ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Structure of molecular machine that targets viral DNA for destruction determined
• Robot folds itself up and walks away: Demonstrates potential for sophisticated machines that build themselves
• Learning from origami to design new materials
• A Step closer to understanding the birth of the sun
• Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup: Extremophilic ecosystems writ small
• The black hole at the birth of the Universe
• Fundamental plant chemicals trace back to bacteria
• Dramatic growth of grafted stem cells in rat spinal cord
• Part of brain stays as active in old age as it was in youth
• Stress during pregnancy can be passed down through generations, rat study shows
• Astronomers find stream of gas, 2.6 million light years long
• Acute psychological stress promotes skin healing in mice
• Synthesis of structurally pure carbon nanotubes using molecular seeds
• Excavation of ancient well yields insight into Etruscan, Roman and medieval times
• Link between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed
• Tornado strength, frequency, linked to climate change
• Brain tumors fly under body's radar like stealth jets, new research suggests

Structure of molecular machine that targets viral DNA for destruction determined Posted: 07 Aug 2014 12:41 PM PDT Scientists have described the molecular blueprint of a surveillance 'machine' that protects bacteria from viral infections.

Robot folds itself up and walks away: Demonstrates potential for sophisticated machines that build themselves Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:59 AM PDT A team of engineers used little more than paper and Shrinky dinks -- the classic children's toy that shrinks when heated -- to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, and crawls away without any human intervention. The advance demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build sophisticated machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process.

Learning from origami to design new materials Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:58 AM PDT A challenge increasingly important to physicists and materials scientists in recent years has been how to design controllable new materials that exhibit desired physical properties rather than relying on those properties to emerge naturally. Now physicists and polymer scientists are using origami-based folding methods for 'tuning' the fundamental physical properties of any type of thin sheet.

A Step closer to understanding the birth of the sun Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT Researchers are a step closer to understanding the birth of the sun. Scientists have investigated the solar system's prehistoric phase and the events that led to the birth of the sun.

Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup: Extremophilic ecosystems writ small Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT An international team of researchers has found extremely small habitats that increase the potential for life on other planets while offering a way to clean up oil spills on our own. Looking at samples from the world's largest natural asphalt lake, they found active microbes in droplets as small as a microliter, which is about 1/50th of a drop of water.

The black hole at the birth of the Universe Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:56 AM PDT The big bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it? Three Perimeter Institute researchers have a new idea about what might have come before the big bang. It's a bit perplexing, but it is grounded in sound mathematics and is it testable?

Fundamental plant chemicals trace back to bacteria Posted: 07 Aug 2014 09:18 AM PDT A fundamental chemical pathway that all plants use to create an essential amino acid needed by all animals to make proteins has now been traced to two groups of ancient bacteria. Researchers describe in a new article how they traced the phenylalanine pathway to two groups of bacteria. "Our question was how plants can produce so many different kinds and amounts of these aromatics, particularly the phenylalanine-derived compounds," they explain.

Dramatic growth of grafted stem cells in rat spinal cord Posted: 07 Aug 2014 09:17 AM PDT Scientists have reported that neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells and grafted into rats after a spinal cord injury produced cells with 10s of thousands of axons extending virtually the entire length of the animals' central nervous system.

Part of brain stays as active in old age as it was in youth Posted: 07 Aug 2014 09:14 AM PDT At least one part of the human brain may be able to process information the same way in older age as it does in the prime of life, according to new research. "Our studies have found that older and younger adults perform in a similar way on a range of visual and non-visual tasks that measure spatial attention," says one researcher. Spatial attention is critical for many aspects of life, from driving, to walking, to picking up and using objects.

Stress during pregnancy can be passed down through generations, rat study shows Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:54 AM PDT To better understand problems during pregnancies today, we should look to the experiences of our ancestors, research suggests. Scientists investigating pregnancies in four generations of rats show that inherited epigenetic effects of stress could affect pregnancies for generations.

Astronomers find stream of gas, 2.6 million light years long Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:50 AM PDT Astronomers and students have found a bridge of atomic hydrogen gas 2.6 million light years long between galaxies 500 million light years away. The stream of atomic hydrogen gas is the largest known, a million light years longer than a gas tail found in the Virgo Cluster by another Arecibo project a few years ago.

Acute psychological stress promotes skin healing in mice Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:43 AM PDT Brief, acute psychological stress promoted healing in mouse models of three different types of skin irritations, in a new study. Scientists found that healing was brought about by the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids -- steroid hormones -- produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress.

Synthesis of structurally pure carbon nanotubes using molecular seeds Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:43 AM PDT For the first time, researchers have succeeded in "growing" single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNT) with a single predefined structure -- and hence with identical electronic properties. And here is how they pulled it off: the CNTs "assembled themselves", as it were, out of tailor-made organic precursor molecules on a platinum surface. In future, CNTs of this kind may be used in ultra-sensitive light detectors and ultra-small transistors.

Excavation of ancient well yields insight into Etruscan, Roman and medieval times Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:36 AM PDT During a four-year excavation of an Etruscan well at the ancient Italian settlement of Cetamura del Chianti, a team led by a archaeologist and art historian unearthed artifacts spanning more than 15 centuries of Etruscan, Roman and medieval civilization in Tuscany.

Link between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed Posted: 06 Aug 2014 01:16 PM PDT Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older people, according to the most robust study of its kind ever conducted. An international team found that study participants who were severely vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Tornado strength, frequency, linked to climate change Posted: 06 Aug 2014 12:40 PM PDT New research shows that climate change may be playing a key role in the strength and frequency of tornadoes hitting the United States.

Brain tumors fly under body's radar like stealth jets, new research suggests Posted: 06 Aug 2014 12:39 PM PDT Brain tumors fly under the radar of the body's defense forces by coating their cells with extra amounts of a specific protein, new research shows. Like a stealth fighter jet, the coating means the cells evade detection by the early-warning immune system that should detect and kill them.

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