ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Earlier Stone Age artifacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa
• Parched West is using up underground water: Study points to grave implications for Western U.S. water supply
• Biologist warn of early stages of Earth's sixth mass extinction event
• How to power California with wind, water and sun
• Pesticide linked to three generations of disease: Methoxychlor causes epigenetic changes
• No returning to Eden: Researchers explore how to restore species in a changing world
• Synchronization of North Atlantic, North Pacific preceded abrupt warming, end of ice age
• DNA mostly 'junk?' Only 8.2 percent of human DNA is 'functional', study finds
• Leaf-mining insects destroyed with the dinosaurs, others quickly appeared
• A reward is valued more if you choose it yourself: New quirky byproduct of learning from reward
• Cancer: Treatment that prevents tumor metastasis identified in animal study
• New mass map of distant galaxy cluster is most precise yet
• Newly discovered gut virus lives in half the world's population
• Four-billion-year-old chemistry in cells today
• Hubble finds three surprisingly dry exoplanets: 'Hot Jupiters' had only one-tenth to one one-thousandth the amount of water predicted

Earlier Stone Age artifacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:21 PM PDT Excavations at an archaeological site at Kathu in the Northern Cape province of South Africa have produced tens of thousands of Earlier Stone Age artifacts, including hand axes and other tools.

Parched West is using up underground water: Study points to grave implications for Western U.S. water supply Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:21 PM PDT A new study finds more than 75 percent of the water loss in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin since late 2004 came from underground resources. The extent of groundwater loss may pose a greater threat to the water supply of the western United States than previously thought.

Biologist warn of early stages of Earth's sixth mass extinction event Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:19 PM PDT The planet's current biodiversity, the product of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary trial and error, is the highest in the history of life. But it may be reaching a tipping point. Scientists caution that the loss and decline of animals is contributing to what appears to be the early days of the planet's sixth mass biological extinction event. Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct. Populations of the remaining species show a 25 percent average decline in abundance. The situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life.

How to power California with wind, water and sun Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:43 AM PDT New research outlines the path to a possible future for California in which renewable energy creates a healthier environment, generates jobs and stabilizes energy prices.

Pesticide linked to three generations of disease: Methoxychlor causes epigenetic changes Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:42 AM PDT Researchers say ancestral exposures to the pesticide methoxychlor may lead to adult onset kidney disease, ovarian disease and obesity in future generations.

No returning to Eden: Researchers explore how to restore species in a changing world Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:42 AM PDT Reversing the increasing rate of global biodiversity losses may not be possible without embracing intensive, and sometimes controversial, forms of threatened species management, according to zoologists.

Synchronization of North Atlantic, North Pacific preceded abrupt warming, end of ice age Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT Scientists have long been concerned that global warming may push Earth's climate system across a 'tipping point,' where rapid melting of ice and further warming may become irreversible -- a hotly debated scenario with an unclear picture of what this point of no return may look like. A new study suggests that combined warming of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans thousands of years ago may have provided the tipping point for abrupt warming and rapid melting of the northern ice sheets.

DNA mostly 'junk?' Only 8.2 percent of human DNA is 'functional', study finds Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT Only 8.2 percent of human DNA is likely to be doing something important -- is 'functional' -- say researchers. This figure is very different from one given in 2012, when some scientists involved in the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project stated that 80% of our genome has some biochemical function.

Leaf-mining insects destroyed with the dinosaurs, others quickly appeared Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT After the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period that triggered the dinosaurs' extinction and ushered in the Paleocene, leaf-mining insects in the western United States completely disappeared. Only a million years later, at Mexican Hat, in southeastern Montana, fossil leaves show diverse leaf-mining traces from new insects that were not present during the Cretaceous, according to paleontologists.

A reward is valued more if you choose it yourself: New quirky byproduct of learning from reward Posted: 24 Jul 2014 09:44 AM PDT Many people value rewards they choose themselves more than rewards they merely receive, even when the rewards are actually equivalent. A new study provides evidence that this long-observed quirk of behavior is a byproduct of how the brain reinforces learning from reward.

Cancer: Treatment that prevents tumor metastasis identified in animal study Posted: 24 Jul 2014 09:42 AM PDT Metastasis, the strategy adopted by tumor cells to transform into an aggressive form of cancer, are often associated with a gloomy prognosis. Managing to block the metastasis or, even better, prevent their formation would be a giant step towards the fight against cancer. Researchers successfully performed this on models of human tumors in mice.

New mass map of distant galaxy cluster is most precise yet Posted: 24 Jul 2014 07:42 AM PDT Astronomers have mapped the mass within a galaxy cluster more precisely than ever before. Created using observations from Hubble's Frontier Fields observing program, the map shows the amount and distribution of mass within MCS J0416.1-2403, a massive galaxy cluster found to be 160 trillion times the mass of the Sun.

Newly discovered gut virus lives in half the world's population Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:42 AM PDT Odds are, there's a virus living inside your gut that has gone undetected by scientists for decades. A new study has found that more than half the world's population is host to a newly described virus, named crAssphage, which infects one of the most common gut bacterial species, Bacteroides. This bacterium thought to be connected with obesity, diabetes and other gut-related diseases.

Four-billion-year-old chemistry in cells today Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:40 AM PDT Parts of the primordial soup in which life arose have been maintained in our cells today according to scientists. Research has revealed how cells in plants, yeast and very likely also in animals still perform ancient reactions thought to have been responsible for the origin of life -- some four billion years ago.

Hubble finds three surprisingly dry exoplanets: 'Hot Jupiters' had only one-tenth to one one-thousandth the amount of water predicted Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:28 AM PDT Astronomers have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the Sun -- and have come up nearly dry. The three planets, known as HD 189733b, HD 209458b, and WASP-12b, are between 60 and 900 light-years away from Earth and were thought to be ideal candidates for detecting water vapor in their atmospheres because of their high temperatures where water turns into a measurable vapor.

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