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Research conducted at the University of Chicago shows that female elementary school teachers who are anxious about math often pass the phobia on to female students. Published in a recent edition of PNAS, the findings are the product of a year-long study on 17 first- and second-grade teachers and 52 boys and 65 girls who were their students. The researchers found that boys' math performance was not related to their teacher's math anxiety while girls' math achievement was affected.To determine the impact of teachers' mathematics anxiety on students, the team assessed teachers' anxiety about math. Then, at both the beginning and end of the school year, the research team also tested the students' level of mathematics achievement and the gender stereotypes the students held.

When the menu boards at a McDonald's restaurant included the calorie content for the various meal options, parents chose lower calorie items for their children, according to a new study in Pediatrics. The authors say their study is the first to suggest that labeled menus may lead to significantly reduced calorie intake in fast food restaurant meals purchased for children.

Using high resolution genome sequencing, an international team of researchers has tracked a particularly virulent strain of MRSA as it traveled between South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The findings shed light on how these deadly bacteria are able to spread from patient to patient in a single hospital and, on a larger scale of geography and time, between countries and entire continents. The results appear in a recent issue of Science.

Scientists from the University of Kentucky and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya have discovered a new predatory thrips – Karnyothrips flavipes – which feeds on the eggs and larvae of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei. The authors say the discovery could have important implications for the management of the coffee berry borer throughout the world. Their study, the first to quantitatively prove predation on the coffee berry borer, is published online in Naturwissenschaften - The Science of Nature.

A new study published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology indicates that in the West women experience much more guilt than men, and the primary reason is not that women feel too much guilt, but rather that many males feel too little. The authors say more needs to be done to "reduce the trend towards anxious-aggressive guilt among women and to strengthen interpersonal sensitivity among men."

Scientists from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries say a major increase in maximum ocean wave heights off the Pacific Northwest in recent decades has forced scientists to re-evaluate how high a "100-year event" might be, and raises special concerns about flooding, coastal erosion and structural damage.The new assessment, published in the journal Coastal Engineering, concludes that the highest waves may be as much as 46 feet, up from estimates of only 33 feet that were made as recently as 1996, and a 40 percent increase. December and January are the months such waves are most likely to occur, although summer waves are also significantly higher.

Contrary to the claims of most paleontologists, researchers from University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China say that bird flight evolved up in the trees, and  flight tests of a model of the four-winged gliding raptor called microraptor lend credence to their theory. "The controversy was that these animals couldn't spread their hind-wings to glide," said Burnham. "But we've been able to articulate the bones in their hip socket to show that they could fly." The new flight model created by Martin and Burnham comes directly from a skeleton composed of casts of the original bones of a microraptor and the preserved impressions of feathers from specimens in Chinese museums.

A comparison of two popular weight loss methods demonstrates that both are equally effective at helping people lose significant amounts of weight. But the low-carbohydrate diet proved better at lowering blood pressure than the weight-loss drug orlistat, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.Studies had already indicated that a low-carbohydrate diet and prescription-strength orlistat combined with a low-fat diet are effective weight loss therapies. But the two common strategies had not been compared to each other, an important omission now that orlistat is available over-the-counter. In addition, few studies provide data on these treatments for overweight patients with chronic health issues.

A new study conducted by University of Virginia psychologists suggests that well-adapted youth with positive friendships will use social networking sites like facebook and myspace to enhance the positive relationships they already have. The study also indicates, however, that teens who have behavioral problems and difficulty making friends, or who are depressed, may be more inclined to use social media in negative and sometimes aggressive ways, or not to use such sites at all. The study appears in the January issue of Developmental Psychology.

 The authors of a new study in Energy&Fuels say they have developed an advanced "closed-loop control" approach for preventing diesel engines from emitting greater amounts of smog-causing nitrogen oxides when running on biodiesel fuels.The new technique uses advanced models to self-adjust engine settings based on feedback from sensors. Software algorithms use data from the sensors to determine the fuel blend being combusted. If the fuel is changed, the system identifies the new fuel and makes critical adjustments to fuel-injection timing, the air-to-fuel ratio and how much exhaust is rerouted into the cylinders.

T cells, B cells - antibodies - intervene when viruses and bacteria make us ill and they wipe out intruders effectively but cause collateral damage in the body's own tissue, which has to be repaired.In order for our immune system to not be in a constant state of 'red alert', causing chronic inflammation, there is a second defense system switched in series between our bodies and the outside world, essential because because there are trillions of bacteria on the barrier tissue like our lungs and skin. The majority of these microorganisms have been living with our body's cells as good neighbors for millions of years and the complex symbiosis of very different microorganisms supplies us with important natural substances such as vitamin B12.

Based on a survey of UK science journalists and 52 in-depth interviews with specialist reporters and senior editors in the national news media, researchers from the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies say that specialist science news reporting in the UK is in relatively good health, but also warn that a wider crisis in journalism poses a serious threat to the quality and independence of science reporting.