ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Frogs use calls to find mates with matching chromosomes
• Oxidative DNA damage repair
• A new theory emerges for where some fish became four-limbed creatures
• Badwater Basin: Death Valley microbe may spark novel biotech and nanotech uses
• Time for a change? Overhauling the calendar
• Childhood hypersensitivity linked to OCD
• Mutation in gene that's critical for human development linked to arrhythmia
• Children don't give words special power to categorize their world
• Elderly can be as fast as young in some brain tasks, study shows
• Sea snails help scientists explore a possible way to enhance memory
• Sunlight and bunker oil a fatal combination for Pacific herring
• Over 65 million years, North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change
• Molecular 'maturation clock' modulates branching architecture in tomato plants
• Targeted blocking of cell death prevents fatal condition septic shock, study suggests
• Understanding left-handedness
• What are emotion expressions for?
• Religious beliefs battle hypertension, study of church attendance suggests

Frogs use calls to find mates with matching chromosomes Posted: 27 Dec 2011 12:37 PM PST When it comes to love songs, female tree frogs are pretty picky. According to a new study, certain female tree frogs may be remarkably attuned to the songs of mates who share the same number of chromosomes as they do. The discovery offers insight into how new frog species may have evolved.

Oxidative DNA damage repair Posted: 27 Dec 2011 12:37 PM PST Oxidative stress damages DNA. Researchers have now decoded the mechanism that repairs DNA damaged in this way. This repair mechanism could lead to less invasive approaches in cancer therapy and contribute to the development of new tests for the early diagnosis of cancer.

A new theory emerges for where some fish became four-limbed creatures Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:26 AM PST A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture.

Badwater Basin: Death Valley microbe may spark novel biotech and nanotech uses Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:26 AM PST Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals. But some scientists do a different type of mining. They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.

Time for a change? Overhauling the calendar Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST Time can stand still, or at least look the same from year to year, two calendar reform advocates say.

Childhood hypersensitivity linked to OCD Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST Medical researchers have established a direct correlation between sensory processing and ritualistic behaviors in children. A new study suggests that when children experience heightened levels of sensitivity, they develop ritualistic behaviors to better cope with their environment -- one potential pathway to OCD.

Mutation in gene that's critical for human development linked to arrhythmia Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST The biologic and genetic mechanisms controlling the formation and function of the cardiac conduction system (CCS) are not well understood, but new research with mice shows that altered function of a gene called Tbx3 interferes with the development of the CCS and causes lethal arrhythmias.

Children don't give words special power to categorize their world Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST New research challenges the conventional thinking that young children use language just as adults do to help classify and understand objects in the world around them. In a new study involving 4- to 5-year-old children, researchers found that the labels adults use to classify items -- words like "dog" or "pencil" -- don't have the same ability to influence the thinking of children.

Elderly can be as fast as young in some brain tasks, study shows Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST Both children and the elderly have slower response times when they have to make quick decisions in some settings. But recent research suggests that much of that slower response is a conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed. In fact, healthy older people can be trained to respond faster in some decision-making tasks without hurting their accuracy -- meaning their cognitive skills in this area aren't so different from younger adults.

Sea snails help scientists explore a possible way to enhance memory Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:31 AM PST Efforts to help people with learning impairments are being aided by a species of sea snail. The mollusk, which is used by researchers to study the brain, has much in common with other species including humans. Neuroscientists have used this animal model to test an innovative learning strategy designed to help improve the brain's memory and the results were encouraging.

Sunlight and bunker oil a fatal combination for Pacific herring Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study.

Over 65 million years, North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis by evolutionary biologists. Warming and cooling periods, in two cases confounded by species migrations, marked the transition from one dominant grouping to the next.

Molecular 'maturation clock' modulates branching architecture in tomato plants Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST The secret to pushing tomato plants to produce more fruit might not lie in an extra dose of Miracle-Gro. Instead, new research suggests that an increase in fruit yield might be achieved by manipulating a molecular timer or so-called "maturation clock" that determines the number of branches that make flowers, called inflorescences.

Targeted blocking of cell death prevents fatal condition septic shock, study suggests Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:29 AM PST Researchers have discovered a new approach to preventing septic shock, an often fatal extreme inflammatory reaction of the body. It is the most frequent cause of death at intensive care departments in hospitals. Researchers have described how blocking a particular form of cell death (necroptosis) fully protects mice against this fatal inflammation.

Understanding left-handedness Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:29 AM PST Left-handedness is sometimes the expression of a genetic defect or an early developmental disturbance.

What are emotion expressions for? Posted: 23 Dec 2011 08:41 AM PST That cartoon scary face -- wide eyes, ready to run -- may have helped our primate ancestors survive in a dangerous wild, according to a new article. The authors present a way that fear and other facial expressions might have evolved and then come to signal a person's feelings to the people around him.

Religious beliefs battle hypertension, study of church attendance suggests Posted: 23 Dec 2011 08:40 AM PST Does a belief in God confer any health benefits? Researchers have found a clear relationship between time spent in church and lower blood pressure in both women and men.

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