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Normal rules of economic behavior would dictate that free upgrades to a particular product would move it out the door in record numbers. Somewhat counterintuitively, new research from Professor Wen Mao reveals that a token upgrade fee, even no more than a penny, is often more attractive to consumers than a freebie.

Using a reverse paint-by-numbers approach, scientists have located another gene that controls the brilliant patterning of Heliconius butterfly wings. Led by former Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) fellow Nicole Nadeau, the researchers identified variations in the gene that correspond to wing color and pattern variation in three different Heliconius species. Published in Nature, June 2016, the discovery puts scientists a step closer to unlocking the code responsible for diversity and evolution in butterflies and moths.

University of Exeter researchers have found novel insight into the ways cells organise themselves. Their work, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and published this week in Nature Communications, uses an interdisciplinary approach to show, for the first time, that random distribution of organelles is a consequence of energy-dependent activity in a fungus and mammalian cell line.

Organelles are the functional units of a cell. Like "organs" in a body, they perform specialised functions that allow survival of the cell.

The Telomeres and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), in collaboration with the Centre's Transgenic Mice Core Unit, has succeeded in creating mice in the laboratory with hyper-long telomeres and with reduced molecular ageing, avoiding the use of what to date has been the standard method: genetic manipulation. This new technique based on epigenetic changes that is described today in the pages of Nature Communications, avoids the manipulation of genes in order to delay molecular ageing.

TAMPA, Fla. (June 2, 2016) - Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents approximately 14 percent of all types of lung cancer. Many patients with SCLC respond to initial chemotherapy; however, they eventually relapse and develop progressive disease that has no effective treatment options.

Men who live outside major Canadian cities and have sex with other men are less likely to get an HIV test than their metropolitan counterparts, a UBC study shows.

The study, conducted at UBC's Okanagan campus, also shows that the lower testing rates are likely connected to internalized feelings of homophobia and a reluctance to disclose sexual preferences at a doctor's office.

MISSOULA - A University of Montana graduate student's research on Alaskan brown bears and red salmon is the May cover story of the high-profile journal Ecology.

Will Deacy, a UM systems ecology graduate student under the direction of UM Professor Jack Stanford, researched brown bears on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The obesity epidemic affects women and men of every ethnic group in the United States, but strong gender and racial disparities in the risk of overweight and obesity exist. African American women are currently more at risk than any other group in the United States: 82.1% of African American women are overweight or obese (defined as having a BMI of 25 or higher), compared to 76.2% of Hispanic women and 64.6% of Caucasian women, according to the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) [1].

WASHINGTON, DC (June 1, 2016)--Nearly 17 million women and children (mostly girls) in 24 sub-Saharan African countries are responsible for hauling water long distances to their homes, a task that takes them more than 30 minutes per trip, according to a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE.

Ornithologists have long wondered why some birds carry more fat than they need to fuel their migration, and a new study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances provides the answer: Leftover fuel from spring migration gives female birds a reproductive boost when they reach their breeding grounds.

WASHINGTON -- Despite the prevalence of workplace wellness efforts, only one-third of American workers say they regularly participate in the health promotion programs provided by their employer, according to a new survey by the American Psychological Association.

Additionally, less than half of working Americans (44 percent*) say the climate in their organization supports employee well-being, and 1 in 3 reports being chronically stressed on the job. The APA survey suggests a key part of the solution is senior leadership support.

In a colonial orb-weaving spider, Cyrtophora citricola, females often eat the males after mating, but it is often the males that choose their mates, according a study published June 1, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eric Yip from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and colleagues.

The imperial dominance of the ancient Wari Empire at the Huaca Pucllana site in Lima, Peru, was likely not achieved through population replacement, according to a study published June 1, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Guido Valverde from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues.

The same gene that enables tropical butterflies to mimic each other's bright and colourful patterning also caused British moths to turn black amid the grime of the industrial revolution, researchers have found.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by academics at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield, report that a fast-evolving gene known as "cortex" appears to play a critical role in dictating the colours and patterns on butterfly wings.

JUPITER, FL - June 1, 2016 - In an important new study with implications for the treatment of dozens of incurable diseases, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time created a drug candidate that attacks and neutralizes the RNA structure that causes an incurable progressive, inherited disease involving a gradual loss of control over body movement.