Devouring junk food in times of anxiety may not be exclusive to college students. In the recent online edition of Physiology and Behavior, Emory University researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center discovered that socially subordinate female rhesus monkeys consume more calorie-rich foods than do their dominant counterparts.

A study conducted by a research team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests low levels of Vitamin D may increase an individual's risk for peripheral artery disease (PAD). Their findings, presented at American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Annual Conference 2008, were derived from an analysis of blood samples collected from 4,839 adults.

Pharmaceutical companies may be able to make better drugs with fewer side effects using a new synthesis method recently developed by a Duke University chemist. Don Coltart, assistant professor of chemistry at Duke, has published a paper in the European journal Angewandte Chemie that describes a new way of synthesizing a class of molecules, called ketones, in a way that is faster, cheaper, and more efficient than current methods.

Government agencies often catch a lot of flak over their management of finances. NASA, in particular, has been subject to ridicule over the fictional, but oft-cited, story of how, in the middle of a heated Space Race between East and West, the American agency spent millions of dollars developing a pen that could write properly in space.

Locust plagues are indeed spectacular, with millions of insects spontaneously lifting into the air and devouring everything around them. Why so many locusts spontaneously choose to migrate has always been a mystery. The Bible tells how God once caused an enormous plague of locusts to descend upon Egypt, destroying everything in their path. More recently, a team of scientists has found another, somewhat less divine, reason for the movement of these insects.

UCLA researchers will soon publish a study in the journal Sleep that contains support for the practice of tai chi chih among the elderly to improve sleep quality. The study involved the sleep habits of two elderly groups – one which attended health education courses and another which participated in tai chi chih. Members of the latter group reported a decrease in sleep-related problems, a hardship that plagues many seniors.

Persistent organic pollutants (POP) have now entered into the Artic ecosystem as well. Birds and mammals in the Arctic are now showing high levels of contamination of POPs that has alarmed the researchers and scientists to look at POPs seriously. Though the Stockholm convention urged to identify POPs, only few among thousands of chemicals are assessed.