Rather than improving motorist safety, red-light cameras significantly increase crashes and are a ticket to higher auto insurance premiums, researchers conclude. Researchers analyzed several comprehensive studies of the effectiveness of red-light cameras nationwide to provide insight to Florida communities debating the cameras' merits. They recommend engineering solutions to improve intersection safety, particularly to accommodate elderly drivers.

  Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are wagging a finger at currently held notions about the way digits are formed. Studying the embryonic chick foot, the developmental biologists have come up with a model that explains how digits grow and why each digit is different from the others. The scientists found that the development and fate of each digit depends on a surprisingly dynamic process in unanticipated locations and involving unexpected players.

  Radio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiter's magnetic field in the same way as they do on Earth, according to new research. The discovery overturns a theory that has held sway for more than a generation and has important implications for protecting Earth-orbiting satellites.

  Heavy women gain too much weight during pregnancy, says an obstetrician and obesity expert. Recommendations which are followed worldwide by obstetricians, encourage obese women to gain at least 15 pounds during pregnancy and specify no upper limit for weight gain. Overweight or obese women don't need to gain that much weight and should exercise and watch their calorie consumption during pregnancy, according to a new editorial.

  Despite 25 years of research, development of an "electronic nose" even approaching the capabilities of the human sniffer remains a dream, chemists in Germany conclude in an overview on the topic. Electronic noses do excel, however, at picking up so-called "non-odorant volatiles"-- chemicals that mammalian noses cannot pick up like carbon monoxide.

  By using computer simulations and modeling, researchers have determined how a pandemic influenza outbreak might travel through a city similar in size to Chicago, Ill. This information helped them to determine the preferred intervention strategy to contain a potential flu pandemic, including what people should do to decrease the likelihood of disease transmission. An outbreak in the US could be mitigated with prompt implementation of social-distancing measures combined with antiviral treatment and prophylaxis until a vaccine is available, the study suggests.

  There's new evidence supporting the idea that bigger brains are better. A study of a tropical wasp suggests that the brainpower required to be dominant drives brain capacity. Researchers have found that key processing regions in the brains of both males and females of one wasp species not only increased in size with age but were also associated with being dominant.

  A test that profiles molecular biomarkers in blood could become the first accurate diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease, new research shows. The screen relies on changes in dozens of small molecules in serum. These "metabolomic" alterations form a unique pattern in people with Parkinson's disease.

  A group of researchers has developed a novel way to view the world through the eyes of a common fly and partially decode the insect's reactions to changes in the world around it. The research fundamentally alters earlier beliefs about how neural networks function and could provide the basis for intelligent computers that mimic biological processes.

  Scientists have developed a method for studying complicated cell processes, such as the secretion of insulin in the pancreas, of living animals -- something that has not been possible to this date. The new method, which involves the transplantation of a tiny part of the pancreas onto the iris of mice, paves the way for radical approaches to diabetes research, which has previously been conducted on single cells in artificial laboratory environments.

  Researchers are in Antarctica for 2 1/2 months at the beginning of the coldest and darkest part of the year. During Antarctica's winter -- also called the "Polar Night" -- daylight disappears completely and temperatures can reach minus-55 degrees F.

  The US government's rush to produce corn-based ethanol as a fuel alternative will worsen pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, increasing a "dead zone" that kills fish and aquatic life, according to a new study.

  The pending federal decision about whether to protect the polar bear as a threatened species is as much about climate science as it is about climate change. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering a proposal to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, a proposal largely based on anticipated habitat loss in a warming Arctic. Climate models -- mathematical representations of the natural processes affecting climate -- factored heavily in the scientific information requested by the FWS to guide its official recommendation, which was due Jan. 9.

  Two abstracts underscoring the importance of testing for BRCA1/2 mutations in women with ovarian cancer have recently been presented. The majority of women with ovarian cancer are unaware BRCA testing is available.