ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Neural implant recovers ability to make decisions, monkey study shows
• Looking at you: Face genes identified; Five genes have been found to determine human facial shapes
• Nanoengineers can print 3-D microstructures in mere seconds
• Researchers look to alien soils for heat shield
• Boiling water without bubbles: Researchers engineer special surface, allowing water to boil without producing bubbles
• Chemists develop nose-like array to 'smell' cancer
• Study of giant viruses shakes up tree of life
• Laser-powered 'needle' promises pain-free injections
• Scientists map the genomic blueprint of the heart
• Computer program can identify rough sketches
• World's hottest temperature cools a bit
• Summer rain more likely over drier soils, new satellite data show

Neural implant recovers ability to make decisions, monkey study shows Posted: 13 Sep 2012 05:36 PM PDT Researchers have taken a key step towards recovering specific brain functions in sufferers of brain disease and injuries by successfully restoring the decision-making processes in monkeys. By placing a neural device onto the front part of the monkeys' brains, the researchers were able to recover, and even improve, the monkeys' ability to make decisions when their normal cognitive functioning was disrupted.

Looking at you: Face genes identified; Five genes have been found to determine human facial shapes Posted: 13 Sep 2012 02:33 PM PDT Five genes have been found to determine human facial shapes, researchers report.

Nanoengineers can print 3-D microstructures in mere seconds Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:27 PM PDT A novel technology can fabricate, in mere seconds, microscale three dimensional (3-D) structures out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels. The technology could lead to the ability to print biological tissues for regenerative medicine. Chen is able to print tissues that mimic nature's fine-grained details, including blood vessels, which are essential for distributing nutrients and oxygen throughout the body.

Researchers look to alien soils for heat shield Posted: 13 Sep 2012 11:04 AM PDT An important test is coming up next week to see whether a heat shield made from the soil of the moon, Mars or an asteroid will stand up to the searing demands of a plunge through Earth's atmosphere. At stake is the possibility that future spacecraft could leave Earth without carrying a heavy heat shield and instead make one on the surface of another world and ride it home safely. The weight savings opens new possibilities ranging from using smaller rockets to carrying many more supplies on an exploration mission.

Boiling water without bubbles: Researchers engineer special surface, allowing water to boil without producing bubbles Posted: 13 Sep 2012 10:29 AM PDT Every cook knows that boiling water bubbles, right? New research turns that notion on its head. Scientists have shown how a specially engineered coated surface can create a stable vapor cushion between the surface and a hot liquid and eliminate the bubbles that are created during boiling.

Chemists develop nose-like array to 'smell' cancer Posted: 13 Sep 2012 10:23 AM PDT In the fight against cancer, knowing the enemy's identity is crucial for diagnosis and treatment, especially in metastatic cancers that spread between organs and tissues. Now chemists have developed a rapid, sensitive way to detect microscopic levels of many metastatic cell types in living tissue.

Study of giant viruses shakes up tree of life Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:35 AM PDT A new study of giant viruses supports the idea that viruses are ancient living organisms and not inanimate molecular remnants run amok, as some scientists have argued. The study reshapes the universal family tree, adding a fourth major branch to the three that most scientists agree represent the fundamental domains of life.

Laser-powered 'needle' promises pain-free injections Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:35 AM PDT From flu shots to immunizations, needle injections are among the least popular staples of medical care. A new laser-based system that blasts microscopic jets of drugs into the skin could soon make getting a shot as painless as being hit with a puff of air. The system uses a laser to propel a tiny, precise stream of medicine with just the right amount of force.

Scientists map the genomic blueprint of the heart Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT Scientists have revealed the precise order and timing of hundreds of genetic "switches" required to construct a fully functional heart from embryonic heart cells -- providing new clues into the genetic basis for some forms of congenital heart disease.

Computer program can identify rough sketches Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:50 AM PDT Computer scientists have developed a new program that can recognize rough sketches in real time, something that up to now had been very difficult for computers to do. To make the program work, the researchers used 20,000 real sketches to teach the program how humans actually sketch objects.

World's hottest temperature cools a bit Posted: 13 Sep 2012 06:21 AM PDT If you think this summer was hot, it's nothing compared to the summer of 1913, when the hottest temperature ever recorded was a searing 134 F in Death Valley, Calif. But while that reading was made 99 years ago, it is only being recognized today by the World Meteorological Organization as the most extreme temperature ever recorded. That's because an international team of meteorologists recently finished an in-depth investigation of what had been the world-record temperature extreme of 58 degrees Celsius (136.4 F), recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, in El Azizia, Libya. The group found that there were enough questions surrounding the measurement and how it was made that it was probably inaccurate, overturning the record 90 years to the day it was recorded.

Summer rain more likely over drier soils, new satellite data show Posted: 12 Sep 2012 12:29 PM PDT Where does it rain on a hot day's afternoon? New satellite data show that soil moisture plays an important role. It influences precipitation in a way which is quite different from what models have predicted so far.

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