ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Ancient crater could hold clues about moon's mantle
• First radiation measurements from the surface of Mars
• New drug approach could lead to cures for wide range of diseases
• Neural prosthesis restores behavior after brain injury
• Hidden details revealed in nearby starburst galaxy
• Archaeologists find oldest evidence of Late Stone Age settlement on Cyprus
• More light shed on possibility of life on Mars
• Mapping the demise of the dinosaurs
• Hard rock life: Collecting census data on microbial denizens of hardened rocks
• Solar cells made thin, efficient and flexible
• Morphing material has mighty potential: Composite may find use in bioscaffolds, optics, drugs
• New long-lived greenhouse gas discovered: Highest global-warming impact of any compound to date
• IRIS provides unprecedented images of sun
• Harvesting electricity: Triboelectric generators capture wasted power
• Aging out of bounds: New demographic data show how diversely different species age and biologists cannot explain why

Ancient crater could hold clues about moon's mantle Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:11 PM PST Researchers have found evidence of diverse mineralogy in the moon's South Pole Aitken basin, a giant crater left by an impact 4 billion years ago. The findings could mean that some minerals dug up during that ancient impact remain intact within the basin. If that's true, then the basin could hold vital clues about the makeup of the moon's mantle.

First radiation measurements from the surface of Mars Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:11 PM PST In the first 300 days of the Mars Science Laboratory's surface mission, the Curiosity rover cruised around the planet's Gale Crater, collecting soil samples and investigating rock structures while the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector made detailed measurements of the radiation environment on the surface of Mars. The radiation on Mars is much harsher than on Earth for two reasons: Mars lacks a global magnetic field and the Martian atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's, providing little shielding to the surface.

New drug approach could lead to cures for wide range of diseases Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:11 PM PST Scientists have demonstrated in mice what could be a revolutionary new technique to cure a wide range of human diseases -- from cystic fibrosis to cataracts to Alzheimer's disease -- that are caused by "misfolded" protein molecules.

Neural prosthesis restores behavior after brain injury Posted: 09 Dec 2013 12:22 PM PST Scientists have used a neural prosthesis to restore motor function in a rat model of brain injury. The technology is promising for TBI and stroke patients.

Hidden details revealed in nearby starburst galaxy Posted: 09 Dec 2013 11:32 AM PST Astronomers have captured never-before-seen details of the nearby starburst galaxy M82. These new data highlight streamers of material fleeing the disk of the galaxy as well as concentrations of dense molecular gas surrounding pockets of intense star formation.

Archaeologists find oldest evidence of Late Stone Age settlement on Cyprus Posted: 09 Dec 2013 11:25 AM PST Artifacts found at an archaeological site in Cyprus support a new theory that humans occupied the tiny Mediterranean island about 1,000 years earlier than previously believed -- a discovery that fills an important gap in Cypriot history.

More light shed on possibility of life on Mars Posted: 09 Dec 2013 10:24 AM PST Humankind is by nature inquisitive, especially about the prospect of life on other planets and whether or not we are alone. The aptly named Curiosity, a NASA Mars rover, has been scouring that planet's surface as a potential habitat for life, either past or present. Now there are some exciting new findings.

Mapping the demise of the dinosaurs Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:45 AM PST About 65 million years ago, an asteroid or comet crashed into a shallow sea near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, resulting in the extinction of many land plants and large animals, including most of the dinosaurs. The remnants from this devastating impact are exposed along the Campeche Escarpment -- an immense underwater cliff in the southern Gulf of Mexico, according to new research.

Hard rock life: Collecting census data on microbial denizens of hardened rocks Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:41 AM PST Scientists are digging deep into the Earth's surface collecting census data on the microbial denizens of the hardened rocks. What they're finding is that, even miles deep and halfway across the globe, many of these communities are somehow quite similar.

Solar cells made thin, efficient and flexible Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:41 AM PST Scientists may be one step closer to tapping into the full potential of solar cells. The team found a way to create large sheets of nanotextured, silicon micro-cell arrays that hold the promise of making solar cells lightweight, more efficient, bendable and easy to mass produce.

Morphing material has mighty potential: Composite may find use in bioscaffolds, optics, drugs Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:41 AM PST The shape of a new composite material changes with the temperature in highly controllable ways. The material may be useful for biological, optical and pharmaceutical applications.

New long-lived greenhouse gas discovered: Highest global-warming impact of any compound to date Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:41 AM PST Scientists have discovered a novel chemical lurking in the atmosphere that appears to be a long-lived greenhouse gas. The chemical -- perfluorotributylamine -- is the most radiatively efficient chemical found to date, breaking all other chemical records for its potential to impact climate.

IRIS provides unprecedented images of sun Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:35 AM PST The region located between the surface of the sun and its atmosphere has been revealed as a more violent place than previously understood, according to images and data from NASA's newest solar observatory, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS.

Harvesting electricity: Triboelectric generators capture wasted power Posted: 09 Dec 2013 07:49 AM PST Researchers are developing a family of generators that provide power for portable electronic devices and sensors by harnessing the triboelectric effect to capture mechanical energy that would otherwise be wasted.

Aging out of bounds: New demographic data show how diversely different species age and biologists cannot explain why Posted: 09 Dec 2013 06:07 AM PST Despite aging being one the hottest topic in the media recently, scientists have no coherent explanation for it. New demographic data on humans, animals and plants for the first time unveil such an extraordinary diversity of aging processes that no existing evolutionary theory can account for. Both life spans and mortalities vary from species to species. The fact that the probability of dying rises with age applies to humans, but is not principally true. This is shown by a catalog of 46 species with their respective mortality and fertility rates.

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