Money is important for survival and for entertainment, and it is often used as a reward, but recent studies have shown that money is also a factor in personal performance, interpersonal relations and helping behavior, as well.

In a recent set of experiments, psychologists Kathleen D. Vohs of the University of Minnesota, Nicole L. Mead of Florida State University and Miranda R. Goode of the University of British Columbia found that participants’ personal performance improved, and interpersonal relationships and sensitivity towards others declined, when they were reminded of money.

To set up one of the experiments, the researchers used four different types of reminders about money.

Terrace-like elevations of just a few nanometres can form during production of organic thin films made from electrically conductive material. This phenomenon was previously only known from inorganic materials and is crucially important for future production of a new generation of semi-conductor components based on organic thin films.

Inorganic semi-conductors have a simple construction and have made high-performance computers possible. In contrast, organic semi-conductors are complex but enable production of innovative electronic circuits, as vividly demonstrated by the first prototypes for roll-up screens. Yet these benefits of organic semi-conductors can only be fully harnessed when the response of their organic molecular layer - whose thinness is crucial in functional terms - is better understood.

The national research network (NRN) "Interface controlled and functionalised organic thin films" of the Austrian Science Fund FWF is contributing to precisely this understanding.

At Wally’s Bicycle Works in San Luis Obispo there is more than what meets the eye. At his shop Wally Ajanel keeps a stash of something other than bicycle paraphernalia—something that he claims is 100 percent pure which is very rare for constituents of this kind. Ajanel claims that the Mayan Chocolate that he keeps in his office is probably the only fully pure chocolate source in the U.S.

In Greek “Onycho” means fingernail or toenail and “phagia” is to eat or consume. Hence, “Onychphagia,” the clinical name for nail biting as a habit, which affects nearly 45 percent of adolescents. It may seem minor in comparison to addictions such as the excessive consumption of drugs or alcohol, but the biting of the nails can trigger oral herpes, dental problems like gingivitis, viral infections and studies have even shown loss of IQ due to the consumption of lead. A scene in the 1998 movie “Great Expectations” shows an interaction between a convict played by Robert De Niro and a young boy who gets temporarily captured into aiding the escaped man. As the pressures of the moment set in for the boy, he nervously begins biting his nails. When the criminal notices what his acquaintance is doing he takes it upon himself to teach the kid a lesson. “You bite your nails? It’s a bad habit. People always tell you that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Bullshit it’s your hands, that’s the sign of a gentleman.”

There are a few areas where computers cannot surpass humans and a new study says music is still among them.

Neuroscientists in a new study looked at the brain's response to piano sonatas played either by a computer or a musician and found that, while the computerized version elicited an emotional response – particularly to unexpected chord changes - it was not as strong as listening to the same piece played by a professional pianist.

Senior research fellow in psychology Dr Stefan Koelsch, who carried out the study with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, played excerpts from classical piano sonatas to twenty non-musicians and recorded electric brain responses and skin conductance responses (which vary with sweat production as a result of an emotional response).

Girls moving through adolescence may experience unhealthy levels of weight gain and a new study in The Journal of Pediatrics analyzes the effect of Internet usage, sleep, and alcohol and coffee consumption.

Dr. Catherine Berkey and colleagues from Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Washington University led the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), which surveyed more than 5000 girls between the ages of 14 and 21 years from all 50 states. They asked the girls to reflect on their weekly habits over the past year and report the following: 1) hours of sleep per night; 2) time spent on the Internet (excluding time for work or school); 3) number of alcoholic beverages consumed; and 4) number of coffee beverages consumed. The girls also reported their height and weight at the beginning and end of the one-year study.

An increasing number of 70 year olds are having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study published today on BMJ.com.

Knowledge about sexual behaviour in older people (70 year olds) is limited and mainly focuses on sexual problems, less is known about "normal" sexual behaviour in this age group.

Nils Beckman and colleagues from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, studied attitudes to sex in later life among four representative population samples of 70 year olds in Sweden, who they interviewed in 1971-2, 1976-7, 1992-3, and 2000-1. In total, over 1 500 people aged 70 years were interviewed about different aspects of their sex lives including sexual dysfunctions, marital satisfaction and sexual activity.

The effective treatment of many forms of cancer continues to pose a major problem. Many tumors fail to respond to standard forms of chemotherapy or become resistant to the medication.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and Leibniz-Universität (LUH) in Hanover have now discovered a chemical mechanism with which a natural substance - argyrin - destroys tumours.

The basis for this breakthrough was an observation made by the MHH scientist Prof. Nisar Malek: he had been studying the role of a certain protein - a so-called cyclin-kinase inhibitor - in the development of cancer. In the process, Malek noted that mice in which the breakdown of the kinase inhibitor was suppressed by genetic change have a significantly lower risk of suffering from intestinal cancer.

Scientists have recently become interested in the biomechanics of a very unusual activity: skyscraper run-ups.

Competitors in this extreme sport ascend the steps inside the world's tallest buildings, the winners often scaling thousands of steps in just a few minutes. The study of these athletes could shed light on the metabolic profile of athletes and impact on studies of ageing.

"The wide age range of participants, from teenagers to those approaching their centenary, has improved our knowledge of the decline in body performance as we get older," Professor Alberto Minetti from the University of Milan explains. "Industries involved in cardio-fitness could also include the algorithms that we have developed in heart rate monitors, to help athletes maintain their best possible performance throughout races."

Humans often choose partners based on behavioural keys that are displayed during social interactions. The way we behave in different social contexts can reflect personality traits or temperament that may inspire long-term love. Behavioural norms that we perceive as sexually attractive are not culturally or evolutionarily arbitrary.

However, personality-mediated sexual selection is not just the privilege of mankind. László Garamszegiand colleagues at the University of Antwerp and at Eötvös University, Budapest used bird song as a model to investigate whether behavioural traits involved in sexual advertisement can serve as good indicators of personality in wild animals.