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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


'Brown ocean' can fuel inland tropical cyclones

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:38 PM PDT

In the summer of 2007, Tropical Storm Erin stumped meteorologists. Most tropical cyclones dissipate after making landfall, weakened by everything from friction and wind shear to loss of the ocean as a source of heat energy. Not Erin. The storm intensified as it tracked through Texas. Erin is an example of a newly defined type of inland tropical cyclone that maintains or increases strength after landfall. Storms in the newly defined category derive their energy from the evaporation of abundant soil moisture -- a phenomenon that experts call the "brown ocean."

Rare fossil of late Cretaceous plesiosaur discovered

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:19 PM PDT

Researchers have discovered the fossilized remains of an elasmosaur. A subgroup of the late Cretaceous plesiosaurs, the elasmosaurid plesiosaurs are recognized by their large body size and shape. This find is only the second elasmosaurid specimen containing more than one or two bones found in Alabama.

Step closer to custom-building new blood vessels

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:18 PM PDT

Researchers have coaxed stem cells into forming networks of new blood vessels in the laboratory, then successfully transplanted them into mice. The stem cells are made by reprogramming ordinary cells, so the new technique could potentially be used to make blood vessels genetically matched to individual patients and unlikely to be rejected by their immune systems, the investigators say.

Ecological forces structure your body's personal mix of microbes

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 11:40 AM PDT

Environmental conditions have a stronger influence on the mix of microbes living in your body than does competition between species. Instead of excluding each other, microbes that fiercely compete for similar resources are more likely to cohabit the same individual. The findings are a step toward building a predictive model of the human microbiome to study how medical conditions change this massive biological system, identify how to promote beneficial microbiomes, and design interventions for hard-to-manage problems like chronic digestive inflammation.

Levitation: Droplets surfing on sound waves

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 11:07 AM PDT

Researchers are able to make objects such as particles and liquid droplets fly in mid-air by letting them ride on acoustic waves. For the first time, they have been able to also control the movement of objects, merge droplets, letting them react chemically or biologically and even rotate a toothpick in the air.

Tooth is 'smoking gun' evidence that Tyrannosaurus rex was hunter, killer

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 10:58 AM PDT

Tyrannosaurus rex has long been popular with kids and moviemakers as the most notorious, vicious killing machine to roam the planet during the age of the dinosaurs. So, it may come as a shock that for more than a century some paleontologists have argued that T. rex was a scavenger, not a true predator -- more like a vulture than a lion. Indeed, a lack of definitive fossil proof of predation in the famous theropod has stirred controversy among scientists -- until now. Researchers have unearthed "smoking gun" physical proof that T. rex was indeed a predator, hunter and killer.

Manure used by Europe's first farmers 8,000 years ago

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 10:47 AM PDT

A new study says Europe's first farmers used far more sophisticated practices than was previously thought. Scientists have found that Neolithic farmers manured and watered their crops as early as 6,000 BC.

New thermocell could harvest 'waste heat' from power stations and even vehicle exhaust pipes

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 06:27 AM PDT

Harvesting waste heat from power stations and even vehicle exhaust pipes could soon provide a valuable supply of electricity.

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