ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Lessons from cockroaches could inform robotics
• Stash of stem cells found in a human parasite
• Has evolution given humans unique brain structures?
• Fruit flies force their young to drink alcohol for their own good
• World premiere of muscle and nerve controlled arm prosthesis

Lessons from cockroaches could inform robotics Posted: 22 Feb 2013 11:32 AM PST Running cockroaches start to recover from being shoved sideways before their dawdling nervous system kicks in to tell their legs what to do, researchers have found. These new insights on how biological systems stabilize could one day help engineers design steadier robots and improve doctors' understanding of human gait abnormalities.

Stash of stem cells found in a human parasite Posted: 22 Feb 2013 11:31 AM PST Researchers have now found stem cells inside the parasite that cause schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world. These stem cells can regenerate worn-down organs, which may help explain how they can live for years or even decades inside their host.

Has evolution given humans unique brain structures? Posted: 22 Feb 2013 09:07 AM PST Humans have at least two functional networks in their cerebral cortex not found in rhesus monkeys. This means that new brain networks were likely added in the course of evolution from primate ancestor to human.

Fruit flies force their young to drink alcohol for their own good Posted: 22 Feb 2013 07:29 AM PST When fruit flies sense parasitic wasps in their environment, they lay their eggs in an alcohol-soaked environment, essentially forcing their larvae to consume booze as a drug to combat the deadly wasps. The finding adds to the evidence that using toxins in the environment to medicate offspring may be common across the animal kingdom.

World premiere of muscle and nerve controlled arm prosthesis Posted: 22 Feb 2013 04:57 AM PST Electrodes have been permanently implanted in nerves and muscles of an amputee to directly control an arm prosthesis, for the first time. The result allows natural control of an advanced robotic prosthesis, similarly to the motions of a natural limb.

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