ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Immersed in violence: How 3-D gaming affects video game players
• Let there be light: Evolution of complex bioluminescent traits may be predictable
• Cosmic rays threaten future deep-space astronaut missions
• Ancient Europeans intolerant to lactose for 5,000 years after they adopted agriculture
• Kung fu stegosaur: Lethal fighters when necessary
• Big black holes can block new stars
• Ocean's living carbon pumps: When viruses attack giant algal blooms, global carbon cycles are affected
• Tarantula venom illuminates electrical activity in live cells
• Exposure to aluminum may impact on male fertility, research suggests
• Biochemical cause of seasonal depression (SAD) confirmed by researchers

Immersed in violence: How 3-D gaming affects video game players Posted: 21 Oct 2014 11:53 AM PDT Playing violent video games in 3-D makes everything seem more real – and that may have troubling consequences for players, a new study reveals. Researchers found that people who played violent video games in 3-D showed more evidence of anger afterward than did people who played using traditional 2-D systems -- even those with large screens.

Let there be light: Evolution of complex bioluminescent traits may be predictable Posted: 21 Oct 2014 10:50 AM PDT A longstanding question among scientists is whether evolution is predictable. A team of researchers from University of California Santa Barbara may have found a preliminary answer. The genetic underpinnings of complex traits in cephalopods may in fact be predictable because they evolved in the same way in two distinct species of squid.

Cosmic rays threaten future deep-space astronaut missions Posted: 21 Oct 2014 10:50 AM PDT Crewed missions to Mars remain an essential goal for NASA, but scientists are only now beginning to understand and characterize the radiation hazards that could make such ventures risky, concludes a new article.

Ancient Europeans intolerant to lactose for 5,000 years after they adopted agriculture Posted: 21 Oct 2014 09:59 AM PDT By analyzing DNA from petrous bones of ancient Europeans, scientists have identified these peoples remained intolerant to lactose (natural sugar in the milk of mammals) for 5,000 years after they adopted agricultural practices. The scientific team examined nuclear ancient DNA extracted from thirteen individuals from burials from archaeological sites in the Great Hungarian Plain. The skeletons sampled date from 5,700 BC (Early Neolithic) to 800 BC (Iron Age).

Kung fu stegosaur: Lethal fighters when necessary Posted: 21 Oct 2014 08:49 AM PDT Stegosaurs might be portrayed as lumbering plant eaters, but they were lethal fighters when necessary, according to paleontologists who have uncovered new evidence of a casualty of stegosaurian combat. The evidence is a fatal stab wound in the pubis bone of a predatory allosaur. The wound -- in the conical shape of a stegosaur tail spike -- would have required great dexterity to inflict and shows clear signs of having cut short the allosaur's life.

Big black holes can block new stars Posted: 21 Oct 2014 08:07 AM PDT Massive black holes spewing out radio-frequency-emitting particles at near-light speed can block formation of new stars in aging galaxies, a study has found.

Ocean's living carbon pumps: When viruses attack giant algal blooms, global carbon cycles are affected Posted: 21 Oct 2014 07:15 AM PDT By some estimates, almost half of the world's organic carbon is fixed by marine organisms called phytoplankton -- single-celled photosynthetic organisms that account for less than one percent of the total photosynthetic biomass on Earth. When giant algal blooms get viral infections, global carbon cycles are affected, scientists have now discovered.

Tarantula venom illuminates electrical activity in live cells Posted: 21 Oct 2014 07:11 AM PDT A cellular probe that combines a tarantula toxin with a fluorescent compound has been developed to help scientists observe electrical activity in neurons and other cells. This is the first time researchers have been able to visually observe these electrical signaling proteins turn on without genetic modification.

Exposure to aluminum may impact on male fertility, research suggests Posted: 21 Oct 2014 05:51 AM PDT Human exposure to aluminum may be a significant factor in falling sperm counts and reduced male fertility, new research suggests. Fluorescence microscopy using an aluminum-specific stain confirmed the presence of aluminum in semen and showed aluminum inside individual sperm.

Biochemical cause of seasonal depression (SAD) confirmed by researchers Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:24 PM PDT New research confirms why some people suffer from the winter blues while others get through the winter without any problems. A longitudinal study has found that that people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) show significant seasonal differences in the way they regulate the neurotransmitter serotonin in comparison to the majority of the population.

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