ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• Scientists solve the riddle of zebras' stripes: Those pesky bugs
• Humans and saber-toothed tiger met in Germany 300,000 years ago
• Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death by 42 percent
• Ancient whodunit may be solved: Methane-producing microbes did it!
• Self-healing engineered muscle grown in the laboratory
• Experimental cancer drug reverses schizophrenia in adolescent mice
• Warming climate may spread drying to a third of earth: Heat, not just rainfall, plays into new projections
• Anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills linked to risk of death
• Why we miss subtle visual changes, and why it keeps us sane
• Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies
• Brain scans link concern for justice with reason, not emotion
• Public smoking bans linked with rapid fall in preterm births, child hospital visits for asthma

Scientists solve the riddle of zebras' stripes: Those pesky bugs Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:21 AM PDT Why zebras have black and white stripes is a question that has intrigued scientists and spectators for centuries. Scientists now examined this riddle systematically.

Humans and saber-toothed tiger met in Germany 300,000 years ago Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:20 AM PDT Scientists excavating at the Schöningen open-cast coal mine in north-central Germany have discovered the remains of a saber-toothed cat preserved in a layer some 300,000 years old -- the same stratum in which wooden spears were found, indicating that early humans also inhabited the area, which at that time was the bank of a shallow lake.

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death by 42 percent Posted: 31 Mar 2014 04:40 PM PDT Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42 percent compared to eating less than one portion, reports a new study. This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.

Ancient whodunit may be solved: Methane-producing microbes did it! Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:36 PM PDT Methane-producing microbes may be responsible for the largest mass extinction in Earth's history. Fossil remains show that sometime around 252 million years ago, about 90 percent of all species on Earth were suddenly wiped out -- by far the largest of this planet's five known mass extinctions. It turns out that Methanosarcina had acquired a particularly fast means of making methane, and the team's detailed mapping of the organism's history now shows that this transfer happened at about the time of the end-Permian extinction.

Self-healing engineered muscle grown in the laboratory Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:36 PM PDT Living skeletal muscle that contracts powerfully and rapidly, integrates quickly into mice, and for the first time, demonstrates the ability to heal itself both inside the laboratory and inside an animal has been grown in the lab by biomedical engineers. "The muscle we have made represents an important advance for the field," an author said. "It's the first time engineered muscle has been created that contracts as strongly as native neonatal skeletal muscle."

Experimental cancer drug reverses schizophrenia in adolescent mice Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:35 PM PDT An experimental anticancer compound appears to have reversed behaviors associated with schizophrenia and restored some lost brain cell function in adolescent mice with a rodent version of the devastating mental illness. The drug is one of a class of compounds known as PAK inhibitors, which have been shown in animal experiments to confer some protection from brain damage due to Fragile X syndrome, an inherited disease in humans marked by mental retardation.

Warming climate may spread drying to a third of earth: Heat, not just rainfall, plays into new projections Posted: 31 Mar 2014 11:41 AM PDT A new study estimates that 12 percent of land will be subject to drought by 2100 through rainfall changes alone; but the drying will spread to 30 percent of land if higher evaporation rates are considered. An increase in evaporative drying means that even regions expected to get more rain, including important wheat, corn and rice belts in the western United States and southeastern China, will be at risk of drought.

Anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills linked to risk of death Posted: 31 Mar 2014 10:08 AM PDT Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills have been linked to an increased risk of death, according to new research. The large study shows that several anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills) are associated with a doubling in the risk of mortality. Although these findings are based on routine data and need to be interpreted cautiously, the researchers recommended that a greater understanding of their impact is essential.

Why we miss subtle visual changes, and why it keeps us sane Posted: 30 Mar 2014 12:15 PM PDT Ever notice how Harry Potter's T-shirt abruptly changes from a crewneck to a henley shirt in 'The Order of the Phoenix,' or how in 'Pretty Woman,' Julia Roberts' croissant inexplicably morphs into a pancake? Don't worry if you missed those continuity bloopers. Vision scientists have discovered an upside to the brain mechanism that can blind us to subtle changes in movies and in the real world.

Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies Posted: 28 Mar 2014 09:10 AM PDT By slowing and absorbing certain wavelengths of light, engineers open new possibilities in solar power, thermal energy recycling and stealth technology More efficient photovoltaic cells. Improved radar and stealth technology. A new way to recycle waste heat generated by machines into energy. All may be possible due to breakthrough photonics research.

Brain scans link concern for justice with reason, not emotion Posted: 28 Mar 2014 07:29 AM PDT People who care about justice are swayed more by reason than emotion, according to new brain scan research. Psychologists have found that some individuals react more strongly than others to situations that invoke a sense of justice -- for example, seeing a person being treated unfairly, or with mercy. The new study used brain scans to analyze the thought processes of people with high "justice sensitivity."

Public smoking bans linked with rapid fall in preterm births, child hospital visits for asthma Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:22 PM PDT The introduction of laws banning smoking in public places and workplaces in North America and Europe has been quickly followed by large drops in rates of preterm births and children attending hospital for asthma, according to the first systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of smoke-free legislation on child health.

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