Indiana University experts offer holiday-themed tips involving fear and drastic change, H1N1 and familiar greetings, staying active and thrifty gift-giving in the October issue of IU Health and Wellness.

Indiana University dignitaries dedicated Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase II, the Bloomington campus's newest science building, in a special ceremony on Thursday. The dedication was part of October's month-long Celebrate IU initiative. IU President Michael A. McRobbie led a platform party that included members of the IU Board of Trustees, Provost Karen Hanson, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Bennett Bertenthal, School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, and Provost's Professor of Geological Sciences Lisa Pratt, who has also been chair of the MSB II Design and Oversight Committees. David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads, was the event's keynote speaker.

Which comes first, depression or inflammation? To help solve this long standing chicken and egg conundrum, researchers led by Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis asked two critical questions. Does depression lead to elevated inflammatory proteins in the human body? Or does an increase in these proteins lead to depression?

A neuroscientist in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences has received a two-year $683,736 grant from the National Institutes of Health for a project aimed at understanding how certain parts of the brain learn to predict the outcome of one's own actions. Assistant Professor Joshua Brown says his research could one day lead to a better understanding and better treatment for substance dependence.

In IU Health and Wellness for August, IU experts discuss serious weight concerns involving fall high school sports and new research into how attitudes about smoking are transferred from parents to children and can predict smoking onset.

In 1979 Chancellor's Professor David Pisoni brought the first two postdoctoral researchers to Indiana University Bloomingrton when he was awarded a five-year training grant by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders. Today, the same grant supports six postdoctoral researchers, six doctoral students and six medical students in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

IU Health & Wellness for May discusses new research that looks at the influence having a sexual partner can have on one's interest in the oppositive sex. Experts in social networks and career counseling offer insights into how to find jobs and stay positive in dark times.

The Indiana University School of Education is now offering a new doctoral program in Inquiry Methodology, a program just approved by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. The program focuses on the study of research strategies used with both quantitative and qualitative data, allowing students to pursue a wide range of interests and contribute to better informing public debate on education and educational policy.

Scientists have long known that women's preferences for masculine men change throughout their menstrual cycles. A new study from Indiana University's Kinsey Institute is the first to demonstrate differences in brain activity as women considered masculinized and feminized male faces and whether the person was a potential sexual partner. The researchers identified regions of the brain that responded more strongly to masculinized faces and demonstrated that differences between masculinized and feminized faces appeared strongest when the women were closer to ovulating.

Two Indiana University professors -- Joseph L. Hoffmann, the Harry Pratter Professor of Law at the Indiana University School of Law--Bloomington, and Steven J. Sherman, Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at IU Bloomington -- have won the Emerald Management Reviews Citation of Excellence, a prestigious award recognizing the 50 best articles published in business and management journals around the world.

In the September issue of IU Health & Wellness, Indiana University experts in cognitive development, tennis and adolescent sexuality discuss new research into the cycle of violence, a fun way to improve in tennis and information parents need to play an effective role in their teens' sexuality education.

In our brains, groups of neurons fire up simultaneously for just milliseconds at a time, in random rhythms, similar to twinkling lightning bugs in our backyards. New research from neuroscientists at Indiana University and the University of Montreal provides a model -- a rhyme and reason -- for this random synchronization.

Indiana University researchers and fitness experts discuss links between creativity and happy people, hot weather exercise and important considerations when selecting a personal trainer or fitness specialist (beware of motor mouths).

In January's Living Well, Indiana University experts in fitness, cognitive science and health discuss tips and research involving cold-weather exercise, language learning through data mining and New Year's resolutions.

In December's Living Well, Informatics Professor Marty Siegel offers tips on managing e-mail before it manages you; Psychology Professor Bernardo J. Carducci helps ease the holiday blues; and Educational Psychology Professor Jerry Wilde discusses his book that speaks to adolescents and their depression and low self-esteem issues.

An Indiana University study provides some of the strongest evidence yet that prenatal exposure to alcohol causes conduct problems in children, a finding that has been called into question in recent years.

The study of Pavlovian conditioning calls to mind dogs automatically salivating to a ringing bell that predicts food. An Indiana University Bloomington researcher is taking a deeper look at the contribution of the natural history and social behaviors of the subjects in Pavlovian conditioning procedures. William Timberlake, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, recently was presented with the Pavlovian Research Award by the Pavlovian Society.

Researchers in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences have received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how the brain uses highly complex statistics to learn language. The study, led by assistant professor Chen Yu and Linda B. Smith, professor and chair of the department, will use advanced sensing equipment to explore how toddlers perform complex mental computations as they begin to match words with objects.

While humans may pride themselves on being highly evolved, most still behave like the stereotypical Neanderthals when it comes to choosing a mate, according to research by Indiana University cognitive scientist Peter Todd. In a new study, Todd and colleagues found that although individuals may claim otherwise, beauty is the key ingredient for men while women, the much choosier of the sexes, leverage their looks for security and commitment.

The first study to examine genetics as a culprit in the higher-than-usual divorce rate among children of divorced parents found that the parents' divorce itself, not genes or even problems such as parental substance abuse or delinquency, played a key role in the failed unions.

It's no secret that divorce can be hard on children but explaining why -- while it may be "easy" for the x-inlaws -- is not so simple. In one of the first studies to examine genetic roots to children's problems, Indiana University psychology professor Brian D'Onofrio found that some of the answers do, indeed, lie in the genes.

An IU researcher builds brainy bots that are giving new insights into human diseases and addiction.

Tips from Indiana University professors on key issues related to tobacco policy in Indiana: factors in Indiana's high smoking rate, top three ways to prevent kids from smoking, how smoking can lead to blindness, tobacco outspending public health 44 to one in Indiana, why messages matter in youth smoking decisions and how tobacco covers its assets.

A new study finds that the difference between black and white American women in body weight dissatisfaction is less than once thought, while the gap in how satisfied they are with aspects of appearance that are unrelated to weight is growing, with African American women -- again -- being more satisfied with their appearance.