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Overprotective parents inhibit more than their kids' freedom: they may also slow brain growth in an area linked to mental illness.

Brain drain (Image: Brandon Harman/Getty)
Children whose parents are overprotective or neglectful are believed to be more susceptible to psychiatric disorders – which in turn are associated with defects in part of the prefrontal cortex.
To investigate [...]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2010) — The involvement of locals is a key ingredient in the success of marine parks which protect coral reefs and fish stocks.

The largest-scale study to date of how coastal communities influence successful outcomes in marine reserves has found that human population pressure was a critical factor in whether or not a [...]

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2010) — Parents take heed: children and young adults are more likely to pursue sports, music or other pastimes when given an opportunity to nurture their own passion. According to a three-part study led by Geneviève Mageau, a psychology professor at the Université de Montréal, parental control can predict whether a child [...]

Research

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2010) — Those who value excellence and hard work generally do better than others on specific tasks when they are reminded of those values. But when a task is presented as fun, researchers report, the same individuals often will do worse than those who say they are less motivated to achieve.

The study [...]

Inside view (computer graphic). (Credit: Image courtesy of Empa)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2010) — On 12th January 2010 the "Self" living module was presented publicly for the first time at the Swissbau exhibition in Basel. "Self" is a novel, highly innovative module for working and living which is self-sufficient in energy and water consumption. It includes [...]

Credit: iStockphoto/Andrea Gingerich)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2010) — What we learn from our siblings when we grow up has — for better or for worse — a considerable influence on our social and emotional development as adults, according to an expert in sibling, parent-child and peer relationships at the University of Illinois.

Laurie Kramer, a professor of [...]

Proving once again that there are no qualifications needed to be a middle-school vice-principal besides being kind of a dick, a San Diego veepee called the bomb squad to investigate an 11-year-old’s Gatorade-bottle-based science experiment. Stay classy, San Diego.

Apparently the kid, who sounds like a bit of a prodigy, really, brought in a homemade motion [...]

Seen a moose in suburbia? In Massachusetts, just call LART – the large animal response team. Urban ecologist Stephen DeStefano's day job routinely involves man-handling moose – and deer, beavers and bears – that have ventured into territory now claimed by humans.

 
DeStefano's fear is that as the human population continues to rise, land once available [...]

A western lowland gorilla crosses a stream through a marshy clearing in the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Reserve in the Central African Republic. Melissa Remis, a Purdue anthropology professor who studies these gorillas, is collaborating with Rebecca Hardin, an associate professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources, to better understand [...]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Children who bully at school are likely to also bully their siblings at home.

This is the finding of a study published online in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
Dr Ersilia Menesini and colleagues at the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Italy, designed the study to investigate whether the age and [...]