Today's What Was It comes from Laurel Fiske. She's the person who actually does the groundwork for all those neat studies that show up in journals, and occasionally in newspapers. She's also proof that not all science nerds are locked up in a sunless room hissing at intruders.

Two studies published this week have drawn a link between either living alone or feeling lonely — and an increased risk of death. Your lone wolf habits could be driving you to an early end.

We all know that reading about heroic characters in impossible situations can be thrilling and a great escape from our otherwise drab lives. But new research shows that reading fiction can actually make us better people as well — the more we identify with fictional characters on the page, the more we try to act like…

At this point if you aren't willing to admit that smoking causes cancer, you either have your hands on an as-yet-not-deposited check from a tobacco company or you're wearing a tinfoil hat. It's not too surprising that people can't quit smoking, considering that cigarettes are addictive, in addition to being expensive,…

Psychologists in the Netherlands have documented the case of a 58-year-old woman who was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she became permanently confused, and at one point suicidal — before another doctor realized the diagnosis was incorrect.

Scientists need to study every assumption, gathering data to back up what most people think of as 'common sense'. Sometimes this data upsets conventional wisdom. Other times? Not so much.

There are many ways to find the location of people on the internet. Some people are located through technology — but some people give away their location by their word choice. Internet speech is more regional than we'd previously thought.

Computer geeks: Tear down those science-fiction posters! Get rid of those Tron lightcycle toys! Your science-fiction bric-a-brac is scaring women away from IT, says a new study.