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It sounds like a perfect parlor game for baby boomers suddenly confronting their own mortality: What are your chances of dying within four years? Researchers have come up with 12 risk factors to try to answer that for people who are 50 and older. ADVERTISEMENT This is one game where you want a low score. Zero to 5 points says your risk of dying in four years is less than 4 percent. With 14 points, your risk rises to 64 percent. Just being male gives you 2 points. So does having diabetes, being a smoker, and getting pooped trying to...

Money really doesn't buy happiness, study finds Feb 13 12:19 PM US/Eastern Email this story Money doesn't buy happiness, and now there's a study to prove it. Australian researchers found that people in well-off Sydney are among the most miserable in the country, while those in some of the poorest areas are much more satisfied with their lives. "Only at very, very high levels does money actually have any impact to act as a buffer," said Deakin University researcher Liz Eckerman. "Money doesn't actually buy happiness and that's what was shown very clearly for the nearly 23,000 people we've interviewed...

Altruism may breed better marriages, a new study suggests. Or, the data might mean that good marriages make people more altruistic. ADVERTISEMENT Whatever, altruism and happiness seem to go together in the realm of love. "Altruistic love was associated with greater happiness in general and especially with more marital happiness," concludes Tom Smith of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in a report released today. I do Study participants were asked whether they agreed with statements that define altruism, such as, "I'd rather suffer myself than let the one I love suffer," and "I'm willing to...

Rutgers University scientists say their research suggests some people voted for George W. Bush rather than John Kerry because of concerns about death. Florette Cohen, a graduate student in social psychology and Daniel Ogilvie, a psychology professor, used research based on the 2004 presidential election. They found voters in a "psychologically benign state of mind" preferred Kerry to Bush, but Bush was more popular than Kerry after voters received a subtle reminder of death. Citing an Osama bin Laden tape that became public a few days before the election, the researchers say many Americans' unconscious concerns about death resulted in...

That fresh grassy smell wafting up from the newly sliced tomato may be its way of saying "I'm good for you." Indeed, the odors from foods ranging from garlic and onions to ginger and strawberries may be nutritional signals that the human nose has learned to recognize. "Studies of flavor preferences and aversions suggest that flavor perception may be linked to the nutritional or health value" of foods, researchers Stephen A. Goff and Harry J. Klee report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. However, they caution, domestication of many vegetables has not been kind to them, tending to favor...