ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin of life, astrobiologists find
• Amount of dust blown across the Western U.S. is increasing
• From hot springs to HIV, same protein complexes are hijacked to promote viruses
• Bridge species drive tropical engine of biodiversity
• Study examines cancer risk from pediatric radiation exposure from CT scans
• Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret
• Biotech crops vs. pests: Successes and failures from the first billion acres
• Potential new target to thwart antibiotic resistance: Viruses in gut confer antibiotic resistance to bacteria
• Scientists size up universe's most lightweight dwarf galaxy
• 2-D electronics take a step forward: Semiconducting films for atom-thick circuits
• Flowering at the right age: Alpine rock cress uses a ribonucleic acid to measure its age and tell when it's the right time to flower
• Lifespan-extending drug given late in life reverses age-related heart disease in mice: Rapamycin
• Simple theory may explain mysterious dark matter
• People are overly confident in their own knowledge, despite errors
• Mysterious monument found beneath the Sea of Galilee
• Mice give new clues to origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder
• British butterfly desperate for warm weather this summer
• New theory proposes solution to long-running debate as to how stable the Earth system is
• Dance of the atoms: Clustering of atoms observed
• Ötzi the Iceman's dark secrets: Protein investigation supports brain injury theory

Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin of life, astrobiologists find Posted: 10 Jun 2013 07:01 PM PDT Researchers have discovered high concentrations of boron in a Martian meteorite. When present in its oxidized form (borate), boron may have played a key role in the formation of RNA, one of the building blocks for life.

Amount of dust blown across the Western U.S. is increasing Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:30 PM PDT The amount of dust being blown across the landscape has increased over the last 17 years in large swaths of the West, according to a new study.

From hot springs to HIV, same protein complexes are hijacked to promote viruses Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:26 PM PDT Biologists have discovered a striking connection between viruses such as HIV and Ebola and viruses that infect organisms called archaea that grow in volcanic hot springs. Despite the huge difference in environments and a 2 billion year evolutionary time span between archaea and humans, the viruses hijack the same set of proteins to break out of infected cells.

Bridge species drive tropical engine of biodiversity Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:25 PM PDT New research sheds light on how the tropics came to be teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few. Furthermore, it confirms that the tropics have been and continue to be the Earth's engine of biodiversity.

Study examines cancer risk from pediatric radiation exposure from CT scans Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:25 PM PDT According to a study of seven U.S. healthcare systems, the use of computed tomography (CT) scans of the head, abdomen/pelvis, chest or spine, in children younger than age 14 more than doubled from 1996 to 2005, and this associated radiation is projected to potentially increase the risk of radiation-induced cancer in these children in the future.

Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret Posted: 10 Jun 2013 12:21 PM PDT Using revolutionary new techniques, scientists have made a striking discovery about how ice behaves under pressure, changing ideas that date back almost 50 years. Their findings could alter our understanding of how the water molecule responds to conditions found deep within planets and could have implications for energy science.

Biotech crops vs. pests: Successes and failures from the first billion acres Posted: 10 Jun 2013 12:21 PM PDT A landmark study analyzes why pest resistance to genetically modified crops evolved quickly in some cases, but not others. The global assessment could help to gauge the risk of resistance for new biotech crops before they are commercialized.

Potential new target to thwart antibiotic resistance: Viruses in gut confer antibiotic resistance to bacteria Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:35 AM PDT Bacteria in the gut that are under attack by antibiotics have allies no one had anticipated, scientists have found. Gut viruses that usually commandeer the bacteria, it turns out, enable them to survive the antibiotic onslaught, most likely by handing them genes that help them withstand the drug.

Scientists size up universe's most lightweight dwarf galaxy Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:35 AM PDT The least massive galaxy in the known universe has now been measured, clocking in at just 1,000 or so stars with a bit of dark matter holding them together.

2-D electronics take a step forward: Semiconducting films for atom-thick circuits Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:31 AM PDT Scientists have created single-layer films of molybdenum disulfide, a semiconductor and an important component in the development of two-dimensional electronics.

Flowering at the right age: Alpine rock cress uses a ribonucleic acid to measure its age and tell when it's the right time to flower Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:30 AM PDT Perennial plants flower only when they have reached a certain age and been subjected to the cold. These two circumstances prevent the plant from starting to flower during winter. Botanists have now discovered that the Alpine rock cress determines its age based on the quantity of a short ribonucleic acid.

Lifespan-extending drug given late in life reverses age-related heart disease in mice: Rapamycin Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT Mice suffering from age-related heart disease saw a significant improvement in cardiac function after treatment with the FDA-approved drug rapamycin for just three months. New research shows how rapamycin impacts mammalian tissues, providing functional insights and possible benefits for a drug that can extend lifespan in mice as much as 14 percent. Researchers are now recruiting seniors with cardiac artery disease for a clinical trial involving the drug.

Simple theory may explain mysterious dark matter Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT The reason dark matter, which makes up 85 percent of all the matter in the universe, is invisible could be because it possesses a rare, donut-shaped type of electromagnetism instead of the more exotic forces that have been proposed, according to an analysis by theoretic physicists.

People are overly confident in their own knowledge, despite errors Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:30 AM PDT Overprecision -- excessive confidence in the accuracy of our beliefs -- can have profound consequences, inflating investors' valuation of their investments, leading physicians to gravitate too quickly to a diagnosis, even making people intolerant of dissenting views. Now, new research confirms that overprecision is a common and robust form of overconfidence driven, at least in part, by excessive certainty in the accuracy of our judgments.

Mysterious monument found beneath the Sea of Galilee Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:30 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a mysterious monument beneath the waves of the Sea of Galilee. The site resembles early burial sites in Europe and was likely built in the early Bronze Age.

Mice give new clues to origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder Posted: 10 Jun 2013 06:51 AM PDT Researchers have identified what they think may be a mechanism underlying the development of compulsive behaviors. The finding suggests possible approaches to treating or preventing certain characteristics of OCD.

British butterfly desperate for warm weather this summer Posted: 10 Jun 2013 06:51 AM PDT Butterflies are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, and new research has revealed that when summer weather turns bad the silver-spotted skipper battles for survival.

New theory proposes solution to long-running debate as to how stable the Earth system is Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:42 AM PDT Researchers have proposed an answer to the long-running debate as to how stable the Earth system is. Earth, with its core-driven magnetic field, oceans of liquid water, dynamic climate and abundant life is arguably the most complex system in the known Universe. Life arose on Earth over three and a half billion years ago and it would appear that despite planetary scale calamities such as the impacts of massive meteorites, runaway climate change and increases in brightness of the Sun, it has continued to grow, reproduce and evolve ever since. Has life on Earth simply been lucky in withstanding these events or are there any self-stabilizing processes operating in the Earth system that would reduce the severity of such perturbations? If such planetary processes exist, to what extent are they the result of the actions of life?

Dance of the atoms: Clustering of atoms observed Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:41 AM PDT Lone people standing in a ballroom don't tend to move a lot. It's only when they find a suitable dance partner that rapid motion sets in. Atoms on iron-oxide surfaces behave in a similar way: Only with the right molecular partner do they dance across the surface. Scientists have now filmed the atoms, proving that carbon monoxide is the partner responsible for the quick motion.

Ötzi the Iceman's dark secrets: Protein investigation supports brain injury theory Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:41 AM PDT After decoding the Iceman's genetic make-up, a research team has now made another major breakthrough in mummy research: Using just a pinhead-sized sample of brain tissue from the world-famous glacier corpse, the team was able to extract and analyze proteins to further support the theory that Ötzi suffered some form of brain damage in the final moments of his life.

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