ScienceDaily: Top Science News

---

• Secrets of 'SuperAger' brains: Elderly super-agers have brains that look and act decades younger than their age
• Pan-fried meat increases risk of prostate cancer, new study finds
• Common parasite may trigger suicide attempts: Inflammation from T. gondii produces brain-damaging metabolites
• Sun's almost perfectly round shape baffles scientists
• 'Soft robots' could camouflage themselves one minute, and stand out, the next
• Democracy works for Endangered Species Act, study finds; Citizen involvement key in protecting and saving threatened species
• New form of carbon can put a dent in a diamond
• Clear links found between inflammation, bacterial communities and cancer
• Hubble watches star clusters on a collision course
• Brain scans don't lie about age
• Finally, the promise of male birth control in a pill: Compound makes mice reversibly infertile
• Tibetan Plateau may be older than previously thought
• Sunflowers inspire more efficient solar power system
• 'Dinosaur bends' caused by prolonged diving
• Global warming causes more extreme shifts of the Southern Hemisphere's largest rain band, study suggests
• Some like it hot: Cold-blooded tropical species 'not as vulnerable' to climate change extinction
• MASER power comes out of the cold: Solid-state MASER can operate at room temperature

Secrets of 'SuperAger' brains: Elderly super-agers have brains that look and act decades younger than their age Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:16 PM PDT Scientists for the first time have identified an elite group of elderly people age 80 and older whose memories are as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger than them. And on 3-D MRI scans, the brains of these "SuperAgers" appear as young -- and one brain region was even bigger -- than the brains of the middle-aged participants. The SuperAger's cortex was astoundingly vital and resembled the cortex of people ages 50 to 65.

Pan-fried meat increases risk of prostate cancer, new study finds Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:04 PM PDT New research indicates that how red meat and chicken are cooked may influence risk of prostate cancer. Men who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat per week increased their risk of advanced prostate cancer by 30 percent. Men who ate more than 2.5 servings of red meat cooked at high temperatures were 40 percent more likely to have advanced prostate cancer.

Common parasite may trigger suicide attempts: Inflammation from T. gondii produces brain-damaging metabolites Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:04 PM PDT A parasite thought to be harmless and found in many people may actually be causing subtle changes in the brain, leading to suicide attempts. New research adds to the growing work linking an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite to suicide attempts.

Sun's almost perfectly round shape baffles scientists Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:08 PM PDT The sun is nearly the roundest object ever measured. If scaled to the size of a beach ball, it would be so round that the difference between the widest and narrow diameters would be much less than the width of a human hair.

'Soft robots' could camouflage themselves one minute, and stand out, the next Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT Researchers have developed a system -- inspired by nature -- that allows soft robots to either camouflage themselves against a background, or to make bold color displays. Such a "dynamic coloration" system could one day have a host of uses, ranging from helping doctors plan complex surgeries to acting as a visual marker to help search crews following a disaster.

Democracy works for Endangered Species Act, study finds; Citizen involvement key in protecting and saving threatened species Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT In protecting endangered species, the power of the people is key, an analysis of listings under the US Endangered Species Act finds. The analysis compares listings of "endangered" and "threatened" species initiated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that administers the Endangered Species Act, to those initiated by citizen petition. Researchers found that citizens, on average, do a better job of picking species that are threatened than does the FWS.

New form of carbon can put a dent in a diamond Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT Scientists have observed a new form of very hard carbon clusters, which are unusual in their mix of crystalline and disordered structure. The material is capable of indenting diamond. This finding has potential applications for a range of mechanical, electronic, and electrochemical uses.

Clear links found between inflammation, bacterial communities and cancer Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT In a study with inflammation-prone mice, researchers have found a mechanism for the development of colorectal cancer wherein inflammation fosters a change in the gut microbiome including reduced bacterial diversity but also the increased presence of E. coli and related pathogens. Further mouse studies show genes carried by an E. coli variant can cause cancer development. The suspect bacterial genes are found in a high percentage of human colorectal cancer patients.

Hubble watches star clusters on a collision course Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:20 AM PDT Astronomers have caught two clusters full of massive stars that may be in the early stages of merging. The clusters are 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to our Milky Way.

Brain scans don't lie about age Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:19 AM PDT It isn't uncommon for people to pass for ages much older or younger than their years, but researchers have now found that this feature doesn't apply to our brains. The findings show that sophisticated brain scans can be used to accurately predict age, give or take a year.

Finally, the promise of male birth control in a pill: Compound makes mice reversibly infertile Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:19 AM PDT Researchers have finally found a compound that may offer the first effective and hormone-free birth control pill for men. The study shows that the small molecule makes male mice reversibly infertile without putting a damper on their sex drive. When the animals stop taking this new form of birth control, their sperm rebound and they are again able to sire perfectly healthy offspring.

Tibetan Plateau may be older than previously thought Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:10 AM PDT The growth of high topography on the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China, began much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of geologists who looked at mountain ranges along the eastern edge of the plateau.

Sunflowers inspire more efficient solar power system Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:09 AM PDT A field of young sunflowers will slowly rotate from east to west during the course of a sunny day, each leaf seeking out as much sunlight as possible as the sun moves across the sky through an adaptation called heliotropism. It's a clever bit of natural engineering that inspired imitation from an electrical and computer engineer, who has found a way to mimic the passive heliotropism seen in sunflowers for use in the next crop of solar power systems.

'Dinosaur bends' caused by prolonged diving Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:24 AM PDT Dinosaur-like creatures may have injured themselves during leisurely deep-sea diving trips and not from resurfacing too quickly, as previously thought.

Global warming causes more extreme shifts of the Southern Hemisphere's largest rain band, study suggests Posted: 16 Aug 2012 04:54 AM PDT South Pacific countries will experience more extreme floods and droughts, in response to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new article.

Some like it hot: Cold-blooded tropical species 'not as vulnerable' to climate change extinction Posted: 16 Aug 2012 04:54 AM PDT In the face of a changing climate, many species must adapt or perish. Ecologists studying evolutionary responses to climate change forecast that cold-blooded tropical species are not as vulnerable to extinction as previously thought. The study considers how fast species can evolve and adapt to compensate for a rise in temperature.

MASER power comes out of the cold: Solid-state MASER can operate at room temperature Posted: 15 Aug 2012 10:17 AM PDT Scientists demonstrate, for the time, a solid-state MASER capable of operating at room temperature, paving the way for its widespread adoption. MASER stands for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Instead of creating intense beams of light, as in the case of LASERs, MASERs deliver a concentrated beam of microwaves.

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Science News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610