ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Thickest parts of Arctic ice cap melting faster
• New infant formula ingredients boost babies' immunity by feeding their gut bacteria
• Effects of a concussion may last longer than symptoms
• Earthworms to blame for decline of ovenbirds in northern Midwest forests
• How insects 'remodel' their bodies between life stages
• Blockade of learning and memory genes may occur early in Alzheimer's disease: Treatable in mice
• Astronomers rediscover life on Earth -- by looking at the moon
• Oldest fossilized forest: Entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years unearthed
• When continents collide: New twist to 50-million-year-old tale
• Old drug reveals new tricks: How interferon works to suppress virus in patients with HIV, hepatitis
• Genetics of endangered African monkey suggest troubles from warming climate
• No workout? No worries: Scientists prevent muscle loss in mice, despite disease and inactivity
• Gluten-free, casein-free diet may help some children with autism, research suggests
• Winning makes people more aggressive toward the defeated
• New model provides different take on planetary accretion: Collapse may take place in 3-D cold dust cloud
• Inherited epigenetics produced record fast evolution
• T. rex has most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal ever
• Sea level rise to alter economics of California beaches: Certain beaches will shrink, others remain large
• Scientists discover new 'off switch' in immune response

Thickest parts of Arctic ice cap melting faster Posted: 29 Feb 2012 04:00 PM PST A new study revealed that the oldest and thickest Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a faster rate than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the Arctic Ocean's floating ice cap.

New infant formula ingredients boost babies' immunity by feeding their gut bacteria Posted: 29 Feb 2012 12:55 PM PST Adding prebiotic ingredients to infant formula helps colonize the newborn's gut with a stable population of beneficial bacteria, and probiotics enhance immunity in formula-fed infants, two studies report.

Effects of a concussion may last longer than symptoms Posted: 29 Feb 2012 12:50 PM PST A new study shows that physiological problems stemming from a concussion may continue to present in the patient even after standard symptoms subside.

Earthworms to blame for decline of ovenbirds in northern Midwest forests Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:22 AM PST A recent decline in ovenbirds, a ground-nesting migratory songbird, in forests in the northern Midwest United States is being linked by scientists to a seemingly unlikely culprit: earthworms.

How insects 'remodel' their bodies between life stages Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:22 AM PST How is it that an insect can remake itself so completely that it appears to be a different creature altogether, not just once, but several times in its lifetime? Working with fruit flies scientists found that genes whose expression is induced by pulses of steroid hormone are key to these transformations. A similar mechanism may underlie puberty -- the human analog of metamorphosis.

Blockade of learning and memory genes may occur early in Alzheimer's disease: Treatable in mice Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:21 AM PST A repression of gene activity in the brain appears to be an early event affecting people with Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found. In mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, this epigenetic blockade and its effects on memory were treatable.

Astronomers rediscover life on Earth -- by looking at the moon Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:08 AM PST By observing the Moon using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found evidence of life in the universe -- on Earth. Finding life on our home planet may sound like a trivial observation, but the novel approach may lead to future discoveries of life elsewhere in the universe.

Oldest fossilized forest: Entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years unearthed Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:08 AM PST Researcher who previously found evidence of the Earth's earliest tree, has gone one step further. The research team has now unearthed and investigated an entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years.

When continents collide: New twist to 50-million-year-old tale Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:06 AM PST Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

Old drug reveals new tricks: How interferon works to suppress virus in patients with HIV, hepatitis Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:06 AM PST A drug once taken by people with HIV/AIDS but long ago shelved after newer, modern antiretroviral therapies became available has now shed light on how the human body uses its natural immunity to fight the virus—work that could help uncover new targets for drugs.

Genetics of endangered African monkey suggest troubles from warming climate Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:52 AM PST A rare and endangered monkey in an African equatorial rainforest is providing a look into our climatic future through its DNA. Its genes show that wild drills, already an overhunted species, may see a dramatic population decline if the forest dries out and vegetation becomes sparser amid warming temperatures, researchers report.

No workout? No worries: Scientists prevent muscle loss in mice, despite disease and inactivity Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:51 AM PST If you want big muscles without working out, there's hope. Scientists report a family of protein transcription factors, called "Forkhead (Fox0)," that plays a significant role in the regulation of skeletal muscle mass. Interfering with Fox0 prevented muscle wasting associated with cancer and sepsis, and even promoted muscle growth. This is likely relevant to any disease, condition or lifestyle that leads to muscle wasting.

Gluten-free, casein-free diet may help some children with autism, research suggests Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:51 AM PST A gluten-free, casein-free diet may lead to improvements in behavior and physiological symptoms in some children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to researchers. The research is the first to use survey data from parents to document the effectiveness of a gluten-free, casein-free diet on children with ASD.

Winning makes people more aggressive toward the defeated Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:47 AM PST In this world, there are winners and losers – and, for your own safety, it is best to fear the winners.

New model provides different take on planetary accretion: Collapse may take place in 3-D cold dust cloud Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:19 AM PST The prevailing model for planetary accretion assumes that the solar system's planets formed in an extremely hot, two-dimensional disk of gas and dust, post-dating the sun. Scientists now propose a radically different model, in which collapse takes place in a cold, three-dimensional dust cloud.

Inherited epigenetics produced record fast evolution Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:18 AM PST The domestication of chickens has given rise to rapid and extensive changes in genome function. Scientists have established that the changes are heritable, although they do not affect the DNA structure.

T. rex has most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal ever Posted: 28 Feb 2012 05:38 PM PST Research, using computer models to reconstruct the jaw muscle of Tyrannosaurus rex, has suggested that the dinosaur had the most powerful bite of any living or extinct terrestrial animal.

Sea level rise to alter economics of California beaches: Certain beaches will shrink, others remain large Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:43 AM PST Rising sea levels are likely to change Southern California beaches in the coming century, but not in ways you might expect. While some beaches may shrink or possibly disappear, others are poised to remain relatively large -- leaving an uneven distribution of economic gains and losses for coastal beach towns, according to a new study.

Scientists discover new 'off switch' in immune response Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:43 AM PST Scientists have discovered a new "off switch" in our immune response which could be boosted in diseases caused by over-activation of our immune system, or blocked to improve vaccines.

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