Researchers have found that those with increased education are less likely to have displayed symptoms of the disease in their lifetime, suggesting increased schooling to have a compensatory effect on the brain.

Researchers have discovered 2.1 billion year-old fossils that answer new questions about the origins of life on Earth.

A mass fossil discovery in Gabon has provided proof of the existence of multicellular organisms 2.1 billion years ago, challenging established ideas about the transition from single- to multi-cell organisms. The finding, out of CNRS/Universite de Poitiers, is published in the most recent edition of Nature.

Initial Earthly life came in the form of single-celled prokaryotic organisms roughly three and a half billion years ago. Increased complexity ensued, with eukaryotes (single-celled structures which, unlike pokaryotes, contain a nucleus) developing approximately 2 billion years ago. There is however, little else known about the development of life in this embryonic phase, a period dubbed the Porterozoic era, dated from approximately 3.5 to 600 million years ago.

In Gabon, while digging in 2.1 billion-year-old sediment, the interdisciplinary French research team collected more than 250 fossils which, being 10 to 12 centimeters long, were too large and complex to be pokaryotes or eukaryotes.  They often collected the specimens in concentrated blocks across scattered terrain suggesting that the organisms lived in colonies in a shallow marine environment.

These findings constitute a milestone in understanding life's origins. Previously, the oldest complex life forms were dated from approximately 600 million years ago. The new discovery moves the timeline of complex life back 1.5 billion years, challenging previously held norms regarding organic diversity.

Dutch researchers have demonstrated that testosterone, which is suggested to have antagonistic properties to oxytocin, downgrades interpersonal trust and enhances cautious interaction between humans.

From Bernie Madoff to Tiger Woods, from Aeschylus to Shakespeare, many human scripts of tragedy and betrayal can be better understood in the context of oxytocin. Gestures of affection and compassion: a caress, promise or well-delivered financial commitment, will discharge oxytocin into the bloodstream. In 2005, Swiss researchers found that after individually delivering a squirt of oxytocin to subjects, the peptide hormone increased trust in an investment game, at once expanding both interaction and potential for betrayal.

Scientists at Utrecht University seem to have identified testosterone as the antidote to this excessive trust. They administered testosterone, in the form of a liquid drop under the tongue, to young women who were then asked to judge the trustworthiness of certain men's faces. Those under the influence of testosterone were significantly less likely to trust the faces.

Women already deemed to be less trusting, due to a natural inhibition to oxytocin in the placebo test, were hardly affected by the testosterone dosage, while the more trusting women had their attitudes change substantially. Testosterone thus seems to be, in the context of trustworthiness, a protective mechanism for women. It adaptively increases social vigilance and stigmatisation in trusting individuals to better protect their long-term interests.

This study comes on the heels of notable research into testosterone's effect on fair bargaining behaviour and the female libido. Folk wisdom has generalised findings from animal studies to conclude that testosterone is most likely responsible for increasing antisocial and aggressive human behaviour. While, research published in Nature in January demonstrates that a single dose of testosterone in women substantially reduces bargaining conflicts and increases the efficiency of social interactions. Testosterone is also known from other studies to enhance a woman's libido, as there is a peak production of the hormone in the period prior to ovulation.

Combined, this recent testosterone research demonstrates that, in women, high levels of the hormone elicits fair and efficient social behaviour, heightened skepticism about other individual's intentions, and increased sexual desire. From this, the Dutch researchers conclude that "the hormone seems to motivate for rational decision-making, social scrutiny and cleverness, the apparent tools for success in a modern society."

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Acadamey of Science.