A new analysis of maternal mortality worldwide conducted by the United Nations found that the maternal mortality ratio saw a relative decline of 43.9 percent during the 25-year period of 1990-2015. Details appear in an early online issue of The Lancet.

The study analyzed levels and trends in maternal mortality in 183 countries and found that the maternal mortality ratio declined from 385 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 216 in 2015. They also saw great variability in progress toward reducing mortality. 

In the 19th century, Darwin’s most vocal scientific advocate was Thomas Henry Huxley, who is also remembered as a pioneer of the hypotheses that birds are living dinosaurs. He noticed several similarities of the skeleton of living birds and extinct dinosaurs, among them, a pointed portion of the anklebone projecting upwards onto the shank bone (aka drumstick).

This “ascending process” is well known to specialists as a unique trait of dinosaurs. However, until the late 20th century, many scientists were doubtful about the dinosaur-bird link. Some pointed out that the ascending process in most birds was a projection of the neighbouring heel bone, rather than the anklebone. If so, it would not be comparable, and would not support the dinosaur-bird link.

PHILADELPHIA, PA, Nov. 9, 2015 - Self-weighing can be a useful tool to help adults control their weight, but for adolescents and young adults this behavior may have negative psychological outcomes. Researchers from the University of Minnesota tracked the self-weighing behaviors of more than 1,900 young adults as part of Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults) and found increases in self-weighing to be significantly related to increases in weight concern and depression and decreases in body satisfaction and self-esteem among females.

Would your ability to resist a tantalizing cookie improve if you had to wait a few seconds before you could reach for it? The idea that natural urges 'die down' with time seems intuitive, but new research shows that it's being reminded about what not to do, not the passage of time, that actually helps young children control their impulsive behavior.

The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

November 9, 2015 - In the largest genomic analysis of puberty timing in men, new research conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge and 23andMe* shows that the timing of puberty in males and females is influenced by many of the same-shared genetic factors. The study results are the first to quantify the strongly shared genetic basis for puberty timing between the sexes.

A team of scholars recently looked at what emotional effects - if any - eating different yogurts had on people.

Their article in Food Research International claims that being pleasantly surprised or disappointed with a food product can actually change a person's mood, at least based on emotional responses. Eating vanilla yogurt made people feel happy, and that yogurt with lower fat content gave people a stronger positive emotional response. Yogurt with different fruits did not show much difference in their emotional effect.