While there continues to be considerable debate among geologists about the availability of oxygen in the Earth's mantle, recent discoveries by a University of Rhode Island scientist are bringing resolution to the question.

Swedes are both happy and content with their lives, reveals a report from the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The factors that contribute most to a sense of well-being are good health, family and friends, a good home and personal finances. Clothes and appearance play only a very minor role.

Children in Sweden are exposed to a huge number of TV advertisements. Food adverts -- primarily for fast food and sweets -- dominate the advertisements shown during children's viewing times. Research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that Sweden is no different from other countries when it comes to the number of adverts that children are exposed to.

A study to be published in the January edition of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals that drinking three glasses of milk per day may lead to an 18 percent decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. From dispelling the myth that dairy causes heart disease, to revealing dairy's weight loss benefits, the news release provides a 2010 roundup of select dairy research.

Inhaled corticosteroids are widely used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, these drugs may be associated with diabetes development and progression. In a study published in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Medicine, researchers found that inhaled corticosteroids were associated with a 34 percent increase in the rate of diabetes onset and in the rate of diabetes progression. At the highest inhaled doses the risk increased by 64 percent in diabetes onset and 54 percent in diabetes progression.

A team of scientists led by Marc Lessard of the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center launched an instrument-laden, four-stage sounding rocket from Norway's Andoya Rocket Range into aurora about 200 miles above Earth early Sunday morning (Dec. 12, 2010), just before the two-week launch window slammed shut.

A three-year study by Yale School of Medicine researchers has found that vaccinating pregnant women against influenza is over 90 percent effective in preventing their infants from being hospitalized with influenza in the first six months of life. Published in the Dec. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, the study builds on preliminary data the research team presented last year at the Infectious Disease Society of America in Philadelphia.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have described for the first time a key inhibitory role for the IL-1 signaling pathway in the human innate immune system, providing novel insights into human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and potential new treatments.

In the world-wide race to develop energy sources that are seen as "green" because they are renewable and less greenhouse gas-intensive, sometimes the most basic questions remain unanswered.

Deep brain stimulation of a brain area that controls complex behaviors has proven to be effective against several therapeutically stubborn neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Now, a new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has found that this technique targets the same class of neuronal cells that are known to respond to physical exercise and drugs such as Prozac.

Psychological scientists are faced with the arduous task of identifying distinctions between humans without stigmatizing groups of people based on these differences. In this special section of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, experts present reasons for why differences in gender, race, sexual orientation, and culture should not be framed as deficits within the field of psychology.

Brown University sociologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use device that is helping researchers in Ethiopia obtain more reliable answers when they ask teenagers about stigmatized sexual behaviors. Their findings are published in the December issue of Studies in Family Planning.

Berkeley Lab researchers have been able to fabricate nanochannels that are only two nanometers in size, using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. Already they've discovered that fluid mechanics for passages this small are significantly different not only from bulk-sized channels, but even from channels that are merely 10 nanometers in size.

In vitro studies examining the activity of human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCB) on experimental animal models of central nervous system aging, injury and disease, have shown that HUCBs provide a "trophic effect" that enhances survival and maturation of hippocampal neurons, benefiting aging adult hippocampal neurons by increasing their survival, growth, differentiation, maturation and arborization.

Scientists at the US Geological Survey have proven that measuring fluorescence could improve source water monitoring during a study of the McKenzie River in Oregon.