(University of California – Santa Barbara) When UC Santa Barbara geochemist David Valentine and colleagues published a study in early 2011 documenting how bacteria blooms had consumed almost all of the deepwater methane plumes following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, some people were skeptical. How, they asked, could almost all of the lethal gas emitted from the Deepwater Horizon well just disappear?

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have shown one way in which poor nutrition in the womb can put a person at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases in later life. This finding could lead to new ways of identifying people who are at a higher risk of developing these diseases and might open up targets for treatment.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have shown one way in which poor nutrition in the womb can put a person at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases in later life. This finding could lead to new ways of identifying people who are at a higher risk of developing these diseases and might open up targets for treatment.

(Boston University Medical Center) In the United States, the cost paid for statins in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance is approximately 400 percent higher than comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom. These findings, from the Boston University School of Medicine Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, are the first results of a comprehensive comparison of prescription drug costs between the US and UK The study appears on-line in the journal Pharmacotherapy.

Earth's atmosphere provides gases that are critical for living things. Credit: W. Perry Conway/Corbis

A lot of people wonder how much our planet itself weighs. But what about its atmosphere?

The total mass of Earth’s atmosphere is about 5.5 quadrillion tons, or roughly one millionth of Earth’s mass. Air is heavier at sea level, since the air molecules sit close together, compressed by the weight of air from above. As elevation increases, however, air molecules grow farther apart, and the air becomes lighter.

(Boston University Medical Center) In the United States, the cost paid for statins in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance is approximately 400 percent higher than comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom. These findings, from the Boston University School of Medicine Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, are the first results of a comprehensive comparison of prescription drug costs between the US and UK The study appears on-line in the journal Pharmacotherapy.

(Northwestern University) Stating that you don’t care if you land a partner who is “hot” or “sexy” is relatively commonplace. But what people say they want and what they actually want are often two very different things when it comes to romantic attraction. A new methodology that measures people’s implicit, split-second responses gets around this problem. Research from Northwestern University and Texas A&M University measures whether people’s implicit preferences actually predict how much you like the hotties.

(Oregon State University) New research has found that elderly people with higher levels of several vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood had better performance on mental acuity tests and less of the brain shrinkage typical of Alzheimer’s disease — while “junk food” diets produced just the opposite result.

(Oregon State University) New research has found that elderly people with higher levels of several vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood had better performance on mental acuity tests and less of the brain shrinkage typical of Alzheimer’s disease — while “junk food” diets produced just the opposite result.

(Public Library of Science) In a study of 3.8 million attendees to 249 raves over 12 years, researchers found that almost 27,897 people visited a first aid station, and more than a third (10,100) reported a substance-related problem.