ScienceDaily: Top News

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• How viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly
• Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs
• Family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests, study suggests
• Leukemia cells are 'bad to the bone', research finds
• NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 planets
• How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
• Rap music powers rhythmic action of medical sensor
• Overgrazed grasslands tied to locust outbreaks
• Scientists link evolved, mutated gene module to syndromic autism
• Ecologists capture first deep-sea fish noises
• Obesity and pain linked, study of one million Americans shows
• Making sense of sensory connections: Researchers identify mechanism behind associative memory by exploring insect brains
• Life beyond Earth? Underwater caves in Bahamas could give clues
• Viruses con bacteria into working for them
• Rotational motion of cells plays a critical role in their normal development, researchers find
• Scientists map one of life's molecular mysteries: Visualisation of the molecular gateway across and into cellular membranes
• Following genetic footprints out of Africa: First modern humans settled in Arabia
• Radical theory explains the origin, evolution, and nature of life, challenges conventional wisdom
• Graphene: Supermaterial goes superpermeable
• Tiny crooners: Male house mice sing songs to impress the girls
• Microbubbles provide new boost for biofuel production
• Speed limit on the quantum highway: Physicists measure propagation velocity of quantum signals in a many-body system
• Genetic screens bring new hope for tackling sleeping sickness
• Barley adapts to climate change

How viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:45 PM PST Researchers have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations.

Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:45 PM PST Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan -- a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula -- found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974. But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close.

Family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests, study suggests Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:43 PM PST A family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging, new research suggests. Although preliminary, the findings provide a new look at the oft-studied link between psychiatric conditions and aptitude in the arts or sciences.

Leukemia cells are 'bad to the bone', research finds Posted: 26 Jan 2012 01:11 PM PST Researchers have discovered new links between leukemia cells and cells involved in bone formation, offering a fresh perspective on how the blood cancer progresses and raising the possibility that therapies for bone disorders could help in the treatment of leukemia.

NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 planets Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:59 PM PST NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form.

How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:21 PM PST Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, say experts. But researchers have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles.

Rap music powers rhythmic action of medical sensor Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:21 PM PST The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.

Overgrazed grasslands tied to locust outbreaks Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:21 PM PST Scientists have shown that insect nutrition and agricultural land management practices may partially explain modern day locust outbreaks.

Scientists link evolved, mutated gene module to syndromic autism Posted: 26 Jan 2012 11:36 AM PST Medical researchers reports that newly discovered mutations in an evolved assembly of genes cause Joubert syndrome, a form of syndromic autism.

Ecologists capture first deep-sea fish noises Posted: 26 Jan 2012 11:29 AM PST Fish biologists conducted one of the first studies of deep-sea fish sounds in more than 50 years, 2,237 feet under the Atlantic. With recording technology more affordable, fish sounds can be studied to test the idea that fish communicate with sound, especially those in the dark of the deep ocean.

Obesity and pain linked, study of one million Americans shows Posted: 26 Jan 2012 11:29 AM PST A clear association between obesity and pain -- with higher rates of pain identified in the heaviest individuals -- was found in a study of more than one million Americans.

Making sense of sensory connections: Researchers identify mechanism behind associative memory by exploring insect brains Posted: 26 Jan 2012 10:40 AM PST A key feature of human and animal brains is that they are adaptive; they are able to change their structure and function based on input from the environment and on the potential associations, or consequences, of that input. To learn more about such neural adaptability, researchers have explored the brains of insects and identified a mechanism by which the connections in their brain change to form new and specific memories of smells.

Life beyond Earth? Underwater caves in Bahamas could give clues Posted: 26 Jan 2012 10:15 AM PST Discoveries made in some underwater caves by researchers in the Bahamas could provide clues about how ocean life formed on Earth millions of years ago, and perhaps give hints of what types of marine life could be found on distant planets and moons.

Viruses con bacteria into working for them Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:37 AM PST Researchers have discovered that certain photosynthetic ocean bacteria need to beware of viruses bearing gifts. These viruses are really con artists carrying genetic material taken from their previous bacterial hosts that tricks the new host into using its own machinery to activate the genes, a process never before documented in any virus-bacteria relationship. The con occurs when a grifter virus injects its DNA into a bacterium living in a phosphorus-starved region of the ocean.

Rotational motion of cells plays a critical role in their normal development, researchers find Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:37 AM PST Researchers have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini. This rotation, called "CAMo," for coherent angular motion, is necessary for the cells to form spheres. Otherwise, cells undergo random motion, leading to loss of structure and malignancy.

Scientists map one of life's molecular mysteries: Visualisation of the molecular gateway across and into cellular membranes Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:37 AM PST All living organisms are made up of cells, behind these intricate life forms lie complex cellular processes that allow our bodies to function. Researchers working on protein secretion -- a fundamental process in biology -- have revealed how protein channels in the membrane are activated by special signals contained in proteins destined for secretion. The results help explain the underlying mechanism responsible for the release of proteins such as hormones and antibodies into the blood stream.

Following genetic footprints out of Africa: First modern humans settled in Arabia Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:37 AM PST A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

Radical theory explains the origin, evolution, and nature of life, challenges conventional wisdom Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:51 AM PST Earth is alive, asserts a revolutionary scientific theory of life. The trans-disciplinary theory demonstrates that purportedly inanimate, non-living objects -- for example, planets, water, proteins, and DNA -- are animate, that is, alive.

Graphene: Supermaterial goes superpermeable Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:06 AM PST Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties Scientists have now found that it is superpermeable with respect to water. Graphene is one of the wonders of the science world, with the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft. The new finding gives graphene's potential a most surprising dimension – graphene can also be used for distilling alcohol.

Tiny crooners: Male house mice sing songs to impress the girls Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:06 AM PST It comes as a surprise to many that male house mice produce melodious songs to attract mates.  Unfortunately for us, because the melodies are in the ultra-sonic range human ears cannot detect them.  Through spectrographic analyses of the vocalizations of wild house mice, researchers have found that the songs of male mice contain signals of individuality and kinship.

Microbubbles provide new boost for biofuel production Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:25 AM PST A solution to the difficult issue of harvesting algae for use as a biofuel has been developed using microbubble technology.

Speed limit on the quantum highway: Physicists measure propagation velocity of quantum signals in a many-body system Posted: 25 Jan 2012 12:15 PM PST A quantum computer based on quantum particles instead of classical bits, can in principle outperform any classical computer. However, it still remains an open question, how fast and how efficient quantum computers really may be able to work. A critical limitation will be given by the velocity with which a quantum signal can spread within a processing unit. For the first time, a group of physicists has succeeded in observing such a process in a solid-state like system.

Genetic screens bring new hope for tackling sleeping sickness Posted: 25 Jan 2012 10:12 AM PST New genetic technique allows to look into the mechanism of action of the drugs used to treat sleeping sickness for the first time and to understand how resistance develops.

Barley adapts to climate change Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:11 AM PST The upsurge in droughts is one of the main consequences of climate change, and affects crops in particular. However, a biologist has confirmed that in the case of barley at least, climate change itself is providing it with a self-defense mechanisms to tackle a lack of water.

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