Researchers say they have found the first unambiguous evidence that an animal other than humans can make spontaneous plans for future events. The report in Current Biology highlights a decade of observations of a male chimpanzee calmly collecting stones and fashioning concrete discs that he would later use to hurl at zoo visitors.

While researchers have observed many ape behaviors that could involve planning both in the wild and in captivity, it generally hasn't been possible to judge whether they were really meeting a current or future need, he added. For instance, when a chimp breaks a twig for termite fishing or collects a stone for nut cracking, it can always be argued that they are motivated by immediate rather than future circumstances.

India, the largest and most prosperous nation in south Asia, raised the legal age for marriage to 18 in 1978.   In the past 15 years, national policy efforts have been developed to increase educational and economic opportunities for girls and women, reduce child marriage and expand family-planning support.  Despite India's economic and educational reform efforts in the last decade, the prevalence of child marriage remains high.

New data published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggest that relatively healthy women with severe depression are at increased risk of cardiac events, including sudden cardiac death (SCD) and fatal coronary heart disease (CHD). Researchers found that much of the relationship between depressive symptoms and cardiac events was mediated by cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. 

Terminally ill patients and their family caregivers often feel abandoned by their doctors and feel a sense of "unfinished business" with them, according to a new study by an oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

The study results, published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, identified two themes: before death, abandonment worries related to loss of continuity of communication between patient and physician; and at the time death or after, the patient's family's feelings of abandonment from a lack of closure with the physician. 

The theory that a higher metabolism means a shorter lifespan may have reached the end of its own life, according to a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. The study, led by Lobke Vaanholt (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), found that mice with increased metabolism live just as long as those with slower metabolic rates.

Colorful poison frogs in the Amazon owe their great diversity to ancestors that leapt into the region from the Andes Mountains several times during the last 10 million years, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin suggests.

This is the first study to show that the Andes have been a major source of diversity for the Amazon basin, one of the largest reservoirs of biological diversity on Earth. The finding runs counter to the idea that Amazonian diversity is the result of evolution only within the tropical forest itself. 

It has been assumed that much of the evolution of biodiversity in the Amazon basin occurred over the last one to two million years, a mere snapshot in time.

Good eating habits can result when families eat together, say researchers from the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, who report on one of the first studies to examine the long-term benefits of regular family meals for diet quality during the transition from early to middle adolescence. In general, the study found adolescents who participated in regular family meals reported more healthful diets and meal patterns compared to adolescents without regular family meals.

Ecstasy may help suffers of post-traumatic stress learn to deal with their memories more effectively by encouraging a feeling of safety, says new research.

Studies have shown that a type of psychological treatment called exposure therapy – where the patient repeatedly recalls the traumatic experience or is repeatedly exposed to situations that are safe but still trigger their traumatic feelings – can be effective in relieving stress responses in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxious conditions. The therapy works by helping the patient to re-learn the appropriate response to the trigger situation, a process known as extinction learning.

LONDON, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- In line with international Women's Day today Professor Athene Donald was awarded the 2009 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science Laureate for Europe at a prestigious event in Paris. Established in 1998, the For Women In Science Awards recognize five exceptional women scientists each year - one per continent. The awards act as a benchmark of international scientific excellence, and an invaluable source of motivation, support, and inspiration for women in the scientific field. The Laureates serve as role models for future generations, encouraging young women around the world to follow in their footsteps.

Natural burial is not just a 'green' option for eco-fixated non-religious people, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield.  They'll be holding an event called "Natural Burial: Do we need a Headstone?" to be held in Sheffield on March 14 as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Festival of Social Science.