ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• World's smallest liquid droplets ever made in the lab, experiment suggests
• Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results
• New method proposed for detecting gravitational waves from ends of universe
• Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors
• Artificial forest for solar water-splitting: First fully integrated artificial photosynthesis nanosystem
• World's biggest ice sheets likely more stable than previously believed
• World's melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise
• Beautiful 'flowers' self-assemble in a beaker
• DNA-guided assembly yields novel ribbon-like nanostructures
• Invasive 'crazy ants' are displacing fire ants in areas throughout southeastern U.S.
• Fast and painless way to better mental arithmetic? Yes, there might actually be a way
• Stem-cell-based strategy boosts immune system in mice
• Engineers monitor heart health using paper-thin flexible 'skin'
• Light cast on lifestyle and diet of first New Zealanders
• Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep
• Moth-inspired nanostructures take the color out of thin films

World's smallest liquid droplets ever made in the lab, experiment suggests Posted: 16 May 2013 05:06 PM PDT Physicists may have created the smallest drops of liquid ever made in the lab. That possibility has been raised by the results of a recent experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle collider located at the European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. Evidence of the minuscule droplets was extracted from the results of colliding protons with lead ions at velocities approaching the speed of light.

Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results Posted: 16 May 2013 03:20 PM PDT New experiments reveal previously unseen effects, could lead to new kinds of electronics and optical devices.

New method proposed for detecting gravitational waves from ends of universe Posted: 16 May 2013 01:17 PM PDT A new window into the nature of the universe may be possible with a device proposed by scientists that would detect elusive gravity waves from the other end of the cosmos.

Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors Posted: 16 May 2013 12:12 PM PDT Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research. For instance, Mozart's jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

Artificial forest for solar water-splitting: First fully integrated artificial photosynthesis nanosystem Posted: 16 May 2013 11:26 AM PDT Researchers have created the first fully integrated artificial photosynthesis nanosystem. While "artificial leaf" is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an "artificial forest."

World's biggest ice sheets likely more stable than previously believed Posted: 16 May 2013 11:25 AM PDT A new study suggests that the previous connections scientists made between ancient shoreline height and ice volumes are erroneous and that perhaps our ice sheets were more stable in the past than we originally thought. The study found that the Earth's hot mantle pushed up segments of ancient shorelines over millions of years, making them appear higher now than they originally were millions of years ago.

World's melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise Posted: 16 May 2013 11:25 AM PDT While 99 percent of Earth's land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world's glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009, says a new study.

Beautiful 'flowers' self-assemble in a beaker Posted: 16 May 2013 11:22 AM PDT With the hand of nature trained on a beaker of chemical fluid, the most delicate flower structures have been formed in a laboratory -- and not at the scale of inches, but microns. These minuscule sculptures, curved and delicate, don't resemble the cubic or jagged forms normally associated with crystals, though that's what they are. Rather, fields of carnations and marigolds seem to bloom from the surface of a submerged glass slide, assembling themselves a molecule at a time.

DNA-guided assembly yields novel ribbon-like nanostructures Posted: 16 May 2013 09:39 AM PDT DNA "linker" strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement -- with the rods forming "rungs" on ladder-like ribbons -- could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.

Invasive 'crazy ants' are displacing fire ants in areas throughout southeastern U.S. Posted: 16 May 2013 09:39 AM PDT Invasive "crazy ants" are displacing fire ants in areas across the southeastern United States, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. It's the latest in a history of ant invasions from the southern hemisphere and may prove to have dramatic effects on the ecosystem of the region.

Fast and painless way to better mental arithmetic? Yes, there might actually be a way Posted: 16 May 2013 09:39 AM PDT In the future, if you want to improve your ability to manipulate numbers in your head, you might just plug yourself in. So say researchers who report on studies of a harmless form of brain stimulation applied to an area known to be important for math ability.

Stem-cell-based strategy boosts immune system in mice Posted: 16 May 2013 09:36 AM PDT Raising hopes for cell-based therapies, researchers have created the first functioning human thymus tissue from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions.

Engineers monitor heart health using paper-thin flexible 'skin' Posted: 16 May 2013 07:57 AM PDT Engineers combine layers of flexible materials into pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill. The skin-like device could one day provide doctors with a safer way to check the condition of a patient's heart.

Light cast on lifestyle and diet of first New Zealanders Posted: 16 May 2013 07:57 AM PDT Scientists have shed new light on the diet, lifestyles and movements of the first New Zealanders by analyzing isotopes from their bones and teeth.

Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep Posted: 16 May 2013 07:56 AM PDT What is the long-range weather forecast for the giant planets Uranus and Neptune? These planets are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1000 km/hour, hurricane-like storms as large around as Earth, immense weather systems that last for years and fast-flowing jet streams. Researchers set an upper limit for the thickness of jet streams on Uranus and Neptune.

Moth-inspired nanostructures take the color out of thin films Posted: 16 May 2013 07:56 AM PDT Inspired by the structure of moth eyes, researchers have developed nanostructures that limit reflection at the interfaces where two thin films meet, suppressing the "thin-film interference" phenomenon commonly observed in nature. This can potentially improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.

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