ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• One in 10 deaths among working-age adults in U.S. due to excessive drinking, report finds
• Astronomers closer to proving gravitational waves with precise measurements of rapidly rotating neutron star
• Animals built reefs 550 million years ago, fossil study finds
• Ancient ocean currents may have changed pacing and intensity of ice ages: Slowing of currents may have flipped switch
• New species of small mammal: Round-eared elephant-shrew found in Namibia
• Fruits, vegetables: Good for health, not necessarily a weight loss method
• When it rains, it pours ... on the sun
• Great walls could eliminate major tornado threat in Tornado Alley, expert says

One in 10 deaths among working-age adults in U.S. due to excessive drinking, report finds Posted: 27 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT Excessive alcohol use accounts for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults ages 20-64 years in the United States, according to a new report. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths per year from 2006 to 2010, and shortened the lives of those who died by about 30 years. These deaths were due to health effects from drinking too much over time, such as breast cancer, liver disease, and heart disease; and health effects from drinking too much in a short period of time, such as violence, alcohol poisoning, and motor vehicle crashes.

Astronomers closer to proving gravitational waves with precise measurements of rapidly rotating neutron star Posted: 27 Jun 2014 08:27 AM PDT When Albert Einstein proposed the existence of gravitational waves as part of his theory of relativity, he set in train a pursuit for knowledge that continues nearly a century later. These ripples in the space-time continuum exert a powerful appeal because it is believed they carry information that will allow us to look back into the very beginnings of the universe. But although the weight of evidence continues to build, undisputed confirmation of their existence still eludes scientists. Researchers have now provided another piece of the puzzle with their precise measurements of a rapidly rotating neutron star: one of the smallest, densest stars in the universe.

Animals built reefs 550 million years ago, fossil study finds Posted: 26 Jun 2014 11:16 AM PDT It is a remarkable survivor of an ancient aquatic world -- now a new study sheds light on how one of Earth's oldest reefs was formed. Researchers have discovered that one of these reefs -- now located on dry land in Namibia -- was built almost 550 million years ago, by the first animals to have hard shells.

Ancient ocean currents may have changed pacing and intensity of ice ages: Slowing of currents may have flipped switch Posted: 26 Jun 2014 11:16 AM PDT Researchers have found that the deep ocean currents that move heat around the globe stalled or even stopped about 950,000 years ago, possibly due to expanding ice cover in the north. The slowing currents increased carbon dioxide storage in the ocean, leaving less in the atmosphere, which kept temperatures cold and kicked the climate system into a new phase of colder but less frequent ice ages, they hypothesize.

New species of small mammal: Round-eared elephant-shrew found in Namibia Posted: 26 Jun 2014 10:22 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a new species of round-eared sengi, or elephant-shrew, in the remote deserts of southwestern Africa. This is the third new species of sengi to be discovered in the wild in the past decade. It is also the smallest known member of the 19 sengis in the order Macroscelidea.

Fruits, vegetables: Good for health, not necessarily a weight loss method Posted: 25 Jun 2014 10:18 AM PDT People trying to lose weight are often told to eat more fruits and vegetables, but new research shows this bit of advice may not be true. "Across the board, all studies we reviewed showed a near-zero effect on weight loss," the lead author said. "So I don't think eating more alone is necessarily an effective approach for weight loss because just adding them on top of whatever foods a person may be eating is not likely to cause weight change."

When it rains, it pours ... on the sun Posted: 24 Jun 2014 06:32 AM PDT Just like on Earth, the sun has spells of bad weather, with high winds and showers of rain. But unlike storms on Earth, rain on the sun is made of electrically charged gas (plasma) and falls at around 200,000 kilometers an hour from the outer solar atmosphere, the corona, to the sun's surface. Now a team of solar physicists has pieced together an explanation for this intriguing phenomenon with imagery that shows a 'waterfall' in the atmosphere of the sun.

Great walls could eliminate major tornado threat in Tornado Alley, expert says Posted: 23 Jun 2014 09:03 AM PDT Can we eliminate major tornadoes in Tornado Alley? Devastating tornadoes over there start from violent clashes between northbound warm wind and southbound cold wind. If engineers built three east-west great walls, 300 meters high and 50 meters wide, one in North Dakota, one passing Oklahoma and one in Texas, such barriers would weaken such air mass clashes and diminish major tornado threat, according to one expert.

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