Science

Male infidelity is a fact of life and women are at increased risk of AIDS because governments refuse to accept this reality, a new Columbia University study says. The report's authors say society should get real about the 'monogamy myth' and work to make extramarital sex safer, instead of just trying to prevent it.

Studies around the world showed married women at heightened risk of infection with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, because of the public and official state of denial.

In a significant setback for the world's first rocket racing league, a founding team has abandoned the competition. The withdrawal of Leading Edge Rocket Racing leaves the league with only two teams.

The Rocket Racing League plans to run high speed, low level flying races between manned rockets. Backers hope that the League can eventually rival Nascar or Formula 1 racing as a sport, while simultaneously boosting spaceflight and aerospace research.

Demonstration events are planned for the end of 2007, the League announced earlier this year.

The height of a room's ceiling has a direct impact on the thought processes and mood of people in the room, new research has confirmed.

“When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly. They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics,” says Professor Joan Meyers-Levy of the University of Minnesota.

Updated April 25: Vietnamese farmers who built their own helicopter may take to the air within a week, local press reports say. Officials inspected the craft on Wednesday, and are considering approving a limited flight test.

If official approval comes, it will be the end of a 5 year battle for Tran Quoc Hai and Le Van Danh, who have faced arrest and heavy financial losses in their quest to soar aloft in the boxy red chopper they built in Hai's tractor workshop.

Successful trials of a Viagra substitute have lifted the share price of its developer, Dong-a PharmTech of Korea. The drug, Zydena, or Udenafil, is already one of Korea's best selling pills, despite facing a stiff challenge from Viagra.

What the company describes as 'intercourse completion rates', were doubled to almost 70 percent for couples using the highest doses of the drug in the trial. The rate for those using a placebo was 38 per cent.