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Each January 1, many of us resolve to change. We will give up smoking. We will eat healthier. We will be more patient. However by January 15, we’ve chucked it all out the window. But all is not lost.

For risk-takers and impulsive people, New Year’s resolutions often include being more careful, spending more frugally and cutting back on dangerous behavior, such as drug use. But new research finds that these individuals, whom psychologists call novelty seekers, face an uphill battle in keeping their New Year’s resolutions due to the way their brains process dopamine.
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Some birds speak our language, but what most of us hear is bird song. Can we figure out what they’re saying (singing) to each other?

To many people, bird song can herald the coming of spring, reveal what kind of bird is perched nearby or be merely an unwelcome early morning intrusion. But to researcher Sandra Vehrencamp, bird song is a code which can tell us what birds are thinking.

Birds use song systems to communicate about mating and reproduction, territorial boundaries, age and even overall health. Vehrencamp studies birds from Costa Rica, Colombia and Bonaire to decode which elements convey such essential information.
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Who finds it harder, men or women? – The New Year is coming soon, which is the time for all those resolutions. We?ll bet that a big one on every smoker?s list is quitting. Women have more withdrawal symptoms but they also have more reason to quit, because, contrary to what most women believe, smoking makes you fat.

A new study shows that smokers who carry a particular version of a gene that regulates dopamine in the brain may suffer from concentration problems when they try to quit?a problem that puts them at risk for relapse.Remember the cool girls, huddled together in high school restrooms, puffing their cigarettes? Well, here’s consolation for the rest of us: Those teen smokers are more likely to get fat as adults.
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?But we don’t need to adjust our clocks – The spin of the Earth is slowing down. Not by much; only about 0.002 seconds a day (it varies), relative to our modern definition of the second. The varying rotation of the Earth is due to the cumulative effect of friction from the ocean’s tides, the moon?s orbital momentum, snow (and the lack thereof) at the polar ice caps, the 23-degree tilt of the earth, the atmosphere, solar wind, space dust and magnetic storms. Because of all these factors, the earth does not rotate EXACTLY one time every 24 hours (or 86,400 seconds).
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