ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Nanowrinkles, nanofolds yield strange hidden channels
• Surprising pathway implicated in stuttering
• Dendritic cells protect against acute pancreatitis
• Physical activity impacts overall quality of sleep
• Blocked holes can enhance rather than stop light going through
• Herbicide may affect plants thought to be resistant
• Highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes developed
• Hope for muscle wasting disease
• New strategy could lead to dose reduction in X-ray imaging
• Discovery changes how scientists think about plant cell wall formation
• Tiny flame shines light on supernovae explosions
• Robojelly gets an upgrade: Underwater robot learns to swim more like the real thing
• Tumor-specific pathway identified
• P-Rex1 protein key to melanoma metastasis
• Amazon's biodiversity: Clearing up doubts as to the benefits of ecotourism
• Jaw size linked to diet: Could too soft a diet cause lower jaw to stay too short and cause orthodontic problems?
• Babies who eat fish before nine months are less likely to suffer pre-school wheeze, study suggests
• Abnormal levels of caffeine in water indicate human contamination
• Laser removal may be advantageous for treating precancerous skin lesions
• Body mass index associated with short-term mortality rates following surgery
• Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3-D objects
• Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface
• Mechanism of wine swirling explained
• Rainfall suspected culprit in leaf disease transmission
• Ingredients involved in 'splashing' revealed

Nanowrinkles, nanofolds yield strange hidden channels Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:09 PM PST Wrinkles and folds, common in nature, do something unusual at the nanoscale. Researchers have discovered that wrinkles on super-thin films have hidden long waves. The team also found that folds in the film produce nanochannels, like thousands of tiny subsurface pipes. The research could lead to advances in medicine, electronics and energy.

Surprising pathway implicated in stuttering Posted: 22 Nov 2011 01:28 PM PST Researchers have obtained new evidence that at least some persistent stuttering is caused by mutations in a gene governing not speech, but a metabolic pathway involved in recycling old cell parts. Beyond a simple association, the study provides the first evidence that mutations affecting cellular recycling centers called lysosomes actually play a role in causing some people to stutter.

Dendritic cells protect against acute pancreatitis Posted: 22 Nov 2011 12:38 PM PST Researchers have discovered the novel protective role dendritic cells play in the pancreas. The new study shows dendritic cells can safeguard the pancreas against acute pancreatitis, a sudden dangerous swelling and inflammation of the pancreas gland.

Physical activity impacts overall quality of sleep Posted: 22 Nov 2011 11:33 AM PST People sleep significantly better and feel more alert during the day if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week, a new study concludes.

Blocked holes can enhance rather than stop light going through Posted: 22 Nov 2011 10:33 AM PST Conventional wisdom would say that blocking a hole would prevent light from going through it, but engineers have discovered the opposite to be true. A research team has found that placing a metal cap over a small hole in a metal film does not stop the light at all, but rather enhances its transmission.

Herbicide may affect plants thought to be resistant Posted: 22 Nov 2011 10:33 AM PST Researchers have discovered a fine-tuning mechanism involved in plant root growth that has them questioning whether a popular herbicide may have unintended consequences, causing some plants to need more water or nutrients.

Highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes developed Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Researchers demonstrate a new method for making transparent electrodes from nanomaterials. By fusing AgNWs with metal oxide nanoparticles and organic polymers, highly transparent conductors were produced that could provide an alternative to the ITO. The research team has also built solar cells using the new electrodes and found that the performance of the cell is comparable to that of solar cells made with indium tin oxide.

Hope for muscle wasting disease Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST A health supplement used by bodybuilders could be the key to treating a life-threatening muscular dystrophy affecting tens of thousands of children world-wide, new research shows. The amino acid L-tyrosine had a "rapid and dramatic impact" on Nemaline Myopathy in laboratory tests on mice, significantly improving symptoms of the muscle-wasting disease, medical researchers found.

New strategy could lead to dose reduction in X-ray imaging Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST For more than a century, the use of X-rays has been a prime diagnostic tool when it comes to human health. As it turns out, X-rays also are a crucial component for studying and understanding molecules, and a new approach may dramatically improve what researchers can learn using the technique.

Discovery changes how scientists think about plant cell wall formation Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Researchers have discovered that two proteins come together in an unexpected way to make a carbohydrate, a chain of sugar molecules, in plant cell walls. This fundamental discovery changes the way scientists think about how plant cell walls are made and opens a new door to converting plants to biofuels and other carbon-based products.

Tiny flame shines light on supernovae explosions Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Starting from the behavior of small flames in the laboratory, a team of researchers has gained new insights into the titanic forces that drive Type Ia supernova explosions. These stellar explosions are important tools for studying the evolution of the universe, so a better understanding of how they behave would help answer some of the fundamental questions in astronomy.

Robojelly gets an upgrade: Underwater robot learns to swim more like the real thing Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Engineers have developed a robot that mimics the graceful motions of jellyfish so precisely that it has been named Robojelly. Developed for the U.S. Office of Naval Research in 2009, this vehicle was designed to conduct ocean underwater surveillance, enabling it potentially to detect chemical spills, monitor the presence of ships and submarines, and observe the migration of schools of fish.

Tumor-specific pathway identified Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:30 AM PST Scientists have identified an atypical metabolic pathway unique to some tumors, possibly providing a future target for drugs that could reduce or halt the spread of cancer.

P-Rex1 protein key to melanoma metastasis Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:29 AM PST Researchers have identified a protein, called P-Rex1, that is key to the movement of cells called melanoblasts. When these cells experience uncontrolled growth, melanoma develops.

Amazon's biodiversity: Clearing up doubts as to the benefits of ecotourism Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:21 AM PST Ecological tourism has no effect on the presence of large mammals in the Amazon, according to a study that for the first time compares the biological diversity of ecotourism zones with that of protected areas. Furthermore, it can help to protect the biodiversity of areas that are not officially protected yet are vital in the ecological framework.

Jaw size linked to diet: Could too soft a diet cause lower jaw to stay too short and cause orthodontic problems? Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:20 AM PST New research suggests that many of the common orthodontic problems experienced by people in industrialized nations is due to their soft modern diet causing the jaw to grow too short and small relative to the size of their teeth.

Babies who eat fish before nine months are less likely to suffer pre-school wheeze, study suggests Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:20 AM PST Children who started eating fish before nine months of age are less likely to suffer from pre-school wheeze, but face a higher risk if they were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics in the first week of life or their mother took paracetamol during pregnancy. Recurrent wheeze is a very common clinical problem in preschool children and there is a need for better medical treatment and improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

Abnormal levels of caffeine in water indicate human contamination Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:20 AM PST Researchers have discovered that traces of caffeine are a useful indicator of the contamination of our water by sewers.

Laser removal may be advantageous for treating precancerous skin lesions Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:39 PM PST Carbon dioxide laser ablation may have a role as an alternative treatment for a common precancerous skin lesion known as lentigo maligna when surgery or radiation therapy is not feasible, according to a new study.

Body mass index associated with short-term mortality rates following surgery Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:39 PM PST Body Mass Index appears to be associated with 30-day mortality risk following surgical procedures, and patients with a BMI of less than 23.1 appear to be at highest risk of death, according to a new study.

Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3-D objects Posted: 21 Nov 2011 08:48 AM PST Researchers demonstrate that a carbon nanotube coating can absorb light nearly perfectly, making structural details disappear into a black background.

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface Posted: 21 Nov 2011 08:48 AM PST Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Mechanism of wine swirling explained Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:41 AM PST Wine drinkers know that swirling a good vintage around in a glass aerates the wine and releases its bouquet. Just how the process -- known as "orbital shaking" -- works, however, has been something of a mystery.

Rainfall suspected culprit in leaf disease transmission Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:41 AM PST Rainfalls are suspected to trigger the spread of a multitude of foliar (leaf) diseases, which could be devastating for agriculture and forestry. Instead of focusing on the large-scale, ecological impact of this problem, researchers are studying the phenomenon from a novel perspective: that of a single rain droplet.

Ingredients involved in 'splashing' revealed Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:41 AM PST "Splashing" plays a central role in the transport of pollutants and the spread of diseases, but while the sight of a droplet striking and splashing off of a solid surface is a common experience, the actual physical ingredients and mechanisms involved in splashing aren't all that well understood. A team of researchers has discovered that there is indeed more involved in splashing than previously believed.

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