ScienceDaily: Top Science News

---

• NASA's GALEX reveals the largest-known spiral galaxy
• Oxygen to the core: Earth's core formed under more oxidizing conditions than previously proposed
• Stem cells found to heal damaged artery in lab study in baboons
• Cloudy mystery solved: A puzzling cloud near the galaxy's center may hold clues to how stars are born
• A rock is a clock: Physicist uses matter to tell time
• New material harvests energy from water vapor
• Accepted model for brain signaling flawed
• New nanotech fiber: Robust handling, shocking performance
• Molecular machine could hold key to more efficient manufacturing
• A snapshot of pupfish evolution
• Banded mongooses structure monosyllabic sounds in a similar way to humans
• Life possible on extrasolar moons

NASA's GALEX reveals the largest-known spiral galaxy Posted: 10 Jan 2013 02:08 PM PST The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for decades. Now astronomers have crowned it the largest-known spiral.

Oxygen to the core: Earth's core formed under more oxidizing conditions than previously proposed Posted: 10 Jan 2013 01:13 PM PST Scientists have discovered that Earth's core formed under more oxidizing conditions than previously proposed. While scientists know that Earth accreted from some mixture of meteoritic material, there is no simple way to quantify precisely the proportions of these various materials. The new research defines how various materials may have been distributed and transported in the early solar system.

Stem cells found to heal damaged artery in lab study in baboons Posted: 10 Jan 2013 01:11 PM PST Scientists have for the first time demonstrated that baboon embryonic stem cells can be programmed to completely restore a severely damaged artery. These early results show promise for eventually developing stem cell therapies to restore human tissues or organs damaged by age or disease.

Cloudy mystery solved: A puzzling cloud near the galaxy's center may hold clues to how stars are born Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST It's the mystery of the curiously dense cloud. And astronomers are on the case. Despite being very dense, the cloud -- situated near the crowded galactic center -- does not form many stars. But now astronomers have discovered why.

A rock is a clock: Physicist uses matter to tell time Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST What is the simplest, most fundamental clock? Physicists have shown that a single atom is sufficient to measure time using its high-frequency matter wave. Conversely, the frequency of matter can be used to define its mass. The feat is a fundamental demonstration of wave-particle duality central to quantum mechanics.

New material harvests energy from water vapor Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST Engineers have created a new polymer film that can generate electricity by drawing on a ubiquitous source: water vapor.

Accepted model for brain signaling flawed Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST A new study turns two decades of understanding about how brain cells communicate on its head. The study demonstrates that the tripartite synapse -- a model long accepted by the scientific community and one in which multiple cells collaborate to move signals in the central nervous system -- does not exist in the adult brain.

New nanotech fiber: Robust handling, shocking performance Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST Scientists have created the first pure carbon nanotube fibers that combine many of the best features of highly conductive metal wires, strong carbon fibers and pliable textile thread. Researchers have now developed an industrially scalable process for making the threadlike fibers, which outperform commercially available products in a number of ways.

Molecular machine could hold key to more efficient manufacturing Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST An industrial revolution on a minute scale is taking place in the laboratory with the development of a highly complex machine that mimics how molecules are made in nature.

A snapshot of pupfish evolution Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:20 AM PST One biologist has bred more than 3,000 hybrid fish in his time as a graduate student in evolution and ecology, a pursuit that has helped him create one of the most comprehensive snapshots of natural selection in the wild and demonstrated a key prediction in evolutionary biology. New research shows that San Salvadoran pupfish are evolving at an explosively faster rate than other pupfish.

Banded mongooses structure monosyllabic sounds in a similar way to humans Posted: 10 Jan 2013 04:53 AM PST Animals are more eloquent than previously assumed. Even the monosyllabic call of the banded mongoose is structured and thus comparable with the vowel and consonant system of human speech. Behavioral biologists have thus become the first to demonstrate that animals communicate with even smaller sound units than syllables.

Life possible on extrasolar moons Posted: 10 Jan 2013 04:53 AM PST In their search for habitable worlds, astronomers have started to consider exomoons, or those likely orbiting planets outside the solar system. In a new study, a pair of researchers has found that exomoons are just as likely to support life as exoplanets.

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