ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- Are ants the answer to carbon dioxide sequestration?
- Humans walking on all fours is not backward evolution
- Sharpest map of Mars surface properties
- Tooth plaque provides unique insights into our prehistoric ancestors' diet
- Asteroid Vesta to reshape theories of planet formation
- Brain of world's first known predators discovered
- Scientists find way to trap, kill malaria parasite
- One injection stops diabetes in its tracks: Treatment reverses symptoms of type 2 diabetes in mice without side effects
- Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis
- NASA's Van Allen Probes show how to accelerate electrons
| Are ants the answer to carbon dioxide sequestration? Posted: 16 Jul 2014 03:31 PM PDT A 25-year-long study provides the first quantitative measurement of in situ calcium-magnesium silicate mineral dissolution by ants, termites, tree roots, and bare ground. This study reveals that ants are one of the most powerful biological agents of mineral decay yet observed. It may be that an understanding of the geobiology of ant-mineral interactions might offer a line of research on how to "geoengineer" accelerated carbon dioxide consumption by Ca-Mg silicates. |
| Humans walking on all fours is not backward evolution Posted: 16 Jul 2014 12:11 PM PDT Five siblings in the family, who live in a remote corner of Turkey, walk exclusively on their hands and feet. Since they were discovered in 2005, scientists have debated the nature of their disability, with speculation they represent a backward stage of evolution. An anthropologist finds quadrupedal humans with Uner Tan Syndrome do not walk in the diagonal pattern characteristic of nonhuman primates such as apes and monkeys. |
| Sharpest map of Mars surface properties Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT A heat-sensing camera has provided data to create the most detailed global map yet made of Martian surface properties. Surface properties tell geologists about the physical nature of a planet or moon's surface. Is a particular area coated with dust, and if so, how thick is it likely to be? Where are the outcrops of bedrock? How loose are the sediments that fill this crater or that valley? A map of surface properties lets scientists begin to answer questions such as these. |
| Tooth plaque provides unique insights into our prehistoric ancestors' diet Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:10 AM PDT An international team of researchers has found new evidence that our prehistoric ancestors had a detailed understanding of plants long before the development of agriculture. By extracting chemical compounds and microfossils from dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) from ancient teeth, the researchers were able to provide an entirely new perspective on our ancestors' diets. Their research suggests that purple nut sedge (Cyperus rotundus) -- today regarded as a nuisance weed -- formed an important part of the prehistoric diet. |
| Asteroid Vesta to reshape theories of planet formation Posted: 16 Jul 2014 10:16 AM PDT Researchers have a better understanding of the asteroid Vesta and its internal structure, thanks to numerical simulations and data from the space mission Dawn. Their findings question contemporary models of rocky planet formation, including that of Earth. |
| Brain of world's first known predators discovered Posted: 16 Jul 2014 10:16 AM PDT Scientists have found the fossilized remains of the brain of the world's earliest known predators, from a time when life teemed in the oceans but had not yet colonized the land. The discovery reveals a brain much simpler than those known in some of the animal's prey and helps answer questions surrounding the evolution of arthropods. |
| Scientists find way to trap, kill malaria parasite Posted: 16 Jul 2014 10:15 AM PDT Scientists may be able to entomb the malaria parasite in a prison of its own making, researchers report. As it invades a red blood cell, the malaria parasite takes part of the host cell's membrane to build a protective compartment. The parasite then starts a series of major renovations that transform the red blood cell into a suitable home. But the new research reveals the proteins that make these renovations must pass through a single pore in the parasite's compartment to get into the red blood cell. When the scientists disrupted passage through that pore in cell cultures, the parasite stopped growing and died. |
| Posted: 16 Jul 2014 10:15 AM PDT In mice with diet-induced diabetes -- the equivalent of type 2 diabetes in humans -- a single injection of the protein FGF1 is enough to restore blood sugar levels to a healthy range for more than two days. The discovery could lead to a new generation of safer, more effective diabetes drugs. The team found that sustained treatment with the protein doesn't merely keep blood sugar under control, but also reverses insulin insensitivity, the underlying physiological cause of diabetes. Equally exciting, the newly developed treatment doesn't result in side effects common to most current diabetes treatments. |
| Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis Posted: 16 Jul 2014 06:07 AM PDT A new self-assembling nanoparticle has been developed that targets tumors, to help doctors diagnose cancer earlier. The new nanoparticle boosts the effectiveness of MRI scanning by specifically seeking out receptors that are found in cancerous cells. The nanoparticle is coated with a special protein that looks for specific signals given off by tumors. When it finds one, it begins to interact with the cancerous cells; this interaction strips off the protein coating, causing the nanoparticle to self-assemble into a much larger particle so that it is more visible on the scan. |
| NASA's Van Allen Probes show how to accelerate electrons Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT One of the great, unanswered questions for space weather scientists is just what creates two gigantic donuts of radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen radiation belts. Recent data from the Van Allen Probes -- two nearly identical spacecraft that launched in 2012 -- address this question. |
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