ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Decomposing logs show local factors undervalued in climate change predictions
• Solving the puzzle of ice age climates: Southern Ocean and explanation for 'Last Glacial Maximum'
• Microbes engineered for direct conversion of biomass to fuel
• Hurricanes with female names more deadly than male-named storms
• Marijuana shows potential in treating autoimmune disease
• Physicists take quantum leap toward ultra-precise measurement
• Nano world: Where towers construct themselves
• Fishing vessels have big ecological footprint: Powerful seabird magnets
• Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth'
• Because you can't eat just one: Star will swallow two planets
• 'Neapolitan' exoplanets come in three flavors
• Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets
• Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy
• Stronger than steel: Scientists spin ultra-strong cellulose fibers
• Speaking two languages benefits the aging brain
• World's best thermometer made from light
• Revolutionizing diets, improving health with discovery of new genes involved in food preferences
• Leptin also influences brain cells that control appetite, researchers find
• Exciton detected in metal for first time: Microscopic quantum mechanical description of how light excites electrons in metals
• 'Quadrapeutics' works in preclinical study of hard-to-treat tumors: Animal tests show technology effective against aggressive cancer
• Smokers with gene defect have one in four chance of developing lung cancer

Decomposing logs show local factors undervalued in climate change predictions Posted: 02 Jun 2014 01:27 PM PDT In a long-term analysis conducted across several sites in the eastern United States, a team of researchers found that local factors -- from levels of fungal colonization to the specific physical locations of the wood -- play a far greater role than climate in wood decomposition rates and the subsequent impacts on regional carbon cycling. Because decomposition of organic matter strongly influences the storage of carbon, or its release into the atmosphere, it is a major factor in potential changes to the climate.

Solving the puzzle of ice age climates: Southern Ocean and explanation for 'Last Glacial Maximum' Posted: 02 Jun 2014 01:00 PM PDT The paleoclimate record for the last ice age -- a time 21,000 years ago called the "Last Glacial Maximum" (LGM) -- tells of a cold Earth whose northern continents were covered by vast ice sheets. Chemical traces from plankton fossils in deep-sea sediments reveal rearranged ocean water masses, as well as extended sea ice coverage off Antarctica. Air bubbles in ice cores show that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was far below levels seen before the Industrial Revolution.

Microbes engineered for direct conversion of biomass to fuel Posted: 02 Jun 2014 12:58 PM PDT The promise of affordable transportation fuels from biomass -- a sustainable, carbon neutral route to American energy independence -- has been left perpetually on hold by the economics of the conversion process. Researchers have overcome this hurdle allowing the direct conversion of switchgrass to fuel. The study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documents the direct conversion of biomass to biofuel without pre-treatment, using the engineered bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii.

Hurricanes with female names more deadly than male-named storms Posted: 02 Jun 2014 12:58 PM PDT In the coming Atlantic hurricane season, watch out for hurricanes with benign-sounding names like Dolly, Fay or Hanna. According to a new article, hurricanes with feminine names are likely to cause significantly more deaths than hurricanes with masculine names, apparently because storms with feminine names are perceived as less threatening.

Marijuana shows potential in treating autoimmune disease Posted: 02 Jun 2014 12:09 PM PDT Researchers have discovered a novel pathway through which marijuana's main active constituent, THC, can suppress the body's immune functions. The recent findings show that THC can change critical molecules of epigenome called histones, leading to suppression of inflammation.

Physicists take quantum leap toward ultra-precise measurement Posted: 02 Jun 2014 11:17 AM PDT Physicists have overcome a major challenge in the science of measurement using quantum mechanics. The scientists developed a way to employ multiple detectors in order to measure photons in entangled states, with an experimental apparatus that uses a fiber ribbon to collect photons and send them to an array of 11 detectors. Their work paves the way for great advances in using quantum states to develop ultra-precise measurement technologies.

Nano world: Where towers construct themselves Posted: 02 Jun 2014 10:22 AM PDT A tower which builds itself is absurd -- and however, in the nano world self-assembly is reality. Physicists have investigated how to control the ordering of such self-assembling structures at the nano-scale. Physicists investigated how they can control the ordering of such self-assembling structures and found out how to switch the assembly process on and off.

Fishing vessels have big ecological footprint: Powerful seabird magnets Posted: 02 Jun 2014 10:22 AM PDT Fishing vessels have a far bigger ecological footprint than previously thought, according to research which tracked the movement and behavior of seabirds using GPS devices. Scientists discovered that northern gannets change their behaviour in response to the presence of large vessels such as trawlers, suggesting each boat can significantly influence the distribution and foraging patterns of these and other marine predators.

Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth' Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:58 AM PDT Astronomers have discovered a new type of planet -- a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas giant. This planet, though, is all solids and much bigger than previously discovered 'super-Earths,' making it a 'mega-Earth.'

Because you can't eat just one: Star will swallow two planets Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:58 AM PDT Two worlds orbiting a distant star are about to become a snack of cosmic proportions. Astronomers announced that the planets Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c will be swallowed by their star in a short time by astronomical standards. Their ends will come in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively.

'Neapolitan' exoplanets come in three flavors Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:58 AM PDT The planets of our solar system come in two basic flavors, like vanilla and chocolate ice cream. We have small, rocky terrestrials like Earth and Mars, and large gas giants like Neptune and Jupiter. We're missing the astronomical equivalent of strawberry ice cream -- planets between about one and four times the size of Earth.

Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:58 AM PDT Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they are the most common type of star, composing 80 percent of the stars in the universe. But a new study shows that harsh space weather might strip the atmosphere of any rocky planet orbiting in a red dwarf's habitable zone.

Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy Posted: 02 Jun 2014 07:17 AM PDT Nanotechnology scientists have developed a way to both transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire. Sounds like science fiction, but it may become a reality thanks to breakthrough technology. So far electrical cables are used only to transmit electricity. However, nanotechnology scientists have developed a way to both transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire.

Stronger than steel: Scientists spin ultra-strong cellulose fibers Posted: 02 Jun 2014 07:16 AM PDT Scientists have successfully tested a new method for the production of ultra-strong cellulose fibers. The novel procedure spins extremely tough filaments from tiny cellulose fibrils by aligning them all in parallel during the production process.

Speaking two languages benefits the aging brain Posted: 02 Jun 2014 07:12 AM PDT New research reveals that bilingualism has a positive effect on cognition later in life. Findings show that individuals who speak two or more languages, even those who acquired the second language in adulthood, may slow down cognitive decline from aging. Bilingualism is thought to improve cognition and delay dementia in older adults. While prior research has investigated the impact of learning more than one language, ruling out "reverse causality" has proven difficult. The crucial question is whether people improve their cognitive functions through learning new languages or whether those with better baseline cognitive functions are more likely to become bilingual.

World's best thermometer made from light Posted: 02 Jun 2014 07:01 AM PDT Physics researchers have produced the world's most sensitive thermometer – three times more precise than the best thermometers in existence. They report they have been able to measure temperature with a precision of 30 billionths of a degree.

Revolutionizing diets, improving health with discovery of new genes involved in food preferences Posted: 01 Jun 2014 05:19 PM PDT New understanding of the genes involved in taste perception and food preferences can lead to personalized nutrition plans effective not just in weight loss but in avoiding diseases such as cancer, depression, and hypertension. The ability to devise diets based on individual genetic profiles can lead to significantly better results – for example, a weight loss 33% greater than with a control group who had a similar calorie count but a non-personalized diet plan, researchers say.

Leptin also influences brain cells that control appetite, researchers find Posted: 01 Jun 2014 12:09 PM PDT Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite. Leptin, a naturally occurring hormone, is known for its hunger-blocking effect on the hypothalamus, a region in the brain. Food intake is influenced by signals that travel from the body to the brain. Leptin is one of the molecules that signal the brain to modulate food intake.

Exciton detected in metal for first time: Microscopic quantum mechanical description of how light excites electrons in metals Posted: 01 Jun 2014 12:09 PM PDT Scientists have detected a fundamental particle of light-matter interaction in metals, the exciton for the first time. Humankind has used reflection of light from a metal mirror on a daily basis for millennia, but the quantum mechanical magic behind this familiar phenomenon is only now being uncovered.

'Quadrapeutics' works in preclinical study of hard-to-treat tumors: Animal tests show technology effective against aggressive cancer Posted: 01 Jun 2014 12:08 PM PDT The first preclinical tests for a novel anti-cancer technology called 'quadrapeutics' that converts current clinical treatments to instantaneously detect and kill only cancer cells have been successful. Quadrapeutics combines clinically available drugs, colloidal gold, pulsed lasers and radiation in a novel and safe micro-treatment that improved standard therapy by 17-fold against aggressive, drug-resistant tumors.

Smokers with gene defect have one in four chance of developing lung cancer Posted: 01 Jun 2014 12:08 PM PDT Around a quarter of smokers who carry a defect in the BRCA2 gene will develop lung cancer at some point in their lifetime, a large-scale, international study reveals. Scientists announce a previously unknown link between lung cancer and a particular BRCA2 defect, occurring in around 2 per cent of the population.

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