ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Dogs yawn more often in response to owners' yawns than strangers
• Eavesdropping plants prepare to be attacked
• Simple math sheds new light on a long-studied biological process
• Type 1 diabetes drug strikingly effective in clinical trial
• First hundred thousand years of our universe
• Making connections in the eye: Wiring diagram of retinal neurons is first step toward mapping the human brain
• Strangers invade the homes of giant bacteria
• The temperature tastes just right: Scientists discover previously unknown thermal sensor in insects linked to taste, smell
• NIH, Lacks family reach understanding to share genomic data of HeLa cells
• New proto-mammal fossil sheds light on evolution of earliest mammals
• Motional layers found in the brain: Neurobiologists discover elementary motion detectors in the fruit fly
• Regulating electron 'spin' may be key to making organic solar cells competitive
• Q-glasses could be a new class of solids
• Gold 'nanoprobes' hold the key to treating killer diseases
• Of stars and stripes: NASA satellites used to predict zebra migrations
• Monarch butterflies migration path tracked by generations for first time
• The Odd Couple: Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door
• Immune function restored in spinal injured mice
• Inca children were drugged with coca and alcohol before sacrifice

Dogs yawn more often in response to owners' yawns than strangers Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:48 PM PDT Dogs yawn contagiously when they see a person yawning, and respond more frequently to their owner's yawns than to a stranger's, according to new research.

Eavesdropping plants prepare to be attacked Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:46 PM PDT In a world full of hungry predators, prey animals must be constantly vigilant to avoid getting eaten. But plants face a particular challenge when it comes to defending themselves.

Simple math sheds new light on a long-studied biological process Posted: 07 Aug 2013 12:51 PM PDT One of the most basic and intensively studied processes in biology —- one which has been detailed in biology textbooks for decades —- has gained a new level of understanding, thanks to the application of simple math to a problem that scientists never before thought could benefit from mathematics.

Type 1 diabetes drug strikingly effective in clinical trial Posted: 07 Aug 2013 12:51 PM PDT An experimental drug designed to block the advance of type 1 diabetes in its earliest stages has proven strikingly effective over two years in about half of the patients who participated in the phase 2 clinical trial.

First hundred thousand years of our universe Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:45 AM PDT Researchers have taken the furthest look back through time yet -- 100 years to 300,000 years after the Big Bang -- and found tantalizing new hints of clues as to what might have happened.

Making connections in the eye: Wiring diagram of retinal neurons is first step toward mapping the human brain Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:42 AM PDT Using a combination of human and artificial intelligence, scientists have mapped all the wiring among 950 neurons within a tiny patch of the mouse retina.

Strangers invade the homes of giant bacteria Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:41 AM PDT Life is not a walk in the park for the world's largest bacteria, that live as soft, noodle-like, white strings on the bottom of the ocean depths. Without being able to fend for themselves, they get invaded by parasitic microorganisms that steal the nutrition, that they have painstakingly retrieved. This newly discovered bizarre deep ocean relationship may ultimately impact ocean productivity, report researchers.

The temperature tastes just right: Scientists discover previously unknown thermal sensor in insects linked to taste, smell Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:41 AM PDT Animals have evolved very sensitive temperature sensors to detect the relatively narrow margin in which they can survive. Until recently, scientists knew little about how these sensors operated. Now, scientists have discovered a previously unknown molecular temperature sensor in fruit flies responsible for sensing tastes and smells. These types of sensors are present in disease-spreading insects like mosquitoes and may help scientists better understand how insects target humans and spread disease.

NIH, Lacks family reach understanding to share genomic data of HeLa cells Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:40 AM PDT The National Institutes of Health has reached an understanding with the family of the late Henrietta Lacks to allow biomedical researchers controlled access to the whole genome data of cells derived from her tumor, commonly known as HeLa cells. These cells have already been used extensively in scientific research and have helped make possible some of the most important medical advances of the past 60 years. These include the development of modern vaccines, cancer treatments, in vitro fertilization techniques, and many others. HeLa cells are the most widely used human cell lines in existence today. Access to the whole genome data of these cells will be a valuable reference tool for researchers using HeLa cells in their research.

New proto-mammal fossil sheds light on evolution of earliest mammals Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:40 AM PDT A newly discovered fossil reveals the evolutionary adaptations of a 165-million-year-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur originated well before the rise of the first true mammals. Biologists have now described the biological features of this ancient mammalian relative, named Megaconus mammaliaformis.

Motional layers found in the brain: Neurobiologists discover elementary motion detectors in the fruit fly Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:35 AM PDT Recognizing movement and its direction is one of the first and most important processing steps in any visual system. By this way, nearby predators or prey can be detected and even one's own movements are controlled. More than fifty years ago, a mathematical model predicted how elementary motion detectors must be structured in the brain. However, which nerve cells perform this job and how they are actually connected remained a mystery.

Regulating electron 'spin' may be key to making organic solar cells competitive Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:34 AM PDT Organic solar cells that use carbon-based molecules to convert light to electricity have not been able to match the efficiency silicon-based cells. Now, researchers have discovered a synthetic, high-performance polymer that could make inexpensive, highly efficient organic solar panels a reality.

Q-glasses could be a new class of solids Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:01 AM PDT There may be more kinds of stuff than we thought. Scientists have reported possible evidence for a new category of solids, things that are neither pure glasses, crystals, nor even exotic quasicrystals.

Gold 'nanoprobes' hold the key to treating killer diseases Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:58 AM PDT Researchers have developed a technique to help treat fatal diseases more effectively. They are using gold nanoprobes to identify different types of cells, so that they can use the right ones in stem cell therapies.

Of stars and stripes: NASA satellites used to predict zebra migrations Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:29 AM PDT One of the world's longest migrations of zebras occurs in the African nation of Botswana, but predicting when and where zebras will move has not been possible until now. Using NASA rain and vegetation data, researchers can track when and where arid lands begin to green, and for the first time anticipate if zebras will make the trek or, if the animals find poor conditions en route, understand why they will turn back.

Monarch butterflies migration path tracked by generations for first time Posted: 07 Aug 2013 06:46 AM PDT For the first time, researchers have mapped that migration pattern of monarch butterflies across the continent over an entire breeding season. That information might help conserve a creature increasingly threatened by loss of habitat and food sources.

The Odd Couple: Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door Posted: 07 Aug 2013 06:43 AM PDT ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud -- one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. A sharp new image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.

Immune function restored in spinal injured mice Posted: 06 Aug 2013 05:35 PM PDT Scientists have shown that is possible to restore immune function in spinal injured mice. People with spinal cord injury often are immune compromised, which makes them more susceptible to infections. Why these people become immune-suppressed is not known, but the study found that a disorder called autonomic dysreflexia can cause immune suppression.

Inca children were drugged with coca and alcohol before sacrifice Posted: 06 Aug 2013 06:18 AM PDT Scientists have examined the bodies of three 500-year-old Inca children. This has given new, detailed knowledge about the old Ince ritual "capacocha" which also involved sacrificing humans. Now we know more precisely what happened in an Inca sacrifice -- for example, to what extent coca and alcohol were used as part of the Inca ritual in the months and weeks preceding a sacrifice.

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