About 50 food studies take place at any one time in Cornell University's food lab. Some of Brian Wansink's studies – critics call them "Happy Meal" studies – take place in the field. Regardless of location, all of Wansink's experiments yield interesting findings about how our subconscious influences what, and how, we eat. Check out these fun facts.

• Give a group of people at a bar the Super Bowl and a plate of chicken wings, and the subjects will eat 28 percent more when a waitress clears the bones from the table than when the bones pile up.

• You'll eat more M&Ms if they're available in 10 colors than if they come in seven because you'll crave the variety.

• Flowers at your table will make you eat more, even though the smell may clash with the smell of your meal.

• Use small plates, keep junk food in inconvenient places, avoid eating directly from a package, and be the last one at your table to start eating. You'll fare better nutritionally by practicing these healthy habits.
  
  

For more wacky food scoop, check out Wansink's book: Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.

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12 states are fighting to have a deadly disease lab facility built on their land. The research center would house killers like anthrax, avian flu, and foot and mouth disease, plus (I'm guessing) a whole bunch of dangerously fun "experiments." This new project is intended to replace a smaller lab at Plum Island, N.Y., where some questionable security practices back in 2001 required investigation.

Although the states themselves seem eager to "win" and get the lab, not all the residents in the proposed areas are that excited. And who can blame them? A lab test gone wrong, or even something as simple as an experiment with unpredicted results, could potentially infect the entire surrounding area. No, I'm not thinking I want a deadly disease lab in my area. Thanks, but no thanks.

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