Science News

February 9, 2010

New Hubble Maps Of Pluto Show Surface Changes - NASA has released the most detailed set of images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto.

Uncorrelated Activity In The Brain - Interconnected networks of neurons process information and give rise to perception by communicating with one another via small electrical impulses known as action potentials.

Winning The War On Weight - A Monash University-led nationwide study into the health beliefs and behaviours of obese people has found that the more severely obese a person is, the less likely they feel they can reduce their weight.

February 8, 2010

Where Did Today's Spiral Galaxies Come From? - Galaxy morphology, or the study of the shapes and formation of galaxies, is a critical and much-debated topic in astronomy.

Dinosaur Had Vibrant Colors - Deciphering microscopic clues hidden within fossils, scientists have uncovered the vibrant colors that adorned a feathered dinosaur extinct for 150 million years.

NASA, GM Take Giant Leap In Robotic Technology - NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries.

February 5, 2010

Computers That Use Light Instead Of Electricity? - MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication.

Merging Galaxies Create A Binary Quasar - Astronomers have found the first clear evidence of a binary quasar within a pair of actively merging galaxies.

Learning from Climate's Sedimental Journey - By analyzing sediments up to 4,000 years old, Susan Zimmerman is hoping to provide a tool to help predict future climate change.

February 4, 2010

Fossils Show Earliest Animal Trails - Trails found in rocks dating back 565 million years are thought to be the earliest evidence of animal locomotion ever found.

Ability To Navigate May Be Linked To Genes - Imagine that you are emerging from the subway and heading for your destination when you realize that you are going in the wrong direction.

Acetaminophen Protects Kidneys After Muscle Injury - Severe muscle injuries - such as crush injuries suffered in earthquakes, car accidents and explosions, and muscle damage from excessive exercise or statin drug interactions - can cause life-threatening kidney damage.

February 3, 2010

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids.

New Adhesive Device Could Let Humans Walk On Walls - Could humans one day walk on walls, like Spider-Man? A palm-sized device invented at Cornell that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond just might make it possible.

Right-Handed And Left-Handed People Do Not See The Same Bright Side Of Things - Despite the common association of "right" with life, correctness, positiveness and good things, and "left" with death, clumsiness, negativity and bad things, recent research shows that most left-handed people hold the opposite association.

February 2, 2010

Gecko's Lessons Transfer Well - Watch a gecko walk up a wall. It defies gravity as it sticks to the surface no matter how smooth it appears to be.

Explanation For The Differences Between Ganymede And Callisto - Differences in the number and speed of cometary impacts onto Jupiter's large moons Ganymede and Callisto some 3.8 billion years ago can explain their vastly different surfaces and interior states.

New Species Of Tyrannosaur Discovered - New Mexico is known for Aztec ruins and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Paleontologists Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Thomas Carr of Carthage College is now bringing a new superstar to the state.

February 1, 2010

Targeting Cancer Stem Cells In The Lab - Understanding of the particular cancer cells within a tumour that drive its growth could now advance more rapidly, thanks to Oxford University scientists.

Black Hole Hunters Set New Distance Record - Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have detected, in another galaxy, a stellar-mass black hole much farther away than any other previously known.

Microbes Produce Fuels Directly From Biomass - A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass.

January 29, 2010

Color Of Dinosaur Feathers Identified - The colour of some feathers on dinosaurs and early birds has been identified for the first time, reports a paper recently published in Nature.

Universe Is 30 Times More Run Down Than Thought - Cars run out of petrol, stars run out of fuel and galaxies collapse into black holes. As they do, the universe and everything in it is gradually running down.

Energy-Harvesting Rubber Chips Could Power Pacemakers - Power-generating rubber films developed by Princeton University engineers could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

January 28, 2010

Innovation Promises New Hope For Children With Dyslexia - Reading and retaining information. That's the challenge faced by the one in five children who have some form of dyslexia.

Is the Hobbit's Brain Unfeasibly Small? - Homo floresiensis, a pygmy-sized small-brained hominin popularly known as 'the Hobbit' was discovered five years ago, but controversy continues over whether the small brain is actually due to a pathological condition.

Men Feel Less Guilt - Although changing social and cultural contexts mean guilt has less power today than it once did, a new study has shown that in the West this emotion is "significantly higher" among women.

January 27, 2010

Using Supercomputers To Explore Nuclear Energy - A new computer algorithm developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory allows scientists to view nuclear fission in much finer detail than ever before.

Researchers Identify Universal Emotions - The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans.

Dinosaur Extinction Grounded Ancient Birds - An abundance of food and lack of predators following the extinction of dinosaurs saw previously flighted birds fatten up and become flightless, according to new research from The Australian National University.

January 26, 2010

Spectacular X-Ray Tails Surprise Astronomers - Astronomer were surprised to find two distinct tails found on a long tail of gas that is believed to be forming stars where few stars have been formed before.

Human Brain Uses A Grid To Represent Space - Grid cells that act like a spatial map in the brain have been identified for the first time in humans, according to new research by UCL scientists which may help to explain how we create internal maps of new environments.

Stroke's 'Death Signal' Can Be Blocked - Biomedical scientists from the University of Central Florida and Louisiana State University have identified a way to block a "cell death signal" that they believe triggers brain damage during strokes.

January 25, 2010

Stunning New Image Of Cat's Paw Nebula - ESO has just released a stunning new image of the vast cloud known as the Cat's Paw Nebula or NGC 6334.

New 'Nanoburrs' Could Help Fight Heart Disease - MIT and Harvard researchers have turned their attention to cardiovascular disease, designing new particles that can cling to damaged artery walls and slowly release medicine.

Humans Caused Demise Of Australia's Megafauna - A new scientific paper reports strong evidence that humans, not climate change, caused the demise of Australia's megafauna - giant marsupials, huge reptiles and flightless birds - at least 40,000 years ago.

January 22, 2010

Size Of Brain Structures Predicts Success - Researchers can predict your performance on a video game simply by measuring the volume of specific structures in your brain, a multi-institutional team reports this week.

Near-Earth Encounters Can 'Shake' Asteroids - For decades, astronomers have analyzed the impact that asteroids could have on Earth. New research examines the opposite scenario: that Earth has considerable influence on asteroids.

Blueberry Juice Improves Memory In Older Adults - Scientists are reporting the first evidence from human research that blueberries - one of the richest sources of healthful antioxidants and other so-called phytochemicals - improve memory.

January 21, 2010

New Theory On The Origin Of Primates - A new model for primate origins is presented in Zoologica Scripta, published by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Cardiologists Discover 'Pouch' In Heart - UC Irvine cardiologists have found a pouchlike structure inside the heart's left atrial chamber that may be a potent source of stroke-causing blood clots.

Face Recognition Ability Inherited Separately From IQ - Recognizing faces is an important social skill, but not all of us are equally good at it. Some people are unable to recognize even their closest friends, while others have a near-photographic memory for large numbers of faces.

January 20, 2010

Infrared Hunt Begins: WISE Starts All-Sky Survey - NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began its survey of the infrared sky Jan. 14, 2010.

Breakthrough In Developing Super-Material Graphene - A collaborative research project has brought the world a step closer to producing a new material on which future nanotechnology could be based.

Gene Linked To Schizophrenia May Reduce Cancer Risk - People who inherit a specific form of a gene that puts them on a road to schizophrenia may be protected against some forms of cancer, according to a new study by scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.

January 19, 2010

Wild Crows Reveal Tool Skills - A new study using motion sensitive video cameras has revealed how New Caledonian crows use tools in the wild.

HIFI Resumes Quest For Water In Universe - The back up system of HIFI, the state of the art Dutch space instrument on ESA's Herschel space telescope, has been switched on successfully.

New iPhone App To Measure Carbon Intensity - As temperatures drop below freezing and demand for energy soars, engineers at the University of Southampton have launched a new iPhone application to monitor the UK electricity grid.

January 18, 2010

Search For An Artificial Blood Substitute - If the current wave of vampire stories is to be believed, humans can peacefully co-exist with vampires.

Listeners' Brains Second-Guess The Composer - Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops?

Nanodragster Races Toward the Future of Molecular Machines - Scientists in Texas are reporting the development of a "nanodragster" that may speed the course toward development of a new generation of futuristic molecular machines.

January 15, 2010

Mirror Testing At NASA Breaks Superstitious Myths - In ancient mythological times reflective surfaces like shiny metals and mirrors were thought to be magical and credited with the ability to look into the future.

Why Do People 'Play the Longshot' but Buy Insurance? - Why do some people like to take risks by playing "longshot" payoffs while, on the other hand, taking the opposite tack by buying insurance to reduce risks?

Yoga Reduces Cytokine Levels Known To Promote Inflammation - Regularly practicing yoga exercises may lower a number of compounds in the blood and reduce the level of inflammation that normally rises because of both normal aging and stress.

January 14, 2010

For This Microbe, Cousins Not Particularly Welcome - A bacterial species that depends on cooperation to survive is discriminating when it comes to the company it keeps.

Fossil Fireballs From Supernovae Discovered - Studies of two supernova remnants using the Japan-U.S. Suzaku observatory have revealed never-before-seen embers of the high-temperature fireballs that immediately followed the explosions.

New Stroke Therapy Successful In Rats - People with impaired mobility after a stroke soon may have a therapy that restores limb function long after the injury, if a supplemental protein works as well in humans as it does in paralyzed rats.

January 13, 2010

Sedentary TV Time May Cut Life Short - Couch potatoes beware: every hour of television watched per day may increase the risk of dying earlier from cardiovascular disease.

Microbe Collections Accelerate Discoveries - Contact lens wearers may remember headlines from a few years ago about molds that can live on the lenses and may cause debilitating eye infections.

'Wet' Computing Systems To Boost Processing Power - A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

January 12, 2010

How Earth Survived Its Birth - For the last 20 years, the best models of planet formation - or how planets grow from dust in a gas disk - have contradicted the very existence of Earth.

Simulating Gliding Effects To Develop Super Fast Skis - You couldn't have asked for a better day for a competition. It's minus five degrees, the sun's shining and there's not a breath of wind.

How High Can a Rock Climber Go? - The maximum time an athlete is able to continue climbing to exhaustion may be the only determinant of his/her performance.

January 11, 2010

Ant Has Given Up Sex Completely - The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely has been confirmed.

New Treatment For Hyperactivity In Children - A new thought-operated computer system which can reduce the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children will be rolled out across the UK this month.

Brain Imaging May Help Diagnose Autism - Children with autism spectrum disorders process sound and language a fraction of a second slower than children without ASDs, and measuring magnetic signals that mark this delay may become a standardized way to diagnose autism.

January 8, 2010

Silencing Brain Cells With Yellow And Blue Light - Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light.

Rebirth Of An Island After Volcanic Eruption - When Alaska's Kasatochi Volcano erupted on Aug. 7, 2008, it virtually sterilized Kasatochi Island, covering the small Aleutian island with a layer of ash and other volcanic material several meters thick.

Behavioral Identification Can Help Stop Terrorists - The effective use of multiple layers of intelligence gathering, including existing behavioral identification programs, could have excluded Farouk Abdul Mutallab from travel before he got anywhere near Northwest Flight 253.

January 7, 2010

Fewer Headaches On The Horizon - If you're one of the millions of headache sufferers around the world, more effective relief might be on the way in years to come.

Just 10 Percent Of Solar Systems Are Like Ours - In their quest to find solar systems analogous to ours, astronomers have determined how common our solar system is.

'Ferropaper' Is New Technology For Small Motors - Researchers at Purdue University have created a magnetic "ferropaper" that might be used to make low-cost "micromotors" for surgical instruments, tiny tweezers to study cells and miniature speakers.

January 6, 2010

Electric Field Propels Worms To Test New Drugs - A Nobel-winning process for testing new drugs to treat diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's, and muscular dystrophy is getting an electrical charge.

Mars Images Reveal Evidence Of Ancient Lakes - Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface.

Scans Show Learning 'Sculpts' The Brain's Connections - Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, have shown.

January 5, 2010

Pandemic Toolkit Offers Flu With A View - As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies.

Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease - Cells that protect nerves are the likely origin of the Devil Facial Tumour Disease that has been devastating Australia's Tasmanian devil population, an international team of scientists has discovered.

Massive Black Hole Implicated In Stellar Destruction - New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Magellan telescopes suggest that a dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun.

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