ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Oxygen detected in atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione: Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies
• Important clue uncovered for the origins of a type of supernovae explosion
• Energy squeeze: Squeezing silicone polymers produces chemical energy but raises doubts about implant safety
• New computers respond to students' emotions, boredom
• Effects of environmental toxicants reach down through generations
• Solved: Mystery of the nanoscale crop circles
• Artificial 'womb' unlocks secrets of early embryo development
• Parkinson's disease stopped in animal model: Molecular 'tweezers' break up toxic aggregations of proteins
• Dark matter core, left behind from wreck between massive clusters of galaxies, defies explanation
• Pasta-shaped radio waves beamed across Venice
• Breaking up isn't hard to do: The secret lives of corals on dark and stormy nights
• Analyses of a tiny comet grain dates Jupiter's formation

Oxygen detected in atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione: Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies Posted: 02 Mar 2012 06:02 PM PST An international research team has discovered molecular oxygen ions (O2+) in the upper-most atmosphere of Dione, one of the 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet. The research was made possible via instruments aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Important clue uncovered for the origins of a type of supernovae explosion Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:39 PM PST The origin of an important type of exploding stars -- Type Ia supernovae -- have now been discovered. Studying supernovae of this type helps researchers measure galaxy distances and can lead to important astronomical discoveries.

Energy squeeze: Squeezing silicone polymers produces chemical energy but raises doubts about implant safety Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:39 PM PST Scientists turned to squeezed polymers and free radicals in a search for new energy sources. They found both promise and problems. The researchers demonstrated that radicals from compressed polymers generate significant amounts of energy that can power chemical reactions in water. They also discovered that a silicone polymer commonly used in medical implants releases a large quantity of harmful free radicals when the polymer is under only a moderate amount of pressure.

New computers respond to students' emotions, boredom Posted: 02 Mar 2012 10:25 AM PST Emotion-sensing computer software that models and responds to students' cognitive and emotional states -- including frustration and boredom -- has now been developed.

Effects of environmental toxicants reach down through generations Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:18 AM PST Scientists have now demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring. The animal's DNA sequence remains unchanged, but the compounds change the way genes turn on and off -- the epigenetic effect, according to molecular biologists. The researchers saw females reaching puberty earlier, increased rates in the decay and death of sperm cells and lower numbers of ovarian follicles that later become eggs.

Solved: Mystery of the nanoscale crop circles Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:18 AM PST A useful alloy of gold and silicon, called a eutectic, melts at a far lower temperature than either of its components. Until now, however, its odd behavior on the nanoscale has confounded researchers. By analyzing peculiar "nanoscale crop circles" formed from ultra-thin layers of gold on silicon, scientists have discovered the eutectic alloy's unique properties, including its special promise for engineering and processing nanoscale materials.

Artificial 'womb' unlocks secrets of early embryo development Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:15 AM PST Pioneering work has helped reveal for the first time a vital process in the development of the early mammalian embryo.

Parkinson's disease stopped in animal model: Molecular 'tweezers' break up toxic aggregations of proteins Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:14 AM PST Researchers have used specific molecular "tweezers" they developed to break-up aggregates of toxic proteins that are thought to cause Parkinson's disease. For the first time, they stopped progression of the disease in a living animal model.

Dark matter core, left behind from wreck between massive clusters of galaxies, defies explanation Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:14 AM PST Astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Telescope have observed what appears to be a clump of dark matter left behind from a wreck between massive clusters of galaxies. The result could challenge current theories about dark matter that predict galaxies should be anchored to the invisible substance even during the shock of a collision.

Pasta-shaped radio waves beamed across Venice Posted: 02 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PST A group of Italian and Swedish researchers appears to have solved the problem of radio congestion by cleverly twisting radio waves into the shape of fusilli pasta, allowing a potentially infinite number of channels to be broadcast and received.

Breaking up isn't hard to do: The secret lives of corals on dark and stormy nights Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:34 AM PST Forming a unique part of the animal kingdom, corals have built the only living entity visible from space: the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists have recently discovered a previously unknown reproductive strategy in corals, adding another dimension to our understanding of their complex life cycles.

Analyses of a tiny comet grain dates Jupiter's formation Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:39 AM PST Particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 brought to Earth in 2006 by NASA's Stardust spacecraft indicate that Jupiter formed more than three million years after the formation of the first solids in our Solar System.

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