Sometimes the press releases seem to have a rough theme when read one after another.

Extra lizards

University of Adelaide research has discovered that there are many more species of Australian lizards than previously thought . . .

"Many of these species are externally very similar, leading to previous severe underestimation of true species diversity. . ."

Wild Prawn Pr0n

A Queensland University of Technology researcher has filmed hours of prawn "sex tapes" to find out why prawns bred in captivity did not go on to breed well. . .

"When prawns are caught from the wild and put into tanks, they have no problem breeding," she said.

"It is a different story for the prawns reared in captivity.

"It was suspected that prawns bred in captivity weren't interested in sex but very little was known about why this was the case, so I undertook the study to try to find out." . . .

"I found it was partly the females fault probably for not releasing many pheromones, but there was also something wrong with the males, they weren't very receptive to what pheromones there were." . . .

"Their endocrine system is not functioning normally and further research is needed to find out why that is."

Odd fragements of dialog come to mind. "I appologize in advance for anything that comes up . . . or doesn't come up." "My endocrine system has misinterpreted your show of support." Deduct points if you recognize the first fragment, double points for the second one.

Baby Killers

The guys were all stressed out. There were new infants in the community, and the guys knew from experience that that's when invaders were likely to come and kill the babies, particularly the male infants. This annual threat was a defining moment in their lives -- it had more impact on everyone than the daily social struggle to be on top, or than any other community crisis, like defending the group against hostile neighbors. Nothing was more stress-inducing than having helpless infants around to protect from marauders.

This drama is wrenching to observe, yet until fairly recently, no one knew it was happening. But then again, it is hard to get inside the head of a male sifaka, a large Madagascan prosimian primate which lives mainly high and unseen in the forest treetops.

Unglued or disconnected?

The helpless behavior that is commonly linked to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is preceded by stress-related losses of synapses—microscopic connections between brain cells—in the brain's hippocampal region, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in the March 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Worried Sick

Participants reported emotions such as happiness, enjoyment, worry and sadness. They described their physical health problems — such as pain and fatigue — and answered questions about whether their most basic needs like food, shelter and personal safety were adequately met.

According to Pressman, positive emotions unmistakably are linked to better health, even when taking into account a lack of basic needs. The inverse holds true as well: Negative emotions were a reliable predictor of worse health.

Most strikingly, the association between emotion and physical health was more powerful than the connection between health and basic human physical requirements, like adequate nourishment. Even without shelter or food, positive emotions were shown to boost health. Indeed, this association was strongest in the poorest countries surveyed.

Thus, the link between emotional health and physical health looks to be a worldwide fact, and especially so for people living with the fewest creature comforts.

The link is plausible, folk wisdom even, but causality isn't clear. What causes what?

Power Corrupts

"We conducted four experiments exploring the relationship between power and illusory control - the belief that one has the ability to influence outcomes that are largely determined by chance," said Galinksy, "In each experiment, whether the participant recalled power by an experience of holding power or it was manipulated by randomly assigning participants to Manager-Subordinate roles, it led to perceived control over outcomes that were beyond the reach of the individual. Furthermore, the notion of being able to control a 'chance' result led to unrealistic optimism and inflated self-esteem." . . .

"the illusion of personal control might be one of the ways in which power often leads to its own demise."

Citing recent world events in support of these findings would be redundant.

Dude. Dude? Dude! Doooood.

Looking for a mate who in everyday conversation can pick up even your most subtle emotional cues? Find a musician . . .

. . . an interdisciplinary Northwestern research team for the first time provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound.

"Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all arenas, whether in the predator-infested jungle or in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom," says Dana Strait, primary author of the study. . .

"Scientists already know that emotion is carried less by the linguistic meaning of a word than by the way in which the sound is communicated," says Strait. A child's cry of "Mommy!" -- or even his or her wordless utterance -- can mean very different things depending on the acoustic properties of the sound. . .

The results were not exactly what the researchers expected. They found that musicians' brainstems lock onto the complex part of the sound known to carry more emotional elements but de-emphasize the simpler (less emotion conveying) part of the sound. This was not the case in non-musicians.

In essence, musicians more economically and more quickly focus their neural resources on the important -- in this case emotional -- aspect of sound. "That their brains respond more quickly and accurately than the brains of non-musicians is something we'd expect to translate into the perception of emotion in other settings," Strait says.

The authors of the study also note that the acoustic elements that musicians process more efficiently are the very same ones that children with language disorders, such as dyslexia and autism, have problems encoding. "It would not be a leap to suggest that children with language processing disorders may benefit from musical experience. . ."

I'd guess that dancing helps too.