ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Well-child visits linked to more than 700,000 subsequent flu-like illnesses
• Solving an evolutionary puzzle: Atlantic killifish thriving in highly polluted water
• First global geologic map of Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede details an icy world
• Help for a scarred heart: Scarring cells turned to beating muscle
• Plastic shopping bags make a fine diesel fuel
• Investigating the fiber of our being: How our gut bacteria metabolizes complex carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables
• The physics of curly hair
• Genome of American Clovis skeleton mapped: Ancestor of most present-day Native American populations
• New pathway for fear discovered deep within brain
• Jaw dropping: Scientists reveal how vertebrates came to have a face
• Revision to rules for color in dinosaurs suggests connection between color and physiology
• Herding robots: New system combines control programs so fleets of robots can collaborate
• From surf to turf: Archaeologists and chemists trace ancient British diets
• How stellar death can lead to twin celestial jets
• Four unknown galaxy clusters containing thousands of galaxies discovered 10 billion light years from Earth
• Fossils abound: 'Epic' new Burgess Shale site in Canada's Kootenay National Park
• Wasps use ancient aggression genes to create social groups

Well-child visits linked to more than 700,000 subsequent flu-like illnesses Posted: 12 Feb 2014 11:46 AM PST New research shows that well-child doctor appointments for annual exams and vaccinations are associated with an increased risk of flu-like illnesses in children and family members within two weeks of the visit. This risk translates to more than 700,000 potentially avoidable illnesses each year, costing more than $490 million annually.

Solving an evolutionary puzzle: Atlantic killifish thriving in highly polluted water Posted: 12 Feb 2014 11:46 AM PST For four decades, waste from nearby manufacturing plants flowed into the waters of New Bedford Harbor -- an 18,000-acre estuary and busy seaport. The harbor, which is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals, is one of the EPA's largest Superfund cleanup sites. It's also the site of an evolutionary puzzle that researchers have been working to solve.

First global geologic map of Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede details an icy world Posted: 12 Feb 2014 11:45 AM PST Scientists have crafted the first global geologic map of Ganymede, illustrating the varied geologic character of the solar system's largest moon.

Help for a scarred heart: Scarring cells turned to beating muscle Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:29 AM PST Poets and physicians know that a scarred heart cannot beat the way it used to, but the science of reprogramming cells offers hope -- for the physical heart, at least.

Plastic shopping bags make a fine diesel fuel Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:28 AM PST Plastic shopping bags, an abundant source of litter on land and at sea, can be converted into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products, researchers report. The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels -- diesel, for example -- that can be blended with existing ultra-low-sulfur diesels and biodiesels.

Investigating the fiber of our being: How our gut bacteria metabolizes complex carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:28 AM PST New research begins to uncover how our gut bacteria metabolize the complex dietary carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables.

The physics of curly hair Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:28 AM PST The heroes and villains in animated films tend to be on opposite ends of the moral spectrum. But they're often similar in their hair, which is usually extremely rigid or -- if it moves at all -- is straight and swings to and fro. It's rare to see an animated character with bouncy, curly hair, since computer animators don't have a simple mathematical means for describing it. But now, researchers have developed the first detailed model for a 3-D strand of curly hair.

Genome of American Clovis skeleton mapped: Ancestor of most present-day Native American populations Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:28 AM PST The Clovis people were not the first humans in America, but they represent the first humans with a wide expansion on the North American continent -- until the culture mysteriously disappeared only a few hundred years after its origin. Now genome mapping shows that some 80 percent of all present-day Native American populations on the two American continents are direct descendants of the Clovis boy's family.

New pathway for fear discovered deep within brain Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:28 AM PST Fear is primal. In the wild, it serves as a protective mechanism, but for humans, fear is more complex. A normal amount keeps us safe. But too much fear, like PTSD, can prevent people from living healthy lives. Researchers are working to understand how the brain translates fear into action. Today, scientists announce the discovery of a new neural circuit that links the site of fear memory with a brain area that controls behavior.

Jaw dropping: Scientists reveal how vertebrates came to have a face Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:27 AM PST Scientists present new fossil evidence for the origin of one of the most important and emotionally significant parts of our anatomy: the face. Scientists show how a series of fossils, with a 410 million year old armored fish called Romundina at its center, documents the step-by-step assembly of the face during the evolutionary transition from jawless to jawed vertebrates.

Revision to rules for color in dinosaurs suggests connection between color and physiology Posted: 12 Feb 2014 10:27 AM PST New research revising rules on deciphering color in dinosaurs may provide a tool for understanding the evolutionary emergence of flight and changes in dinosaur physiology. While surveying melanosome shape in fossil and extant specimens, a research team unexpectedly discovered that ancient maniraptoran dinosaurs, paravians, and living mammals and birds uniquely shared the evolutionary development of diverse melanosome shapes related to color. The similarity could relate to a key shift in dinosaurian physiology.

Herding robots: New system combines control programs so fleets of robots can collaborate Posted: 12 Feb 2014 08:27 AM PST A new system combines simple control programs to enable fleets of robots -- or other "multiagent systems" -- to collaborate in unprecedented ways.

From surf to turf: Archaeologists and chemists trace ancient British diets Posted: 12 Feb 2014 08:27 AM PST Studies of old rubbish dumps and dirty dishes have revealed that, 6,000 years ago, ancient Britons gave up their passion for fish to begin a love affair with milk.

How stellar death can lead to twin celestial jets Posted: 12 Feb 2014 08:23 AM PST Astronomers know that while large stars can end their lives as violently cataclysmic supernovae, smaller stars end up as planetary nebulae -- colorful, glowing clouds of dust and gas. In recent decades these nebulae, once thought to be mostly spherical, have been observed to often emit powerful, bipolar jets of gas and dust. But how do spherical stars evolve to produce highly aspherical planetary nebulae?

Four unknown galaxy clusters containing thousands of galaxies discovered 10 billion light years from Earth Posted: 12 Feb 2014 05:24 AM PST Four unknown galaxy clusters each potentially containing thousands of individual galaxies have been discovered some 10 billion light years from Earth. An international team of astronomers used a new way of combining data from the two European Space Agency satellites, Planck and Herschel, to identify more distant galaxy clusters than has previously been possible. The researchers believe up to 2000 further clusters could be identified using this technique, helping to build a more detailed timeline of how clusters are formed.

Fossils abound: 'Epic' new Burgess Shale site in Canada's Kootenay National Park Posted: 11 Feb 2014 05:38 AM PST Yoho National Park's 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale – home to some of the planet's earliest animals, including a very primitive human relative – is one of the world's most important fossil sites. Now, more than a century after its discovery, a compelling sequel has been unearthed: 42 kilometers away in Kootenay National Park, a new Burgess Shale fossil bed has been located that appears to equal the importance of the original discovery, and may one day even surpass it.

Wasps use ancient aggression genes to create social groups Posted: 10 Feb 2014 07:21 AM PST Aggression-causing genes appeared early in animal evolution and have maintained their roles for millions of years and across many species, even though animal aggression today varies widely from territorial fighting to setting up social hierarchies, according to researchers.

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