ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Xistential crisis: Discovery shows there's more to the story in silencing X chromosomes
• 'Legos' for fabrication of atomically precise electronic circuits
• Damaged material, heal thyself
• Drone catcher: 'robotic falcon' can capture, retrieve renegade drones
• Global medical experience
• Galapagos expedition reveals unknown seamounts, new species
• Interaction during reading is key to language development
• Banning trophy hunting could do more harm than good
• Gene editing technique improves vision in rats with inherited blindness
• For burying beetles, small males have more sex appeal, new research shows
• Novel metasurface revolutionizes ubiquitous scientific tool
• Students must prepare early to succeed in tough graduate job market
• Saliva test to detect GHB and alcohol poisonings
• Modern office environment makes most people uncomfortable
• Lifting a car with two phone books
• More Higgs particles can be found by studying superfluid helium
• Gravitation under human control?
• Eagle-eyed subsea camera
• New potential treatment for colorectal cancer discovered
• Ancient gas cloud may be a relic from the death of first stars
• Odds are good that risky gambling choices are influenced by a single brain connection
• Flexible gene expression may regulate social status in male fish
• Study tracks migration of chronically homeless mentally ill adults to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
• Nanoscale look at why a new alloy is amazingly tough
• Scientist identifies energy sensor as potential target for cancer drugs
• Low-income communities more likely to face childhood obesity
• Current malaria treatment fails in Cambodia due to drug-resistant parasites
• Using skin to save the heart
• Roman toilets gave no clear health benefit, and Romanization actually spread parasites
• In defense of pathogenic proteins
• Optimized arctic observations for improving weather forecast in the northern sea route
• Galaxy quakes could improve hunt for dark matter
• From Sherborn to ZooBank: Moving to the interconnected digital nomenclature of the future

Xistential crisis: Discovery shows there's more to the story in silencing X chromosomes Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:09 PM PST Nearly every girl and woman on Earth carries two X chromosomes in nearly every one of her cells -- but one of them does (mostly) nothing. That's because it's been silenced, keeping most of its DNA locked up and unread like a book in a cage. Scientists thought they had figured out how cells do this, but a new piece of research shows the answer isn't quite that clear.

'Legos' for fabrication of atomically precise electronic circuits Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:50 AM PST For the first time, researchers tailored the electronic properties of nanoribbons using a new "bottom-up" method that precisely controls and modulates the atomic-scale width within a single nanoribbon.

Damaged material, heal thyself Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:49 AM PST Inspired by healing wounds in skin, a new approach protects and heals surfaces using a fluid secretion process.

Drone catcher: 'robotic falcon' can capture, retrieve renegade drones Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:49 AM PST In January 2015, a Washington, DC, hobbiest accidentally flew his DJI Phantom quadcopter drone over the White House fence and crashed it on the lawn. Small drones have proven to be effective tools of mischief, from spying to smuggling to hacking.

Global medical experience Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:49 AM PST Despite good intentions, short-term international training programs for medical students may create problems for local health care.

Galapagos expedition reveals unknown seamounts, new species Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:48 AM PST The Galápagos Islands have long offered researchers a natural laboratory in which to study unique volcanic features and a diverse population of native plants and animals.

Interaction during reading is key to language development Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:48 AM PST A new study finds babies make more speech-like sounds during reading than when playing with puppets or toys -- and mothers are more responsive to these types of sounds while reading to their child than during the other activities.

Banning trophy hunting could do more harm than good Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:45 AM PST Trophy hunting shouldn't be banned but instead it should be better regulated to ensure funds generated from permits are invested back into local conservation efforts, according to a new paper.

Gene editing technique improves vision in rats with inherited blindness Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:45 AM PST A new technique that has the potential to treat inherited diseases by removing genetic defects has been shown for the first time to hinder retinal degeneration in rats with a type of inherited blindness, according to a new study.

For burying beetles, small males have more sex appeal, new research shows Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:43 AM PST Female burying beetles are more attracted to small partners because they are less likely to get into fights, a new study has found.

Novel metasurface revolutionizes ubiquitous scientific tool Posted: 08 Jan 2016 10:42 AM PST Researchers have built a polarimeter on a microchip, revolutionizing the design of this widely used scientific tool.

Students must prepare early to succeed in tough graduate job market Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:45 AM PST Students who seek out challenging opportunities to develop themselves are also more likely to learn new skills for future work. This puts them in a strong position when entering the graduate jobs market.

Saliva test to detect GHB and alcohol poisonings Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:45 AM PST Scientists have developed a new method for the rapid diagnosis of poisoning in apparently drunk patients.

Modern office environment makes most people uncomfortable Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:45 AM PST Personality has a big impact on the type of office environment people prefer to work in. Modern features such as hot-desking and open-plan floors appeal mainly to extraverted workers with others finding them uncomfortable.

Lifting a car with two phone books Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:44 AM PST Astonishingly, it turns out to be practically impossible to separate two interleaved phone books by pulling on their spines, however much force is applied. It is even possible to suspend a car from them.

More Higgs particles can be found by studying superfluid helium Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:44 AM PST In 2012, a proposed observation of the Higgs boson was reported at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. The observation has puzzled the physics community, as the mass of the observed particle, 125 GeV, looks lighter than the expected energy scale, about 1 TeV. Researchers in Finland now propose that there is more than one Higgs boson, and they are much heavier than the 2012 observation.

Gravitation under human control? Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:39 AM PST Produce and detect gravitational fields at will using magnetic fields, control them for studying them, work with them to produce new technologies -- it sounds daring, but one physicist has proposed just that in a new article. If followed, this proposal could transform physics and shake up Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Eagle-eyed subsea camera Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:39 AM PST A new subsea camera has been developed that can see two to three times further under water than existing cameras and calculate distances to objects. This will make work carried out under water much easier.

New potential treatment for colorectal cancer discovered Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:39 AM PST A small molecule drug combined with chemotherapy may deliver a synergistic benefit for colorectal cancer patients, new research suggests. has demonstrated the efficiency of a small molecule drug, PRIMA-1met, in inhibiting the growth of colorectal cancer cells. Colorectal cancer is the cancer of the large intestine (colon and rectum).

Ancient gas cloud may be a relic from the death of first stars Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:39 AM PST Researchers have discovered a distant, ancient cloud of gas that may contain the signature of the very first stars that formed in the Universe.

Odds are good that risky gambling choices are influenced by a single brain connection Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:38 AM PST Whether a person will place a risky bet comes down to a newly discovered tract of neurons spanning two brain regions. The findings could help understand and treat gambling or addiction disorders.

Flexible gene expression may regulate social status in male fish Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST Scientists show how the selective expression of genes through epigenetics can regulate the social status of African cichlid fish. The work sheds light on how our genetic code might affect social relations.

Study tracks migration of chronically homeless mentally ill adults to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST A growing number of those experiencing longstanding homelessness and mental disorders in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) have migrated from elsewhere, new research shows. Over the past 10 years, the number of those coming from outside Vancouver into the DTES rose from 17 to 52 percent.

Nanoscale look at why a new alloy is amazingly tough Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST Several mechanisms that make a new, cold-loving material one of the toughest metallic alloys ever have been uncovered by a team of researchers. To learn its secrets, the team studied the alloy with transmission electron microscopy as it was subjected to strain. The images revealed several nanoscale mechanisms that activate in the alloy, one after another, which together resist the spread of damage. Among the mechanisms are bridges that form across cracks to inhibit their propagation. Such crack bridging is a common toughening mechanism in composites and ceramics but not often seen in unreinforced metals.

Scientist identifies energy sensor as potential target for cancer drugs Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST For the first time, scientists have shown that a specific enzyme is responsible for sensing the available supply of GTP, an energy source that fuels the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. The research underscores the enzyme's potential to become a therapeutic target for future cancer drugs.

Low-income communities more likely to face childhood obesity Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST Race matters less than expected in study showing relationship between poverty and obesity. Although obesity rates were higher among African-American and Hispanic kids, the relationship disappeared when factoring in family income, according to the study.

Current malaria treatment fails in Cambodia due to drug-resistant parasites Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST New findings confirm dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, the first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection in Cambodia, has failed in certain provinces due to parasite resistance to artemisinin and piperaquine. Additional study findings suggest that artesunate, a form of artemisinin, plus mefloquine, a different long-acting partner drug, should be the first-line ACT in areas where dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine treatment has failed, the study authors note.

Using skin to save the heart Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:37 AM PST Cell therapies for heart ailments involve transplanting over a billion heart cells to the patient's heart. Many of these cells fail to engraft, however, compromising the benefits. One reason for the poor engraftment is that normally the heart cell population is a mixture of cells with different maturation. Researchers have now identified an ideal maturation stage that enhances engraftment and may reduce the number of cells required for therapy.

Roman toilets gave no clear health benefit, and Romanization actually spread parasites Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:34 AM PST Intestinal parasites such as whipworm became increasingly common across Europe during the Roman Period, despite the apparent improvements the empire brought in sanitation technologies, archaeological evidence shows.

In defense of pathogenic proteins Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:34 AM PST Protein deposits in cells, such as those associated with diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, can also be beneficial -- at least for yeast cells, as biochemists have discovered. The researchers found a new form of age-associated deposits in these cells, and they are now asking us to rethink our views on aging and dementia.

Optimized arctic observations for improving weather forecast in the northern sea route Posted: 08 Jan 2016 05:34 AM PST The Northern Sea Route could be an attractive shipping route during Arctic ice-free periods; however, the decline in sea-ice extent could also cause severe weather phenomena, which could disturb ship navigation in turn. The sparse observational network over the Arctic Ocean makes weather and sea-ice forecasts less accurate and increases uncertainties. However, a new article suggests that the quality of weather and sea-ice forecasts can be improved by optimizing the Arctic-observing network.

Galaxy quakes could improve hunt for dark matter Posted: 07 Jan 2016 03:50 PM PST A trio of brightly pulsating stars at the outskirts of the Milky Way is racing away from the galaxy and may confirm a method for detecting dwarf galaxies dominated by dark matter and explain ripples in the outer disk of the galaxy.

From Sherborn to ZooBank: Moving to the interconnected digital nomenclature of the future Posted: 07 Jan 2016 03:49 PM PST Names are our primary framework for organizing information. But how do we tie scientific names to a foundation so they provide stability and repeatability to fluid conceptual topics such as taxonomies? In the late 19th century, the 'Father of Biodiversity Informatics', Charles Davies Sherborn, provided the bibliographic foundation for current zoological nomenclature with Index Animalium. This special volume of the Open Access journal ZooKeys celebrates Sherborn, his contributions, context and the future of biodiversity informatics.

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