ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets more successful than standard dieting, study finds
• For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air
• NMR used to determine whether gold nanoparticles exhibit 'handedness'
• Paleoclimate record points toward potential rapid climate changes
• Humility key to effective leadership
• Premature babies harbor fewer, but more dangerous microbe types
• More shrubbery in a warming world
• Atoms dressed with light show new interactions, could reveal way to observe enigmatic particle
• 77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter
• Nighttime images help track disease from the sky
• Catching terrorists: Backpacks, not the bombs inside, key to finding DNA
• Decision making in bee swarms mimic neurons in human brains
• New questions about animal empathy
• Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant
• The impact of quantum matter
• Decisions, decisions: House-hunting honey bees work like complex brains
• Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests
• Breakthrough in regulating fat metabolism
• Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work
• Neuroscientists boost memory in mice using genetics and a new memory-enhancing drug
• Birds caught in the act of becoming a new species
• How people assign blame: Cohesive groups hold members less responsible for individual actions
• Law enforcement vital for great ape survival: Greatest decrease in African great ape populations in areas with no protection from poaching
• How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses
• Patterns seen in spider silk and melodies connected
• Women advised to avoid ZEN bust-enhancing supplements because of possible cancer risk
• Combination of everolimus and exemestane improves survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, results show
• Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape
• Cellular automaton model predicts how hair follicle stem cells regenerate
• New fluorescent imaging sorts microbiome in human mouth
• Powerful detectors on Hawaiian telescope to probe origins of stars, planets and galaxies

Intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets more successful than standard dieting, study finds Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:46 PM PST An intermittent, low-carbohydrate diet was superior to a standard, daily calorie-restricted diet for reducing weight and lowering blood levels of insulin, a cancer-promoting hormone, according to recent findings.

For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:37 PM PST Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers.

NMR used to determine whether gold nanoparticles exhibit 'handedness' Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:37 PM PST Scientists have successfully used NMR to analyze the structure of infinitesimal gold nanoparticles, which could advance the development and use of the tiny particles in drug development. Their approach offers a significant advantage over routine methods for analyzing gold nanoparticles because it can determine whether the nanoparticles exist in a both right-handed and left-handed configuration, a phenomenon called chirality.

Paleoclimate record points toward potential rapid climate changes Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST New research into the Earth's paleoclimate history suggests the potential for rapid climate changes this century, including multiple meters of sea level rise, if global warming is not abated.

Humility key to effective leadership Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST Humble leaders are more effective and better liked, according to a new study.

Premature babies harbor fewer, but more dangerous microbe types Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST One of the most comprehensive studies to date of the microbes that are found in extremely low-birthweight infants found that hard-to-treat Candida fungus is often present, as well as some harmful bacteria and parasites.

More shrubbery in a warming world Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:20 PM PST Scientists have used satellite data to confirm that more than 20 years of warming temperatures in northern Quebec, Canada, have resulted in an increase in the amount and extent of shrubs and grasses.

Atoms dressed with light show new interactions, could reveal way to observe enigmatic particle Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:20 PM PST Physicists have found a way to manipulate atoms' internal states with lasers that dramatically influences their interactions in specific ways. Such light-tweaked atoms can be used as proxies to study important phenomena that would be difficult or impossible to study in other contexts.

77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:12 PM PST An international team of researchers has discovered the earliest evidence for the intentional construction of plant "bedding." The 77,000-year-old evidence for preserved plant bedding and the use of insect-repelling plants was discovered in a rock shelter in South Africa.

Nighttime images help track disease from the sky Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:53 AM PST Satellite images of nighttime lights normally used to spot where people live can help keep tabs on the diseases festering among them, too.

Catching terrorists: Backpacks, not the bombs inside, key to finding DNA Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Catching terrorists who detonate bombs may be easier by testing the containers that hide the bombs rather than the actual explosives, according to pioneering research.

Decision making in bee swarms mimic neurons in human brains Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Swarms of bees and brains made up of neurons make decisions using strikingly similar mechanisms, says a new study.

New questions about animal empathy Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST The emotions of rats and mice and the mental infrastructure behind them promise to illuminate the nature of human emotions, including empathy and nurturance, a neuroscientist says.

Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Food prices are soaring at the same time as the Earth's population is nearing 9 billion. As a result the need for increased crop yields is extremely important. New research into the system by which sugars are moved throughout a plant -- from the leaves to the harvested portions and elsewhere -- could be crucial for addressing this problem.

The impact of quantum matter Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST "Dressing" atoms with laser light allows high angular momentum scattering to be seen for the first time in long-lived atomic Bose-Einstein condensates at ultracold temperatures.

Decisions, decisions: House-hunting honey bees work like complex brains Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST Researchers have found a signal, overlooked until now, that plays a role when honey bees split off from their mother colony and go scouting for a new home. Called the "stop signal," it is a very short buzz delivered by a scout bee while butting her head against a dancing honey bee, and is similar to signals that occur between neurons in the brains of monkeys making decisions.

Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:19 AM PST The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists. The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought.

Breakthrough in regulating fat metabolism Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST Scientists have made an important discovery about the mechanism controlling the body's 'fat switch', shedding new light on our understanding of how proteins regulate appetite control and insulin secretion.

Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST Researchers have revealed how a molecule called telomerase contributes to the control of the integrity of our genetic code, and when it is involved in the deregulation of the code, its important role in the development of cancer. Scientists explained how they were able to achieve their discovery by using cutting edge microscopy techniques to visualize telomerase molecules in real time in living cells.

Neuroscientists boost memory in mice using genetics and a new memory-enhancing drug Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST When the activity of a molecule that is normally elevated during viral infections is inhibited in the brain, mice learn and remember better, researchers report.

Birds caught in the act of becoming a new species Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST A study of South American songbirds has shown that these birds differ dramatically in color and song yet show very little genetic differences which indicates they are on the road to becoming a new species.

How people assign blame: Cohesive groups hold members less responsible for individual actions Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST Researchers have shown that the more cohesive a group appears -- be it a corporation, political party, governmental entity, pro sports team or other organization -- the more likely it is that people will hold its members less responsible for their own individual actions. The study area raises questions about decision-making, blame, moral judgment and the effects of a strong brand image.

Law enforcement vital for great ape survival: Greatest decrease in African great ape populations in areas with no protection from poaching Posted: 08 Dec 2011 07:12 AM PST A recent study shows that, over the last two decades, areas with the greatest decrease in African great ape populations are those with no active protection from poaching by forest guards.

How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:27 AM PST To swim or not? The same biological control that determines which capability genetically identical Salmonella will have impacts the virulence of the food pathogen. Swimmers do better in the gut, but non-motile Salmonella avoid triggering killer cells. An unusual protein turns on or off the manufacture of swimming apparatus in each new bacterium.

Patterns seen in spider silk and melodies connected Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:26 AM PST Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers have created a scientifically rigorous analogy showing the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a musical composition, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way. The comparison begins with the primary building blocks of each item and explains that structural patterns are directly related to the functional properties of silk and a melodic riff.

Women advised to avoid ZEN bust-enhancing supplements because of possible cancer risk Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:22 AM PST Women who use bust-enhancing dietary supplements containing the mycoestrogen zearalenone (ZEN), a naturally occurring toxin that widely contaminates agricultural products, could be increasing their risk of breast cancer. No clinical trials have been published on the use of potent oestrogens like ZEN in bust-enhancing products and their use should be discouraged because of the lack of evidence of their long-term safety, says a breast cancer expert.

Combination of everolimus and exemestane improves survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, results show Posted: 07 Dec 2011 05:17 PM PST In an international Phase III randomized study, everolimus, when combined with the hormonal therapy exemestane, has been shown to dramatically improve progression-free survival, according to research.

Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape Posted: 07 Dec 2011 02:56 PM PST Using evolutionary genetic information, an international team of researchers has taken major steps toward solving a classic problem of molecular biology: Predicting how a protein will fold in three dimensions.

Cellular automaton model predicts how hair follicle stem cells regenerate Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST Your hair -- or lack of hair -- is the result of a lifelong tug-of-war between activators that wake up, and inhibitors that calm, stem cells in every hair follicle on your body.

New fluorescent imaging sorts microbiome in human mouth Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST New fluorescent labeling technology that distinguishes in a single image the population size and spatial distribution of 15 different taxa has uncovered new taxon pairings that indicate unsuspected cooperation -- and standoffishness -- between members of the microbe biofilm that covers teeth.

Powerful detectors on Hawaiian telescope to probe origins of stars, planets and galaxies Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:36 AM PST The world's largest submillimeter camera -- based on superconducting technology -- is now ready to scan the universe, including faint and faraway parts never seen before.

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