ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• First cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system
• Ingredient of household plastic found in space
• Cold, salty and promiscuous: Gene-shuffling microbes dominate Antarctica's Deep Lake
• When cells 'eat' their own power plants: Scientists solve mystery of basic cellular process
• Engineers invent programming language to build synthetic DNA
• Do black holes have 'hair'? New hypothesis challenges 'clean' model

First cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system Posted: 30 Sep 2013 06:08 PM PDT Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b. The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world.

Ingredient of household plastic found in space Posted: 30 Sep 2013 05:08 PM PDT NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical used to make food-storage containers, car bumpers and other consumer products, on Saturn's moon Titan. This is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth.

Cold, salty and promiscuous: Gene-shuffling microbes dominate Antarctica's Deep Lake Posted: 30 Sep 2013 12:27 PM PDT Antarctica's Deep Lake is a saltwater ecosystem that remains liquid in extreme cold. For the first time, researchers describe a complete ecological picture of the microbial community thriving in Deep Lake.

When cells 'eat' their own power plants: Scientists solve mystery of basic cellular process Posted: 30 Sep 2013 11:05 AM PDT A team of scientists reports that they have solved the mystery of a basic biological function essential to cellular health. By discovering a mechanism by which mitochondria signal that they need to be eliminated, the team has opened the door to potential research into cures for disorders such as Parkinson's disease that are believed to be caused by dysfunctional mitochondria in neurons.

Engineers invent programming language to build synthetic DNA Posted: 30 Sep 2013 09:16 AM PDT Scientists have developed a programming language for chemistry that they hope will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices.

Do black holes have 'hair'? New hypothesis challenges 'clean' model Posted: 30 Sep 2013 06:37 AM PDT A black hole. A simple and clear concept, at least according to the hypothesis by Roy Kerr, who in 1963 proposed a "clean" black hole model, which is the current theoretical paradigm. From theory to reality things may be quite different. According to a new research black holes may be much "dirtier" than what Kerr believed.

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