ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Crocodilians can climb trees and bask in the tree crowns
• Special glasses help surgeons 'see' cancer​​​​​​​​
• Giant mass extinction quicker than previously thought: End-Permian extinction happened in 60,000 years
• Flowing water on Mars appears likely but hard to prove: Studies examine puzzling summertime streaks
• With their amazing necks, ants don't need 'high hopes' to do heavy lifting
• New live-cell printing technology works like ancient Chinese woodblocking
• Chips that listen to bacteria: CMOS technology provides new insights into how biofilms form
• Massive neutrinos solve a cosmological conundrum
• New maps reveal locations of species at risk as climate changes
• Nanomotors are controlled, for the first time, inside living cells
• Virtual avatars may impact real-world behavior

Crocodilians can climb trees and bask in the tree crowns Posted: 10 Feb 2014 03:45 PM PST When most people envision crocodiles and alligators, they think of them waddling on the ground or wading in water -- not climbing trees. However, a new study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as far as the crowns.

Special glasses help surgeons 'see' cancer​​​​​​​​ Posted: 10 Feb 2014 03:42 PM PST High-tech glasses may help surgeons visualize cancer cells, which glow blue when viewed through the eyewear. The wearable technology, so new it's yet unnamed, was used during surgery for the first time today at Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

Giant mass extinction quicker than previously thought: End-Permian extinction happened in 60,000 years Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:13 PM PST The largest mass extinction in the history of animal life occurred some 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life on land -- including the largest insects known to have inhabited Earth. Multiple theories have aimed to explain the cause of what's now known as the end-Permian extinction, including an asteroid impact, massive volcanic eruptions, or a cataclysmic cascade of environmental events. But pinpointing the cause of the extinction requires better measurements of how long the extinction period lasted. The end-Permian extinction happened in 60,000 years -- much faster than earlier estimates, according to new research.

Flowing water on Mars appears likely but hard to prove: Studies examine puzzling summertime streaks Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:12 PM PST Martian experts have known since 2011 that mysterious, possibly water-related streaks appear and disappear on the planet's surface. These features were given the descriptive name of recurring slope lineae (RSL) because of their shape, annual reappearance and occurrence generally on steep slopes such as crater walls. Researchers have been taking a closer look at this phenomenon, searching for minerals that RSL might leave in their wake, to try to understand the nature of these features: water-related or not?

With their amazing necks, ants don't need 'high hopes' to do heavy lifting Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:12 PM PST Researchers have discovered that the neck joint of a common American field ant can withstand astounding pressures. Similar joints might enable future robots to mimic the ant's weight-lifting ability on earth and in space.

New live-cell printing technology works like ancient Chinese woodblocking Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:11 PM PST With a nod to 3rd century Chinese woodblock printing and children's rubber stamp toys, researchers have developed a way to print living cells onto any surface, in virtually any shape. Unlike recent, similar work using inkjet printing approaches, almost all cells survive the process.

Chips that listen to bacteria: CMOS technology provides new insights into how biofilms form Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:11 PM PST Researchers have shown integrated circuit technology can be used for a most unusual application -- the study of signaling in bacterial colonies. They have developed a chip based on CMOS technology that enables them to electrochemically image the signaling molecules from these colonies spatially and temporally -- they've developed chips that "listen" to bacteria.

Massive neutrinos solve a cosmological conundrum Posted: 10 Feb 2014 07:19 AM PST Scientists have solved a major problem with the current standard model of cosmology identified by combining results from the Planck spacecraft and measurements of gravitational lensing in order to deduce the mass of ghostly sub-atomic particles called neutrinos.

New maps reveal locations of species at risk as climate changes Posted: 10 Feb 2014 06:54 AM PST An international team of scientists has produced global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates have shifted.

Nanomotors are controlled, for the first time, inside living cells Posted: 10 Feb 2014 06:53 AM PST Nanomotors have been controlled inside living cells for the first time, report a team of chemists and engineers. The scientists placed tiny rocket-shaped synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically to spin and to battering against the cell membrane.

Virtual avatars may impact real-world behavior Posted: 10 Feb 2014 05:32 AM PST How you represent yourself in the virtual world of video games may affect how you behave toward others in the real world, according to new research.

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