ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Pinwheel 'living' crystals and the origin of life
• Microbes on floating ocean plastics: Uncovering the secret world of the 'Plastisphere'
• A paper diagnostic for cancer: Low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease
• 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
• New research helps explain how social understanding is performed by the brain
• Astronomers spot record-breaking lunar impact

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.

Microbes on floating ocean plastics: Uncovering the secret world of the 'Plastisphere' Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:16 PM PST Scientists are revealing how microbes living on floating pieces of plastic marine debris affect the ocean ecosystem, and the potential harm they pose to invertebrates, humans and other animals.

A paper diagnostic for cancer: Low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:14 PM PST A low-cost urine test amplifies signals from growing tumors to detect disease. Cancer rates in developing nations have climbed sharply in recent years, and now account for 70 percent of cancer mortality worldwide. Early detection has been proven to improve outcomes, but screening approaches such as mammograms and colonoscopy, used in the developed world, are too costly to be implemented in settings with little medical infrastructure. To address this gap, engineers have developed a simple, cheap, paper test that could improve diagnosis rates and help people get treated earlier. The diagnostic, which works much like a pregnancy test, could reveal within minutes, based on a urine sample, whether a person has cancer. This approach has helped detect infectious diseases, and the new technology allows noncommunicable diseases to be detected using the same strategy.

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.

New research helps explain how social understanding is performed by the brain Posted: 24 Feb 2014 05:17 AM PST An important question has been answered about how social understanding is performed in the brain. The findings may help us to attain a better understanding of why people with autism and schizophrenia have difficulties with social interaction. Using magnetic stimulation to temporarily disrupt normal processing of the areas of the human brain involved in the production of actions of human participants, it is demonstrated that these areas are also involved in the understanding of actions. The study is the first to demonstrate a clear causal effect, whereas earlier studies primarily have looked at correlations, which are difficult to interpret.

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.

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