For the past the 1,000,000 years the global climate has cycled every 100,000 years, between long glacial periods (with great masses of ice covering the continents in the northern hemisphere) and shorter interglacial periods, lasting around 10,000 years. It has been 12,000 years since the last one so enjoy that while it lasts.

However, within the long periods there have been abrupt climate changes, sometimes happening in the space of just a few decades, with variations of up to 10º C in the average temperature in the polar regions caused by changes in the Atlantic ocean circulation. These changes affected rainfall in southern Africa. 

While too much of anything can be bad at any time, a little drinking - 3 to 7 glasses of alcohol a week - does not seem to harm fetal neurodevelopment, according a large study published in the online only journal BMJ Open.

Good thing too, or entire generations of children would be mentally stunted - not drinking at all during pregnancy became the cultural norm a generation ago and it used the same kinds of longitudinal study that now says moderate drinking is okay.

And more affluent and better educated mums-to-be tend to drink more than women who are less well off, say the researchers, which means that kids from wealthier families should be neurodevelopmentally limited, but are not.

Goals need to be flexible, according to a new paper.  People who set a goal of losing between 2 and 4 pounds will still lose an average of 3 lbs. while a person who targets 3 lbs. specifically has less chance of success. 

Consumers often have a choice about the types of goals they want to set for themselves, and they may want to repeat various goals over time. For example, consumers often reengage goals such as losing weight, saving money, or improving their exercise or sports performance.

Long-term cigarette smoking impacts morbidity and mortality, no question about that, but there may be a good reason to stop smoking in the weeks before surgery even if you don't intend to quit overall. 

In a review article, researchers from the University of California San Francisco and Yale University examined neurosurgical literature to characterize the impact of active smoking on neurosurgical outcomes. They found strong evidence for the association between smoking and perioperative complications throughout the surgical literature. 

Scholars have linked higher IQ at early school age to weight gain and increased head size in the first month of a baby's life.

The results were determined - as apparently intelligence is - by analyzing data from more than 13,800 children who were born full-term.  

The findings in Pediatrics were that babies who put on 40% of their birth weight in the first four weeks had an IQ 1.5 points higher by the time they were six years of age, compared with babies who only put on 15% of their birth weight. Those with the biggest growth in head circumference also had the highest IQs.

Fibromyalgia is a blanket term for a general painful condition that affects approximately 10 million people in the United States.

Because it lacks consistent symptoms and treatments, some doctors believe an unknown number of instances are psychosomatic but a new paper in PAIN MEDICINE concludes that fibromyalgia may have a rational biological basis, located in the skin.