In paintings of the last supper from last Millennium, the sizes of the portions and plates have gradually grown bigger and bigger, according to a forthcoming study in the International Journal of Obesity.

The finding suggests that the phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates – which pushes people to overeat – has occurred gradually over the millennium.

"We took the 52 most famous paintings of the Last Supper (from the book 'Last Supper,' 2000) and analyzed the size of the entrees, bread and plates, relative to the average size of the average head in the painting," said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

Research has shown that healthy people can benefit from moderate alcohol consumption.

And a new analysis in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that patients who have already suffered a heart attack, stroke or another ischemic vascular event can reap these benefits, too.

Researchers analyzed the most important scientific studies performed during the last years. Eight in total in four Countries: United States, Sweden, Japan and Great Britain. Each study took into account patients already affected by an ischemic vascular event.

According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, what we think of a product or brand, or how positively or negatively we assess it, depends on the context in which it is viewed.

The research suggests that marketers have to carefully construct and consider the context to get the desired results.

"Although [consumers] generally think their judgments reflect the true quality of the products, many irrelevant contextual factors from the weather to another product brand can influence consumers' evaluations," the authors write.

The study was based on four experiments that looked at how consumers compare and contrast products and brands and what it takes to get them to positively or negatively evaluate them.

Past studies have suggested that high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners like table sugar are nutritionally identical. But the authors of a new study in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior say that's not so.

When it comes to weight gain, the study found, rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

We can do a lot of things to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions often blamed for climate change, but cutting back on consumption of meat and dairy products isn't one of them, according to a report presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Giving cows and pigs a bum rap is not only scientifically inaccurate, but also distracts society from embracing effective solutions to global climate change, says UC Davis Professor of Animal Science Frank Mitloehner. He noted that the notion is becoming deeply rooted in efforts to curb global warming, citing campaigns for "meatless Mondays" and a European campaign, called "Less Meat = Less Heat," launched late last year.

The process that lights up big-screen plasma TV displays could also help produce ultra-clean fuels, according to research presented this week at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

The research describes a small, low-tech, inexpensive device called a GlidArc reactor that uses electrically-charged clouds of gas called "plasmas" to produce clean fuels from waste materials. One is a diesel fuel that releases 10 times less air pollution than its notoriously sooty, smelly conventional counterpart.