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It requires a lot of effort and expense for computer hackers to program a Trojan virus and infiltrate individual or company computers. They are therefore increasingly relying on psychological strategies to manipulate computer users into voluntarily divulging their login details. These methods are known as "social engineering". For the first time, psychologists at the University of Luxembourg have conducted a large-scale study (involving 1,208 people) to investigate how people are manipulated into sharing their passwords with complete strangers in return for small gifts.

"Sending money home from abroad is a hidden force for breaking the cycle of poverty and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa" - Eric Akobeng, University of Leicester

A new study has shown that poverty and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa can be reduced by international remittances.

With the highest reported risk of hip fractures in the word, Norway has good reason to consider the benefits and risks of calcium supplements. The challenge is that too little calcium and vitamin D in your diet leads to an increased risk of osteoporosis and broken bones, which taking supplements has been shown to help prevent.

However, some studies have also shown that taking supplemental calcium may also increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.

Psychologists have discovered a new genetic link between impulsivity and teenage binge-drinking. Researchers at the University of Sussex, working as part of a team of researchers from across Europe, made the discovery which is published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics.

Professor Dai Stephens from the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex said:

There's now more than just anecdotal evidence that England's hedgehog population is feeling the squeeze. In the past 55 years, there has been a moderate decline of up to 7.4 percent in the areas they frequent, says Anouschka Hof of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US and Paul Bright, previously of the University of London in the UK. This is after they resampled two sets of data collected by members of the public as part of citizen-science projects. Their findings are published in Springer's European Journal of Wildlife Research.

A vaccine against one of the most dangerous hospital germs may soon be available. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Freie Universität Berlin have developed a substance that elicits an immune response against the gut bacterium Clostridium difficile. The potential vaccine resembles the sugar structures presented on the surface of the bacterium and therefore primes the immune system to recognize the pathogen itself. C. difficile infects a large proportion of patients in hospitals and kills around 15,000 people a year in the USA alone.

New research from Denmark reveals the gene that explains one quarter of all familial hypercholesterolemia with very high blood cholesterol. Familial hypercholesterolemia is the most common genetic disorder leading to premature death, found in 1 in 200 people.

A research group lead by Clinical Professor Borge G. Nordestgaard has found that cholesterol-containing lipoprotein(a) is the cause of one quarter of all diagnoses of familial hypercholesterolemia. High levels of this genetically determined lipoprotein in the blood is already known to cause heart attacks.

Up to now, research into pollen allergies has largely focused on allergens - those components of pollen that trigger hypersensitivity reactions. When it comes into contact with the nasal mucous membrane, however, pollen releases a host of other substances in addition to allergens. In a pilot study, a team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München investigated for the first time the effects of these substances on allergy sufferers.

DZIF scientists from the University of Bonn have shown that not all conventional Zika virus molecular diagnostic tests for are sufficiently reliable. They developed optimised assays and a control for quantifying viruses in blood and urine.

Since 2013, the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus has spread rapidly through South America and the Caribbean, and is now threatening Southern Europe and the southern US. It causes flu-like symptoms with fever and joint pains, which in some cases can last for months with occasional fatalities. No treatment or vaccine exists so far - serving as an urgent reminder of just how poorly the time-consuming process of drug development is able to meet the threat posed by newly emerging viruses.

Brussels -- May 12, 2016--The lack of an adequately trained workforce of surgical oncologists can be a major detriment in efforts to address the rising global cancer burden, according to two leading international surgical oncology societies.

No two bacteria are identical - even when they are genetically the same. A new study from researchers from Eawag, ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen reveals the conditions under which bacteria become individualists and how they help their group grow when times get tough.

Whether you are a human or a bacterium, your environment determines how you can develop. In particular, there are two fundamental problems: What resources can you draw on to survive and grow and how do you respond if your environment suddenly changes?

Because of their sedentary life, plants have to make the most of their surroundings. To do so, they take advantage of hitherto unknown molecular mechanisms to determine what benefits them and what harms them. They also grant microorganisms access to their roots in exchange for essential nutrients in the soil. The soil fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae serves the model plant Arabidopsis as such a subtenant when required.

Anesthesia is used every day, but surprisingly little is known about one of its most dangerous side effects--depressed heart function. Now, thanks to a team of Johns Hopkins researchers who published a new research article in The FASEB Journal, this mystery is clarified as they identify which proteins in heart muscle are affected by anesthesia. This, in turn, opens the doors to the development of new anesthetics that would not have depressed heart function as a side effect.

Four people meet for dinner in a restaurant and split the check four ways. Anyone who ordered more or something more expensive than the others gains an advantage from the situation. Social dilemmas like this one also occur in animals - such as during communal offspring care. Biologists from the University of Zurich studied how house mice are able to prevent social dilemmas and still cooperate. The results of their study reveal that house mice adjust their willingness to cooperate to the to the expected pay-off.