ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• NASA selects studies for the asteroid redirect mission
• Swarm reveals Earth’s changing magnetism
• Princess and the Pea? Invisibility cloak prevents an object from being felt
• Strict diet suspends development, doubles lifespan of worms
• Unexpected findings: Small asteroids can be flying rock clusters or even clouds of dust surrouding solid rocks
• New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed
• Egyptologist unravels ancient mystery
• Fish-eating spiders discovered in all parts of the world
• Familiar yet strange: Water's 'split personality' revealed by computer model
• Genetic code for diabetes in Greenland broken by scientists
• Evolutionary biology: Why cattle, pigs are even-toed
• What amino acids in shells can tell us about Bronze Age people
• New compound to treat depression identified
• Liver dangers from herbal supplements, OTC and RX drugs, new guidelines warn
• Your genes affect your betting behavior
• Bionic pancreas controls blood sugar levels in adults, adolescents with type 1 diabetes
• Asian elephants reassure others in distress: First empirical evidence of consolation in elephants
• T. rex has most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal ever
• Study: Marmoset Dads Don't Stray

NASA selects studies for the asteroid redirect mission Posted: 20 Jun 2014 11:37 AM PDT NASA has selected 18 proposals for studies under the Asteroid Redirect Mission Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). These six-month studies will mature system concepts and key technologies and assess the feasibility of potential commercial partnerships to support the agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission, a key part of the agency's stepping stone path to send humans to Mars.

Swarm reveals Earth’s changing magnetism Posted: 20 Jun 2014 08:57 AM PDT The first set of high-resolution results from ESA's three-satellite Swarm constellation reveals the most recent changes in the magnetic field that protects our planet. Launched in November 2013, Swarm is providing unprecedented insights into the complex workings of Earth's magnetic field, which safeguards us from the bombarding cosmic radiation and charged particles. Measurements made over the past six months confirm the general trend of the field's weakening, with the most dramatic declines over the Western Hemisphere.

Princess and the Pea? Invisibility cloak prevents an object from being felt Posted: 20 Jun 2014 07:23 AM PDT In the past years, invisibility cloaks were developed for various senses. Objects can be hidden from light, heat or sound. However, hiding of an object from being touched still remained to be accomplished. Scientists have now succeeded in creating a volume in which an object can be hidden from touching similar to a pea under the mattress of a princess.

Strict diet suspends development, doubles lifespan of worms Posted: 19 Jun 2014 05:54 PM PDT Taking food away from C. elegans triggers a state of arrested development: while the organism continues to wriggle about, foraging for food, its cells and organs are suspended in an ageless, quiescent state. When food becomes plentiful again, the worm develops as planned, but can live twice as long as normal.

Unexpected findings: Small asteroids can be flying rock clusters or even clouds of dust surrouding solid rocks Posted: 19 Jun 2014 11:46 AM PDT What seemed to be rock-solid assumptions about the nature of small asteroids may end in rubble or even a cloud of dust. New findings suggest small asteroids can be a flying cluster of rocks or a cloud of dust with a solid rock at its nucleus.

New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed Posted: 19 Jun 2014 11:22 AM PDT What's the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument? Both structures soar to impressive heights, and each was the world's tallest building when completed. But the Washington Monument is a massive stone structure, while the Eiffel Tower achieves similar strength using a lattice of steel beams and struts that is mostly open air, gaining its strength from the geometric arrangement of those elements. Now engineers have devised a way to translate that airy, yet remarkably strong, structure down to the microscale -- designing a system that could be fabricated from a variety of materials, such as metals or polymers, and that may set new records for stiffness for a given weight. Nanostructured material, based on repeating units, has record stiffness at low density.

Egyptologist unravels ancient mystery Posted: 19 Jun 2014 06:58 AM PDT It is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all times: the disappearance of a Persian army of 50,000 men in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. A professor has now unearthed a cover-up affair and solved the riddle.

Fish-eating spiders discovered in all parts of the world Posted: 18 Jun 2014 03:46 PM PDT Spiders are traditionally viewed as predators of insects. Zoologists from Switzerland and Australia have now published a study that shows: spiders all over the world also prey on fish.

Familiar yet strange: Water's 'split personality' revealed by computer model Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT Using computer models, researchers found that as water freezes it takes on a sort of split personality wherein, at very cold temperatures and above a certain pressure, it may spontaneously split into two liquid forms. Finding this dual nature could lead to a better understanding of how water behaves in high-altitude clouds, which could improve the predictive ability of current weather and climate models.

Genetic code for diabetes in Greenland broken by scientists Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT New ground-breaking genetics research explains the high incidence of type 2 diabetes in the Greenlandic population, based on blood samples from 5,000 people or approximately 10% of the population. "Several epidemiological studies have looked at the health implications of the transition from life as sealers and hunters in small isolated communities to a modern lifestyle with appreciable dietary changes. Perhaps the gene variant which has been identified can be interpreted as a sign of natural selection as the traditional Greenlandic diet consisted primarily of protein and fat from sea animals," one researcher said.

Evolutionary biology: Why cattle, pigs are even-toed Posted: 18 Jun 2014 10:19 AM PDT During evolutionary diversification of vertebrate limbs, the number of toes in even-toed ungulates such as cattle and pigs was reduced and transformed into paired hooves. Scientists have identified a gene regulatory switch that was key to evolutionary adaption of limbs in ungulates. The study provides insights into the molecular history of evolution.

What amino acids in shells can tell us about Bronze Age people Posted: 17 Jun 2014 02:08 PM PDT A new study has shed new light on the use of mollusc shells as personal adornments by Bronze Age people. The research team used amino acid racemisation analysis (a technique used previously mainly for dating artefacts), light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, to identify the raw materials used to make beads in a complex necklace discovered at an Early Bronze Age burial site at Great Cornard in Suffolk, UK.

New compound to treat depression identified Posted: 17 Jun 2014 06:38 AM PDT A compound, hydroxynorketamine (HNK), has been identified by researchers that may treat symptoms of depression just as effectively and rapidly as ketamine, without the unwanted side effects associated with the psychoactive drug, according to a study. Interestingly, use of HNK may also serve as a future therapeutic approach for treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, the authors note.

Liver dangers from herbal supplements, OTC and RX drugs, new guidelines warn Posted: 17 Jun 2014 06:17 AM PDT New clinical guidelines on the diagnosis and management of idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) have now been released. DILI is a rare adverse drug reaction, challenging to diagnose, and can lead to jaundice, liver failure and even death. The frequency of DILI incidence is increasing, as the use of herbal and dietary supplements has drastically increased over the last 10 years.

Your genes affect your betting behavior Posted: 16 Jun 2014 12:15 PM PDT People playing competitive games like betting engage two main areas of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex and the striatum. Researchers scanned 12 genes involved in dopamine regulation in these areas and found that some genetic variants affect how bettors deal with trial-and-error learning, while other variants affect belief learning, that is, how well they respond to the actions of others.

Bionic pancreas controls blood sugar levels in adults, adolescents with type 1 diabetes Posted: 16 Jun 2014 06:36 AM PDT The latest version of a bionic pancreas device has been successfully tested in two five-day clinical trials -- one in adults, the other in adolescents -- that imposed minimal restrictions on patient activities.

Asian elephants reassure others in distress: First empirical evidence of consolation in elephants Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST Asian elephants console others who are in distress, using physical touches and vocalizations, new research shows. The findings are the first empirical evidence of consolation in elephants. Consolation behavior is rare in the animal kingdom, with empirical evidence previously provided only for the great apes, canines and certain corvids.

T. rex has most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal ever Posted: 28 Feb 2012 05:38 PM PST Research, using computer models to reconstruct the jaw muscle of Tyrannosaurus rex, has suggested that the dinosaur had the most powerful bite of any living or extinct terrestrial animal.

Study: Marmoset Dads Don't Stray Posted: 25 Mar 2005 08:09 PM PST A squirrel-sized primate with white hair dancing out of its ears, the common marmoset finally may dispel tired stereotypes about promiscuous fathers in the animal kingdom. When psychologists exposed marmoset males to the scent of ovulating females, the researchers expected hormone levels to spike in every male as a result of heightened sexual arousal.

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