news 2014

If you have one of those faces that people just don't trust, fear not: according to scientists, you can pull an expression that will make you appear more honest. Researchers have found that faces deemed to be untrustworthy, dominant or unattractive by dint of their shape, can be made to appear the opposite by making specific facial expressions.

University of Washington Social work researchers from the University of Washington have found that among a group of active-duty Army personnel who use illicit drugs, the most abused substance is synthetic marijuana, which is harder to detect than other drugs through standard drug tests. The research will be published in the July 2014 issue of Addictive Behaviors, but is already online.

08 May 2014 A majority of the UK general public perceive alcohol adverts to breach the Advertising Standards Authority's Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) Code suggesting that the current regulatory system for UK television is inadequate, research from The University of Manchester shows.

New research has found that the personal circumstances of defendants in home possession cases are often not disclosed to judges. Yet judges who were ed by the researchers said that knowing about personal circumstances - such as problems caused by age, mental infirmity, dependent children, and an inability to understand the proceedings - could have a major bearing on their judgement.

Visible results of watershed restoration efforts inspire citizen action in one of the country's most environmentally damaged regions, according to Stanford research that points the way to more effective volunteer recruitment and motivation. For many Americans, there is a single word that elicits images of both enduring poverty and environmental degradation: Appalachia.

A major new survey of the seafloor has found that even in the deepest ocean depths you can find bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other types of human litter. The litter was found throughout the Mediterranean, and all the way from the continental shelf of Europe to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 2,000 kilometres from land.

Dr Jonathan Read: "Southern China is a hotbed for new diseases” Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown how the travel and socialisation patterns of people in Southern China can give greater insight into how new diseases such as bird flu may spread between populations. Southern China is one of the most important regions of the planet for the development and spread of new diseases in humans.

Researchers say the best-educated people are working longer hours than their less-educated counterparts - in contrast to the situation 50 years ago. Rich, well-educated men and women are working much longer hours than those on low incomes, according to a new working paper by the Centre for Time Use Research (CTUR) at the University of Oxford.

Building on their prior work (see "Bridging the Gap" ), a team of neuroscientists at Caltech now report that rare patients who are missing connections between the left and right sides of their brain-a condition known as agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC)-show a strikingly high incidence of autism.

ANN ARBOR-Underwater archaeologists have discovered evidence of prehistoric caribou hunts that provide unprecedented insight into the social and seasonal organization of early peoples in the Great Lakes region. An article detailing the discovery of a 9,000-year-old caribou hunting drive lane under Lake Huron appears in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

28 April 2014 In addition to recent high profile cocaine possession arrests and the Australian Crime Commission's Illicit Drug Data Report 2012-2013 being released today, University of Sydney research has found that people who use cocaine 'socially' are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

University of Illinois psychology professor Eva Telzer and her colleagues found that adolescents who get pleasure from pro-social activities are less likely to become depressed. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. It is better to give than to receive - at least if you're an adolescent and you enjoy giving, a new study suggests.

ANN ARBOR-If your spouse expects good things to happen, your health may be in luck. Having an optimistic spouse predicted better mobility and fewer chronic illnesses over time, even above and beyond a person's own level of optimism, according to a new University of Michigan study. The findings appear in the current issue of Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

Raising a child outside of marriage poses many challenges - but does not have a negative impact on women's happiness, according to new research published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Single motherhood is often seen as a reason for a number of life adversities. Single mothers need to handle organizational and financial pressures.

Latest statistical research finds strong causal links between areas with the most suicides and areas where impoverished farmers are trying to grow crops that suffer from wild price fluctuations due to India's relatively recent shift to free market economics.

What is it about the rhythms of some music that makes us want to get up and dance? Oxford University researchers believe they may have found part of the answer in a new study. They say that an ideal balance of rhythmic predictability and complexity explains why James Brown will get most people up and grooving, while many of us struggle to tap our feet along with experimental jazz.

As reported in a paper published online today in the journal Nature , Caltech biologist David J. Anderson and his colleagues have genetically identified neurons that control aggressive behavior in the mouse hypothalamus, a structure that lies deep in the brain (orange circle in the image at right).

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Southampton have discovered a new section of the boundary wall of the ancient Roman port of Ostia, proving the city was much larger than previously estimated. The results of our work completely transform our understanding of one of the key cities of the Roman Empire.

Those in the United States with a mental illness diagnosis are much more likely to smoke cigarettes and smoke more heavily, and are less likely to quit smoking than those without mental illness, regardless of their specific diagnosis, a new study by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine shows.