My picks from ScienceDaily

Owls' Dawn And Dusk Concerts Promote Visual Communication:

Reporting in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE April 8, Vincenzo Penteriani and Maria Delgado of the Estacion Biologica de Doñana, Spain, describe the evolution of white throat badges in association with dawn and dusk vocal signals in certain species of nocturnal bird, which maximise the potential for these species to communicate during hours when light is low.

Facebook Use Linked To Lower Grades In College:

College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have not signed up for the social networking website, according to a pilot study at one university. However, more than three-quarters of Facebook users claimed that their use of the social networking site didn't interfere with their studies.

Can Twitter Make You Amoral? Rapid-fire Media May Confuse Your Moral Compass:

Emotions linked to our moral sense awaken slowly in the mind, according to a new study from a neuroscience group led by corresponding author Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. The finding, contained in one of the first brain studies of inspirational emotions in a field dominated by a focus on fear and pain, suggests that digital media culture may be better suited to some mental processes than others.

Where You Live May Affect Your State Of Mind:

Frequent Mental Distress (FMD), defined as having 14 or more days in the previous month when one felt burdened by stress, depression or emotional problems, is not evenly distributed across the United States. In fact, certain geographic areas have consistently high or consistently low FMD incidence, as shown in a new study.

Born To Be Caught: Largemouth Bass Vulnerability To Being Caught By Anglers Is A Heritable Trait:

In an experiment spanning over 20 years, researchers at the University of Illinois have found that vulnerability to being caught by anglers is a heritable trait in largemouth bass.

Reserves Found To Be 'Effective Tool' For Reducing Fires In Brazilian Rainforests:

Rainforest reserves - even those disturbed by roads - provide an important buffer against fires that are devastating parts of the Brazilian Amazon, according to a new study by a trio of researchers at Duke University.

Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?:

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

Field Stations Foster Serendipitous Discoveries In Environmental, Biological Sciences:

North America's biological field stations have long been home to a rich legacy of research results, scientists say, making them important places for serendipitous discoveries in the biological and environmental sciences.

The New 'Epigenetics:' Poor Nutrition In The Womb Causes Permanent Genetic Changes In Offspring:

The new science of epigenetics explains how genes can be modified by the environment, and a prime result of epigenetic inquiry has just been published online in The FASEB Journal: You are what your mother did not eat during pregnancy. In the research report, scientists from the University of Utah show that rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition.