ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Expedition to undersea mountain yields new information about sub-seafloor structure
• Geologists correct a 'rift' in Africa
• Research: 'Buckliball' opens new avenue in design of foldable engineering structures
• Deep-ocean impact of the Deepwater Horizon explosion revealed
• Single antibody shrinks variety of human tumors transplanted into mice, study shows
• New 'thermal' approach to invisibility cloaking hides heat to enhance technology
• Smiling through the tears: Study shows how tearjerkers make people happier
• Skaters' brains: Specialized training of complex motor skills may induce sports-specific structural changes in cerebellum
• James Cameron makes first ever successful solo dive to Mariana Trench -- ocean's deepest point
• Inner weapons against allergies: Gut bacteria control allergic diseases, study suggests
• Huge hamsters and pint-sized porcupines thrive on islands: Researchers test 'island rule' of rodent evolution

Expedition to undersea mountain yields new information about sub-seafloor structure Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:09 PM PDT Scientists recently concluded an expedition aboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution to learn more about Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain, or seamount, that formed in a very different way than the majority of the seafloor in the oceans.

Geologists correct a 'rift' in Africa Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:09 PM PDT The huge changes in the Earth's crust that influenced human evolution are being redefined, according to new research. The Great Rift Valley of East Africa -- the birthplace of the human species -- may have taken much longer to develop than previously believed.

Research: 'Buckliball' opens new avenue in design of foldable engineering structures Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:08 PM PDT Inspired by a toy, the 'buckliball' -- a collapsible structure fabricated from a single piece of material -- represents a new class of 3-D, origami-like structures.

Deep-ocean impact of the Deepwater Horizon explosion revealed Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:08 PM PDT Scientists have discovered compelling evidence of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea corals. The researchers used a wide range of underwater vehicles, including the research submarine Alvin, as well as comprehensive chemical-analysis techniques to determine precisely the source of the petroleum hydrocarbons they found on the corals.

Single antibody shrinks variety of human tumors transplanted into mice, study shows Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:08 PM PDT Human tumors transplanted into laboratory mice disappeared or shrank when scientists treated the animals with a single antibody, according to a new study. The antibody works by masking a protein flag on cancer cells that protects them from macrophages and other cells in the immune system. The scientists achieved the findings with human breast, ovarian, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate cancer samples.

New 'thermal' approach to invisibility cloaking hides heat to enhance technology Posted: 26 Mar 2012 10:35 AM PDT In a new approach to invisibility cloaking, a team of French researchers has proposed isolating or cloaking objects from sources of heat -- essentially "thermal cloaking." This method taps into some of the same principles as optical cloaking and may lead to novel ways to control heat in electronics and, on an even larger scale, might someday prove useful for spacecraft and solar technologies.

Smiling through the tears: Study shows how tearjerkers make people happier Posted: 26 Mar 2012 10:25 AM PDT People enjoy watching tragedy movies like "Titanic" because they deliver what may seem to be an unlikely benefit: tragedies actually make people happier in the short-term.

Skaters' brains: Specialized training of complex motor skills may induce sports-specific structural changes in cerebellum Posted: 26 Mar 2012 08:29 AM PDT Specialized training of complex motor skills may induce sports-specific structural changes in the human brain.

James Cameron makes first ever successful solo dive to Mariana Trench -- ocean's deepest point Posted: 26 Mar 2012 06:12 AM PDT Filmmaker James Cameron descended 35,756 feet (6.77 miles/10.89 km) to reach the "Challenger Deep," the ocean's deepest point located in the Mariana Trench, in his specially designed submersible DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. The attempt was part of DEEPSEA CHALLENGE, a joint scientific expedition by Cameron, National Geographic and Rolex to conduct deep-ocean research and exploration. Cameron is the only individual ever to complete the dive in a solo vehicle and the first person since 1960 to reach the very bottom of the world in a manned submersible.

Inner weapons against allergies: Gut bacteria control allergic diseases, study suggests Posted: 25 Mar 2012 02:32 PM PDT Researchers have found that commensal bacteria in humans might play an important role in influencing and controlling allergic inflammation. The study suggest that therapeutic targeting of immune cell responses to resident gut bacteria may be beneficial in treating allergic diseases.

Huge hamsters and pint-sized porcupines thrive on islands: Researchers test 'island rule' of rodent evolution Posted: 23 Mar 2012 10:49 AM PDT From miniature elephants to monster mice, and even Hobbit-sized humans, size changes in island animals are well known to science. Biologists have long believed that large animals evolving on islands tend to get smaller, while small animals tend to get bigger, a generalization they call "the island rule." A new study puts that old idea to the test in island and mainland rodents.

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