ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Comet collisions every six seconds explain 17-year-old stellar mystery
• Medical devices powered by the ear itself
• Preschoolers' counting abilities relate to future math performance, researcher says
• Even yeast mothers sacrifice all for their babies
• Extreme weather preceded collapse of ancient Maya civilization
• Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds
• Corals attacked by toxic seaweed use chemical 911 signals to summon help from fish
• Cosmic sprinklers explained: Odd pair of aging stars sculpt spectacular shape of planetary nebula
• Going with your gut feeling: Intuition alone can guide right choice, study suggests
• Feel-good hormone helps jog memory, finds study of seniors
• Fairy-wren babies need password for food
• Unique spinal nerve cell activity: Novel forms of activity linked to development of motor behaviors such as swimming
• Historic coral collapse on Great Barrier Reef
• Meet Xenoceratops: Canada's newest horned dinosaur
• Habitable planet: New super-Earth in six-planet system may be just right to support life
• Greenland rocks provide evidence of Earth formation process
• Despite their thick skins, alligators and crocodiles are surprisingly touchy

Comet collisions every six seconds explain 17-year-old stellar mystery Posted: 08 Nov 2012 03:19 PM PST Every six seconds, for many millions of years, comets have been colliding near a star visible to the naked eye, astronomers report.

Medical devices powered by the ear itself Posted: 08 Nov 2012 12:17 PM PST For the first time, researchers power an implantable electronic device using an electrical potential -- a natural battery -- deep in the inner ear.

Preschoolers' counting abilities relate to future math performance, researcher says Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:28 AM PST New research suggests reciting numbers is not enough to prepare children for math success in elementary school. The research indicates that counting, which requires assigning numerical values to objects in chronological order, is more important for helping preschoolers acquire math skills.

Even yeast mothers sacrifice all for their babies Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST A mother's willingness to sacrifice her own health and safety for the sake of her children is a common narrative across cultures – and by no means unique to humans alone. Female polar bears starve, dolphin mothers stop sleeping and some spider moms give themselves as lunch for their crawly babies' first meal.

Extreme weather preceded collapse of ancient Maya civilization Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Decades of extreme weather crippled, and ultimately decimated, first the political culture and later the human population of the ancient Maya, according to a new study.

Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise, according to a new analysis. The findings could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of expected global warming.

Corals attacked by toxic seaweed use chemical 911 signals to summon help from fish Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Corals under attack by toxic seaweed do what anyone might do when threatened -- they call for help. A new study shows that threatened corals send signals to fish "bodyguards" that quickly respond to trim back the noxious alga -- which can kill the coral if not promptly removed.

Cosmic sprinklers explained: Odd pair of aging stars sculpt spectacular shape of planetary nebula Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:09 AM PST Astronomers have discovered a pair of stars orbiting each other at the center of one of the most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. The new result confirms a long-debated theory about what controls the spectacular and symmetric appearance of the material flung out into space.

Going with your gut feeling: Intuition alone can guide right choice, study suggests Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:17 AM PST Decision-making is one of the most mysterious parts of the human experience, and we're taught to weigh our options carefully before deciding. Now a researcher says that, surprisingly, intuition alone can guide the right choice.

Feel-good hormone helps jog memory, finds study of seniors Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:17 AM PST The feel-good hormone dopamine improves long-term memory. Neuroscientists investigated test subjects ranging in age from 65 to 75 years, who were given a precursor of dopamine. Treated subjects performed better in a memory test than a comparison group, who had taken a placebo.

Fairy-wren babies need password for food Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:16 AM PST It's always a good idea to listen to your mother, but that goes double for baby fairy-wrens even before they are hatched. If those fairy-wren babies want to be fed, they need to have a password -- a single unique note -- taught to them by their mothers from outside the egg. The nestlings incorporate that password right into their begging calls, according to researchers.

Unique spinal nerve cell activity: Novel forms of activity linked to development of motor behaviors such as swimming Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:14 AM PST Scientists have hit upon unique forms of spinal nerve activity that shape output of nerve cell networks controlling motor behaviors.

Historic coral collapse on Great Barrier Reef Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:44 AM PST Australian marine scientists have unearthed evidence of an historic coral collapse in Queensland's Palm Islands following development on the nearby mainland. Cores taken through the coral reef at Pelorus Island confirm a healthy community of branching Acropora corals flourished for centuries before European settlement of the area, despite frequent floods and cyclone events. Then, between 1920 and 1955, the branching Acropora failed to recover.

Meet Xenoceratops: Canada's newest horned dinosaur Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:40 AM PST Scientists have named a new species of horned dinosaur (ceratopsian) from Alberta, Canada. Xenoceratops foremostensis was identified from fossils originally collected in 1958. Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur from Canada.

Habitable planet: New super-Earth in six-planet system may be just right to support life Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:39 AM PST A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers.

Greenland rocks provide evidence of Earth formation process Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:39 AM PST Rocks dating back 3.4 billion years from south-west Greenland's Isua mountain range have yielded valuable information about the structure of the Earth during its earliest stages of development. In these rocks, which witnessed the first billion years of Earth's history researchers have highlighted a lack of neodymium-142, an essential chemical element for the study of the Earth's formation. This deficit supports the hypothesis that between 100 and 200 million years after its formation, the Earth was made up of an ocean of molten magma, which gradually cooled.

Despite their thick skins, alligators and crocodiles are surprisingly touchy Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:36 AM PST Crocodiles and alligators are notorious for their thick skin and well-armored bodies. So it comes as something of a surprise to learn that their sense of touch is one of the most acute in the animal kingdom. The crocodilian sense of touch is concentrated in a series of small, pigmented domes that dot their skin all over their body. In alligators, the spots are concentrated around their face and jaws. A new study has discovered that these spots contain a concentrated collection of touch sensors that make them even more sensitive to pressure and vibration than human fingertips.

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