ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• A 'smoking gun' on Ice Age megafauna extinctions
• Strange marine mammals of ancient North Pacific revealed
• Meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver
• Embrace the cold: Evidence that shivering and exercise may convert white fat to brown
• Primitive artificial cell turned into complex biological materials
• Greenland's fastest glacier reaches record speeds
• Greenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication
• Trick identified that aids viral infection
• Piezoelectrics and butterflies: Now scientists know more about how the materials actually work

A 'smoking gun' on Ice Age megafauna extinctions Posted: 05 Feb 2014 10:32 AM PST It was climate that killed many of the large mammals after the latest Ice Age. But what more specifically was it with the climate that led to this mass extinction? The answer to this is hidden in a large number of sediment samples from around the Arctic and in the gut content from permafrozen woolly rhinos, mammoth and other extinct ice age mammals.

Strange marine mammals of ancient North Pacific revealed Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:37 AM PST The pre-Ice Age marine mammal community of the North Pacific formed a strangely eclectic scene, new research reveals. Studying hundreds of fossil bones and teeth excavated from the San Francisco Bay Area's Purisima Formation, scientists have put together a record of 21 marine mammal species including dwarf baleen whales, odd double-tusked walruses, porpoises with severe underbites and a dolphin closely related to the now-extinct Chinese river dolphin.

Meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:35 AM PST New findings in mice suggest that merely changing meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver. The results of this study not only have important implications for the potential treatment of metabolic diseases, they may also have broader implications for most research areas in the life sciences.

Embrace the cold: Evidence that shivering and exercise may convert white fat to brown Posted: 04 Feb 2014 09:36 AM PST A new study suggests that shivering and bouts of moderate exercise are equally capable of stimulating the conversion of energy-storing "white fat" into energy-burning "brown fat." This makes brown fat a potential therapeutic target against obesity and diabetes.

Primitive artificial cell turned into complex biological materials Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:21 AM PST Imagine starting from scratch with simple artificial microscopic building blocks and ending up with something much more complex: living systems, novel computers or every-day materials. For decades scientists have pursued the dream of creating artificial building blocks that can self-assemble in large numbers and reassemble to take on new tasks or to remedy defects. Now researchers have taken a step forward to make this dream into a reality.

Greenland's fastest glacier reaches record speeds Posted: 03 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST Jakobshavn Isbræ (Jakobshavn Glacier) is moving ice from the Greenland ice sheet into the ocean at a speed that appears to be the fastest ever recorded. Researchers measured the dramatic speeds of the fast-flowing glacier in 2012 and 2013.

Greenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication Posted: 03 Feb 2014 06:38 AM PST A grass called teosinte is thought to be the ancestor of corn, but it doesn't look much like corn at all. Scientists were surprised to find that teosinte planted in growth chambers under climate conditions that simulate the environment 10,000 to 12,000 years ago looks more like corn. This may help to explain why early farmers chose to cultivate teosinte and lends support to the idea that teosinte was domesticated to become one of the most important staple crops in the world.

Trick identified that aids viral infection Posted: 30 Jan 2014 11:12 AM PST Scientists have identified a way some viruses protect themselves from the immune system's efforts to stop infections, a finding that may make new approaches to treating viral infections possible.

Piezoelectrics and butterflies: Now scientists know more about how the materials actually work Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:31 AM PST Piezoelectrics, materials that can change mechanical stress to electricity and back again, are everywhere in modern life. Computer hard drives. Loudspeakers. Medical ultrasound. Sonar. But there are major gaps in our understanding of how they work. Now researchers believe they've learned why one of the main classes of these materials, known as relaxors, behaves in distinctly different ways from the rest. The discovery comes in the shape of a butterfly.

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