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Saturday, June 9, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top News

ScienceDaily: Top News


WISE finds few brown dwarfs close to home

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 03:36 PM PDT

Astronomers are getting to know the neighbors better. Our sun resides within a spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy about two-thirds of the way out from the center. It lives in a fairly calm, suburb-like area with an average number of stellar residents. Recently, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has been turning up a new crowd of stars close to home: the coldest of the brown dwarf family of "failed" stars.

Neutrinos sent from CERN to Gran Sasso respect the cosmic speed limit, experiments confirm

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:23 PM PDT

The latest results on the time of flight of neutrinos from CERN to the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory have just been presented. Four experiments -- Borexino, ICARUS, LVD and OPERA -- all measure a neutrino time of flight consistent with the speed of light. This is at odds with a measurement that the OPERA collaboration put up for scrutiny last September, indicating that the original OPERA measurement can be attributed to a faulty element of the experiment's fibre optic timing system.

Engineered robot interacts with live fish

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:08 AM PDT

A bioinspired robot has provided the first experimental evidence that live zebrafish can be influenced by engineered robots.

Parasitic plants steal genes from their hosts

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:08 AM PDT

The Malaysian parasitic plant Rafflesia cantleyi, with its 50cm diameter flowers, has 'stolen' genes from its host Tetrastigma rafflesiae. Analysis of these genes shows that their functions range from respiration to metabolism, and that some of them have even replaced the parasites own gene activity.

Does cooperation require both reciprocity and alike neighbors?

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:05 AM PDT

Scientists have developed a new theoretical model on the evolution of cooperation. Evolution by definition is cold and merciless: it selects for success and weeds out failure. It seems only natural to expect that such a process would simply favour genes that help themselves and not others. Yet cooperative behaviour can be observed in many areas, and humans helping each other are a common phenomenon. Thus, one of the major questions in science today is how cooperative behaviour could evolve.

Oceanic circulation: Heat loss strengthens the gyre circulation

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:05 AM PDT

A new study explains decadal variations in the oceanic circulation south of Greenland and Iceland. 

Environmental benefit of biofuels is overestimated, new study reveals

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:05 AM PDT

Two scientists are challenging the currently accepted norms of biofuel production. Calculations of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from bioenergy production are neglecting crucial information that has led to the overestimation of the benefits of biofuels compared to fossil fuels, a new analysis shows.

Novel brain imaging technique explains why concussions affect people differently

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 06:56 AM PDT

Patients vary widely in their response to concussion, but scientists haven't understood why. Now, using a new technique for analyzing data from brain imaging studies, researchers have found that concussion victims have unique spatial patterns of brain abnormalities that change over time.

Should spinal manipulation for neck pain be abandoned?

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT

The effectiveness of spinal manipulation divides medical opinion. Experts debate whether spinal manipulation for neck pain should be abandoned.

Rain may not always be a welcome thing to waterbirds

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 03:02 PM PDT

Scientists have found that waterbird communities can be the "canary in the coal mine" when it comes to detecting the health of urban estuary ecosystems. Their research revealed that the types of waterbirds that inhabit urban estuaries are influenced not only by urban development, but also by a far more natural process -- rain.

Pregnancy: Why mother's immune system does not reject developing fetus as foreign tissue

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 11:22 AM PDT

Researchers have made an important discovery that partially answers the long-standing question of why a mother's immune system does not reject a developing fetus as foreign tissue.

New property of flames sparks advances in technology

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 09:23 AM PDT

Chemists have discovered a new property of flames, which allows them to control reactions at a solid surface in a flame and opens up a whole new field of chemical innovation.

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