ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• How Mars' atmosphere got so thin: Reports detail Curiosity clues to atmosphere's past
• Gene mutation linked to obesity: Mice gain weight even when fed normal amounts of food
• Snow in an infant solar system: A frosty landmark for planet and comet formation
• Best romantic singers are male bats
• Microbes can influence evolution of their hosts
• Hubble shows link between stars' ages and their orbits in dense cluster
• Endoplasmic reticulum: Scientists image 'parking garage' helix structure in protein-making factory
• Chimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events
• Movement without muscles study in insects could inspire robot and prosthetic limb developments
• Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division
• Scientists break record for thinnest light-absorber: May lead to more efficient, cheaper solar cells
• Slow bow shock ahead of the sun's heliosphere predicted
• Irish potato famine-causing pathogen even more virulent now
• Shorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain
• Successful restoration of hearing and balance

How Mars' atmosphere got so thin: Reports detail Curiosity clues to atmosphere's past Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:30 AM PDT A pair of new papers report measurements of the Martian atmosphere's composition by NASA's Curiosity rover, providing evidence about loss of much of Mars' original atmosphere.

Gene mutation linked to obesity: Mice gain weight even when fed normal amounts of food Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:28 AM PDT Researchers have identified a genetic cause of severe obesity that, though rare, raises new questions about weight gain and energy use in the general obese population. The research involved genetic surveys of several groups of obese humans and experiments in mice.

Snow in an infant solar system: A frosty landmark for planet and comet formation Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:27 AM PDT A snow line has been imaged in a far-off infant solar system for the very first time. The snow line, located in the disc around the Sun-like star TW Hydrae, promises to tell us more about the formation of planets and comets, the factors that decide their composition, and the history of the Solar System.

Best romantic singers are male bats Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:25 AM PDT Male bats appear to be the sexy singers of the animal world: they have learned to vocalize in a specific way to attract females, but once they have their attention, they change their tune – literally. They then produce a more creative array of sounds to entertain and keep the females interested.

Microbes can influence evolution of their hosts Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:24 AM PDT Contrary to current scientific understanding, it appears that our microbial companions play an important role in their hosts' evolution. A new study provides the first direct evidence that these microbes can contribute to the origin of new species by reducing the viability of hybrids produced between males and females of different species.

Hubble shows link between stars' ages and their orbits in dense cluster Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have determined the orbital motion of two distinct populations of stars in an ancient globular star cluster, offering proof they formed at different times and providing a rare look back into the Milky Way galaxy's early days.

Endoplasmic reticulum: Scientists image 'parking garage' helix structure in protein-making factory Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT The endoplasmic reticulum is the protein-making factory within cells consisting of tightly stacked sheets of membrane studded with the molecules that make proteins. Now, researchers have refined a new microscopy imaging method to visualize exactly how the ER sheets are stacked, revealing that the 3D structure of the sheets resembles a parking garage. This structure allows for the dense packing of ER sheets, maximizing the amount of space available for protein synthesis.

Chimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT We humans can remember events in our lives that happened years ago, with those memories often surfacing unexpectedly in response to sensory triggers like flavor or scent. Now, researchers have evidence to suggest that chimpanzees and orangutans have similar capacities. In laboratory tests, both primate species were clearly able to recollect a tool-finding event that they had experienced just four times three years earlier and a singular event from two weeks before, the researchers show.

Movement without muscles study in insects could inspire robot and prosthetic limb developments Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:05 AM PDT Neurobiologists have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles -- a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs.

Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:04 AM PDT For more than 125 years, scientists have been peering through microscopes, carefully watching cells divide. Until now, however, none has actually seen how cells manage to divide precisely into two equally-sized daughter cells during mitosis. Such perfect division depends on the position of the mitotic spindle (chromosomes, microtubules, and spindle poles) within the cell, and it's now clear that human cells employ two specific mechanisms during the portion of division known as anaphase to correct mitotic spindle positioning.

Scientists break record for thinnest light-absorber: May lead to more efficient, cheaper solar cells Posted: 18 Jul 2013 08:15 AM PDT Scientists have built the thinnest, most efficient absorber of visible light on record, a nanosize structure that could lead to less-costly, more efficient, solar cells.

Slow bow shock ahead of the sun's heliosphere predicted Posted: 18 Jul 2013 08:13 AM PDT A new study indicates that a bow shock (a dynamic boundary between sun's heliosphere and the interstellar medium) is highly likely. These findings challenge recent predictions that no such bow shock would be encountered.

Irish potato famine-causing pathogen even more virulent now Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:13 AM PDT The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants.

Shorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:09 AM PDT In many animal species, males and females differ in terms of their brain size. The most common explanation is that these differences stem from sexual selection. But predictions are not always certain. Scientists have discovered that a group of coastal birds, shorebirds, do not choose their mates by brain size but "on their physiques".

Successful restoration of hearing and balance Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:07 AM PDT The sounds of success are ringing due to a research project that has the potential to treat human deafness and loss of balance.

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