Hey folks and welcome to Tuesday’s Digest of news surrounding and impacting the University of Minnesota.

*The Daily did a story today about students who are taking a semester off because they don’t have enough money to pay for school, mostly because they couldn’t find enough loans to pay for it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a similar story of the trend, in which students are finding it harder to get laons to support their education.

*A University researchers, Vladas Griskevicius, authored a study that basically found that status can create aggression, which can result in better status and sex, according to an article in United Press International. "It all boils down to the fact that status for men typically equals sex," the researcher said. The study has not yet been published, but will appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It says that fighting for status is similar to fighting ofr survival of their genes and not doing so can be evolutionary suicide. Check out the University release here.

*Another hot topic has been the use of drugs to boost brain performance, such as those perscribed to hyperactive kids to help them focus. These are also the same drugs that many college students are using illegally to help them study. Some experts are even encouraging that such drugs should be made legal for wider use, according to an Associated Press article. The article included Leigh Turner from the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics who wasn’t convinced by the commentary from scientists encouraging such a thing. What do you think?

Do you think drugs like Adderall should be available to all students or people in general?

That’s all for critique. Let me know what you think about that last one. It’s quite an interesting topic. The commentary by the scientists can be found at Nature.com.

Have a good Tuesday.