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JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — High-speed video of butterflies’ agility in flight may help researchers build tiny robots that mimic the insects’ maneuvers.

The Air Force, which funded the research, is supporting the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance, search-and-rescue, and environmental monitoring missions without risking human lives. The devices are commonly called micro aerial vehicles (MAVs).

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — A new technique called “subtle gaze direction” could lower the learning curve for reading mammograms, researchers say.

In 2011—to the consternation of many women—a systematic review of randomized clinical trials showed that routine mammography was of little value to younger women at average or low risk of breast cancer.

STANFORD (US) — New technology could lead to wireless charging of electric vehicles while they cruise down the highway.

The long-term goal of the high-efficiency charging system—that uses magnetic fields to transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart—is to dramatically increasing the driving range of electric cars and trucks and develop an all-electric highway.

UC DAVIS (US) — Just like a road sign alerts us to merging traffic ahead, the brain can change its connections to minimize distraction and take advantage of what we know of the situation at hand.

“In order to behave efficiently, you want to process relevant sensory information as fast as possible, but relevance is determined by your current situation,” says Joy Geng, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis Center for Mind and Brain.

UC DAVIS (US) — Mice genetically programmed to develop prostate cancer had smaller, slower growing tumors when fed a walnut-rich diet, report researchers.

University of California, Davis scientists, working with colleagues at the USDA Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California, assessed tumor size in mice fed different diets for 9, 18 and 24 weeks.

U. MELBOURNE (AUS) — People living in poor neighborhoods are 42 percent more at risk of getting arthritis than those that live in affluent areas, new research shows.

Published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research, a study reveals that more than 30 percent of people living in socially disadvantaged areas reported having arthritis—as opposed to 18.5 percent in wealthier areas.

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — Children whose mothers nurture them have brains with a larger hippocampus—a region vital for learning and memory.

The research by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University in St. Louis is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children’s brain anatomy are linked to a mother’s nurturing.

USC (US) — A small study suggests obese women may increase their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by using the Depo-Provera birth control shot.

The first to examine the drug’s effect on obese women, the University of Southern California study suggests that other forms of long-term birth control, namely intrauterine contraception, may be a more effective choice for overweight women.

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — New research on vitamin B6 could lead to drugs that target the pathogen that causes malaria.

The University of Southampton research will enable scientists to learn more about the nature of the enzymes required for vitamin biosynthesis by the malaria-causing pathogen Plasmodium.

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Researchers have discovered a plant enzyme that switches from storing energy during the day to transporting energy in the roots at night.

The discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, shows that plants evolved a new function for this enzyme by changing merely one of its protein building blocks.

PENN STATE (US) — The readers’ evaluation of online news portals like Google News depends on credible content, according to new research.

When readers access a story from a credible news source they trust through an online portal, they also tend to trust the portal, says S. Shyam Sundar, professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State. Most of these portals use computers, not people, to automatically sort and post stories.

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide are not backed up by any hard evidence or scientific analyses, according to a new study.

Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations—clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants—and recent media reports have created a perception that the world’s oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish.

RICE / UC IRVINE (US) — Companies under investigation tend to use others’ bad behavior to excuse their own.

Among corporations involved in the 2006 stock-option backdating scandal, those implicated earlier were more likely to dismiss their top executives than those that surfaced later on, according to new research from Rice University and the University of California, Irvine.

U. MARYLAND (US) — Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but rural areas were hit, too, a new report says.

The largest number of events clustered around major cities:

U. MICHIGAN (US) — The personality trait narcissism may have an especially negative effect on the health of men, new research shows.

“Narcissistic men may be paying a high price in terms of their physical health, in addition to the psychological cost to their relationships,” says Sara Konrath, a University of Michigan psychologist who co-authored the study published in PLoS ONE.

U. MICHIGAN (US) — A new technique could offer a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might predispose a person to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.

Researchers at the University of Michigan say using liquid lasers works much better than the current approach, which uses fluorescent dye and other biological molecules to find and bind to mutated DNA strands.

UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Ultrasound equipment commonly used for physical therapy reduces sperm counts in lab rats to levels that would result in infertility in humans.

Ultrasound’s potential as a male contraceptive was first reported nearly 40 years ago. However, the equipment used at that time is outdated and no longer available.

CORNELL (US) — The more ongoing stress children are exposed to, the greater the odds they will become obese by adolescence, researchers report.

Nine-year-old children who were chronically exposed to such stressors as poverty, crowded housing, and family turmoil gain more weight and were significantly heavier by age 13 than they would have been otherwise, the Cornell University study found.

The reason, environmental psychologist Gary Evans and his co-authors suggest, is that ongoing stress makes it tougher for children to control their behavior and emotions—or self-regulate. That, in turn, can lead to obesity by their teen years.

VANDERBILT (US) — Although shock can create a splash, research shows Super Bowl ads with a storyline score big.

One of the most anticipated commercials of the 2012 Super Bowl is the follow up to last year’s Volkswagen “Young Darth Vader” ad. In the original VW ad, a boy dressed as Darth Vader tries to use ‘The Force’ to raise inanimate household items.

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Divorce at a younger age hurts people’s health more than divorce later in life, researchers have found.

Michigan State University sociologist Hui Liu says the findings, which appear in the journal Social Science & Medicine, suggest older people have more coping skills to deal with the stress of divorce.