ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- Scientists prove plausibility of new pathway to life's chemical building blocks
- New species of ancient crocodile discovered
- Scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop on what we hear
- IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system
- Short-term memory is based on synchronized brain oscillations
- Microscopy reveals 'atomic antenna' behavior in graphene
- Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation
- 'Cool' gas may form and strengthen sunspots
- Surprise finding redraws 'map' of blood cell production
- Skin cells turned into neural precusors, bypassing stem-cell stage
- Mom's love good for child's brain
- Viruses con bacteria into working for them
| Scientists prove plausibility of new pathway to life's chemical building blocks Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:56 PM PST Scientists have demonstrated an alternative pathway to life-essential sugars called the glyoxylate scenario, which may push the field of pre-life chemistry past the formose reaction hurdle.  |
| New species of ancient crocodile discovered Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:56 PM PST A new species of prehistoric crocodile has been discovered. The extinct creature, nicknamed "Shieldcroc" due to a thick-skinned shield on its head, is an ancestor of today's crocodiles.  |
| Scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop on what we hear Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:51 PM PST Neuroscientists and surgeons have recorded electrical activity in the temporal lobe -- the seat of the auditory system -- to discover how the brain encodes sound. Their model allows them to predict what a person heard based solely on temporal lobe activity. If, as studies suggest, internal "imagined" conversations activate similar areas of the temporal lobe, it may be possible to hear the internal verbalizations of people who cannot talk because of paralysis or stroke.  |
| IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system Posted: 31 Jan 2012 10:57 AM PST Using data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft, an international team of researchers has measured neutral "alien" particles entering our solar system from interstellar space. A suite of studies provides a first look at the constituents of the interstellar medium, the matter between star systems, and how they interact with our heliosphere.  |
| Short-term memory is based on synchronized brain oscillations Posted: 31 Jan 2012 09:14 AM PST Holding information within one's memory for a short while is a seemingly simple and everyday task. We use our short-term memory when remembering a new telephone number if there is nothing to write at hand, or to find the beautiful dress inside the store that we were just admiring in the shopping window. Yet, despite the apparent simplicity of these actions, short-term memory is a complex cognitive act that entails the participation of multiple brain regions. However, whether and how different brain regions cooperate during memory has remained elusive. Researchers in Germany have now come closer to answering this question. They discovered that oscillations between different brain regions are crucial in visually remembering things over a short period of time.  |
| Microscopy reveals 'atomic antenna' behavior in graphene Posted: 31 Jan 2012 09:12 AM PST Atomic-level defects in graphene could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices. With unique properties and potential applications in areas from electronics to biodevices, graphene, which consists of a single sheet of carbon atoms, has been hailed as a rising star in the materials world. Now, a new study suggests that point defects, composed of silicon atoms that replace individual carbon atoms in graphene, could aid attempts to transfer data on an atomic scale by coupling light with electrons.  |
| Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation Posted: 31 Jan 2012 07:25 AM PST Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change.  |
| 'Cool' gas may form and strengthen sunspots Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:31 AM PST Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope.  |
| Surprise finding redraws 'map' of blood cell production Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:31 AM PST A study of the cells that respond to crises in the blood system has yielded a few surprises, redrawing the 'map' of how blood cells are made in the body. The finding could have wide-ranging implications for understanding blood diseases such as myeloproliferative disorders as well as used to develop new ways of controlling how blood and clotting cells are produced.  |
| Skin cells turned into neural precusors, bypassing stem-cell stage Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:19 PM PST Mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, according to researchers. The finding is an extension of a previous study by the same group showing that mouse and human skin cells can be directly converted into functional neurons.  |
| Mom's love good for child's brain Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:01 PM PST School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children's brain anatomy are linked to a mother's nurturing.  |
| Viruses con bacteria into working for them Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:37 AM PST Researchers have discovered that certain photosynthetic ocean bacteria need to beware of viruses bearing gifts. These viruses are really con artists carrying genetic material taken from their previous bacterial hosts that tricks the new host into using its own machinery to activate the genes, a process never before documented in any virus-bacteria relationship. The con occurs when a grifter virus injects its DNA into a bacterium living in a phosphorus-starved region of the ocean.  |
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