ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging and neurodegenerative diseases
• Preference for fatty foods may have genetic roots
• A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?
• New procedure repairs severed nerves in minutes, restoring limb use in days or weeks
• Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists
• New 'biopsy in a blood test' to detect cancer
• Probable mechanism underlying resveratrol activity uncovered: Chemical found in red wine and other foods
• Graphene electronics moves into a third dimension
• Biosolar breakthrough promises cheap, easy green electricity

Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging and neurodegenerative diseases Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:09 PM PST One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain.

Preference for fatty foods may have genetic roots Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST A preference for fatty foods has a genetic basis, according to researchers, who discovered that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene.

A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago? Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:24 AM PST They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that "bat flies" have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.

New procedure repairs severed nerves in minutes, restoring limb use in days or weeks Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:24 AM PST Scientists believe a new procedure to repair severed nerves could result in patients recovering in days or weeks, rather than months or years. The team used a cellular mechanism similar to that used by many invertebrates to repair damage to nerve axons.

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil.

New 'biopsy in a blood test' to detect cancer Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:17 PM PST Scientists and cancer physicians have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of an advanced blood test for detecting and analyzing circulating tumor cells -- breakaway cells from patients' solid tumors -- from cancer patients. The findings show that the highly sensitive blood analysis provides information that may soon be comparable to that from some types of surgical biopsies.

Probable mechanism underlying resveratrol activity uncovered: Chemical found in red wine and other foods Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:11 PM PST Researchers have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy.

Graphene electronics moves into a third dimension Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:10 PM PST Wonder material graphene has been touted as the next silicon, with one major problem – it is too conductive to be used in computer chips. Now scientists have given its prospects a new lifeline. Scientists have now literally opened a third dimension in graphene research. Their research shows a transistor that may prove the missing link for graphene to become the next silicon.

Biosolar breakthrough promises cheap, easy green electricity Posted: 02 Feb 2012 06:22 AM PST Scientists have developed a system that taps into photosynthetic processes to produce efficient and inexpensive energy.

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