Breaking news from the 51st ICAAC meeting in Chicago: Physicians from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, California say they have found an unexpected amount of pertussis — whooping cough — in pre-teen children who had received their mandatory school-entry vaccination booster at age 5 and should have been protected from the disease until about the time of their final childhood booster dose at age 12.

The physicians said case records suggest the vaccine may have protected children for less time than it was expected to. They speculate that the cases they recorded — along with a...

The Arduino Due features an ARM-based microprocessor. Image: Adafruit

Makers and motherboard-modders rejoice! One of the most popular open-source computing hardware companies recently debuted new hardware offerings for gadget geeks, including a beefier project board that will allow makers and hobbyists to create more complicated embedded computing projects.

Arduino announced three new products at Maker Faire NYC this weekend: The Arduino Due, which features a souped up ARM-based microcontroller, the Arduino Leonardo and the self-explanatory Arduino Wi-Fi.

Straight from the company of the same...