ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• First animal model of recent human evolution reveals that mutation for thick hair does much more
• Vision restored with total darkness in kittens with amblyopia
• A little molecule's remarkable feat: Prolonging life
• Predicting key property in Andromeda's satellites
• World's most sensitive plasmon resonance sensor inspired by ancient Roman cup
• Calcium is initial trigger in our immune response to healing
• Bilingual babies know their grammar by 7 months
• Roots of language in human and bird biology: Genes activated for human speech similar to ones used by singing songbirds
• Love of musical harmony is not nature but nurture
• Unlocking the mystery behind Saturn's moonlets
• Dog spots the dog: Dogs recognize the dog species among several other species on a computer screen
• A quantum dot energy harvester

First animal model of recent human evolution reveals that mutation for thick hair does much more Posted: 14 Feb 2013 10:39 AM PST The first animal model of recent human evolution reveals that a single mutation produced several traits common in East Asian peoples, from thicker hair to denser sweat glands, and computer models suggest the variation arose about 30,000 years ago in central China.

Vision restored with total darkness in kittens with amblyopia Posted: 14 Feb 2013 10:39 AM PST Restoring vision might sometimes be as simple as turning out the lights. That's according to a study in which researchers examined kittens with a visual impairment known as amblyopia before and after they spent 10 days in complete darkness.

A little molecule's remarkable feat: Prolonging life Posted: 14 Feb 2013 10:26 AM PST Nitric oxide, the versatile gas that helps increase blood flow, transmit nerve signals, and regulate immune function, appears to perform one more biological feat -— prolonging the life of an organism and fortifying it against environmental stress, according to a new study.

Predicting key property in Andromeda's satellites Posted: 14 Feb 2013 09:06 AM PST Using modified laws of gravity, researchers have closely predicted a key property - velocity dispersion - measured in faint dwarf galaxies that are satellites of the nearby giant spiral galaxy Andromeda.

World's most sensitive plasmon resonance sensor inspired by ancient Roman cup Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST Utilizing optical characteristics first demonstrated by the ancient Romans, researchers have created a novel, ultra-sensitive tool for chemical, DNA, and protein analysis.

Calcium is initial trigger in our immune response to healing Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST For the first time, scientists studying the cellular processes underlying the body's response to healing have revealed how a flash of calcium is the very first step in repairing damaged tissue. The findings could lead to new therapies that speed up the healing process following injury or surgery.

Bilingual babies know their grammar by 7 months Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST Babies as young as seven months can distinguish between, and begin to learn, two languages with vastly different grammatical structures, according to new research.

Roots of language in human and bird biology: Genes activated for human speech similar to ones used by singing songbirds Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST The neuroanatomy of human speech and bird song share structural features, behaviors and now gene expression patterns.

Love of musical harmony is not nature but nurture Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:38 AM PST Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, a new study has found.

Unlocking the mystery behind Saturn's moonlets Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:37 AM PST New research by physicists casts new light on Saturn's moonlets -- and could help solve some of the mysteries surrounding planet formation. Saturn's F ring has long been of interest to scientists as its features rapid change on timescales from hours to years, and it is probably the only location in the solar system where large scale collisions happen on a daily basis.

Dog spots the dog: Dogs recognize the dog species among several other species on a computer screen Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:37 AM PST Dogs pick out faces of other dogs, irrespective of breeds, among human and other domestic and wild animal faces and can group them into a category of their own. They do that using visual cues alone, according to new research. Their work is the first to test dogs' ability to discriminate between species and form a "dog" category in spite of the huge variability within the dog species.

A quantum dot energy harvester Posted: 14 Feb 2013 04:56 AM PST A new type of nanoscale engine has been proposed that would use quantum dots to generate electricity from waste heat, potentially making microcircuits more efficient. The engines would be microscopic in size, and have no moving parts. Each would only produce a tiny amount of power but by combining millions of the engines in a layered structure, enough of them could make a notable difference in the energy consumption of a computer.

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