Parents could be asked to administer flu vaccine to their children

Ian Sample
guardian.co.uk
July 25, 2012

The NHS must find more than 1,000 extra school nurses to give the flu vaccine to healthy children under plans announced on Wednesday to expand the vaccination programme to all children aged two to 17.

Millions more people will be offered the vaccine, a nasal spray called Fluenz, under the scheme that is expected to run from 2014, the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said. Options being considered to administer it include allowing parents to vaccinate their own children.

The decision follows a report from the government’s advisers on vaccination policy, which drew on computer models to estimate that a 30% uptake of the vaccine could reduce deaths from seasonal influenza by 2,000 and lead to 11,000 fewer hospital admissions.

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Tags: Health, Healthcare, Science, technology

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Unique Chemical Bond Only Seen In Dwarf Stars Could Make Better Computers

Rebecca Boyle
PopSci.com
July 24, 2012

Stars are responsible for forging every heavy element in the universe when they fuse hydrogen and when they explode at the ends of their lives. But they also create a strange third type of chemical bond between atoms, caused by their incredible magnetic fields. This previously unknown type of bond could lead to new research in quantum science, perhaps even quantum computing.

Kai Lange, Trygve Helgaker and colleagues at the University of Oslo discovered this third bond by accident, when they were studying the magnetic fields in compact stars like white dwarfs, magnetars and neutron stars. Some white dwarfs have magnetic fields 10,000 times the strongest field anyone can produce on Earth, for instance, and neutron stars are five orders of magnitude more powerful. This is certain to introduce some strange behaviors that go beyond the Coulomb force we all know and love.

Basic chemistry teaches us that there are two types of bonds between atoms: Covalent bonds, where adjoining atoms simply share their outer-shell electrons, and ionic bonds, where two oppositely charged atoms are attracted to each other. This newly found third type only exists in these supercharged magnetic fields.

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Tags: Science, technology

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House could arrest Holder with inherent contempt power

Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Friday, June 29, 2012

Despite voting to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt ofCongress, there’s little House Republicans can do in the short term to compel him to turn over documents — unless it wanted to revisit a long-dormant power and arrest him.

The thought is shocking, and conjures up a Hollywood-ready standoff scene between House police and the FBI agents who protect the attorney general. It’s a dramatic and unlikely possibility not least because Congress doesn’t even have a jail any longer. But in theory it could happen.

Republicans say it’s not even under consideration, with House SpeakerJohn A. Boehner’s spokesman flatly ruling it out.

But the process, known as inherent contempt, is well-established by precedent, has been confirmed by multiple Supreme Court rulings, and is available to any Congress willing to force such a confrontation.

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New Welfare Clampdown Could Axe Housing Benefit From Under-25s

'The Prime Minister will use a speech in south-east England tomorrow to outline future radical changes which are aimed at saving an extra £10 billion by 2016 on top of existing plans.

Ministers expect this “next wave” of benefit cuts to include the axing of all housing benefit currently paid to around 380,000 people aged under 25. Such a move would force many to move back in with their parents rather than living independently.

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