Being physically active has numerous benefits. Now a study has looked closely at the effects of fitness in the midlife years for preventing debilitating chronic diseases later. The ongoing study gathered fitness stats for more than 18,000 adults, and followed their health status into old age. Assessing 40 years of that data, the analysis finds that those who had higher fitness levels in their 30s, 40s and 50s were substantially less likely to have a chronic condition between the ages of 70 and 85. The findings are in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Physical fitness seemed to stave off heart disease and heart failure, which might not be a big surprise. But it also reduced rates of diabetes, kidney disease and even Alzheimer's disease. Current recommendations suggest adults make time for at least 20 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, such as fast walking, jogging, biking or swimming. Busy middle-aged people might find it especially hard to make time for such exercise. But a small investment looks like it could pay big health dividends for decades to come.

Beneath its adorable exterior, is your cat hiding the heart of a killer?Researchers now estimate that each year, domestic cats kill billions of birds and mammals in the United States alone. The report is in Nature Communications. We already knew that domestic cats can wreak havoc on islands, causing 14 percent of species extinctions and ranking as one of the world's 100 worst invasive species. But now, scientists have reviewed previous studies to find just how much damage cats do on the mainland. Cats kill some 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion small mammals in the U.S. each year. These numbers mean that felines may be the biggest human-related cause of death for American birds and mammals. And cats tend to prey on native species, which can cause major ecosystem damage. The worst feline killers are those without owners, and reducing feral cat populations is an ongoing problem. But you can still reduce the impact of domestic cats by keeping your pet indoors, thus leaving the neighborhood a little less red in tooth and claw.

Unless you're at a Chaucer convention, speaking middle English is not going to impress a potential ....romantic.... partner in 2013. Similarly, male Savanna sparrows have to make sure their vocalizations are up to date. Researchers ....analyzed.... three decades of ....recordings.... of male Savanna sparrows.And birds that changed their tune over the years did better with the ladies. The research is in the journal Animal Behaviour. While introductory notes of the sparrow's song stayed the same, the middle and end parts changed over time. In the 1980's, songs ......concluded..... with longer, high-pitched trills. More recent songs ......contain..... a series of clicks in the middle and a shorter, low-pitched trill at the end. Researchers found that the male sparrows that .....adopted..... the newer songs had higher rates of sexual reproduction. Because you don't want to be seen as behind the times. Indeed, Chaucer might have had his pick of the ladies in the 14th ........century.... . But few today can make heads or tails of his tales.