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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


How birds master courtship songs: Zebra finches shed light on brain circuits and learning

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 02:31 PM PDT

By studying how birds master songs used in courtship, scientists have found that regions of the brain involved in planning and controlling complex vocal sequences may also be necessary for memorizing sounds that serve as models for vocal imitation.

Precision motion tracking -- thousands of cells at once: Technique could open new windows into protozoan behavior, microbial diseases and fertility

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 12:20 PM PDT

Researchers have developed a new way to observe and track large numbers of rapidly moving objects under a microscope, capturing precise motion paths in three dimensions. Over the course of their study, researchers followed an unprecedented 24,000 rapidly moving cells over wide fields of view and through large sample volumes, recording each cell's path for as long as 20 seconds.

'Blue Brain' project accurately predicts connections between neurons

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 12:20 PM PDT

Scientists have identified key principles that determine synapse-scale connectivity by virtually reconstructing a cortical microcircuit and comparing it to a mammalian sample. These principles now make it possible to predict the locations of synapses in the neocortex.

Most extensive pictures ever of an organism's DNA mutation processes

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 12:17 PM PDT

Biologists and informaticists have produced one of the most extensive pictures ever of mutation processes in the DNA sequence of an organism, elucidating important new evolutionary information about the molecular nature of mutations and how fast those heritable changes occur.

Sex matters: Men recognize cars and women recognize living things best, psychological analysis finds

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:20 AM PDT

Women are better than men at recognizing living things and men are better than women at recognizing vehicles. That is the unanticipated result of an analysis psychologists performed on data from a series of visual recognition tasks collected in the process of developing a new standard test for expertise in object recognition.

Dry-run experiments verify key aspect of nuclear fusion concept: Scientific 'break-even' or better is near-term goal

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 09:42 AM PDT

Magnetically imploded tubes, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific "break-even" energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests.

World’s most powerful digital camera opens eye, records first images in hunt for dark energy

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:46 AM PDT

Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. That ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the newly-constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has captured and recorded it for the first time.

Skilled hunters 300,000 years ago

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 05:55 AM PDT

Finds from early stone age site in north-central Germany show that human ingenuity is nothing new -- and was probably shared by now-extinct species of humans. Archeologists have found eight extremely well-preserved spears -- an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons anywhere. The spears and other artifacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, well adapted to their environment -- with a capacity for abstract thought and complex planning comparable to our own.

Mobile phones and wireless networks: No evidence of health risk found, Norwegian experts find

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 05:55 AM PDT

There is no scientific evidence that low-level electromagnetic field exposure from mobile phones and other transmitting devices causes adverse health effects, according to a report presented by a Norwegian Expert Committee. In addition, the Committee provides advice to authorities about risk management and regulatory practice.

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