ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Nonconcussion head impacts in contact sports linked to brain changes and lower test scores
• Liquid to gel to bone: Temperature-sensitive gelling scaffolds made to regenerate craniofacial bone
• Differences in educational achievement owe more to genetics than environment, finds study of UK students
• Chameleons use colorful language to communicate: Chameleons' body regions are 'billboards' for different types of information
• The mystery of lizard breath: One-way air flow may be 270 million years old
• Alpine glacier, unchanged for thousands of years, now melting: New ice cores suggest Alps have been strongly warming since 1980s
• Even when test scores go up, some cognitive abilities don't
• New system allows for high-accuracy, through-wall, 3-D motion tracking; Technology could revolutionize gaming, fall detection
• New strain of bird flu packs a punch even after becoming drug-resistant
• Researchers uncover mechanism controlling Tourette Syndrome tics
• Spanking children slows cognitive development and increases risk of criminal behavior, expert says
• Supervolcanoes discovered in Utah: Evidence of some of the largest eruptions in Earth's history
• The garden microbe with a sense of touch: Common soil dwelling bacterium responds to forces and curvature
• Fossil primate shakes up history of tooth-combed primates

Nonconcussion head impacts in contact sports linked to brain changes and lower test scores Posted: 11 Dec 2013 03:55 PM PST Repeated blows to the head during a season of contact sports may cause changes in the brain's white matter and affect cognitive abilities even if none of the impacts resulted in a concussion.

Liquid to gel to bone: Temperature-sensitive gelling scaffolds made to regenerate craniofacial bone Posted: 11 Dec 2013 03:53 PM PST Bioengineers have developed a hydrogel scaffold for craniofacial bone tissue regeneration that starts as a liquid, solidifies into a gel in the body and liquefies again for removal.

Differences in educational achievement owe more to genetics than environment, finds study of UK students Posted: 11 Dec 2013 03:53 PM PST The degree to which students' exam scores differ owes more to their genes than to their teachers, schools or family environments, according to new research. The study, which took place in the UK, looked at students' scores for their GCSE's (General Certificate of Secondary Education), a UK-wide examination at the end of compulsory education at 16 years old.

Chameleons use colorful language to communicate: Chameleons' body regions are 'billboards' for different types of information Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:42 AM PST To protect themselves, some animals rapidly change color when their environments change, but chameleons change colors in unusual ways when they interact with other chameleons. Researchers have discovered that these color changes don't happen "out-of-the-blue" -- instead, they convey different types of information during important social interactions.

The mystery of lizard breath: One-way air flow may be 270 million years old Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:39 AM PST Air flows mostly in a one-way loop through the lungs of monitor lizards -- a breathing method shared by birds, alligators and presumably dinosaurs, according to a new study that may push the evolution of this trait back to 270 million years ago.

Alpine glacier, unchanged for thousands of years, now melting: New ice cores suggest Alps have been strongly warming since 1980s Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:24 AM PST Less than 20 miles from the site where melting ice exposed the 5,000-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman, scientists have discovered new and compelling evidence that the Italian Alps are warming at an unprecedented rate. Part of that evidence comes in the form of a single dried-out leaf from a larch tree that grew thousands of years ago.

Even when test scores go up, some cognitive abilities don't Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:19 AM PST In new research, neuroscientists find that even high-performing schools don't influence their students' abstract reasoning.

New system allows for high-accuracy, through-wall, 3-D motion tracking; Technology could revolutionize gaming, fall detection Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:18 AM PST Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house. Gaming could become this realistic, thanks to new technology that allows for highly accurate, 3-D motion tracking. The new system, dubbed "WiTrack," uses radio signals to track a person through walls and obstructions, pinpointing her 3-D location to within 10 to 20 centimeters -- about the width of an adult hand.

New strain of bird flu packs a punch even after becoming drug-resistant Posted: 11 Dec 2013 07:46 AM PST Researchers have reported that a virulent new strain of influenza -- the virus that causes the flu -- appears to retain its ability to cause serious disease in humans even after it develops resistance to antiviral medications.

Researchers uncover mechanism controlling Tourette Syndrome tics Posted: 11 Dec 2013 07:41 AM PST A mechanism in the brain that controls tics in children with Tourette Syndrome has been discovered by scientists.

Spanking children slows cognitive development and increases risk of criminal behavior, expert says Posted: 11 Dec 2013 07:39 AM PST A scientist makes a definitive case against spanking, including how it slows cognitive development and increases antisocial and criminal behavior.

Supervolcanoes discovered in Utah: Evidence of some of the largest eruptions in Earth's history Posted: 11 Dec 2013 06:39 AM PST Evidence of an eruption 5,000 times larger than Mount St. Helens was found in the Utah desert, with traces of ash identified as far away as Nebraska. These supervolcanoes aren't active today, but 30 million years ago more than 5,500 cubic kilometers of magma erupted during a one-week period near a place called Wah Wah Springs. By comparison, this eruption was about 5,000 times larger than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

The garden microbe with a sense of touch: Common soil dwelling bacterium responds to forces and curvature Posted: 11 Dec 2013 06:37 AM PST A common soil dwelling bacterium appears to possess a sense of touch, researchers have shown. A study has found that Bacillus mycoides, which has been known to science since 1842, responds to forces and curvature in the medium on which it's growing.

Fossil primate shakes up history of tooth-combed primates Posted: 11 Dec 2013 04:02 AM PST Fossils discovered in Tunisia challenge several hypotheses concerning the origin of tooth-combed primates (Malagasy lemurs, Afro-Asian lorises and African galagos). The fossils are of a small primate called Djebelemur, which lived around 50 million years ago.

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