ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Impact that doomed the dinosaurs helped the forests bloom
• First water-based nuclear battery can be used to generate electrical energy
• Scientists twist radio beams to send data: Transmissions reach speeds of 32 gigibits per second
• For electronics beyond silicon, a new contender emerges
• Ebola outbreak 'out of all proportion' and severity cannot be predicated, expert says
• How learning to talk is in the genes
• Human faces are so variable because we evolved to look unique
• Scientists create therapy-grade stem cells using new cocktail to reprogram adult cells
• Each tree species has unique bacterial identity, microbiome research shows
• 219 million stars: Astronomers release most detailed catalog ever made of the visible Milky Way
• 'Squid skin' metamaterials project yields vivid color display
• Asian monsoon much older than previously thought

Impact that doomed the dinosaurs helped the forests bloom Posted: 16 Sep 2014 11:15 AM PDT Some 66 million years ago, a 10-km diameter chunk of rock hit the Yucatan peninsula with the force of 100 teratons of TNT. It left a crater more than 150 km across, and the resulting megatsunami, wildfires, global earthquakes and volcanism are widely accepted to have wiped out the dinosaurs and made way for the rise of the mammals. But what happened to the plants on which the dinosaurs fed?

First water-based nuclear battery can be used to generate electrical energy Posted: 16 Sep 2014 10:25 AM PDT For the first time using a water-based solution, researchers have created a long-lasting and more efficient nuclear battery that could be used for many applications such as a reliable energy source in automobiles and also in complicated applications such as space flight.

Scientists twist radio beams to send data: Transmissions reach speeds of 32 gigibits per second Posted: 16 Sep 2014 10:25 AM PDT Researchers twist four radio beams together to achieve high data transmission speeds. The researchers reached data transmission rates of 32 gigabits per second across 2.5 meters of free space in a basement lab. For reference, 32 gigabits per second is fast enough to transmit more than 10 hour-and-a-half-long HD movies in one second and is 30 times faster than LTE wireless.

For electronics beyond silicon, a new contender emerges Posted: 16 Sep 2014 09:37 AM PDT Using a quantum material called a correlated oxide, researchers have achieved a reversible change in electrical resistance of eight orders of magnitude, a result the researchers are calling 'colossal.' In short, they have engineered this material to perform comparably with the best silicon switches.

Ebola outbreak 'out of all proportion' and severity cannot be predicated, expert says Posted: 16 Sep 2014 09:29 AM PDT A mathematical model that replicates Ebola outbreaks can no longer be used to ascertain the eventual scale of the current epidemic, finds new research.

How learning to talk is in the genes Posted: 16 Sep 2014 08:22 AM PDT Researchers have found evidence that genetic factors may contribute to the development of language during infancy. Scientists discovered a significant link between genetic changes near the ROBO2 gene and the number of words spoken by children in the early stages of language development.

Human faces are so variable because we evolved to look unique Posted: 16 Sep 2014 08:22 AM PDT Why are human faces so variable compared to other animals, from lizards and penguins to dogs and monkeys? Scientists analyzed human faces and the genes that code for facial features and found a high variability that could only be explained by selection for variable faces, probably because of the importance of social interactions in human relationships and the need for humans to be recognizable.

Scientists create therapy-grade stem cells using new cocktail to reprogram adult cells Posted: 16 Sep 2014 08:19 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new cocktail that's highly effective at coaxing adult cells to become quality pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Using a new combination of reprogramming factors, they produced a higher quality result than the traditional formula. The new mix delivers fewer colonies of iPSCs, but 80% of them pass the toughest pluripotency test.

Each tree species has unique bacterial identity, microbiome research shows Posted: 16 Sep 2014 07:22 AM PDT Each tree species has its own bacterial identity. That's the conclusion of researchers who studied the genetic fingerprints of bacteria on 57 species of trees growing on a Panamanian island.

219 million stars: Astronomers release most detailed catalog ever made of the visible Milky Way Posted: 16 Sep 2014 05:48 AM PDT A new catalog of the visible part of the northern part of our home Galaxy, the Milky Way, includes no fewer than 219 million stars. From dark sky sites on Earth, the Milky Way appears as a glowing band stretching across the sky. To astronomers, it is the disk of our own galaxy, a system stretching across 100,000 light-years, seen edge-on from our vantage point orbiting the Sun. The disk contains the majority of the stars in the galaxy, including the Sun, and the densest concentrations of dust and gas.

'Squid skin' metamaterials project yields vivid color display Posted: 15 Sep 2014 01:52 PM PDT The quest to create artificial 'squid skin' -- camouflaging metamaterials that can 'see' colors and automatically blend into the background -- is one step closer to reality, thanks to a breakthrough color-display technology just unveiled.

Asian monsoon much older than previously thought Posted: 14 Sep 2014 12:07 PM PDT The Asian monsoon already existed 40 million years ago during a period of high atmospheric carbon dioxide and warmer temperatures, an international research team of geoscientists reports. Scientists thought the climate pattern known as the Asian monsoon began 22-25 million years ago as a result of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya Mountains.

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