|  Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes  | A flexible nano-scaffold could help make rechargeable lithium ion batteries last longer. Applications range from improved cell phone batteries to electric cars that can travel farther on a charge. | Read More » Evolutionary relationships among species of 'magic' mushrooms shed light on fungi  | "Magic" mushrooms are known for their hallucinogenic properties. New research helps uncover the evolutionary past of a fascinating fungi that has wide recreational use and is currently under investigation for a variety of medicinal applications. Using new molecular and computational techniques, researchers have produced the first multi-gene evaluation of Psilocybe, which constitutes a major step in classifying and naming "magic" mushrooms. | Read More » Emotional behavior of adults could be triggered in the womb  | Adults could be at greater risk of becoming anxious and vulnerable to poor mental health if they were deprived of certain hormones while developing in the womb according to new research. | Read More » Switching between habitual and goal-directed actions: A 'two in one' system in our brain  | Pressing the button of the lift at your work place, or apartment building is an automatic action -- a habit. You don't even really look at the different buttons; your hand is almost reaching out and pressing on its own. But what happens when you use the lift in a new place? In this case, your hand doesn't know the way, you have to locate the buttons, find the right one, and only then your hand can press a button. Here, pushing the button is a goal-directed action. | Read More » High-speed camera captures dancing droplets for scientific 'photo album'  | The splash from rain hitting a windowpane or printer ink hitting paper all comes down to tiny droplets hitting a surface, and what each of those droplets does. Researchers have produced a high-resolution "photo album" of more than 30 shapes an oscillated drop of water can take. The results, a fundamental insight into how droplets behave, could have applications in everything from inkjet printing to microfluidics. | Read More » Explosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the dark ages  | More than 12 billion years ago a star exploded, glowing so brightly that it outshone its entire galaxy by a million times. This brilliant flash traveled across space for 12.7 billion years to a planet that hadn't even existed at the time of the explosion -- our Earth. By analyzing this light, astronomers learned about a galaxy that was otherwise too small, faint and far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to see. | Read More » The sun's magnetic field is about to flip  | Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip. | Read More » One tree's architecture reveals secrets of a forest  | Behind the dazzling variety of shapes and forms in trees lies a remarkably similar architecture based on fundamental, shared principles, ecologists have discovered. The findings allow scientists to draw realistic conclusions about the ecological impacts of trees across landscapes by sampling just a few individuals. | Read More » First probable person to person transmission of new bird flu virus in China: But researchers stress H7N9 is not able to spread efficiently between humans  | The first report of probable person to person transmission of the new avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in Eastern China has been documented. | Read More » Dolphins keep lifelong social memories, longest in a non-human species  | Dolphins can recognize their old tank mates' whistles after being separated for more than 20 years — the longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human species. | Read More » Size matters in nanocrystals' ability to adsorb/release gases  | More efficient catalytic converters on autos, improved batteries and more sensitive gas sensors are some of the potential benefits of a new system that can directly measure the manner in which nanocrystals adsorb and release hydrogen and other gases. | Read More » Length of human pregnancies can vary naturally by as much as five weeks  | The length of a human pregnancy can vary naturally by as much as five weeks, according to new research. | Read More » Brain molecule regulating human emotion, mood uncovered  | Scientists have discovered an enzyme called Rines that regulates MAO-A, a major brain protein controlling emotion and mood. The enzyme is a potentially promising drug target for treating diseases associated with emotions such as depression. | Read More » Study questions nature's ability to 'self-correct' climate change  | Forests have a limited capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study. | Read More » What color is your night light? It may affect your mood  | When it comes to some of the health hazards of light at night, a new study in hamsters suggests that the color of the light can make a big difference. | Read More » Sleep deprivation linked to junk food cravings  | A sleepless night makes us more likely to reach for doughnuts or pizza than for whole grains and leafy green vegetables, suggests a new study that examines the brain regions that control food choices. The findings shed new light on the link between poor sleep and obesity. | Read More » New and remarkable details of the sun  | Researchers have obtained new and remarkably detailed photos of the sun with the New Solar Telescope. The photographs reveal never-before-seen details of solar magnetism revealed in photospheric and chromospheric features. | Read More » Hormone receptors may regulate effect of nutrition on life expectancy not only in roundworms, but perhaps also in humans  | A reduced caloric intake increases life expectancy in many species. But how diet prolongs the lives of model organisms such as fruit flies and roundworms has remained a mystery until recently. Scientists have now discovered that a hormone receptor is one of the links between nutrition and life expectancy in the roundworms. The receptor protein NHR-62 increases the lifespan of the animals by twenty per cent if their calorie intake is reduced. Furthermore, another study showed that the hormone receptor NHR-8 affects development into adulthood as well as the maximum lifespan of the worms. It may be possible that receptors related to these are also responsible for regulating life expectancy in human beings. | Read More » Large-area picosecond photodetectors push timing envelope  | The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) collaboration has developed big detectors that push the timing envelope, measuring the speed of particles with a precision down to trillionths of a second. | Read More » Immune function restored in spinal injured mice  | Scientists have shown that is possible to restore immune function in spinal injured mice. People with spinal cord injury often are immune compromised, which makes them more susceptible to infections. Why these people become immune-suppressed is not known, but the study found that a disorder called autonomic dysreflexia can cause immune suppression. | Read More » Protein changes are discovered that control whether a gene functions are discovered  | Changes to proteins called histones, which are associated with DNA, can control whether or not a gene is allowed to function. The changes may be important in maintaining the genes' "expression potential" so that future cells behave as their parent cells did. The discovery may have implications for the study of diseases such as cancer. | Read More » Arctic Ocean more vulnerable to human-induced changes than Antarctic Ocean  | Scientists have found evidence suggesting that the Arctic Ocean is more vulnerable to human-induced changes than the Antarctic Ocean. | Read More » This is your brain on Vivaldi and Beatles  | Listening to music activates large networks in the brain, but different kinds of music are processed differently. A team of researchers has developed a new method for studying music processing in the brain during a realistic listening situation. Using a combination of brain imaging and computer modeling, they found areas in the auditory, motor, and limbic regions to be activated during free listening to music. | Read More » Diets of pregnant women contain harmful, hidden toxins  | Pregnant women regularly consume food and beverages containing toxins believed to pose potential risks to developing fetuses, suggesting that health care providers must do more to counsel their patients about the dangers of hidden toxins in the food supply. | Read More » Psychologists say 'group narcissism' linked to negative attitudes toward immigrants  | Psychologists trying to understand the polarizing debate on illegal immigration have published a new study that addresses why some Americans feel the way they do about undocumented Latino immigrants. They found that something called "group-level narcissism" -- a feeling of entitlement and superiority that goes beyond patriotism -- plays a role in fueling negative attitudes. | Read More » The Odd Couple: Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door  | ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly. | Read More » Of stars and stripes: NASA satellites used to predict zebra migrations  | One of the world's longest migrations of zebras occurs in the African nation of Botswana, but predicting when and where zebras will move has not been possible until now. Using NASA rain and vegetation data, researchers can track when and where arid lands begin to green, and for the first time anticipate if zebras will make the trek or, if the animals find poor conditions en route, understand why they will turn back. | Read More » If we landed on Europa, what would we want to know?  | Most of what scientists know of Jupiter's moon Europa they have gleaned from a dozen or so close flybys from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979 and NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the mid-to-late 1990s. Even in these fleeting, paparazzi-like encounters, scientists have seen a fractured, ice-covered world with tantalizing signs of a liquid water ocean under its surface. Such an environment could potentially be a hospitable home for microbial life. But what if we got to land on Europa's surface and conduct something along the lines of a more in-depth interview? What would scientists ask? | Read More » Trust thy neighbor: During times of community change, familiar sources of information feel more trustworthy  | Increases in population size may lead to a breakdown in social trust. As local populations grow, local elected officials and national news media become less trusted, compared with friends and family, local churches and civic institutions. This 'trust deficit' has implications for long-term environmental and community planning. | Read More » Gold 'nanoprobes' hold the key to treating killer diseases  | Researchers have developed a technique to help treat fatal diseases more effectively. They are using gold nanoprobes to identify different types of cells, so that they can use the right ones in stem cell therapies. | Read More » NIH, Lacks family reach understanding to share genomic data of HeLa cells  | The National Institutes of Health has reached an understanding with the family of the late Henrietta Lacks to allow biomedical researchers controlled access to the whole genome data of cells derived from her tumor, commonly known as HeLa cells. These cells have already been used extensively in scientific research and have helped make possible some of the most important medical advances of the past 60 years. These include the development of modern vaccines, cancer treatments, in vitro fertilization techniques, and many others. HeLa cells are the most widely used human cell lines in existence today. Access to the whole genome data of these cells will be a valuable reference tool for researchers using HeLa cells in their research. | Read More » Regulating electron 'spin' may be key to making organic solar cells competitive  | Organic solar cells that use carbon-based molecules to convert light to electricity have not been able to match the efficiency silicon-based cells. Now, researchers have discovered a synthetic, high-performance polymer that could make inexpensive, highly efficient organic solar panels a reality. | Read More » First hundred thousand years of our universe  | Researchers have taken the furthest look back through time yet -- 100 years to 300,000 years after the Big Bang -- and found tantalizing new hints of clues as to what might have happened. | Read More » Strangers invade the homes of giant bacteria  | Life is not a walk in the park for the world's largest bacteria, that live as soft, noodle-like, white strings on the bottom of the ocean depths. Without being able to fend for themselves, they get invaded by parasitic microorganisms that steal the nutrition, that they have painstakingly retrieved. This newly discovered bizarre deep ocean relationship may ultimately impact ocean productivity, report researchers. | Read More » Why don't we all get Alzheimer's disease?  | Scientists offer an explanation for why we all don't get Alzeimer's disease. Though one might think the brains of people who develop Alzheimer's disease possess building blocks of the disease absent in healthy brains, for most sufferers, this is not true. | Read More » | |
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