WASHINGTON -- The causes of youth gun violence are complex and while focusing on just a single variable will probably not prevent shootings, understanding and preventing youth violence should be a national priority, according to a comprehensive review published by the American Psychological Association.

The complex pattern of 'chatter' between different areas of an individual's brain while they are awake could help doctors better track and even predict their response to general anaesthesia - and better identify the amount of anaesthetic necessary - according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

What do snapping shrimp, naked mole rats, ants, honeybees, and humans all have in common? They all share a similar colony-like organizational system that biologists have termed eusociality. Eusocial species have been remarkably successful in both surviving and thriving through the use of colony-level cooperation. One cooperative behavior used by all eusocial species is the self-sacrifice of individuals to defend the colony. For example, a eusocial bee may sting a predator to stop an attack but die in the process. This same self-sacrificial tendency is seen among humans across cultures and time periods, including among military recruits, first responders, and parents.

In the early days of food labeling and regulations, it was just about mandating honesty. If you go to buy mayonnaise, you shouldn’t have to wonder if it is mayonnaise, the government reasoned, so they passed a law in 1938 requiring honesty about ingredients. The charlatans went out of the business and the free market that remained embraced “better” ingredients as a marketing distinction. It worked well.

Energy is the great equalizer. With cheap energy, the cost of all basic needs go down and citizens can have better culture and education.

For too many Western elites, especially in environmental activism, the goal of reducing energy flies in the face of developing nation empowerment. Solar panels are great, except people don't want agenda-based solutions, they want lights and air conditioners and running water when they need them.

The first study to look at the influence of Asian parents on their young adult child's body dissatisfaction levels and disordered eating in Singapore has found significant differences with Western culture, leading to calls for a tailored approach to treatment.

In America it seems that Democrats are gaining ground and that therefore the culture is moving to the left. It's actually much different, Democrats have actually moved to the right. President Obama came into office campaigning against two wars but will leave office with three. He never closed Guantanamo Bay and even his lifting of "the ban" on human embryonic stem cell research was just a slight modification of the NIH funding policy under President George W. Bush.

"Privileged" has become one of those words thrown at everyone who has been successful; it's generally a bad idea because it tells people nothing they do matters, social classes and wealth are fixed, and that cultural determinism rules it all.

In the last few days, there has been a spate of reports that the incandescent bulb is on its way back.  This relates to work by a group of authors at MIT plus one at Purdue University in Indiana, featured in a news report from MIT:

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?

Many of us might look forward to this, having found compact fluorescent lamps troublesome, and LED lights a bit weird.

It relates to this very recent publication,:

New research indicates that asthma in many adolescents is not likely to involve inflammation of the airways and therefore should not be considered an allergic disease.

For the study, investigators assessed clinical characteristics and inflammatory markers in 77 adolescents with asthma and compared them with those found in 68 healthy participants aged 12 to 17 years. The presence of asthma did not appear to involve eosinophils or neutrophils, specific types of white blood cells that are present in higher concentrations in response to inflammation.