ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• New class of antibiotics discovered by chemists
• NASA's WISE survey finds thousands of new stars, but no 'Planet X'
• Mystery of planet-forming disks explained by magnetism
• Squeezing light into metals: Engineers control conductivity with inkjet printer
• Preschoolers can outsmart college students at figuring out gizmos
• Europe may experience higher warming than global average
• Birds display lateralization bias when selecting flight paths

New class of antibiotics discovered by chemists Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:59 PM PST A new class of antibiotics to fight bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other drug-resistant bacteria that threaten public health has been discovered by a team of chemists. The new class, called oxadiazoles, was discovered in silico (by computer) screening and has shown promise in the treatment of MRSA in mouse models of infection. MRSA has become a global public-health problem since the 1960s because of its resistance to antibiotics. In the United States alone, 278,000 people are hospitalized and 19,000 die each year from infections caused by MRSA. Only three drugs currently are effective treatments, and resistance to each of those drugs already exists.

NASA's WISE survey finds thousands of new stars, but no 'Planet X' Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:06 PM PST After searching hundreds of millions of objects across our sky, NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has turned up no evidence of the hypothesized celestial body in our solar system commonly dubbed "Planet X."

Mystery of planet-forming disks explained by magnetism Posted: 07 Mar 2014 09:46 AM PST Astronomers say that magnetic storms in the gas orbiting young stars may explain a mystery that has persisted since before 2006. Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to study developing stars have had a hard time figuring out why the stars give off more infrared light than expected. The planet-forming disks that circle the young stars are heated by starlight and glow with infrared light, but Spitzer detected additional infrared light coming from an unknown source.

Squeezing light into metals: Engineers control conductivity with inkjet printer Posted: 07 Mar 2014 05:37 AM PST Using an inexpensive inkjet printer, electrical engineers produced microscopic structures that use light in metals to carry information. This new technique, which controls electrical conductivity within such microstructures, could be used to rapidly fabricate superfast components in electronic devices, make wireless technology faster or print magnetic materials.

Preschoolers can outsmart college students at figuring out gizmos Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:15 PM PST Preschoolers can be smarter than college students at figuring out how unusual toys and gadgets work because they're more flexible and less biased than adults in their ideas about cause and effect, according to new research.

Europe may experience higher warming than global average Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:15 PM PST The majority of Europe will experience higher warming than the global average if surface temperatures rise to 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, according to a new study.

Birds display lateralization bias when selecting flight paths Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:15 PM PST Flocks of birds manage to navigate through difficult environments by individuals having predispositions to favor the left- or right-hand side. Researchers flew the budgerigars down a tunnel where they were met by an obstacle, and a choice of two paths to fly through. Sometimes the paths were of equal size, and sometimes one would be bigger than the other. Some birds had no bias and would choose the wider gap every time, while others with a distinct bias preferred going to one side, even if it was significantly narrower than the alternative.

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