ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Therapeutic bacteria prevent obesity in mice, study finds
• NASA's Fermi finds a 'transformer' pulsar
• Bats use polarized light to navigate: First mammal known to use polarization patterns in the sky to navigate
• Study reveals 'unhappiest' cities in the U.S.
• Hubble traces halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before: An in-depth look at giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A
• Global temperature reaches record high in June following record warmth in May
• Schizophrenia's genetic 'skyline' rising as genetic code linked to illness grows
• HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis: Success of the Millennium shown in most comprehensive study to date
• Massive neutrinos and new standard cosmological model: No concordance yet
• Mammoth and mastodon behavior was less roam, more stay at home
• Human platelets successfully generated using next-generation bioreactor
• Viral relics show cancer's 'footprint' on our evolution
• Region, pathway found crucial for facial development in vertebrate embryos

Therapeutic bacteria prevent obesity in mice, study finds Posted: 22 Jul 2014 11:25 AM PDT A probiotic that prevents obesity could be on the horizon. Bacteria that produce a therapeutic compound in the gut inhibit weight gain, insulin resistance and other adverse effects of a high-fat diet in mice, investigators have discovered. Regulatory issues must be addressed before moving to human studies, but the findings suggest that it may be possible to manipulate the bacterial residents of the gut -- the gut microbiota -- to treat obesity and other chronic diseases.

NASA's Fermi finds a 'transformer' pulsar Posted: 22 Jul 2014 09:04 AM PDT In late June 2013, an exceptional binary containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. The pulsar's radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened fivefold in gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, according to measurements by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Bats use polarized light to navigate: First mammal known to use polarization patterns in the sky to navigate Posted: 22 Jul 2014 08:18 AM PDT The bats use the way the sun's light is scattered in the atmosphere at sunset to calibrate their internal magnetic compass, which helps them to fly in the right direction, a new study has shown.

Study reveals 'unhappiest' cities in the U.S. Posted: 22 Jul 2014 07:39 AM PDT New research identifies the unhappiest cities in the U.S., but finds that some young people are still willing to relocate to them for a good job opportunity or lower housing prices. The analysis suggests people may be deciding to trade happiness for other gains.

Hubble traces halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before: An in-depth look at giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A Posted: 22 Jul 2014 07:22 AM PDT Astronomers have probed the extreme outskirts of the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. The galaxy's halo of stars has been found to extend much further from the galaxy's center than expected and the stars within this halo seem to be surprisingly rich in heavy elements. This is the most remote portion of an elliptical galaxy ever to have been explored.

Global temperature reaches record high in June following record warmth in May Posted: 22 Jul 2014 06:56 AM PDT According to NOAA scientists, the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for June 2014 was the highest for June since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 38th consecutive June and 352nd consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average global temperature for June was in 1976 and the last below-average global temperature for any month was February 1985.

Schizophrenia's genetic 'skyline' rising as genetic code linked to illness grows Posted: 22 Jul 2014 06:17 AM PDT The largest genomic dragnet of any psychiatric disorder to date has unmasked 108 chromosomal sites harboring inherited variations in the genetic code linked to schizophrenia, 83 of which had not been previously reported. By contrast, the 'skyline' of such suspect variants associated with the disorder contained only 5 significant peaks in 2011. Researchers combined data from all available schizophrenia genetic samples to boost statistical power high enough to detect subtle effects on risk.

HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis: Success of the Millennium shown in most comprehensive study to date Posted: 22 Jul 2014 06:16 AM PDT Accelerated progress against the global burden of HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) has been made since 2000 when governments worldwide adopted Millennium Development Goal 6 to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB. New estimates from a major new analysis show that worldwide, the number of people living with HIV has risen steadily to around 29 million people in 2012. The data also show that malaria is killing more people than previously estimated, although the number of deaths has fallen rapidly since 2004. Progress for TB looks promising.

Massive neutrinos and new standard cosmological model: No concordance yet Posted: 22 Jul 2014 06:13 AM PDT Neutrinos, also known as 'ghost particles' because they barely interact with other particles or their surroundings, are massless particles according to the standard model of particle physics. However, there is a lot of evidence that their mass is in fact non-zero, but it remains unmeasured. In cosmology, neutrinos are suspected to make up a fraction —- small but important -— of the mysterious dark matter, which represents 90% of the mass of the galaxy. Modifying the standard cosmological model in order to include fairly massive neutrinos does not explain all the physical observations simultaneously.

Mammoth and mastodon behavior was less roam, more stay at home Posted: 21 Jul 2014 03:19 PM PDT Their scruffy beards weren't ironic, but there are reasons mammoths and mastodons could have been the hipsters of the Ice Age. According to new research, the famously fuzzy relatives of elephants liked living in Greater Cincinnati long before it was trendy -- at the end of the last ice age. A new study shows the ancient proboscideans enjoyed the area so much they likely were year-round residents and not nomadic migrants as previously thought.

Human platelets successfully generated using next-generation bioreactor Posted: 21 Jul 2014 07:03 AM PDT A scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor has been created to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro. The work is a major biomedical advancement that will help address blood transfusion needs worldwide.

Viral relics show cancer's 'footprint' on our evolution Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Cancer has left its 'footprint' on our evolution, according to a study which examined how the relics of ancient viruses are preserved in the genomes of 38 mammal species. The team found that as animals increased in size they 'edited out' potentially cancer-causing relics from their genomes so that mice have almost ten times as many ERVs as humans. The findings offer a clue as to why larger animals have a lower incidence of cancer than expected compared to smaller ones, and could help in the search for new anti-viral therapies.

Region, pathway found crucial for facial development in vertebrate embryos Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:45 AM PDT A signaling pathway once thought to have little if any role during embryogenesis is a key player in the formation of the front-most portion of developing vertebrate embryos. Moreover, signals emanating from this region -- referred to as the "extreme anterior domain" (EAD) -- orchestrate the complex choreography that gives rise to proper facial structure.

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