Sure, things are tough all over.    Heck, Linda Evangelista recently stated she now would get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day(1).   

Can't wait for the next Star Trek movie?    Okay, this doesn't have Zoe Saldana but it's still pretty terrific -  the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving along the edge of a graphene crystal. Given that graphene,  single-layered sheets of carbon atoms arranged like chicken wire, may hold the key to the future of the electronics industry, the audience for this new science movie might also reach blockbuster proportions.

It's not just American cars that are hurting the environment, researchers in California and Colorado have set their sights on ... rocket launches?

Future ozone losses from unregulated rocket launches will eventually exceed ozone losses due to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which stimulated the 1987 Montreal Protocol banning ozone-depleting chemicals, said Martin Ross, chief study author from The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. The study, which includes the University of Colorado at Boulder and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provides a market analysis for estimating future ozone layer depletion based on the expected growth of the space industry and known impacts of rocket launches.

Here's another reason to hate leftovers. A research study in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology sheds light on one cause of arthritis: bacteria. In the study, scientists from the United States and The Netherlands show that a specific gene called NOD2 triggers arthritis or makes it worse when leftover remnants of bacteria cell walls, called muramyl dipeptide or MDP, are present. This discovery offers an important first step toward new treatments to prevent or lessen the symptoms of inflammatory arthritis.

Here's another reason why dieters should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: When faced with a large variety of items, consumers tend to underestimate how much of each item is present, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) and Stephen J. Hoch (University of Pennsylvania) investigated consumers' perceptions of quantity in a set of experiments that may help us understand how quantity perceptions influence portion sizes.

"Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" the researchers asked. "Contrary to popular belief, the presence of variety actually makes it seem like there are fewer items."

Some consumers will opt for local products and others always prefer global brands.   A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research takes a look at why local goods can even beat out recognizable global brands like Coke or Pepsi.

"Due to rapid globalization, local products—products with specifications and packaging tailored for local markets, such as Mecca Cola (France) and Fei-Chang Cola (China)—and global products (products with the same specifications and packaging for consumers from around the world) such as Pepsi and Coke, routinely compete against each other," write authors Yinlong Zhang (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Adwait Khare (Quinnipiac University).