ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity
• 'Whodunnit' of Irish potato famine solved
• The mammoth's lament: How cosmic impact sparked devastating climate change
• Bed sharing leads to fivefold increase in risk of crib death for babies whose parents do not smoke
• Practice makes perfect? Not so much, new research finds
• How bilinguals switch between languages
• Do salamanders' immune systems hold the key to regeneration?
• Non-wetting fabric that drains sweat invented
• Ant study could help future robot teams work underground
• Compound in Mediterranean diet makes cancer cells 'mortal'
• Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rainforest
• Opening doors to foldable electronics with inkjet-printed graphene
• Molecular trigger for Alzheimer's disease identified
• Not just blowing in the wind: Compressing air for renewable energy storage
• Fossil brain teaser: New study reveals patterns of dinosaur brain development
• Link between childhood ADHD and obesity revealed in first long-term study
• Immune protein could stop diabetes in its tracks, discovery suggests
• Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak
• Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner
• Echolocation: Blind people have the potential to use their 'inner bat' to locate objects, study finds
• Bacteria use hydrogen, carbon dioxide to produce electricity
• Roots of future tropical rainfall: Sea level influenced tropical climate during the last ice age
• Heat-related deaths in Manhattan projected to rise: Killing season may push into spring and fall
• Origins of life: In early Earth, iron helped RNA catalyze electron transfer

Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity Posted: 20 May 2013 10:12 PM PDT Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research.

'Whodunnit' of Irish potato famine solved Posted: 20 May 2013 10:12 PM PDT An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century.

The mammoth's lament: How cosmic impact sparked devastating climate change Posted: 20 May 2013 03:55 PM PDT Researchers have found evidence of a major cosmic event near the end of the Ice Age. The ensuing climate change forced many species to adapt or die.

Bed sharing leads to fivefold increase in risk of crib death for babies whose parents do not smoke Posted: 20 May 2013 03:54 PM PDT Parents who share a bed with their breastfed baby could face a fivefold increase in the risk of crib death, even if the parents do not smoke, according to a new study.

Practice makes perfect? Not so much, new research finds Posted: 20 May 2013 01:39 PM PDT Turns out, that old "practice makes perfect" adage may be overblown. New research finds that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities, chess and music.

How bilinguals switch between languages Posted: 20 May 2013 01:38 PM PDT Individuals who learn two languages at an early age seem to switch back and forth between separate "sound systems" for each language, according to new research. The research addresses enduring questions in bilingual studies about how bilingual speakers hear and process sound in two different languages.

Do salamanders' immune systems hold the key to regeneration? Posted: 20 May 2013 01:37 PM PDT Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found. In new research, scientists have found that when immune cells known as macrophages were systemically removed, salamanders lost their ability to regenerate a limb and instead formed scar tissue.

Non-wetting fabric that drains sweat invented Posted: 20 May 2013 01:36 PM PDT Waterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers.

Ant study could help future robot teams work underground Posted: 20 May 2013 01:32 PM PDT Future teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much-despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States.

Compound in Mediterranean diet makes cancer cells 'mortal' Posted: 20 May 2013 12:43 PM PDT New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells' "superpower" to escape death.

Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rainforest Posted: 20 May 2013 12:43 PM PDT Woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River. This tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river's breath. The finding has implications for global carbon models, and for the ecology of the Amazon and the world's other rivers. Until recently, people believed much of the rainforest's carbon floated down the Amazon River and ended up deep in the ocean.

Opening doors to foldable electronics with inkjet-printed graphene Posted: 20 May 2013 12:42 PM PDT Imagine a bendable tablet computer or an electronic newspaper that could fold to fit in a pocket. The technology for these devices may not be so far off, thanks to new research.

Molecular trigger for Alzheimer's disease identified Posted: 20 May 2013 12:42 PM PDT Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease -- when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain.

Not just blowing in the wind: Compressing air for renewable energy storage Posted: 20 May 2013 11:28 AM PDT A comprehensive study into the potential for compressed air energy storage in the Pacific Northwest has identified two locations in Washington state that could store enough Northwest wind energy combined to power about 85,000 homes each month.

Fossil brain teaser: New study reveals patterns of dinosaur brain development Posted: 20 May 2013 08:40 AM PDT A new study sheds light on how the brain and inner ear developed in dinosaurs. Using high-resolution CT scanning and 3D computer imaging, it was possible to reconstruct and visualise the brain and inner ear of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki -- a small, plant-eating dinosaur, which lived 150 million years ago, in what is now Tanzania.

Link between childhood ADHD and obesity revealed in first long-term study Posted: 20 May 2013 08:39 AM PDT A new study found men diagnosed as children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were twice as likely to be obese in a 33-year follow-up study compared to men who were not diagnosed with the condition.

Immune protein could stop diabetes in its tracks, discovery suggests Posted: 20 May 2013 07:49 AM PDT Researchers have identified an immune protein that has the potential to stop or reverse the development of type 1 diabetes in its early stages, before insulin-producing cells have been destroyed. The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak Posted: 20 May 2013 06:54 AM PDT Researchers have used a diamond anvil cell to squeeze iron at pressures as high as 3 million times that felt at sea level to recreate conditions at the center of Earth. The findings could refine theories of how the planet and its core evolved.

Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner Posted: 20 May 2013 06:51 AM PDT What lures a lady frog to her lover? Good looks, the sound of his voice, the size of his pad or none of the above? After weighing up their options, female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) bag the closest crooner they can. This seemingly short-sighted strategy turns out to be the optimal mate choice strategy for these colorful frogs.

Echolocation: Blind people have the potential to use their 'inner bat' to locate objects, study finds Posted: 20 May 2013 06:48 AM PDT New research shows that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object. The study examined how hearing, and particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind people with spatial awareness and navigation.

Bacteria use hydrogen, carbon dioxide to produce electricity Posted: 19 May 2013 04:11 PM PDT Researchers have engineered a strain of electricity-producing bacteria that can grow using hydrogen gas as its sole electron donor and carbon dioxide as its sole source of carbon.

Roots of future tropical rainfall: Sea level influenced tropical climate during the last ice age Posted: 19 May 2013 04:04 PM PDT How will rainfall patterns across the tropical Indian and Pacific regions change in a future warming world? Climate models generally suggest that the tropics as a whole will get wetter, but the models don't always agree on where rainfall patterns will shift in particular regions within the tropics.

Heat-related deaths in Manhattan projected to rise: Killing season may push into spring and fall Posted: 19 May 2013 04:04 PM PDT Researchers say deaths in Manhattan linked to warming climate may rise some 20 percent by the 2020s, and, in some worst-case scenarios, 90 percent or more by the 2080s. Higher winter temperatures may partially offset heat-related deaths by cutting cold-related mortality -- but even so, annual net temperature-related deaths might go up a third.

Origins of life: In early Earth, iron helped RNA catalyze electron transfer Posted: 19 May 2013 11:56 AM PDT A new study shows how complex biochemical transformations may have been possible under conditions that existed when life began on the early Earth. The study shows that RNA is capable of catalyzing electron transfer under conditions similar to those of the early Earth.

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