ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• Why breastfed babies are so smart: Moms who breastfeed are often responsive and read to their babies
• NASA's Kepler mission announces a planet bonanza, 715 new worlds
• Decline of bronze age 'megacities' linked to climate change
• Causal link found between vitamin D, serotonin synthesis and autism in new study
• Offshore wind farms could tame hurricanes before they reach land
• 'Super-Earths' may be dead worlds: Being in habitable zone is not enough
• Ordinary conditioner removes head lice eggs as effectively as special products
• New approach to chip design could yield light speed computing
• Climate engineering: Minor potential, major risk of side-effects?
• Psychological side-effects of anti-depressants worse than thought
• Reciprocity and parrots: Griffin the grey parrot appears to understand benefits of sharing, study suggests
• 3-D printer creates transformative device for heart treatment
• How did the universe begin? Hot Big Bang or slow thaw?
• Body shape index as new predictor of mortality
• A paper diagnostic for cancer: Low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease

Why breastfed babies are so smart: Moms who breastfeed are often responsive and read to their babies Posted: 26 Feb 2014 12:56 PM PST Research has shown that children who were breastfed score higher on IQ tests and perform better in school, but the reason why remained unclear. Now a new study shows that two parenting skills deserve the credit. Responsiveness to children's emotional cues boosts kids' math and reading skills. Reading to children as early as 9 months of age also significantly improves school readiness. These two skills can give kids an extra 2-3 months' worth of brain development.

NASA's Kepler mission announces a planet bonanza, 715 new worlds Posted: 26 Feb 2014 12:33 PM PST NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system.

Decline of bronze age 'megacities' linked to climate change Posted: 26 Feb 2014 08:08 AM PST Scientists have demonstrated that an abrupt weakening of the summer monsoon affected northwest India 4,100 years ago. The resulting drought coincided with the beginning of the decline of the metropolis-building Indus Civilization, which spanned present-day Pakistan and India, suggesting that climate change could be why many of the major cities of the civilization were abandoned.

Causal link found between vitamin D, serotonin synthesis and autism in new study Posted: 26 Feb 2014 08:08 AM PST Serotonin and vitamin D have been proposed to play a role in autism, however, no causal mechanism has been established. Now, researchers show that serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, three brain hormones that affect social behavior related to autism, are all activated by vitamin D hormone. Supplementation with vitamin D and tryptophan would be a practical and affordable solution to help prevent autism and possibly ameliorate some symptoms of the disorder.

Offshore wind farms could tame hurricanes before they reach land Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:50 AM PST Computer simulations have shown that offshore wind farms with thousands of wind turbines could have sapped the power of three real-life hurricanes, significantly decreasing their winds and accompanying storm surge, and possibly preventing billions of dollars in damages. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the computer model revealed that an array of 78,000 wind turbines off the coast of New Orleans would have significantly weakened the hurricane well before it made landfall.

'Super-Earths' may be dead worlds: Being in habitable zone is not enough Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:49 AM PST In the last 20 years the search for Earth-like planets around other stars has accelerated, with the launch of missions like the Kepler space telescope. Using these and observatories on the ground, astronomers have found numerous worlds that at first sight have similarities with the Earth. A few of these are even in the 'habitable zone' where the temperature is just right for water to be in liquid form and so are prime targets in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. New results suggest that for some of the recently discovered super-Earths, such as Kepler-62e and -62f, being in the habitable zone is not enough to make them habitats.

Ordinary conditioner removes head lice eggs as effectively as special products Posted: 25 Feb 2014 11:39 AM PST Some shampoos and conditioners that contain chemicals or special oils are marketed as nit-removal products for head lice eggs. However, new research shows that ordinary hair conditioner is just as effective. Eggs from head lice, also called nits, are incredibly difficult to remove. Female lice lay eggs directly onto strands of hair, and they cement them in place with a glue-like substance, making them hard to get rid of. In fact, the eggs are glued down so strongly that they will stay in place even after hair has been treated with pediculicides -- substances used to kill lice.

New approach to chip design could yield light speed computing Posted: 25 Feb 2014 10:45 AM PST Researchers are the first to create a device that integrates both optical and electronic signals to perform the most elementary computational operations that could inform 'light speed' computing.

Climate engineering: Minor potential, major risk of side-effects? Posted: 25 Feb 2014 09:25 AM PST Researchers have studied with computer simulations the long-term global consequences of several 'climate engineering' methods. They show that all the proposed methods would either be unable to significantly reduce global warming if CO2 emissions remain high, or they could not be stopped without causing dangerous climate disruption.

Psychological side-effects of anti-depressants worse than thought Posted: 25 Feb 2014 09:24 AM PST Thoughts of suicide, sexual difficulties and emotional numbness as a result of anti-depressants may be more widespread than previously thought, a researcher has found. In a survey of 1,829 people who had been prescribed anti-depressants, the researchers found large numbers of people -- over half in some cases -- reporting on psychological problems due to their medication, which has led to growing concerns about the scale of the problem of over-prescription of these drugs.

Reciprocity and parrots: Griffin the grey parrot appears to understand benefits of sharing, study suggests Posted: 25 Feb 2014 09:23 AM PST A study into whether grey parrots understand the notion of sharing suggests that they can learn the benefits of reciprocity. The research involved a grey parrot called Griffin, who consistently favoured the option of 'sharing' with two different human partners.

3-D printer creates transformative device for heart treatment Posted: 25 Feb 2014 09:22 AM PST Using an inexpensive 3-D printer, biomedical engineers have developed a custom-fitted, implantable device with embedded sensors that could transform treatment and prediction of cardiac disorders. The 3-D elastic membrane is made of a soft, flexible, silicon material that is precisely shaped to match the heart's outer layer of the wall. Current technology is two-dimensional and cannot cover the full surface of the epicardium or maintain reliable contact for continual use without sutures or adhesives. The team can then print tiny sensors onto the membrane that can precisely measure temperature, mechanical strain and pH, among other markers, or deliver a pulse of electricity in cases of arrhythmia.

How did the universe begin? Hot Big Bang or slow thaw? Posted: 25 Feb 2014 08:19 AM PST Did the universe begin with a hot Big Bang or did it slowly thaw from an extremely cold and almost static state? A physicist has developed a theoretical model that complements the nearly 100-year-old conventional model of cosmic expansion. According to the new theory, the Big Bang did not occur 13.8 billion years ago -- instead, the birth of the universe stretched into the infinite past. This view holds that the masses of all particles constantly increase. The scientist explains that instead of expanding, the universe is shrinking over extended periods of time.

Body shape index as new predictor of mortality Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:16 PM PST Scientists have developed a new method to quantify the risk specifically associated with abdominal obesity. A follow-up study, published Feb. 20 by the online journal PLOS ONE, supports their contention that the technique, known as 'A Body Shape Index,' is a more effective predictor of mortality than body mass index, the most common measure used to define obesity.

A paper diagnostic for cancer: Low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:14 PM PST A low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease. Cancer rates in developing nations have climbed sharply in recent years, and now account for 70 percent of cancer mortality worldwide. Early detection has been proven to improve outcomes, but screening approaches such as mammograms and colonoscopy, used in the developed world, are too costly to be implemented in settings with little medical infrastructure. To address this gap, engineers have developed a simple, cheap, paper test that could improve diagnosis rates and help people get treated earlier. The diagnostic, which works much like a pregnancy test, could reveal within minutes, based on a urine sample, whether a person has cancer. This approach has helped detect infectious diseases, and the new technology allows noncommunicable diseases to be detected using the same strategy.

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