ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Saturn's largest moon Titan gets a dune 'makeover'
• Potential to prevent, reverse disabilities in children born prematurely, study suggests
• Why wolves are forever wild, but dogs can be tamed
• Luminescent mice used to track cancer and aging in real-time
• Power's punishing impact: Power linked to tendency to punish harshly
• Novel sensor provides bigger picture: Efficient, flexible, versatile and cheap
• Adolescent stress linked to severe adult mental illness, mouse study suggests
• Global plant diversity still hinges on local battles against invasives, study suggests
• Is athleticism linked to brain size? Exercise-loving mice have larger midbrains
• GI tract bacteria may protect against autoimmune disease
• How cells know when it's time to eat themselves
• New research throws doubt on earlier 'killer walrus' claims
• Photovoltaics beat biofuels at converting sun's energy to miles driven
• Deodorants: Do we really need them?
• Star Wars: What would hyperspace travel really look like?

Saturn's largest moon Titan gets a dune 'makeover' Posted: 17 Jan 2013 03:34 PM PST Titan's siblings must be jealous. While most of Saturn's moons display their ancient faces pockmarked by thousands of craters, Titan -- Saturn's largest moon -- may look much younger than it really is because its craters are getting erased. Dunes of exotic, hydrocarbon sand are slowly but steadily filling in its craters, according to new research using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Potential to prevent, reverse disabilities in children born prematurely, study suggests Posted: 17 Jan 2013 01:29 PM PST Researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature. This discovery opens up new avenues for potential therapies to promote regeneration and repair of the premature brain.

Why wolves are forever wild, but dogs can be tamed Posted: 17 Jan 2013 12:20 PM PST An evolutionary biologist suggests the different behaviors are related to the animals' earliest sensory experiences and the critical period of socialization.

Luminescent mice used to track cancer and aging in real-time Posted: 17 Jan 2013 12:19 PM PST Researchers have developed a new method to visualize aging and tumor growth in mice using a gene closely linked to these processes.

Power's punishing impact: Power linked to tendency to punish harshly Posted: 17 Jan 2013 11:25 AM PST Providing a sense of power to someone instills a black-and-white sense of right and wrong (especially wrong), new research shows. Once armed with this moral clarity, powerful people then perceive wrongdoing with much less ambiguity than people lacking this power, and punish apparent wrong-doers with more severity than people without power would.

Novel sensor provides bigger picture: Efficient, flexible, versatile and cheap Posted: 17 Jan 2013 11:25 AM PST Engineers have developed a novel sensor that is more efficient, versatile and cheaper for potential use in such applications as airport security scanners and collision avoidance systems for aircraft, cars or maritime vessels. The material is flexible and durable enough to be attached to a wall, wrapped around corners or even laid on the floor like a rug, making it an inexpensive alternative for a variety of sensing applications.

Adolescent stress linked to severe adult mental illness, mouse study suggests Posted: 17 Jan 2013 11:25 AM PST Working with mice, researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence -- a critical time for brain development -- and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it.

Global plant diversity still hinges on local battles against invasives, study suggests Posted: 17 Jan 2013 11:25 AM PST Scientists have long suspected that studies of the impact of invasive species on biodiversity sometimes come to different conclusions because the impact depends on the size of the study site. Their field work confirms that the impact of invasive species is different at small scales than at large ones.

Is athleticism linked to brain size? Exercise-loving mice have larger midbrains Posted: 17 Jan 2013 10:33 AM PST Is athleticism linked to brain size? Researchers performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred this way -- the first example in which selection for a particular mammalian behavior has been shown to result in a change in size of a specific brain region.

GI tract bacteria may protect against autoimmune disease Posted: 17 Jan 2013 10:30 AM PST Early life exposure to normal bacteria of the GI tract (gut microbes) protects against autoimmune disease in mice, according to new research. The study may also have uncovered reasons why females are at greater risk of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus compared to males.

How cells know when it's time to eat themselves Posted: 17 Jan 2013 10:29 AM PST Researchers have identified a molecular mechanism regulating autophagy, a fundamental stress response used by cells to help ensure their survival in adverse conditions.

New research throws doubt on earlier 'killer walrus' claims Posted: 17 Jan 2013 07:59 AM PST Palaeontologists who examined a new fossil found in southern California have thrown doubt on earlier claims that a "killer walrus" once existed.

Photovoltaics beat biofuels at converting sun's energy to miles driven Posted: 17 Jan 2013 07:59 AM PST In 2005, President George W. Bush and American corn farmers saw corn ethanol as a promising fossil fuel substitute that would reduce both American dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the 2005 energy bill mandated that 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel be added to the gasoline supply in 2006. That rose to 4.7 billion gallons in 2007 and 7.5 billion in 2012. Now a new study shows solar power is not only better in terms of energy efficiency, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions -- but it is cost competitive, too.

Deodorants: Do we really need them? Posted: 17 Jan 2013 05:49 AM PST More than 75 percent of people with a particular version of a gene don't produce under-arm odor but use deodorant anyway.

Star Wars: What would hyperspace travel really look like? Posted: 14 Jan 2013 06:25 AM PST The sight of the Millennium Falcon making the "jump to lightspeed" is one of the most iconic images from the Star Wars trilogy.

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