ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- Photonics: First all-optical nanowire switch
- Babies' ability to detect complex rules in language outshines that of adults, research suggests
- Ants have exceptionally 'hi-def' sense of smell
- Researchers create short-term memories in vitro
- Metabolic engineer synthesizes key breast milk ingredient: Sugar in human milk may protect babies from pathogens
- Martian clays were not all formed by the action of liquid water
- Surprises in evolution of frog life cycles
- Key molecules involved in forming long-term memories discovered
- Chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cell could be 'Achilles' heel' of cancer
- Salt seeds clouds in the Amazon rainforest: Researchers track down the sources of condensation nuclei
- Built-in germanium lasers could make computer chips faster
| Photonics: First all-optical nanowire switch Posted: 10 Sep 2012 03:58 PM PDT Computers may be getting faster every year, but those advances in computer speed could be dwarfed if their 1s and 0s were represented by light, instead of electricity. Researchers have made an important advance in this frontier of photonics, fashioning the first all-optical photonic switch out of cadmium sulfide nanowires. Moreover, they combined these photonic switches into a logic gate, a fundamental component of computer chips that process information.  |
| Babies' ability to detect complex rules in language outshines that of adults, research suggests Posted: 10 Sep 2012 12:16 PM PDT New research examining auditory mechanisms of language learning in babies has revealed that infants as young as three months of age are able to automatically detect and learn complex dependencies between syllables in spoken language. By contrast, adults only recognized the same dependencies when asked to actively search for them. The study also highlights the important role of basic pitch discrimination abilities for early language development.  |
| Ants have exceptionally 'hi-def' sense of smell Posted: 10 Sep 2012 11:35 AM PDT The first complete map of the ants' olfactory system has discovered that the eusocial insects have four to fives more odorant receptors -- the special proteins that detect different odors -- than other insects.  |
| Researchers create short-term memories in vitro Posted: 10 Sep 2012 11:34 AM PDT Researchers have discovered how to store diverse forms of artificial short-term memories in isolated brain tissue. The advance paves the way for future research to identify the specific brain circuits that allow humans to form short-term memories.  |
| Posted: 10 Sep 2012 11:34 AM PDT A microbial engineer has synthesized a sugar in human milk that is thought to protect babies from pathogens. That's important because 2FL, the shorthand scientists use to describe this human milk oligosaccharide, has not been added to infant formula because HMOs are incredibly expensive.  |
| Martian clays were not all formed by the action of liquid water Posted: 10 Sep 2012 11:27 AM PDT Discovered in 2005, the clays of the southern hemisphere of Mars are often considered to be evidence for the existence of liquid water on the planet at a period in the very distant past between 4.5 and 4 billion years ago. However, work carried out by a French-US team calls this interpretation into question.  |
| Surprises in evolution of frog life cycles Posted: 10 Sep 2012 11:26 AM PDT All tadpoles grow into frogs, but not all frogs start out as tadpoles, reveals a new study on 720 species of frogs. The new study uncovers the surprising evolution of life cycles in frogs.  |
| Key molecules involved in forming long-term memories discovered Posted: 10 Sep 2012 09:23 AM PDT A research team has identified key molecules that help convert short-term memories into long-term ones. These proteins may offer a target for drugs that can enhance memory, alleviating some of the cognitive symptoms that characterize conditions including schizophrenia, depression and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.  |
| Chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cell could be 'Achilles' heel' of cancer Posted: 10 Sep 2012 09:21 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a subpopulation of cells that display cancer stem cell properties and resistance to chemotherapy, and participate in tumor progression. This breakthrough could lead to the development of new tests for early cancer diagnosis, prognostic tests, and innovative therapeutic strategies, they report.  |
| Posted: 10 Sep 2012 09:18 AM PDT It's morning, deep in the Amazon jungle. In the still air innumerable leaves glisten with moisture, and fog drifts through the trees. As the sun rises, clouds appear and float across the forest canopy ... but where do they come from? Water vapor needs soluble particles to condense on. Airborne particles are the seeds of liquid droplets in fog, mist, and clouds. To learn how aerosol particles form in the Amazon, researchers analyzed samples of naturally formed aerosols collected above the forest floor, deep in the rainforest. Their analysis provided essential clues to the evolution of fine particles around which Amazon clouds and fog condense, beginning with chemicals produced by living organisms. The team found that among the most important initial triggers of the process are potassium salts.  |
| Built-in germanium lasers could make computer chips faster Posted: 10 Sep 2012 05:24 AM PDT Researchers have investigated how they could make the semiconductor germanium emit laser light. As a laser material, germanium together with silicon could form the basis for innovative computer chips in which information would be transferred partially in the form of light. This technology would revolutionize data streaming within chips and give a boost to the performance of electronics.  |
| 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 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment