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Utilizing an online study open to anyone, anywhere in the world, the researchers asked respondents to complete 12 cognitive tests tapping memory, reasoning, attention and planning abilities, as well as a survey about their background and lifestyle habits.

expected a few hundred responses, but thousands and thousands of people took part, including people of all ages, cultures and creeds from every corner of the world

The results showed that when a wide range of cognitive abilities are explored, the observed variations in performance can only be explained with at least three distinct components: short-term memory, reasoning and a verbal component

No one component, or IQ, explained everything

scientists used a brain scanning technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to show that these differences in cognitive ability map onto distinct circuits in the brain.

Intriguingly, people who regularly played computer games did perform significantly better in terms of both reasoning and short-term memory

smokers performed poorly on the short-term memory and the verbal factors

people who frequently suffer from anxiety performed badly on the short-term memory factor in particular

the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected.

One of the planets lies in the star's habitable zone

and has a mass around five times that of Earth

making

the smallest planet found to be orbiting in the habitable zone of any Sun-like star

The international team of astronomers

combined more than six-thousand observations from three different instruments and intensively modeled the data

Using new techniques, the team has found a method to detect signals half the size previously thought possible

We are now beginning to understand that nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer systems that have multiple planets with orbits of less than 100 days

researchers chose Tau Ceti for this noise-modeling study because they had thought it contained no signals

As it is so bright and similar to our Sun, it is an ideal benchmark system to test out our methods for the detection of small planets

Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cosmic neighbors and so bright that we may be able to study the atmospheres of these planets

researchers discovered this planetary system using data from three state-of-the-art spectrographs

admitted to falsifying data in some of his papers

, 35 of his papers have been retracted in 2012.

Peer review is a process in which scientific peers in the same field judge the merit of a submitted journal paper

editors at the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry grew suspicious when four of his glowing reviews came back within 24 hours. Anyone who has ever submitted a paper for peer review knows that reviewers take weeks or months to reply

Math paper a big, fat zero

"In this study, a computer application was used to solve a mathematical problem"

Neither the one-sentence abstract

nor the co-author's e-mail address, ohm@budweiser.com

publishing this one-page gem entitled "A computer application in mathematics"

published in January 2010 but not retracted until April 2012, despite silly sentences such as "Computer magnification is a Universal computer phenomenon" and "This is a problematic problem."

retracted the paper because it "contains no scientific content." The editors chalked it up to "an administrative error

Maybe his failure doesn't feel better than success

The Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel

has found that,

failure sometimes feels better than success

The only problem is that his research appears to be either mostly or completely fabricated

work has appeared in top journals

his good looks and clever research topics made him a media darling

So far, 31 papers have been retracted

meat eaters are absolved: One of Stapel's studies, now suspected to be fabricated, found that meat eaters are more selfish and less social than vegetarians

Studies proposing a link between cellphone use and cancer often rely on weak statistics. This one just used fudged data

in 2008, scientists published a paper

stating that cellphones in standby mode lowered the sperm count and caused other adverse changes in the testicles of rabbits

although small and published in a rather obscure journal, made the news rounds.

In March 2012, the authors retracted the paper

the lead author didn't get permission from his two co-authors and, according to the retraction notice, there was a "lack of evidence to justify the accuracy of the data presented in the article."

Stem-cell cure for heart disease likely faked

biologist Shinya Yamanaka had just won the 2012 Nobel Prize for his discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which are adult cells that can be reprogrammed to their "embryonic" stage

claimed at a New York Stem Cell Foundation meeting in early October to have advanced this technology to cure a person with terminal heart failure

Two institutions listed as collaborating on Moriguchi's related papers

denied that any of Moriguchi's procedures took place there

origuchi has admitted only to making some "procedural" mistakes

He is sticking to his story, however, that one patient was cured … at a Boston hospital not yet named

known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, is the second-oldest of 110 named stones originating from Mars that have been retrieved on Earth

Purchased from a Moroccan meteorite dealer in 2011, the black, baseball-sized stone, which weighs less than 1 pound, is 2.1 billon years old, meaning it formed during what is known as the early Amazonian era in Mars' geologic history.

The only older Mars meteorite found so far is the 4-billion-year-old Allan Hills 84001 Antarctica stone that was the source of speculation about microfossils in 1996

Early Mars was believed to be warm and wet, but the planet lost most of its atmosphere and its surface water to become a cold, dry desert that appears today

The time from when our meteorite is from is maybe a transitional period in the climate, when Mars was losing its atmosphere, losing its water on the surface

relatively rich in water -- about 6,000 parts per million -- compared with typical Martian meteorites that contain about 200- to 300 parts per million

similar to basaltic rocks on Earth that form in volcanic eruptions

NWA 7034, nicknamed "Black Beauty," also contains tiny bits of carbon, formed from geologic, not biological activity

Scientists don't know why more meteorites like Black Beauty haven't been found on Earth. The period of time from which they originated may be relatively short, or most may not survive the trip through Earth's atmosphere

This one does look completely different," he added. "It's jet black. The others are slightly greenish cast

After an initial battery of tests revealed the rock's unique nature, meteorite hunters returned to the area where it was found to search for other similar stones

took several months to get an idea of what it was

eventually realized there was no other conclusion but that it was Martian and that it was different from all the other ones

If it were similar, we would have known within one day," he added

Four more pieces, all smaller than the original, have now been found

Even partial weight regain is associated with worsened diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors

studied more than 100 postmenopausal

took part in a five-month weight-loss program

continued to monitor the women for a year

During the weight-loss program the women lost an average of 25 pounds

After a year, two-thirds of the women had regained at least four pounds, on average regaining about 70 percent of the weight they had lost

Women who regained 4.4 pounds or more in the year following the weight-loss intervention had several worsened cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors

women who maintained their weight loss a year later managed to preserve most of the benefits

this study highlights the importance of not just losing weight, but the need to develop effective and enduring strategies so that this weight loss can be successfully maintained long term

People should be focusing on being healthy, not skinny,

create strategies for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight throughout their lifetime

Start with simple changes such as swapping seltzer for soda, keeping a daily food record, adding a salad to lunch and substituting a second vegetable for half the starch at dinner

researchers compared life expectancy among 15,174 Olympic athletes who won medals between 1896 and 2010 with general population groups matched by country, sex, and age

All medallists lived an average of 2.8 years longer

in eight out of the nine country groups studied.

Gold, silver and bronze medallists enjoyed roughly the same survival advantage, as did medallists in both endurance and mixed sports

Medallists in power sports had a smaller, but still significant, advantage over the general population.

study was not designed to determine why Olympic athletes live longer

possible explanations include genetic factors, physical activity, healthy lifestyle, and the wealth and status that come from international sporting glory

In the second study, researchers measured the effect of high intensity exercise on mortality later in life among former Olympic athletes

They tracked 9,889 athletes

who took part in at least one Olympic Games between 1896 and 1936

represented 43 disciplines requiring different levels of exercise intensity and physical contact

researchers did find an 11% increased risk of mortality among athletes from disciplines with a high risk of body collision and with high levels of physical contact, such as boxing, rugby and ice hockey, compared with other athletes

two public health experts point out that people who do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity also have a survival advantage compared with the inactive general population

, they found that athletes from sports with high cardiovascular intensity (such as cycling and rowing) or moderate cardiovascular intensity (such as gymnastics and tennis) had similar mortality rates compared with athletes from low cardiovascular intensity sports, such as golf or cricket