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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


Melody modulates choir members' heart rate

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 05:01 PM PDT

When people sing in a choir their heart beats are synchronized, so that the pulse of choir members tends to increase and decrease in unison.

Glimpse into the future of acidic oceans shows ecosystems transformed

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 02:10 PM PDT

In the waters surrounding Castello Aragonese, a 14th century castle off the coast of Italy, volcanic vents naturally release bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, creating different levels of acidity among the marine-animal and plant communities there. These gradients of acidity gave scientists a glimpse of what a future marked by increasingly acidic ocean waters could look like, and how the creatures and plants living in those environments may react to it.

Innovative study estimates extent to which air pollution in China shortens human lives

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 01:19 PM PDT

A high level of air pollution, in the form of particulates produced by burning coal, significantly shortens the lives of people exposed to it, according to a unique new study of China.

Corals cozy up with bacterial buddies

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 12:10 PM PDT

Corals may let certain bacteria get under their skin, according to a new study. The study offers the first direct evidence that Stylophora pistillata, a species of reef-building coral found throughout the Indian and west Pacific Oceans, harbors bacterial denizens deep within its tissues.

Buckling up to turn: Marine microbes change swimming direction via a high-speed mechanical instability

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 11:33 AM PDT

Bacteria swim by rotating the helical, hairlike flagella that extend from their unicellular bodies. Some bacteria, including the Escherichia coli (E. coli) living in the human gut, have multiple flagella that rotate as a bundle to move the cell forward. These cells turn somewhat acrobatically by unbundling their flagella, causing the cell to tumble, reorient and strike out in another direction.

135-year-old meteorite mystery solved? Chondrules may have formed from high-pressure collisions in early solar system

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 11:29 AM PDT

A normally staid scientist has stunned many of his colleagues with his radical solution to a 135-year-old mystery in cosmochemistry. At issue is how numerous small, glassy spherules had become embedded within specimens of the largest class of meteorites—the chondrites.

Breakthrough could lead to 'artificial skin' that senses touch, humidity and temperature

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 09:44 AM PDT

Using tiny gold particles and a kind of resin, a team of scientists has discovered how to make a new kind of flexible sensor that one day could be integrated into electronic skin, or e-skin. If scientists learn how to attach e-skin to prosthetic limbs, people with amputations might once again be able to feel changes in their environments.

Moths talk about sex in many ways

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 08:49 AM PDT

Originally moths developed ears so that they could hear their worst enemy, the bat, but now moths also use their ears to communicate about sex in a great number of different ways.

Deserts 'greening' from rising carbon dioxide: Green foliage boosted across the world's arid regions

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:35 AM PDT

Increased levels of carbon dioxide have helped boost green foliage across the world's arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called carbon dioxide fertilization, according to new research.

Matter-antimatter asymmetry: Using the sun to illuminate a basic mystery of matter

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:34 AM PDT

Antimatter has been detected in solar flares via microwave and magnetic-field data, according to researchers. The finding sheds light on the puzzling strong asymmetry between matter and antimatter by gathering data on a very large scale using the Sun as a laboratory.

Deep sea isolation: Hypersaline 'islands' harbor unique life

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:33 AM PDT

Deep in the ocean exist super salty anoxic basins that form 'islands' allowing evolution to vary between communities of ciliated plankton. These unique communities provide an opportunity to observe multiple results of evolution from the same stock and different solutions to environmental difficulties.

Light transistor: Efficient transistor for light could lead to optical computers

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:29 AM PDT

Light can oscillate in different directions, as we can see in the 3-D cinema: Each lens of the glasses only allows light of a particular oscillation direction to pass through. However, changing the polarization direction of light without a large part of it being lost is difficult. Scientists have now managed this feat, using a type of light – terahertz radiation – that is of particular technological importance.

Even slight temperature increases causing tropical forests to blossom

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:27 AM PDT

A new study shows that tropical forests are producing more flowers in response to only slight increases in temperature.

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