Don’t be cheap: Shoppers are more likely to splash out on expensive brand names when in the presence of strangers, according to researchers at the University of Alberta. They suggest that people do not like being perceived as “cheap.”
Tune out: Children bombarded with newscasts of the horrible events in New Orleans are more likely to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, including feelings of depression. Researchers at New York University’s Child Study Center, who conducted similar research after 9/11, recommend that parents restrict news watching, and talk to their kids.
Past imperfect: Researchers have found unusually high levels of the greenhouse gas methane in 2,000-year-old ice core samples from Antarctica. Their work appeared last week in the journal Science. Study co-author James White, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, linked these results to fires used to clear land for farming. “There has been a naïve idea out there that humans were just passive, pastoral passengers on the planet up until just a few hundred years ago. We have shown that is not the case,” White told UC-Boulder’s news service.
Nine lives: Unexpectedly, cats vaccinated with an experimental HIV vaccine resist the related feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The study, published in the journal AIDS, argues that developing a vaccine against HIV will require an understanding of how the HIV vaccine confers resistance against FIV.
Addicted to love: Research published in the Journal of Neurophysiology has linked the rush of good feelings in the early stages of a relationship with areas of the brain that promote pleasurable sensations during drug use.
-by Chris Damdar
