ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Scientists 'herd' cells in new approach to tissue engineering
• Substance naturally found in humans effective in fighting brain damage from stroke
• Empathy chimpanzees offer is key to understanding human engagement
• To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified
• Saturn and Jupiter: X-ray laser spies deep into giant gas planets
• Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons
• Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard
• Milky Way amidst a 'Council of Giants'
• Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created
• Galaxies in the early universe mature beyond their years
• Possible evidence for dark matter particle presented at UCLA physics symposium
• Natural selection has altered the appearance of Europeans over the past 5,000 years
• Serious side effect: Several FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs induce stem cell tumors
• Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later

Scientists 'herd' cells in new approach to tissue engineering Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT An electrical current can be used to orchestrate the flow of a group of cells, engineers have discovered. This achievement sets the stage for more controlled forms of tissue engineering and for potential applications such as 'smart bandages' that use electrical stimulation to help heal wounds. "This is the first data showing that direct current fields can be used to deliberately guide migration of a sheet of epithelial cells," said the study's lead author.

Substance naturally found in humans effective in fighting brain damage from stroke Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT A molecular substance that occurs naturally in humans and rats was found to 'substantially reduce' brain damage after an acute stroke and contribute to a better recovery, according to a newly released animal study. The study was the first ever to show that the peptide AcSDKP provides neurological protection when administered one to four hours after the onset of an ischemic stroke.

Empathy chimpanzees offer is key to understanding human engagement Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT New findings show that chimpanzees exhibit flexibility in their empathy, just as humans do. This may help explain the evolution of how and when humans engage with others and choose to offer flexibility, and how we can do so more.

To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Although choosing to do something because the perceived benefit outweighs the financial cost is something people do daily, little is known about what happens in the brain when a person makes these kinds of decisions. Studying how these cost-benefit decisions are made when choosing to consume alcohol, a researcher identified distinct profiles of brain activity that are present when making these decisions.

Saturn and Jupiter: X-ray laser spies deep into giant gas planets Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH, researchers took a sneak peek deep into the lower atmospheric layers of giant gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. The observations reveal how liquid hydrogen becomes a plasma, providing information on the material's thermal conductivity and its internal energy exchange -- important ingredients for planetary models.

Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:11 AM PDT Baboons learn from other baboons about new food sources -- but only if they are bold or anxious. The results suggest that personality plays a key role in social learning in animals, something previously ignored in animal cognition studies. Researchers examined how personality influenced whether baboons solved foraging tasks and whether they then demonstrated to others how to solve the tasks. They found bolder baboons did both.

Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT Ants are the unlikely guardians of jumping spiders in their battle against aggressive spitting spiders. A timid jumping spider uses the scent of ants as a secret weapon to save itself from becoming the somewhat soggy prey of the predatory spitting spider. The downside to this plan is that jumping spiders are also a favorite snack of its very own saviors. To overcome this additional hazard, the spider has made yet another plan in the form of an ant-proof nest.

Milky Way amidst a 'Council of Giants' Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT We live in a galaxy known as the Milky Way -- a vast conglomeration of 300 billion stars, planets whizzing around them, and clouds of gas and dust floating in between. Though it has long been known that the Milky Way and its orbiting companion Andromeda are the dominant members of a small group of galaxies, the Local Group, which is about 3 million light years across, much less was known about our immediate neighborhood in the universe. Now, a new article maps out bright galaxies within 35-million light years of the Earth, offering up an expanded picture of what lies beyond our doorstep.

Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:03 AM PDT Scientists have created a thermal illusion device to control thermal camouflage and invisibility using thermotic materials. Every natural object exhibits thermal signatures. However, if these signals are blocked or masked, then these objects become undetectable. The new device can block thermal signatures (leading to invisibility) and provide illusionary camouflage at the same time. This cloaking technology is cost-effective, easily scalable, as well as applicable to even bigger objects (such as soldiers on night missions), and it has also overcome limitations like narrow bandwidth and polarization-dependence. The technology is ready to roll out for military applications.

Galaxies in the early universe mature beyond their years Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:39 PM PDT An international team of researchers has discovered the most distant examples of galaxies in the early universe that were already mature and massive. The mature galaxies were found at a record-breaking distance of 12 billion light years, seen when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old. Their existence at such an early time raises new questions about what forced them to grow up so quickly.

Possible evidence for dark matter particle presented at UCLA physics symposium Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:23 PM PDT Dark matter, the mysterious substance estimated to make up approximately more than one-quarter of the mass of the universe, is crucial to the formation of galaxies, stars and even life but has so far eluded direct observation. At a recent UCLA symposium attended by 190 scientists from around the world, physicists presented several analyses that participants interpreted to imply the existence of a dark matter particle. The likely mass would be approximately 30 billion electron-volts, said the symposium's organizer.

Natural selection has altered the appearance of Europeans over the past 5,000 years Posted: 10 Mar 2014 03:27 PM PDT There has been much research into the factors that have influenced the human genome since the end of the last Ice Age. Anthropologists, geneticists and archaeologists have analyzed ancient DNA from skeletons and found that selection has had a significant effect on the human genome even in the past 5,000 years, resulting in sustained changes to the appearance of people.

Serious side effect: Several FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs induce stem cell tumors Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:21 PM PDT In a surprise finding, researchers discovered that several chemotherapeutics that do stop fast growing tumors have the opposite effect on stem cells in the same animal, causing them to divide too rapidly. Not only is the finding of clinical interest, but with this study they successfully used a new non-traditional tool for assessing drugs using stem cells in the fruit fly gut, the first author says.

Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:06 AM PDT Healthy dietary choices in midlife may prevent dementia in later years, according a doctoral thesis. The results showed that those who ate the healthiest diet at the average age of 50 had an almost 90 per cent lower risk of dementia in a 14-year follow-up study than those whose diet was the least healthy. The study was the first in the world to investigate the relationship between a healthy diet as early as in midlife and the risk of developing dementia later on.

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