ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• Mantis shrimp stronger than airplanes: Composite material inspired by shrimp stronger than standard used in airplane frames
• Fat metabolism in animals altered to prevent most common type of heart disease
• Life stressors trigger neurological disorders, researchers find
• How are we different and what gave us the advantage over extinct types of humans like the Neanderthals?
• Red stars and big bulges: How black holes shape galaxies
• Today's Antarctic region once as hot as California, Florida
• First Eurasians left Africa up to 130,000 years ago
• Ginseng can treat, prevent influenza, RSV, researcher finds
• More questions than answers as mystery of domestication deepens
• Why alcoholism saps muscle strength
• Climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue: Researchers cast doubt
• Ancient DNA: Barnyard chickens living just a few hundred years ago looked far different from today's chickens
• Red moon at night: Stargazer's delight

Mantis shrimp stronger than airplanes: Composite material inspired by shrimp stronger than standard used in airplane frames Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:09 AM PDT Inspired by the fist-like club of a mantis shrimp, researchers have developed a design structure for composite materials that is more impact resistant and tougher than the standard used in airplanes. The peacock mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, is a 4- to 6-inch-long rainbow-colored crustacean with a fist-like club that accelerates underwater faster than a 22-calibur bullet.

Fat metabolism in animals altered to prevent most common type of heart disease Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:10 AM PDT Working with mice and rabbits, scientists have found a way to block abnormal cholesterol production, transport and breakdown, successfully preventing the development of atherosclerosis, the main cause of heart attacks and strokes and the number-one cause of death among humans. The condition develops when fat builds inside blood vessels over time and renders them stiff, narrowed and hardened, greatly reducing their ability to feed oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle and the brain.

Life stressors trigger neurological disorders, researchers find Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:34 AM PDT When mothers are exposed to trauma, illness, alcohol or other drug abuse, these stressors may activate a single molecular trigger in brain cells that can go awry and activate conditions such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and some forms of autism. Until now, it has been unclear how much these stressors have impacted the cells of a developing brain. Past studies have shown that when an expectant mother exposes herself to alcohol or drug abuse or she experiences some trauma or illness, her baby may later develop a psychiatric disorder later in life. But the new findings identify a molecular mechanism in the prenatal brain that may help explain how cells go awry when exposed to certain environmental conditions.

How are we different and what gave us the advantage over extinct types of humans like the Neanderthals? Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:47 AM PDT In parallel with modern man (Homo sapiens), there were other, extinct types of humans with whom we lived side by side, such as Neanderthals and the recently discovered  Denisovans of Siberia. Yet only Homo sapiens survived. What was it in our genetic makeup that gave us the advantage?

Red stars and big bulges: How black holes shape galaxies Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:46 AM PDT The universe we can see is made up of thousands of millions of galaxies, each containing anywhere from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of billions of stars. Large numbers of galaxies are elliptical in shape, red and mostly made up of old stars. Another (more familiar) type is the spiral, where arms wind out in a blue thin disk from a central red bulge. On average stars in spiral galaxies tend to be much younger than those in ellipticals. Now a group of astronomers has found a (relatively) simple relationship between the color of a galaxy and the size of its bulge: the more massive the bulge, the redder the galaxy.

Today's Antarctic region once as hot as California, Florida Posted: 21 Apr 2014 01:43 PM PDT Parts of ancient Antarctica were as warm as today's California coast, and polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean registered 21st-century Florida heat, according to scientists using a new way to measure past temperatures.

First Eurasians left Africa up to 130,000 years ago Posted: 21 Apr 2014 01:42 PM PDT Scientists have shown that anatomically modern humans spread from Africa to Asia and Europe in several migratory movements. The first ancestors of today's non-African peoples probably took a southern route through the Arabian Peninsula as early as 130,000 years ago, the researchers found.

Ginseng can treat, prevent influenza, RSV, researcher finds Posted: 21 Apr 2014 07:23 AM PDT Ginseng can help treat and prevent influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages, according to research findings. Seasonal influenza is a serious respiratory disease that causes annual epidemics in humans worldwide, resulting in about three to five million cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

More questions than answers as mystery of domestication deepens Posted: 21 Apr 2014 06:37 AM PDT New research on domestication raises more questions than it has answered. Scientists have outlined some of the key questions that have been raised about this pivotal event in human history.

Why alcoholism saps muscle strength Posted: 21 Apr 2014 06:37 AM PDT Researchers have found a common link between muscle weakness in alcoholics and mitochondrial disease: mitochondria that are unable to self-repair. The research could lead to both a new diagnostics for mitochondrial disease and a new drug target. Muscle weakness is a common symptom of both long-time alcoholics and patients with mitochondrial disease.

Climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue: Researchers cast doubt Posted: 20 Apr 2014 10:18 AM PDT Biofuels made from corn stover -- stalks, leaves and cobs that remain after harvest -- appear to emit more carbon dioxide over their life cycle than federal standards allow, according to new research. The findings cast doubt on whether corn residue can be used to meet federal mandates to ramp up ethanol production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ancient DNA: Barnyard chickens living just a few hundred years ago looked far different from today's chickens Posted: 18 Apr 2014 11:11 AM PDT Ancient DNA adds a twist to the story of how barnyard chickens came to be. Analyzing DNA from the bones of chickens that lived 200-2,300 years ago in Europe, researchers report that some of the traits we associate with modern domestic chickens -- such as their yellowish skin -- only became widespread in the last 500 years, much more recently than previously thought.

Red moon at night: Stargazer's delight Posted: 16 Apr 2014 01:26 PM PDT Monday night's lunar eclipse proved just as delightful as expected to those able to view it. On the East Coast, cloudy skies may have gotten in the way, but at the National Science Foundation's National Optical Astronomy Observatory near Tucson, Ariz., the skies offered impressive viewing.

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