Do consumers make different choices based on the fragrance surrounding them?  If they do not, a billion dollar advertising segment would disappear. Studies have found, for example, that lavender is the fragrance of trust and groups are always working to improve the ambiance of the marketplace. 

A new study in the Journal of Marketing says that the “temperature” of scents in a store atmosphere may have a powerful effect on what and how much customers buy. So if you want people to spend money, spread the cinnamon around.

Human papillomavirus is a virus that is responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine can prevent 70 percent of those.

A new study by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers indicates that only about half of the girls ages 11-12, the age recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, receive the vaccine.

From hashtag to the streets. The All-Nite Images, CC BY-SA

By Imaani El-Burki, Lehigh University

It's become a fad for nutritionists to claim that oranges are better than orange juice, and they list numerous reasons - from added sugar in juice to better uptake of carotenoids, flavonoids and Vitamin C in whole oranges.

But how different are they? Unless you are someone on a nutrition website selling the lifestyle and health fad of the moment, not much. It is true that some juices have more sugar but that is offset by the biological fact nutrients in orange juice seem to be easier for the body to absorb from juice than when a person consumes them from unprocessed fruit. 

And there is convenience. It is better to have a health benefit from something than no health benefit at all.

By: Joel N. Shurkin, Inside Science -- Archaeologists, digging into George Washington’s headquarters at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, have added domestic images to the picture of one of the most iconic moments of American history.

They may have found the cabin Washington had built so he could get out of the chaos of the headquarters, and perhaps eat in peace with his wife and officers.

It also turns out the Father of the Nation liked pork for dinner and may have instituted a no-smoking zone.

A periodic backup of my mobile phone yesterday - mainly pictures and videos - was the occasion to give a look back at things I did and places I visited in 2014, for business and leisure. I thought it would be fun to share some of those pictures with you, with sparse comments. I know, Facebook does this for you automatically, but what does Facebook know of what is meaningful and what isn't ? So here we go.
The first pic was taken at Beaubourg, in Paris - it is a sculpture I absolutely love: "The king plays with the queen" by Max Ernst.



Still in Paris (for a vacation at the beginning of January), the grandiose interior of the Opera de Paris...

There are tens of thousands of human-made chemicals circulating today and some have been bad despite studies that didn't initially find harm, yet almost every chemical is under siege by environmental groups, and they all claim science is on their side.

Everything from bisphenol A used in plastics to neonicotinoid pesticides to glyphosate weed-killers are criticized by lawyers at environmental groups despite the science consensus. How can the public know which ones really pose threats to our health and environment and which ones are just studies designed to keep poisoning lab animals until they show an effect?

A Western diet may be negatively affecting your brain not just your belly. Jams, CC BY-NC-SA

By Terry Davidson, American University and Camille Sample, American University

Hurricane Sandy pummeled cities along the east coast in 2012, causing billions of dollars in damage. Shutterstock

By Delavane Diaz, Stanford University

Climate change is as much an economic problem as an environmental one.

The effects of climate change, such as damage from more severe weather or health problems from higher temperatures, will impose a cost on society. On the other hand, moving away from a fossil fuel-based energy system will require significant investments into low-carbon technologies. How does society determine which efforts are most cost-effective?

Men and women are different in lots of ways and some contend that women are more emotional and that makes a difference in others areas. A recent large-scale study focused on determining the gender-dependent relationship between emotions, memory performance and brain activity.  

The scientists found that women rate emotional images as more emotionally stimulating than men do and are more likely to remember them but there were no gender-related differences in emotional appraisal of neutral images.