ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Phobia's effect on perception of feared object allows fear to persist
• Birds sing louder amidst the noise and structures of the urban jungle
• Heart beats to the rhythm of a circadian clock
• NASA's Spitzer finds solid buckyballs in space
• Earth's clouds are getting lower, NASA satellite finds
• Tiny, implantable medical device can propel itself through bloodstream
• Off switch for pain? Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor
• Recharge your cell phone with a touch? New nanotechnology converts body heat into power
• Neuroscientists identify how the brain works to select what we (want to) see

Phobia's effect on perception of feared object allows fear to persist Posted: 22 Feb 2012 05:42 PM PST The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests.

Birds sing louder amidst the noise and structures of the urban jungle Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:29 AM PST Sparrows, blackbirds and the great tit are all birds known to sing at a higher pitch in urban environments. It was previously believed that these birds sang at higher frequencies in order to escape the lower frequencies noises of the urban environment. Now, researchers have discovered that besides noise, the physical structure of cities also plays a role in altering the birds' songs.

Heart beats to the rhythm of a circadian clock Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:25 AM PST Sudden cardiac death -- catastrophic and unexpected fatal heart stoppage -- is more likely to occur shortly after waking in the morning and in the late night. In a new study, an international consortium of researchers explains the molecular linkage between the circadian clock and the deadly heart rhythms that lead to sudden death.

NASA's Spitzer finds solid buckyballs in space Posted: 22 Feb 2012 08:45 AM PST Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in gas form in the cosmos.

Earth's clouds are getting lower, NASA satellite finds Posted: 22 Feb 2012 08:43 AM PST Earth's clouds got a little lower -- about one percent on average -- during the first decade of this century, finds a new NASA-funded university study based on NASA satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.

Tiny, implantable medical device can propel itself through bloodstream Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:42 AM PST For 50 years, scientists had searched for the secret to making tiny implantable devices that could travel through the bloodstream. Engineers have now demonstrated a wirelessly powered device that just may make the dream a reality.

Off switch for pain? Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:35 AM PST Pain? Just turn it off! It may sound like science fiction, but researchers have now succeeded in inhibiting pain-sensitive neurons on demand, in the laboratory. The crucial element in their strategy is a chemical sensor that acts as a light-sensitive switch.

Recharge your cell phone with a touch? New nanotechnology converts body heat into power Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:29 AM PST Never get stranded with a dead cell phone again. A promising new technology called Power Felt, a thermoelectric device that converts body heat into an electrical current, soon could create enough juice to make another call simply by touching it.

Neuroscientists identify how the brain works to select what we (want to) see Posted: 21 Feb 2012 06:26 PM PST If you are looking for a particular object -- say a yellow pencil -- on a cluttered desk, how does your brain work to visually locate it? For the first time, neuroscientists have identified how different neural regions communicate to determine what to visually pay attention to and what to ignore. This finding is a major discovery for visual cognition and will guide future research into visual and attention deficit disorders.

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