We instinctively know how to keep ourselves safe and so do other animals, according to neuroscientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   University of Washington researcher Jeansok Kim demonstrates that rats weigh their odds of safely retrieving food pellets placed at varying distances from a perceived predator.

Stay or forage might seem obvious but rats need to get out and find food and how do they decide whether it's safe to leave the nest was the focus of Kim and co-author June-Seek Choi, a visiting professor in the UW psychology department from Korea University.  They studied how the amygdala, an important brain area for perceiving and reacting to fear, was involved in the rats' decisions to risk their safety for food. 

It seems that Abigail and Jacob will be at the top of Santa's gift-list this Christmas morning. A school rewards site says that children with these names are most likely to behave well. 

 Little girls called Beth and little boys named Josh will not be so fortunate; children with those names appear less prone to good behavior (so more prone to naughtiness?  Look for an evolutionary psychology study coming soon!)  

H⁰ charge "clouds" in |4,3,1> state.

       

In about 1985, while considering a banal problem of scattering from atoms, I occasionally discovered the positive-charge (second) atomic form-factors

                                           

describing effects of interaction of a charged projectile with the atomic nucleus [1]:

(1)

Astrobiology researchers say a new discovery may have expanded the definition of life.   Conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California, they have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic, substituting arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components. 

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.

Recently, two posts of Lisa Jo Rudy’s at About.com have garnered the disdain of loyal AoA (Age of Autism blog) readers. Anne Dachel felt strongly enough to write a lengthy post about the upcoming tsunami (The AoAites are nothing if not consistent in their descriptors) and Rudy’s questions concerning whether working towards making our children normal is a worthwhile goal and the funding of our children’s education and therapies.