ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Simulations uncover 'flashy' secrets of merging black holes
• Measuring the universe’s 'exit door': For the first time, an international team has measured the radius of a black hole
• New clues about ancient water cycles shed light on U.S. deserts
• NASA rover finds old streambed on Martian surface
• It's not too late for troubled fisheries, experts say
• Electronics that vanish in the environment or the body
• Cyborg surgeon: Hand and technology combine in new surgical tool that enables superhuman precision
• Nature's misfits: Reclassifying protists helps answer how many species remain undiscovered
• Supernova SN 1006: Cause of brightest stellar event in recorded history illuminated
• Carnivorous plant catapults prey with snap-tentacles: Biologists describe new capture mechanism
• Pluto/Charon poses for sharpest ground-based images ever
• Dioxin causes disease and reproductive problems across generations, study finds
• Male DNA commonly found in women’s brains, likely from prior pregnancy with a male fetus

Simulations uncover 'flashy' secrets of merging black holes Posted: 27 Sep 2012 12:31 PM PDT Researchers are using computational models to explore the mergers of supersized black holes. Their most recent work investigates what kind of "flash" might be seen by telescopes when astronomers ultimately find gravitational signals from such an event.

Measuring the universe’s 'exit door': For the first time, an international team has measured the radius of a black hole Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:45 AM PDT The point of no return: In astronomy, it's known as a black hole -- a region in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Black holes that can be billions of times more massive than our sun may reside at the heart of most galaxies. Such supermassive black holes are so powerful that activity at their boundaries can ripple throughout their host galaxies. Now, an international team has for the first time measured the radius of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy -- the closest distance at which matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.

New clues about ancient water cycles shed light on U.S. deserts Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:42 AM PDT The deserts of Utah and Nevada have not always been dry. Now a researcher has found a new water cycle connection between the U.S. southwest and the tropics, and understanding the processes that have brought precipitation to the western US will help scientists better understand how the water cycle might be perturbed in the future.

NASA rover finds old streambed on Martian surface Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:23 AM PDT NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

It's not too late for troubled fisheries, experts say Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:15 AM PDT New research confirms suspicions that thousands of "data-poor" fisheries, representing some 80 percent of the world's fisheries, are in decline but could recover with proper management.

Electronics that vanish in the environment or the body Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:15 AM PDT Physicians and environmentalists alike could soon be using a new class of electronic devices: small, robust and high performance, yet also biocompatible and capable of dissolving completely in water – or in bodily fluids. Researchers have demonstrated a new type of biodegradable electronics technology that could introduce new design paradigms for medical implants that resorb into the body, environmental monitors and compostable consumer devices.

Cyborg surgeon: Hand and technology combine in new surgical tool that enables superhuman precision Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:02 AM PDT Normally, surgeons' tiny hand tremors are inconsequential to the task, but for doctors specializing in fine-scale surgery, such as operating inside the human eye, freehand tremors can pose a serious risk for patients. By harnessing a specialized optical fiber sensor, a new "smart" surgical tool can compensate for this unwanted movement by making hundreds of precise position corrections each second – fast enough to keep the surgeon's hand on target.

Nature's misfits: Reclassifying protists helps answer how many species remain undiscovered Posted: 27 Sep 2012 09:42 AM PDT Since the Victorian era, categorizing the natural world has challenged scientists. No group has presented a challenge as tricky as the protists, the tiny, complex life forms that are neither plants nor animals. A new reclassification of eukaryotic life forms draws together the latest research to clarify the current state of protist diversity and categorization, as well as the many species that remain to be discovered.

Supernova SN 1006: Cause of brightest stellar event in recorded history illuminated Posted: 27 Sep 2012 06:15 AM PDT Between April 30 and May 1 of the year 1006, the brightest stellar event ever recorded in history occurred: a supernova, or stellar explosion, that was widely observed by various civilizations from different places on Earth. More than a thousand years later, researchers have found that the supernova of 1006 (SN 1006) probably occurred as a result of the merger of two white dwarfs.

Carnivorous plant catapults prey with snap-tentacles: Biologists describe new capture mechanism Posted: 27 Sep 2012 06:15 AM PDT Carnivorous plants feature complex mechanisms to survive in habitats poor in nutrients: trapping systems help them to lure, catch, kill, and digest small prey animals (mainly insects) and to take up the resulting nutrients. Traps that move are termed 'active', and such active systems are currently being investigated. Researchers show for the first time the trapping action of the particular sundew Drosera glanduligera.

Pluto/Charon poses for sharpest ground-based images ever Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:39 PM PDT Despite being infamously demoted from its status as a major planet, Pluto (and its largest companion Charon) recently posed as a surrogate extrasolar planetary system to help astronomers produce exceptionally high-resolution images with the Gemini North 8-meter telescope. Using a method called reconstructive speckle imaging, the researchers took the sharpest ground-based snapshots ever obtained of Pluto and Charon in visible light, which hint at the exoplanet verification power of a large state-of-the-art telescope when combined with speckle imaging techniques.

Dioxin causes disease and reproductive problems across generations, study finds Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:39 PM PDT Since the 1960s, when the defoliant Agent Orange was widely used in Vietnam, military, industry and environmental groups have debated the toxicity of its main ingredient, the chemical dioxin, and how it should be regulated. But even if all the dioxin were eliminated from the planet, researchers say its legacy will live on in the way it turns genes on and off in the descendants of people exposed over the past half century.

Male DNA commonly found in women’s brains, likely from prior pregnancy with a male fetus Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:31 PM PDT Male DNA is commonly found in the brains of women, most likely derived from prior pregnancy with a male fetus, according to first-of-its-kind research conducted at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While the medical implications of male DNA and male cells in the brain are unknown, studies of other kinds of microchimerism – the harboring of genetic material and cells that were exchanged between fetus and mother during pregnancy – have linked the phenomenon to autoimmune diseases and cancer, sometimes for better and other times for worse.

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