ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Acoustic cloaking device hides objects from sound
• Long-term warming likely to be significant despite recent slowdown
• Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals
• Scientists 'herd' cells in new approach to tissue engineering
• Link between missing DNA, birth defects confirmed
• Substance naturally found in humans effective in fighting brain damage from stroke
• Ocean food web is key in the global carbon cycle
• Cellular alchemy: How to make insulin-producing cells from gut cells
• Why antisocial youth are less able to see perspective of others
• MRI to 'see through' metal screws developed to follow patients after hip fracture surgery
• After major earthquake, silence: Dynamic stressing of a global system of faults results in rare seismic silence
• Improving safety, effectiveness of lithium therapy: Closer than ever
• Education boosts brain function long after school, study shows
• Gesturing with hands a powerful tool for children's math learning
• Restoring order in brain: Brain cell regeneration may alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
• Empathy chimpanzees offer is key to understanding human engagement
• More secure communications thanks to quantum physics
• Cancer cells don't take 'drunken' walks through body
• Chip-scale tunable laser to enable bandwidth-on-demand in advanced optical networks
• Bending the light with a tiny chip: Silicon chip acts as a lens-free projector, may one day fit in cell phones
• Face matching for passports and IDs incredibly fallible
• Anesthetic technique improves quality of recovery for women having breast cancer surgery
• To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified
• Saturn and Jupiter: X-ray laser spies deep into giant gas planets
• Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria
• California and Arizona amaze with two new species of desert poppy
• Speed trap for fish catches domestic trout moving too slow
• Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons
• Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard
• LED lamps: Less energy, more light
• Exotic plant species alter ecosystem productivity
• Milky Way amidst a 'Council of Giants'
• Plaques detected in brain scans forecast cognitive impairment
• Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created
• Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood
• Key breaking point involved in traumatic brain injury modeled by researchers
• One step closer to ovarian cancer marker, researchers report
• Doctors often uncertain in ordering, interpreting lab tests

Acoustic cloaking device hides objects from sound Posted: 11 Mar 2014 03:47 PM PDT Engineers have demonstrated the world's first three-dimensional acoustic cloak. The new device reroutes sound waves to create the impression that the cloak and anything beneath it are not there. The phenomenon works in all three dimensions, no matter which direction the sound is coming from or where the observer is located, and holds potential for future applications such as sonar avoidance and architectural acoustics.

Long-term warming likely to be significant despite recent slowdown Posted: 11 Mar 2014 03:47 PM PDT A new study shows Earth's climate likely will continue to warm during this century on track with previous estimates, despite the recent slowdown in the rate of global warming.

Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals Posted: 11 Mar 2014 01:31 PM PDT A diet high in protein, particularly animal protein, may help elderly individuals function at higher levels physically, psychologically, and socially, according to a study. The research suggests that as people age, their ability to absorb or process protein may decline. To compensate for this loss, protein requirements may increase with age.

Scientists 'herd' cells in new approach to tissue engineering Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT An electrical current can be used to orchestrate the flow of a group of cells, engineers have discovered. This achievement sets the stage for more controlled forms of tissue engineering and for potential applications such as 'smart bandages' that use electrical stimulation to help heal wounds. "This is the first data showing that direct current fields can be used to deliberately guide migration of a sheet of epithelial cells," said the study's lead author.

Link between missing DNA, birth defects confirmed Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT The genetic basis for a particular human syndrome that involves cleft palate, epilepsy and respiratory difficulties has been identified by researchers. Better understanding of these genes could help guide treatments for related conditions. "Epilepsy and cleft palate affect tens of thousands of children in the U.S. alone each year," authors said, "and respiratory failure is a particular problem in premature and low birth weight babies. Finding the causative genes for these conditions could have some very clinically important implications."

Substance naturally found in humans effective in fighting brain damage from stroke Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT A molecular substance that occurs naturally in humans and rats was found to 'substantially reduce' brain damage after an acute stroke and contribute to a better recovery, according to a newly released animal study. The study was the first ever to show that the peptide AcSDKP provides neurological protection when administered one to four hours after the onset of an ischemic stroke.

Ocean food web is key in the global carbon cycle Posted: 11 Mar 2014 11:15 AM PDT Nothing dies of old age in the ocean. Everything gets eaten and all that remains of anything is waste. But that waste is pure gold to an oceanographer. In a study of the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle, oceanographers used those nuggets to their advantage. They incorporated the lifecycle of phytoplankton and zooplankton -- small, often microscopic animals at the bottom of the food chain -- into a novel mechanistic model for assessing the global ocean carbon export.

Cellular alchemy: How to make insulin-producing cells from gut cells Posted: 11 Mar 2014 11:15 AM PDT Introducing three proteins that control the regulation of DNA in the nucleus -- called transcription factors -- into an immune-deficient mouse turned a specific group of cells in the gut lining into beta-like cells. "Our results demonstrate that the intestine could be an accessible and abundant source of functional insulin-producing cells," says the lead author of the study. "Our ultimate goal is to obtain epithelial cells from diabetes patients who have had endoscopies, expand these cells, add PMN to them to make beta-like cells, and then give them back to the patient as an alternate therapy."

Why antisocial youth are less able to see perspective of others Posted: 11 Mar 2014 10:36 AM PDT Adolescents with antisocial personality disorder inflict serious physical and psychological harm on both themselves and others. However, little is yet known about the underlying neural processes. Researchers have pinpointed a possible explanation: Their brain regions responsible for social information processing and impulse control are less developed.

MRI to 'see through' metal screws developed to follow patients after hip fracture surgery Posted: 11 Mar 2014 10:36 AM PDT People who sustain the most common type of hip fracture are at increased risk of complications. A special type of MRI has been developed that can show a detailed image following fracture repair, without the distortion caused by metal surgical screws that are problematic in standard MRIs. Each year, more than 340,000 people suffer a broken hip in the United States.

After major earthquake, silence: Dynamic stressing of a global system of faults results in rare seismic silence Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:43 AM PDT In the global aftershock zone that followed the major April 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake, seismologists noticed an unusual pattern -- a dynamic 'stress shadow,' or period of seismic silence when some faults near failure were temporarily rendered incapable of a large rupture. Why did this rare period of quiet occur?

Improving safety, effectiveness of lithium therapy: Closer than ever Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:43 AM PDT Lithium, one of the oldest and most widely used drugs to treat neuropsychiatric illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, has a serious drawback -- toxicity. In a continued effort to find a safer form of lithium, researchers have discovered that lithium salicylate, an alternative salt form, might be the answer.

Education boosts brain function long after school, study shows Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:43 AM PDT Education significantly improves mental functioning in seniors even four decades after finishing school, shows a new study. The study shows that people who attended school for longer periods performed better in terms of cognitive functioning than those who did not. Using data from individuals aged around 60, the researchers found a positive impact of schooling on memory scores. The fact that young people or their parents did not choose whether to go longer to school strongly suggests that schooling is the cause rather than personal characteristics that would affect this choice and could also explain the differences in cognitive function.

Gesturing with hands a powerful tool for children's math learning Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT Children who use their hands to gesture during a math lesson gain a deep understanding of the problems they are taught, according to new research. Previous research has found that gestures can help children learn. This study in particular was designed to answer whether abstract gesture can support generalization beyond a particular problem and whether abstract gesture is a more effective teaching tool than concrete action.

Restoring order in brain: Brain cell regeneration may alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer's disease Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT Researchers have discovered that when they re-established a population of new cells in the part of the brain associated with behavior, some symptoms of Alzheimer's disease significantly decreased or were reversed altogether. While memory loss is a common symptom of Alzheimer's, other behavioral manifestations -- depression, loss of inhibition, delusions, agitation, anxiety, and aggression -- can be even more challenging for victims and their families to live with. The research was conducted on mouse models; it provides a promising target for Alzheimer's symptoms in human beings as well.

Empathy chimpanzees offer is key to understanding human engagement Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT New findings show that chimpanzees exhibit flexibility in their empathy, just as humans do. This may help explain the evolution of how and when humans engage with others and choose to offer flexibility, and how we can do so more.

More secure communications thanks to quantum physics Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:40 AM PDT One of the recent revelations by Edward Snowden is that the U.S. National Security Agency is currently developing a quantum computer. Physicists aren't surprised by this news; such a computer could crack the encryption that is commonly used today in no time and would therefore be highly attractive  for the NSA.

Cancer cells don't take 'drunken' walks through body Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:38 AM PDT Biologists have believed that cancers cells spread through the body in a slow, aimless fashion, resembling a drunk who can't walk three steps in a straight line. They now know that's true in a flat petri dish, but not in the three-dimensional space of an actual body. This finding is important because it should lead to more accurate results for scientists studying how cancer spreads through the body, often leading to a grim prognosis. To address this dimensional disagreement, the study's authors have produced a new mathematical formula that they say better reflects the behavior of cells migrating through 3D environments.

Chip-scale tunable laser to enable bandwidth-on-demand in advanced optical networks Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:37 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated the smallest wavelength-tunable laser fabricated by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The laser features a wide tuning range which enables telecommunications providers to cost-effectively expand system capacity in advanced optical networks to support high data packets at ultra fast speed. By having one laser, instead of several, that can generate light over a range of wavelengths, the network infrastructure is greatly simplified, and inventory and operational costs are dramatically reduced, thus strengthening the capability of telecommunications providers to deliver bandwidth-on-demand services at higher profit margins.

Bending the light with a tiny chip: Silicon chip acts as a lens-free projector, may one day fit in cell phones Posted: 11 Mar 2014 08:00 AM PDT Traditional projectors -- like those used to project a film or classroom lecture notes -- pass a beam of light through a tiny image, using lenses to map each point of the small picture to corresponding points on a large screen. A tiny silicon chip eliminates the need for bulky and expensive lenses, and instead projects the image electronically by 'bending the light' with no mechanically moving parts.

Face matching for passports and IDs incredibly fallible Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:59 AM PDT New research finds face matching, as when customs agents check passports, to be incredibly fallible, with error rates between 10 and 20 percent under ideal, laboratory-induced conditions, and much worse in more realistic settings.

Anesthetic technique improves quality of recovery for women having breast cancer surgery Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Anesthesiologists using a technique similar to a dental freeze can improve the quality of recovery and decrease recovery time for breast cancer surgery patients, according to a new study. The paravertebral block technique uses ultrasound to precisely guide a needle to intercostal nerves reaching the breast and deliver local anesthetic to freeze these nerves. In total, five blocks are needed to freeze the five nerves involved. The freeze blocks the transmission of pain from the breast where surgeons can perform full or partial mastectomies, or even reconstructive breast surgery. At the same time, patients are given an intravenous drug called propofol which allows them to sleep through the surgery and continue breathing on their own, without needing a breathing tube or a ventilator.

To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Although choosing to do something because the perceived benefit outweighs the financial cost is something people do daily, little is known about what happens in the brain when a person makes these kinds of decisions. Studying how these cost-benefit decisions are made when choosing to consume alcohol, a researcher identified distinct profiles of brain activity that are present when making these decisions.

Saturn and Jupiter: X-ray laser spies deep into giant gas planets Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH, researchers took a sneak peek deep into the lower atmospheric layers of giant gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. The observations reveal how liquid hydrogen becomes a plasma, providing information on the material's thermal conductivity and its internal energy exchange -- important ingredients for planetary models.

Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:49 AM PDT Many people have 'fillers' injected into their facial tissue to give them 'bee-stung lips' or to smooth out their wrinkles. Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetic treatment customers experience unpleasant side effects in the form of tender subcutaneous lumps that are difficult to treat and which -- in isolated cases -- have led to lesions that simply will not heal. Research recently published now supports that, despite the highest levels of hygiene, this unwanted side effect is caused by bacterial infection.

California and Arizona amaze with two new species of desert poppy Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:49 AM PDT Not quite desert roses, two new species of desert poppies from North America amaze with their simple beauty. The newly described plants are found in the deserts of California and Arizona and have a vibrant yellow colored flowers, typical for all the desert dwellers from the Eschscholzia genus of the poppy family.

Speed trap for fish catches domestic trout moving too slow Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:49 AM PDT Researchers have documented dramatic differences in the swimming ability of domesticated trout and their wilder relatives. The study calls into question the ability of hatcheries to mitigate more than a century of disturbances to wild fish populations.

Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:11 AM PDT Baboons learn from other baboons about new food sources -- but only if they are bold or anxious. The results suggest that personality plays a key role in social learning in animals, something previously ignored in animal cognition studies. Researchers examined how personality influenced whether baboons solved foraging tasks and whether they then demonstrated to others how to solve the tasks. They found bolder baboons did both.

Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT Ants are the unlikely guardians of jumping spiders in their battle against aggressive spitting spiders. A timid jumping spider uses the scent of ants as a secret weapon to save itself from becoming the somewhat soggy prey of the predatory spitting spider. The downside to this plan is that jumping spiders are also a favorite snack of its very own saviors. To overcome this additional hazard, the spider has made yet another plan in the form of an ant-proof nest.

LED lamps: Less energy, more light Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT LEDs are durable and save energy. Now researchers have found a way to make LED lamps even more compact while supplying more light than commercially available models. The key to success: transistors made of the semiconductor material gallium nitride.

Exotic plant species alter ecosystem productivity Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT Biologists have reported an increase in biomass production in ecosystems colonized by non-native plant species. In the face of climate change, these and other changes to ecosystems are predicted to become more frequent, according to the researchers.

Milky Way amidst a 'Council of Giants' Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT We live in a galaxy known as the Milky Way -- a vast conglomeration of 300 billion stars, planets whizzing around them, and clouds of gas and dust floating in between. Though it has long been known that the Milky Way and its orbiting companion Andromeda are the dominant members of a small group of galaxies, the Local Group, which is about 3 million light years across, much less was known about our immediate neighborhood in the universe. Now, a new article maps out bright galaxies within 35-million light years of the Earth, offering up an expanded picture of what lies beyond our doorstep.

Plaques detected in brain scans forecast cognitive impairment Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:03 AM PDT Brain imaging using radioactive dye can detect early evidence of Alzheimer's disease that may predict future cognitive decline among adults with mild or no cognitive impairment, according to a 36-month follow-up study. Alzheimer's disease -- which currently has no cure -- afflicts an estimated five million U.S. adults, and is the sixth-leading cause of death among adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior studies have found that changes in the brain begin years, and possibly decades, before cognitive symptoms emerge. A biomarker that could accurately identify those at greatest risk for cognitive decline could help clinicians better evaluate and treat patients, while also accelerating the testing of drugs to treat the disease.

Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:03 AM PDT Scientists have created a thermal illusion device to control thermal camouflage and invisibility using thermotic materials. Every natural object exhibits thermal signatures. However, if these signals are blocked or masked, then these objects become undetectable. The new device can block thermal signatures (leading to invisibility) and provide illusionary camouflage at the same time. This cloaking technology is cost-effective, easily scalable, as well as applicable to even bigger objects (such as soldiers on night missions), and it has also overcome limitations like narrow bandwidth and polarization-dependence. The technology is ready to roll out for military applications.

Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:06 PM PDT Girls born unexpectedly small or underweight seem to be twice as likely to have fertility problems in adulthood as those of normal size at birth, suggests new research. "As medical research and care advances, more infants will be born [with low birthweight or small size] and survive, which in turn might influence future need of infertility treatment," the authors conclude.

Key breaking point involved in traumatic brain injury modeled by researchers Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:22 PM PDT Even the mildest form of a traumatic brain injury, better known as a concussion, can deal permanent, irreparable damage. Now, an interdisciplinary team of researchers is using mathematical modeling to better understand the mechanisms at play in this kind of injury, with an eye toward protecting the brain from its long-term consequences.

One step closer to ovarian cancer marker, researchers report Posted: 10 Mar 2014 11:39 AM PDT The hunt is on to find biomarkers that detect cancer, but it's a challenging process. Early successes often are followed by heartbreaking failures. But now, researchers have verified that glycans (sugars attached to proteins) can be used to detect ovarian cancer. Creating a diagnostic tool that identifies ovarian cancer early through analysis of a blood sample would be an enormous benefit. Because the disease produces indistinct symptoms, such as bloating, ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, making it difficult to treat.

Doctors often uncertain in ordering, interpreting lab tests Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:17 AM PDT A survey of primary care physicians suggests they often face uncertainty in ordering and interpreting clinical laboratory tests. Physicians have developed their own strategies for ordering and interpreting lab tests, such as asking a physician colleague or specialist, consulting a text or electronic reference, or calling the laboratory. But physicians reported they would welcome better decision-support software embedded in electronic medical records and direct access to lab personnel through lab hotlines.

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