ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• NASA spacecraft detects changes in Martian sand dunes
• Overfed black holes shut down galactic star-making
• Secrets of the first practical artificial leaf
• Babies' brains benefit from music lessons, even before they can walk and talk
• Antarctic octopus study shows West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have collapsed 200,000 years ago
• New light on enigmatic burial rituals in Cambodian mountains
• VISTA views a vast ball of stars
• A 'cousin' of the giant panda lived in what is now Zaragoza, Spain
• Emotion can shut down high-level mental processes without our knowledge, in our native language
• New insight into atomic nuclei may explain how supernovas formed elements crucial to humankind

NASA spacecraft detects changes in Martian sand dunes Posted: 09 May 2012 02:12 PM PDT NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth. This is unexpected because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, is only about one percent as dense, and its high-speed winds are less frequent and weaker than Earth's.

Overfed black holes shut down galactic star-making Posted: 09 May 2012 10:59 AM PDT The Herschel Space Observatory has shown galaxies with the most powerful, active black holes at their cores produce fewer stars than galaxies with less active black holes. The results are the first to demonstrate black holes suppressed galactic star formation when the universe was less than half its current age.

Secrets of the first practical artificial leaf Posted: 09 May 2012 09:39 AM PDT A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf -- a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy -- has just been published. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which used costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.

Babies' brains benefit from music lessons, even before they can walk and talk Posted: 09 May 2012 09:36 AM PDT After completing the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that very early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk. They found that one-year-old babies who participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.

Antarctic octopus study shows West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have collapsed 200,000 years ago Posted: 09 May 2012 08:14 AM PDT Scientists have found that genetic information on the Antarctic octopus supports studies indicating that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could have collapsed during its history, possibly as recently as 200,000 years ago.

New light on enigmatic burial rituals in Cambodian mountains Posted: 09 May 2012 06:28 AM PDT Researchers working in remote Cambodian mountains are shedding new light on the lost history of an unidentified people by studying their enigmatic burial rituals.

VISTA views a vast ball of stars Posted: 09 May 2012 06:27 AM PDT A new image of Messier 55 from ESO's VISTA infrared survey telescope shows tens of thousands of stars crowded together like a swarm of bees. Besides being packed into a relatively small space, these stars are also among the oldest in the Universe. Astronomers study Messier 55 and other ancient objects like it, called globular clusters, to learn how galaxies evolve and stars age.

A 'cousin' of the giant panda lived in what is now Zaragoza, Spain Posted: 09 May 2012 06:25 AM PDT Scientists have found a new ursid fossil species in the area of Nombrevilla in Zaragoza, Spain. Agriarctos beatrix was a small plantigrade omnivore and was genetically related to giant pandas, according to researchers.

Emotion can shut down high-level mental processes without our knowledge, in our native language Posted: 08 May 2012 02:35 PM PDT Psychologists believe that they have glimpsed for the first time, a process that takes place deep within our unconscious brain, where primal reactions interact with higher mental processes. They have identified a reaction to negative language inputs which shuts down unconscious processing. The psychologists extrapolate this from their most recent findings working with bilingual people.

New insight into atomic nuclei may explain how supernovas formed elements crucial to humankind Posted: 08 May 2012 06:43 AM PDT New insight into the behaviour of atomic nuclei may explain how gigantic star explosions, or supernovas, have formed the elements that are crucial to humankind.

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