ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Changing climate: How dust changed the face of Earth
• New genes spring, spread from non-coding DNA
• Timing is everything: How the brain links memories of sequential events
• Bats use water ripples to hunt frogs
• Los Angeles would experience stronger-than-expected ground motion in major earthquake, virtual earthquake generator shows
• Genome of longest-living cancer: 11,000-year-old living dog cancer reveals its origin, evolution
• Watching molecules morph into memories: Breakthrough allows scientists to probe how memories form in nerve cells
• Morphing bat skull model: Using engineering plus evolutionary analyses to answer natural selection questions
• Fur and feathers keep animals warm by scattering light
• One quarter of the world's cartilaginous fish, namely sharks and rays, face imminent extinction
• Humans can use smell to detect levels of dietary fat
• Atomic-scale catalysts may produce cheap hydrogen
• Many rare mutations contribute to schizophrenia risk, new study concludes
• Strontium atomic clock sets new records in both precision and stability
• North and Tropical Atlantic Ocean bringing climate change to Antarctica
• Engineer converts yeast cells into 'sweet crude' biofuel

Changing climate: How dust changed the face of Earth Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:20 AM PST In spring 2010, the research icebreaker Polarstern returned from the South Pacific with a scientific treasure -- ocean sediments from a previously almost unexplored part of the South Polar Sea. What looks like an inconspicuous sample of mud to a layman is, to geological history researchers, a valuable archive from which they can reconstruct the climatic history of the polar areas over many years of analysis. This, in turn, is of fundamental importance for understanding global climatic development.

New genes spring, spread from non-coding DNA Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:20 AM PST "Where do new genes come from?" is a long-standing question in genetics and evolutionary biology. A new study shows that new genes can spring from non-coding DNA more rapidly than expected.

Timing is everything: How the brain links memories of sequential events Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:19 AM PST Suppose you heard the sound of skidding tires, followed by a car crash. The next time you heard such a skid, you might cringe in fear, expecting a crash to follow -- suggesting that somehow, your brain had linked those two memories so that a fairly innocuous sound provokes dread. Scientists have now discovered how two neural circuits in the brain work together to control the formation of such time-linked memories.

Bats use water ripples to hunt frogs Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:19 AM PST As the male tungara frog serenades females from a pond, he creates watery ripples that make him easier to target by rivals and predators such as bats. He will stop calling if he sees a bat overhead, but ripples continue moving for several seconds after the call ceases. In a new study, researchers found evidence that bats use echolocation to detect these ripples and home in on a frog.

Los Angeles would experience stronger-than-expected ground motion in major earthquake, virtual earthquake generator shows Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:19 AM PST Scientists have developed a new "virtual earthquake" technique and used it to confirm a prediction that Los Angeles would experience stronger-than-expected ground motion if a major quake occurred along the southern San Andreas Fault.

Genome of longest-living cancer: 11,000-year-old living dog cancer reveals its origin, evolution Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:17 AM PST A cancer normally lives and dies with a person, however this is not the case with a sexually transmitted cancer in dogs. In a new study, researchers have described the genome and evolution of this cancer that has continued living within the dog population for the past 11,000 years.

Watching molecules morph into memories: Breakthrough allows scientists to probe how memories form in nerve cells Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:17 AM PST Scientists have used advanced imaging techniques to provide a window into how the brain makes memories. These insights into the molecular basis of memory were made possible by a technological tour de force never before achieved in animals: a mouse model in which molecules crucial to making memories were given fluorescent "tags" so they could be observed traveling in real time in living brain cells.

Morphing bat skull model: Using engineering plus evolutionary analyses to answer natural selection questions Posted: 23 Jan 2014 10:32 AM PST Scientists have built an engineering model of a bat skull that can morph into the shape of any species, and used it to create skulls with all possible combinations of snout length and width. Then they ran engineering analyses on all the models to assess their structural strength and mechanical advantage, a measure of how efficiently and how hard bats can bite.

Fur and feathers keep animals warm by scattering light Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:58 AM PST In work that has major implications for improving the performance of building insulation, scientists have calculated that hairs that reflect infrared light may contribute significant insulating power to the exceptionally warm winter coats of polar bears and other animals.

One quarter of the world's cartilaginous fish, namely sharks and rays, face imminent extinction Posted: 22 Jan 2014 05:23 PM PST One quarter of the world's cartilaginous fish, namely sharks and rays, face extinction within the next few decades, according to the first study to systematically and globally assess their fate.

Humans can use smell to detect levels of dietary fat Posted: 22 Jan 2014 05:20 PM PST New research reveals humans can use the sense of smell to detect dietary fat in food. As food smell almost always is detected before taste, the findings identify one of the first sensory qualities that signals whether a food contains fat. Innovative methods using odor to make low-fat foods more palatable could someday aid public health efforts to reduce dietary fat intake.

Atomic-scale catalysts may produce cheap hydrogen Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:40 AM PST Researchers have shown that a one-atom thick film of molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) may work as an effective catalyst for creating hydrogen. The work opens a new door for the production of cheap hydrogen.

Many rare mutations contribute to schizophrenia risk, new study concludes Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:38 AM PST Researchers have taken a closer look at the human genome to learn more about the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia. Scientists analyzed the exomes, or protein-coding regions, of people with schizophrenia and their healthy counterparts, pinpointing the sites of mutations and identifying patterns that reveal clues about the biology underlying the disorder.

Strontium atomic clock sets new records in both precision and stability Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:38 AM PST Heralding a new age of terrific timekeeping, physicists have unveiled an experimental strontium atomic clock that has set new world records for both precision and stability -- key metrics for the performance of a clock.

North and Tropical Atlantic Ocean bringing climate change to Antarctica Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:34 AM PST The gradual warming of the North and Tropical Atlantic Ocean is contributing to climate change in Antarctica, scientists has concluded. The findings, which rely on more than three decades of atmospheric data, show new ways in which distant regional conditions are contributing to Antarctic climate change.

Engineer converts yeast cells into 'sweet crude' biofuel Posted: 22 Jan 2014 06:19 AM PST A chemical engineer has developed a new source of renewable energy -- a yeast cell-based platform for producing biodiesel, which he has dubbed "sweet crude." The key to this platform is regular table sugar. It has the potential for industry scalability without the environmental costs of other biofuels.

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