If someone won't move around for 20 minutes a day, can anything more be done to help people get off the couch?

Too much sitting has been linked to increased risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer. Current guidelines suggest adults do 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, but more than a third (35.6%) of adults worldwide don't do that. And the proportion of time spent being inactive rises with age: from 55% (7.7 hours) at 20-29 years, to 67% (9.6 hours) in those aged 70-79 years.

The use of animal translocations as a means to mitigate construction projects and other human developments is a widespread animal-management tool. A paper published today, produced through collaboration of conservationists from San Diego Zoo Global, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Kent UK, University of Newcastle and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, reviews the success rates associated with these moves from a species-conservation standpoint.

Let's be honest, review articles are popular because they are easier than studies. Studies can take months or years and require methodology, money and expertise. A review just means finding other papers and figuring out what the consensus is.

Want to prove acupuncture works and that organic food is superior? Do a review. And if you really want to promote an ideology, do an unweighted random-effects meta-analysis and make sure to include some outlier results.

Optimization algorithms seek to find the minimum values of mathematical functions in engineering. It's how engineers evaluate design trade-offs, assess control systems and how people find patterns in data.

One practical way to solve a difficult optimization problem is to first reduce it to a related but much simpler problem, then gradually add complexity back in, solving each new problem in turn and using its solution as a guide to solving the next one.

If only someone could find a way to characterize optimization theoretically. You know, optimize it.

In an interview of wealthy Norwegian business elites, mothers talked freely about their everyday lives - and why being wealthy enough to not have to work is important to many of them. 

Among the 13 families chronicled  by sociologist Helene Aarseth from the University of Oslo in Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning (Journal of Gender Research), nine of the women were full-time mothers or had a small part-time job which did not interfere with their ability to be home with the children when they returned from school. Prior to leaving the workplace, almost all the wealthy mothers had a prestigious education within law or economics.

Geologists have discovered hidden magnetic messages from the early solar system in meteorites measured using the PEEM-Beamline at the BESSY II synchrotron located in The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB). 

The information captures the dying moments of the magnetic field during core solidification on a meteorite parent body, providing a sneak preview of the fate of Earth's own magnetic field as its core continues to freeze.