ScienceDaily: Top Science News

Injured spinal cord: Regeneration possible with epothilon? Posted: 12 Mar 2015 02:38 PM PDT Damage to the spinal cord rarely heals because the injured nerve cells fail to regenerate. The regrowth of their long nerve fibers is hindered by scar tissue and molecular processes inside the nerves. Scientists in now report that help might be on the way from an unexpected quarter.

You are when you eat: Limiting flies to specific eating hours protects their hearts against aging, study finds Posted: 12 Mar 2015 11:30 AM PDT Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their hearts against aging, a study has demonstrated. Previous research has found that people who tend to eat later in the day and into the night have a higher chance of developing heart disease than people who cut off their food consumption earlier. "So what's happening when people eat late?" asked a biologist whose research focuses on cardiovascular physiology. "They're not changing their diet, just the time."

Humans adapted to living in rainforests much sooner than thought Posted: 12 Mar 2015 11:29 AM PDT An international research team has shed new light on the diet of some of the earliest recorded humans in Sri Lanka. The researchers analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the teeth of 26 individuals, with the oldest dating back 20,000 years. They found that nearly all the teeth analyzed suggested a diet largely sourced from the rainforest.

Molecule-making machine simplifies complex chemistry Posted: 12 Mar 2015 11:29 AM PDT A new molecule-making machine could do for chemistry what 3-D printing did for engineering: Make it fast, flexible and accessible to anyone. Chemists built the machine to assemble complex small molecules at the click of a mouse, like a 3-D printer at the molecular level. The automated process has the potential to greatly speed up and enable new drug development and other technologies that rely on small molecules.

Some genes 'foreign' in origin and not from our ancestors Posted: 12 Mar 2015 09:33 AM PDT Many animals, including humans, acquired essential 'foreign' genes from microorganisms co-habiting their environment in ancient times, according to new research. The study challenges conventional views that animal evolution relies solely on genes passed down through ancestral lines, suggesting that, at least in some lineages, the process is still ongoing.

Predicting which African storms will intensify into hurricanes Posted: 12 Mar 2015 08:23 AM PDT Most hurricanes over the Atlantic that eventually make landfall in North America actually start as intense thunderstorms in Western Africa one or two weeks earlier, research indicates. This research may help cities and towns better prepare for these hurricanes with far more warning.

Social status has impact on overall health of mammals Posted: 12 Mar 2015 08:23 AM PDT High social status has its privileges -- when it comes to aging -- even in wild animals. In a first-of-its-kind study involving a wild species, researchers have shown that social and ecological factors affect animal health. The results focused on spotted hyenas in Kenya.

Underground ocean on Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede Posted: 12 Mar 2015 08:21 AM PDT Identifying liquid water on other worlds, big or small, is crucial in the search for habitable planets beyond Earth. Though the presence of an ocean on Ganymede has been long predicted based on theoretical models, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found the best evidence for it. Hubble was used to watch aurorae glowing above the moon's icy surface. The aurorae are tied to the moon's magnetic field, which descends right down to Ganymede's core. A saline ocean would influence the dynamics of the magnetic field as it interacts with Jupiter's own immense magnetic field, which engulfs Ganymede. Because telescopes can't look inside planets or moons, tracing the magnetic field through aurorae is a unique way to probe the interior of another world.

Engineers create chameleon-like artificial 'skin' that shifts color on demand Posted: 12 Mar 2015 07:07 AM PDT Borrowing a trick from nature, engineers have created an incredibly thin, chameleon-like material that can be made to change color -- on demand -- by simply applying a minute amount of force.

'Chaotic Earths': Some habitable exoplanets could experience wildly unpredictable climates Posted: 12 Mar 2015 06:21 AM PDT Astronomers have delved into possible planetary systems where a gravitational nudge from one planet with just the right orbital configuration and tilt could have a mild to devastating effect on the orbit and climate of another, possibly habitable world.

Giant sea creature hints at early arthropod evolution Posted: 12 Mar 2015 05:36 AM PDT Newly discovered fossils of a giant, extinct sea creature show it had modified legs, gills on its back, and a filter system for feeding -- providing key evidence about the early evolution of arthropods.

Teen cannabis users have poor long-term memory in adulthood Posted: 12 Mar 2015 05:29 AM PDT Teens who were heavy marijuana users -- smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new study. The hippocampus is important to long-term memory, which is the ability to remember life events. The brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed during the individuals' early twenties, two years after they stopped smoking marijuana.

'Ouch zone' in brain identified Posted: 09 Mar 2015 10:47 AM PDT Activity in a brain area known as the dorsal posterior insula is directly related to the intensity of pain, a brain imaging study has found. These results could help detect pain in people with limited communication abilities. The research team now plans to verify these results by attempting to switch off this brain region in relevant patients suffering from intractable pain.