ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• New drug reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's in mice
• Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region
• Oldest fossil hominin ear bones ever recovered: Discovery could yield important clues on human origins
• Seabird bones reveal changes in open-ocean food chain
• New method of finding planets scores its first discovery
• Brain frontal lobes not sole center of human intelligence, comparative research suggests
• Out of sync: Body clocks altered at cell level in depression
• Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware
• Photonic quantum computers: A brighter future than ever
• Western Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hazard potential greater than previously thought
• Solar panels as inexpensive as paint?
• How multitasking can improve judgments

New drug reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's in mice Posted: 13 May 2013 05:24 PM PDT A drug known as J147 reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings may pave the way to a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease in humans.

Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region Posted: 13 May 2013 02:48 PM PDT Researchers taking a new look at the snow and ice covering Mount Everest and the national park that surrounds it are finding abundant evidence that the world's tallest peak is shedding its frozen cloak. The scientists have also been studying temperature and precipitation trends in the area and found that the Everest region has been warming while snowfall has been declining since the early 1990s.

Oldest fossil hominin ear bones ever recovered: Discovery could yield important clues on human origins Posted: 13 May 2013 02:43 PM PDT Anthropologists could shed new light on the earliest existence of humans. The study analyzed the tiny ear bones, the malleus, incus and stapes, from two species of early human ancestor in South Africa.

Seabird bones reveal changes in open-ocean food chain Posted: 13 May 2013 02:43 PM PDT Remains of endangered Hawaiian petrels -- both ancient and modern -- show how drastically today's open seas fish menu has changed. Scientists analyzed the bones of Hawaiian petrels -- birds that spend the majority of their lives foraging the open waters of the Pacific. They found that the substantial change in petrels' eating habits, eating prey that are lower rather than higher in the food chain, coincides with the growth of industrialized fishing.

New method of finding planets scores its first discovery Posted: 13 May 2013 12:28 PM PDT Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking for dimming stars). Astronomers have just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Brain frontal lobes not sole center of human intelligence, comparative research suggests Posted: 13 May 2013 12:28 PM PDT Human intelligence cannot be explained by the size of the brain's frontal lobes, say researchers. Research into the comparative size of the frontal lobes in humans and other species has determined that they are not -- as previously thought -- disproportionately enlarged relative to other areas of the brain, according to the most accurate and conclusive study of this area of the brain. It concludes that the size of our frontal lobes cannot solely account for humans' superior cognitive abilities.

Out of sync: Body clocks altered at cell level in depression Posted: 13 May 2013 12:23 PM PDT Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. But new research shows that the clock may be broken in the brains of people with depression -- even at the level of the gene activity inside their brain cells.

Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware Posted: 13 May 2013 10:15 AM PDT Your brain often works on autopilot when it comes to grammar. That theory has been around for years, but neuroscientists have now captured elusive hard evidence that people indeed detect and process grammatical errors with no awareness of doing so.

Photonic quantum computers: A brighter future than ever Posted: 13 May 2013 07:38 AM PDT Harnessing the unique features of the quantum world promises a dramatic speed-up in information processing as compared to the fastest classical machines. Scientists have succeeded in prototyping a new and highly resource efficient model of a quantum computer -- the boson sampling computer.

Western Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hazard potential greater than previously thought Posted: 13 May 2013 07:37 AM PDT Earthquakes similar in magnitude to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake could occur in an area beneath the Arabian Sea at the Makran subduction zone, according to recent research.

Solar panels as inexpensive as paint? Posted: 13 May 2013 07:36 AM PDT Researchers are helping develop a new generation of photovoltaic cells that produce more power and cost less to manufacture than what's available today.

How multitasking can improve judgments Posted: 13 May 2013 05:30 AM PDT Multitasking does not always result in poor judgments. In fact, multitasking can improve performance -- provided that the task at hand can be best resolved by using a simpler, less demanding strategy, according to new research.

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