Washington, Apr. 22 : Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has revealed that there are still things about working in the government that he misses.

In an interview to Fox News, Cheney said that while he did not feel bad about retiring, “I spent 40 years in government and there are things about it I miss.”

Washington, Apr 22 : Humans might take into account many factors while deciding a house for themselves, it''s the ants who score over them when it comes to choosing the best home possible, according to a new study.

In the study, led by Dr Elva Robinson in the University''s School of Biological Sciences, researchers fitted rock ants with tiny radio-frequency identification tags, each measuring 1 / 2,000 (one two-thousandth) the size of a postage stamp.

They then observed as they chose between a poor nest nearby and a good nest further away.

Washington, Apr 22 : A new study from University of Nottingham has revealed that louse infestation can dampen mammalian immune reactions.

The finding means that the epidemic of allergic disorders in modern, urban people might be due to our having rid ourselves of lice and worms.

As per "hygiene hypothesis" humans'' immune systems evolved to compensate for continual infections with parasitic gut worms, which secrete chemicals that reduce our immune responses.

Washington, Apr 22 : School-going kids, who witness violence in urban communities, display post-traumatic stress symptoms, a new study has found.

The researchers also found that these children suffer physiological effects with a disruption to their normal cortisol production pattern during the day, which may have long-term negative effects on their health.

Washington, April 22 : In a new research, scientists have concluded that biofuel crops proposed for use in the Hawaiian Islands are two to four times more likely to become invasive pests in Hawaii and other tropical areas when compared to a random sample of other introduced plants.

The research was done by scientists with the University of Hawaii Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, who examined the impact of unregulated planting of biofuel crops for their potential invasiveness and raised concerns about their impacts on Hawaii’s environment.

Washington, April 22 : A new study has suggested that in some cases, changes in the types of plants growing in an area could override the effects of climate change on wildfire frequency.

Philip Higuera of Montana State University and his colleagues show that although changing temperatures and moisture levels set the stage for changes in wildfire frequency, they can often be trumped by changes in the distribution and abundance of plants.

Vegetation plays a major role in determining the flammability of an ecosystem, potentially dampening or amplifying the impacts that climate change has on fire frequencies.