ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Small satellites soar in high-altitude demonstration
• Finding all asteroid threats to human populations: NASA announces asteroid grand challenge
• Cassini probe to take photo of Earth from deep space
• Academics earn street cred with TED Talks but no points from peers
• Tiny batteries: 3-D printing could lead to miniaturized medical implants, compact electronics, tiny robots
• Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold
• Chemical probe confirms that body makes its own rotten egg gas, H2S, to benefit health
• Fiber-optic pen helps see inside brains of children with learning disabilities
• Getting enough sleep could help prevent type 2 diabetes
• Early-life air pollution linked with childhood asthma in minorities
• Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption
• Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent
• Timing of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may affect how bone adapts to exercise
• Beliefs about causes of obesity may impact weight, eating behavior
• New resistance mechanism to chemotherapy in breast and ovarian cancer
• It's the way you tell em': Study discovers how the brain controls accents and impersonations
• Nanog protein promotes growth of head and neck cancer
• Storytelling program helps change medical students' perspectives on dementia
• Seismic gap outside of Istanbul: Is this where the expected Marmara earthquake will originate from?
• New approach to battling tuberculosis
• Parenting and home environment influence children's exercise and eating habits
• Iodine in bread not enough for pregnant women
• Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates
• New virus isolated from patients with severe brain infections
• Which qubit my dear? New method to distinguish between neighboring quantum bits
• Exposure to high pollution levels during pregnancy may increase risk of having child with autism
• A microphone that listens with light: microphones have hyper-acute hearing and a sense of direction
• Whooping cough has lifelong health impact, study finds
• Chemical nanoengineering: Designing drugs controlled by light
• Potential genetic drivers behind male heart disease risk
• Stone Age technological and cultural innovation accelerated by climate change
• Aspirin may fight cancer by slowing DNA damage
• IQ link to baby's weight gain in first month
• The turbulent, high-energy sky is keeping NuSTAR busy

Small satellites soar in high-altitude demonstration Posted: 18 Jun 2013 02:26 PM PDT Four tiny spacecraft soared over the California desert June 15 in a high-altitude demonstration flight that tested the sensor and equipment designs created by NASA engineers and student launch teams.

Finding all asteroid threats to human populations: NASA announces asteroid grand challenge Posted: 18 Jun 2013 02:20 PM PDT NASA has announced a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them. The challenge is a large-scale effort that will use multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists. It complements NASA's recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.

Cassini probe to take photo of Earth from deep space Posted: 18 Jun 2013 01:19 PM PDT NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now exploring Saturn, will take a picture of our home planet from a distance of hundreds of millions of miles on July 19. NASA is inviting the public to help acknowledge the historic interplanetary portrait as it is being taken.

Academics earn street cred with TED Talks but no points from peers Posted: 18 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT TED Talks, the most popular conference and events website in the world with over 1 billion informational videos viewed, provides academics with increased popular exposure but does nothing to boost citations of their work by peers, new research has found.

Tiny batteries: 3-D printing could lead to miniaturized medical implants, compact electronics, tiny robots Posted: 18 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT Three-dimensional printing can now be used to print lithium-ion microbatteries the size of a grain of sand. The printed microbatteries could supply electricity to tiny devices in fields from medicine to communications, including many that have lingered on lab benches for lack of a battery small enough to fit the device, yet provide enough stored energy to power them.

Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold Posted: 18 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT In the last 10 years the study of animal personality has gained ground with behavioral ecologists. Researchers have now found distinct personalities in the grey mouse lemur, the tiny, saucer-eyed primate native to the African island of Madagascar.

Chemical probe confirms that body makes its own rotten egg gas, H2S, to benefit health Posted: 18 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT A new study confirms directly what scientists previously knew only indirectly -- that poisonous "rotten egg" gas hydrogen sulfide is generated by the body's blood vessel cells. Researchers made the confirmation by developing a chemical probe that lights up in reaction to rotten egg gas. The scientists observed the process in real-time through a microscope.

Fiber-optic pen helps see inside brains of children with learning disabilities Posted: 18 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT For less than $100, researchers have designed a computer-interfaced drawing pad that helps scientists see inside the brains of children with learning disabilities while they read and write.

Getting enough sleep could help prevent type 2 diabetes Posted: 18 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT Getting more sleep increases insulin sensitivity and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Early-life air pollution linked with childhood asthma in minorities Posted: 18 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT Scientists have found that exposure in infancy to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a component of motor vehicle air pollution, is strongly linked with later development of childhood asthma among African Americans and Latinos.

Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:51 AM PDT Researchers conclude in a new report that a global push for small hydropower projects, supported by various nations and also the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may cause unanticipated and potentially significant losses of habitat and biodiversity.

Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:51 AM PDT The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for stress relief was found to increase the lifespan of fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, according to researchers.

Timing of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may affect how bone adapts to exercise Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:50 AM PDT Taking calcium and vitamin D before exercise may influence how bones adapt to exercise, according to a new study.

Beliefs about causes of obesity may impact weight, eating behavior Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:38 AM PDT Whether a person believes obesity is caused by overeating or by a lack of exercise predicts his or her actual body mass, according to new research.

New resistance mechanism to chemotherapy in breast and ovarian cancer Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:38 AM PDT A new study explains why tumors with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations stop responding to PARP inhibitor drugs.

It's the way you tell em': Study discovers how the brain controls accents and impersonations Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:38 AM PDT A study has identified the brain regions and interactions involved in impersonations and accents.

Nanog protein promotes growth of head and neck cancer Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have identified a biochemical pathway in cancer stem cells that is essential for promoting head and neck cancer. The study shows that a protein called Nanog, which is normally active in embryonic stem cells, promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer. The findings provide information essential for designing novel targeted drugs that might improve the treatment of head and neck cancer.

Storytelling program helps change medical students' perspectives on dementia Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:38 AM PDT Treating patients with dementia can be viewed as a difficult task for doctors, but researchers say that storytelling may be one way to improve medical students' perceptions of people affected by the condition. Participation in a creative storytelling program called TimeSlips creates a substantial improvement in student attitudes.

Seismic gap outside of Istanbul: Is this where the expected Marmara earthquake will originate from? Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:37 AM PDT Earthquake researchers have now identified a 30 kilometers long and ten kilometers deep area along the North Anatolian fault zone just south of Istanbul that could be the starting point for a strong earthquake. The group of seismologists say that this potential earthquake source is only 15 to 20 kilometers from the historic city center of Istanbul.

New approach to battling tuberculosis Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:36 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a drug that cripples tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) in a novel way, by dissolving the protecting fatty coating of the bacteria. The drug killed the bacterium in culture without the emergence of drug resistance.

Parenting and home environment influence children's exercise and eating habits Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:36 AM PDT Kids whose moms encourage them to exercise and eat well, and model those healthy behaviors themselves, are more likely to be active and healthy eaters, according to researchers. Their findings remind parents that they are role models for their children, and underscore the importance of parental policies promoting physical activity and healthy eating.

Iodine in bread not enough for pregnant women Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:36 AM PDT Iodized salt used in bread is not enough to provide healthy levels of iodine for pregnant women and their unborn children, new research shows.

Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:20 AM PDT Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they wish to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it.

New virus isolated from patients with severe brain infections Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:17 AM PDT A new study describes a new virus isolated from patients with severe brain infections. Further research is needed to determine whether the virus is responsible for the symptoms of disease.

Which qubit my dear? New method to distinguish between neighboring quantum bits Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:17 AM PDT Researchers have proposed a new way to distinguish between quantum bits that are placed only a few nanometers apart in a silicon chip, taking them a step closer to the construction of a large-scale quantum computer. In a significant feat of atomic engineering, they were also able to read-out the spins of individual electrons on a cluster of phosphorus atoms that had been placed precisely in silicon.

Exposure to high pollution levels during pregnancy may increase risk of having child with autism Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:17 AM PDT Women in the US exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution.

A microphone that listens with light: microphones have hyper-acute hearing and a sense of direction Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:16 AM PDT A new sensor will help to make microphones hypersensitive: "Think of traditional videoconference equipment. Several people are sitting around the table, but the microphone has been placed where its sound reception is less than optimal. With technology of this sort, a microphone will be able to "see" where the sound comes from, pick up the voice of the person speaking, and filter out other sources of noise in the room," explains one of the researchers.

Whooping cough has lifelong health impact, study finds Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:16 AM PDT People born during whooping cough outbreaks are more likely to die prematurely even if they survive into adulthood, new research has found. Women had a 20% higher risk of an early death, and men a staggering 40%. Women also suffered more complications during and after pregnancy, with an increased risk of miscarriage as well as infant death within the first month of life.

Chemical nanoengineering: Designing drugs controlled by light Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:15 AM PDT A new breakthrough will help with the development of light-regulated therapeutic molecules.

Potential genetic drivers behind male heart disease risk Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:15 AM PDT University of Leicester scientists have discovered a potential genetic contributor to the increased risk of heart disease among men.

Stone Age technological and cultural innovation accelerated by climate change Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:15 AM PDT Technological innovation during the Stone Age occurred in fits and starts and was climate-driven, according to new research. Abrupt changes in rainfall in South Africa 40,000 to 80,000 years ago triggered the development of technologies for finding refuge and the behavior of modern humans.

Aspirin may fight cancer by slowing DNA damage Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:11 AM PDT Aspirin is known to lower risk for some cancers, and a new study points to a possible explanation, with the discovery that aspirin slows the accumulation of DNA mutations in abnormal cells in at least one pre-cancerous condition.

IQ link to baby's weight gain in first month Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:11 AM PDT New research shows that weight gain and increased head size in the first month of a baby's life is linked to a higher IQ at early school age.

The turbulent, high-energy sky is keeping NuSTAR busy Posted: 18 Jun 2013 04:44 AM PDT NuSTAR has been busy studying the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Recently, a few high-energy events have sprung up, akin to "things that go bump in the night." When one telescope catches a sudden outpouring of high-energy light in the sky, NuSTAR and a host of other telescopes stop what they were doing and take a better look.

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