Friday, June 28, 2013

Voyager 1 Returns Surprising Data about an Unexplored Region of Deep Space

Voyager 1

Credit: NASA

About the Voyager 1 spacecraft, this much is clear: the NASA probe has traveled farther than any other. Voyager 1 is now more than 18.5 billion kilometers from the sun?almost 125 times the distance between Earth and the sun. The spacecraft, one of two Voyagers launched by NASA in 1977, is truly in unexplored territory?so much so that defining its current whereabouts poses a bit of a challenge.

Someday soon, it is expected, Voyager 1 will become the first spacecraft to exit the heliosphere?the bubble of solar plasma encasing the sun and planets?and enter the interstellar medium. Right now, however, Voyager appears to be crossing through one of several puzzling new regions of the heliosphere that mission planners had not anticipated.

In a trio of studies published online June 27 in Science, Voyager scientists describe the latest heliospheric wrinkle discovered by the probe en route to interstellar space. Voyager 1, they report, appears to have crossed last August into what is now being called the ?heliosheath depletion region.? The researchers described some characteristics of the new region in a December 2012 teleconference with reporters, but the new studies go into far more detail about Voyager 1?s environs.

Voyager 1 instruments

Credit: NASA

One major change signaling that Voyager had entered new territory was a sudden decrease in the number of particles from the sun hitting the spacecraft?s Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument. On August 25, those solar particles dropped to less than one-thousandth their prior levels. Simultaneously, cosmic rays emanating from sources elsewhere in the galaxy began striking the LECP at a rate nearly 10 percent above the previous clip.

A second particle detector known as the Voyager Cosmic Ray Subsystem noted a similar change: charged atomic nuclei from the sun disappeared as nuclei from outside the solar system surged.

Such changes might seem a clear marker that Voyager 1 has completed its ultimate mission by breaking free of the sun?s plasma cocoon and reporting back from the unexplored realm of interstellar space. But crucial measurements from a third Voyager instrument contradict that conclusion.

The heliopause?the boundary between the local heliosphere and the interstellar medium beyond?is a boundary not only of particles but of magnetic fields as well. And although the magnetometer on Voyager 1 did register an increase in magnetic field strength as the spacecraft crossed over into the new realm, the direction of the magnetic field did not change. So either Voyager 1 has measured the interstellar magnetic field and found that it somehow perfectly aligns with the solar system (a possibility that the Voyager researchers consider ?highly improbable?) or, more likely, the spacecraft remains within the sun?s magnetic domain.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that the heliosheath depletion region now being explored by Voyager is a new kind of solar system environment, one where the sun?s influence wanes and interstellar particles can enter more easily. And although the new region appears not to qualify as interstellar, the researchers report, it ?may form part of the interface between solar plasma and the galaxy.?

So godspeed, Voyager. May you soon reach interstellar space?a place humankind has never before accessed. And may we know it when you see it.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/ZioCSCkifoc/post.cfm

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U.S. military court overturns Marine's conviction in Iraqi's death

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The highest U.S. military appeals court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of a Marine sergeant found guilty in 2007 of leading a squad in Iraq that was accused of killing a civilian they had captured, bound and gagged.

Three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins gave a statement to a U.S. Navy investigator while in custody that should have been ruled inadmissible and tainted his court-martial.

The case stems from the 2006 death in Hamdania, Iraq, of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, a father of 11 and grandfather of four.

In 2007, a court-martial at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego sentenced Hutchins to 15 years in military prison after finding him guilty of unpremeditated murder, larceny and other crimes.

Hutchins was the leader of a squad that went on a mission aimed at stopping militants' use of improvised explosive devices. Witnesses had testified that Hutchins and another Marine shot Awad and placed an AK-47 and a shovel next to the corpse to suggest he had been planting a bomb.

Earlier, Awad had been bound and gagged at another location, according to a finding by a lower court of appeal for the military.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces said that in May 2006, a Navy investigator began to question Hutchins but he invoked his right to an attorney and was put under guard in a trailer.

Hutchins was not allowed to call a lawyer and no attorney was provided to him, according to the ruling written by Judge Charles Erdmann. Seven days later, the investigator entered the trailer and asked to search Hutchins' belongings and the sergeant said he wanted to talk, the ruling states.

The next day, Hutchins provided a written confession, the ruling stated.

The court found that after Hutchins requested an attorney the investigator had initiated the conversation - by coming back for a search. That led to Hutchins' admission and the judge and two colleagues found that it violated his constitutional right to remain silent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found "it was an error for the military judge to admit the statement made by Hutchins," which was used at his court-martial.

"Therefore, notwithstanding the other evidence of Hutchins' guilt, there is a reasonable likelihood that the statement contributed to the verdict," the court ruled.

A spokesman for Camp Pendleton where the 2007 court-martial was held said he could not comment on whether Hutchins might soon be released from custody.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces sent the case to a military judge advocate general for referral to an "appropriate convening authority who may authorize a rehearing."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-court-overturns-marines-conviction-iraqis-death-040915181.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Supermoon photos: Spectacular moon pics wow stargazers

Supermoon photos: Sunday's full moon coincided with our natural satellite's closest distance from the Earth, making it the biggest full moon of the year.

By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / June 25, 2013

Experienced space photographers Edwin Aguirre and Imelda Joson created this composite view of the biggest full moon of 2013, a so-called 'supermoon,' from a series of images taken as the full moon rose over downtown Boston on Sunday.

Imelda B. Joson and Edwin L. Aguirre

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If you happened to catch the full moon over the weekend, you may have noticed a slightly bigger and brighter display than usual ??a lunar view that captivated skywatchers around the world. Dubbed the "supermoon," Sunday's full moon on June 23 was the largest moon of the year, because the moon's full phase coincided with its arrival at perigee, its closest distance from Earth.

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In spots with good weather Sunday night, the moon offered an awesome sight. SPACE.com readers sent in supermoon photos from across the United States, as well as Canada, Guam, Macedonia, Italy, and other far-flung locales.

"Because of the haze, the rising moon exhibited a vivid reddish orange color, similar to that of a deep total lunar eclipse," photographer Edwin Aguirre, who snapped photos of the?supermoon?from Boston, told SPACE.com in an email. "Others thought?it looked like the red planet Mars. The sky cooperated so everyone had a great time." [Photos: Dazzling Supermoon Views for June 2013]

"Dozens of people, young and old, gathered well before dark where we were ? at Robbins Farm Park in Arlington, which overlooks the city skyline," Aguirre wrote. "They brought blankets and lawn chairs ??and their dogs ??to enjoy not only the spectacular view, but also the nice, cool evening breeze, which was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity earlier in the day."In many places, moon watching over the weekend was a big event.

Some celebrated the supermoon in style.

"Took the kids out to see the supermoon near Las Vegas," wrote Tyler S. Leavitt, whose children dressed in capes and spandex for the occasion. "They had so much fun running around as superheroes as the moon rose."

The?supermoon occurs?because the moon's orbit around our planet is not perfectly circular, so sometimes it swings closer than others. When the moon is also full at the time, it creates a vision that's about 12 percent larger in the sky than other full moons.

In addition, when the moon is sighted low on the horizon, behind trees and buildings, the contrast can create an optical illusion that makes the moon seem even bigger.

"The total personal experience is surely wonderful!!" Giuseppe Petricca from Pisa, Italy wrote in an email. "And the 'horizon illusion' makes you really think that the moon is way bigger that the reality."

If you missed this supermoon, your next chance to observe an especially large full moon is more than a year away, on Aug. 10, 2014.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AMR4q7PdSZw/Supermoon-photos-Spectacular-moon-pics-wow-stargazers

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

UCLA beats Miss. St. 3-1 in opener of CWS finals

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? UCLA followed its script yet again.

The Bruins churned out a few early runs and let their pitching and defense take care of the rest in a 3-1 victory over Mississippi State on Monday night in the opener of the College World Series finals.

They're one win from their first national championship in baseball and their school's record 109th in a team sport.

"We dodged some bullets, no doubt about it, but you have to give credit to our defense," UCLA coach John Savage said. "Kind of a Bruin game. Tight game, and at the end of the night we were fortunate to come out with the win."

The Bruins (48-17) know it won't be easy to finish off a Mississippi State team that had an estimated 8,000 fans migrate from the Magnolia State to be at TD Ameritrade Park to see their team play for the school's first national title in any sport.

Adam Plutko limited the Bulldogs (51-19) to a run on four hits in six innings and turned the game over to his bullpen. The Bulldogs left runners in scoring position in four of the last six innings.

"They're great hitters, they grind it out every at-bat, and they're not going away," UCLA closer David Berg said. "They want to win this thing as bad as we do. They're not going to give it up."

Bulldogs second baseman Brett Pirtle said he and his teammates can't give the Bruins any openings because they're so capable of capitalizing on them.

"Nobody that's extra special," Pirtle said of the Bruins. "They're just small ball. They bunt and put pressure on the defense, and that's what helped them out, and that's the kind of ballclub they are. So keeping runners off base and just catching the ball and putting pressure on them will help us win the game tomorrow."

The Bruins can play some defense, too. Eric Filia made a great catch in right field to rob Trey Porter of extra bases in the fourth inning, Cody Regis made a couple diving stops and also started both of UCLA's double plays.

UCLA is 40-0 when leading after seven innings. There was drama all the way to the end.

The Bruins made it 3-0 in the fourth on Filia's two-out, two-run single off Chad Girodo, who replaced starter Trevor Fitts (0-1) in the second. That was the last of the Bruins' six hits.

Mississippi State's fans started the "Maroon and White" chant in the bottom of the ninth after C.T. Bradford and pinch-hitter Sam Frost singled to put runners on first and second with one out against Berg.

Nick Ammirati flew out, and pinch-hitter Jacob Robson ended the game with his comebacker to Berg, who sprinted toward first base before under-handing the ball to Pat Gallagher.

Berg, making his 50th appearance of the season, earned his NCAA-record 24th save for 1 2-3 innings of work.

"Records are meant to be broken, but titles are what matter," Berg said. "So if we all win a national championship, I'll enjoy that. But right now I don't think about it at all."

The loss spoiled a splendid performance by Girodo, who pitched the last 7 2-3 innings. He allowed three hits, walked two and struck out nine. Both runs against him were unearned.

Plutko (10-3) walked in Mississippi State's only run in the fourth. He wasn't overly sharp, but he continued his impressive run in postseason play. In eight career NCAA tournament games, he's 7-0 with an 0.94 ERA.

The Bruins brought a .248 season batting average into the finals, and a .182 average through their first three CWS games.

They eked out enough offense to win again. In the first three innings, they had batters reach on a dropped third strike, infield single, two hit batsmen and a throwing error.

But there were big hits, too.

Filia, who came in 1 for 9 in the CWS, doubled after Kevin Kramer struck out but reached because strike three was in the dirt. Pat Valaika's single to center drove in Kramer for a 1-0 lead.

"First baserunner of the game kind of spells it out," Bulldogs coach John Cohen said. "I really wish that kid hadn't swung at that pitch. I'm not saying it to be a smart aleck, but that kid doesn't swing at that pitch, it lands in front of the plate, I think the ballgame could be different. But crazy things happen in sports."

The Bruins added two more in the fourth. Brenton Allen singled and Brian Carroll reached when he bunted and catcher Ammirati made a bad throw to first.

Carroll ran into the Bulldogs' 6-foot-5, 272-pound first baseman Wes Rea while running through the bag. Rea stayed down after the knee-to-knee contact but was able to keep playing after an athletic trainer attended to him. Allen and Carroll came home on Filia's base hit to right.

Alex Detz and Brett Pirtle produced Mississippi State's first and second hits against Plutko with one out in the fourth. Rea was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

That got the "Maroon and White" chant started as Bradford came up to face Plutko. Bradford fouled off three straight pitches before the count ran full. Plutko walked him with a high changeup, scoring Detz. Plutko's 30-pitch inning ended when Trey Porter lined out.

Plutko had to endure more stress in the fifth. Filia made his big catch on Ammirati, and Demarcus Henderson reached when Plutko misplayed a comebacker, and moved to second on a balk. The inning ended with Detz's line out to second.

Freshman reliever James Kaprielian came on in the seventh with a man on and none out. After he walked Ammirati, Henderson, the team leader in sacrifice bunts, fouled off two bunt tries and then grounded to second for the first of UCLA's two double plays.

"Not much to get excited about," Savage said. "It comes down to tomorrow."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ucla-beats-miss-st-3-1-opener-cws-035257713.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Giving children non-verbal clues about words boosts vocabularies

June 24, 2013 ? The clues that parents give toddlers about words can make a big difference in how deep their vocabularies are when they enter school, new research at the University of Chicago shows.

By using words to reference objects in the visual environment, parents can help young children learn new words, according to the research. It also explores the difficult-to-measure quality of non-verbal clues to word meaning during interactions between parents and children learning to speak. For example, saying, "There goes the zebra" while visiting the zoo helps a child learn the word "zebra" faster than saying, "Let's go to see the zebra."

Differences in the quality of parents' non-verbal clues to toddlers (what children can see when their parents are talking) explain about a quarter (22 percent) of the differences in those same children's vocabularies when they enter kindergarten, researchers found. The results are reported in the paper, "Quality of early parent input predicts child vocabulary three years later," published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Children's vocabularies vary greatly in size by the time they enter school," said lead author Erica Cartmill, a postdoctoral scholar at UChicago. "Because preschool vocabulary is a major predictor of subsequent school success, this variability must be taken seriously and its sources understood."

Scholars have found that the number of words youngsters hear greatly influences their vocabularies. Parents with higher socioeconomic status -- those with higher income and more education -- typically talk more to their children and accordingly boost their vocabularies, research has shown.

That advantage for higher-income families doesn't show up in the quality research, however.

"What was surprising in this study was that social economic status did not have an impact on quality. Parents of lower social economic status were just as likely to provide high-quality experiences for their children as were parents of higher status," said co-author Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at UChicago.

Although scholars have amassed impressive evidence that the number of words children hear -- the quantity of their linguistic input -- has an impact on vocabulary development, measuring the quality of the verbal environment -- including non-verbal clues to word meaning -- has proved much more difficult.

To measure quality, the research team reviewed videotapes of everyday interactions between 50 primary caregivers, almost all mothers, and their children (14 to 18 months old). The mothers and children, from a range of social and economic backgrounds, were taped for 90-minute periods as they went about their days, playing and engaging in other activities.

The team then showed 40-second vignettes from these videotapes to 218 adults with the sound track muted. Based on the interaction between the child and parent, the adults were asked to guess what word the parent in each vignette used when a beep was sounded on the tape.

A beep might occur, for instance, in a parent's silenced speech for the word "book" as a child approaches a bookshelf or brings a book to the mother to start storytime. In this scenario, the word was easy to guess because the mother labeled objects as the child saw and experienced them. In other tapes, viewers were unable to guess the word that was beeped during the conversation, as there were few immediate clues to the meaning of the parent's words. Vignettes containing words that were easy to guess provided high-quality clues to word meaning.

Although there were no differences in the quality of the interactions based on parents' backgrounds, the team did find significant individual differences among the parents studied. Some parents provided non-verbal clues about words only 5 percent of the time, while others provided clues 38 percent of the time, the study found.

The study also found that the number of words parents used was not related to the quality of the verbal exchanges. "Early quantity and quality accounted for different aspects of the variance found in the later vocabulary outcome measure," the authors wrote. In other words, how much parents talk to their children (quantity), and how parents use words in relation to the non-verbal environment (quality) provided different kinds of input into early language development.

"However, parents who talk more are, by definition, offering their children more words, and the more words a child hears, the more likely it will be for that child to hear a particular word in a high-quality learning situation," they added. This suggests that higher-income families' vocabulary advantage comes from a greater quantity of input, which leads to a greater number of high-quality word-learning opportunities. DMaking effective use of non-verbal cues may be a good way for parents to get their children started on the road to language.

Joining Cartmill and Goldin-Meadow as authors were University of Pennsylvania scholars Lila Gleitman, professor emerita of psychology; John Trueswell, professor of psychology; Benjamin Armstrong, a research assistant; and Tamara Medina, assistant professor of psychology at Drexel University.

The work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/U2KmlDslfMQ/130624152529.htm

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Web companies to disclose surveillance information after deal with U.S.

By Joseph Menn and Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Several Internet companies have struck an agreement with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying in a blog post that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users' accounts.

The agreements underscore the pressure imposed on the U.S. government and Internet companies after news leaked last week of a controversial National Security Agency program involving surveillance of foreigners. The disclosure of that program triggered concern about the scope and extent of the information-gathering exercise.

Other Internet companies are expected to release numbers of government requests without breaking out how many originate from the National Security Agency, the sources said.

Google, Facebook and Microsoft have publicly urged the U.S. government to allow them to reveal the number and scope of the surveillance requests they receive, including confidential requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Google and Microsoft declined to comment.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/companies-disclose-surveillance-deal-u-010442116.html

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Erdogan quiets Istanbul with softer tone, but calm is likely to be brief

Prime Minister Erdogan temporarily placated Turkish protesters by pausing development of Gezi Park, but their grievances run deeper. It will take more to stop demonstrations for good.

By Jeremy Ravinsky,?Contributor / June 14, 2013

Protesters hold hands to isolate an area for others to attend prayers in Taksim square, Friday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan softened his tone, telling Taksim Square's protesters that he has received their message and will at least temporarily halt plans for redeveloping Gezi Park.

Vadim Ghirda/AP

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? A daily roundup of global reports

Skip to next paragraph Jeremy Ravinsky

Contributor

Jeremy Ravinsky is an intern at the Christian Science Monitor's international desk. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Jeremy has lived in Boston for a number of years, attending Tufts University where he is a political science major. Before coming to the Monitor, Jeremy interned at GlobalPost in Boston and Bturn.com in Belgrade, Serbia.

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Today, only a day after issuing his ?final? warning to Taksim Square?s protesters, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan softened his tone, telling them that he has received their message and will at least temporarily halt plans for redeveloping Gezi Park.

After a night of meetings with protest representatives, Mr. Erdogan announced in a speech that the future of Gezi Park, the issue that sparked two-week long anti-government demonstrations, will be decided by the courts, reports?the Guardian.

Although tensions across the country have eased since reaching a fever pitch earlier this week,?many believe that Erdogan?s bid to defuse the unrest won?t be enough to end the demonstrations. For many, the protests are about something much bigger than the issue of Gezi Park: the direction Turkey will take in the future.

Protests began two weeks ago, when a group of peaceful protesters staged a demonstration to attempt to stop the destruction of Gezi Park, one of Istanbul?s last green spaces, to make way for a mall and housing complex. After police violently broke up the sit-in, thousands more took to the streets to protest what they see has the increasingly authoritarian style of Erdogan?s rule and the gradual erosion of secular values by his Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), says?the Los Angeles Times.

Protesters accuse Erdogan, who won 50 percent of the vote in his last election, of behaving like an autocrat and only representing those who voted for him. Much of the country feels increasingly alienated by controversial policies, such as limiting the sale of alcohol and birth control.

Though at first defiant, even going so far as to label the protesters as "terrorists," Erdogan came under increasing pressure after several brutal police crackdowns which resulted in injuries to some 5,000 people. Yesterday the European Parliament voted to condemn Turkey for its use of violence against the demonstrators. And according to?Today?s Zaman, Germany is seeking to suspend Turkey?s EU accession talks.?

Should the court rule in favor of the government, a referendum will be held over the fate of Gezi Park. But many protesters told The Christian Science Monitor this is not enough.

Demonstrators and others at odds with the government say they are skeptical of its commitment to conducting a free and fair referendum about the park. Many point out that Erdogan could have held such a vote?long before the situation escalated to clashes?between protesters and police.

?We don?t trust the results of these elections. Maybe they?ll change the results,? says Yasin Arslan, an aeronautical engineer now in Gezi Park.?

What?s more, it is not clear that Erdogan's concessions will end the demonstrations. According to Al-Monitor, the Taksim Platform ? a coalition of 80 NGOs leading the protests ? have stated that they will neither honor a referendum nor vacate the park.

This weekend, as protestors remain at their camps, the AKP will be holding mass rallies in Istanbul and Ankara, reports?Today?s Zaman. Widely believed to be displays of force to counter the anti-government protests, AKP officials claim that the rallies are simply a part of their campaign for 2014 municipal elections.

But as Bloomberg points out, opposition parties have called for their cancellation, fearing that the rallies will only stoke tensions.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/c3miSRhkXPI/Erdogan-quiets-Istanbul-with-softer-tone-but-calm-is-likely-to-be-brief

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A Survey of LGBT Americans | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

Released: June 13, 2013

Attitudes, Experiences and Values in Changing Times

Overview

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-01An overwhelming share of America?s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults (92%) say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade and an equal number expect it to grow even more accepting in the decade ahead. They attribute the changes to a variety of factors, from people knowing and interacting with someone who is LGBT, to advocacy on their behalf by high-profile public figures, to LGBT adults raising families.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-02At the same time, however, a new nationally representative survey of 1,197 LGBT adults offers testimony to the many ways they feel they have been stigmatized by society. About four-in-ten (39%) say that at some point in their lives they were rejected by a family member or close friend because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; 30% say they have been physically attacked or threatened; 29% say they have been made to feel unwelcome in a place of worship; and 21% say they have been treated unfairly by an employer. About six-in-ten (58%) say they?ve been the target of slurs or jokes.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-03Also, just 56% say they have told their mother about their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 39% have told their father. Most who did tell a parent say that it was difficult, but relatively few say that it damaged their relationship.

The survey finds that 12 is the median age at which lesbian, gay and bisexual adults first felt they might be something other than heterosexual or straight. For those who say they now know for sure that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, that realization came at a median age of 17.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-04Among those who have shared this information with a family member or close friend, 20 is the median age at which they first did so.

Gay men report having reached all of these coming out milestones somewhat earlier than do lesbians and bisexuals.

The survey was conducted April 11-29, 2013, and administered online, a survey mode that research indicates tends to produce more honest answers on a range of sensitive topics than do other less anonymous modes of survey-taking. For more details, see Chapter 1 and Appendix 1.

The survey finds that the LGBT population is distinctive in many ways beyond sexual orientation. Compared with the general public, Pew Research LGBT survey respondents are more liberal, more Democratic, less religious, less happy with their lives, and more satisfied with the general direction of the country. On average, they are younger than the general public. Their family incomes are lower, which may be related to their relative youth and the smaller size of their households. They are also more likely to perceive discrimination not just against themselves but also against other groups with a legacy of discrimination.

About the Survey

Findings in this report are based on two main data sources:

This report is based primarily on a Pew Research Center survey of the LGBT population conducted April 11-29, 2013, among a nationally representative sample of 1,197 self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults 18 years of age or older. The sample comprised 398 gay men, 277 lesbians, 479 bisexuals and 43 transgender adults. The survey questionnaire was written by the Pew Research Center and administered by the GfK Group using KnowledgePanel, its nationally representative online research panel.

The online survey mode was chosen for this study, in part, because considerable research on sensitive issues (such as drug use, sexual behavior and even attendance at religious services) indicates that the online mode of survey administration is likely to elicit more honest answers from respondents on a range of topics.

The margin of sampling error for the full LGBT sample is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For more details on the LGBT survey methodology, see Appendix 1.

In most cases the comparisons made between LGBT adults and the general public are taken from other Pew Research Center surveys.

Same-Sex Marriage

On the topic of same-sex marriage, not surprisingly, there is a large gap between the views of the general public and those of LGBT adults. Even though a record 51% of the public now favors allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, up from 32% in 2003, that share is still far below the 93% of LGBT adults who favor same-sex marriage.

Despite nearly universal support for same-sex marriage among LGBT adults, a significant minority of that population?39%?say that the issue has drawn too much attention away from other issues that are important to people who are LGBT. However, 58% say it should be the top priority even if it takes attention away from other issues.

The survey finds that 16% of LGBT adults?mostly bisexuals with opposite-sex partners?are currently married, compared with about half the adults in the general public. Overall, a total of 60% of LGBT survey respondents are either married or say they would like to marry one day, compared with 76% of the general public.

Large majorities of LGBT adults and the general public agree that love, companionship and making a lifelong commitment are very important reasons to marry. However LGBT survey respondents are twice as likely as those in the general public to say that obtaining legal rights and benefits is also a very important reason to marry (46% versus 23%). And the general public is more likely than LGBT respondents to say that having children is a very important reason to marry (49% versus 28%).

The LGBT Population and its Sub-Groups

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-05Four-in-ten respondents to the Pew Research Center survey identify themselves as bisexual. Gay men are 36% of the sample, followed by lesbians (19%) and transgender adults (5%). While these shares are consistent with findings from other surveys of the LGBT population, they should be treated with caution. There are many challenges in estimating the size and composition of the LGBT population, starting with the question of whether to use a definition based solely on self-identification (the approach taken in this report) or whether to also include measures of sexual attraction and sexual behavior.

This report makes no attempt to estimate the share of the U.S. population that is LGBT. Other recent survey-based research reports have made estimates in the 3.5% to 5% range. However, all such estimates depend to some degree on the willingness of LGBT individuals to disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity, and research suggests that not everyone in this population is ready or willing to do so. (See Appendix 1 for a discussion of these and other methodological issues).

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-06The table above provides a look at key demographic characteristics of the full Pew Research LGBT survey sample and its three largest sub-groups?bisexuals, gay men and lesbians. It shows, among other things, that bisexuals are younger, have lower family incomes and are less likely to be college graduates than gay men and lesbians. The relative youth of bisexuals likely explains some of their lower levels of income and education.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-07The survey also finds that bisexuals differ from gay men and lesbians on a range of attitudes and experiences related to their sexual orientation. For example, while 77% of gay men and 71% of lesbians say most or all of the important people in their lives know of their sexual orientation, just 28% of bisexuals say the same. Bisexual women are more likely to say this than bisexual men (33% vs. 12%). Likewise, about half of gay men and lesbians say their sexual orientation is extremely or very important to their overall identity, compared with just two-in-ten bisexual men and women.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-08Gays and lesbians are also more likely than bisexuals to say their sexual orientation is a positive factor in their lives, though across all three subgroups, many say it is neither positive nor negative. Only a small fraction of all groups describe their sexual orientation or gender identity as a negative factor.

Roughly three-quarters of bisexual respondents to the Pew Research survey are women. By contrast, gay men outnumber lesbians by about two-to-one among survey respondents. Bisexuals are far more likely than either gay men or lesbians to be married, in part because a large majority of those in committed relationships have partners of the opposite sex and thus are able to marry legally. Also, two-thirds of bisexuals say they either already have or want children, compared with about half of lesbians and three-in-ten gay men.

Across the LGBT population, more say bisexual women and lesbians are accepted by society than say this about gay men, bisexual men or transgender people. One-in-four respondents say there is a lot of social acceptance of lesbians, while just 15% say the same about gay men. Similarly, there is more perceived acceptance of bisexual women (33% a lot) than of bisexual men (8%). Transgender adults are viewed as less accepted by society than other LGBT groups: only 3% of survey respondents say there is a lot of acceptance of this group.

Social Acceptance and the Public?s Perspective

Even though most LGBT adults say there has been significant progress toward social acceptance, relatively few (19%) say there is a lot of social acceptance for the LGBT population today. A majority (59%) says there is some, and 21% say there is little or no acceptance today.

Surveys of the general public show that societal acceptance is on the rise. More Americans now say they favor same-sex marriage and fewer say homosexuality should be discouraged, compared with a decade ago. These changing attitudes may be due in part to the fact that a growing share of all adults say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian?87% today, up from 61% in 1993.

A new Pew Research Center analysis shows that among the general public, knowing someone who is gay or lesbian is linked with greater acceptance of homosexuality and support for same-sex marriage.

LGBT adults themselves recognize the value of these personal interactions; 70% say people knowing someone who is LGBT helps a lot in terms of making society more accepting of the LGBT population.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-09Still, a significant share of the public believes that homosexuality should be discouraged and that same-sex marriage should not be legal. Much of this resistance is rooted in deeply held religious attitudes, such as the belief that engaging in homosexual behavior is a sin.

And the public is conflicted about how the rising share of gays and lesbians raising children is affecting society. Only 21% of all adults say this trend is a good thing for society, 35% say this is a bad thing for society, and 41% say it doesn?t make much difference. The share saying this is a bad thing has fallen significantly in recent years (from 50% in 2007).

The Coming Out Process

In the context of limited but growing acceptance of the LGBT population, many LGBT adults have struggled with how and when to tell others about their sexual orientation. About six-in-ten (59%) have told one or both of their parents, and a majority say most of the people who are important to them know about this aspect of their life.

Most of those who have told their parents say this process wasn?t easy. Some 59% of those who have told their mother about their sexual orientation or gender identity and 65% who have told their father say it was difficult to share this information. However, of those who have told their mothers, the vast majority say it either made the relationship stronger (39%) or didn?t change the relationship (46%). A similar-sized majority says telling their father about their sexual orientation or gender identity didn?t hurt their relationship.

Age, Gender and Race

The survey finds that the attitudes and experiences of younger adults into the LGBT population differ in a variety of ways from those of older adults, perhaps a reflection of the more accepting social milieu in which younger adults have come of age.

For example, younger gay men and lesbians are more likely to have disclosed their sexual orientation somewhat earlier in life than have their older counterparts. Some of this difference may be attributable to changing social norms, but some is attributable to the fact that the experiences of young adults who have not yet identified as being gay or lesbian but will do so later in life cannot be captured in this survey.

As for gender patterns, the survey finds that lesbians are more likely than gay men to be in a committed relationship (66% versus 40%); likewise, bisexual women are much more likely than bisexual men to be in one of these relationships (68% versus 40%). In addition women, whether lesbian or bisexual, are significantly more likely than men to either already have children or to say they want to have children one day.

Among survey respondents, whites are more likely than non-whites to say society is a lot more accepting of LGBT adults now than it was a decade ago (58% vs. 42%) and, by a similar margin, are more optimistic about future levels of acceptance. Non-whites are more likely than whites to say being LGBT is extremely or very important to their overall identity (44% versus 34%) and more likely as well to say there is a conflict between their religion and their sexual orientation (37% versus 20%).

Views of Issues, Leaders, Institutions

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-10On the eve of a ruling expected later this month by the U.S. Supreme Court on two same-sex marriage cases, 58% of LGBT adults say they have a favorable view of the court and 40% view it unfavorably; these assessments are similar to those held by the general public.

While the same-sex marriage issue has dominated news coverage of the LGBT population in recent years, it is only one of several top priority issues identified by survey respondents. Other top rank issues include employment rights, HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment, and adoption rights.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-11When asked in an open-ended question to name the national public figures most responsible for advancing LGBT rights, President Barack Obama, who announced last year that he had changed his mind and supports gay marriage, tops the list along with comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who came out as a lesbian in 1997 and has been a leading advocate for the LGBT population ever since.. Some 23% of respondents named Obama and 18% named DeGeneres. No one else was named by more than 3% of survey respondents.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-12For the most part LGBT adults are in broad agreement on which institutions they consider friendly to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Seven-in-ten describe the entertainment industry as friendly, 63% say the same about the Obama administration, and 57% view the Democratic Party as friendly. By contrast, just 4% say the same about the Republican Party (compared with 76% who say it is unfriendly); 8% about the military (47% unfriendly) and 4% about professional sports leagues (59% unfriendly). LGBT adults have mixed views about the news media, with 27% saying it is friendly, 56% neutral and 16% unfriendly.

LGBT survey respondents are far more Democratic than the general public?about eight-in-ten (79%) are Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, compared with 49% of the general public. And they offer opinions on a range of public policy issues that are in sync with the Democratic and liberal tilt to their partisanship and ideology. For example, they are more likely than the general public to say they support a bigger government that provides more services (56% versus 40%); they are more supportive of gun control (64% versus 50%) and they are more likely to say immigrants strengthen the country (62% versus 49%).

Self and Country

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-13LGBT adults and the general public are also notably different in the ways they evaluate their personal happiness and the overall direction of the country.

In the case of happiness, just 18% of LGBT adults describe themselves as ?very happy,? compared with 30% of adults in the general public who say the same. Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are roughly equal in their expressed level of happiness.

When it comes to evaluations of the direction of the nation, the pattern reverses, with LBGT adults more inclined than the general public (55% versus 32%) to say the country is headed in the right direction. Opinions on this question are strongly associated with partisanship.

Religion

Religion is a difficult terrain for many LGBT adults. Lopsided majorities describe the Muslim religion (84%), the Mormon Church (83%), the Catholic Church (79%) and evangelical churches (73%) as unfriendly toward people who are LGBT. They have more mixed views of the Jewish religion and mainline Protestant churches, with fewer than half of LGBT adults describing those religions as unfriendly, one-in-ten describing each of them as friendly and the rest saying they are neutral.

The survey finds that LGBT adults are less religious than the general public. Roughly half (48%) say they have no religious affiliation, compared with 20% of the public at large. Of those LGBT adults who are religiously affiliated, one-third say there is a conflict between their religious beliefs and their sexual orientation or gender identity. And among all LGBT adults, about three-in-ten (29%) say they have been made to feel unwelcome in a place of worship.

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-14Pew Research surveys of the general public show that while societal views about homosexuality have shifted dramatically over the past decade, highly religious Americans remain more likely than others to believe that homosexuality should be discouraged rather than accepted by society. And among those who attend religious services weekly or more frequently, fully two-thirds say that homosexuality conflicts with their religious beliefs (with 50% saying there is a great deal of conflict). In addition, religious commitment is strongly correlated with opposition to same-sex marriage.

Community Identity and Engagement

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-15As LGBT adults become more accepted by society, the survey finds different points of view about how fully they should seek to become integrated into the broader culture. About half of survey respondents (49%) say the best way to achieve equality is to become a part of mainstream culture and institutions such as marriage, but an equal share say LGBT adults should be able to achieve equality while still maintaining their own distinct culture and way of life.

Likewise, there are divisions between those who say it is important to maintain places like LGBT neighborhoods and bars (56%) and those who feel these venues will become less important over time (41%). Gay men are most likely of any of the LGBT subgroups to say that these distinctive venues should be maintained (68%).

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-16When it comes to community engagement, gay men and lesbians are more involved than bisexuals in a variety of LGBT-specific activities, such as attending a gay pride event or being a member of an LGBT organization.

Overall, many LGBT adults say they have used their economic power in support or opposition to certain products or companies. About half (51%) say they have not bought a product or service because the company that provides it is not supportive of LGBT rights. A similar share (49%) says they have specifically bought a product or service because the company is supportive of LGBT rights.

Some 52% have attended an LGBT pride event, and 40% have attended a rally or march in support of LGBT rights. About four-in-ten (39%) say they belong to an LGBT organization and roughly three-in-ten (31%) have donated money to politicians who support their rights.

LGBT Adults Online

SDT-2013-06-LGBT-0-17LGBT adults are heavy users of social networking sites, with 8o% of survey respondents saying they have used a site such as Facebook or Twitter. This compares with 58% of the general public (and 68% of all internet users), a gap largely attributable to the fact that as a group LGBT adults are younger than the general public, and young adults are much more likely than older adults to use social networking sites. When young LGBT adults are compared with all young adults, the share using these sites is almost identical (89% of LGBT adults ages 18 to 29 vs. 90% of all adults ages 18 to 29).

There are big differences across LGBT groups in how they use social networking sites. Among all LGBT adults, 55% say they have met new LGBT friends online or through a social networking site. Gay men are the most likely to say they have done this (69%). By contrast, about half of lesbians (47%) and bisexuals (49%) say they have met a new LGBT friend online.

About four-in-ten LGBT adults (43%) have revealed their sexual orientation or gender identity on a social networking site. While roughly half of gay men and lesbians have come out on a social network, only about one-third (34%) of bisexuals say they have done this.

Just 16% say they regularly discuss LGBT issues online; 83% say they do not do this.

A Note on Transgender Respondents

Transgender is an umbrella term that groups together a variety of people whose gender identity or gender expression differs from their birth sex. Some identify as female-to-male, others as male-to-female. Others may call themselves gender non-conforming, reflecting an identity that differs from social expectations about gender based on birth sex. Some may call themselves genderqueer, reflecting an identity that may be neither male nor female. And others may use the term transsexual to describe their identity. A transgender identity is not dependent upon medical procedures. While some transgender individuals may choose to alter their bodies through surgery or hormonal therapy, many transgender people choose not to do so.

People who are transgender may also describe themselves as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual. In the Pew Research Center survey, respondents were asked whether they considered themselves to be transgender in a separate series of questions from the question about whether they considered themselves to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or heterosexual (see Appendix 1 for more details).

The Pew Research survey finds that 5% of LGBT respondents identify primarily as transgender; this is roughly consistent with other estimates of the proportion of the LGBT population that is transgender. Although there is limited data on the size of the transgender population, it is estimated that 0.3% of all American adults are transgender (Gates 2011).

Because of the small number of transgender respondents in this survey (n=43), it is not possible to generate statistically significant findings about the views of this subgroup. However, their survey responses are represented in the findings about the full LGBT population throughout the survey.

The responses to both open- and closed-ended questions do allow for a few general findings. For example, among transgender respondents to this survey, most say they first felt their gender was different from their birth sex before puberty. For many, being transgender is a core part of their overall identity, even if they may not widely share this with many people in their lives.

And just as gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals perceive less commonality with transgender people than with each other, transgender adults may appear not to perceive a great deal of commonality with lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. In particular, issues like same-sex marriage may be viewed as less important by this group, and transgender adults appear to be less involved in the LGBT community than are other sub-groups.

Here are some of the voices of transgender adults in the survey:

Voices: Transgender Survey Respondents

On Gender Identity

?It finally feels comfortable to be in my own body and head?I can be who I am, finally.?
?Transgender adult, age 24

?I have suffered most of my life in the wrong gender. Now I feel more at home in the world, though I must admit, not completely. There is still plenty of phobic feeling.??
?Transgender adult, age 77

?Though I have not transitioned fully, being born as male but viewing things from a female perspective gives me a perspective from both vantage points. I am very empathetic because of my circumstance.?
?Transgender adult, age 56

?I wish I could have identified solely as male. Identifying as another gender is not easy.?
?Transgender adult, age 49

On Telling People

?Times were different for in-between kids born in the 30?s. We mostly tried to conform and simply lived two lives at once. The stress caused a very high suicide rate and a higher rate of alcohol addiction (somehow I was spared both.)?
-Transgender adult, age 77

?It?s been hard and very cleansing at the same time. The hardest part is telling old friends because they?ve known you for so long as your born gender. But most people are willing to change for you if they care enough.? ?Transgender adult, age 27

?I have only told close members of my family and only a handful of friends. I don?t think that it is important to shout it out from the rooftops, especially in my profession.?
?Transgender adult, age 38

?This process is difficult. Most people know me one way and to talk to them about a different side of me can be disconcerting. I have not told most people because of my standing in the community and my job, which could be in jeopardy?
?Transgender adult, age 44

?Some of my family still refers to me as ?she? but when we go out they catch themselves because of how I look, they sound foolish to strangers :). When it?s a bunch of family or old friends, they usually don?t assign me a gender they say my name. But I don?t get too bothered by it, they are family and well, that?s a huge thing to have to change in your mind. For the ones that do it out of disrespect, I just talk to them one on one and ask for them to do better.? ?Transgender adult, age 29

LGBT/32a,50

Notes on Terminology

Unless otherwise noted, all references to whites, blacks and others are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations. Hispanics can be of any race. Non-whites refers to people whose race is not white (e.g. black, Asian, etc.) or to Hispanics regardless of their race.

Throughout this report, the acronym ?LGBT? is used to refer to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population. The phrases ?LGBT adults,? ?LGBT individuals,? ?LGBT people? and ?LGBT respondents? are used interchangeably throughout this report as are the phrases ?LGBT population? and ?LGBT community.?

In the survey instrument, when LGBT adults were asked about their identity, gays, lesbians and bisexuals were asked about their sexual orientation while transgender respondents were asked about their gender identity. This protocol is also used in the report when reporting LGBT adults? views of their identity.

References to the political party identification of respondents include those who identify with a political party or lean towards a specific political party. Those identified as independents do not lean towards either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.

Acknowledgments

Many Pew Research Center staff members contributed to this research project. Paul Taylor oversaw the project and served as lead editor of the report. Kim Parker, Jocelyn Kiley and Mark Hugo Lopez took the lead in the development of the LGBT survey instrument. Scott Keeter managed development of the survey?s methodological strategy.

The report?s overview was written by Taylor. Chapter 1 of the report was written by D?Vera Cohn and Gretchen Livingston. Parker wrote chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 was written by Eileen Patten. Chapter 5 was written by Kiley and Patten. Cary Funk and Rich Morin wrote Chapter 6 of the report. Kiley wrote Chapter 7. Keeter wrote the report?s methodology appendix. Lopez, Patten, Kiley, Sara Goo, Adam Nekola and Meredith Dost curated quotes for the ?voices? features and online interactive. The report was number checked by Anna Brown, Danielle Cuddington, Matthew Frei, Seth Motel, Patten, Rob Suls, Alec Tyson and Wendy Wang. Noble Kuriakose and Besheer Mohamed provided data analysis for the report?s demographic chapter. The report was copy-edited by Marcia Kramer of Kramer Editing Services and Molly Rohal.

Others at the Pew Research Center who provided editorial or research guidance include Alan Murray, Michael Dimock, Carroll Doherty, Andrew Kohut, Alan Cooperman, Lee Rainie and James Hawkins.

Staffers who helped to disseminate the report and to prepare related online content include Goo, Vidya Krishnamurthy, Michael Piccorossi, Russ Oates, Adam Nekola, Diana Yoo, Michael Suh, Andrea Caumont, Michael Keegan, Jessica Schillinger, Bruce Drake, Caroline Klibanoff, Rohal, Russell Heimlich and Katie Reilly.

The Pew Research Center thanks and acknowledges M.V. Lee Badgett and Gary J. Gates. Badgett is the Director of the Center for Public Policy & Administration and Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also the research director of UCLA?s Williams Institute. Gates is the Williams Distinguished Scholar at UCLA?s Williams Institute. They served as advisors to the project, providing invaluable guidance on survey questionnaire development, demographic analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data and the survey?s methodology. We also thank Stephanie Jwo, Joseph Garrett and Monsour Fahimi of the GfK Group, who worked with Keeter on the survey?s sampling design, data collection protocol and weighting plan and oversaw the collection of the data; and Frank Newport of Gallup, who provided comparative data from Gallup?s surveys.

The Pew Research Center conducted a focus group discussion on March 26, 2013 in Washington, D.C. to help inform the survey questionnaire?s development. The focus group was moderated by Lopez and was composed of 12 individuals ages 18 and older. Participants were told that what they said might be quoted in the report or other products from the Pew Research Center, but that they would not be identified by name.

Roadmap to the Report

Chapter 1, Demographic Portrait and Research Challenges, examines the demographic profile of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center and other prominent research organizations. It also includes data on same-sex couples from the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, this chapter discusses the challenges involved in surveying this population and making estimates about its size and characteristics.

Chapter 2, Social Acceptance, looks at societal views of the LGBT population from the perspective of LGBT adults themselves. It also chronicles the ways in which LGBT adults have experienced discrimination in their own lives and looks at the extent to which they believe major institutions in this country are accepting of them.

Chapter 3, The Coming Out Experience, chronicles the journey LGBT adults have been on in realizing their sexual orientation or gender identity and sharing that information with family and friends. It also looks at where LGBT adults live, how many of their friends are LGBT and whether they are open about their LGBT identity at work. This chapter includes a brief section on online habits and behaviors.

Chapter 4, Marriage and Parenting, looks at LGBT adults? attitudes toward same-sex marriage and also their experiences in the realm of family life. It examines their relationship status and their desire to marry and have children?detailing the key differences across LGBT groups and between LGBT adults and the general public.

Chapter 5, Identity and Community, explores how LGBT adults view their sexual orientation or gender identity in the context of their overall identity. It looks at the extent to which this aspect of their lives is central to who they are, as well as how much they feel they have in common with other LGBT adults. It also looks at the extent to which LGBT adults are engaged in the broader LGBT community and how they view the balance between maintaining a distinct LGBT culture and becoming part of the American mainstream.

Chapter 6, Religion, details the religious affiliation, beliefs and practices of LGBT adults and compares them with those of the general public. It also looks at whether LGBT adults feel their religious beliefs are in conflict with their sexual orientation or gender identity, and how they feel they are perceived by various religious groups and institutions.

Chapter 7, Partisanship, Policy Views, Values, looks at the party affiliation of LGBT adults and their views of Barack Obama and of the Democratic and Republican parties. It also includes LGBT views on key policy issues, such as immigration and gun control, and compares them with those of the general public. And it also looks at how LGBT adults prioritize LGBT-related policy issues beyond same-sex marriage.

Following the survey chapters is a detailed survey methodology statement. This includes descriptions of the sampling frame, questionnaire development and weighting procedures for the LGBT survey. It also has a demographic profile of the Pew Research LGBT survey respondents with details on specific LGBT groups.

Interspersed throughout the report are Voices of LGBT adults. These are quotes from open-ended questions included in the survey and are meant to personalize the aggregate findings and add richness and nuance. Individual respondents are identified only by their age, gender and sexual orientation or gender identity. Additional quotes from LGBT respondents are available in an interactive feature on the Pew Research Center website.

Source: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Early data from first human study suggests radiation-antibody combination is safe

June 10, 2013 ? An experimental treatment that combines a cell-killing radioactive particle with an antibody that homes in on cancer cells is safe in the treatment of cancers spreading through patients' abdomens, according to data from a first-in-human study presented today at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging annual meeting in Vancouver.

The results are from an ongoing phase I clinical trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) designed to measure the safety of the treatment as opposed to its effectiveness. When complete, the study will have treated 18 patients with a combination of the FDA-approved antibody-based cancer treatment Herceptin (trastuzumab) and the radioactive material lead-212. At the time of the presentation, eight of the 18 had received treatment, and fully analyzed data will be presented for three patients.

The Herceptin antibody attaches itself to the HER-2 protein, which occurs more often on cancer cell surfaces, to stop signals that encourage cancerous growth. In theory, radioactive material attached to the antibody should cut up DNA in HER-2-positive cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct.

"By killing cancer cell by cell, our approach promises to be useful against metastases that have spread along the lining of the abdomen," said Ruby Meredith, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology and a senior scientist in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. "So far we have only preliminary data in a few patients. Should further studies prove this combination treatment to be safe and effective, however, it could be useful against the forty percent of HER-2 expressing ovarian and gastric cancers, while sparing normal tissues."

In this preliminary analysis, the study treatment neither built up in organs and nor destroyed the bone marrow's ability to make blood cells -- problems that limited the dose in past attempts to combine antibodies and radioisotopes. Given the safety demonstrated in the first group of patients, and in keeping with U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines, the plan is now to raise the dose in the next group of patients according to approved protocol.

A long search Alpha particle experiments go back to the 1960s, with several researchers, including Martin Brechbiel at the National Cancer Institute, combining alpha emitters with antibodies as early as the late 1980s.

Radioactive materials have unstable atomic structures that cause them to shed high-energy particles in a process called decay at fixed rates measured in half-lives, the time it takes for half of a quantity of material to become stable. Among the first decay processes discovered were alpha and beta decay, which emit different kinds of high-energy, subatomic building blocks.

With an average half-life of 6.7 days, beta emitters looked to be more useful at first. They remained radioactive long enough to be shipped and introduced into patients. They passed through thousand cells before coming to a halt, suggesting they could kill many cancer cells inside large tumors. On the downside, they came with sustained, off-target radiation exposure that dramatically limited their safe dose.

The field had long discussed using alpha emitters instead because they strike nearby cells with greater power, have shorter half-lives for less off-target exposure and penetrate just a few cells before coming to a halt. Unfortunately, the first alpha emitters identified had inappropriate half-lives and were tricky and expensive to produce.

Enter study sponsor AREVA Med, the company that built a system for consistent delivery of pure radium-224 that decays into lead-212 in the time it takes to ship it to any hospital in the world (about 36 hours). Lead-212 is not an alpha emitter, but decays into bismuth-212 which emits alpha particles and then becomes inert within an hour of being introduced to the body. According to the data so far, this spares bone marrow, organs and normal cells.AREVA Med asked UAB to undertake the current study because of Meredith's clinical trial expertise within the UAB cancer center.

The trial was open to all patients with HER-2 positive cancer, but seven out of the first eight patients happened to have ovarian cancer. All patients underwent extra rounds of imaging to ensure that the radioactivity stayed in the abdomen, close to where metastases occur around primary gastric and ovarian tumors. Researchers watched for signs of long-term toxicity for six months after treatment, but found none. Patients in the study had failed on previous therapies.

Along with Meredith, Sui Shen, Ronda Carlise, Patty Bunch, Souheil Saddekni, Daniel Yoder and Ronald Alvarez at UAB , as well as Julien Torgue and Eileen Banaga at AREVA Med, were study authors. The study was sponsored by AREVA Med and a grant from the National Institutes of Health to the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (1UL1RR025777). Herceptin was provided for the trial by Genentech.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/WonfLqo_2NU/130610223715.htm

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SK Hynix teases 4GB LPDDR3 RAM for high-end mobiles due end of this year

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Samsung has already pressing ahead with its own high-density 20nm LPDDR3 modules, but SK Hynix reckons it can go one better. Instead of the stingy, piffling, retro 2GB stack offered by Sammy (pah!), the Korean memory specialist says it's sampling 20nm 8Gb (1GB) chips that can be stacked to provide 4GB of RAM in high-end mobile devices. This memory will come with all the trimmings and trappings of high-density LPDDR3, including a data transmission speed of 2,133Mbps (vs. 1,600Mbps offered by existing LPDDR3 phones like the GS4), a thinner profile and less power consumption in standby mode compared to LPDDR2. That just leaves the question of "when?," to which SK Hynix confusingly answers that we'll see products "noticeably loaded" with more than 2GB of LPDDR3 during the second half of this year, although it doesn't intend to start mass production of this exact chip until the end of the year. Of course, there'll come a point in 2014 when even mid-range processors like ARM's Cortex-A12 will theoretically be able to address more than 4GB, so that amount of RAM may not even seem so outlandish.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4451LqUhA58/

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Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret

June 10, 2013 ? Using revolutionary new techniques, a team led by Carnegie's Malcolm Guthrie has made a striking discovery about how ice behaves under pressure, changing ideas that date back almost 50 years. Their findings could alter our understanding of how the water molecule responds to conditions found deep within planets and could have implications for energy science.

Their work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When water freezes into ice, its molecules are bound together in a crystalline lattice held together by hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds are highly versatile and, as a result, crystalline ice reveals a striking diversity of at least 16 different structures.

In all of these forms of ice, the simple H2O molecule is the universal building block. However, in 1964 it was predicted that, under sufficient pressure, the hydrogen bonds could strengthen to the point where they might actually break the water molecule apart. The possibility of directly observing a disassociated water molecule in ice has proven a fascinating lure for scientists and has driven extensive research for the last 50 years. In the mid-1990s several teams, including a Carnegie group, observed the transition using spectroscopic techniques. However, these techniques are indirect and could only reveal part of the picture.

A preferred method is to "see" the hydrogen atoms-or protons-directly. This can be done by bouncing neutrons off the ice and then carefully measuring how they are scattered. However, applying this technique at high enough pressures to see the water molecule dissociate had simply not been possible in the past. Guthrie explained that: "you can only reach these extreme pressures if your samples of ice are really small. But, unfortunately, this makes the hydrogen atoms very hard to see."

The Spallation Neutron Source was opened at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in 2006, providing a new and intensely bright supply of neutrons. By designing a new class of tools that were optimized to exploit this unrivalled flux of neutrons, Guthrie and his team-Carnegie's Russell Hemley, Reinhard Boehler, and Kuo Li, as well as Chris Tulk, Jamie Molaison, and Ant?nio dos Santos of Oak Ridge National Laboratory-have obtained the first glimpse of the hydrogen atoms themselves in ice at unprecedented pressures of over 500,000 times atmospheric pressure.

"The neutrons tell us a story that the other techniques could not," said Hemley, director of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory. "The results indicate that dissociation of water molecules follows two different mechanisms. Some of the molecules begin to dissociate at much lower pressures and via a different path than was predicted in the classic 1964 paper."

"Our data paint an altogether new picture of ice," Guthrie commented. "Not only do the results have broad consequences for understanding bonding in H2O, the observations may also support a previously proposed theory that the protons in ice in planetary interiors can be mobile even while the ice remains solid."

And this startling discovery may prove to be just the beginning of scientific discovery. Tulk emphasized "being able to 'see' hydrogen with neutrons isn't just important for studies of ice. This is a game-changing technical breakthrough. The applications could extend to systems that are critical to societal challenges, such as energy. For example, the technique can yield greater understanding of methane-containing clathrate hydrates and even hydrogen storage materials that could one day power automobiles."

The group is part of Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments (EFree), an Energy Frontier Research Center headquartered at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/8G68NgVhNYI/130610152133.htm

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Monday, June 10, 2013

Google's Inroads For Waze Could Roadblock Facebook And Apple

Screen Shot 2013-06-09 at 2.06.31 PMAccording to the Globes, an Israel-based publication, Google is reportedly set to acquire the Israeli transit and navigation company Waze for $1.3 billion, making it one of the larger Google acquisitions in recent memory. This news comes amid swirling rumors that Waze would be bought up by one of the big guys, Facebook, Google, or Apple.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yYDKV21N0QY/

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