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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


New optical tweezers trap specimens just a few nanometers across

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 12:44 PM PST

A microscale technique known as optical trapping uses beams of light as tweezers to hold and manipulate tiny particles. Researchers have found a new way to trap particles smaller than 10 nanometers -- and potentially down to just a few atoms in size -- which until now have escaped light's grasp.

U.S wildfire risk worsening, according to climate projections

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST

Scientists have projected drier conditions likely will cause increased fire activity across the United States in coming decades. Other findings about U.S. wildfires, including their amount of carbon emissions and how the length and strength of fire seasons are expected to change under future climate conditions, were also researched.

Could high insulin make you fat? Mouse study says yes

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:55 AM PST

When we eat too much, obesity may develop as a result of chronically high insulin levels, not the other way around. That's according to new evidence in mice which challenges the widespread view that rising insulin is a secondary consequence of obesity and insulin resistance.

Pacific Northwest and Himalayas could experience major earthquakes, geophysicists say

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:22 AM PST

Recent research by scientists focused on geologic features and activity in the Himalayas and Pacific Northwest that could mean those areas are primed for major earthquakes.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, icier than thought

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:22 AM PST

Scientists have long suspected that a vast ocean of liquid water lies under the crusty exterior of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. New analysis suggests that the internally generated heat that keeps that ocean from freezing relies on the moon's interactions with Saturn and its other moons.

Census of the invisible universe reveals extraordinary high star-formation rates across history of the universe

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST

By combining the observing powers of ESA's Herschel space observatory and the ground-based Keck telescopes, astronomers have characterized hundreds of previously unseen starburst galaxies, revealing extraordinary high star-formation rates across the history of the Universe. Starburst galaxies give birth to hundreds of solar masses' worth of stars each year in short-lived but intense events.

Planet rings could be behind the formation of solar system satellites

Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST

Two researchers have recently proposed the first ever model explaining how the great majority of regular satellites in our solar system were formed out of planet rings. The model, the only one of its kind, was first tested in 2010 on Saturn's moons. It seems to account for the present distribution of "giant" planets and also explains how the satellites of the "terrestrial" planets such as Earth or Pluto  came into being. These results are a major step forward in understanding and explaining the formation of planet systems across the universe.

Russian Far East holds seismic hazards: Potential to trigger tsunamis that pose risk to Pacific Basin

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 11:58 AM PST

Research shows that the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands, long shrouded in secrecy by the Soviet government, are a seismic and volcanic hotbed with a potential to trigger tsunamis that pose a risk to the rest of the Pacific Basin.

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