ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Overweight causes heart failure: Large study with new method clarifies the association
• High-octane bacteria could ease pain at the pump: Engineered E. coli mass-produce key precursor to potent biofuel
• Video game tech used to steer cockroaches on autopilot
• Past brain activation revealed in scans: Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity
• Problem-solving governs how we process sensory stimuli
• Ten thousandth near-Earth object discovered in space
• Breastfeeding boosts ability to climb social ladder
• Hunger affects decision-making and perception of risk
• Three planets in habitable zone of nearby star: Gliese 667c reexamined
• Addiction relapse might be thwarted by turning off brain trigger
• Resourceful microbes reign in world's oceans
• Pareiasaur: Bumpy beast was a desert dweller

Overweight causes heart failure: Large study with new method clarifies the association Posted: 25 Jun 2013 02:22 PM PDT Scientists have used a new method to investigate obesity and overweight as a cause of cardiovascular disease. Strong association have been found previously, but it has not been clear whether it was overweight as such that was the cause, or if the overweight was just a marker of another underlying cause, as clinical trials with long-term follow-ups are difficult to implement.

High-octane bacteria could ease pain at the pump: Engineered E. coli mass-produce key precursor to potent biofuel Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:13 AM PDT Potent gasoline-like biofuels are needed to fuel millions of cars with internal combustion engines, and current biofuels don't pack the necessary power. Now scientists have programmed bacteria to tailor-make key precursors of high-octane biofuels that could one day replace gasoline.

Video game tech used to steer cockroaches on autopilot Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:12 AM PDT Researchers are using video game technology to remotely control cockroaches on autopilot, with a computer steering the cockroach through a controlled environment. The researchers are using the technology to track how roaches respond to the remote control, with the goal of developing ways that roaches on autopilot can be used to map dynamic environments -- such as collapsed buildings.

Past brain activation revealed in scans: Brain activity patterns preserve traces of previous cognitive activity Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:11 AM PDT What if experts could dig into the brain, like archaeologists, and uncover the history of past experiences? This ability might reveal what makes each of us a unique individual, and it could enable the objective diagnosis of a wide range of neuropsychological diseases. New research hints that such a scenario is within the realm of possibility: It shows that spontaneous waves of neuronal activity in the brain bear the imprints of earlier events for at least 24 hours after the experience has taken place.

Problem-solving governs how we process sensory stimuli Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:11 AM PDT Various areas of the brain process our sensory experiences. How the areas of the cerebral cortex communicate with each other and process sensory information has long puzzled neuroscientists. Exploring the sense of touch in mice, brain researchers now demonstrate that the transmission of sensory information from one cortical area to connected areas depends on the specific task to solve and the goal-directed behavior. These findings can serve as a basis for an improved understanding of cognitive disorders.

Ten thousandth near-Earth object discovered in space Posted: 25 Jun 2013 08:21 AM PDT More than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth have now been discovered. The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was first detected on the night of June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope, located on the 10,000-foot (convert) summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui.

Breastfeeding boosts ability to climb social ladder Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:42 AM PDT Breastfeeding not only boosts children's chances of climbing the social ladder, but it also reduces the chances of downwards mobility, suggests a large study.

Hunger affects decision-making and perception of risk Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:38 AM PDT Hungry people are often difficult to deal with. A good meal can affect more than our mood, it can also influence our willingness to take risks. This phenomenon is also apparent across a very diverse range of species in the animal kingdom. Experiments conducted on the fruit fly, Drosophila, have shown that hunger not only modifies behavior, but also changes pathways in the brain.

Three planets in habitable zone of nearby star: Gliese 667c reexamined Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:35 AM PDT Astronomers have combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data to reveal a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.

Addiction relapse might be thwarted by turning off brain trigger Posted: 24 Jun 2013 02:38 PM PDT A new study offers encouraging findings that researchers hope may one day lead to a treatment option for people who suffer from alcohol abuse disorders and other addictions.

Resourceful microbes reign in world's oceans Posted: 24 Jun 2013 02:32 PM PDT Using cutting-edge technology on a large scale for the first time, researchers have discovered that marine microbes are adapted to narrow and specialized niches, a finding pivotal to detecting and mitigating human impacts in the ocean. High-throughput single cell genomics was used read genetic information from microbes that were previously inaccessible to scientific investigation, opening a new chapter in exploring the microbial life that dominates marine ecosystems.

Pareiasaur: Bumpy beast was a desert dweller Posted: 24 Jun 2013 12:26 PM PDT During the Permian era, animal and plant life were dispersed broadly across Pangea, and a new study supports the idea that there was an isolated desert in the middle of Pangea with its own fauna. Roaming this desert was a very distinctive creature known as a pareiasaur. Pareiasaurs were large, herbivorous reptiles that were common across Pangea during the Middle and Late Permian, about 266-252 million years ago.

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