Washington, Apr 1 : Want to avoid making unnecessary purchases? Well, then keep your hands off the object, for a new study has shown that merely touching an item increases the feelings of ownership people have for the object, prompting them to purchase it.

In 2003 Illinois state attorney general''s office had warned holiday shoppers to be cautious of retailers who encourage them to hold objects and imagine the objects as their own when shopping.

Washington, April 1 : Conservationists have reported a previously unknown population of Irrawaddy dolphins in Bangladesh, which would give scientists "great hope" for the survival of the rare species.

According to a report in National Geographic News, a research team estimated that 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins thrive in the country's Sundarbans mangrove forests and nearby waters of the Bay of Bengal.

The group is the largest ever found.

Washington, April 1 : Researchers, using CT imaging to study a priceless bust of Nefertiti, have uncovered a delicately carved face in the limestone inner core and gained new insights into methods used to create the ancient masterpiece and information pertinent to its conservation.

"We acquired a lot of information on how the bust was manufactured more than 3,300 years ago by the royal sculptor," said the study's lead author Alexander Huppertz, M. D., director of the Imaging Science Institute in Berlin, Germany.

Washington, Apr 1 : Are you nicknamed "thick-headed" in school? Well, stop cursing you mates, for being literally thick-brained suggests one is smart, concludes a new study.

For a long time now, researchers have been unearthing conflicting evidence regarding where intelligence lies in the brain. For example, in 2000, researchers in England and Germany discovered that intelligence seemed to depend exclusively on the brain''s frontal lobes.

Washington, April 1 : University of St Andrews researchers in Scotland have shown that there is truth to the received wisdom that a "rosy" complexion of the skin represents healthiness, while a "green" or "pale" colour indicates illness.

Lead researcher Ian Stephen, from the School of Psychology, points out that several monkey species use redness in their faces or sexual skin to advertise their health status and to attract mates.

Washington, April 1  Undergoing CT scans a number of times may increase a patient's risk of cancer, according to a study.

"We found that while most patients accrue small cumulative cancer risks, 7 percent of the patients in our study had enough recurrent CT imaging to raise their estimated cancer risk by 1 percent or more above baseline levels," said Dr. Aaron Sodickson, assistant director of Emergency Radiology at Brigham and Women''s Hospital and researcher at the Center for Evidence-Based Imaging in Boston.