ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Do you have a sweet tooth? Honeybees have a sweet claw
• Kepler finds a very wobbly planet: Rapid and erratic changes in seasons
• New fruitfly sleep gene promotes the need to sleep
• Climate change threatens to cause trillions in damage to world's coastal regions if they do not adapt to sea-level rise
• First evidence of common brain code for space, time, distance
• Embrace the cold: Evidence that shivering and exercise may convert white fat to brown
• Eyemusic sensory substitution device enables the blind to 'see' colors and shapes
• Primitive artificial cell turned into complex biological materials
• Pain sensitivity may be influenced by lifestyle, environment, twin study suggests
• Violent video games delay development of moral judgment in teens
• We recognize less attractive faces best: How attractiveness interferes with recognition of faces
• Overweight or obese people breathe more air pollutants
• First live births with a novel simplified IVF procedure
• Robots with insect-like brains: Robot can learn to navigate through its environment guided by external stimuli
• Horse gaits controlled by genetic mutation spread by humans
• Blue light may fight fatigue around the clock
• Feeling powerless increases the weight of the world ... literally
• Pesticides increase risk for Parkinson's disease: Certain people may be more susceptible
• Fiery-red coral species discovered in the Peruvian Pacific
• Biostatistics approach to genetics yields new clues to roots of autism
• Dramatic thinning of Arctic lake ice cuts winter ice season by 24 days compared to 1950
• Written all over your face: Humans express four basic emotions rather than six
• Prototype of single ion heat engine created
• Greenland's fastest glacier reaches record speeds
• Greenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication
• Capturing ultrasharp images of multiple cell components at once
• Researchers develop first single-molecule LED
• Rat islands 'a laboratory of future evolution': Rats predicted to fill in Earth's emptying ecospace
• Your brain is fine-tuning its wiring throughout your life

Do you have a sweet tooth? Honeybees have a sweet claw Posted: 04 Feb 2014 01:22 PM PST New research on the ability of honeybees to taste with claws on their forelegs reveals details on how this information is processed, according to a new study.

Kepler finds a very wobbly planet: Rapid and erratic changes in seasons Posted: 04 Feb 2014 10:39 AM PST Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat. That is the situation on a weird, wobbly world found by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.

New fruitfly sleep gene promotes the need to sleep Posted: 04 Feb 2014 10:17 AM PST All creatures great and small, including fruitflies, need sleep. The timing of when we sleep versus are awake is controlled by cells in tune with circadian rhythms of light and dark. Most of the molecular components of that internal clock have been worked out. On the other hand, what drives how much we sleep is less well understood. Researchers report a new protein involved in the homeostatic regulation of sleep in the fruitfly.

Climate change threatens to cause trillions in damage to world's coastal regions if they do not adapt to sea-level rise Posted: 04 Feb 2014 10:15 AM PST New research predicts that coastal regions may face massive increases in damages from storm surge flooding over the course of the 21st century. Global average storm surge damages could increase from about $10-$40 billion per year today to up to $100,000 billion per year by the end of century, if no adaptation action is taken.

First evidence of common brain code for space, time, distance Posted: 04 Feb 2014 09:37 AM PST A new study provides the first evidence that people use the same brain circuitry to figure out space, time and social distances. The results may help to determine whether we care enough to act: Is something happening here, now, to someone I love? Or over there, years from now, to a stranger?

Embrace the cold: Evidence that shivering and exercise may convert white fat to brown Posted: 04 Feb 2014 09:36 AM PST A new study suggests that shivering and bouts of moderate exercise are equally capable of stimulating the conversion of energy-storing "white fat" into energy-burning "brown fat." This makes brown fat a potential therapeutic target against obesity and diabetes.

Eyemusic sensory substitution device enables the blind to 'see' colors and shapes Posted: 04 Feb 2014 09:35 AM PST Using auditory or tactile stimulation, Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) provide representations of visual information and can help the blind "see" colors and shapes. SSDs scan images and transform the information into audio or touch signals that users are trained to understand, enabling them to recognize an image without seeing it. Currently SSDs are not widely used within the blind community because they can be cumbersome and unpleasant to use. However, researchers have now developed a novel SSD that transmits shape and color information through a composition of pleasant musical tones, or "soundscapes."

Primitive artificial cell turned into complex biological materials Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:21 AM PST Imagine starting from scratch with simple artificial microscopic building blocks and ending up with something much more complex: living systems, novel computers or every-day materials. For decades scientists have pursued the dream of creating artificial building blocks that can self-assemble in large numbers and reassemble to take on new tasks or to remedy defects. Now researchers have taken a step forward to make this dream into a reality.

Pain sensitivity may be influenced by lifestyle, environment, twin study suggests Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:21 AM PST Researchers have discovered that sensitivity to pain could be altered by a person's lifestyle and environment throughout their lifetime. The study is the first to find that pain sensitivity, previously thought to be relatively inflexible, can change as a result of genes being switched on or off by lifestyle and environmental factors -- a process called epigenetics, which chemically alters the expression of genes.

Violent video games delay development of moral judgment in teens Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:17 AM PST A researcher set out to discover whether there was a link between the types of video games teens played, how long they played them, and the teens' levels of moral reasoning: their ability to take the perspective of others into account.

We recognize less attractive faces best: How attractiveness interferes with recognition of faces Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:17 AM PST We tend to remember unattractive faces better than attractive ones, according to new research. Psychologists write that attractive faces without particularly remarkable features leave much less distinctive impressions on our memory.

Overweight or obese people breathe more air pollutants Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:14 AM PST Overweight or obese adults can breathe 7-50% more air per day than an adult with healthy weight does, which makes them more vulnerable to air contaminants causing asthma and other pulmonary diseases, according to a study.

First live births with a novel simplified IVF procedure Posted: 04 Feb 2014 04:40 AM PST A recent prospective study comparing conventional IVF with a novel simplified laboratory method of culturing embryos suggested that fertilization and implantation rates were similar for the simplified system when compared with those reported by conventional IVF programs. Sixteen healthy babies have already been born with this new method. According to the results of this study, IVF may be offered at a more reasonable price and made available to a larger part of the world population.

Robots with insect-like brains: Robot can learn to navigate through its environment guided by external stimuli Posted: 04 Feb 2014 04:39 AM PST Scientists have developed a robot that perceives environmental stimuli and learns to react to them. The scientists used the relatively simple nervous system of the honeybee as a model for its working principles. To this end, they installed a camera on a small robotic vehicle and connected it to a computer. The computer program replicated in a simplified way the sensorimotor network of the insect brain.

Horse gaits controlled by genetic mutation spread by humans Posted: 04 Feb 2014 04:39 AM PST From the Faroe Pony to the Spanish Mustang, fewer animals have played such a central role in human history as the horse. New research reveals that a horse's gait, an attribute central to its importance to humans, is influenced by a genetic mutation, spread by humans across the world.

Blue light may fight fatigue around the clock Posted: 03 Feb 2014 04:18 PM PST Researchers have found that exposure to short wavelength, or blue light, during the biological day directly and immediately improves alertness and performance.

Feeling powerless increases the weight of the world ... literally Posted: 03 Feb 2014 04:17 PM PST New research shows that the more personally and socially powerless you feel the heavier objects appear to weigh. Scientists have found that people who feel powerless actually see the world differently, and find a task to be more physically challenging than those with a greater sense of personal and social power.

Pesticides increase risk for Parkinson's disease: Certain people may be more susceptible Posted: 03 Feb 2014 01:34 PM PST Previous studies have shown the certain pesticides can increase the risk for developing Parkinson's disease. Now, researchers have now found that the strength of that risk depends on an individual's genetic makeup, which in the most pesticide-exposed populations could increase the chances of developing the debilitating disease by two- to six-fold.

Fiery-red coral species discovered in the Peruvian Pacific Posted: 03 Feb 2014 10:36 AM PST A new coral species, Psammogorgia hookeri, has been collected by scuba divers from rocky ledges at depths to 25 meters in Peru's Paracas National Reserve.

Biostatistics approach to genetics yields new clues to roots of autism Posted: 03 Feb 2014 10:35 AM PST Researchers have developed a statistical method for genetic screens that improves the classic genome-wide association screen, and, applying to autism, have uncovered genes related to the disorder that had not been suggested in previous analyses. The scientists offer evidence that beginning treatment in infants at the first symptoms could change the course of the disease, possibly preventing the permanent "pruning" of neurons, which occurs during the first two years of life, from cementing autistic symptoms in place.

Dramatic thinning of Arctic lake ice cuts winter ice season by 24 days compared to 1950 Posted: 03 Feb 2014 09:28 AM PST Arctic lakes have been freezing up later in the year and thawing earlier, creating a winter ice season about 24 days shorter than it was in 1950, a new study has found.

Written all over your face: Humans express four basic emotions rather than six Posted: 03 Feb 2014 08:35 AM PST Human beings are emotional creatures whose state of mind can usually be observed through their facial expressions. A commonly-held belief posits there are six basic emotions which are universally recognized and easily interpreted through specific facial expressions, regardless of language or culture. These are: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. New research suggests that in fact, there are really only four.

Prototype of single ion heat engine created Posted: 03 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST Scientists are working on a heat engine that consists of just a single ion. Such a nano-heat engine could be far more efficient than, for example, a car engine or a coal-fired power plant.

Greenland's fastest glacier reaches record speeds Posted: 03 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST Jakobshavn Isbræ (Jakobshavn Glacier) is moving ice from the Greenland ice sheet into the ocean at a speed that appears to be the fastest ever recorded. Researchers measured the dramatic speeds of the fast-flowing glacier in 2012 and 2013.

Greenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication Posted: 03 Feb 2014 06:38 AM PST A grass called teosinte is thought to be the ancestor of corn, but it doesn't look much like corn at all. Scientists were surprised to find that teosinte planted in growth chambers under climate conditions that simulate the environment 10,000 to 12,000 years ago looks more like corn. This may help to explain why early farmers chose to cultivate teosinte and lends support to the idea that teosinte was domesticated to become one of the most important staple crops in the world.

Capturing ultrasharp images of multiple cell components at once Posted: 03 Feb 2014 06:38 AM PST A new microscopy method could enable scientists to generate snapshots of dozens of different biomolecules at once in a single human cell. Such images could shed light on complex cellular pathways and potentially lead to new ways to diagnose disease, track its prognosis, or monitor the effectiveness of therapies at a cellular level.

Researchers develop first single-molecule LED Posted: 03 Feb 2014 06:35 AM PST The ultimate challenge in the race to miniaturize light emitting diodes (LED) has now been met: Scientists have developed the first ever single-molecule LED. The device is formed from a single polythiophene wire placed between the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope and a gold surface. It emits light only when the current passes in a certain direction.

Rat islands 'a laboratory of future evolution': Rats predicted to fill in Earth's emptying ecospace Posted: 03 Feb 2014 05:40 AM PST New research predicts that rats will continue to grow and fill a 'significant chunk' of Earth's emptying ecospace. Their global influence is likely to grow in the future as larger mammals continue to become extinct.

Your brain is fine-tuning its wiring throughout your life Posted: 03 Feb 2014 05:38 AM PST The white matter microstructure, the communication pathways of the brain, continues to develop/mature as one ages. Studies link age-related differences in white matter microstructure to specific cognitive abilities in childhood and adulthood.

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