ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines
for Wednesday, June 13, 2012
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Spotting ultrafine loops in the sun's corona (June 12, 2012) -- A key to understanding the dynamics of the sun and what causes the great solar explosions there relies on deciphering how material, heat and energy swirl across the sun's surface and rise into the upper atmosphere, or corona. Scientists have for the first time observed a new facet of the system: Especially narrow loops of solar material scattered on the sun's surface, which are connected to higher lying, wider loops. ... > full story
Group B streptococcal meningitis has long-term effects on children's developmental outcomes (June 12, 2012) -- Nearly one-half of infants with GBS meningitis experience developmental delays. According to the CDC, 25 percent of pregnant women carry GBS. It is routine for these women to receive antibiotics during labor to protect the baby from infection occurring in the first days of life. There is no way to prevent late-onset GBS infections in infants. ... > full story
Radiation exposure from medical imaging has increased even at HMOs (June 12, 2012) -- Concern about overexposure to radiation due to excessive use of medical imaging has come to the fore in recent years. Now, a new study shows that medical imaging is increasing even in health maintenance organization systems (HMOs), which don't have a financial incentive to conduct them. ... > full story
Alzheimer's risk gene disrupts brain function in healthy older women, but not men (June 12, 2012) -- Scientists have found that the most common genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease disrupts brain function in healthy older women but has little impact on brain function in healthy, older men. ... > full story
When being scared twice is enough to remember (June 12, 2012) -- One of the brain's jobs is to help us figure out what's important enough to be remembered. Scientists have achieved some insight into how fleeting experiences become memories in the brain. ... > full story
Protein residues kiss, don't tell: Genomes reveal contacts, scientists refine methods for protein-folding prediction (June 12, 2012) -- Researchers have created a computational tool to help predict how proteins fold by finding amino acid pairs that are distant in sequence but change together. Protein interactions offer clues to the treatment of disease, including cancer. ... > full story
How brain performs 'motor chunking' tasks (June 12, 2012) -- You pick up your cell phone and dial the new number of a friend. Ten numbers. One. Number. At. A. Time. Because you haven't actually typed the number before, your brain handles each button press separately, as a sequence of distinct movements. ... > full story
Woolly mammoth extinction has lessons for modern climate change (June 12, 2012) -- Not long after the last ice age, the last woolly mammoths succumbed to a lethal combination of climate warming, encroaching humans and habitat change -- the same threats facing many species today. ... > full story
Naturally occurring protein has role in chronic pain (June 12, 2012) -- Researchers have discovered how one of the body’s own proteins is involved in generating chronic pain in rats. The results also suggest therapeutic interventions to alleviate long-lasting pain. ... > full story
Mosquitoes bred to be incapable of transmitting malaria (June 12, 2012) -- Mosquitoes bred to be unable to infect people with the malaria parasite are an attractive approach to helping curb one of the world's most pressing public health issues, according to scientists. ... > full story
Voicemail discovered in nature: Insects receive soil messages from the past (June 12, 2012) -- Insects can use plants as "green phones" for communication with other bugs. A new study now shows that through those same plants insects are also able to leave "voicemail" messages in the soil. Herbivorous insects store their voicemails via their effects on soil fungi. Researchers discovered this unique messaging service in the ragwort plant. ... > full story
Volcanic gases could deplete ozone layer (June 12, 2012) -- Giant volcanic eruptions in Nicaragua over the past 70,000 years could have injected enough gases into the atmosphere to temporarily thin the ozone layer, according to new research. And, if it happened today, a similar explosive eruption could do the same, releasing more than twice the amount of ozone-depleting halogen gases currently in stratosphere due to humanmade emissions. ... > full story
Early gut bacteria regulate happiness (June 12, 2012) -- Scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin -- the 'happy hormone' -- are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the gut during early life. The research shows that normal adult brain function depends on the presence of gut microbes during development. Serotonin, the major chemical involved in the regulation of mood and emotion, is altered in times of stress, anxiety and depression and most clinically effective antidepressant drugs work by targeting this neurochemical. ... > full story
A 'dirt cheap' magnetic field sensor from 'plastic paint' (June 12, 2012) -- Physicists have developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses based on a “spintronic” organic thin-film semiconductor that basically is “plastic paint.” ... > full story
Groundbreaking discovery of the cellular origin of cervical cancer (June 12, 2012) -- Scientists have identified a unique set of cells in the cervix that are the cause of human papillomavirus-related cervical cancers. Significantly, the team also showed that these cells do not regenerate when excised. These findings have immense clinical implications in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. ... > full story
Making music with real stars: Kepler Telescope star data creates musical melody (June 12, 2012) -- Using star data from the Kepler Space Telescope, researchers have developed sounds that will be used in a song later this summer for a national recording artist. ... > full story
Potential carbon capture role for new CO2-absorbing material (June 12, 2012) -- A novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention properties has just been developed. ... > full story
Alcohol abuse may be cause, rather than effect of social isolation, poor grades among teens (June 12, 2012) -- Rather than gaining "liquid courage" to let loose with friends, teenage drinkers are more likely to feel like social outcasts, according to a new sociological study. ... > full story
Living microprocessor tunes in to feedback (June 12, 2012) -- What keeps the machinery for chopping certain precursor RNA strands into functional pieces from cutting up the wrong kinds of RNA? ... > full story
Losing money, emotions and evolution (June 12, 2012) -- Mildly stressful situations can affect our perceptions in the same way as life-threatening ones. ... > full story
Kill the messenger: Small molecule prevents cancer-causing message from entering cell nucleus (June 12, 2012) -- A small molecule prevents a cancer-causing message from entering the cell nucleus. ... > full story
A father's love is one of the greatest influences on personality development (June 12, 2012) -- A father's love contributes as much -- and sometimes more -- to a child's development as does a mother's love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood. ... > full story
Nature or nurture? It may depend on where you live (June 12, 2012) -- The extent to which our development is affected by nature or nurture -- our genetic make-up or our environment -- may differ depending on where we live, according to new research. ... > full story
Europeans to build world’s biggest eye on the sky: Largest optical/infrared telescope (June 11, 2012) -- The European Southern Observatory is to build the largest optical/infrared telescope in the world. At its meeting in Garching June 11, the ESO Council approved the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Programme, pending confirmation of four so-called ad referendum votes. The E-ELT will start operations early in the next decade. ... > full story
NASA Mars rover team aims for landing closer to prime science site (June 11, 2012) -- NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August. The car-sized rover will arrive closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard. ... > full story
NuSTAR to drop from plane and rocket into space (June 11, 2012) -- NASA's NuSTAR mission is scheduled to launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean on June 13, no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT). The observatory, which will hunt for black holes and other exotic objects using specialized X-ray eyes, will be launched from a Pegasus XL rocket carried by an Orbital Science Corporation L-1011 "Stargazer" plane. The plane will take off from Kwajalein Atoll an hour before launch, flying out over the Pacific Ocean. ... > full story
Black hole growth found to be out of sync (June 11, 2012) -- New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory challenges prevailing ideas about how black holes grow in the centers of galaxies. Astronomers long have thought that a supermassive black hole and the bulge of stars at the center of its host galaxy grow at the same rate -- the bigger the bulge, the bigger the black hole. However, a new study of Chandra data has revealed two nearby galaxies with supermassive black holes that are growing faster than the galaxies themselves. ... > full story
Highest-energy light from a solar flare ever detected (June 11, 2012) -- During a powerful solar blast on March 7, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the highest-energy light ever associated with an eruption on the sun. The discovery heralds Fermi's new role as a solar observatory, a powerful new tool for understanding solar outbursts during the sun's maximum period of activity. ... > full story
Global warming threat seen in fertile soil of northeastern U.S. forests (June 11, 2012) -- Vast stores of carbon in U.S. forest soils could be released by rising global temperatures, according to a new study. Scientists found that heating soil in Wisconsin and North Carolina woodlands by 10 and 20 degrees increased the release of carbon dioxide by up to eight times. They showed for the first time that most carbon in topsoil is vulnerable to this warming effect. ... > full story
New evidence supports theory of extraterrestrial impact (June 11, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material -- which dates back nearly 13,000 years -- was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth. ... > full story
Workings behind promising inexpensive catalyst revealed (June 11, 2012) -- A newly developed carbon nanotube material could help lower the cost of fuel cells, catalytic converters and similar energy-related technologies by delivering a substitute for expensive platinum catalysts. ... > full story
Breast cancer risk can be lowered by avoiding unnecessary medical imaging (June 11, 2012) -- A new reviewed all the available scientific data compiled to date about potential environmental risks of breast cancer -- factors such as pesticides, beauty products, household chemicals, and the plastics used to make water bottles. ... > full story
Neighbor galaxies may have brushed closely, astronomers find (June 11, 2012) -- New observations confirm a tenuous "bridge" of hydrogen gas streaming between two prominent members of our Local Group of galaxies -- the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy. This indicates the two may have had a close encounter in the distant past. ... > full story
Helices of light: Dark helices with a bright future (June 11, 2012) -- Laser beams can be made to form dark as well as bright intensity helices, or corkscrews of light. Scientists have now shown that forming dark helices can have considerable advantages over employing their commonly considered bright cousins. ... > full story
Sick from your stomach: Bacterial changes may trigger diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (June 11, 2012) -- Larger-than-normal populations of specific gut bacteria may trigger the development of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and possibly fuel disease progression in people genetically predisposed to this crippling and confounding condition, say the researchers. ... > full story
Never too late to quit: Quitting smoking reduces mortality, even in older patients (June 11, 2012) -- An analysis of available medical literature suggests smoking was linked to increased mortality in older patients and that smoking cessation was associated with reduced mortality at an older age. ... > full story
Keeping pace: Walking speed may signal thinking problems ahead (June 11, 2012) -- A new study shows that changes in walking speed in late life may signal the early stages of dementia known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). ... > full story
Untangling knots, slipknots in species separated by a billion years of evolution (June 11, 2012) -- A new study examines structures of proteins that not only twist and turn themselves into knots, but also form slipknots that, if anybody could actually see them, might look like shoelaces for cells. ... > full story
The downstream consequences of depleting groundwater (June 11, 2012) -- A new report identifies improvements to groundwater management from the Western United States to Australia. ... > full story
Humans are primary cause of global ocean warming over past 50 years, research shows (June 11, 2012) -- Scientists have shown that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century. ... > full story
New molecules important for vision and brain function identified (June 11, 2012) -- In a pair of related studies, scientists have identified several proteins that help regulate cells' response to light -- and the development of night blindness, a rare disease that abolishes the ability to see in dim light. ... > full story
Epigenomes of newborns and centenarians differ: New clues to increasing life span (June 11, 2012) -- An international study sheds important new light on how epigenetic marks degrade over time. Since epigenetic lesions are reversible, it would be possible to develop drugs that increase the life span, the research suggests. ... > full story
Wing bling: For female butterflies, flashier is better (June 11, 2012) -- If female butterflies are programmed to identify males of their species by the patterns of spots on their wings, how can new wing patterns evolve in males? The answer is that while females are predisposed to prefer a specific pattern, they learn to like flashier ones more, according to a new study. ... > full story
How infection can lead to cancer (June 11, 2012) -- One of the biggest risk factors for liver, colon or stomach cancer is chronic inflammation of those organs, often caused by viral or bacterial infections. A new study offers the most comprehensive look yet at how such infections provoke tissues into becoming cancerous. ... > full story
Offspring of older fathers may live longer (June 11, 2012) -- If your father and grandfather waited until they were older before reproducing, you might experience life-extending benefits. Biologists assume that a slow pace of aging requires that the body invest more resources in repairing cells and tissues. A new study suggests that our bodies might increase these investments to slow the pace of aging if our father and grandfather waited until they were older before having children. ... > full story
Kill the germs, spare the ears: Encouraging study shows how (June 11, 2012) -- The world needs new antibiotics to overcome the ever-increasing resistance of disease-causing bacteria – but it doesn’t need the side effect that comes with some of the most powerful ones now available: hearing loss. Researchers report they have developed a new approach to designing antibiotics that kill even “superbugs” but spare the inner ear. ... > full story
New spin on antifreeze: Researchers create ultra slippery anti-ice and anti-frost surfaces (June 11, 2012) -- Researchers have invented a way to keep any metal surface free of ice and frost. The treated surfaces quickly shed even tiny, incipient condensation droplets or frost simply through gravity. The technology prevents ice sheets from developing on surfaces -- and any ice that does form, slides off effortlessly. ... > full story
More than 635,000 Martian craters catalogued (June 11, 2012) -- How beat up is Mars from cosmic buckshot over the millenia? According to new research, there are a staggering 635,000 impact craters on Mars that are roughly a kilometer or more in diameter. ... > full story
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