SAN DIEGO – The pursuit of happiness is sometimes easier said than done.

Some scientists have argued that happiness is largely determined by genetics, health and other factors mostly outside of our control. But recent research suggests people actually can take charge of their own happiness and boost it through certain practices.

"The billion-dollar question is, is it possible to become happier?" said psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside. "Despite the finding that happiness is partially genetically determined, and despite the finding that life situations have a smaller influence on our happiness than we think they do, we argue that still a large portion of happiness is in our power to change."

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In Olympic bobsledding, hundredths of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing.

For the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the U.S. team might be just that much faster thanks to new sled designs based on complex models of airflow and turbulence.

The team has been working with the Exa Corporation, based in Burlington, Mass., which designed computer simulations to study how air travels around bobsleds, and how that airflow could be improved to speed up their races. Based on these models, the scientists came up with a new aerodynamic bobsled design to give the team an edge on the ice in Vancouver.

The Common European Toad
(Bufo bufo), a species that
has a large distribution range
in Europe. Credit: Bert Willaert

They're everywhere! Toads have been able to populate most of the world's continents in the relative blink of an eye. Now scientists have figured out seven factors responsible for the toads' success.

Toads (officially, Bufonidae) originated in the tropics of South America, but fanned out across most of the world over just about 10 million years — a relatively short period of time, evolutionarily speaking. The roughly 500 known toad species are incredibly diverse, both in characteristics and in habitat type and range.

We're happiest when looking forward to vacations, though once back in the office that level of glee is comparable to our non-vacationing cubicle mates, a new study finds. Essentially, vacations may not be the restorative respites they are chocked up to be.
The researchers surveyed 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 40-plus week study period. At certain time points both before and after trips, participants answered questions related to their happiness levels.

1. Caffeine Can Kill You
But you'd have to drink 80 to 100 cups in a hurry, health experts say. We advise not trying.

2. Coffee Can Be Good For You
A study shows that Americans get most of their antioxidants from their daily fix of java. One to two cups a day appear to be beneficial. Or, if you don't like coffee, try black tea, the second most consumed antioxidant source. Bananas, dry beans, and corn wrap up the top five.

Add a new health threat to smoking: In addition to the harm caused by actually smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke, so-called third-hand smoke may also pose a threat, particularly to babies and toddlers.

A new study reveals that the residue of nicotine that lingers on surfaces can react with another chemical in the air to form potent carcinogens — chemicals linked to various cancers. While first-hand smoke is that inhaled directly by the smoker and second-hand is the smoke exhaled (and inhaled by others), third-hand smoke is the residue from second-hand smoke.

Does it matter if nature solves the same problem in multiple ways? While studying lizard populations in White Sands, New Mexico, researcher Erica Rosenblum of the University of Idaho has begun to answer that question. In research published Dec. 28, 2009, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rosenblum and her colleagues described genetic differences between lizards found in habitats that contain either white or dark soils. The stark differences in color are an ideal environment to study natural selection and gene flow. For more on the research, read the press release. For more on Rosenblum, see her answers to the ScienceLives 10 Questions below.

Physicists may be one step closer to achieving a form of clean energy known as nuclear fusion, which is what happens deep inside the cores of stars.
A recent experiment with a giant levitating magnet was able to coax matter in the lab to extremely high densities — a necessary step for nuclear fusion.

The biggest black holes in the universe are also the most perplexing. Scientists have long been confused about just how the earliest, most massive black holes formed, but new evidence now suggests they could have originated inside giant cocoon-like stars.
This idea is at odds with the prevailing thinking that large black holes are created by the clumping together of smaller black holes.

Marc Zimmer uses salamanders like this one, along with mice and fish, to show students that chemistry is cool. Under ultraviolet light, white mice glow green and red and fish go from gray to bright orange and yellow.
Geneticists engineered the animals to have fluorescent proteins in their cells, a harmless process that entertains (and educates) the students in Zimmer's early morning chemistry class at Connecticut College.

In high-school health class films, sperm cells are shown zooming around with quick flicks of their tails, but they only jump into action when they are in the right chemical conditions – usually that's in the female reproductive tract. Researchers have now figured out the precise chemical switch that turns on the sperm's motors, which could lead to the development of new treatments for infertility.