ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Divers retrieve prehistoric wood from Lake Huron
• Bigger, scarier weapons help spiders get the girl
• Study debunks myths about gender and math performance
• A small step for lungfish, a big step for the evolution of walking
• Targeted proton transfer within a molecule: Smallest conceivable switch
• Hundreds of threatened species not on official US list
• Disappearance of the elephant caused rise of modern humans: Dietary change led to modern humans in Middle East 400,000 years ago
• 'Matrix'-style effortless learning? Vision scientists demonstrate innovative learning method
• Early black holes grew big eating cold, fast food
• World's smallest frogs discovered in New Guinea
• Friends and loved ones yawn together
• Researchers design Alzheimer’s antibodies: Surprisingly simple method to target harmful proteins
• Tropical sea temperatures influence melting in Antarctica

Divers retrieve prehistoric wood from Lake Huron Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:10 PM PST Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory.

Bigger, scarier weapons help spiders get the girl Posted: 12 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST If you're a red-headed guy with eight bulging eyes and a unibrow, size does indeed matter for getting the girl. More specifically, the bigger a male jumping spider's weapons appear to be, the more likely his rival will slink away without a fight, leaving the bigger guy a clear path to the waiting female.

Study debunks myths about gender and math performance Posted: 12 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST A major study of recent international data on school mathematics performance casts doubt on some common assumptions about gender and math achievement -- in particular, the idea that girls and women have less ability due to a difference in biology.

A small step for lungfish, a big step for the evolution of walking Posted: 12 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST The eel-like body and scrawny "limbs" of the African lungfish would appear to make it an unlikely innovator for locomotion. But its improbable walking behavior, newly described, redraws the evolutionary route of life on Earth from water to land.

Targeted proton transfer within a molecule: Smallest conceivable switch Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST For a long time miniaturization has been the magic word in electronics. Physicists have now presented a novel molecular switch. Decisive for the functionality of the switch is the position of a single proton in a porphyrin ring with an inside diameter of less than half a nanometer. The physicists can set four distinct states on demand.

Hundreds of threatened species not on official US list Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST Many of the animal species at risk of extinction in the United States have not made it onto the country's official Endangered Species Act list, according to new research.

Disappearance of the elephant caused rise of modern humans: Dietary change led to modern humans in Middle East 400,000 years ago Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:46 AM PST Scientists have connected evidence about diet with other cultural and anatomical clues to conclude that the disappearance of the elephants led to the emergence of Homo sapiens in the Middle East much earlier than first suspected. The findings set the stage for a new, revolutionary understanding of human history.

'Matrix'-style effortless learning? Vision scientists demonstrate innovative learning method Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:46 AM PST It may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort, new research suggests. It's the kind of thing seen in Hollywood's "Matrix" franchise.

Early black holes grew big eating cold, fast food Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:45 AM PST Researchers have discovered what caused the rapid growth of early supermassive black holes -- a steady diet of cold, fast food. Computer simulations show that thin streams of cold gas flow uncontrolled into the center of the first black holes, causing them to grow faster than anything else in the universe.

World's smallest frogs discovered in New Guinea Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:39 AM PST Field research has uncovered the world's smallest frogs in southeastern New Guinea. The discovery also makes them the world's smallest tetrapods (non-fish vertebrates). The frogs belong to the genus Paedophryne, all of whose species are extremely small, with adults of the two new species -- named Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa -- only 8 to 9 millimeters in length.

Friends and loved ones yawn together Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:26 AM PST Yawning is contagious, as everybody knows. A new study shows that "yawn transmission" is more frequent, and faster, between people sharing an emotional bond: close friends, kin, and mates.

Researchers design Alzheimer’s antibodies: Surprisingly simple method to target harmful proteins Posted: 09 Dec 2011 07:57 AM PST Researchers have developed a new method to design antibodies aimed at combating disease. The surprisingly simple process was used to make antibodies that neutralize the harmful protein particles that are believed to lead to Alzheimer's disease.

Tropical sea temperatures influence melting in Antarctica Posted: 06 Dec 2011 06:56 AM PST New research shows that accelerated melting of two fast-moving glaciers that drain Antarctic ice into the Amundsen Sea Embayment is likely in part the result of an increase in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

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