ScienceDaily: Top Science News

---

• Young apes manage emotions like humans do
• Stepping out in style: Toward an artificial leg with a natural gait
• A blueprint for restoring touch with a prosthetic hand
• Birth gets the brain ready to sense the world
• A bacterium reveals the crucible of its metallurgical activity
• Pandoravirus: Missing link discovered between viruses and cells
• Go to bed: Irregular bedtimes linked to behavioral problems in children
• 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics: Trendspotting in asset markets

Young apes manage emotions like humans do Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:57 PM PDT Researchers studying young bonobos in an African sanctuary have discovered striking similarities between the emotional development of the bonobos and that of children, suggesting these great apes regulate their emotions in a human-like way. This is important to human evolutionary history because it shows the socio-emotional framework commonly applied to children works equally well for apes.

Stepping out in style: Toward an artificial leg with a natural gait Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:57 PM PDT Humans rarely walk the straight and narrow; something's always in the way. So scientists are developing a computer-controlled artificial limb that can turn like a flesh-and-blood foot.

A blueprint for restoring touch with a prosthetic hand Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:56 PM PDT New research is laying the groundwork for touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs that one day could convey real-time sensory information to amputees via a direct interface with the brain.

Birth gets the brain ready to sense the world Posted: 14 Oct 2013 09:17 AM PDT Neurons that process sensory information are arranged in precise, well-characterized maps that are crucial for translating perception into understanding. A study reveals that the actual act of birth in mice causes a reduction in a brain chemical called serotonin in the newborn mice, triggering sensory maps to form. The findings shed light on the role of a dramatic environmental event in the development of neural circuits and reveal that birth prepares newborns for survival.

A bacterium reveals the crucible of its metallurgical activity Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:23 AM PDT Magnetotactic bacteria have the ability to synthesize nanocrystals of magnetite enabling them to align themselves with the terrestrial magnetic field in order to find the position in the water column that is most favorable to their survival. The alignment of the nanomagnets is similar to that of a compass needle. The magnetite crystal synthesis process is a complex one, and it is little understood at the present time.

Pandoravirus: Missing link discovered between viruses and cells Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:23 AM PDT With the discovery of Mimivirus ten years ago and, more recently, Megavirus chilensis, researchers thought they had reached the farthest corners of the viral world in terms of size and genetic complexity. With a diameter in the region of a micrometer and a genome incorporating more than 1,100 genes, these giant viruses, which infect amoebas, had already largely encroached on areas previously thought to be the exclusive domain of bacteria. For the sake of comparison, common viruses such as the influenza or AIDS viruses only contain around ten genes each.

Go to bed: Irregular bedtimes linked to behavioral problems in children Posted: 14 Oct 2013 06:38 AM PDT Researchers have found that children with irregular bedtimes are more likely to have behavioral difficulties. The study found that irregular bedtimes could disrupt natural body rhythms and cause sleep deprivation, undermining brain maturation and the ability to regulate certain behaviors.

2013 Nobel Prize in Economics: Trendspotting in asset markets Posted: 14 Oct 2013 05:21 AM PDT The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2013 to Eugene F. Fama of the University of Chicago, IL, USA; Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago, IL, USA; and Robert J. Shiller of Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA "for their empirical analysis of asset prices."

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Science News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610