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Hard workers who are motivated to achieve generally excel on specific tasks when they are reminded of the benefits of their hard work. But when a task is presented as fun, researchers report in a new Journal of Personality and Social Psychology study, the same hard-working individuals are often outperformed by those less motivated to achieve.The findings suggest that two students may respond quite differently to a teacher's exhortation that they strive for excellence, said University of Illinois psychology professor Dolores Albarracín, who conducted the research with William Hart, of the University of Florida. One may be spurred to try harder, while another may become less motivated.

The next time you want to convince someone to vote for your favored political candidate, or to buy a certain product, use abstract language, say the authors of a new study published in the The Journal of Consumer Research. The study found that consumers respond  better to product descriptions when they are framed in abstract as opposed to concrete terms. "Our finding that abstract messages have a stronger impact on buying intentions can be translated straightforwardly into the recommendation to use abstract language if you try to convince someone of the (positive or negative) consequences of buying a product, or of following your advice," the authors explain.

Results from a study recently published in the Lancet Oncology found that testing for high-risk types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA is significantly more effective in preventing invasive cervical cancer than cytology (Pap testing) alone. Two rounds of screening were performed in more than 90,000 women age 25-60. In phase one, women were randomly assigned to a control group with conventional cytology (Pap) only or to an intervention group where women had HPV DNA testing plus liquid-based cytology. In phase two, which was conducted two years later, with three to five years of follow-up, the control group received conventional cytology and the women in the intervention group received HPV testing alone.

Thanks to capitalism and a cultural heritage of individual freedom, Americans enjoy just about ever modern convenience imaginable and do almost anything they want. But, according to psychologists from Standford University and Swarthmore College, the amount of choice that results from such a decadent lifestyle may be unhealthy. The researchers say that too many choices cause Americans to ignore how the rest of the world feels about choice and may even make us selfish and depressed.

A new paper published in Zoologica Scripta argues that the distributions of the major primate groups are correlated with Mesozoic tectonic features and that their respective ranges are congruent with each evolving locally from a widespread ancestor on Pangea about 185 million years ago.The new theory incorporates spatial patterns of primate diversity and distribution as historical evidence for primate evolution, while previous models of primate evolution had been limited to interpretations of the fossil record and molecular clocks, says author Michael Heads, a Research Associate of the Buffalo Museum of Science.

University of California, San Diego researchers say they have shown one way deadly brain tumors called gliomas evade drugs aimed at blocking the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cell signaling protein that is crucial for tumor growth. They also say that a particular EGFR mutation is important not only to initiate the tumor, but for its continued growth as well. The findings appear this week in PNAS.

Surgeons from UC Davis Medical Center say they have demonstrated that artificial muscles can restore the ability of patients with facial paralysis to blink, a development that could potentially  prevent corneal ulcers and the blindness that usually follows. Detailed in the January-February issue of the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, the development could benefit the thousands of people each year who no longer are able to close their eyelids due to combat-related injuries, stroke, nerve injury or facial surgery.In addition, the technique, which uses a combination of electrode leads and silicon polymers, could be used to develop synthetic muscles to control other parts of the body. The new

Low concentrations of oxygen and nutrients in the lower layers of the beaches of Alaska's Prince William Sound are slowing the aerobic biodegradation of oil remaining from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, according to a new study appearing in Nature Geoscience.In the first five years after the accident, the oil was disappearing at a rate of about 70 percent and calculations showed the oil would be gone within the next few years. However, about seven or eight years ago it was discovered that the oil had in fact slipped to a disappearance rate of around four percent a year and it is estimated that nearly 20,000 gallons of oil remains in the beaches.

Reporting in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an international team of researchers has determined the structure of 14α-Demethylase (14DM), an enzyme essential to the survival of the protozoan parasites that cause sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. They say this new information provides the first up-close look at the busy enzyme and, perhaps more importantly, shows how one compound in particular prevents it from conducting business as usual.The team chose to attack the parasite's enzyme known as 14DM because it has a counterpart in fungi, which cause athlete's foot and ringworm, and such fungal infections are commonly treated with drugs that prevent 14DM from making ergosterol, a sterol required for membrane synthesis.

Climate scientists predict increasing numbers of storms, droughts, floods and heat waves as the Earth warms, but the effects of these fluctuating conditions on biodiversity could actually go either way, according to recent ecological research. Species able to tolerate only a narrow range of temperatures, for example, may be eliminated, but instability in the environment can also prevent dominant species from squeezing out competitors.

Writing  in Nature Medicine, scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington say they have demonstrated how to increase the number of  progenitor cells capable of rapid myeloid engraftment after cord blood transplantation. The discovery clears a major technical hurdle to making umbilical-cord-blood transplants more widely available for treating leukemia and other blood cancers.

New insights about the scaly-foot gastropod, a tiny snail that lives near thermal vents on the floor of the indian ocean, could help scientists design better armor for soldiers and military vehicles, according to a new study appearing in PNAS. MIT materials scientists report that the snail's shell is unlike any other naturally occurring or man made armor. Their study suggests that its unique structure dissipates energy that would cause weaker shells to fracture.When a crab attacks a snail, it grasps the snail's shell with its claws and squeezes it until it breaks — for days if necessary. The claws generate mechanical energy that eventually fractures the shell, unless it is strong enough to resist.