ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets more successful than standard dieting, study finds
• For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air
• NMR used to determine whether gold nanoparticles exhibit 'handedness'
• Paleoclimate record points toward potential rapid climate changes
• Premature babies harbor fewer, but more dangerous microbe types
• More shrubbery in a warming world
• Atoms dressed with light show new interactions, could reveal way to observe enigmatic particle
• 77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter
• Nighttime images help track disease from the sky
• Catching terrorists: Backpacks, not the bombs inside, key to finding DNA
• Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant
• Decisions, decisions: House-hunting honey bees work like complex brains
• Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests
• Breakthrough in regulating fat metabolism
• Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work
• Neuroscientists boost memory in mice using genetics and a new memory-enhancing drug
• Birds caught in the act of becoming a new species
• Law enforcement vital for great ape survival: Greatest decrease in African great ape populations in areas with no protection from poaching
• How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses
• Patterns seen in spider silk and melodies connected
• Combination of everolimus and exemestane improves survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, results show
• Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape
• 'Brain tsunamis' are clue to helping victims of major head injuries
• Mother's touch may protect against drug cravings later
• Addressing pain and disease on the fly: How fruit flies can teach us about curing chronic pain and halting mosquito-borne diseases

Intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets more successful than standard dieting, study finds Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:46 PM PST An intermittent, low-carbohydrate diet was superior to a standard, daily calorie-restricted diet for reducing weight and lowering blood levels of insulin, a cancer-promoting hormone, according to recent findings.

For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:37 PM PST Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers.

NMR used to determine whether gold nanoparticles exhibit 'handedness' Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:37 PM PST Scientists have successfully used NMR to analyze the structure of infinitesimal gold nanoparticles, which could advance the development and use of the tiny particles in drug development. Their approach offers a significant advantage over routine methods for analyzing gold nanoparticles because it can determine whether the nanoparticles exist in a both right-handed and left-handed configuration, a phenomenon called chirality.

Paleoclimate record points toward potential rapid climate changes Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST New research into the Earth's paleoclimate history suggests the potential for rapid climate changes this century, including multiple meters of sea level rise, if global warming is not abated.

Premature babies harbor fewer, but more dangerous microbe types Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST One of the most comprehensive studies to date of the microbes that are found in extremely low-birthweight infants found that hard-to-treat Candida fungus is often present, as well as some harmful bacteria and parasites.

More shrubbery in a warming world Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:20 PM PST Scientists have used satellite data to confirm that more than 20 years of warming temperatures in northern Quebec, Canada, have resulted in an increase in the amount and extent of shrubs and grasses.

Atoms dressed with light show new interactions, could reveal way to observe enigmatic particle Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:20 PM PST Physicists have found a way to manipulate atoms' internal states with lasers that dramatically influences their interactions in specific ways. Such light-tweaked atoms can be used as proxies to study important phenomena that would be difficult or impossible to study in other contexts.

77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:12 PM PST An international team of researchers has discovered the earliest evidence for the intentional construction of plant "bedding." The 77,000-year-old evidence for preserved plant bedding and the use of insect-repelling plants was discovered in a rock shelter in South Africa.

Nighttime images help track disease from the sky Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:53 AM PST Satellite images of nighttime lights normally used to spot where people live can help keep tabs on the diseases festering among them, too.

Catching terrorists: Backpacks, not the bombs inside, key to finding DNA Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Catching terrorists who detonate bombs may be easier by testing the containers that hide the bombs rather than the actual explosives, according to pioneering research.

Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Food prices are soaring at the same time as the Earth's population is nearing 9 billion. As a result the need for increased crop yields is extremely important. New research into the system by which sugars are moved throughout a plant -- from the leaves to the harvested portions and elsewhere -- could be crucial for addressing this problem.

Decisions, decisions: House-hunting honey bees work like complex brains Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST Researchers have found a signal, overlooked until now, that plays a role when honey bees split off from their mother colony and go scouting for a new home. Called the "stop signal," it is a very short buzz delivered by a scout bee while butting her head against a dancing honey bee, and is similar to signals that occur between neurons in the brains of monkeys making decisions.

Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists. The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought.

Breakthrough in regulating fat metabolism Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST Scientists have made an important discovery about the mechanism controlling the body's 'fat switch', shedding new light on our understanding of how proteins regulate appetite control and insulin secretion.

Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST Researchers have revealed how a molecule called telomerase contributes to the control of the integrity of our genetic code, and when it is involved in the deregulation of the code, its important role in the development of cancer. Scientists explained how they were able to achieve their discovery by using cutting edge microscopy techniques to visualize telomerase molecules in real time in living cells.

Neuroscientists boost memory in mice using genetics and a new memory-enhancing drug Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST When the activity of a molecule that is normally elevated during viral infections is inhibited in the brain, mice learn and remember better, researchers report.

Birds caught in the act of becoming a new species Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST A study of South American songbirds has shown that these birds differ dramatically in color and song yet show very little genetic differences which indicates they are on the road to becoming a new species.

Law enforcement vital for great ape survival: Greatest decrease in African great ape populations in areas with no protection from poaching Posted: 08 Dec 2011 07:12 AM PST A recent study shows that, over the last two decades, areas with the greatest decrease in African great ape populations are those with no active protection from poaching by forest guards.

How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:27 AM PST To swim or not? The same biological control that determines which capability genetically identical Salmonella will have impacts the virulence of the food pathogen. Swimmers do better in the gut, but non-motile Salmonella avoid triggering killer cells. An unusual protein turns on or off the manufacture of swimming apparatus in each new bacterium.

Patterns seen in spider silk and melodies connected Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:26 AM PST Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers have created a scientifically rigorous analogy showing the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a musical composition, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way. The comparison begins with the primary building blocks of each item and explains that structural patterns are directly related to the functional properties of silk and a melodic riff.

Combination of everolimus and exemestane improves survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, results show Posted: 07 Dec 2011 05:17 PM PST In an international Phase III randomized study, everolimus, when combined with the hormonal therapy exemestane, has been shown to dramatically improve progression-free survival, according to research.

Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape Posted: 07 Dec 2011 02:56 PM PST Using evolutionary genetic information, an international team of researchers has taken major steps toward solving a classic problem of molecular biology: Predicting how a protein will fold in three dimensions.

'Brain tsunamis' are clue to helping victims of major head injuries Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:35 AM PST Treating 'brain tsunamis' or 'killer waves' could stop many victims of major head injury from suffering additional brain damage, a study has found. Scientists have been investigating this phenomenon for decades, with the topic of spreading depolarizations now of keen interest to the U.S. military because head injuries have emerged as the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mother's touch may protect against drug cravings later Posted: 06 Dec 2011 09:08 PM PST An attentive, nurturing mother may be able to help her children better resist the temptations of drug use later in life, according to a study in rats conducted by researchers in the United States and Australia.

Addressing pain and disease on the fly: How fruit flies can teach us about curing chronic pain and halting mosquito-borne diseases Posted: 06 Dec 2011 12:15 PM PST Studies of a protein that fruit flies use to sense heat and chemicals may someday provide solutions to human pain and the control of disease-spreading mosquitoes. Researchers have discovered how fruit flies distinguish the warmth of a summer day from the pungency of wasabi by using TRPA1, a protein whose human relative is critical for pain and inflammation.

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