When you think of cheerleaders, and skimpy outfits, you probably do not consider them as being on the front lines of challenging stereotypes. But they are. No one is a professional cheerleader, instead they are scientists, engineers and just about any other occupation who compete to be on squads for the same reason anyone competes in anything.

And it has become an inclusive activity for both boys and girls, which means it can do a lot more to challenge traditional ideas about gender roles than forcing mixed-sex sports on kids. 

10 commercially available insect repellents were evaluated for their effectiveness at repelling mosquitoes. Three of the products (Repel 100® Insect Repellent, OFF® Deep Woods Insect Repellent VIII, and Cutter® Skinsations Insect Repellent) were mosquito repellents that contained DEET as the active ingredient, and four of the products (Cutter® Natural Insect Repellent, EcoSmart® Organic Insect Repellent, Cutter® Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent, and Avon® Skin So Soft Bug Guard) were mosquito repellents that did not contain DEET. The other three products tested were Avon® Skin So Soft Bath Oil, Victoria's Secret® Bombshell perfume, and Mosquito Skin Patch®, a skin patch with vitamin B1 as the active ingredient.

Chemsex, the unfortunately chosen term for sex under the influence of illegal drugs (unfortunate because it connotes chemistry with illegal, when love is clearly a chemistry event in the brain) - needs to become a public health priority, argue experts in The BMJ. This intentional sex under the influence of psychoactive drugs occurs mostly among gay men.

Chemsex usually refers particularly to the use of mephedrone, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), and crystallized methamphetamine. The drugs are often used in combination to facilitate sexual sessions lasting several hours or even days, with multiple sexual partners.

In a new study, infants remained calm twice as long when listening to a song as when listening to speech. The study involved thirty healthy infants aged between six and nine months.

Humans like music biologically, according to one hypothesis. In adults and older children, this "entrainment" may be displayed by behaviors such as foot-tapping, head-nodding, or drumming. 

"Emotional self-control is obviously not developed in infants, and we believe singing helps babies and children develop this capacity," says Professor Isabelle Peretz of the  University of Montreal. 

In the film version of "The Martian", the main character is trapped on the red planet and is forced to figure out how to grow food. He declares he is going to "science the s--t out of" the issue before instead engaging in regular old agriculture mixed with some engineering.

But science may soon help, researchers have discovered a gene that could open the door for space-based food production. Professor Peter Waterhouse, a plant geneticist at QUT, discovered the gene in the ancient Australian native tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana, known as Pitjuri to indigenous Aboriginals tribes, which has been used for decades as a model plant upon which to test viruses and vaccines.

Products like milk have been fortified with Vitamin D for decades because of its importance in uptake of calcium in the bones, along with other cellular and immune processes. The body creates vitamin D in the form of cholecalciferol within the skin itself, if there is a sufficient amount of sunlight. 

Using solar or wind power to produce carbon-based fuels is a self-defeating approach to making a greener world, but when governments decide to engage in advocacy rather than science, and throw money at problems, bad corporate habits are learned. Instead of funding more basic research to make green energy viable, the White House opted to engage China in a price war on solar panels, and $72 billion later we have the same issues.

Public health policies targeted at smokers may actually have the opposite effect for some people trying to quit, according to a paper which indicates that stigmatizing smoking can, in some cases, make it harder for people to quit because they become angry and defensive and the negative messages lead to a drop in self-esteem.