Photo by Ali Nishan. 

It is half a century since she began her seminal work studying chimpanzees in Africa. But Jane Goodall says her work is far from finished.

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The cremation rate has been on a brisk rise in the United States, in part because cremation is cheaper than burial and saves land. But powering a crematorium requires an enormous amount of gas and also sends carbon dioxide and other pollutants skyward. Enter resomation, an alternative to cremation for the eco-conscious cadaver.

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Wearing imitation designer clothing or accessories can fool others -- but no matter how convincing the knockoff, you never, of course, fool yourself. It's a small but undeniable act of duplicity. Which led a trio of researchers to suspect that wearing counterfeits might quietly take a psychological toll on the wearer.

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A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that knowledge of a second language -- even one learned in adolescence -- affects how people read in their native tongue. The findings suggest that after learning a second language, people never look at words the same way again.

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Asked why they were unlikely to participate, more than half said it was because they were too busy, not interested or weren't familiar with the census. One-fourth cited distrust of government or concerns about privacy.

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The number of working moms who are the sole breadwinners in their families rose last year to an all-time high, and the number of stay-at-home dads edged higher, in a shift of traditional gender roles caused partly by massive job losses.

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The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who've left the military went up 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to preliminary data from the Veterans Affairs Department. VA officials said they assume that most of the veterans in this age group served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

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The recession and cuts to programs for aging Americans have made growing old in isolated areas even tougher.

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Photo by Hinagiku. 

After two decades, Congress has voted to lift a ban on federal funding of needle exchange programs. AIDS activists are cheering the move, saying it legitimizes needle exchange in the nationwide fight against HIV/AIDS.

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On nights when the wind chill dips to 20 degrees, the city’s Department of Homeless Services declares a Level 2 “Code Blue.” Starting at 8 p.m., its outreach teams divide the city into zones and drive around in vans, armed with lists of the most vulnerable homeless people. They visit, or try to visit, each person every two hours, all night long.

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Employee fraud involving gift cards appears to be growing sharply as retailers struggle to contain overall theft, now estimated at $36 billion a year in the industry, or 1.51 percent of retail sales, according to a leading national study.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that crews should ask a person with a cough to wear a mask and move them at least 6 feet from others. But many airlines say they have no firm rules.

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In a seemingly absurd quirk of federal laws on death benefits, up to 54,000 military widows and widowers around the nation are losing up to $13,000 a year in death benefits unless they take another walk down the aisle after age 57.

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More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.

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Photo by Kirsty Komuso. 

Why do some couples stay happy together for a lifetime, while others are in conflict almost from the beginning? Part of the answer is compatibility -- making the initial choice of a partner with whom you share common values. Equally much, however, depends upon the choices each partner chooses to make during the relationship.

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Nearly two dozen institutions have received grants from the Leon Levy Foundation to identify, preserve and digitize their archival collections.

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Surgeons have long listened to music while they work -- everything from classical to Celtic to rock. They say it helps them relax and concentrate. But now Dr. Claudius Conrad, an accomplished pianist and a senior surgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, is scientifically testing how music affects surgeons, their patients, and even relatives in the waiting room.

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