In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Harvard say they have provided the first laboratory evidence that cooperative behavior is contagious.

 Researchers showed that when one person gave money to help others in a "public-goods game," where people had the opportunity to cooperate with each other, the recipients were more likely to give their own money away to other people in future games. This created a domino effect in which one person's generosity spread first to three people and then to the nine people that those three people interact with in the future, and then to still other individuals in subsequent waves of the experiment.

Historians from the University of Haifa claim that Khirbet Qeiyafa, a provincial town in Israel's Elah Valley region, is 'Neta'im',  an adminstrative center mentioned in the biblical book of Chronicles.

Archaeological excavations carried out at Khirbet Qeiyafa have dated the site to the beginning of the 10th century BCE, namely the time of King David's rule. A Hebrew inscription on a pottery shard found at the site also dating back to the 10th century indicates the presence of scribes and a high level of culture in the town.

Insulin resistance, high cholesterol, fatty liver, greater risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are all related to obesity, but are likely not caused by it, according to a review in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

In fact, obesity is the body's way of storing lipids where they belong, in fat tissue, in an effort to protect our other organs from lipids' toxic effects. It's when the surplus of calories coming in gets to be too much for our fat tissue to handle that those lipids wind up in other places they shouldn't be, and the cascade of symptoms known as metabolic syndrome sets in.

Alcohol consumption has been suspected of contributing to weight gain in the United States, but among normal-weight women moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk for obesity, according a new study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Cherry Picking At The Tree Of Knowledge

The fruit of the cherry is easily spoiled: rough handling, bird pecks, insect bites, mold - all can render the cherry unappealing or inedible.

The cherry picker is trained to pick only the best cherries: the ones that will appeal most to consumers.

Fruit pickers, tree surgeons and others often use a hydraulic lift to reach into high work areas.  These lifts can let the operator reach exactly the right spot - exactly the right cherry, in a manner of speaking.

By extension, the machine is called a cherry-picker.

By analogy, anyone who selects only the data that appeals to them and supports their personal view or theory is called a cherry picker.