ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Biologists show that generosity leads to evolutionary success
• Primate calls, like human speech, can help infants form categories
• Frogs that hear with their mouth: X-rays reveal a new hearing mechanism for animals without an ear
• The true raw material footprint of nations
• Prehistoric climate shift linked to cosmic impact
• Giant Triassic amphibian was a burrowing youngster
• Single tone alerts brain to complete sound pattern
• Red cedar tree study shows that clean air act is reducing pollution, improving forests
• Genetic reproductive barriers: Long-held assumption about emergence of new species questioned
• Average height of European males has grown by 11 centimeters in just over a century
• New superheavy elements can be uniquely identified

Biologists show that generosity leads to evolutionary success Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT With new insights into the classical game theory match-up known as the "Prisoner's Dilemma," biologists offer a mathematically based explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature.

Primate calls, like human speech, can help infants form categories Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Human infants' responses to the vocalizations of non-human primates shed light on the developmental origin of a crucial link between human language and core cognitive capacities, a new study reports. Previous studies have shown that even in infants too young to speak, listening to human speech supports core cognitive processes, including the formation of object categories. Researchers documented that this link is initially broad enough to include the vocalizations of non-human primates.

Frogs that hear with their mouth: X-rays reveal a new hearing mechanism for animals without an ear Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Gardiner's frogs from the Seychelles islands, one of the smallest frogs in the world, do not possess a middle ear with an eardrum yet can croak themselves, and hear other frogs. An international team of scientists using X-rays has now solved this mystery and established that these frogs are using their mouth cavity and tissue to transmit sound to their inner ears.

The true raw material footprint of nations Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Using a new modelling tool and more comprehensive indicators, researchers were able to map the flow of raw materials across the world economy with unprecedented accuracy to determine the true "material footprint" of 186 countries over a two-decade period (from 1990 to 2008). The results confirm that pressures on raw materials do not necessarily decline as affluence grows and demonstrates the need for policy-makers to consider new accounting methods that more accurately track resource consumption.

Prehistoric climate shift linked to cosmic impact Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT For the first time, a dramatic global climate shift has been linked to the impact in Quebec of an asteroid or comet, Dartmouth researchers and their colleagues report in a new study. The cataclysmic event wiped out many of the planet's large mammals and may have prompted humans to start gathering and growing some of their food rather than solely hunting big game.

Giant Triassic amphibian was a burrowing youngster Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT During the Triassic Period Krasiejów, Poland had a warm climate and was populated by giant amphibians, such as Metoposaurus diagnosticus. Like modern amphibians, Metoposaurus needed water, but an extremely long dry season drove this species to burrow underground and go dormant. This recently discovered burrowing behavior was explored in a new study examining the overall structure Metoposaurus' skeleton and the microscopic structure of its bones.

Single tone alerts brain to complete sound pattern Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:26 PM PDT The processing of sound in the brain is more advanced than previously thought. When we hear a tone, our brain temporarily strengthens that tone but also any tones separated from it by one or more octaves.

Red cedar tree study shows that clean air act is reducing pollution, improving forests Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:25 PM PDT Ecologist have shown that the Clean Air Act has helped forest systems recover from decades of sulfur pollution and acid rain. The research team spent four years studying centuries-old eastern red cedar trees, or Juniperus virginiana, in the Central Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia.

Genetic reproductive barriers: Long-held assumption about emergence of new species questioned Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:25 PM PDT Darwin referred to the origin of species as "that mystery of mysteries," and even today, more than 150 years later, evolutionary biologists cannot fully explain how new animals and plants arise. For decades, nearly all research in the field has been based on the assumption that the main cause of the emergence of new species, a process called speciation, is the formation of barriers to reproduction between populations. But now researchers are questioning the long-held assumption that genetic reproductive barriers, also known as reproductive isolation, are a driving force behind speciation.

Average height of European males has grown by 11 centimeters in just over a century Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:17 AM PDT The average height of European males increased by an unprecedented 11 centimeters between the mid-nineteenth century and 1980, according to a new article. Contrary to expectations, the study also reveals that average height actually accelerated in the period spanning the two World Wars and the Great Depression.

New superheavy elements can be uniquely identified Posted: 30 Aug 2013 10:11 AM PDT Researchers presents fresh evidence that confirms the existence of the superheavy chemical element 115. The experiment provided a way to directly identify new superheavy elements. Elements beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as superheavy elements. They are produced at accelerator laboratories and generally decay after a short time. Initial reports about the discovery of an element with atomic number 115 were released from a research center in Russia in 2004. The then presented indirect evidence for the new element, however, was insufficient for an official discovery.

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