ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Iconic New Zealand reptile shows chewing is not just for mammals
• Mathematicians can conjure matter waves inside an invisible hat
• Discovery of historical photos sheds light on Greenland ice loss
• Ghostly gamma-ray beams blast from Milky Way's center
• Greenland's loss of ice mass during the last 10 years is unusually high compared to last 50 years
• Ion-based electronic chip to control muscles: Entirely new circuit technology based on ions and molecules
• 16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code
• Evil eyebrows and pointy chin of a cartoon villain make our ‘threat’ instinct kick in
• Inequality dates back to Stone Age: Earliest evidence yet of differential access to land
• Climate change led to collapse of ancient Indus civilization, study finds
• T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, a new study reveals

Iconic New Zealand reptile shows chewing is not just for mammals Posted: 29 May 2012 06:17 PM PDT The tuatara, an iconic New Zealand reptile, chews its food in a way unlike any other animal on the planet -- challenging the widespread perception that complex chewing ability is closely linked to high metabolism.

Mathematicians can conjure matter waves inside an invisible hat Posted: 29 May 2012 03:27 PM PDT Mathematicians have devised an amplifier that can boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an invisible container.

Discovery of historical photos sheds light on Greenland ice loss Posted: 29 May 2012 11:43 AM PDT A chance discovery of 80-year-old photo plates in a Danish basement is providing new insight into how Greenland glaciers are melting today.

Ghostly gamma-ray beams blast from Milky Way's center Posted: 29 May 2012 10:37 AM PDT As galaxies go, our Milky Way is pretty quiet. Active galaxies have cores that glow brightly, powered by supermassive black holes swallowing material, and often spit twin jets in opposite directions. In contrast, the Milky Way's center shows little activity. But it wasn't always so peaceful. New evidence of ghostly gamma-ray beams suggests that the Milky Way's central black hole was much more active in the past.

Greenland's loss of ice mass during the last 10 years is unusually high compared to last 50 years Posted: 29 May 2012 10:36 AM PDT Loss through melting and iceberg calving during the last 10 years is unusually high compared to the last 50 years. The Greenland ice sheet continues to lose mass and thus contributes at about 0.7 millimeters per year to the currently observed sea level change of about 3 mm per year. This trend increases each year by a further 0.07 millimeters per year. The pattern and temporal nature of loss is complex. The mass loss is largest in southwest and northwest Greenland; the respective contributions of melting, iceberg calving and fluctuations in snow accumulation differing considerably.

Ion-based electronic chip to control muscles: Entirely new circuit technology based on ions and molecules Posted: 29 May 2012 08:35 AM PDT An integrated chemical chip has just been developed. An advantage of chemical circuits is that the charge carrier consists of chemical substances with various functions. This means that we now have new opportunities to control and regulate the signal paths of cells in the human body. The chemical chip can control the delivery of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This enables chemical control of muscles, which are activated when they come into contact with acetylcholine.

16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code Posted: 29 May 2012 07:22 AM PDT The discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype C2 sequence common in Southeast Asia.

Evil eyebrows and pointy chin of a cartoon villain make our ‘threat’ instinct kick in Posted: 29 May 2012 04:46 AM PDT Why do the evil eyebrows and pointy chin of a cartoon villain make our 'threat' instinct kick in? Psychologists have found that a downward pointing triangle can be perceived to carry threat just like a negative face in a crowd.

Inequality dates back to Stone Age: Earliest evidence yet of differential access to land Posted: 28 May 2012 12:49 PM PDT Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without.

Climate change led to collapse of ancient Indus civilization, study finds Posted: 28 May 2012 12:49 PM PDT A new study combining the latest archaeological evidence with state-of-the-art geoscience technologies provides evidence that climate change was a key ingredient in the collapse of the great Indus or Harappan civilization almost 4000 years ago. The study also resolves a long-standing debate over the source and fate of the Sarasvati, the sacred river of Hindu mythology.

T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, a new study reveals Posted: 27 May 2012 12:38 PM PDT By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement strategy to track down parasites that is similar to strategies that predators such as monkeys, sharks and bluefin tuna use to hunt their prey.

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