Discovery Health

The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation’s fastest growing cities, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest’s largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions.

If identical twins eat and exercise equally, must they have the same body weight? By analyzing the fundamental equations of body weight change, scientists find that identical twins with identical lifestyles can have different body weights and different amounts of body fat.

Researchers have devised a high-tech way to add anti-counterfeiting to plastic products as they are created in the molding process. The process could cost less than one percent of the total cost of manufacturing the product.

Last May, a widely reported study concluded that errant electronic noise from iPods can cause implantable cardiac pacemakers to malfunction. This just didn't sound right to the cardiac electrophysiologists at Children's Hospital Boston, who've seen hundreds of children, teens and young adults with pacemakers. Their own just-reported study finds no effect of digital music players on pacemaker function.

As steady increases in computing capability continue, some new technology will have to take over from silicon. Carbon nanotubes and superconductors may be the answer. The silicon chip, which has supplied several decades' worth of remarkable increases in computing power and speed, looks unlikely to be capable of sustaining this pace for more than another decade -- in fact, some say, the conventional silicon chip has no longer than four years left to run.