ScienceDaily: Top News

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• SUNRISE offers new insight on sun's atmosphere
• First step to reduce plant need for nitrogen fertilizer uncovered
• New biological agent to fight invasive weed
• Accelerator on a chip: Technology could spawn new generations of smaller, less expensive devices for science, medicine
• New species of fascinating opportunistic shelter using leaf beetles
• 3-D models of electrical streamers
• Bright, laser-based lighting devices
• New breast cancer imaging technique could cut down on false positives
• Breathing underwater: Evidence of microscopic life in oceanic crust
• Repurposed antidepressants may treat small-cell lung cancer
• The spliceosome: More than meets the eye
• Ballet dancers' brains adapt to stop them getting in a spin
• Setting blurred images in motion improves perception

SUNRISE offers new insight on sun's atmosphere Posted: 27 Sep 2013 03:33 PM PDT Three months after the flight of the solar observatory Sunrise -- carried aloft by a NASA scientific balloon in early June 2013 -- scientists have presented unique insights into a layer on the sun called the chromosphere. Sunrise provided the highest-resolution images to date in ultraviolet light of this thin corrugated layer, which lies between the sun's visible surface and the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.

First step to reduce plant need for nitrogen fertilizer uncovered Posted: 27 Sep 2013 03:33 PM PDT Nitrogen fertilizer costs US farmers approximately $8 billion each year, and excess fertilizer can find its way into rivers and streams, damaging the delicate water systems. A new discovery could be the first step toward helping crops use less nitrogen, benefiting both farmers' bottom lines and the environment.

New biological agent to fight invasive weed Posted: 27 Sep 2013 03:29 PM PDT Entomologists reached a milestone in their efforts to control the invasive weed swallow-wort this month with the first release of a biological agent to fight the pest.

Accelerator on a chip: Technology could spawn new generations of smaller, less expensive devices for science, medicine Posted: 27 Sep 2013 10:47 AM PDT In an advance that could dramatically shrink particle accelerators for science and medicine, researchers used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate 10 times higher than conventional technology in a nanostructured glass chip smaller than a grain of rice.

New species of fascinating opportunistic shelter using leaf beetles Posted: 27 Sep 2013 09:34 AM PDT Builders are rather uncommon among adult leaf beetles though young ones of certain species use own feces to construct a defensive shield. Two closely related, hitherto unknown species of tiny southern Indian leaf beetles, only slightly larger than the size of a pin-head, and their clever way of using and modifying low cost shelters, have now been described.

3-D models of electrical streamers Posted: 27 Sep 2013 09:32 AM PDT Scientists have developed an accurate 3-D model of streamer propagation that qualitatively and quantitatively describes the streamer development, an advance that may impact applications such as medical imaging, aerospace engineering, power transmission, atmospheric sensing, natural sciences, sensing technologies and large-scale industry.

Bright, laser-based lighting devices Posted: 27 Sep 2013 09:32 AM PDT Scientists have devised an alternative means of creating high-power white light by using a different excitation source -- a laser diode in combination with inorganic phosphors, instead of the traditional LEDs.

New breast cancer imaging technique could cut down on false positives Posted: 27 Sep 2013 06:27 AM PDT A new breast cancer screening technique is being developed that has the potential to reduce false positives, and, possibly, minimize the need for invasive biopsies. Scientists have created an MRI device that could improve both the process and accuracy of breast cancer screening by scanning for sodium levels in the breast.

Breathing underwater: Evidence of microscopic life in oceanic crust Posted: 27 Sep 2013 06:27 AM PDT Scientists have recently documented that oxygen is disappearing from seawater circulating through deep oceanic crust, a significant first step in understanding the way life in the "deep biosphere" beneath the sea floor is able to survive and thrive. The new research findings are helping to redefine our concepts of the limits of life on our planet.

Repurposed antidepressants may treat small-cell lung cancer Posted: 27 Sep 2013 06:22 AM PDT A bioinformatics approach to repurposing drugs resulted in identification of a class of antidepressants as a potential new treatment for small-cell lung cancer.

The spliceosome: More than meets the eye Posted: 26 Sep 2013 05:50 PM PDT In a recent paper, a team of researchers explain how the molecular machine known as the spliceosome begins the process of rearranging gene sequences in RNA splicing.

Ballet dancers' brains adapt to stop them getting in a spin Posted: 26 Sep 2013 05:47 PM PDT Scientists have discovered differences in the brain structure of ballet dancers that may help them avoid feeling dizzy when they perform pirouettes.

Setting blurred images in motion improves perception Posted: 26 Sep 2013 11:29 AM PDT Blurred images that are unidentifiable as still pictures become understandable once the images are set in motion. That's because of a phenomenon called "optic flow," which may be especially relevant as a source of visual information in people with low vision.

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