam of sound (particularly, high-frequency ultrasound), similar to how an optical laser generates a highly coherent beam of light. However, phonon laser research is still a relatively new area. In a new study, scientists have for the first time demonstrated the possibility that phonons can be collectively excited in an ultra-cold atomic gas in a way that is similar to how an optical laser excites photons, prompting the scientists to call the proposed device a "phaser."

(AP) -- Japan has confirmed the nation's first case of a new gene in bacteria that allows the microorganisms to become drug-resistant superbugs, detected in a man who had medical treatment in India, a Health Ministry official said Tuesday.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Uncle Sam, Carnegie Mellon's latest robotic snake, has been taught to climb trees. The snake is the newest version of "modsnake" created by the Biorobotics Laboratory at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Many engineering disciplines rely on supercomputers to simulate complicated physical phenomena - how cracks form in building materials, for instance, or fluids flow through irregular channels. Now, researchers in MIT`s Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed software that can perform such simulations on an ordinary smart phone. Although the current version of the software is for demonstration purposes, the work could lead to applications that let engineers perform complicated calculations in the field, and even to better control systems for vehicles or robotic systems.

(PhysOrg.com) -- People's life evaluations rise steadily with income, but their reported quality of emotional daily experience levels off at a certain income level, according to a new study by two Princeton University professors.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Brain-scanning study shows Ritalin improves impaired brain function in people addicted to cocaine, implying it could play a role in facilitating recovery from addiction.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Newborn babies with low levels of vitamin D have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute have found.

(PhysOrg.com) -- We and all other organisms must constantly grapple with bacteria. Whether for a necessary symbiosis or an infection, carbohydrate structures on cell surfaces play an important role in the interactions between bacteria and organisms.

Liu Tao grimaces as he leaps up and down doing jumping jacks, one of the exercises he sweats through under a revived daily calisthenics routine that authorities in Beijing want all workers to perform.

The United States must focus on conserving the use of antibacterial drugs, or face a public health crisis from rapidly rising rates of antibiotic-resistant infections, according to an analysis out today.

About 17 percent of all visits to hospital emergency departments across the United States could be treated at retail medical clinics or urgent care centers, potentially saving $4.4 billion annually in health care costs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

(AP) -- Oracle Corp. has hired former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd to help lead the database software maker in a pivotal moment in Oracle's 33-year history as it tries to muscle in on more of HP's turf.

(PhysOrg.com) -- An optical illusion is about to be trialed in West Vancouver, Canada, starting September 7, to try to jolt reckless drivers into slowing down.

Food manufacturers advertise a variety of foods on grocery store shelves by using nutrient claims on the front of packaging. A study in the September/October issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior evaluates how consumers are interpreting certain carbohydrate-related content claims and the effects of claims on consumer perceptions of food products. Findings from this study reveal that consumers misinterpret low carbohydrate claims to have health benefits and weight loss qualities beyond their nutrition facts.

(AP) -- AOL is adding talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to its family of Web properties as it looks for ways to draw more people to its sites.

A surface molecule on bacteria that instructs bone cells to die could be the target for new treatments for bone disease, says a scientist speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting today.

(AP) -- An Indonesian volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air Tuesday, dusting villages 15 miles (25 kilometers) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.

Today, The Endocrine Society released a new clinical practice guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The guideline features a series of evidence-based clinical recommendations developed by an expert task force.