ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• A micro-muscular breakthrough: Powerful new microscale torsional muscle/motor from vanadium dioxide
• Ancient cranial surgery: Practice of drilling holes in the cranium that dates back thousands of years
• Driving force behind mitochondrial 'sex' in ancient flowering plant
• Researchers generate kidney tubular cells from stem cells
• Mating is kiss of death for certain female worms
• Catching the big wave: 'Universal ripple' could hold the secret to high-temperature superconductivity
• Electron 'antenna' tunes in to physics beyond Higgs
• The origin of flowers: DNA of storied plant provides insight into the evolution of flowering plants
• New way to map important drug targets
• New salt compounds challenge the foundation of chemistry
• Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster
• A new -- and reversible -- cause of aging: A naturally produced compound rewinds aspects of age-related demise in mice
• Lemur babies of older moms less likely to get hurt
• World's first text message using vodka: Messages sent via molecules can aid communication underground, underwater or inside the body
• Kids grasp large numbers remarkably young

A micro-muscular breakthrough: Powerful new microscale torsional muscle/motor from vanadium dioxide Posted: 19 Dec 2013 05:01 PM PST Researchers have demonstrated a micro-sized robotic torsional muscle/motor made from vanadium dioxide that for its size is a thousand times more powerful than a human muscle, able to catapult objects 50 times heavier than itself over a distance five times its length faster than the blink of an eye.

Ancient cranial surgery: Practice of drilling holes in the cranium that dates back thousands of years Posted: 19 Dec 2013 05:00 PM PST Some might consider drilling a hole in someone's head a form of torture, but in the province of Ahdahuaylas in Peru, ca. AD 100-1250, it was state-of-the-art medical care.

Driving force behind mitochondrial 'sex' in ancient flowering plant Posted: 19 Dec 2013 04:59 PM PST A new study has uncovered an unprecedented example of horizontal gene transfer in a South Pacific shrub that is considered to be the sole survivor of one of the two oldest lineages of flowering plants.

Researchers generate kidney tubular cells from stem cells Posted: 19 Dec 2013 04:59 PM PST Investigators have discovered a cocktail of chemicals which, when added to stem cells in a precise order, turns on genes found in kidney cells in the same order that they turn on during embryonic kidney development. The kidney cells continued to behave like kidney cells when transplanted into adult or embryonic mouse kidneys.

Mating is kiss of death for certain female worms Posted: 19 Dec 2013 12:45 PM PST The presence of male sperm and seminal fluid causes female worms to shrivel and die after giving birth, researchers reported this week. The demise of the female appears to benefit the male worm by removing her from the mating pool for other males.

Catching the big wave: 'Universal ripple' could hold the secret to high-temperature superconductivity Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:23 AM PST Researchers have discovered a universal electronic state that controls the behavior of high-temperature superconducting copper-oxide ceramics.

Electron 'antenna' tunes in to physics beyond Higgs Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:23 AM PST In making the most precise measurements ever of the shape of electrons, a team of Harvard and Yale scientists have raised severe doubts about several popular theories of what lies beyond the Higgs boson.

The origin of flowers: DNA of storied plant provides insight into the evolution of flowering plants Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:22 AM PST Biologists have sequenced the genome of the Amborella plant. The genome sequence sheds new light on a major event in the history of life on Earth: the origin of flowering plants, including all major food crop species.

New way to map important drug targets Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:21 AM PST Researchers have used new techniques and one of the brightest X-ray sources on the planet to map the 3-D structure of an important cellular gatekeeper in a more natural state than possible before.

New salt compounds challenge the foundation of chemistry Posted: 19 Dec 2013 11:21 AM PST All good research breaks new ground, but rarely does the research unearth truths that challenge the foundation of a science. That's what chemists have now done. Scientists have compressed sodium chloride—rock salt—to form new compounds.

Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster Posted: 19 Dec 2013 10:11 AM PST Scientists have discovered that as the brain re-organizes connections throughout our life, the process begins earlier in girls which may explain why they mature faster during the teenage years.

A new -- and reversible -- cause of aging: A naturally produced compound rewinds aspects of age-related demise in mice Posted: 19 Dec 2013 10:07 AM PST Researchers have discovered a cause of aging in mammals involving a series of molecular events that disables communication between the nucleus and mitochondria. By administering a molecule naturally produced by the human body, the communication network was restored in older mice. Subsequent tissue samples showed biological hallmarks comparable to much younger animals.

Lemur babies of older moms less likely to get hurt Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:36 AM PST A long-term study of aggression in lemurs finds that infants born to older mothers are less likely to get hurt than those born to younger mothers. The findings come from an analysis of detailed medical records for more than 240 ring-tailed lemurs that were monitored daily from infancy to adulthood over a 35-year period.

World's first text message using vodka: Messages sent via molecules can aid communication underground, underwater or inside the body Posted: 18 Dec 2013 02:08 PM PST Scientists have created a molecular communications system for the transmission of messages and data in challenging environments such as tunnels, pipelines, under water and within the body.

Kids grasp large numbers remarkably young Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:29 AM PST Children as young as 3 understand multi-digit numbers more than previously believed and may be ready for more direct math instruction when they enter school, according to new research.

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