Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over where human imagination comes from - in other words, what makes humans able to create art, invent tools, think scientifically and perform other incredibly diverse behaviors?

Atmospheric levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in the 1950s were actually slightly higher than what we have today, according to  a first-ever study of air trapped in the deep snowpack of Greenland - results that contradict current computer model predictions that there are much higher CO concentrations over Greenland today than in 1950.

In a new paper, Vasilii Petrenko, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, concluded that CO levels rose slightly from 1950 until the 1970s, then declined strongly to present-day values. This finding contradicts computer models that had calculated a 40 percent overall increase in CO levels over the same period.

The brain's structure may predict whether a person will suffer chronic lower back pain, according to researchers who used brain scans and say the results support the growing idea that the brain plays a critical role in chronic pain, a concept that may lead to changes in the way doctors treat patients.

A new citizen science project allows you to explore the open ocean from the comfort of your home. You can 'dive' hundreds of feet deep, and observe the unperturbed ocean and the myriad animals that inhabit the earth's last frontier.

The goal of the project is to enlist volunteers to classify millions of underwater images to study plankton diversity, distribution and behavior in the open ocean - even cheaper labor than post-docs. 

Young women with breast cancer often overestimate the odds that cancer will occur in their other, healthy breast, and decide to have the healthy breast surgically removed - a procedure known as a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, the removal of a nonaffected breast in a woman with unilateral breast cancer -- despite knowing it will be unlikely to improve their chance of survival.

The survey results show a certain disconnect between what many patients know on an abstract, intellectual level -- that CPM has little impact on survival rates for most women -- and the choices they make after receiving the anxiety-inducing diagnosis of breast cancer, the authors say; better safe than sorry.

A small pilot study has found that changes in diet, exercise and stress management may result in longer telomeres, the parts of chromosomes that affect aging - the first controlled trial to show that any intervention might lengthen telomeres over time.

Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that affect how quickly cells age. They are combinations of DNA and protein that protect the ends of chromosomes and help them remain stable. As they become shorter, and as their structural integrity weakens, the cells age and die quicker.

In recent years, shorter telomeres have become associated with a broad range of aging-related diseases, including many forms of cancer, stroke, vascular dementia, cardiovascular disease, obesity, osteoporosis and diabetes.