The EDGE: ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines -- for Saturday, June 9, 2012

ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines

for Saturday, June 9, 2012

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Rocket sled tests are technology pathway to safely land humans, habitats and cargo on Mars (June 8, 2012) -- Traveling 300 million miles through deep space to reach the planet Mars is difficult; successfully landing there is even harder. The process of entering the Red Planet's atmosphere and slowing down to land has been described as "six minutes of terror." ... > full story

WISE finds few brown dwarfs close to home (June 8, 2012) -- Astronomers are getting to know the neighbors better. Our sun resides within a spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy about two-thirds of the way out from the center. It lives in a fairly calm, suburb-like area with an average number of stellar residents. Recently, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has been turning up a new crowd of stars close to home: the coldest of the brown dwarf family of "failed" stars. ... > full story

Neutrinos sent from CERN to Gran Sasso respect the cosmic speed limit, experiments confirm (June 8, 2012) -- The latest results on the time of flight of neutrinos from CERN to the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory have just been presented. Four experiments -- Borexino, ICARUS, LVD and OPERA -- all measure a neutrino time of flight consistent with the speed of light. This is at odds with a measurement that the OPERA collaboration put up for scrutiny last September, indicating that the original OPERA measurement can be attributed to a faulty element of the experiment's fibre optic timing system. ... > full story

More people staying connected on vacation (June 8, 2012) -- Scanning smartphones, tablets and laptops is as much a part of vacations as slathering on sunscreen, according to a new study. ... > full story

Engineered robot interacts with live fish (June 8, 2012) -- A bioinspired robot has provided the first experimental evidence that live zebrafish can be influenced by engineered robots. ... > full story

Parasitic plants steal genes from their hosts (June 8, 2012) -- The Malaysian parasitic plant Rafflesia cantleyi, with its 50cm diameter flowers, has 'stolen' genes from its host Tetrastigma rafflesiae. Analysis of these genes shows that their functions range from respiration to metabolism, and that some of them have even replaced the parasites own gene activity. ... > full story

Does cooperation require both reciprocity and alike neighbors? (June 8, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a new theoretical model on the evolution of cooperation. Evolution by definition is cold and merciless: it selects for success and weeds out failure. It seems only natural to expect that such a process would simply favour genes that help themselves and not others. Yet cooperative behaviour can be observed in many areas, and humans helping each other are a common phenomenon. Thus, one of the major questions in science today is how cooperative behaviour could evolve. ... > full story

Oceanic circulation: Heat loss strengthens the gyre circulation (June 8, 2012) -- A new study explains decadal variations in the oceanic circulation south of Greenland and Iceland. ... > full story

Environmental benefit of biofuels is overestimated, new study reveals (June 8, 2012) -- Two scientists are challenging the currently accepted norms of biofuel production. Calculations of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from bioenergy production are neglecting crucial information that has led to the overestimation of the benefits of biofuels compared to fossil fuels, a new analysis shows. ... > full story

Novel brain imaging technique explains why concussions affect people differently (June 8, 2012) -- Patients vary widely in their response to concussion, but scientists haven’t understood why. Now, using a new technique for analyzing data from brain imaging studies, researchers have found that concussion victims have unique spatial patterns of brain abnormalities that change over time. ... > full story

Should spinal manipulation for neck pain be abandoned? (June 7, 2012) -- The effectiveness of spinal manipulation divides medical opinion. Experts debate whether spinal manipulation for neck pain should be abandoned. ... > full story

Rubber wood, coconut shells and fabrics tested for use in hybrid composites (June 7, 2012) -- Opening a way to a new hybrid composite, researchers have tested hybrid composites made of rubberwood, coconut shell and textile fabrics (woven cotton and polyester fabrics). ... > full story

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