January 29, 2016 - As New Year's resolutions come and go, one area many people focus on is their health and weight. With Americans tipping the scales more than ever, social and personality psychologists are at the forefront of understanding the psychological motivations for healthy food choices and consumption patterns.

Studying the psychology of food choice, Texas Christian University's Dr. Sarah Hill's research revealed that childhood socioeconomic status may influence people's food choices as adults. "Our research finds that growing up poor promotes eating in the absence of hunger in adulthood, regardless of one's adult socioeconomic status."

Midlife crisis in the insect world: In a new study, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have detected age-dependent alterations in metabolism and gene regulation in middle-aged fruitflies, and show that these effects are linked to a reduction in lifespan.

Everyone has started to call this new proposed planet X: "Planet nine" as in the original announcement. Even Wikipedia has titled its article on it "Planet Nine". But it's a poor name for a planet if you think about it. Why not just call it "Planet X"? Or find some new name, like Nemesis and Tyche as was done for previous planet X candidates.  None of the previous candidates for Planet X were called Planet + some number, and with good reason. There is no way that we can know it will be planet 9. 

Around 10% of UK primary care patients prescribed antidepressants for depression or anxiety have undiagnosed bipolar disorder, a study has found.

Researchers from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds interviewed young adults from general practices in a study1 published in the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP).

Bipolar disorder often presents with depression and can be difficult to diagnose. People who have had periods of symptoms of high mood (such as increased energy and activity, increased confidence, over-talkativeness or being easily distracted) often don't recognise these as significant and don't tell their doctor about them.

The belief by Western elites that ancient people lived in some sort of harmony with the land, a belief popular for the last century, has been punctured again.

Hubble Space Telescope astronomers are finding that the old adage "what goes up must come down" even applies to an immense cloud of hydrogen gas outside our Milky Way galaxy. The invisible cloud is plummeting toward our galaxy at nearly 700,000 miles per hour.

Though hundreds of enormous, high-velocity gas clouds whiz around the outskirts of our galaxy, this so-called "Smith Cloud" is unique because its trajectory is well known. New Hubble observations suggest it was launched from the outer regions of the galactic disk, around 70 million years ago. The cloud was discovered in the early 1960s by doctoral astronomy student Gail Smith, who detected the radio waves emitted by its hydrogen.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When countries, rich or poor, support breastfeeding through meaningful investments and programs, it has an impact on their bottom line and the health of women and children. The Lancet Breastfeeding Series, released today, finds that globally, the costs of lower cognitive ability associated with not breastfeeding amount to more than $300 billion each year, a figure comparable to the entire global pharmaceutical market. About 820,000 child deaths could be prevented annually (about 13 percent of all under-5 child deaths) by improving breastfeeding rates, in addition to the lives already saved by current breastfeeding practices.

A ground-breaking study has confirmed the long held assumption that camouflage protects animals from the clutches of predators, and offers insights into the most important aspects of camouflage.

The research, by scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge, investigated the camouflage of ground-nesting birds in Zambia, using sophisticated digital imaging to demonstrate how they would appear from the perspective of a predator.

The team found that animals or eggs that matched the pattern or contrast of the surrounding landscape were less likely to be eaten by their natural predators.

The study is published in leading journal Scientific Reports on Friday, January 29 2016.

Research at King's College London has revealed subtle brain differences in adult males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which may go some way towards explaining why symptoms persist into adulthood in some people with the disorder.

ASD affects around 1 in 100 people in the UK and involves a spectrum of conditions which manifest themselves differently in different people. People with ASD can have varying levels of impairment across three common areas, which might include: deficits in social interactions and reciprocal understanding, repetitive behaviour and narrow interests, and impairment in language and communication.

Detecting molecular alterations in early breast cancer development is key in the development of more effective cancer prevention and early detection strategies. New research funded by The Eve Appeal and the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, published today in science journal Nature Communications shows clear evidence that DNA changes are already present in the healthy tissue from women with breast cancer.