ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Cheap, highly efficient solar cells: A new stable and cost-cutting type of perovskite solar cell
• Untangling spider's webs: Largest-ever study of spider genetics shows orb weaver spiders do not share common origins
• Scientists experimentally re-create conditions deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter and many exo-planets
• How existing cropland could feed billions more
• Chromosome-based draft of the wheat genome completed
• Earth-like soils on Mars? Ancient fossilized soils potentially found deep inside impact crater suggest microbial life
• Scientists track gene activity when honey bees do and don't eat honey: Significant differences depending on diet
• Is the universe a bubble? Let's check: Making the multiverse hypothesis testable
• Eye movements reveal difference between love and lust
• Transplanting gene into injured hearts creates biological pacemakers
• Danish DNA could be key to happiness
• New view of Mount Rainier's volcanic plumbing: Electrical images show upward flow of fluids to magma chamber
• Effects of starvation can be passed to future generations, through small RNAs apparently without DNA involvement
• Measuring nurture: Study shows how 'good mothering' hardwires infant brain
• Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimer's disease model

Cheap, highly efficient solar cells: A new stable and cost-cutting type of perovskite solar cell Posted: 17 Jul 2014 12:15 PM PDT Scientists have made a very efficient perovskite solar cell that does not require a hole-conducting layer. The novel photovoltaic achieved energy conversion efficiency of 12.8 percent and was stable for over 1000 hours under full sunlight. The innovation is expected to significantly reduce the cost of these promising solar cells.

Untangling spider's webs: Largest-ever study of spider genetics shows orb weaver spiders do not share common origins Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT The largest-ever phylogenetic study of spiders shows that, contrary to long-held popular opinion, the two groups of spiders that weave orb-shaped webs do not share a single origin.

Scientists experimentally re-create conditions deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter and many exo-planets Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Using the largest laser in the world, scientists for the first time have experimentally re-created the conditions that exist deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter, Uranus and many of the planets recently discovered outside our solar system.

How existing cropland could feed billions more Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:19 AM PDT Feeding a growing human population without increasing stresses on Earth's strained land and water resources may seem like an impossible challenge. But according to a new report focusing efforts to improve food systems on a few specific regions, crops and actions could make it possible to both meet the basic needs of 3 billion more people and decrease agriculture's environmental footprint.

Chromosome-based draft of the wheat genome completed Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:18 AM PDT Scientists have completed a chromosome-based draft sequence of the bread wheat genome as well as the first reference sequence of chromosome 3B, the largest chromosome in wheat.

Earth-like soils on Mars? Ancient fossilized soils potentially found deep inside impact crater suggest microbial life Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:50 AM PDT Soil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says a geologist based on images and data captured by the rover Curiosity.

Scientists track gene activity when honey bees do and don't eat honey: Significant differences depending on diet Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:48 AM PDT Many beekeepers feed their honey bees sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup when times are lean inside the hive. This practice has come under scrutiny, however, in response to colony collapse disorder, the massive -- and as yet not fully explained -- annual die-off of honey bees in the U.S. and Europe. Some suspect that inadequate nutrition plays a role in honey bee declines. Scientists took a broad look at changes in gene activity in response to diet in the Western honey bee, and found significant differences occur depending on what the bees eat.

Is the universe a bubble? Let's check: Making the multiverse hypothesis testable Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:48 AM PDT Scientists are working to bring the multiverse hypothesis, which to some sounds like a fanciful tale, firmly into the realm of testable science. Never mind the Big Bang; in the beginning was the vacuum. The vacuum simmered with energy (variously called dark energy, vacuum energy, the inflation field, or the Higgs field). Like water in a pot, this high energy began to evaporate -- bubbles formed.

Eye movements reveal difference between love and lust Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:45 AM PDT A new study suggests the difference between love and lust might be in the eyes. Specifically, where your date looks at you could indicate whether love or lust is in the cards. The new study found that eye patterns concentrate on a stranger's face if the viewer sees that person as a potential partner in romantic love, but the viewer gazes more at the other person's body if he or she is feeling sexual desire.

Transplanting gene into injured hearts creates biological pacemakers Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:59 AM PDT Cardiologists have developed a minimally invasive gene transplant procedure that changes unspecialized heart cells into "biological pacemaker" cells that keep the heart steadily beating.

Danish DNA could be key to happiness Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:48 AM PDT Genetics could be the key to explaining nation's levels of happiness, according to new research. Economists have found the closer a nation is to the genetic makeup of Denmark, the happier that country is. The research could help to solve the puzzle of why a country like Denmark so regularly tops the world happiness rankings.

New view of Mount Rainier's volcanic plumbing: Electrical images show upward flow of fluids to magma chamber Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:46 AM PDT By measuring how fast Earth conducts electricity and seismic waves, scientists have made a detailed picture of Mount Rainier's deep volcanic plumbing and partly molten rock that will erupt again someday.

Effects of starvation can be passed to future generations, through small RNAs apparently without DNA involvement Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:46 AM PDT A new study, involving roundworms, shows that starvation induces specific changes in so-called small RNAs and that these changes are inherited through at least three consecutive generations, apparently without any DNA involvement.

Measuring nurture: Study shows how 'good mothering' hardwires infant brain Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:45 AM PDT By carefully watching nearly a hundred hours of video showing mother rats protecting, warming, and feeding their young pups, and then matching up what they saw to real-time electrical readings from the pups' brains, researchers have found that the mother's presence and social interactions -— her nurturing role -— directly molds the early neural activity and growth of her offsprings' brain.

Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimer's disease model Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT A new study has revealed a way to alleviate the learning and memory deficits caused by apoE4, the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, improving cognition to normal levels in aged mice. The success of the treatment in older mice, which corresponded to late adulthood in humans, is particularly important, as this would be the age that would be targeted were this method ever to be used therapeutically in people.

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