A new study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests that minimum-wage employees are more likely to be obese than those who earn higher wages, adding to growing evidence that being poor is a risk factor for unhealthy weight.

The authors say the study provides justification for raising minimum wage rates around the country which would allow low-income workers to make healthier choices.

"Our study clarifies a link that has been assumed but difficult to prove," said Paul Leigh, senior author of the study and professor in the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research. "The correlation between obesity and poverty-level wages was very strong."

A Texas A&M University-led team of astronomers has uncovered what may be the earliest, most distant cluster of galaxies ever detected.

The group of roughly 60 galaxies, called CLG J02182-05102, is nearly 10 billion years old — born just 4 billion years after the Big Bang. However, it's not the size nor the age of the cluster that astronomers find amazing. Rather, it's the surprisingly modern appearance of CLG J02182-05102 that has them baffled — a huge, red collection of galaxies typical of only present-day galaxies.

"It's like we dug an archaeological site in Rome and found pieces of modern Rome amongst the ruins," explains Dr. Casey Papovich, an assistant professor in the Texas A&M Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Working overtime may be bad for your heart, according to results from a long-running study following more than 10,000 government employees in London.

The research, published in the European Heart Journal, found that, compared with people who did not work overtime, people who worked three or more hours longer than a normal, seven-hour day had a 60% higher risk of heart-related problems such as death due to heart disease, non-fatal heart attacks and angina.

Researchers warn, however, that there study did not include any private sector employees and cannot be generalized as a result.

The admittedly small and self-selected group of inmates that I provide psychotherapy for on a weekly basis at our local county jail has inspired my curiosity about the mental and emotional health of general inmate populations throughout the United States.  Of special interest are persistent reports about growing numbers of inmates coupled with correctional facility overcrowding.  In part these swelling numbers are no doubt due to high recidivism rates, and this “revolving door” phenomenon has in recent years generated interest among researchers and officials partly in response to the rising perception of our correctional facilities as the new warehouses for mentally ill, developmentally disadvantaged, and emotionally disturbed individuals.

Neural stem cells have long been defined as origin of nervous system development, spontaneously giving rise to the heterogeneous multitude of cells that make up the brain. Remarkably, neural stem cells seem to have the uncanny sense to differentiate at the right time and place, and to the appropriate fate, to produce a complex network consisting of neuronal connections and supportive glial cells.

In War of the Worlds, giant alien robots emerge out of the ground and begin vaporizing large numbers of actors. There’s a lot to like in those scenes, but there are three things I could not stand.

Like those three legs they walked around on.   Not their fragile-appearing spindly-ness,but their actual three-ness.