ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• First evidence that dust and sand deposits in China are controlled by rivers
• Young apes manage emotions like humans do
• Stepping out in style: Toward an artificial leg with a natural gait
• From football to flies: Lessons about traumatic brain injury
• A blueprint for restoring touch with a prosthetic hand
• Sex over survival: Reproductive trait in fish impedes tissue regeneration
• Birth gets the brain ready to sense the world
• Adult stem cells help build human blood vessels in engineered tissues
• A bacterium reveals the crucible of its metallurgical activity
• Pandoravirus: Missing link discovered between viruses and cells
• New species of giant Amazonian fish
• Ocean: Assessing the effect of climate change on upwelling ecosystems
• Printable biotechnology
• The complex role of citations as measure of scientific quality
• Genetically modified tobacco plants are viable for producing biofuels
• Adhesion at 180,000 frames per second: Widespread natural adhesion system unraveled
• Choreographed origami: Exploring how an RNA molecule folds
• Go to bed: Irregular bedtimes linked to behavioral problems in children
• 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics: Trendspotting in asset markets
• Database of disease genes shows potential drug therapies

First evidence that dust and sand deposits in China are controlled by rivers Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:15 PM PDT New research has found the first evidence that large rivers control desert sands and dust in Northern China.

Young apes manage emotions like humans do Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:57 PM PDT Researchers studying young bonobos in an African sanctuary have discovered striking similarities between the emotional development of the bonobos and that of children, suggesting these great apes regulate their emotions in a human-like way. This is important to human evolutionary history because it shows the socio-emotional framework commonly applied to children works equally well for apes.

Stepping out in style: Toward an artificial leg with a natural gait Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:57 PM PDT Humans rarely walk the straight and narrow; something's always in the way. So scientists are developing a computer-controlled artificial limb that can turn like a flesh-and-blood foot.

From football to flies: Lessons about traumatic brain injury Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:56 PM PDT Faced with news of suicides and brain damage in former professional football players, geneticists have bemoaned the lack of model systems for studying the insidious and often delayed consequences linked to head injuries.

A blueprint for restoring touch with a prosthetic hand Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:56 PM PDT New research is laying the groundwork for touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs that one day could convey real-time sensory information to amputees via a direct interface with the brain.

Sex over survival: Reproductive trait in fish impedes tissue regeneration Posted: 14 Oct 2013 09:17 AM PDT New research on the reproductive habits of zebrafish offers an explanation as to why some animals' bodies repair tissues. The research team previously noticed that male zebrafish regenerate their pectoral fins poorly, as compared to females. Their latest findings reveal the basis for this sex-specific regenerative deficiency: structures that are used to improve reproductive success. The scenario represents an example of the tradeoffs between reproduction and survival.

Birth gets the brain ready to sense the world Posted: 14 Oct 2013 09:17 AM PDT Neurons that process sensory information are arranged in precise, well-characterized maps that are crucial for translating perception into understanding. A study reveals that the actual act of birth in mice causes a reduction in a brain chemical called serotonin in the newborn mice, triggering sensory maps to form. The findings shed light on the role of a dramatic environmental event in the development of neural circuits and reveal that birth prepares newborns for survival.

Adult stem cells help build human blood vessels in engineered tissues Posted: 14 Oct 2013 08:37 AM PDT Researchers have identified a protein expressed by human bone marrow stem cells that guides and stimulates the formation of blood vessels. Their findings could help improve the vascularization of engineered tissues.

A bacterium reveals the crucible of its metallurgical activity Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:23 AM PDT Magnetotactic bacteria have the ability to synthesize nanocrystals of magnetite enabling them to align themselves with the terrestrial magnetic field in order to find the position in the water column that is most favorable to their survival. The alignment of the nanomagnets is similar to that of a compass needle. The magnetite crystal synthesis process is a complex one, and it is little understood at the present time.

Pandoravirus: Missing link discovered between viruses and cells Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:23 AM PDT With the discovery of Mimivirus ten years ago and, more recently, Megavirus chilensis, researchers thought they had reached the farthest corners of the viral world in terms of size and genetic complexity. With a diameter in the region of a micrometer and a genome incorporating more than 1,100 genes, these giant viruses, which infect amoebas, had already largely encroached on areas previously thought to be the exclusive domain of bacteria. For the sake of comparison, common viruses such as the influenza or AIDS viruses only contain around ten genes each.

New species of giant Amazonian fish Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:23 AM PDT A new species of the giant fish arapaima has been discovered from the Amazon, raising questions about what other species remain to be found and highlighting the potential for ecological problems when animals are relocated from their native habitats.

Ocean: Assessing the effect of climate change on upwelling ecosystems Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:42 AM PDT Assessing the effect of climate change on upwelling ecosystems is essential to be able to predict the future of marine resources. The zones concerned by this upwelling of cold deep water, which is very rich in nutrients, provide up to 20 % of global production of fish. Since the 1990s, the theory adopted by the majority of the scientific community affirmed that these phenomena were intensifying. The rising temperatures of the air masses above the continents were expected to quicken the trade winds, which would in turn increase the upwellings, thereby cooling the surface water. But this theory has been contradicted by the recent work.

Printable biotechnology Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:42 AM PDT Cells, biological circuits, and individual biomolecules organize themselves and interact with the environment. Use of these capabilities in flexible and economically efficient biotechnological production systems is in the focus of the "Molecular Interaction Engineering" (MIE) project. It is the objective to develop printed biological circuits and catalysts for biologico-technical hybrid systems.

The complex role of citations as measure of scientific quality Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:42 AM PDT Allocation of resources in the scientific community is increasingly based on various quantitative indicators. One of the most important indicators of scientific quality is how often research is cited. However, new research shows that the number of citations is a poor measurement of the quality of research.

Genetically modified tobacco plants are viable for producing biofuels Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:41 AM PDT An agricultural engineer has demonstrated, for the first time, the viability of using specific tobacco proteins (known as thioredoxins) as biotechnological tools in plants. Specifically, she has managed to increase the amount of starch produced in the tobacco leaves by 700% and fermentable sugars by 500%.

Adhesion at 180,000 frames per second: Widespread natural adhesion system unraveled Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:41 AM PDT Adhesion is an extremely important factor in living nature: insects can climb up walls, plants can twine up them, and cells are able to adhere to surfaces. During evolution, many of them developed mushroom-shaped adhesive structures and organs. Scientists have now discovered why the specific shape is advantageous for adhesion. The answer is in homogeneous stress distribution between a surface and the adhesive element.

Choreographed origami: Exploring how an RNA molecule folds Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:39 AM PDT Like a budding origami artist penciling in the folds, the cell uses tags called methyl groups to help mark where and how an RNA molecule should be folded. Scientists have now discovered that, to build ribosomes, pairs of these tags are added in a specific order.

Go to bed: Irregular bedtimes linked to behavioral problems in children Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:38 AM PDT Researchers have found that children with irregular bedtimes are more likely to have behavioral difficulties. The study found that irregular bedtimes could disrupt natural body rhythms and cause sleep deprivation, undermining brain maturation and the ability to regulate certain behaviors.

2013 Nobel Prize in Economics: Trendspotting in asset markets Posted: 14 Oct 2013 05:21 AM PDT The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2013 to Eugene F. Fama of the University of Chicago, IL, USA; Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago, IL, USA; and Robert J. Shiller of Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA "for their empirical analysis of asset prices."

Database of disease genes shows potential drug therapies Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:33 PM PDT Researchers have created a massive online database that matches thousands of genes linked to cancer and other diseases with drugs that target those genes. Some of the drugs are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, while others are in clinical trials or just entering the drug development pipeline.

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