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American entrepreneurs pray more frequently, are more likely to see God as personal and are more likely to attend services in congregations that encourage business and profit-making, according to a study by Baylor University scholars of business and sociology.

Biologists have uncovered new insights into how the male sexual behaviour of the peculiar southern bottletail squid is primed to produce the greatest number of offspring.

Recent studies published in the journals Biology Letters and Behavioral Ecology, have revealed the female squid ingest the ejaculates of their mates, a trait never before associated with any species of cephalopod – a group including squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus.

Evergreening strategies—where pharmaceutical companies slightly change the formulation of their brand drug into "follow on" drugs by combining formulations or producing slow-release forms, for example, so that they can extend the patent—substantially contributed to an increase in overall healthcare costs in the Swiss canton of Geneva, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

Addressing the burden of household air pollution from solid fuel combustion— the leading environmental cause of death and disability in the world—has led to the implementation of many important interventions to promote access to improved stoves and clean fuels, but there is little demonstrated evidence of health benefits from most of these programs or technologies. Such are the conclusions of a new Policy Forum article published in this week's PLOS Medicine by authors who also outline a set of research priorities for addressing household air pollution.

ANN ARBOR—Researchers at the University of Michigan have evidence that a single gene controls both halves of nerve cells, and their research demonstrates the need to consider that design in the development of new treatments for regeneration of nerve cells.

A paper published online in PLOS Biology by U-M Life Sciences Institute faculty member Bing Ye and colleagues shows that manipulating genes of the fruit fly Drosophila to promote the growth of one part of the neuron simultaneously stunts the growth of the other part.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University have developed a new, inexpensive and precise way to detect the toxin secreted by Vibrio tubiashii, a bacterial disease that a few years ago caused millions of dollars in losses to the oyster aquaculture industry in the Pacific Northwest.

"Exposure to high altitude can cause acute mountain sickness (AMS) and, in severe cases, cerebral or pulmonary edema. Capillary leakage has been hypothesized to play a role in the pathogenesis of AMS, although the mechanism of altitude-related illnesses remains largely unknown," writes Gabriel Willmann, M.D., of the University of Tubingen, Germany, and colleagues. "Vessel leakage in the retinal periphery has not been investigated. Our objective was to assess retinal vessel integrity at high altitude using fluorescein angiography."