For social networks that will explode in popularity in 2012, Temple Fox School of Business social media expert Steven L. Johnson has his money on Pinterest, a site for organizing and sharing images found online. "Pinned" photos can be posted to personalized, themed "boards," which other users can follow. The site taps into the need for what Johnson calls "content curators" with shared interests.

African Americans develop high blood pressure more often than white Americans. Michael Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Temple, is taking a different approach to the problem. He is studying the cells that line the walls of blood vessels. "What we are trying to do, and this is the very first step, is go down to the cell and try to understand some molecular events that are happening that may set up the conditions for hypertension in African Americans," Brown said.

Steven Washington, owner of the North Philadelphia salon I Love Remy Hair Inc., is confident his business will make him a millionaire in a little more than a year. His target customers — African American women throughout the United States — are part of a culture in which hair "has a lot more of a social significance beyond beauty," said Lori Tharps, assistant professor of journalism at Temple. "For a very long time, black women were considered unattractive because their hair was not naturally straight," Tharps said.

An international study of holiday shopping and religion finds that dominant religious groups are more likely to experience "consumption mass hysteria" while shoppers in minority religions may view malls as central meeting places that "can play an active role in the creation of a sacred event." "I think consumption became such a dominant practice of the holidays that gathering in the mall is perceived as a normal act that replaces other, more traditional, places," such as a church or synagogue, said co-author Ayalla Ruvio of Temple's Fox School of Business.