ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• How cells in the nose detect odors: Braking mechanism in olfactory neurons helps generate amazing diversity of sensors
• New ancient shark species gives insight into origin of great white
• Even moderate drinking in pregnancy can affect a child's IQ
• Oldest fossil of giant panda family discovered
• Captive animals show signs of boredom, study finds
• Gene nearly triples risk of Alzheimer's, international research team finds
• Pig genome offers insights into the feistiest of farm animals
• Exposure to light at night may cause depression, learning issues, mouse study suggests
• Life and death in a star-forming cloud
• New brain gene gives us edge over apes, study suggests
• Not what you consciously thought: How we can do math problems and read phrases nonconsciously
• Lost in space: Rogue planet spotted? Orphaned world may help to explain how planets and stars form
• Grasshoppers change their tune to stay tuned over traffic noise

How cells in the nose detect odors: Braking mechanism in olfactory neurons helps generate amazing diversity of sensors Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:29 PM PST A team of scientists has studied the olfactory receptor for detecting carbon dioxide in Drosophila, and identified a large multi-protein complex in olfactory neurons, called MMB/dREAM, that plays a major role in selecting the carbon dioxide receptors to be expressed in appropriate neurons.

New ancient shark species gives insight into origin of great white Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:29 PM PST The great white shark is one of the largest living predatory animals and a magnet for media sensationalism, yet its evolutionary history is as misunderstood as its role as a menace.

Even moderate drinking in pregnancy can affect a child's IQ Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:28 PM PST Relatively small levels of exposure to alcohol while in the womb can influence a child's IQ, according to a new study using data from over 4,000 mothers and their children.

Oldest fossil of giant panda family discovered Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:28 PM PST New fossils found in Spain are thought to be of the oldest recorded ancestor of the giant panda. The fossils reveal the origins of this unique bear.

Captive animals show signs of boredom, study finds Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:28 PM PST Wondering if your caged hamster gets bored? It's highly likely if the critter has nothing to do all day. Those are the findings of researchers in the first study to empirically demonstrate boredom in confined animals.

Gene nearly triples risk of Alzheimer's, international research team finds Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:17 PM PST A gene so powerful it nearly triples the risk of Alzheimer's disease has been discovered by an international team of researchers. It is the most potent genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's identified in the past 20 years.

Pig genome offers insights into the feistiest of farm animals Posted: 14 Nov 2012 10:45 AM PST The pig and its cousin the wild boar have much in common with humans. They are world travelers. They often damage their own habitat. They are easy to seduce (with food) and susceptible to domestication, but when conditions allow, they revert to a feral lifestyle. A new genomic analysis reveals some new, unexpected and potentially beneficial similarities between pigs and humans, and a few distinct differences.

Exposure to light at night may cause depression, learning issues, mouse study suggests Posted: 14 Nov 2012 10:39 AM PST For most of history, humans rose with the sun and slept when it set. Enter Thomas Edison and colleagues, and with a flick of a switch, night became day, enabling us to work, play and post cat and kid photos on Facebook into the wee hours. According to a new study of mice, however, this typical 21st-century scenario may come at a serious cost: When people routinely burn the midnight oil, they risk suffering depression and learning issues, and not only because of lack of sleep. The culprit could also be exposure to bright light at night from lamps, computers and even iPads.

Life and death in a star-forming cloud Posted: 14 Nov 2012 08:38 AM PST The aftershock of a stellar explosion rippling through space is captured in this new view of supernova remnant W44, which combines far-infrared and X-ray data from ESA's Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories.

New brain gene gives us edge over apes, study suggests Posted: 14 Nov 2012 08:34 AM PST Scientists have taken a step forward in helping to solve one of life's greatest mysteries -- what makes us human?

Not what you consciously thought: How we can do math problems and read phrases nonconsciously Posted: 14 Nov 2012 05:39 AM PST Can we actually read words and phrases and solve multi-step mathematical problems without our having consciously been aware of them? A team of psychologists has conducted a series of experiments that give a positive answer: people can read and do math nonconsciously.

Lost in space: Rogue planet spotted? Orphaned world may help to explain how planets and stars form Posted: 14 Nov 2012 05:34 AM PST Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have identified a body that is very probably a planet wandering through space without a parent star. This is the most exciting free-floating planet candidate so far and the closest such object to the Solar System at a distance of about 100 light-years. Its comparative proximity, and the absence of a bright star very close to it, has allowed the team to study its atmosphere in great detail. This object also gives astronomers a preview of the exoplanets that future instruments aim to image around stars other than the Sun.

Grasshoppers change their tune to stay tuned over traffic noise Posted: 13 Nov 2012 06:49 PM PST Grasshoppers are having to change their song -- one of the iconic sounds of summer -- to make themselves heard above the din of road traffic, ecologists have discovered. The study is the first to show that human-made noise affects natural insect populations.

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