ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells
• 2012 Antarctic ozone hole second smallest in 20 years
• Revealing a mini-supermassive black hole
• Why 'singing' sand dunes hum certain notes
• Brain waves reveal video game aptitude
• Astronomers report that dark matter 'halos' may contain stars, disprove other theories
• Bacterial wires explain enigmatic electric currents in the seabed
• New gene therapy method tested in human cells ... and it works, researchers report
• 'Grassroots' neurons wire and fire together for dominance in the brain
• 100-million-year-old coelacanth fish discovered in Texas is new species from Cretaceous
• Flycatchers' genomes explain how one species became two
• Did bacteria spark evolution of multicellular life?
• Earth's magnetosphere behaves like a sieve
• New insight on managing fungal meningitis
• 84 million stars and counting: VISTA creates largest ever catalogue of center of Milky Way galaxy

Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT Moderate to binge drinking significantly reduces the structural integrity of the adult brain. The new research indicates that daily drinking decreases nerve cell development in the hippocampus part of the brain -- necessary for some type of learning and memory -- by 40 percent.

2012 Antarctic ozone hole second smallest in 20 years Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole this year was the second smallest in the last 20 years. Scientists attribute the change to warmer temperatures in the Antarctic lower stratosphere.

Revealing a mini-supermassive black hole Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:09 PM PDT One of the lowest mass supermassive black holes ever observed in the middle of a galaxy has now been identified. The host galaxy is of a type not expected to harbor supermassive black holes, suggesting that this black hole, while related to its supermassive cousins, may have a different origin.

Why 'singing' sand dunes hum certain notes Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:02 AM PDT What does Elvis Presley have in common with a sand dune? No, it's not that people sometimes spot both in the vicinity of Las Vegas. Instead, some sand dunes, like The King, can sing. And new research looking for clues to how streams of sand can sing may explain why some dunes croon in more than one pitch at the same time.

Brain waves reveal video game aptitude Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:34 AM PDT Scientists report that they can predict who will improve most on an unfamiliar video game by looking at their brain waves.

Astronomers report that dark matter 'halos' may contain stars, disprove other theories Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:34 AM PDT Do dark matter "halos" that make up most of the matter in the universe contain a small number of stars? Astronomers now make a case for that.

Bacterial wires explain enigmatic electric currents in the seabed Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:33 AM PDT The enigma of electric currents in the seabed is solved. Scientists have discovered bacteria that function as living electrical cables. Each of the centimeter-long 'cable bacteria' contains a bundle of insulated wires leading an electric current from one end to the other.

New gene therapy method tested in human cells ... and it works, researchers report Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:33 AM PDT Development of a new gene therapy method to prevent certain mitochondrial gene based diseases has reached a significant milestone. Researchers have successfully demonstrated their procedure in human cells. It's believed that this research, along with other efforts, will pave the way for future clinical trials in human subjects.

'Grassroots' neurons wire and fire together for dominance in the brain Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:09 AM PDT Inside the brain, an unpredictable race -- like a political campaign -- is being run. Multiple candidates, each with a network of supporters, have organized themselves into various left- and right-wing clusters -- like grassroots political teams working feverishly to reinforce a vision that bands them together. While scientists know that neurons in the brain anatomically organize themselves into these network camps, or clusters, the implications of such groupings on neural dynamics have remained unclear until now.

100-million-year-old coelacanth fish discovered in Texas is new species from Cretaceous Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:09 AM PDT A fossil discovered in Texas is a new species of coelacanth fish. Paleontologists identified the skull as a 100 million-year-old coelacanth, making it the youngest discovered in Texas. The new species, Reidus hilli, brings to 81 the world's coelacanth species, including two alive today. Coelacanth fish have eluded extinction for 400 million years. Reidus hilli belongs to Dipluridae, a new family that is transitional between Mawsoniidae and Latimeriidae families.

Flycatchers' genomes explain how one species became two Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:09 AM PDT Just how new species are established is still one of the most central questions in biology. Biologists now describe how they mapped the genomes of the European pied flycatcher and the collared flycatcher and found that it is disparate chromosome structures rather than separate adaptations in individual genes that underlies the separation of the species.

Did bacteria spark evolution of multicellular life? Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:17 AM PDT Choanoflagellates are single-celled plankton and the closest living relatives of animals, including humans. Molecular biologists have found that these organisms form colonies only when triggered by previously unknown bacteria. The discovery suggests that early single-celled organisms may originally have come together in the presence of bacteria, perhaps to make more efficient feeding machines that eventually evolved into multicellular life.

Earth's magnetosphere behaves like a sieve Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:16 AM PDT Our protective magnetic bubble lets the solar wind in under a wider range of conditions than previously believed. Earth's magnetic field is our planet's first line of defense against the bombardment of the solar wind. This stream of plasma is launched by the Sun and travels across the Solar System, carrying its own magnetic field with it. Depending on how the solar wind's interplanetary magnetic field – IMF – is aligned with Earth's magnetic field, different phenomena can arise in Earth's immediate environment.

New insight on managing fungal meningitis Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:33 AM PDT As the number of fungal meningitis cases in the United States continues to rise, physicians across the country are faced with how best to provide the early treatment that can save lives. An infectious disease expert has now detailed how the outbreak evolved and the complexities of providing anti-fungal treatments.

84 million stars and counting: VISTA creates largest ever catalogue of center of Milky Way galaxy Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:30 AM PDT Astronomers have created a catalog of more than 84 million stars in the central parts of the Milky Way. This gigantic dataset contains more than ten times more stars than previous studies and is a major step forward for the understanding of our home galaxy. The image is so large that, if printed with the resolution of a typical book, it would be 9 meters long and 7 meters tall.

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