ScienceDaily: Top News

---

• Intelligent people are more likely to trust others
• Do elephants call 'human!'? Low rumble alarm call in response to the sound of human voices
• A battery that 'breathes' could power next-gen electric vehicles
• Harnessing everyday motion to power mobile devices
• Specialized care improves treatment outcomes in patients with sleep apnea
• Older age at onset of Type 1 diabetes associated with lower brain connectivity
• New nanoparticle that only attacks cervical cancer cells
• In the lab, scientists coax E. coli to resist radiation damage
• Lurking in the darkness of Chinese caves, five new species of armored spiders come to light
• Patient requests for specific drugs have major impact on prescribing, reports study
• Recovering metals and minerals from waste
• Cancer patients with insulin-treated diabetes have four times higher mortality compared to cancer patients without diabetes
• Higher exposure to take-out food could double the odds of being obese
• Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling
• Halting immune response could save brain cells after stroke
• Understanding how mountains and rivers make life possible
• Unraveling mystery in 'histone code' shows how gene activity is inherited

Intelligent people are more likely to trust others Posted: 16 Mar 2014 10:38 AM PDT Intelligent people are more likely to trust others, while those who score lower on measures of intelligence are less likely to do so, says a new study. Researchers based their finding on an analysis of the General Social Survey, a nationally representative public opinion survey carried out in the United States every one to two years. The authors say one explanation could be that more intelligent individuals are better at judging character and so they tend to form relationships with people who are less likely to betray them.

Do elephants call 'human!'? Low rumble alarm call in response to the sound of human voices Posted: 16 Mar 2014 10:37 AM PDT African elephants make a specific alarm call in response to the danger of humans, according to a new study of wild elephants in Kenya. Researchers carried out a series of audio experiments in which recordings of the voices of the Samburu, a local tribe from North Kenya, were played to resting elephants. The elephants quickly reacted, becoming more vigilant and running away from the sound whilst emitting a distinctive low rumble.

A battery that 'breathes' could power next-gen electric vehicles Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:27 AM PDT Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) nearly doubled in 2013, but most won't take you farther than 100 miles on one charge. To boost their range toward a tantalizing 300 miles or more, researchers are reporting progress on a "breathing" battery that has the potential to one day replace the lithium-ion technology of today's EVs.

Harnessing everyday motion to power mobile devices Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:27 AM PDT Imagine powering your cell phone by simply walking around your office or rubbing it with the palm of your hand. Rather than plugging it into the wall, you become the power source. Scientists were recently working on a miniature generator based on an energy phenomenon called the piezoelectric effect, which is electricity resulting from pressure. To their surprise, it produced more power than expected.

Specialized care improves treatment outcomes in patients with sleep apnea Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:22 PM PDT Treatment outcomes were better when sleep apnea patients received care from sleep specialists and accredited sleep centers, a new study has found. Patient satisfaction also was associated with physician certification, and timeliness of care was better at accredited centers.

Older age at onset of Type 1 diabetes associated with lower brain connectivity Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:22 PM PDT Children and adolescents older than age 8 at the onset of type 1 diabetes had weaker brain connectivity when tested later in life relative to those who had earlier ages of diagnosis, researchers have discovered. The findings were made by analyzing the brain scans of 44 middle-age adults diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as children.

New nanoparticle that only attacks cervical cancer cells Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:21 PM PDT One of the most promising technologies for the treatment of various cancers is nanotechnology, creating drugs that directly attack the cancer cells without damaging other tissues' development. Researchers have now developed a therapy to attack cervical cancer tumors.

In the lab, scientists coax E. coli to resist radiation damage Posted: 14 Mar 2014 01:41 PM PDT Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation and, in the process, reveal the genetic mechanisms that make the feat possible. The study provides evidence that just a handful of genetic mutations give E. coli the capacity to withstand doses of radiation that would otherwise doom the microbe. The findings are important because they have implications for better understanding how organisms can resist radiation damage to cells and repair damaged DNA.

Lurking in the darkness of Chinese caves, five new species of armored spiders come to light Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT Armored spiders are medium to small species that derive their name from the complex pattern of the plates covering their abdomen strongly resembling body armor. Lurking in the darkness of caves In Southeast China, scientists discover and describe five new species of these exciting group of spiders.

Patient requests for specific drugs have major impact on prescribing, reports study Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:13 AM PDT Patient requests for specific medications -- including requests for brand-name drugs spurred by direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising -- have a substantial impact on doctors' prescribing decisions, suggests a study. "A patient request for a specific medication dramatically increases the rate at which physician s prescribe that medication," according to the lead researcher. "These results highlight potential negative impacts of DTC advertising and other forms of activation in medication requests."

Recovering metals and minerals from waste Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:36 AM PDT Scarcity of clean water is one of the most serious global challenges. Scientists have now developed energy-efficient methods for reuse of water in industrial processes and means for recovering valuable minerals and materials from waste for recycling. Rapid tools were also developed for identification of environmental pollutants.

Cancer patients with insulin-treated diabetes have four times higher mortality compared to cancer patients without diabetes Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:28 PM PDT People who have diabetes at the time they are diagnosed with cancer are more likely to die early than those without diabetes, concludes research. The researchers note that patients with both diabetes and cancer constitute a particularly vulnerable group, and efforts are needed to reduce cancer-related mortality among these patients.

Higher exposure to take-out food could double the odds of being obese Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:28 PM PDT People exposed to take-out food restaurants around their home, at work and on their way to work are more likely to consume more of these foods, as well as being more likely to be obese, suggest a new paper. During the past decade in the UK, consumption of food away from home has risen by 29% while the number of takeaways has increased dramatically. This, the researchers say, could be contributing to rising levels of overweight and obesity. Despite increasing policy focus, identifying the association between exposures to unhealthy neighborhood food outlets, diet and body weight has proved challenging.

Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling Posted: 13 Mar 2014 01:45 PM PDT A revolutionary toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month. The self-contained, waterless toilet has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal.

Halting immune response could save brain cells after stroke Posted: 13 Mar 2014 01:44 PM PDT A new study in animals shows that using a compound to block the body's immune response greatly reduces disability after a stroke. The study also showed that particular immune cells -- CD4+ T-cells produce a mediator, called interleukin (IL) -21 that can cause further damage in stroke tissue. Moreover, normal mice, ordinarily killed or disabled by an ischemic stroke, were given a shot of a compound that blocks the action of IL-21. Brain scans and brain sections showed that the treated mice suffered little or no stroke damage.

Understanding how mountains and rivers make life possible Posted: 13 Mar 2014 11:27 AM PDT Scientists have devised a pair of math equations that better describe how the topography and rock composition of a landscape affects the process by which carbon dioxide is transferred to oceans and eventually buried in Earth's interior. Scientists have long suspected that the so-called the geologic carbon cycle is responsible for Earth's clement and life-friendly conditions because it helps regulate atmospheric concentrations of CO2, a greenhouse gas that acts to trap the sun's heat. This cycle is also thought to have played an important role in slowly thawing the planet during those rare times in the past when temperatures dipped so low that the globe was plunged into a "snowball-Earth" scenario and glaciers blanketed the equator.

Unraveling mystery in 'histone code' shows how gene activity is inherited Posted: 13 Mar 2014 11:26 AM PDT Every cell in our body has exactly the same DNA, yet every cell is different. The genetic code carried in our DNA provides instructions for cells to manufacture specific proteins. A second code, carried by histone proteins bound to DNA, determines which genes are activated in particular cells. Researchers have found that the slightest variation in a histone protein can have dramatic effects on how the genes encoded in our DNA are used.

You are subscribed to email updates from All Top News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610