ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Laser device may end pin pricks, improve quality of life for diabetics
• Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis
• Sunlight, not microbes, key to carbon dioxide in Arctic
• X-ray laser probes tiny quantum tornadoes in superfluid droplets
• Severe drought is causing the western US to rise like a spring uncoiling
• How hummingbirds evolved to detect sweetness
• Cause of global warming hiatus found deep in the Atlantic Ocean
• First direct evidence of 'spin symmetry' in atoms
• Fish and coral smell a bad neighborhood: Marine protected areas might not be enough to help overfished reefs recover
• Alternate mechanism of species formation picks up support, thanks to a South American ant
• Viruses take down massive algal blooms, with big implications for climate
• Children with autism have extra synapses in brain: May be possible to prune synapses with drug after diagnosis
• Neanderthals 'overlapped' with modern humans for up to 5,400 years
• Physicists have chilled the world's coolest molecule
• Polio: Mutated virus breaches vaccine protection
• Electric sparks may alter evolution of lunar soil
• Your toothpaste's fluorine formed in the stars
• Oldest metal object found to date in Middle East
• 3-D printers used to create custom medical implants that deliver drugs, chemo
• The ABC's of animal speech: Not so random after all
• More than 100,000 African elephants killed in three years, study verifies

Laser device may end pin pricks, improve quality of life for diabetics Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:16 AM PDT Researchers have developed a way to use a laser to measure people's blood sugar, and, with more work to shrink the laser system to a portable size, the technique could allow diabetics to check their condition without pricking themselves to draw blood. In a new article, the researchers describe how they measured blood sugar by directing their specialized laser at a person's palm.

Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:15 AM PDT Bacteria growing in near darkness use a previously unknown process for harvesting energy and producing oxygen from sunlight, scientists have discovered. The discovery lays the foundation for further research aimed at improving plant growth, harvesting energy from the sun, and understanding dense blooms like those now occurring on Lake Erie and other lakes worldwide.

Sunlight, not microbes, key to carbon dioxide in Arctic Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:15 AM PDT The vast reservoir of carbon stored in Arctic permafrost is gradually being converted to carbon dioxide after entering the freshwater system in a process thought to be controlled largely by microbial activity. However, researchers say that sunlight and not bacteria is the key to triggering the production of CO2 from material released by Arctic soils.

X-ray laser probes tiny quantum tornadoes in superfluid droplets Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:15 AM PDT An experiment at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory revealed a well-organized 3-D grid of quantum 'tornadoes' inside microscopic droplets of supercooled liquid helium -- the first time this formation has been seen at such a tiny scale. The findings by an international research team provide new insight on the strange nanoscale traits of a so-called 'superfluid' state of liquid helium.

Severe drought is causing the western US to rise like a spring uncoiling Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:15 AM PDT The severe drought gripping the western United States in recent years is changing the landscape well beyond localized effects of water restrictions and browning lawns. Scientists have used GPS data to discover that the growing, broad-scale loss of water is causing the entire western US to rise up like an uncoiled spring.

How hummingbirds evolved to detect sweetness Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT Hummingbirds' ability to detect sweetness evolved from an ancestral savory taste receptor that is mostly tuned to flavors in amino acids. Feasting on nectar and the occasional insect, the tiny birds expanded throughout North and South America, numbering more than 300 species over the 40 to 72 million years since they branched off from their closest relative, the swift.

Cause of global warming hiatus found deep in the Atlantic Ocean Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT Observations show that the heat absent from the Earth's surface for more than a decade is plunging deep in the north and south Atlantic Ocean, and is part of a naturally occurring cycle. Subsurface warming in the ocean explains why global average air temperatures have flatlined since 1999, despite greenhouse gases trapping more solar heat at Earth's surface.

First direct evidence of 'spin symmetry' in atoms Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT Physicists have observed the first direct evidence of symmetry in the magnetic properties -- or nuclear 'spins' -- of atoms. The advance could spin off practical benefits such as the ability to simulate and better understand exotic materials such as superconductors.

Fish and coral smell a bad neighborhood: Marine protected areas might not be enough to help overfished reefs recover Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:13 AM PDT Pacific corals and fish can both smell a bad neighborhood, and use that ability to avoid settling in damaged reefs. Damaged coral reefs emit chemical cues that repulse young coral and fish, discouraging them from settling in the degraded habitat, according to new research. The study shows for the first time that coral larvae can smell the difference between healthy and damaged reefs when they decide where to settle.

Alternate mechanism of species formation picks up support, thanks to a South American ant Posted: 21 Aug 2014 09:48 AM PDT A newly discovered species of ant supports a controversial theory of species formation. The ant, only found in a single patch of eucalyptus trees on the São Paulo State University campus in Brazil, branched off from its original species while living in the same colony, something thought rare in current models of evolutionary development.

Viruses take down massive algal blooms, with big implications for climate Posted: 21 Aug 2014 09:48 AM PDT Humans are increasingly dependent on algae to suck up climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sink it to the bottom of the ocean. Now, by using a combination of satellite imagery and laboratory experiments, researchers have evidence showing that viruses infecting those algae are driving the life-and-death dynamics of the algae's blooms, even when all else stays essentially the same, and this has important implications for our climate.

Children with autism have extra synapses in brain: May be possible to prune synapses with drug after diagnosis Posted: 21 Aug 2014 09:47 AM PDT Children and adolescents with autism have a surplus of synapses in the brain, and this excess is due to a slowdown in a normal brain "pruning" process during development, according to a new study. Because synapses are the points where neurons connect and communicate with each other, the excessive synapses may have profound effects on how the brain functions.

Neanderthals 'overlapped' with modern humans for up to 5,400 years Posted: 21 Aug 2014 09:37 AM PDT Neanderthals and modern humans were both living in Europe for between 2,600 and 5,400 years, according to a new article. For the first time, scientists have constructed a robust timeline showing when the last Neanderthals died out.

Physicists have chilled the world's coolest molecule Posted: 21 Aug 2014 08:59 AM PDT Physicists have chilled the world's coolest molecules. The tiny titans in question are bits of strontium monofluoride, dropped to 2.5 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero through a laser cooling and isolating process called magneto-optical trapping. They are the coldest molecules ever achieved through direct cooling, and they represent a physics milestone likely to prompt new research in areas ranging from quantum chemistry to tests of the most basic theories in particle physics.

Polio: Mutated virus breaches vaccine protection Posted: 21 Aug 2014 08:57 AM PDT Thanks to effective vaccination, polio is considered nearly eradicated. Each year only a few hundred people are stricken worldwide. However, scientists are reporting alarming findings: a mutated virus that was able to resist the vaccine protection to a considerable extent was found in victims of an outbreak in the Congo in 2010. The pathogen could also potentially have infected many people in Germany.

Electric sparks may alter evolution of lunar soil Posted: 21 Aug 2014 07:24 AM PDT The moon appears to be a tranquil place, but new modeling suggests that, over the eons, periodic storms of solar energetic particles may have significantly altered the properties of the soil in the moon's coldest craters through the process of sparking -- a finding that could change our understanding of the evolution of planetary surfaces in the solar system.

Your toothpaste's fluorine formed in the stars Posted: 21 Aug 2014 07:23 AM PDT The fluorine that is found in products such as toothpaste was likely formed billions of years ago in now-dead stars of the same type as our sun, according to new research by astronomers.

Oldest metal object found to date in Middle East Posted: 21 Aug 2014 07:15 AM PDT A copper awl, the oldest metal object found to date in the Middle East, has been discovered during the excavations at Tel Tsaf. The awl dates back to the late 6th millennium or the early 5th millennium BCE, moving back by several hundred years the date it was previously thought that the peoples of the region began to use metals.

3-D printers used to create custom medical implants that deliver drugs, chemo Posted: 21 Aug 2014 06:06 AM PDT An innovative method for using affordable, consumer-grade 3D printers and materials has been developed to fabricate custom medical implants that can contain antibacterial and chemotherapeutic compounds for targeted drug delivery. "It is truly novel and a worldwide first to be 3D printing custom devices with antibiotics and chemotherapeutics," said one researcher.

The ABC's of animal speech: Not so random after all Posted: 19 Aug 2014 05:02 PM PDT The calls of many animals, from whales to wolves, might contain more language-like structure than previously thought, according to study that raises new questions about the evolutionary origins of human language.

More than 100,000 African elephants killed in three years, study verifies Posted: 19 Aug 2014 12:52 PM PDT New research has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012. The study shows these losses are driving population declines of the world's wild African elephants on the order of 2 percent to 3 percent a year.

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