ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Tracking endangered leatherback sea turtles by satellite, key habitats identified
• Nearly complete 'chicken from hell,' from mysterious dinosaur group
• Bighorn sheep went extinct on desert island in Gulf of California
• Noninvasive colorectal cancer screening tool shows unprecedented detection rates
• New guidelines deem 13 million more Americans eligible for statins
• Ancient food webs developed modern structure soon after mass extinction
• Earth's radiation belt: Van Allen probes reveal zebra stripes in space
• Goldilocks principle: Earth's continued habitability due to geologic cycles that act as climate control
• Radiation damage at the root of Chernobyl's ecosystems
• Low doses of antianxiety drugs rebalance autistic brain, study shows
• Hox Genes Responsible for Firefly Lantern Development
• Student deciphers 1,800-year-old letter from Egyptian soldier
• Lied-to children more likely to cheat, lie
• Cultural hitchhiking: How social behavior can affect genetic makeup in dolphins
• Fried foods may interact with genes to influence body weight, say experts
• Precise reason for health benefits of dark chocolate: Thank hungry gut microbes
• An end to animal testing for drug discovery?
• Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7N9 influenza virus
• New evidence raises questions about the link between fatty acids and heart disease

Tracking endangered leatherback sea turtles by satellite, key habitats identified Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:58 PM PDT Most satellite tagging studies of leatherbacks have focused on adult females on their tropical nesting beaches, so little is known worldwide about males and subadults, the researcher point out. But now, tagging and satellite tracking in locations where leatherbacks forage has allowed the scientists to get a much richer picture of the leatherback's behavior and dispersal patterns on the open ocean.

Nearly complete 'chicken from hell,' from mysterious dinosaur group Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:58 PM PDT Scientists have discovered a bizarre, bird-like dinosaur, named Anzu wyliei, that provides paleontologists with their first good look at a dinosaur group that has been shrouded in mystery for almost a century. Anzu was described from three specimens that collectively preserve almost the entire skeleton, giving scientists a remarkable opportunity to study the anatomy and evolutionary relationships of Caenagnathidae -- the long-mysterious group of theropod dinosaurs to which Anzu belongs.

Bighorn sheep went extinct on desert island in Gulf of California Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:58 PM PDT Using ancient DNA analysis and other techniques, a research team led by conservation biologists has determined that bighorn sheep, so named for their massive spiral horns, became extinct on Tiburon Island, a large and mostly uninhabited island just off Sonora, Mexico, in the Gulf of California, sometime in the last millennium -- specifically between the 6th and 19th centuries.

Noninvasive colorectal cancer screening tool shows unprecedented detection rates Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:57 PM PDT Results of a clinical trial of Cologuard show unprecedented rates of precancer and cancer detection by a noninvasive test. The detection rates are similar to those reported for colonoscopy. Cologuard, is a noninvasive sDNA test for the early detection of colorectal precancer and cancer. The Cologuard test is based on a stool sample that is analyzed for DNA signatures of precancer or cancer.

New guidelines deem 13 million more Americans eligible for statins Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:57 PM PDT New guidelines for using statins to treat high cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease are projected to result in 12.8 million more U.S. adults taking the drugs, according to a new research. The new guidelines expand the criteria for statin use to include people whose 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including stroke, is elevated based on a risk-assessment score.

Ancient food webs developed modern structure soon after mass extinction Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:48 PM PDT Analysis of a highly detailed picture of feeding relationships among 700 species from a 48 million year old ecosystem provides the most compelling evidence to date that ancient food webs were organized much like modern food webs. The results are significant because they show that the Messel ecosystem developed a modern ecological structure, along with a modern biota, in a relatively brief 18 million year period following Earth's most recent die-off, the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, which disrupted ecosystem dynamics on a massive scale and served as a species diversity bottleneck.

Earth's radiation belt: Van Allen probes reveal zebra stripes in space Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:32 PM PDT Scientists have discovered a new, persistent structure in one of two radiation belts surrounding Earth. NASA's twin Van Allen Probes spacecraft have shown that high-energy electrons in the inner radiation belt display a persistent pattern that resembles slanted zebra stripes. Surprisingly, this structure is produced by the slow rotation of Earth, previously considered incapable of affecting the motion of radiation belt particles, which have velocities approaching the speed of light.

Goldilocks principle: Earth's continued habitability due to geologic cycles that act as climate control Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:39 AM PDT Scientists have shown how geologic process regulates the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Researchers have documented evidence suggesting that part of the reason that Earth has become neither sweltering like Venus nor frigid like Mars lies with a built-in atmospheric carbon dioxide regulator -- the geologic cycles that churn up the planet's rocky surface.

Radiation damage at the root of Chernobyl's ecosystems Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:48 AM PDT Radiological damage to microbes near the site of the Chernobyl disaster has slowed the decomposition of fallen leaves and other plant matter in the area, according to a new study. The resulting buildup of dry, loose detritus is a wildfire hazard that poses the threat of spreading radioactivity from the Chernobyl area.

Low doses of antianxiety drugs rebalance autistic brain, study shows Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:48 AM PDT New research in mice suggests that autism is characterized by reduced activity of inhibitory neurons and increased activity of excitatory neurons in the brain, but balance can be restored with low doses of a well-known class of drugs currently used in much higher doses to treat anxiety and epileptic seizures. The findings point to a new therapeutic approach to managing autism.

Hox Genes Responsible for Firefly Lantern Development Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:46 AM PDT Perhaps no single evolutionary novelty in the animal kingdom has fascinated scientists more than the lantern of the firefly. Yet to this day, nothing has been known about the genetic foundation for the formation and evolution of this luminescent structure. But now, new work offers for the first time a characterization of the developmental genetic basis of this spectacular morphological novelty -- the firefly's photic organ -- and the means by which this beetle successfully uses ancient and highly conserved regulatory genes to form its lantern.

Student deciphers 1,800-year-old letter from Egyptian soldier Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:42 AM PDT A newly deciphered 1,800-year-old letter from an Egyptian solider serving in a Roman legion in Europe to his family back home shows striking similarities to what some soldiers may be feeling here and now.

Lied-to children more likely to cheat, lie Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:38 AM PDT A new experiment is the first to show a connection between adult dishonesty and children's behavior, with kids who have been lied to more likely to cheat and then to lie to cover up the transgression. Research has documented that the majority of parents admit to lying to their children even as they maintain that honesty is an important value. "The actions of parents suggest that they do not believe that the lies they tell their children will impact the child's own honesty. The current study casts doubt on that belief," the authors say. The study has implications not only for parenting but also for teaching scenarios and for forensic situations, said Carver: "All sorts of grown-ups may have to re-examine what they say to kids. Even a 'little white lie' might have consequences."

Cultural hitchhiking: How social behavior can affect genetic makeup in dolphins Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:22 PM PDT Researchers studying bottlenose dolphins that use sponges as tools to protect their sensitive beaks has shown that social behavior can shape the genetic makeup of an animal population in the wild. The research on dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia is one of the first studies to show this effect -- which is called cultural hitchhiking -- in animals other than people.

Fried foods may interact with genes to influence body weight, say experts Posted: 18 Mar 2014 04:00 PM PDT Individuals who are genetically predisposed to obesity may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of eating fried foods, concludes a study. The results of a new study show that eating fried food more than four times a week had twice as big an effect on body mass index (BMI) for those with the highest genetic risk scores compared with lower scores. In other words, genetic makeup can inflate the effects of bad diet.

Precise reason for health benefits of dark chocolate: Thank hungry gut microbes Posted: 18 Mar 2014 12:47 PM PDT The health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery -- until now. Researchers reported that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart.

An end to animal testing for drug discovery? Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:36 AM PDT As some countries and companies roll out new rules to limit animal testing in pharmaceutical products designed for people, scientists are stepping in with a new way to test therapeutic drug candidates and determine drug safety and drug interactions -- without using animals. The development of "chemosynthetic livers" could dramatically alter how drugs are made.

Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7N9 influenza virus Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:37 AM PDT Among the copious species of poultry in China, quail and chickens are the likely sources of infection of H7N9 influenza virus to humans, according to a paper. The H7N9 avian influenza virus was first reported in humans in March 2013 in China. Since then over 375 human cases have been confirmed and over 100 have died. Only 1 case has been reported outside of China: A woman from Guangdong Province who was traveling in Malaysia and is presumed to have contracted the virus in China. According to the World Health Organization, most known human infections have resulted from direct or indirect contact with poultry.

New evidence raises questions about the link between fatty acids and heart disease Posted: 17 Mar 2014 02:45 PM PDT A new study finds that the current level of evidence does not support guidelines restricting saturated fatty acid consumption to reduce coronary risk nor does it support high consumption of polyunsaturated fats -- such as omega 3 or omega 6 -- to reduce coronary heart disease.

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