ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Tiny amounts of alcohol dramatically extend a worm's life, but why?
• In solar cells, tweaking the tiniest of parts yields big jump in efficiency
• Fundamental malaria discovery
• Researchers solve questions about Ethiopians' high-altitude adaptations
• Mysterious monkey re-discovered in Borneo
• Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'
• Multiple partners not the only way for corals to stay cool
• Why bats, rats and cats store different amounts of fat
• Rare Miller's grizzled langur rediscovered in Borneo
• T-rays technology could help develop Star Trek-style hand-held medical scanners
• Ecologists gain insight into the likely consequences of global warming
• Bucky balls for next-generation spintronics devices
• Is pork safe? High levels of MRSA bacteria in U.S. retail meat products, study suggests
• How the 'street pigeon' got its fancy on
• Birds of a feather don't always stick together
• Dung beetle dance provides crucial orientation cues

Tiny amounts of alcohol dramatically extend a worm's life, but why? Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST Minuscule amounts of ethanol can at least double the life span of a tiny worm used as a model for aging studies, biochemists report. "This finding floored us; it's shocking" said the senior author of the study.

In solar cells, tweaking the tiniest of parts yields big jump in efficiency Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST By tweaking the smallest of parts, engineers are hoping to dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity.

Fundamental malaria discovery Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST Researchers have made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

Researchers solve questions about Ethiopians' high-altitude adaptations Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST Over many generations, people living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes or on the Tibetan Plateau have adapted to life in low-oxygen conditions, but exactly how their genes convey a survival advantage remains an open question. Now, scientists have made new inroads to answering this question with the first genome-wide study of high-altitude adaptations within the third major population to possess them: the Amhara people of the Ethiopian Highlands.

Mysterious monkey re-discovered in Borneo Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:42 PM PST Researchers were stunned to rediscover one of the rarest primates in Borneo, the grizzled langur, thought by many to be extinct.

Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy' Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:42 PM PST Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says a professor.

Multiple partners not the only way for corals to stay cool Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:42 PM PST For the first time scientists have shown that corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae can have different levels of thermal tolerance -– a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.

Why bats, rats and cats store different amounts of fat Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:38 PM PST Why different animals carry different amounts of fat depends on how they have solved the problem of avoiding both starving to death and being killed by predators, new research suggests.

Rare Miller's grizzled langur rediscovered in Borneo Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST Scientists have found one of the rarest and least known primates in Borneo, Miller's Grizzled Langur, a species which was believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction. The findings confirms the continued existence of this endangered monkey and reveals that it lives in an area where it was previously not known to exist.

T-rays technology could help develop Star Trek-style hand-held medical scanners Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST Scientists have developed a new way to create Terahertz waves (T-rays) that may one day lead to biomedical detective devices similar to the 'tricorder' scanner used in Star Trek.

Ecologists gain insight into the likely consequences of global warming Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST A new insight into the impact that warmer temperatures could have across the world has been uncovered by scientists.

Bucky balls for next-generation spintronics devices Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:29 PM PST The beauty of an electron's spin is that it responds very rapidly to small magnetic fields. Such external magnetic fields can be used to reverse the direction of spin. In this way, information can be carried by a flow of electrons.

Is pork safe? High levels of MRSA bacteria in U.S. retail meat products, study suggests Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:24 PM PST Retail pork products in the U.S. have a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) than previously identified, according to new research.

How the 'street pigeon' got its fancy on Posted: 19 Jan 2012 10:35 AM PST Pigeons come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Some have feathers reaching up over their heads like a hood. Others have feathers all the way to the tips of their toes or fanned out on their tails like tiny turkeys. Now, researchers have traced the birds' family tree in an effort to sort out how all that remarkable variation came to be.

Birds of a feather don't always stick together Posted: 19 Jan 2012 10:31 AM PST Pigeons display spectacular variations in their feathers, feet, beaks and other physical traits, but a new study shows that visible traits don't always coincide with genetics: A bird from one breed may have huge foot feathers, while a closely related breed does not; yet two unrelated pigeon breeds both may have large foot feathers.

Dung beetle dance provides crucial orientation cues Posted: 19 Jan 2012 07:15 AM PST Dung beetle dance provides crucial orientation cues: Beetles climb on top of ball, rotate to get their bearings to maintain straight trajectory.

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