ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- Electrical engineers build 'no-waste' laser
- Hydrogen from acidic water: Potential low cost alternative to platinum for splitting water
- Ocean microbe communities changing, but long-term environmental impact is unclear
- Gene therapy boosts brain repair for demyelinating diseases
- Piranha vs. Arapaima: Engineers find inspiration for new materials in piranha-proof armor
- How the zebra got its stripes
- Amazing skin gives sharks a push
- Global sea level rise: NASA mission takes stock of Earth's melting land ice
- How DNA finds its match
- Scientists make iron transparent: For first time, experiment shows that atomic nuclei can become transparent
- Roots of hunger and eating: Plasticity in the brain's wiring controls feeding behavior in mice
| Electrical engineers build 'no-waste' laser Posted: 09 Feb 2012 02:33 PM PST Researchers have built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste.  |
| Hydrogen from acidic water: Potential low cost alternative to platinum for splitting water Posted: 09 Feb 2012 12:28 PM PST A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the molybdenite catalyst paves the way for developing catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water.  |
| Ocean microbe communities changing, but long-term environmental impact is unclear Posted: 09 Feb 2012 11:40 AM PST As oceans warm due to climate change, water layers will mix less and affect the microbes and plankton that pump carbon out of the atmosphere – but researchers say it's still unclear whether these processes will further increase global warming or decrease it. It could be either, they say.  |
| Gene therapy boosts brain repair for demyelinating diseases Posted: 09 Feb 2012 11:02 AM PST Our bodies are full of tiny superheroes -- antibodies that fight foreign invaders, cells that regenerate, and structures that ensure our systems run smoothly. One such structure is myelin, a material that forms a protective cape around the axons of our nerve cells so that they can send signals quickly and efficiently. But myelin becomes damaged in demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis, leaving neurons without their sheaths. Researchers now believe they have found a way to help the brain replace damaged myelin.  |
| Piranha vs. Arapaima: Engineers find inspiration for new materials in piranha-proof armor Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:18 AM PST It's a matchup worthy of a late-night cable movie: put a school of starving piranha and a 300-pound fish together, and who comes out the winner? The surprising answer -- given the notorious guillotine-like bite of the piranha -- is Brazil's massive Arapaima fish. The secret to Arapaima's success lie in its intricately designed scales, which could provide "bioinspiration" for engineers looking to develop flexible ceramics.  |
| Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:17 AM PST Horseflies are unpleasant insects that deliver powerful bites and now it seems that zebras evolved their stripes to avoid attracting the unpleasant pests. New research show that zebras have the least attractive hides for horseflies.  |
| Amazing skin gives sharks a push Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:17 AM PST Shark skin has long been known to improve the fish's swimming performance by reducing drag, but now a new study show that in addition, the skin generates thrust, giving the fish an extra boost. The duo also discovered that Speedo's shark skin-inspired Fastskin® FS II fabric surface does not improve swimming speed, although they point out that the figure hugging costumes probably enhance performance in other ways.  |
| Global sea level rise: NASA mission takes stock of Earth's melting land ice Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:05 AM PST In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, researchers have used NASA data to calculate how much Earth's melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise. Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all of Earth's land ice between 2003 and 2010, with particular emphasis on glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica. The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and Earth's glaciers and ice caps during the study period was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 0.5 inches (12 millimeters) to global sea level. That's enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep.  |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2012 10:23 AM PST It's been more than 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick showed that DNA is a double helix of two strands that complement each other. But how does a short piece of DNA find its match, out of the millions of 'letters' in even a small genome? New work shows how it's done.  |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2012 10:23 AM PST At the high-brilliance synchrotron light source PETRA III, scientists have succeeded in making atomic nuclei transparent with the help of X-ray light. At the same time they have also discovered a new way to realize an optically controlled light switch that can be used to manipulate light with light, an important ingredient for efficient future quantum computers.  |
| Roots of hunger and eating: Plasticity in the brain's wiring controls feeding behavior in mice Posted: 08 Feb 2012 10:22 AM PST Synaptic plasticity – the ability of the synaptic connections between the brain's neurons to change and modify over time -- has been shown to be a key to memory formation and the acquisition of new learning behaviors. Now researchers reveal that the neural circuits controlling hunger and eating behaviors are also controlled by plasticity.  |
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