ScienceDaily: Top News

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• In recognizing faces, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts
• Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Using satellite technology to evaluate the effects of ecotourism on tiger sharks
• Meteorites reveal another way to make life's components
• Environmentally friendly cleaning and washing
• Mid-Atlantic suburbs in U.S. can expect an early spring thanks to the heat of the big city
• A cheap and fully optical solution for ultra-fast internet
• Orientation of ants: Every cue counts
• Mapping the Moho with GOCE
• Strong Grip: Unexpected interaction between organic semiconductors
• Tracking pedestrians indoors using their smart phones
• Scientists claim brain memory code cracked
• Revisiting LSD as a treatment for alcoholism
• Bias in decision-making leads to poor choices and possibly depression
• Insect DNA offers tiny clues about animals' changing habitats
• Clock gene helps plants prepare for spring flowering, study shows
• Catalysts for less: Slashing costs of metal alloys needed to jump-start crucial chemical processes
• Brain cancer blood vessels not substantially tumor-derived
• Metamaterials may advance with new femtosecond laser technique

In recognizing faces, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts Posted: 09 Mar 2012 11:01 AM PST How do we recognize a face? To date, most research has answered "holistically": we look at all the features -- eyes, nose, mouth -- simultaneously and, perceiving the relationships among them, gain an advantage over taking in each feature individually.

Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Using satellite technology to evaluate the effects of ecotourism on tiger sharks Posted: 09 Mar 2012 10:58 AM PST Ecotourism activities that use food to attract and concentrate wildlife for viewing have become a controversial topic in ecological studies. This debate is best exemplified by the shark dive tourism industry, a highly lucrative and booming global market. Use of chum or food to attract big sharks to areas where divers can view the dwindling populations of these animals has generated significant criticism because of the potential for ecological and behavioral impacts to the species. However, the debate has been largely rhetorical due to a lack of sufficient data to make any conclusions either way.

Meteorites reveal another way to make life's components Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:48 AM PST Creating some of life's building blocks in space may be a bit like making a sandwich -- you can make them cold or hot, according to new NASA research. This evidence that there is more than one way to make crucial components of life increases the likelihood that life emerged elsewhere in the Universe, according to the research team, and gives support to the theory that a "kit" of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by impacts from meteorites and comets assisted the origin of life.

Environmentally friendly cleaning and washing Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:48 AM PST More and more everyday products are based on renewable resources, with household cleaners now containing active cleaning substances made from plant oils and sugar. These fat and dirt removers are especially environmentally friendly and effective when produced using biotechnology, with the aid of fungi and bacteria.

Mid-Atlantic suburbs in U.S. can expect an early spring thanks to the heat of the big city Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:48 AM PST If you've been thinking our world is more green than frozen these days, you're right. A recent study has found that spring is in arriving earlier -- and autumn later -- in the suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, DC. The reason? The urban landscape traps heat in the summer and holds it throughout the winter, triggering leaves to turn green earlier in the spring and to stay green later into autumn. The result is an extended growing season.

A cheap and fully optical solution for ultra-fast internet Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:41 AM PST Blisteringly fast Internet speeds, more robust connections and a big increase in network capacity at little extra cost, even in rural areas? It's the sort of fantasy that keeps telecommunication company executives and bandwidth-hungry Internet users awake at night... until now. Groundbreaking fibre-optic technology promises all those things and more.

Orientation of ants: Every cue counts Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:41 AM PST Foraging desert ants always find their way back to the nest, even when it is only marked by a magnetic cue, vibration, or carbon dioxide.

Mapping the Moho with GOCE Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST The first global high-resolution map of the boundary between Earth's crust and mantle – the Moho – has been produced based on data from ESA's GOCE gravity satellite. Understanding the Moho will offer new clues into the dynamics of Earth's interior. Earth's crust is the outermost solid shell of our planet. Even though it makes up less than 1% of the volume of the planet, the crust is exceptionally important not just because we live on it, but because is the place where all our geological resources like natural gas, oil and minerals come from.

Strong Grip: Unexpected interaction between organic semiconductors Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST Physicists have discovered an unexpectedly strong bond between organic layers. Such structures are still puzzling scientists throughout the world. These structures form the basis for novel electronic components made from organic semiconductors that are now increasingly used in smart phones and television sets.

Tracking pedestrians indoors using their smart phones Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST The next generation of smart phone could combine the data from its gyroscopes with a built-in compass to allow you to track your movements when indoors even without GPS. Such a system could be useful for shopping mall managers, factory bosses for worker safety and security and office workers hoping to manage the flow of people through buildings. It could also be used to enable location based services and to help users navigate to specific meeting points or shops.

Scientists claim brain memory code cracked Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:37 AM PST Despite a century of research, memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.

Revisiting LSD as a treatment for alcoholism Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:45 PM PST Several decades ago, a number of clinics used LSD to treat alcoholism with some success. But until now, no research has pulled together the results of these trials to document exactly how effective LSD was. Now a new meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of the drug provides evidence for a clear and consistent beneficial effect of LSD for treating alcohol dependency.

Bias in decision-making leads to poor choices and possibly depression Posted: 08 Mar 2012 02:48 PM PST When faced with making a complicated decision, our automatic instinct to avoid misfortune can result in missing out on rewards, and could even contribute to depression, according to new research.

Insect DNA offers tiny clues about animals' changing habitats Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:32 AM PST The long-term impact of climate change on natural communities of wild animals could be better understood thanks to a new study.

Clock gene helps plants prepare for spring flowering, study shows Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:32 AM PST Scientists have made fresh discoveries about the processes that govern plants' internal body clocks and help them adjust to changing seasons, triggering the arrival of flowers in spring.

Catalysts for less: Slashing costs of metal alloys needed to jump-start crucial chemical processes Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:31 AM PST Scientists have discovered that individual atoms can catalyze industrially important chemical reactions such as the hydrogenation of acetylene, offering potentially significant economic and environmental benefits.

Brain cancer blood vessels not substantially tumor-derived Posted: 08 Mar 2012 10:25 AM PST Scientists have published laboratory data refuting studies that suggest blood vessels that form within brain cancers are largely made up of cancer cells. The theory of cancer-based blood vessels calls into question the use and value of anticancer drugs that target these blood vessels, including bevacizumab (Avastin).

Metamaterials may advance with new femtosecond laser technique Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:57 AM PST "Lucky" combination of chemicals and laser pulses enables high-resolution, 3D patterning for futuristic optical materials

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