If you think choosing a candy bar or a granola bar is totally a matter of free will, think again. A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research argues that the choices we make to indulge ourselves or exercise self-control depend on how the choices are presented.

University of Miami Assistant professor of marketing Juliano Laran tested subjects to determine how certain words and concepts affected their ability to control themselves when confronted with the choice of healthy or unhealthy food. He found that consumer choices were affected by the actions most recently suggested to them by certain key words.

For many years, so called 'junk RNA' was thought to be nothing more than cellular trash. Recent research, however, has called this view into question as scientists have discovered the importance of some small RNAs that generally contain more than 20 molecular units called nucleotides.

The Naval Research Laboratory's Ion Tiger has set an unofficial record for flight endurance by a hydrogen-powered fuel cell unmanned air vehicle, staying out for 23 hours and 17 minutes. The test flight took place on October 9th through 10th at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The Ion Tiger fuel cell development system team is led by NRL and includes Protonex Technology Corporation, the University of Hawaii, and HyperComp Engineering.

The electric fuel cell propulsion system onboard the Ion Tiger has the low noise and signature of a battery-powered UAV, while taking advantage of hydrogen, a high-energy fuel. Fuel cells create an electrical current when they convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, with only water and heat as byproducts.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg say they have discovered a new cancer gene related to adenoid cystic carcinoma,  a slow-growing but deadly form of cancer. The research group can now show that the gene is found in 100% of these tumors, which means that a genetic test can easily be used to make a correct diagnosis.

The newly discovered cancer gene is what is known as a fusion gene, created when two healthy genes join together as a result of a chromosome change.

Parts of our genetic programs that determine programmed cell death in plants and animals are actually evolutionarily related and function in a similar way, according to an article in Nature Cell Biology.

Research has previously believed that animals and plants developed different genetic programs for cell death. 

Children in english-speaking, letter-driven languages are diagnosed with dyslexia more commonly than those in Asia so is it a function of our alphabet?

English dyslexia consists of a 'phonological disorder',  meaning that people with the condition have trouble detecting or manipulating the sound structure of oral language, which in turn leads to problems in mapping speech sounds onto letters

Chinese-speaking children get a form of dyslexia but the disorder is distinctly different, and perhaps more complicated and severe, than that of English speakers. Those differences can even be seen in the brain and in the performance of Chinese children on visual and oral language tasks, according to a report in Current Biology.