A federal appeals court Friday debated the government's ability to track your location at any time using your cell phone. Abbe Forman of Temple's Computer and Information Sciences Department said that tracking is a critical tool in emergencies, but she worries that the government may play upon our fears to enhance its snooping powers. "If we tell people they will be safer because they can be found in case of emergency, most people will look no further for information, even though the great majority of them will never be lost to that extreme," she said.

February 12, 2010 | Montgomery Newspapers

As it has for the past four-plus decades, Temple's School of Environmental Design will have an exhibit in the education category of Philadelphia Flower Show. "It gives the students a real life experience of conceiving something, researching, designing and implementing it,” said Baldev Lamba, the professor overseeing the project. The Temple team hopes to educate attendees about the important role of vegetation in our increasingly urban world with its exhibit, titled "METROmorphosis."

February 12, 2010 | Ottawa Citizen, Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald

Serial killers and other sociopaths are often able to keep their criminal activities secret, sometimes even from their partners. "We often wrestle with how they do it, the double life. Why they stay with someone to whom they do not reveal," says Temple psychologist Frank Farley. The relationship can provide a legitimacy, a cover, says Farley. But it can also provide crucial emotional stability in an otherwise unstable, violent and risky life, a psychological space the killer can step into.

February 11-12, 2010 | Bucks County Courier Times, Intelligencer

Temple psychologist Frank Farley discussed two different aspects of the psychology of snowstorms — fear of snow and cabin fever — with Bucks County reporters in two separate articles. Farley's tip for stir-crazy snowbound citizens: Try "humanitarian activities" such as "checking in with a neighbor," Farley says. "Giving and forgiving are profound experiences that can lift your mood."

February 11, 2010 | ABC's "Good Morning America"

At Philadelphia's John Welsh Elementary, soda and junk food in vending machines have been replaced with water, juice, milk and snacks containing less than 200 calories. According to a two-year study recently published in Pediatrics, these types of simple adjustments in food options available to children cut the rate of overweight and obese children in half. The study's lead author, Gary Foster of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education, works with the Food Trust to implement school and community campaigns for healthier food options. Their programs include the Corner Store Initiative, which stocks store shelves with healthy foods local children say they will actually eat.