ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Animal foraging tactics unchanged for 50 million years
• Mutation stops worms from getting drunk
• Dodos and spotted green pigeons are descendants of an island hopping bird
• Rainwater discovered at new depths, with high pressure and temperatures over 300 degrees Celsius
• Protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection, research finds
• New feathered predatory fossil sheds light on dinosaur flight
• Physicists detect process even rarer than the long-sought Higgs particle
• Ötzi's non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy
• Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms

Animal foraging tactics unchanged for 50 million years Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:57 PM PDT Animals have used the same technique to search for food that's in short supply for at least 50 million years, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed fossilized sea urchin trails from northern Spain and found the tracks reflect a search pattern still used by a huge range of creatures today.

Mutation stops worms from getting drunk Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT Neuroscientists have generated mutant worms that do not get intoxicated by alcohol, a result that could lead to new drugs to treat the symptoms of people going through alcohol withdrawal. The scientists accomplished this feat by inserting a modified human alcohol target into the worms.

Dodos and spotted green pigeons are descendants of an island hopping bird Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT The mysterious spotted green pigeon was a relative of the dodo, according to scientists who have examined its genetic make-up. The authors say their results support a theory that both birds are descended from 'island hopping' ancestors.

Rainwater discovered at new depths, with high pressure and temperatures over 300 degrees Celsius Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:42 PM PDT Researchers have found that rainwater can penetrate below the Earth's fractured upper crust, which could have major implications for our understanding of earthquakes and the generation of valuable mineral deposits. It had been thought that surface water could not penetrate the ductile crust - where temperatures of more than 300°C and high pressures cause rocks to flex and flow rather than fracture - but researchers have now found fluids derived from rainwater at these levels. Fluids in the Earth's crust can weaken rocks and may help to initiate earthquakes along locked fault lines.

Protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection, research finds Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:27 AM PDT Biochemists have discovered how protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection. "These structures are like small hands on the surface of bacterial cells," said the study's principal investigator. "They make the bacteria capable of recognizing something and grabbing it from the environment. It's amazing that such a tiny molecule can do that." The research may help scientists develop targeted treatment and intervention methods.

New feathered predatory fossil sheds light on dinosaur flight Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:24 AM PDT A new raptorial dinosaur fossil with exceptionally long feathers has provided exciting insights into dinosaur flight. A new article asserts that the fossil has a long feathered tail that scientists believe was instrumental for decreasing descent speed and assuring safe landings.

Physicists detect process even rarer than the long-sought Higgs particle Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:55 AM PDT Scientists running the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful "atom smasher," report the first evidence of a process that can be used to test the mechanism by which the recently discovered Higgs particle imparts mass to other fundamental particles.

Ötzi's non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT Ötzi's human genome was decoded from a hip bone sample taken from the 5,300 year old mummy. However the tiny sample weighing no more than 0.1 g provides so much more information. A team of scientists analyzed the non-human DNA in the sample. They found evidence for the presence of Treponema denticola, an opportunistic pathogen involved in the development of periodontal disease.

Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Physicists were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices.

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