ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• Liberal or conservative? Reactions to disgust are a dead giveaway
• New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat
• Can the wave function of an electron be divided and trapped?
• Breathe easier: Get your vitamin D
• Compensation and punishment: 'Justice' depends on whether or not we're a victim
• Ancient auditory illusions reflected in prehistoric art?
• How did complex life evolve? The answer could be inside out
• Does having children make us any happier?
• Prostate cancer risk reduced by sleeping with many women, but increased with many men, study finds
• Deepwater Horizon spill: Much of the oil at bottom of the sea
• Physicists closer to understanding balance of matter, antimatter in universe
• How cells know which way to go
• Astronomers image the exploding fireball stage of a nova
• Hinode satellite captures X-ray footage of solar eclipse
• Illusions in the cosmic clouds: New image of spinning neutron star
• Icelandic volcano sits on massive magma hot spot
• Sunshine may slow weight gain, diabetes onset, study suggests
• Precise, programmable biological circuits
• Moving in the quantum world

Liberal or conservative? Reactions to disgust are a dead giveaway Posted: 29 Oct 2014 09:45 AM PDT The way a person's brain responds to a single disgusting image is enough to reliably predict whether he or she identifies politically as liberal or conservative. As we approach Election Day, the researchers say that the findings come as a reminder of something we all know but probably don't always do: 'Think, don't just react.'

New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat Posted: 29 Oct 2014 06:54 AM PDT A multidisciplinary engineering team developed a new nanoparticle-based material for concentrating solar power plants designed to absorb and convert to heat more than 90 percent of the sunlight it captures. The new material can also withstand temperatures greater than 700 degrees Celsius and survive many years outdoors in spite of exposure to air and humidity.

Can the wave function of an electron be divided and trapped? Posted: 28 Oct 2014 06:41 PM PDT Electrons are elementary particles -- indivisible, unbreakable. But new research suggests the electron's quantum state -- the electron wave function -- can be separated into many parts. That has some strange implications for the theory of quantum mechanics.

Breathe easier: Get your vitamin D Posted: 28 Oct 2014 09:26 AM PDT Asthma, which inflames and narrows the airways, has become more common in recent years. While there is no known cure, asthma can be managed with medication and by avoiding allergens and other triggers. A new study points to a convenient, free way to manage acute asthmatic episodes -- catching some rays outside.

Compensation and punishment: 'Justice' depends on whether or not we're a victim Posted: 28 Oct 2014 09:24 AM PDT We're more likely to punish wrongdoing as a third party to a non-violent offense than when we're victimized by it, according to a new study. The findings may offer insights into how juries differ from plaintiffs in seeking to restore justice.

Ancient auditory illusions reflected in prehistoric art? Posted: 28 Oct 2014 08:47 AM PDT Some of humankind's earliest and most mysterious artistic achievements -- including prehistoric cave paintings, canyon petroglyphs and megalithic structures such as Stonehenge -- may have been inspired by the behaviors of sound waves being misinterpreted as "supernatural."

How did complex life evolve? The answer could be inside out Posted: 28 Oct 2014 05:26 AM PDT A new idea about the origin of complex life turns current theories inside out. Scientists explain their 'inside-out' theory of how eukaryotic cells, which all multicellular life -- including us -- are formed of, might have evolved.

Does having children make us any happier? Posted: 28 Oct 2014 05:24 AM PDT The birth of a first and a second child briefly increases the level of their parents' happiness, but a third does not, according to new research. Those who have children at an older age or who are more educated have a particularly positive response to a first birth. Older parents, between the ages of 35 -- 49, have the strongest happiness gains around the time of birth and stay at a higher level of happiness after becoming parents, the research indicates.

Prostate cancer risk reduced by sleeping with many women, but increased with many men, study finds Posted: 28 Oct 2014 05:21 AM PDT Compared to men who have had only one partner during their lifetime, having sex with more than 20 women is associated with a 28% lower risk of one day being diagnosed with prostate cancer. However, having more than 20 male partners in one's lifetime is associated with a twofold higher risk of getting prostate cancer compared to those who have never slept with a man.

Deepwater Horizon spill: Much of the oil at bottom of the sea Posted: 27 Oct 2014 03:29 PM PDT Due to its unprecedented scope, the damage assessment caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been a challenge. One unsolved puzzle is the location of 2 million barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean.

Physicists closer to understanding balance of matter, antimatter in universe Posted: 27 Oct 2014 11:50 AM PDT Physicists have made important discoveries regarding Bs meson particles -- something that may explain why the Universe contains more matter than antimatter.

How cells know which way to go Posted: 27 Oct 2014 05:50 AM PDT Amoebas aren't the only cells that crawl: Movement is crucial to development, wound healing and immune response in animals, not to mention cancer metastasis. In two new studies, researchers answer long-standing questions about how complex cells sense the chemical trails that show them where to go — and the role of cells' internal "skeleton" in responding to those cues.

Astronomers image the exploding fireball stage of a nova Posted: 26 Oct 2014 04:50 PM PDT Astronomers have observed the expanding thermonuclear fireball from a nova that erupted last year in the constellation Delphinus with unprecedented clarity.

Hinode satellite captures X-ray footage of solar eclipse Posted: 25 Oct 2014 12:27 PM PDT The moon passed between the Earth and the sun on Thursday, Oct. 23. While avid stargazers in North America looked up to watch the spectacle, the best vantage point was several hundred miles above the North Pole. The Hinode spacecraft was in the right place at the right time to catch the solar eclipse. What's more, because of its vantage point Hinode witnessed a 'ring of fire' or annular eclipse.

Illusions in the cosmic clouds: New image of spinning neutron star Posted: 24 Oct 2014 04:59 PM PDT Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon where people see recognizable shapes in clouds, rock formations, or otherwise unrelated objects or data. There are many examples of this phenomenon on Earth and in space.

Icelandic volcano sits on massive magma hot spot Posted: 24 Oct 2014 11:20 AM PDT New research shows that high mantle temperatures miles beneath the Earth's surface are essential for generating large amounts of magma. In fact, the scientists found that Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano lies directly above the hottest portion of the North Atlantic mantle plume.

Sunshine may slow weight gain, diabetes onset, study suggests Posted: 23 Oct 2014 12:50 PM PDT Exposure to moderate amounts of sunshine may slow the development of obesity and diabetes, a study in mice suggests. The researchers showed that shining UV light at overfed mice slowed their weight gain. The mice displayed fewer of the warning signs linked to diabetes, such as abnormal glucose levels and resistance to insulin.

Precise, programmable biological circuits Posted: 23 Oct 2014 07:07 AM PDT Several new components for biological circuits have been developed by researchers. These components are key building blocks for constructing precisely functioning and programmable bio-computers. "The ability to combine biological components at will in a modular, plug-and-play fashion means that we now approach the stage when the concept of programming as we know it from software engineering can be applied to biological computers. Bio-engineers will literally be able to program in future."

Moving in the quantum world Posted: 23 Oct 2014 06:18 AM PDT Simulating the behavior of a single particle can be quite a challenging task in physics; after all, it is microscopic and we usually cannot watch in real time. It becomes even more complicated when you realize that the particle has to follow the laws of quantum physics, which allow it be in two or more places at the same time through a phenomenon called superposition. Understanding how a quantum particle behaves is necessary to enhance our fundamental understanding of the laws of physics.

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