ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Quirky Lyme disease bacteria: Unlike most organisms, they don't need iron, but crave manganese
• Road traffic pollution as serious as passive smoke in the development of childhood asthma
• Fossil bird study on extinction patterns could help today's conservation efforts
• Researchers alter mosquito genome with goal of controlling disease
• Breakthrough could lead to cheaper, more sustainable chemical production
• Enzymes allow DNA to swap information with exotic molecules
• Pain reliever shows anti-viral activity against flu
• Quantum computers coming soon? Metamaterials used to observe giant photonic spin Hall effect
• Quantum computers counting on carbon nanotubes
• How serotonin receptors can shape drug effects from LSD to migraine medication
• Megavolcanoes tied to pre-dinosaur mass extinction: Apparent sudden climate shift could have analog today
• Scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology
• 'Sideline quasars' helped to stifle early galaxy formation
• Smelling genetic information: Molecules allow mice to sniff out the genes of other mice
• Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years linked to carbon levels
• Pavlov inverted: Reward linked to image is enough to activate brain's visual cortex
• Neuroscience of finding your lost keys
• Best map ever made of universe's oldest light: Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus
• Study reveals working of motor with revolution motion in bacteria-killing virus; Advances nanotechnology

Quirky Lyme disease bacteria: Unlike most organisms, they don't need iron, but crave manganese Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:57 PM PDT Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme disease -- unlike any other known organism -- can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria substitute manganese to make an essential enzyme, thus eluding immune system defenses that protect the body by starving pathogens of iron.

Road traffic pollution as serious as passive smoke in the development of childhood asthma Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:55 PM PDT New research conducted in 10 European cities has estimated that 14 percent of chronic childhood asthma is due to exposure to traffic pollution near busy roads.

Fossil bird study on extinction patterns could help today's conservation efforts Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:48 PM PDT A new study of nearly 5,000 Haiti bird fossils shows contrary to a commonly held theory, human arrival 6,000 years ago didn't cause the island's birds to die simultaneously.

Researchers alter mosquito genome with goal of controlling disease Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:48 PM PDT With a technique called TALENS, scientists used a pair of engineered proteins to disrupt a targeted gene in the mosquito genome, changing the eye color of ensuing generations of the insect. The method might help scientists find ways control disease transmission.

Breakthrough could lead to cheaper, more sustainable chemical production Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:19 PM PDT A new advance could enable the production of an important commodity chemical using carbon dioxide as a carbon source instead of petroleum. Carbon dioxide is basically free, and something the planet currently has in excess. Activating carbon dioxide for the production of commodity chemicals could be a way make them more cheaply and sustainably.

Enzymes allow DNA to swap information with exotic molecules Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:19 PM PDT Scientists have been hunting for a biological Rosetta Stone -- an enzyme allowing DNA's four-letter language to be written into a simpler (and potentially more ancient) molecule that may have existed as a genetic pathway to DNA and RNA in the prebiotic world. Research results demonstrate that DNA sequences can be transcribed into a molecule known as TNA and reverse transcribed back into DNA, with the aid of commercially available enzymes.

Pain reliever shows anti-viral activity against flu Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:19 PM PDT The over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may also exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus, according to a team of scientists. The findings are the result of a structure-based investigation.

Quantum computers coming soon? Metamaterials used to observe giant photonic spin Hall effect Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:19 PM PDT Engineering a unique metamaterial of gold nanoantennas, researchers were able to obtain the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in the future of computing.

Quantum computers counting on carbon nanotubes Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:15 AM PDT Carbon nanotubes can be used as quantum bits for quantum computers. A study by physicists has shown how nanotubes can store information in the form of vibrations. Up to now, researchers have experimented primarily with electrically charged particles. Because nanomechanical devices are not charged, they are much less sensitive to electrical interference.

How serotonin receptors can shape drug effects from LSD to migraine medication Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:15 AM PDT Researchers have determined and analyzed the high-resolution atomic structures of two kinds of human serotonin receptor. The new findings help explain why some drugs that interact with these receptors have had unexpectedly complex and sometimes harmful effects.

Megavolcanoes tied to pre-dinosaur mass extinction: Apparent sudden climate shift could have analog today Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:14 AM PDT Scientists examining evidence across the world say they have linked the abrupt disappearance of half of earth's species 200 million years ago to a precisely dated set of gigantic volcanic eruptions. The eruptions may have caused climate changes so sudden that many creatures were unable to adapt -- possibly on a pace similar to that of human-influenced climate warming today. The extinction opened the way for dinosaurs to evolve and dominate the planet for the next 135 million years.

Scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:14 AM PDT In a new discovery that represents a major step in solving a critical design challenge, scientists have produced a wide variety of 2-D and 3-D structures that push the boundaries of the burgeoning field of DNA nanotechnology.

'Sideline quasars' helped to stifle early galaxy formation Posted: 21 Mar 2013 08:10 AM PDT Astronomers targeting one of the brightest quasars glowing in the universe some 11 billion years ago say "sideline quasars" likely teamed up with it to heat abundant helium gas billions of years ago, preventing small galaxy formation.

Smelling genetic information: Molecules allow mice to sniff out the genes of other mice Posted: 21 Mar 2013 08:02 AM PDT Scientists have theorized that animals and humans are able to smell certain genes linked to the immune system, which in turn influences their choice of mate. The genes in question are known as MHC (major histocompatibility complex) genes. Selecting a mate with very different MHC genes from one's own makes sense, because your offspring will then have a greater variety of immunity genes -- and a correspondingly greater resistance to disease. But until now, no scent offering information about MHC genes had been discovered among those emitted by humans and animals. Now researchers have managed to do just that.

Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years linked to carbon levels Posted: 21 Mar 2013 07:51 AM PDT Despite humans increasing nitrogen production through industrialization, nitrogen availability in many ecosystems has remained steady for the past 500 years, a new study finds.

Pavlov inverted: Reward linked to image is enough to activate brain's visual cortex Posted: 21 Mar 2013 06:29 AM PDT Once rhesus monkeys learn to associate a picture with a reward, the reward by itself becomes enough to alter the activity in the monkeys' visual cortex.

Neuroscience of finding your lost keys Posted: 21 Mar 2013 06:28 AM PDT Ever find yourself racking your brain on a Monday morning to remember where you put your car keys? When you do find those keys, you can thank the hippocampus, a brain region responsible for storing and retrieving memories of different environments -- such as that room where your keys were hiding in an unusual spot. Now, scientists have helped explain how the brain keeps track of the incredibly rich and complex environments people navigate on a daily basis.

Best map ever made of universe's oldest light: Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:42 AM PDT The Planck space mission has released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and origins.

Study reveals working of motor with revolution motion in bacteria-killing virus; Advances nanotechnology Posted: 20 Mar 2013 06:54 AM PDT Scientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of the natural motors that are serving as models for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA or drugs into individual diseased cells. Their report reveals the innermost mechanisms of these nanomotors in a bacteria-killing virus -- and a new way to move DNA through cells.

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