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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


Genes increase the stress of social disadvantage for some children

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 12:39 PM PDT

Genes amplify the stress of harsh environments for some children, and magnify the advantage of supportive environments for other children, according to a study that's one of the first to document how genes interacting with social environments affect biomarkers of stress. The study used telomere length as a marker of stress. Found at the ends of chromosomes, telomeres generally shorten with age, and when individuals are exposed to disease and chronic stress, including the stress of living in a disadvantaged environment.

BOSS quasars track the expanding universe: Most precise measurement yet

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 11:37 AM PDT

Scientists have made novel measurements of the structure of the universe when it was only about 3 billion years old, using quasars collected by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Results include the most precise measurement of expansion since galaxies formed. BOSS, the largest component of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey, pioneered the use of quasars to chart universal expansion and the role of dark energy.

Trees go high-tech: Process turns cellulose into energy storage devices

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 10:10 AM PDT

A fundamental chemical discovery should allow tress to soon play a major role in making high-tech energy storage devices. A method has been discovered to turn cellulose -- the most abundant organic polymer on Earth and a key component of trees –- into the building blocks for supercapacitors.

Slowdown of global warming fleeting

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 08:33 AM PDT

The recent slowdown in the warming rate of the Northern Hemisphere may be a result of internal variability of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation -- a natural phenomenon related to sea surface temperatures, according to researchers.

Rage-quitting: Feelings of failure, not violent content, foster aggression in video gamers

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 08:31 AM PDT

The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers' experiences of failure and frustration during play—not to a game's violent content.

Procrastination and impulsivity genetically linked: Exploring the genetics of 'I'll do it tomorrow'

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 07:17 AM PDT

Procrastination and impulsivity are genetically linked, suggesting that the two traits stem from similar evolutionary origins, according to new research. The research indicates that the traits are related to our ability to successfully pursue and juggle goals.

Green tea extract boosts your brain power, especially the working memory, new research shows

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 07:15 AM PDT

Green tea is said to have many putative positive effects on health. Now, researchers are reporting first evidence that green tea extract enhances the cognitive functions, in particular the working memory. The findings suggest promising clinical implications for the treatment of cognitive impairments in psychiatric disorders such as dementia.

Ancient shrimp-like animals had 'modern' hearts and blood vessels

Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:07 AM PDT

In 520 million-year-old fossil deposits resembling an 'invertebrate version of Pompeii,' researchers have found an ancestor of modern crustaceans revealing the first-known cardiovascular system in exquisitely preserved detail. The organ system is surprisingly complex and adds to the notion that sophisticated body plans had already evolved more than half a billion years ago.

Blood test could detect solid cancers

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT

A blood sample could one day be enough to diagnose many types of solid cancers, or to monitor the amount of cancer in a patient's body and responses to treatment. Now, researchers have devised a way to quickly bring the technique to the clinic. Their approach, which should be broadly applicable to many types of cancers, is highly sensitive and specific. With it they were able to accurately identify about 50 percent of people in the study with stage-1 lung cancer and all patients whose cancers were more advanced.

Food quality will suffer with rising carbon dioxide, field study shows

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT

Climate change is hitting home -- in the pantry, this time. A field study of wheat demonstrates how the nutritional quality of food crops can be diminished when elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide interfere with a plant's ability to process nitrate into proteins. "Several explanations for this decline have been put forward, but this is the first study to demonstrate that elevated carbon dioxide inhibits the conversion of nitrate into protein in a field-grown crop," the lead researcher said.

Key cells in touch sensation identified: Skin cells use new molecule to send touch information to the brain

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:22 PM PDT

Biologists have solved an age-old mystery of touch: how cells just beneath the skin surface enable us to feel fine details and textures. Touch is the last frontier of sensory neuroscience. The cells and molecules that initiate vision -- rod and cone cells and light-sensitive receptors -- have been known since the early 20th century, and the senses of smell, taste, and hearing are increasingly understood. But almost nothing is known about the cells and molecules responsible for initiating our sense of touch.

Self-assembled silver superlattices create molecular machines with hydrogen-bond 'hinges' and moving 'gears'

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:22 PM PDT

A combined computational and experimental study of self-assembled silver-based structures known as superlattices has revealed an unusual and unexpected behavior: arrays of gear-like molecular-scale machines that rotate in unison when pressure is applied to them.

Tracking the transition of early-universe quark soup to matter-as-we-know-it

Posted: 04 Apr 2014 10:58 AM PDT

By smashing together ordinary atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, scientists recreate the primordial soup of the early universe thousands of times per second. Using sophisticated detectors to track what happens as exotic particles emerge from the collision zone and "freeze out" into more familiar forms of matter, they are turning up interesting details about how the transition takes place.

Brain region for resisting alcohol's allure found

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 06:19 PM PDT

When a region of the brain called the lateral habenula is chronically inactivated in rats, they repeatedly drink to excess and are less able to learn from the experience, neuroscientists report. The study has implications for understanding behaviors that drive alcohol addiction. "If we can understand the brain circuits that control sensitivity to alcohol's aversive effects, then we can start to get a handle on who may become a problem drinker," said the lead researcher.

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