ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Autism, intellectual disability incidence linked with environmental factors
• Roomy cages built from DNA could one day deliver drugs, devices
• Turning raw natural gas into upgraded liquid alcohol fuel
• More to biological diversity than meets the eye: Specialization by insect species is the key
• We must forget to avoid serious mental disorders, and forgetting is actively regulated
• Human brains 'hard-wired' to link what we see with what we do
• Africans' ability to digest milk linked to spread of cattle raising
• Commonly used pain relievers have added benefit of fighting bacterial infection
• New fossil species reveals parental care of young from 450 million years ago
• Soft robotic fish moves like the real thing: New robotic fish can change direction almost as rapidly as a real fish
• What happened when? How the brain stores memories by time
• Origin of life: Simulating how Earth kick-started metabolism
• Dinosaur skull may reveal T. rex's smaller cousin from the north
• Language 'evolution' may shed light on human migration out-of-Beringia: Relationship between Siberian, North American languages

Autism, intellectual disability incidence linked with environmental factors Posted: 13 Mar 2014 02:29 PM PDT An analysis of 100 million US medical records reveals that autism and intellectual disability rates correlate with genital malformation incidence in newborn males, an indicator exposure to harmful environmental factors. The study also finds that Autism and ID incidence decreases dramatically in states with stronger regulations on diagnosis.

Roomy cages built from DNA could one day deliver drugs, devices Posted: 13 Mar 2014 11:27 AM PDT A set of self-assembling DNA cages one-tenth as wide as a bacterium have been created by scientists. These DNA nanostructures are some of the largest and most complex structures ever constructed solely from DNA, and they could one day deliver drugs, or house tiny bioreactors or photonic devices that diagnose disease.

Turning raw natural gas into upgraded liquid alcohol fuel Posted: 13 Mar 2014 11:26 AM PDT Chemists have discovered of a new way to turn raw natural gas into upgraded liquid alcohol fuel. The process uses ordinary 'main group' metals like thallium and lead to trigger the conversion of natural gas to liquid alcohol. The process occurs at far lower temperatures than current industry practices. This could help reduce dependence on petroleum.

More to biological diversity than meets the eye: Specialization by insect species is the key Posted: 13 Mar 2014 11:24 AM PDT Scientists found greater diversity among insects in a rainforest in Peru than theory would predict. Scientists have been studying flies in the tropics for years, and now report evidence that there is more to a fly's ecological niche than where it lives and what it eats -- you have to look at what eats the fly, as well.

We must forget to avoid serious mental disorders, and forgetting is actively regulated Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:32 AM PDT In order to function properly, the human brain requires the ability not only to store but also to forget: Through memory loss, unnecessary information is deleted and the nervous system retains its plasticity. A disruption of this process can lead to serious mental disorders. Scientists have now discovered a molecular mechanism that actively regulates the process of forgetting.

Human brains 'hard-wired' to link what we see with what we do Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:31 AM PDT Your brain's ability to instantly link what you see with what you do is down to a dedicated information 'highway,' suggests new research. For the first time, researchers have found evidence of a specialized mechanism for spatial self-awareness that combines visual cues with body motion. The newly-discovered system could explain why some schizophrenia patients feel like their actions are controlled by someone else.

Africans' ability to digest milk linked to spread of cattle raising Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:31 AM PDT A new study -- constituting the largest investigation ever of lactose tolerance in geographically diverse populations of Africans -- investigated the genetic origins of this trait and offers support to the idea that the ability to digest milk was a powerful selective force in a variety of African populations which raised cattle and consumed the animals' fresh milk.

Commonly used pain relievers have added benefit of fighting bacterial infection Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:31 AM PDT Some commonly used drugs that combat aches and pains, fever, and inflammation are also thought to have the ability to kill bacteria. New research reveals that these drugs, better known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, act on bacteria in a way that is fundamentally different from current antibiotics. The discovery could open up new strategies for fighting drug-resistant infections and 'superbugs.'

New fossil species reveals parental care of young from 450 million years ago Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:27 AM PDT A portrait of prehistoric parenthood captured deep in the fossil record has been uncovered by an international team of scientists. The 'nursery in the sea' has revealed a species new to science -- with specimens preserved incubating their eggs together with probable hatched individuals. As a result, the team has named the new species Luprisca incuba after Lucina, goddess of childbirth, and alluding to the fact that the fossils are ancient and in each case the mother was literally sitting on her eggs.

Soft robotic fish moves like the real thing: New robotic fish can change direction almost as rapidly as a real fish Posted: 13 Mar 2014 07:17 AM PDT Soft robots don't just have soft exteriors but are also powered by fluid flowing through flexible channels. Researchers now report the first self-contained autonomous soft robot capable of rapid body motion: a "fish" that can execute an escape maneuver, convulsing its body to change direction in just a fraction of a second, or almost as quickly as a real fish can.

What happened when? How the brain stores memories by time Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:27 AM PDT New research shows that a part of the brain called the hippocampus stores memories by their "temporal context" -- what happened before, and what came after -- and not by content. From brain scans of the hippocampus as the volunteers were answering questions in this study, researchers could identify patterns of activity specific to each image. But when they showed the volunteers the same images in a different sequence, they got different patterns of activity. In other words, the coding of the memory in the hippocampus was dependent on its context, not just on content.

Origin of life: Simulating how Earth kick-started metabolism Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:27 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new approach to simulating the energetic processes that may have led to the emergence of cell metabolism on Earth -- a crucial biological function for all living organisms. The research could help scientists to understand whether it is possible for life to have emerged in similar environments on other worlds.

Dinosaur skull may reveal T. rex's smaller cousin from the north Posted: 12 Mar 2014 03:20 PM PDT A 70-million-year-old fossil found in the Late Cretaceous sediments of Alaska reveals a new small tyrannosaur. Tyrannosaurs, the lineage of carnivorous theropod ("beast feet") dinosaurs that include T. rex, have captivated our attention, but the majority of our knowledge about this group comes from fossils from low- to mid-latitudes of North America and Asia. In this study, scientists analyzed the partial skull roof, maxilla, and jaw, recovered from Prince Creek Formation in Northern Alaska, of a dinosaur originally believed to belong to a different species, and then compared the fossils to known tyrannosaurine species.

Language 'evolution' may shed light on human migration out-of-Beringia: Relationship between Siberian, North American languages Posted: 12 Mar 2014 03:20 PM PDT Evolutionary analysis applied to the relationship between North American and Central Siberian languages may indicate that people moved out from the Bering Land Bridge, with some migrating back to central Asia and others into North America.

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