ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

---

• Water detected in a planet outside our solar system
• Pinwheel 'living' crystals and the origin of life
• Scientists complete the top quark puzzle
• New ideas change your brain cells, research shows
• Volcanoes contribute to recent global warming 'hiatus'
• In the eye of a chicken, a new state of matter comes into view
• Abdominal fat accumulation prevented by unsaturated fat
• Astronomers spot record-breaking lunar impact
• New insights into origin of birds focuses on key characteristics that preceded flight: Body size, forelimb length
• Mysterious polio-like illness found in five California children
• Stream of stars in Andromeda satellite galaxy shows cosmic collision
• Skin cells transformed into functioning liver cells in mouse study
• 'Microbial Pompeii:' 1,000-year-old plaque preserves bacteria, microscopic particles of food on skeleton teeth
• Oldest bit of crust firms up idea of cool early Earth
• Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come
• The parasite that escaped out of Africa: Tracing origins of malaria parasite
• Long-held theory on human gestation refuted: Mother’s metabolism, not birth canal size, limits gestation

Water detected in a planet outside our solar system Posted: 25 Feb 2014 07:17 AM PST Water has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system with a new technique that could help researchers to learn how many planets with water, like Earth, exist throughout the universe. The team of scientists that made the discovery detected the water in the atmosphere of a planet as massive as Jupiter that is orbiting the nearby star tau Boötis.

Pinwheel 'living' crystals and the origin of life Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:17 PM PST Simply making nanoparticles spin coaxes them to arrange themselves into what researchers call 'living rotating crystals' that could serve as a nanopump. They may also, incidentally, shed light on the origin of life itself. The researchers refer to the crystals as 'living' because they, in a sense, take on a life of their own from very simple rules.

Scientists complete the top quark puzzle Posted: 24 Feb 2014 11:04 AM PST Researchers on the two main Tevatron experiments, CDF and DZero, have discovered the final predicted way of producing top quarks. Scientists have observed one of the rarest methods of producing the elementary particle -- creating a single top quark through the weak nuclear force, in what is called the "s-channel."

New ideas change your brain cells, research shows Posted: 24 Feb 2014 10:31 AM PST An important molecular change has been discovered that occurs in the brain when we learn and remember. The research shows that learning stimulates our brain cells in a manner that causes a small fatty acid to attach to delta-catenin, a protein in the brain. This biochemical modification is essential in producing the changes in brain cell connectivity associated with learning, the study finds. Findings may provide an explanation for some mental disabilities, the researchers say.

Volcanoes contribute to recent global warming 'hiatus' Posted: 24 Feb 2014 10:31 AM PST Volcanic eruptions in the early part of the 21st century have cooled the planet, according to a new study. This cooling partly offset the warming produced by greenhouse gases.

In the eye of a chicken, a new state of matter comes into view Posted: 24 Feb 2014 09:42 AM PST Along with eggs, soup and rubber toys, the list of the chicken's most lasting legacies may eventually include advanced materials, according to scientists. The researchers report that the unusual arrangement of cells in a chicken's eye constitutes the first known biological occurrence of a potentially new state of matter known as 'disordered hyperuniformity,' which has been shown to have unique physical properties.

Abdominal fat accumulation prevented by unsaturated fat Posted: 24 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST New research shows that saturated fat builds more fat and less muscle than polyunsaturated fat. This is the first study on humans to show that the fat composition of food not only influences cholesterol levels in the blood and the risk of cardiovascular disease but also determines where the fat will be stored in the body. Gaining weight on excess calories from polyunsaturated fat appears to cause more gain in muscle mass, and less body fat than overeating a similar amount of saturated fat.

Astronomers spot record-breaking lunar impact Posted: 24 Feb 2014 05:10 AM PST A meteorite with the mass of a small car crashed into the Moon last September, according to Spanish astronomers. The impact, the biggest seen to date, produced a bright flash and would have been easy to spot from Earth.

New insights into origin of birds focuses on key characteristics that preceded flight: Body size, forelimb length Posted: 23 Feb 2014 06:51 PM PST The key characteristics of birds which allow them to fly -- their wings and their small size -- arose much earlier than previously thought, according to new research that examined closely the Paraves, the first birds, and their closest dinosaurian relatives which lived 160 to 120 million years ago. Researchers investigated the rates of evolution of the two key characteristics that preceded flight: body size and forelimb length. In order to fly, hulking meat-eating dinosaurs had to shrink in size and grow much longer arms to support their feathered wings.

Mysterious polio-like illness found in five California children Posted: 23 Feb 2014 06:51 PM PST Researchers have identified a polio-like syndrome in a cluster of children from California over a one-year period, according to a case report released. Polio is a contagious disease that sometimes caused paralysis. The United States experienced a polio epidemic in the 1950s, until a vaccine was introduced. The five children experienced paralysis of one or more arms or legs that came on suddenly and reached the height of its severity within two days of onset. Three of the children had a respiratory illness before the symptoms began. All of the children had been previously vaccinated against poliovirus. The children were treated but their symptoms did not improve and they still had poor limb function after six months.

Stream of stars in Andromeda satellite galaxy shows cosmic collision Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:17 AM PST The Andromeda Galaxy is surrounded by a swarm of small satellite galaxies. Researchers have detected a stream of stars in one of the Andromeda Galaxy's outer satellite galaxies, a dwarf galaxy called Andromeda II. This galaxy is very small -- less than one percent of the Milky Way. The movement of the stars tells us that what we are observing is the remnant of a merger between two dwarf galaxies. Mergers between galaxies of such low mass has not been observed before.

Skin cells transformed into functioning liver cells in mouse study Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:17 AM PST An important breakthrough has been made that could affect patients waiting for liver transplants. Scientists have discovered a way to transform skin cells into mature, fully functioning liver cells that flourish on their own, even after being transplanted into laboratory animals modified to mimic liver failure. In previous studies on liver-cell reprogramming, scientists had difficulty getting stem cell-derived liver cells to survive once being transplanted into existing liver tissue. But this team figured out a way to solve this problem, and have revealed a new cellular reprogramming method that transforms human skin cells into liver cells that are virtually indistinguishable from the cells that make up native liver tissue.

'Microbial Pompeii:' 1,000-year-old plaque preserves bacteria, microscopic particles of food on skeleton teeth Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:16 AM PST A 'microbial Pompeii' has been discovered, preserved on the teeth of skeletons around 1,000 years old. The research team discovered that the ancient human oral cavity carries numerous opportunistic pathogens and that periodontal disease is caused by the same bacteria today as in the past, despite major changes in human diet and hygiene. "The study of ancient microbiomes helps us understand the evolutionary history of human health and disease," says a senior author of the study. "It informs modern medicine."

Oldest bit of crust firms up idea of cool early Earth Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:16 AM PST With the help of a tiny fragment of zircon extracted from a remote rock outcrop in Australia, the picture of how our planet became habitable to life about 4.4 billion years ago is coming into sharper focus. New research reveals data that confirms that Earth's crust first formed just 160 million years after the formation of our solar system. It also confirms that the timeframe that the planet was a fiery ball covered in a magma ocean came earlier, and that in order to become habitable, Earth cooled and formed its crust during the first geologic eon of the planet. The research may help scientists to understand how other habitable planets may form.

Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST In just over a week, Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come. Near their closest to Earth, Jupiter and its moons will appear obvious in the sky, offering fantastic opportunities to view the giant planet through a telescope.

The parasite that escaped out of Africa: Tracing origins of malaria parasite Posted: 21 Feb 2014 04:37 AM PST An international team has traced the origin of the second-worst malaria parasite of humans to Africa. The closest genetic relatives of human Plasmodium vivax were found only in Asian macaques, leading researchers to believe that P. vivax originated in Asia. This study overturns that, finding that wild-living apes in central Africa are widely infected with parasites that, genetically, are nearly identical to human P. vivax.

Long-held theory on human gestation refuted: Mother’s metabolism, not birth canal size, limits gestation Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:20 PM PDT An anthropologist suggests that the length of human pregnancy is limited primarily by a mother's metabolism, not the size of the birth canal. The research challenges the long-held notion of an evolutionary trade-off between childbirth and a pelvis adapted for walking upright.

You are subscribed to email updates from Most Popular News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610