ScienceDaily: Top News

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• NASA Cassini spacecraft provides new view of Saturn and Earth
• Why timing of bird migration is changing
• Evidence of 3.5-billion-year-old bacterial ecosystems found in Australia
• New guideline for management of blood cholesterol: Focuses on lifestyle, statin therapy for patients who most benefit
• Thin, active invisibility cloak demonstrated for first time
• Taking a new look at carbon nanotubes
• A nano-sized sponge made of electrons
• New paradigm for solar cell construction demonstrated
• Botany: The secret of short stems
• Altering surface textures in 'counterintuitive manner' may lead to cooling efficiency gains
• Controlling liquid crystals: Another tool in the directed assembly toolkit
• A longitudinal study of grapheme-color synesthesia in childhood
• More research needed into substitution principle and regulation of potentially hazardous chemical materials, experts urge
• Biomaterial-delivered chemotherapy could provide final blow to brain tumors
• New discovery on early immune system development
• The secrets of a bug's flight
• Ticks kill sheep
• Obtaining data from the 'brains' of cars
• Prosthetic hands viewed as eerie by the public, new study shows
• Endangered limpets (sea snail) change sex to improve their chances of survival
• Fungus kills ticks
• Scientists launch world's first evacuation software to simulate realistic human behaviour associated with lift evacuation
• Teen athletes at risk for medication misuse
• Research may improve early detection of dementia
• High tungsten levels double stroke risk, study says
• The doctor will text you now: Post-ER follow-up that works
• Putting Lupus in permanent remission
• Problem-solving education reduces parental stress after child autism diagnosis
• Study examines amyloid deposition in patients with traumatic brain injury
• Overweight, obese are risks for heart disease regardless of metabolic syndrome
• Device may help doctors diagnose lethal heart rhythm in womb
• Specific brain areas, mechanisms associated with depression, anxiety
• First genetic mutations linked to atopic dermatitis identified in African-American children
• Sons of cocaine-using fathers may resist addiction to drug
• Moms may pass effects of stress to offspring via vaginal bacteria, placenta
• Obesity among risk factors for delayed lactation in women with gestational diabetes

NASA Cassini spacecraft provides new view of Saturn and Earth Posted: 12 Nov 2013 08:52 PM PST NASA has released a natural-color image of Saturn from space, the first in which Saturn, its moons and rings, and Earth, Venus and Mars, all are visible. The new panoramic mosaic of the majestic Saturn system taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the view as it would be seen by human eyes. Cassini's imaging team processed 141 wide-angle images to create the panorama. The image sweeps 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across Saturn and its inner ring system.

Why timing of bird migration is changing Posted: 12 Nov 2013 05:06 PM PST Researchers have found out why birds are migrating earlier and earlier each year. Experts have long suspected climate change is somehow driving this advancing migration pattern. But new research reveals that individual birds migrate like clockwork -- arriving at the same time each year. However, climate warming is resulting in earlier nesting and hatching earlier each year, and this appears to be linked to the advancing migration.

Evidence of 3.5-billion-year-old bacterial ecosystems found in Australia Posted: 12 Nov 2013 01:32 PM PST Reconstructing the rise of life during the period of Earth's history when it first evolved is challenging. Earth's oldest sedimentary rocks are not only rare, but also almost always altered by hydrothermal and tectonic activity. A new study has revealed the well-preserved remnants of a complex ecosystem in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old sedimentary rock sequence in Australia.

New guideline for management of blood cholesterol: Focuses on lifestyle, statin therapy for patients who most benefit Posted: 12 Nov 2013 01:32 PM PST The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have released a new clinical practice guideline for the treatment of blood cholesterol in people at high risk for cardiovascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis, or hardening and narrowing of the arteries, that can lead to heart attack, stroke or death. The guideline identifies four major groups of patients for whom cholesterol-lowering HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, or statins, have the greatest chance of preventing stroke and heart attacks. The guideline also emphasizes the importance of adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle to prevent and control high blood cholesterol.

Thin, active invisibility cloak demonstrated for first time Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:26 AM PST Invisibility cloaking is no longer the stuff of science fiction: scientists have demonstrated an effective invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to different types and sizes of objects. Professor George Eleftheriades and PhD student Michael Selvanayagam have designed and tested a new approach to cloaking—by surrounding an object with small antennas that collectively radiate an electromagnetic field. The radiated field cancels out any waves scattering off the cloaked object. Their paper 'Experimental demonstration of active electromagnetic cloaking' appears today in the journal Physical Review X.

Taking a new look at carbon nanotubes Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:39 AM PST Two of the biggest challenges in carbon nanotube research have been met with the development of a technique that can be used to identify the structure of an individual carbon nanotube and characterize its electronic and optical properties in a functional device.

A nano-sized sponge made of electrons Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST During chemical reactions, ceria nanoparticles behave in a completely different way than previously thought: the electrons absorbed and released during the reaction are not bound to individual atoms but, like a cloud, distribute themselves over the whole nanoparticle. Scientists have found far-reaching consequences for optimizing the current and future use of these nanoparticles and for assessing the limits of their safe use.

New paradigm for solar cell construction demonstrated Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST Researchers have experimentally demonstrated a new paradigm for solar cell construction which may ultimately make them less expensive, easier to manufacture and more efficient at harvesting energy from the sun.

Botany: The secret of short stems Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:37 AM PST Arabidopsis plants that only reach half their normal height have a mutation in the biosynthesis of the plant growth factor gibberellin.

Altering surface textures in 'counterintuitive manner' may lead to cooling efficiency gains Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:33 AM PST Researchers across the globe are racing to find ways to improve the cooling of hot surfaces -- for technologies ranging from small electronics to nuclear power plants. Zeroing in on the physics at play underlying surface phenomena, researchers made a significant breakthrough. Although somewhat counterintuitive, they discovered that by creating sparsely packed textures on surfaces rather than densely packed ones, they were able to hold droplets in place and enable cooling.

Controlling liquid crystals: Another tool in the directed assembly toolkit Posted: 12 Nov 2013 07:53 AM PST Scientists have already developed a technique for controlling liquid crystals by means of physical templates and elastic energy, rather than the electromagnetic fields that manipulate them in televisions and computer monitors. They envision using this technique to direct the assembly of other materials, such as nanoparticles. Now, they have added another tool to this directed assembly toolkit.

A longitudinal study of grapheme-color synesthesia in childhood Posted: 12 Nov 2013 07:50 AM PST In the first long-term study on grapheme-color synesthesia, researchers followed 80 children, including 8 synesthetes, to determine when and how associations between graphemes and colors develop.

More research needed into substitution principle and regulation of potentially hazardous chemical materials, experts urge Posted: 12 Nov 2013 07:49 AM PST Scientists say the substitution principle is not the "white knight" as described by a number of regulatory agencies and NGOs and proposes that chemical substitution can only work effectively on a case-by-case basis.

Biomaterial-delivered chemotherapy could provide final blow to brain tumors Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:58 AM PST A polymer originally designed to help mend broken bones could be successful in delivering chemotherapy drugs directly to the brains of patients suffering from brain tumors, researchers have discovered.

New discovery on early immune system development Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:58 AM PST Researchers have shed light on how and when the immune system is formed, raising hope of better understanding various diseases in children, such as leukemia.

The secrets of a bug's flight Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:53 AM PST Researchers have identified some of the physics that may explain how insects can so quickly recover from a midflight stall -- unlike conventional fixed wing aircraft, where stalls often lead to crash landings. The analysis, in which the researchers studied the flow around a rotating model wing, improves the understanding of how insects fly and informs the design of small flying robots built for intelligence gathering, surveillance, search-and-rescue, and other purposes.

Ticks kill sheep Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST In some lamb herds, a mortality rate of 30 percent has been recorded, with no predators involved in these losses. The situation is so serious that the sheep industry could be under threat. It is therefore crucial to identify the causes and implement preventative measures. The answer may be found somewhere within the genetics of the sheep and the course of the disease, assessment and control of tick populations and biological control of ticks.

Obtaining data from the 'brains' of cars Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST For the first time, a car manufacturer has opened the way for Norwegian research scientists to log data directly from the innermost systems of cars. If this practice becomes widespread, the transport industry will have a tool enabling vital decision-making at a national level.

Prosthetic hands viewed as eerie by the public, new study shows Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST Members of the public would prefer to look at human hands or robotic hands rather than prosthetic hands which they view as eerie, a new study has shown.

Endangered limpets (sea snail) change sex to improve their chances of survival Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST The Ribbed Mediterranean Limpet is one of the most endangered invertebrates of the Mediterranean Sea and is classed as being in danger of extinction. Researchers have discovered their reproductive strategy, consisting in changing sex from male to female and vice versa, which improves their ability to adapt to changes in their environment.

Fungus kills ticks Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST Ticks may be facing a dangerous fate. In Norway, research efforts are hoping to determine whether fungus can kill ticks in sheep pastures. This would also benefit future hikers, and benefit the sheep population, which is threatened by ticks.

Scientists launch world's first evacuation software to simulate realistic human behaviour associated with lift evacuation Posted: 12 Nov 2013 06:08 AM PST Scientists have released the next generation of the world's most advanced evacuation and crowd simulation software, buildingEXODUS. Version 6.0 incorporates capabilities to simulate human behavior associated with the use of lifts/elevators for both evacuation and circulation.  This new capability is based on data collected from an international survey involving 468 people from 23 countries, which revealed that in the event of an emergency people are less willing to wait for a lift then previously assumed.

Teen athletes at risk for medication misuse Posted: 11 Nov 2013 09:34 PM PST Male adolescents who participate in organized sports are more likely to be prescribed opioid medications and misuse them than male teens that don't play sports, finds a new study.

Research may improve early detection of dementia Posted: 11 Nov 2013 09:34 PM PST Using scores obtained from cognitive tests, researchers think they have developed a model that could help determine whether memory loss in older adults is benign or a stop on the way to Alzheimer's disease.

High tungsten levels double stroke risk, study says Posted: 11 Nov 2013 03:55 PM PST Using data from a large US health survey, a study has shown that high concentrations of tungsten -- as measured in urine samples -- is strongly linked with an increase in the occurrence of stroke, roughly equal to a doubling of the odds of experiencing the condition.

The doctor will text you now: Post-ER follow-up that works Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:15 PM PST Diabetic patients treated in the emergency department who were enrolled in a program in which they received automated daily text messages improved their level of control over their diabetes and their medication adherence, according to a study.

Putting Lupus in permanent remission Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:15 PM PST Scientists have successfully tested a nontoxic therapy that suppresses Lupus in blood samples of people with the autoimmune disease.

Problem-solving education reduces parental stress after child autism diagnosis Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST A cognitive-behavioral intervention known as problem-solving education may help reduce parental stress and depressive symptoms immediately after their child is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, according to a study.

Study examines amyloid deposition in patients with traumatic brain injury Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST Patients with traumatic brain injury had increased deposits of ²-Amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer Disease, in some areas of their brains, a new study has found.

Overweight, obese are risks for heart disease regardless of metabolic syndrome Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST Being overweight or obese are risk factors for myocardial infarction (heart attack) and ischemic heart disease regardless of whether individuals also have the cluster of cardiovascular risk factors known as metabolic syndrome, which includes high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar, according to a new study.

Device may help doctors diagnose lethal heart rhythm in womb Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST A device that records the natural magnetic activity of the heart helped researchers identify abnormal heart rhythms in unborn babies. It's the first sizable study to document the electrical aspects of long QT syndrome in the womb. The condition is a common cause of sudden death in early life and stillbirth.

Specific brain areas, mechanisms associated with depression, anxiety Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST Research reveals new mechanisms and areas of the brain associated with anxiety and depression, presenting possible targets to understand and treat these debilitating mental illnesses.

First genetic mutations linked to atopic dermatitis identified in African-American children Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:05 AM PST Two specific genetic variations in people of African descent are responsible for persistent atopic dermatitis, an itchy, inflammatory form of the skin disorder eczema. A new report found that loss-of-function mutations to Filaggrin-2, a gene that creates a protein responsible for retaining moisture and protecting the skin from environmental irritants, were associated with atopic dermatitis in African-American children.

Sons of cocaine-using fathers may resist addiction to drug Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:04 AM PST A father's cocaine use may make his sons less sensitive to the drug and thereby more likely to resist addictive behaviors, suggests new findings from an animal study.

Moms may pass effects of stress to offspring via vaginal bacteria, placenta Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:04 AM PST Pregnant women may transmit the damaging effects of stress to their unborn child by way of the bacteria in their vagina and through the placenta, suggest new findings from two animal studies.

Obesity among risk factors for delayed lactation in women with gestational diabetes Posted: 11 Nov 2013 10:14 AM PST Pre-pregnancy obesity and older maternal age are among the risk factors for delayed lactation for women with gestational diabetes mellitus, according to a study.

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