ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• What makes us human? Unique brain area linked to higher cognitive powers
• Tree roots in the mountains 'acted like a thermostat' for millions of years
• Early universe 'warmed up' later than previously believed: Research suggests a way to detect the earliest black holes
• Heavy metal in the early cosmos: Simulations shed light on formation and explosion of stars in earliest galaxies
• Amputee feels in real-time with bionic hand
• Pinpointing the brain's arbitrator: Reliability weighed before brain centers given control
• A 'smoking gun' on Ice Age megafauna extinctions
• Ballistic transport in graphene suggests new type of electronic device
• A short stay in darkness may heal hearing woes
• Longevity mutation found in flies far and wide
• Strange marine mammals of ancient North Pacific revealed
• Humans, urban landscapes increase illness in songbirds, researchers find
• Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whale
• Meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver
• Gene that influences receptive joint attention in chimpanzees gives insight into autism
• The anatomy of an asteroid: Asteroids can have a highly varied internal structure
• 'Severe reduction' in killer whale numbers during last Ice Age
• The eyes have it: Jackdaw birds use their eyes to communicate with each other
• Sucker-footed fossils broaden bat map: Fossilized teeth show bat family belongs to primitive lineage, had broad range
• Your memory is no video camera: It edits the past with present experiences

What makes us human? Unique brain area linked to higher cognitive powers Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:20 PM PST Researchers have identified an area of the human brain that appears unlike anything in the brains of some of our closest relatives.

Tree roots in the mountains 'acted like a thermostat' for millions of years Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:04 PM PST Tree roots in the mountains may play an important role in controlling long-term global temperatures. Researchers have found that temperatures affect the thickness of the leaf litter and organic soil layers, as well as the rate at which the tree roots grow. When the roots reach the rock below the soil, the rock disintegrates, releasing carbon dioxide. Researchers say this process is "acting like the Earth's thermostat."

Early universe 'warmed up' later than previously believed: Research suggests a way to detect the earliest black holes Posted: 05 Feb 2014 11:38 AM PST A new study reveals that black holes, formed from the first stars in our universe, heated the gas throughout space later than previously thought. They also imprinted a clear signature in radio waves which astronomers can now search for. The study is a major new finding about the origins of the universe.

Heavy metal in the early cosmos: Simulations shed light on formation and explosion of stars in earliest galaxies Posted: 05 Feb 2014 11:38 AM PST Researchers have simulated the formation of the Universe from the Big Bang through the first few hundred million years of its existence. The researchers found that more realistic models of supernova blasts help explain the range of metalicity found in different galaxies. The results of the simulations will assist in guiding the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018.

Amputee feels in real-time with bionic hand Posted: 05 Feb 2014 11:37 AM PST Dennis Aabo Sørensen is the first amputee in the world to feel sensory rich information -- in realtime -- with a prosthetic hand wired to nerves in his upper arm. Sørensen could grasp objects intuitively and identify what he was touching while blindfolded.

Pinpointing the brain's arbitrator: Reliability weighed before brain centers given control Posted: 05 Feb 2014 10:32 AM PST Researchers have, for the first time, pinpointed areas of the brain -- the inferior lateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar cortex -- that seem to serve as an "arbitrator" between two decision-making systems, weighing the reliability of the predictions each makes and then allocating control accordingly.

A 'smoking gun' on Ice Age megafauna extinctions Posted: 05 Feb 2014 10:32 AM PST It was climate that killed many of the large mammals after the latest Ice Age. But what more specifically was it with the climate that led to this mass extinction? The answer to this is hidden in a large number of sediment samples from around the Arctic and in the gut content from permafrozen woolly rhinos, mammoth and other extinct ice age mammals.

Ballistic transport in graphene suggests new type of electronic device Posted: 05 Feb 2014 10:29 AM PST Using electrons more like photons could provide the foundation for a new type of electronic device that would capitalize on the ability of graphene to carry electrons with almost no resistance even at room temperature – a property known as ballistic transport.

A short stay in darkness may heal hearing woes Posted: 05 Feb 2014 09:55 AM PST Call it the Ray Charles Effect: a young child who is blind learns to hear things others cannot. Researchers know that young brains are malleable enough to re-wire some circuits that process sensory information. Now researchers have shown the brains of adult mice can also be re-wired, compensating for vision loss by improving their hearing. This may lead to treatments for human hearing loss. Minimizing a person's sight for as little as a week may help improve the brain's ability to process hearing.

Longevity mutation found in flies far and wide Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:34 AM PST To date, evidence that mutations in a gene called Indy could increase life span in flies and mimic calorie restriction in mammals has come only from experiments in the lab. A new study finds that the same benefit is present in naturally Indy-mutated flies descended from flies collected in the wild all over the world and going back decades.

Strange marine mammals of ancient North Pacific revealed Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:37 AM PST The pre-Ice Age marine mammal community of the North Pacific formed a strangely eclectic scene, new research reveals. Studying hundreds of fossil bones and teeth excavated from the San Francisco Bay Area's Purisima Formation, scientists have put together a record of 21 marine mammal species including dwarf baleen whales, odd double-tusked walruses, porpoises with severe underbites and a dolphin closely related to the now-extinct Chinese river dolphin.

Humans, urban landscapes increase illness in songbirds, researchers find Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:36 AM PST Humans living in densely populated urban areas have a profound impact not only on their physical environment, but also on the health and fitness of native wildlife. For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between the degree of urbanization and the prevalence and severity of two distinct parasites in wild house finches. Loss of natural habitat may be a driving force behind increases in avian parasite infections.

Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whale Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:35 AM PST Researchers have identified a new species of mysterious beaked whale based on a study of seven animals stranded on remote tropical islands over the past 50 years. The first was found on a Sri Lankan beach in 1963. A combination of DNA analysis and physical characteristics was used to make the identification.

Meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:35 AM PST New findings in mice suggest that merely changing meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver. The results of this study not only have important implications for the potential treatment of metabolic diseases, they may also have broader implications for most research areas in the life sciences.

Gene that influences receptive joint attention in chimpanzees gives insight into autism Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:16 AM PST Following another's gaze or looking in the direction someone is pointing, two examples of receptive joint attention, is significantly heritable according to new study results, which give researchers insight into the biology of disorders such as autism.

The anatomy of an asteroid: Asteroids can have a highly varied internal structure Posted: 05 Feb 2014 04:58 AM PST ESO's New Technology Telescope (NTT) has been used to find the first evidence that asteroids can have a highly varied internal structure. By making exquisitely precise measurements astronomers have found that different parts of the asteroid Itokawa have different densities. As well as revealing secrets about the asteroid's formation, finding out what lies below the surface of asteroids may also shed light on what happens when bodies collide in the Solar System, and provide clues about how planets form.

'Severe reduction' in killer whale numbers during last Ice Age Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:06 PM PST Whole genome sequencing has revealed a global fall in the numbers of killer whales during the last Ice Age, at a time when ocean productivity may have been widely reduced, according to researchers.

The eyes have it: Jackdaw birds use their eyes to communicate with each other Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:06 PM PST Researchers have discovered that jackdaws use their eyes to communicate with each other -- the first time this has been shown in non-primates.

Sucker-footed fossils broaden bat map: Fossilized teeth show bat family belongs to primitive lineage, had broad range Posted: 04 Feb 2014 03:56 PM PST Today, Madagascar sucker-footed bats live nowhere outside their island home, but new research shows that hasn't always been the case. The discovery of the jawbones of two extinct relatives in northern Egypt suggests the unusual creatures, which evolved sticky footpads to roost on slick surfaces, are primitive members of a group of bats that evolved in Africa and ultimately went on to flourish in South America.

Your memory is no video camera: It edits the past with present experiences Posted: 04 Feb 2014 03:56 PM PST Your memory is a wily time traveler, plucking fragments of the present and inserting them into the past, reports a new study. In terms of accuracy, it's no video camera. Rather, memory rewrites the past with current information, updating your recollections with new experiences to aid survival. Love at first sight, for example, is more likely a trick of your memory than a Hollywood-worthy moment.

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