My picks from ScienceDaily

Massage After Exercise Myth Busted:

A Queen's University research team has blown open the myth that massage after exercise improves circulation to the muscle and assists in the removal of lactic acid and other waste products.

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Kinesiology MSc candidate Vicky Wiltshire and Dr. Tschakovsky set out to discover if this untested hypothesis was true, and their results show that massage actually impairs blood flow to the muscle after exercise, and that it therefore also impairs the removal of lactic acid from muscle after exercise.

Spontaneous Activity Found In The Idling Brain:

Oregon Health & Science University researchers, along with scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, are uncovering new information about the mind by studying the brain while it is at rest. It is believed this research will one day provide new tools for diagnosing mental health disorders and monitoring the progress of treatments.

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To observe brain function in humans, the researchers use a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called functional connectivity MRI. Functional connectivity MRI allows the researchers to witness real-time brain activity as it occurs in study subjects. By studying a large group of subjects, the researchers were able to identify regions of the brain that spontaneously activate together while the subjects were at rest. These regions operate in tandem with one another, and group into regional networks.

From Rats To Humans: Around Thirty Europeans Infected With Cowpox Virus By Their Pet Rats:

Two reseach teams in Marseille, France, led by Didier Raoult, director of the Emerging Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Unit (CNRS / IRD / Université de la Méditerranée) and by Rémi Charrel, a virologist working at the Emerging Viruses Unit (IRD / Université de la Méditerranée) and at La Timone University Hospital, have identified the unsuspected origin of cutaneous lesions observed in around thirty Europeans, including twenty French citizens. They had contracted a viral infection linked to their pet rat.

Why Some Newly Planted Trees Die: Stresses During Handling And Transport Affect Tree Health, Survival:

Consider the cumulative stresses that transplanted trees must endure from the time they are harvested until they become established in a landscape. Multiple stress factors can mean the difference between survival and death for trees. For starters, when "balled-and-burlapped" trees are dug prior to transport, the majority of the root system is often separated from the tree. After this initial stress, trees are typically taken to a loading site and placed on trucks or trailers for shipment.

Pollination Crisis 'A Myth': Honeybees Are On The Rise, But Demand Grows Faster:

The notion that a decline in pollinators may threaten the human food supply - producing a situation that has been referred to as a "pollination crisis" - can be considered a myth, at least where honey bees are concerned, say researchers reporting online on May 7th in Current Biology.

Brain Cell Mechanism For Decision Making Also Underlies Judgment About Certainty:

Countless times a day people judge their confidence in a choice they are about to make -- that they now can safely turn left at this intersection, that they aren't sure of their answer on a quiz, that their hot coffee has cooled enough to drink. University of Washington (UW) researchers who study how the brain makes decisions are uncovering the biological mechanisms behind the belief that a choice is likely to be correct.

Babies Brainier Than Many Imagine:

A new study from Northwestern University shows what many mothers already know: their babies are a lot smarter than others may realize.

Advanced Mechanical Horse Built For Therapy:

While hippotherapy works to improve the quality of life for children and adults with physical and mental impairments through riding a horse, just getting some patients onto the horse can be a major obstacle. But now, Baylor University researchers have built a custom mechanical horse to help those with physical and mental impairments get the same benefit from hippotherapy without having to actually get on to a horse.

Will America's Power Grid Be Able To Keep Pace With Future Demand?:

America's power grid today resembles the country's canal system of the 19th Century. A marvel of engineering for its time, the canal system eventually could not keep pace with the growing demands of transcontinental transportation.

Facebook Use Not Found To Correlate Negatively With College Grades, New Study Shows:

News last month of an unpublished study suggesting that Facebook use is related to lower college academic achievement probably sent more than a few parents reeling. Now a new study may allay those concerns.

Animals On Runways Can Cause Serious Problems At Small Airports:

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a potentially deadly combination. A Purdue University study of 10 small Indiana airports found that animals can gain easy access to runways and infield areas, increasing the likelihood of planes striking those animals.