A preliminary study suggests that a negative, inhibited personality type (type D personality) appears to predict an increased risk of death over four years among patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), according to a new report.

Persons with multiple sclerosis who smoked for a little as six months during their lifetime had more destruction of brain tissue and more brain atrophy than MS patients who never smoked, a study by neuroimaging specialists has shown.

Light is what determines the growth of fish in lakes. Climate change is expected to lead to browner lakes with less light penetration, which will lead to reduced growth of fish.

Researchers have uncovered new information on the notion that sugar "feeds" tumors. The findings may also have implications for other diseases such as diabetes.

Extra genomes appear, on average, to offer no benefit or disadvantage to plants, but still play a key role in the origin of new species, say scientists. Plant biologists have long suspected polyploidy -- the heritable acquisition of extra chromosome sets -- was a gateway to speciation. But the consensus was that polyploidy is a minor force. The first direct, comprehensive survey of polyploid speciation in plant evolution severely challenges that notion.

The engineers' dream of self-healing surfaces has taken another step towards becoming reality -- researchers have produced a electroplated layer that contains tiny nanometer-sized capsules. If the layer is damaged, the capsules release fluid and repair the scratch.

Brief periods of interrupted breathing during sleep affect an estimated 10 to 25 percent of people in the U.S. A smattering of studies have linked the condition, known as obstructive sleep apnea, to a host of serious health risks, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and even accidents--but long-term, population-based data on mortality overall have been lacking. [More]

Dear EarthTalk: I haven’t heard much of late about big oil spills like the infamous Exxon Valdez. Has the industry cleaned up its act, or do the media just not report them? -- Olivia G., via e-mail

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Unlike finicky fingerprints and frowned-upon fiber analysis, DNA evidence has been the most bulletproof evidence for forensic sciences in recent years. But staffers at a research firm in Israel have recently upended the presumed infallibility of this forensics golden child--by making it themselves. [More]

Although exercise is good for your health, extreme exercise may be physically addicting. Rats given a drug that produces withdrawal in heroin addicts went into withdrawal after running excessively in exercise wheels, according to new research. Rats that ran the hardest had the most severe withdrawal symptoms.