ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid Vesta
• Venice hasn't stopped sinking after all
• Quantum plasmons demonstrated in atomic-scale nanoparticles
• How the alphabet of data processing is growing: Flying 'qubits' generated
• Warming Antarctic brings changes to penguin breeding cycles
• Study shines light on brain mechanism that controls reward enjoyment
• Trees may play role in electrifying the atmosphere, study suggests
• Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities
• Energy requirements make Antarctic fur seal pups vulnerable to climate change
• How the smell of food affects how much you eat
• Vista stares deep into the cosmos: Treasure trove of new infrared data made available to astronomers
• Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot
• Camera peers around corners: New imaging system uses opaque walls, doors or floors as 'mirrors'
• Controlling light at will: Metamaterials will change optics

Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid Vesta Posted: 21 Mar 2012 05:47 PM PDT NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on asteroids.

Venice hasn't stopped sinking after all Posted: 21 Mar 2012 02:22 PM PDT The water flowing through Venice's famous canals laps at buildings a little higher every year -- and not only because of a rising sea level. Although previous studies had found that Venice has stabilized, new measurements indicate that the historic city continues to slowly sink, and even to tilt slightly to the east.

Quantum plasmons demonstrated in atomic-scale nanoparticles Posted: 21 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT Addressing a half-century-old question, engineers have conclusively determined how collective electron oscillations, called plasmons, behave in individual metal particles as small as just a few nanometers in diameter. This knowledge may open up new avenues in nanotechnology ranging from solar catalysis to biomedical therapeutics.

How the alphabet of data processing is growing: Flying 'qubits' generated Posted: 21 Mar 2012 11:29 AM PDT The alphabet of data processing could include more elements than the "0" and "1" in future. Scientists have achieved a new kind of bit with single electrons, called quantum bits, or qubits. With them, considerably more than two states can be defined. So far, quantum bits have only existed in relatively large vacuum chambers. The team has now generated them in semiconductors. They have put an effect in practice, which the physicist Prof. Dr. Andreas Wieck had already theoretically predicted 22 years ago. This represents another step along the path to quantum computing.

Warming Antarctic brings changes to penguin breeding cycles Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:37 AM PDT Three penguin species that share the Western Antarctic Peninsula for breeding grounds have been affected in different ways by the higher temperatures brought on by global warming, according to new research.

Study shines light on brain mechanism that controls reward enjoyment Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:37 AM PDT What characterizes many people with depression, schizophrenia and some other mental illnesses is anhedonia: an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences. Researchers have now manipulated brain wiring to identify inner workings of reward enjoyment.

Trees may play role in electrifying the atmosphere, study suggests Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT Plants have long been known as the lungs of the Earth, but a new finding has found they may also play a role in electrifying the atmosphere. Scientists have long-suspected an association between trees and electricity, but researchers in Australia think they may have finally discovered the link. The scientists ran experiments in six locations around Brisbane. They found the positive and negative ion concentrations in the air were twice as high in heavily wooded areas than in open grassy areas, such as parks.

Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT Scientists have found that Mercury's core, already suspected to occupy a greater fraction of the planet's interior than do the cores of Earth, Venus, or Mars, is even larger than anticipated. They also discovered that the elevation ranges on Mercury are much smaller than on Mars or the Moon and indicates that there have been large-scale changes to Mercury's topography since early in the planet's geological history.

Energy requirements make Antarctic fur seal pups vulnerable to climate change Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT A new study has found that changing weather conditions can impact the metabolic rates of fur seal pups. Climate models predict windier and wetter conditions in Antarctica in the coming years, and that could cause young seals to assign more energy to thermoregulation, leaving less available for growth and development.

How the smell of food affects how much you eat Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT Bite size depends on the familiarly and texture of food. Smaller bite sizes are taken for foods which need more chewing and smaller bite sizes are often linked to a sensation of feeling fuller sooner. New research shows that strong aromas lead to smaller bite sizes and suggests that aroma may be used as a means to control portion size.

Vista stares deep into the cosmos: Treasure trove of new infrared data made available to astronomers Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT The European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope has created the widest deep view of the sky ever made using infrared light. This new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals more than 200 000 galaxies. It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects.

Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT Researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fueled by hydrogen. Constructed from a set of smart materials, which have the ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface.

Camera peers around corners: New imaging system uses opaque walls, doors or floors as 'mirrors' Posted: 20 Mar 2012 11:19 AM PDT A new imaging system could use opaque walls, doors or floors as "mirrors" to gather information about scenes outside its line of sight.

Controlling light at will: Metamaterials will change optics Posted: 18 Mar 2012 11:39 AM PDT Engineers believe that continued advances in creating ever-more exotic and sophisticated human-made materials will greatly improve their ability to control light at will.

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