ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Extreme climate change linked to early animal evolution
• Asteroid's troughs suggest stunted planet
• Researchers discover what vampire squids eat: It's not what you think
• Artificially intelligent game bots pass the Turing test on Turing's centenary
• Exposure to school-age children ups severity of cold infections
• Biologist discovers mammal with salamander-like regenerative abilities
• Gut bacteria could could play key role in development of type 2 diabetes
• Scientists make old muscles young again in attempt to combat aging
• Large 2012 earthquake triggered temblors worldwide for nearly a week
• Search for element 113 concluded at last
• Ancient Buddhist statue made of meteorite, new study reveals
• Coral hotspots found in deepwater canyons off northeast US coast
• Brain parts can evolve independently, shows analysis of brains of 10,000 mice
• 3-D images of 300-million-year-old insects revealed
• Slave rebellion is widespread in ants
• Learning requires rhythmical activity of neurons

Extreme climate change linked to early animal evolution Posted: 26 Sep 2012 01:17 PM PDT An international team of scientists has uncovered new evidence linking extreme climate change, oxygen rise, and early animal evolution.

Asteroid's troughs suggest stunted planet Posted: 26 Sep 2012 11:35 AM PDT Enormous troughs that reach across the asteroid Vesta may actually be stretch marks that hint of a complexity beyond most asteroids. Scientists have been trying to determine the origin of these unusual troughs since their discovery just last year. Now, a new analysis supports the notion that the troughs are faults that formed when a fellow asteroid smacked into Vesta's south pole. The research reinforces the claim that Vesta has a layered interior, a quality normally reserved for larger bodies, such as planets and large moons.

Researchers discover what vampire squids eat: It's not what you think Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:32 AM PDT Over the last 100 years, perhaps a dozen scientific papers have been published on the mysterious vampire squid, but no one has been able to figure out exactly what it eats. A new article shows for the first time that the vampire squid uses two thread-like filaments to capture bits of organic debris that sink down from the ocean surface into the deep sea.

Artificially intelligent game bots pass the Turing test on Turing's centenary Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:32 AM PDT An artificially intelligent virtual gamer has won the BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that it was more human-like than half the humans it competed against. The victory comes 100 years after the birth of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, whose "Turing test" stands as one of the foundational definitions of what constitutes true machine intelligence.

Exposure to school-age children ups severity of cold infections Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:32 AM PDT Exposure to school-age children raises the odds that a person with lung disease who catches a cold will actually suffer symptoms like a runny nose, sore throat and cough. While many studies have found that being around school-age children increases the risk of infection, the new findings go one step further: Of people who come down with colds, the course of the infection is much more likely to be worse in people exposed to children.

Biologist discovers mammal with salamander-like regenerative abilities Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:31 AM PDT A small African mammal with an unusual ability to regrow damaged tissues could inspire new research in regenerative medicine, a new study finds.

Gut bacteria could could play key role in development of type 2 diabetes Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:31 AM PDT Studying gut bacteria can reveal a range of human illness. Now, new research shows that the composition of a person's intestinal bacteria could play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

Scientists make old muscles young again in attempt to combat aging Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:31 AM PDT An international team of scientists has identified for the first time a key factor responsible for declining muscle repair during aging, and discovered how to halt the process in mice with a common drug. Although an early study, the findings provide clues as to how muscles lose mass with age, which can result in weakness that affects mobility and may cause falls.

Large 2012 earthquake triggered temblors worldwide for nearly a week Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:31 AM PDT This year's largest earthquake, a magnitude 8.6 temblor on April 11 centered in the East Indian Ocean off Sumatra, did little damage, but it triggered quakes around the world for at least a week, according to a new analysis by seismologists.

Search for element 113 concluded at last Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:27 AM PDT The most unambiguous data to date on the elusive 113th atomic element has now been obtained. A chain of six consecutive alpha decays, produced in experiments at the RIKEN Radioisotope Beam Factory (RIBF), conclusively identifies the element through connections to well-known daughter nuclides.

Ancient Buddhist statue made of meteorite, new study reveals Posted: 26 Sep 2012 07:42 AM PDT An ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analyzed by a team of scientists. The probably 1,000-year-old statue, called the "Iron Man", weighs 10 kilograms, portrays the Buddhist god Vaisravana and is believed to originate from the pre-Buddhist Bon culture of the 11th Century. Geochemical analyses by the German-Austrian research team revealed that the priceless statue was carved from an ataxite, a very rare class of iron meteorites.

Coral hotspots found in deepwater canyons off northeast US coast Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:45 AM PDT For the first time in decades, researchers have conducted an extensive exploration for deep-sea corals and sponges in submarine canyons off the northeastern coast of the US. The survey revealed coral "hotspots," and found that a new coral habitat suitability model could help predict where corals are likely to occur.

Brain parts can evolve independently, shows analysis of brains of 10,000 mice Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:45 AM PDT Scientists have found compelling evidence that parts of the brain can evolve independently from each other. The brains of approximately 10,000 mice were analyzed. Seven individual parts of each brain were measured by volume and weight. The entire genome, except the Y chromosome, was scanned for each animal and the gene set for each brain part identified. The findings promise to significantly advance our understanding of the brain.

3-D images of 300-million-year-old insects revealed Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:45 AM PDT Stunning 3-D images of 300-million-year-old insects have been revealed for the first time by researchers. The scientists have used a high resolution form of CT scanning to reconstruct two 305-million-year-old juvenile insects. Without the pioneering approach to imaging, these tiny insects -- which are three-dimensional holes in a rock -- would have been impossible to study.

Slave rebellion is widespread in ants Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:29 AM PDT Enslaved worker ants kill the offspring of their parasites and thereby improve the chances of survival for their neighboring relatives. According to new research, this behavior now appears to be a widespread characteristic that is not limited to isolated occurrences.

Learning requires rhythmical activity of neurons Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:26 AM PDT The hippocampus represents an important brain structure for learning. Scientists have discovered how it filters electrical neuronal signals through an input and output control, thus regulating learning and memory processes.

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