ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Brain imaging can predict how intelligent you are: 'Global brain connectivity' explains 10 percent of variance in individual intelligence
• Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows
• Reviled substance involved in Alzheimer's can reverse paralysis in mice with multiple sclerosis
• Northwest earthquake risk in U.S. looms large: 40% chance of major earthquake within 50 years
• Roots and microbes: Bringing a complex underground ecology into the lab
• Promising step forward toward muscular dystrophy treatment: Symptoms reversed in mice
• HIV-infected T cells help transport the virus throughout the body
• Earth's oceans and other ecosystems still absorbing about half the greenhouse gases emitted by people
• Dramatic miniaturization of metamaterials? Reluctant electrons enable 'extraordinarily strong' negative refraction
• Tropical climate in the Antarctic: Palm trees once thrived on today’s icy coasts 52 million years ago
• Lower hybrid drift waves in Earth's magnetosphere investigated
• Strangers on a bus: Study reveals lengths commuters go to avoid each other

Brain imaging can predict how intelligent you are: 'Global brain connectivity' explains 10 percent of variance in individual intelligence Posted: 01 Aug 2012 12:47 PM PDT New research suggests that as much as 10 percent of individual differences in intelligence can be explained by the strength of neural pathways connecting the left lateral prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain.

Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows Posted: 01 Aug 2012 11:37 AM PDT When it comes to sperm meeting eggs in sexual reproduction, conventional wisdom holds that the fastest swimming sperm are most likely to succeed in their quest to fertilize eggs. That wisdom was turned upside down in a new study of sperm competition in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which found that slower and/or longer sperm outcompete their faster rivals.

Reviled substance involved in Alzheimer's can reverse paralysis in mice with multiple sclerosis Posted: 01 Aug 2012 11:37 AM PDT A molecule widely assailed as the chief culprit in Alzheimer's disease unexpectedly reverses paralysis and inflammation in several distinct animal models of a different disorder -- multiple sclerosis, researchers have found.

Northwest earthquake risk in U.S. looms large: 40% chance of major earthquake within 50 years Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:27 AM PDT A comprehensive analysis of the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest coast confirms that the region has had numerous earthquakes over the past 10,000 years, and suggests that the southern Oregon coast may be most vulnerable based on recurrence frequency.

Roots and microbes: Bringing a complex underground ecology into the lab Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:24 AM PDT Beneath the surface of the earth, an influential community of microbes mingles with plant roots. In the first large-scale analysis of those communities, scientists have now cataloged and compared the hundreds of types of bacteria that associate with the roots of the model plant Arabidopsis under various conditions. The work establishes an experimental framework for examining how plants interact with a microbial community that can influence their growth and development, productivity, and impact on the environment.

Promising step forward toward muscular dystrophy treatment: Symptoms reversed in mice Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:24 AM PDT Scientists have reversed symptoms of myotonic muscular dystrophy in mice by eliminating a buildup of toxic RNA in muscle cells. After experimental antisense compounds were administered to mice twice a week for four weeks, symptoms of the disease were reduced for up to one year -- a significant portion of a mouse's lifespan. Investigators say that the work is an encouraging step forward against one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy.

HIV-infected T cells help transport the virus throughout the body Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:24 AM PDT A new study has discovered one more way the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) exploits the immune system. Not only does HIV infect and destroy CD4-positive helper T cells -- which normally direct and support the infection-fighting activities of other immune cells -- the virus also appears to use those cells to travel through the body and infect other CD4 T cells.

Earth's oceans and other ecosystems still absorbing about half the greenhouse gases emitted by people Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:24 AM PDT Earth's oceans, forests and other ecosystems continue to soak up about half the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by human activities, even as those emissions have increased, according to a new study. The scientists analyzed 50 years of global carbon dioxide measurements and found that the processes by which the planet's oceans and ecosystems absorb the greenhouse gas are not yet at capacity.

Dramatic miniaturization of metamaterials? Reluctant electrons enable 'extraordinarily strong' negative refraction Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:23 AM PDT A new technique using kinetic inductance shows promise for dramatic miniaturization of metamaterials.

Tropical climate in the Antarctic: Palm trees once thrived on today’s icy coasts 52 million years ago Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:23 AM PDT Given the predicted rise in global temperatures in the coming decades, climate scientists are particularly interested in warm periods that occurred in the geological past. Knowledge of past episodes of global warmth can be used to better understand the relationship between climate change, variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the reaction of Earth's biosphere. Scientists have discovered an intense warming phase around 52 million years ago in drill cores obtained from the seafloor near Antarctica — a region that is especially important in climate research.

Lower hybrid drift waves in Earth's magnetosphere investigated Posted: 01 Aug 2012 08:44 AM PDT Scientists have detected and characterized lower hybrid drift waves, a special kind of plasma waves that develop in thin boundaries both in space and in the laboratory. The measurement of fundamental properties of these waves was possible when two of the spacecraft were flying very close to one another in the tail of Earth's magnetosphere. With wavelengths of about 60 km, these waves appear to play an important role in the dynamics of electrons and in the transfer of energy between different layers of plasma in the magnetosphere.

Strangers on a bus: Study reveals lengths commuters go to avoid each other Posted: 01 Aug 2012 06:36 AM PDT You're on the bus, and one of the only free seats is next to you. How, and why, do you stop another passenger sitting there? New research reveals the tactics commuters use to avoid each other, a practice the article describes as 'nonsocial transient behavior.'

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